Now We're Talking

I've been greatly encouraged the last few days with the progress that Aubree has made with her talking.  When I referred back to my blog from Calleigh's 15-month appointment, I noted that the doctor's office questionnaire asked if the toddler knew three words....to which I laughed and said "Try at least 60."  Obviously Aubree is VERY well short of that.  But fortunately, especially over the weekend, she seems to have increased her limited vocabulary.  As you can see in the video below, she can now say "Papa" quite clearly and "Gigi" is pretty understandable as well.  And as a side note of the video, she didn't point to the correct person when I said Papa but I think it was just the pressure of it being on tape.  She pointed to him a number of times before that...I swear!  But back to the talking..I would say the other words (besides Mommy and Daddy) she's mastered are "cheese," "doggie," and "hi."  As I was telling Camille who is going through the same thing with Camden, she'll say a bunch of other things but they aren't always the clearest although I know what she's saying.  And then trying to get her to say them multiple times can be a challenge.  But at least we're making progress so I can be satisfied with that.

This weekend found us out and about quite a bit.  First off, we were obviously at church on Sabbath morning.    Aubree was walking well enough that she actually walked up by herself to give her offering during Sabbath School.  My regret is that I didn't get a movie of it.  After nap time, I took the girls to visit my friend Wanda who had a baby back in June.  We had been trying to get to see her for quite awhile but it just didn't work out and then we were in Nova Scotia so that delayed it even longer.  Anyway, Wanda's daughter, Hailey is 22 months and then baby Noah is now 2 months.  The girls were very excited to play with Hailey's toys and then Wanda spoiled them (in a good way) by giving them a bunch of fruit and a juice box.  Then she spoiled me by giving me a bunch of Hailey's clothes that she had outgrown that will fit Aubree.  It wasn't my intention to leave with more things then what I had brought but that's how it ended up!  They are very nice things I might add.  All in all, it was a very nice visit.

Jackpot!  Look at her mouth.  She couldn't shovel it in fast enough!

Sunday morning, after our usual First Watch outing, we headed to some friends from Sabbath School for a birthday party.  The birthday boy, Evan, who was turning two, is actually the little boy that Calleigh had bitten about a year and a half ago (the one and only kid she has ever bitten thankfully).  As you can see, he didn't hold it against her!  It was a pool party and we were quite thankful it was because with the heat, you couldn't stand to be out of the pool for long.  Ron and Elaine had gotten some arm floaties for Calleigh and we brought those along and she was very content to swim around with them.  They had a life guard on duty at the pool so Calleigh was able to be very independent with her swimming.  Aubree was in the pool with one of us quite a bit but then also did a lot of strolling around the pool too...now that she's actually able to stroll.  We were there for several hours and it was a great time since there were so many friends of ours from Sabbath School in attendance.

Future boy friend?  Younger man is the way to go!

This morning we were out visiting again.  This time we went to my friend Yolanda and Calleigh's friend Emma's house.  Yolanda and her family were in Spain (her home country) for six weeks and returned the same day we got back from Nova Scotia.  So we hadn't seen them since the beginning of June.  There was a lot to catch up on and of course, for the girls, there were many, many toys to play with.  I think you could multiply our toys by six or eight and that's what they had.  Of course, I'm sure much of that can be contributed to the fact that they have three kids and they're a little older.  Yolanda is really one of the nicest, sweetest ladies you'll ever meet and she insisted on feeding us lunch even though it wasn't my intention to have her do that.  They had brought back some cheese from Spain and it was so good.  Then she made me a tomato and cucumber salad that has an olive oil, garlic, and pepper juice (you mash a green pepper around to get juice out of it) dressing and can I just say it was one of the most delicious things ever!!  The girls got cheese, chocolate mousse, fruit, and more juice boxes so I think they probably think they've had it made the last few days.  We don't do juice at home but I've started to let Calleigh have juice when we're at other people's houses and they offer it.  She sucks that juice box dry faster than you can say Jack Sprat.  It was a very enjoyable visit until....Calleigh decides to throw a fit because Emma wanted to take a turn pushing her own stroller which Calleigh was commandeering.  I told Calleigh she needed to share and that completely set her off.  Goodness, is it not the most embarrassing thing when you're kid decides to throw a tantrum in front of your friends?  Give me a tantrum in front of strangers at Walmart any day.  I would have loved to just picked her up and made a beeline for the door but obviously I had Aubree to deal with so a hasty exit was just not an option.  I finally got Calleigh to calm down and then she'll act like nothing ever happened like it was all in your imagination.  Personally, people talk about the terrible two's but I would say that the three's have definitely been worse for us.

The box of Barbies came out and all three girls made a beeline for it.  Aubree was knocking over Yolanda before she could even get it down on the floor.

Good pals

Speaking of Calleigh, I think we may be on the last legs of her crib.  Apparently inspired by her frequent escapades getting our of her pack 'n play in Nova Scotia, she's been getting out of her crib now quite a bit.  She got out for the first time some odd months ago but I was able to scare her enough that she hadn't repeated it.  So I knew she knew how.  When she's gotten out recently, it's only been to get things in her room and bring them into her crib so it hasn't really caused a problem.  I go into her room some of the times and threaten her on closing the door to her room and that seems to do the trick.  But I figure it won't be long now until we convert the crib to a toddler bed.  

On that note, have a good night!