Teagan's a TODDLER?!

Apparently I have a toddler now? Who knew? Oh...everyone but me. A friend came over for a play date the other day, and Teagan played nicely (albeit parallel) with her two older boys. But she was fascinated with her 3 month old baby. And it was when she laid down next to him that I realized she is a land monster! I couldn't believe how huge she looked! Just to drive the point home, she decided the other day that she wanted to sit in her infant seat. I nearly shed a tear for her childhood.

If you haven't said it, you've heard it - where has the time gone? I feel like I blinked and the last 18 months just whizzed by. It's amazing what a difference a few months can make, as I see her playing with (read: next to) children at nursery or friends' kids who are just a bit older or just a bit younger. I stopped keeping track of "monthly milestones" at a year, but thought it would be important to document a little of what Teagan is like as a toddler.

• The girl LOVES music. Making it, listening to it, dancing to it. She will drop anything to do actions to a song, which comes in handy when she's freaking out about having her diaper changed. Current faves:
• Rockabye Your Bear - The Wiggles
• Wheels on the Bus
• Popcorn Popping
• Eensy Weensy Spider

 

• She loves to swim. Last year, she sat in a floatie or I held her, but this year she wants to be independent. We got her a Puddle Jumper, a sort of life vest with arm bands attached. It didn't take her long to get the hang of it, she only got stuck on her back like a roly poly a few times. She loves her newfound sense of independence, and the look of pride on her face when she realized she was "swimming" on her own was absolutely priceless. I believe while I was taking this photo, I asked her if she wanted to go swimming. I believe her answer was "YEAH!"

• She would watch TV all day if I let her...which, for the record, I do not. Current favourites:
• Dora The Explorer
• Toy Story & Toy Story 3 (I loaned out #2 before she went through a phase of wanting to watch them every day. Oops)
• Tangled
• The Wiggles, even and especially their Christmas special
• Baby Signing Time
• Elmo's World (but apparently only his Babies, Dogs & More DVD)
• Sesame Street
• She always pulls The Best of Will Ferrell & Big Bang Theory, but in the interest of being a good parent, I don't let her watch those.

• We encourage healthier habits as well - like reading. Of course I've never lost track of her at home ;) but if I ever did, there's a 95% chance that she'll be in her room, pulling all the books off the shelf and going through each one. (I shouldn't tell you that the other 5% has her playing in the toilet.) 

 

• Brandon reads her several Sesame Alphabet books every night and she's now at the point where she reaches for them as soon as we've said "Amen" to our family prayer. Just today, I discovered that she can now climb up onto the rocking chair and reach the books on the shelf - curse her tall father! Enjoy:

• Apparently she's always in a hurry, because I haven't seen her WALK anywhere in a long time. She's usually running, and usually only pumping her left arm to help her go faster. Just her left. This may explain why she hates having her hair done - she just doesn't have the time. So more often than not she's a hot mess. But a cute, hot mess...with lop-sided pigtails, and in some cases just one pigtail. Yep, we're a vision.

• Doctor's appointments used to be a lot easier. She could be contained in a cold, tiny room with zero age-appropriate toys with little to no effort. Not the case anymore. I think she's starting to connect the fact that she often gets hurt, and cringes whenever a nurse tries to take her temperature or measure her head circumference. She's a brave little soul when she gets her shots, though. She got TWO lollipops at her last visit for being so good. Oh yeah, she's a big fan of lollipops. Oh goody.

• Poor thing has had Strep 4 times in as many months. Until the last round in April, she'd been great at taking her medicine - and even liked t he taste of it! They put her on something different this time, which apparently is less delicious. We had to be very sneaky and mix it with yogurt. Don't tell! She was sure to stay hydrated throughout.

• While we're on the subject of the doctor's office, she's back up to the 90th percentile for weight (we started feeding her again) and is still in the 90th percentile for height - didn't get that from me!

• HATES having her diaper changed, but to alleviate a few of the tantrums, she gets to "help" us throw the diaper away. It started with Brandon tossing her diaper out of her bedroom before we put her to bed and her chasing it, thinking she was hilarious. So how she tosses it over the banister while I shout "Look out below!" (Then we wash our hands...don't worry!)
• Our Primary Presidency allowed Teagan to start attending Nursery at 15 months, since Brandon and I teach Primary. I feel like it gave her a bit of a leg up, since I've heard that kids tend to go through a bit of separation anxiety at 18 months. We may (knock on wood) have bypassed that. She cries as we drop her off, but we're told that it only lasts a minute or two and then she's lovely. (They wouldn't lie in church, would they?) She's been bitten and pushed and either because she's a sweet, docile peacemaker or she's an only child who doesn't know how to fight back she just takes it. Bless her heart.

• She jabbers constantly, although her Nursery leader asked me if she talks at all! (It's funny to think how different she is when we're not around - sadly, I'll never get to see it...isn't that one of life's cruel ironies?)
• The actual words she says, or thinks she can say are:
• Hi
• Yeah
• Baby
• No
• Please - "Ees"
• Shoe - "Ashoo"
• Yummy - "MMMmummy" (one of my personal favourites)
• Grandpa - "Papa"
• Dora (a little embarrassing)
• Thank you - "Dat-you"
• She's gotten good at signing, which has alleviated a lot of frustration on both our parts. We've been borrowing Signing Time movies from the library, and she seems to really enjoy them. Where it took her a week or two to pick up a sign, at her age, she picked up a new sign in a day, which leads me to believe that I should be practicing with her more. To date, she can sign:
• Food
• More
• All Done
• Milk
• Cracker
• Water (notice a pattern?)
• Please
• Tantrums have reared their ugly heads...and man, are they UGLY! We're doing our best to ignore them, hoping that if they don't get her the attention she's looking for, she'll move on. Jury's still out on how it's working.
• She is still a champion sleeper, for which I am incredibly grateful. She wakes up around 7:30 - 8:00 most days, but has been known to sleep until 9:30 at times, after going to bed between 7:00 & 7:30. Most days she still takes two naps, depending on what the day looks like.WOW, I know. I'm a lucky, lucky lady. What are the chances our next baby will sleep so well? I've been spoiled. 

 

• Lately her sleep has been interrupted by what the pediatrician seems to think are nightmares - heartbreaking, I know. She's been kicking her feet through the bars of her crib (which isn't easy to do) and she wakes up screaming bloody murder when she realizes she's stuck. It is so sad, but it means we get a little extra cuddle time at night, which I can't pass up now that she's all grown up. She always rests her head on my shoulder and tucks her hands in when I'm cuddling her. It melts my heart.

  

  Peace out!

And that, my friends, is my "little" Teagan ("T", "Chicken", "Chickadee", "Turkey" - I'm stuck on poultry for some reason, "Nugget", "Cap'n Teague") in a nutshell. Sorry it was a long-winded nutshell, there are just some things that I don't want to (and am prone to) forget. With time whizzing by so quickly, I want to be able to remember how sweet she is, how she smiles every time I walk in to rescue her from her crib, how she kisses me goodnight every night with an exaggerated "Mah" so that one day when she gets in and out of bed herself and think she's too cool to kiss me. LOVE YOU TEAGAN!