We're moving!

I've finally decided to simplify my life a bit by consolidating the family blogs into one:

r a i s i n g h i l l

This blog will stick around for archival purposes, but head over to the new one for updates! And be sure to check out the authors of each post, because hilltot and babyhill will be posting on the new blog as well (under their new monikers, zack-zack and mei-mei).

See you there!

The power of "No"

I really like the word "no". It's so much easier to be demanding when I can shake my head and say "no" to everything. Two of my favorite things are to have someone read me a book and to have Mama sing songs to me while I eat. Now, not only can I ask for book time ("REE!" for "read") or song time ("row-row", because Mama usually starts off by singing "Row row row your boat"), but I can keep saying "no" until Mama figures out exactly which book or song I want.

Here's how breakfast went today:

Me: Row-row! Row-row!
Mama: Row row row your boat, gently down the...
Me: NO
Mama: Mary had a little...
Me: NO
Mama: Old McDonald had a...
Me: NO
Mama: The ants go marching...
Me: NO
Mama: Twinkle twinkle little...
Me: NO
Mama: There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name-oh...
Me: (grin and clap)

See how well that works?

Needed: Translator

I have a lot of words now and I understand most of what is said to me, but Mama and Daddy seem to need some help with translation. I like certain words and I use them a lot, but for some reason Mama and Daddy seem to think they mean different things and they keep trying to correct me.

Here are some examples (description/their word/my word):

• where the car lives / garage / bye-bye
• how we get into the house / door / daddy
• what we eat / food / poo-poo
• what I want Mama to do while I eat / sing / row-row
• who's on Daddy's phone / lots of different people / papa
• who's on Mama's phone / lots of different people / a-mah

I mean, it's not like I don't understand the words Mama and Daddy use. I also know that my favorite words have different meanings too (i.e. I know who Daddy is and I know how to say "bye bye" to people), so why is it so hard for Mama and Daddy to keep up with me? No matter how patient I am with them or how many times I try to explain, they still use the wrong words for things.

Hopefully this is just a stage and they'll outgrow it soon.

Practice makes perfect

I'm supposed to be sleeping right now, but instead I am in my crib practicing my words:

"No... Oh yeah! No... Oh yeah! Bye-bye! Hi! Ah-MAH! Poo-paw! Poo-poo (hee hee)! Bye-bye! Hiiii! No... Oh nooooo...."

(Poo-paw is my version of Opa)

Friday photos

Video: Pteradactyl with a ball

This means it's time for bed.

Video: Alone time

Hanging out in my play room with a book, singing a little song

Video: New word

Boys will be boys...

Operation Toddler-Proof

Operation Toddler-Proof is a complete failure in our house. So far, Mama hasn't found a single toddler-proofing device that I can't figure out. I pull out all of the outlet covers and bring them to her. I climb on the baby gate. I open all the drawers and cabinets unless Mama turns them against the wall. And today, I managed to take the doorknob cover completely off of the closet door so that I could get inside to play.

In other exciting news, my play room door fell off its hinges this morning. This would normally not be such a big deal because there's a baby gate there to keep me in. But my play room is also the guest room, and it's where Mama and Daddy will be sleeping when babyhill arrives and where A-Mah and Opa will sleep once Mama and Daddy move back upstairs. It opens directly into the dining room (which is open to the rest of the house -- our house is pretty much a giant open floor plan) and is right next to the bathroom. So having a door is pretty critical. Mama is convinced that this means the baby will arrive soon, just when things are falling apart.

In the meantime, Mama wants to get a bunch of baby gates so that she can at least slow me down. She plans to put one inside the closet, so that I won't be able to get inside the closet even though I can open the door. Ditto for the bottom of the stairs, maybe even for the bathroom. Hmmm. Hopefully she'll get more gates like the one we have, which has all kinds of great little footholds for me to use to climb...

Friday photos

It's been awhile since I've posted Friday photos. Mama has been focused on things that are going on with babyhill and I've been trying to help, so I haven't had as much time to post. Here are a few pictures of the things I do to help.

1. Reading up on my new role
2. Helping dad water the flowers
3. Watering the flowers by myself
4. Digging up weeds in the garden

To B or not to B

I have some catching up to do because I've had an exciting couple of weeks, but I'll get to that later. Right now I just wanted to talk about how chatty I am and how I've turned into a regular parrot. I mimic words I hear all the time, but I usually just say the first syllable. And I really like words that start with a "B". What a great letter.

Here's a list of some of my new words. Since most of them start with a "B" and I only say the first syllable, you kind of have to be there to know which one I mean. I'm very contextual.

Ba (ball), buh (bubbles), boo (book), bzzy bee (busy bee), bay-b (baby), bee (bib), bees (please), caw-caw (the sound a crow makes), hoo-hoo (the sound an owl makes), ah-kay (OK), law-lee law-lee (lolly lolly, from the Hey Lolly song), me (me), mmmmm (yum), shu (shoe), haw (hot). Plus a lot of "L"-heavy babble sounds which are in my secret toddler language.

I'm also still a big fan of singing, and I even sing a few bars of the alphabet song when Mama sings it to me. But then I run to get my alphabet bus to provide the back-up music (I have to be sure Mama stays in key). And I love when Mama sings "Snuggle Puppy" to me because she ends by giving me snuggle puppy kisses, which make me laugh.

Cutest. Boy. Ever.

He now "smiles" on command.

