T at Three

I've driven myself crazy trying to keep up with this girl's antics and the hilarious things she says. I have to come to terms with the fact that I can't write down and/or remember everything, but I want to do my best to paint a picture of my funny little "free" year old.

To say she's hilarious is an understatement. I've said it before - I know kids are inherently funny but my daughter takes it to the next level.

I should have asked her about these, and I still might, but they aren't really a secret...

Favourite Show: Yo Gabba Gabba, although Dora, Doc McStuffins and Lalaloopsy are up there

Favourite Food: Lucky Charms (if you can call them food)

Favourite Dress: "The Rainbow Dress" (pictured above) or "The Purple Dress" (picture The Rainbow Dress in lavender. She went through a phase recently where she wanted to wear The Rainbow Dress every day. If it was dirty, she would cry and dig her way through the laundry to find it. I hid it from her in my bedroom and by some unfortunate miracle, she found it and laughed "Mum! What DIS doing here? Silly!" You caught me. I managed to retire it last week and now she's moved on to The Purple Dress. Sigh.

 

Hair: platinum blonde and down her back. It's beautiful.

Eyes: Big and deep blue.

Cheeks: Still big and droopy but thinning out.

Height: 39 3/4 inches - 90-95th percentile

Weight: 36.2 lbs. - 90-95th percentile

Wearing: Size 4T

Yep, she's a big 'un. And that's always the first thing people talk about. Always. The record is someone thinking she was 5...and probably thought there was something wrong with her. She really is a beautiful little girl. I have a terrible time taking cute pictures of her, but to see her is to love her - she's a stunner if I do say so myself.

Potty Training: HA!

Binkies: Still attached to them, but we've agreed that they live in her room. It's our secret shame.

Funny Stories and Teagan Tidbits:

She's been into "magic" lately and will grab anything that loosely resembles a wand (ie. markers, pencils, glowsticks, etc.) She announces, "Ladies and Gentlemen (you probably wouldn't recognize it to hear it)! MAGICACADABRA, turn into a ______ (bunny, puppy, bug, etc.)!" and you have to do your best impression of said creature.

If it isn't good enough, she'll tell you exactly what she's looking for. Role play is an emotional strain, as she either gives me a script and refuses to let me deviate or she doesn't give me any details and just gets angry when I don't do as she wishes. It's maddening for both of us.

I feel like most of our conversations lately are an extended game of Mad Gab. I keep repeating words I think I recognize back to her with different intonations and emphases until she tells me I got it right. Sometimes it takes a while.

She is quite the artist. She loves to colour, and has almost begun to let go of control when she asks me to colour with her. She still assigns me a crayon and delegates what I'm allowed to colour, but she doesn't watch me as closely as she used to.

As a first time parent, I don't really have a standard to compare it to, but I'm told by several credible sources that she is way ahead of her age level when it comes to drawing. From the detail to the placement of appendages, people are blown away by her abilities. In this particular collage, we have Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc., several Lalaloopsy characters (complete with rosy cheeks), a self portrait and a picture of a bus she wanted her Daddy to see when she missed him one day (notice the 4 wheels?) It's so fun to see her express her creativity and I need to work out a scheme to display them more proudly, since they keep falling off the fridge...something about the door being opened a little too often.

She's taken to singing "I Am a Child of God" when she thinks that I'm upset with her. It's heartwarming and frustrating all at once.

Like I said, I've had to accept the fact that I can't write down everything she says and does that makes me chuckle, so you'll have to take my word for it that she's a hoot and a half. She makes me laugh every day, she makes me smile every day and there are very few days when she makes me cry. She tells me "I love you very much" at random moments and it absolutely melts my heart. She gets more and more fun every day and constantly surprises me with how much she knows, remembers and appreciates - which makes me feel terrible at times because she cares about things that I didn't think she would care about. I suppose that's the thing about about a first child - you have no idea what to expect and you just learn alongside your number one. By the time Teagan can read this, I'm sure she'll have figured out that I'm trying my best. Poor thing. Love her very much.

Baby Tarzan and Mike Wowski

Like most toddlers, Teagan fixates on our or two obsessions at a time. Move over Dora, here comes Disney. Not a day goes by that she doesn't ask to watch Baby Tarzan and Mike Wowski (or Mo-sters). We had Tarzan on VHS, so were limited to playing it upstairs in the loft. She could take or leave Tarzan once he grows up, but she loves baby Tarzan in the opening few minutes of the movie. She wants to watch those scenes again and again. Funnily enough, she isn't familiar with the concept that it takes time to rewind a videotape. Boy, do I feel old. It was taking us forever and I'm fairly confident we're wearing it out, so I found the DVD on sale at Target and jumped on it. Now it's a lot easier to enjoy Baby Tarzan, and the rest of the gang if she decides to stick it out.

Her other fixation these days is Monsters, Inc. She says "Ees okay" when the monsters are being scary and we laugh in hopes that she doesn't let them scare her. She loves Boo and has taken to throwing her head back and saying "Aah" in hopes of us hurling treats at her. She's forever talking about Sulley, Mike "Wowski", Randall and Boo. In fact, she's so eager to watch it that she often pulls it off the shelf for me and sometimes before I can stop her, she yanks it out of its case. Perhaps that's why it's scratched beyond recognition. We can't play chapters 5-17 without a maddening amount of skipping and pausing. So we borrowed a copy from the Giffords (heaven bless them) and Natalie told me that Disney actually replaces damaged DVDs for a small fee. So instead of us shelling out nearly $30 for a new copy, we can get it replaced for $6.95. Yet another reason to love Disney.

We're looking forward to the prequel to Monsters, Inc. that comes out in the summer. Thinking about taking her to her first movie. We'll see if she gets her movie going attitude from her mum or her dad...