For my Uncle Jim

Representin'

Friday photos

1. Ring around the merry-go-round...
2. I love the digger, even though I'm too small to work it myself
3. I think chalk writes better if you suck on it first
4. See?

Hey lolly

Mama sings this song to me called "Hey lolly". It doesn't have real words, which is what's so fun about it -- you get to make up your own! So the version she sings to me always talks about how wonderful and clever I am, which is the best kind of song there is. I like it so much that I've decided to start singing along, although I just sing the "lolly lolly" part. That's the most fun anyway.

Oh yeah, the fact that I'm taking a bath during this performance is completely irrelevant. It's just when Mama got the camera out.

Chopsticks

Usually Mama feeds me with her chopsticks, but at lunch yesterday I decided it was time for me to feed myself. Granted, I held the chopsticks backwards and Mama helped me position things, but I think I did a pretty good job! Here are some pictures of me eating the filling from my jiao-tse.


I've also recently decided that it's kind of funny to wear my sunglasses. I used to rip them off the second Mama tried to put them on me, but lately I like to walk around the house with them and clap for myself because I'm so handsome (at least, that's what Mama tells me). She says that I wear sunglasses very well, just like Daddy. I think she's right, but I still won't wear them outside.

Here's a picture of me with my cool sunglasses on, plus a bonus picture showing me with my favorite thing in the world: the dust buster vacuum cleaner. I'm not wearing any clothes because I'm waiting for Daddy to give me a bath. That's also why I'm sitting at the bottom of the stairs. Daddy is upstairs and I'm yelling "BAAAA BA!!!" up the stairs to get him to hurry.

Another day, another playground

Today we went to Magnuson Park, where Daddy took Cowboy for a quick romp in the dog park while I played at the playground with Mama. Daddy and Cowboy came back in time to check out some of the new play structures with me too, although Cowboy had to wait under a tree because dogs aren't allowed on the playground.

I got to swing, climb, slide, bounce, rock, and dig. My favorite is always the swing, but I really like the sandbox once I get comfortable. I spent a long time filling a pail with sand and emptying it again, and I threw a tantrum when we had to go home. However, I was very careful not to hit my head on the ground (I just got on my hands and knees and screamed) and I gave up when I realized that I wasn't getting a reaction out of Mama or Daddy. The other parents at the playground seemed to be veterans too, because they all ignored me as well. Hmph.

Beach day

Today was a beach day! Since it was so pretty out, we to Golden Gardens to soak up some sun and enjoy the water. We walked along the beach, ate popsicles, cried when we got our feet wet in the surf (well, that was just me), and played in the sand. The beach is fun -- I hope we go a lot more often now that it's getting warmer! And maybe next time Mama will remember to bring my pail and shovel so I'm not stuck playing with a rock and a bottle cap.

On the way home, we stopped at Red Mill to pick up some cheeseburgers and onion rings. I've always refused to eat beef before, but I've recently decided that I like anything that's on Mama's plate. So I ate half of her cheeseburger (no tomatoes or pickles though -- yuk!) and then polished off my kichari and applesauce.

You may have noticed that I'm eating kichari a lot. That's because of those digestive issues I mentioned earlier. Mama's trying to feel me simple healthy meals that are easy on my stomach so that the probiotics have time to work and fix things up. She's hoping that my belly is just out of whack because I've had so many colds and viruses this spring, and once things are back in order I won't need the probiotics anymore. It does seem to be working so far.

Anyway, here are pictures from our beach day! I didn't get to eat much of the popsicle because Mama dropped hers in the sand right after she gave me a few licks. So my tongue didn't turn blue like Mama's and Daddy's tongues, but I stuck it out anyway.

Sunny Saturday

Today was a great day! I got to spend most of it outside, and when I wasn't outside playing, I was either eating or sleeping. It doesn't get much better than that.

I started off the day with a trip to the playground with Jammy. I haven't seen him in ages (other than briefly running into him at the U District Street Fair last weekend), so it was fun to do a bit of that toddler "parallel playing". Some day we'll be old enough that we actually notice and play with each other, and not just each other's toys. I did learn a pretty neat trick from him though: offer gifts to little girls to get their attention. It works especially well if you offer someone else's things (i.e. my sippy cup) to them. That way, you're not any worse off if they take the gift and run.

We had a great time playing in the sand (Jammy let me help him fill his pail with sand), going on the swings, spinning the toddler toys around, and climbing all over the play structure and slides. Mama tried to go down a slide with me, but she has a built in braking system she calls "pregnancy butt". It stopped us halfway down the slide, so after that she let me slide by myself.

After a morning at the playground (followed by lunch, a nap, then a snack), Mama, Daddy, Cowboy and I went to Woodland Park to hang out in the grass. I had fun roaming around the field, picking flowers, stealing Mama's sunglasses, talking to my Uncle Brendan on the phone, and eating more snacks.

Once I started getting more insistent about eating snacks (aka "whining"), we packed up and headed home so that I could get dinner. We stopped at Paseo for Mama and Daddy to pick up some Cuban sandwiches, then we went home and ate together. I got bites of their chicken and steak sandwiches (yum!) and ate my kitchari, spinach and apple sauce. After dinner, I had a bath, read some books, and was off to bed! See, I told you: today was all about eating, sleeping and playing.

Actually, now that I think about it, every day is about eating, sleeping and playing for me. I have a pretty good life.