Things Teagan Says V

Named her babies the following:

Baby Darthy (not “Dorothy” – from firsthand experience) and Baby Blones.

Named her Care Bear “hot dog vanilla ice rainbow ice cream with a heart.”

“Mason’s been crying for 6 years. And he’s been poopy for 5 years.”

“Oh my cow.” (Combo of “Oh my goodness” and “Holy cow”)

“Boom shacka shacka.

Teagan: “Let’s have some girl fizzy drink.” (Strawberry Fanta)

Me: “But you don’t like fizzy drink.”

Teagan: “I do! Let’s have some fizzy drink.”

{Pssst of the opening can}

Teagan: “I don’t like fizzy drink.”

“Mom, can I please have ice?”

I gave it to her.

“It’s cold. I don’t like cold.”

Teagan: “Today we need a t-shirt, shorts and socks.”

Me: “And cheese?”

Teagan: “Yes. And cheese.”

“When I was a grandma, I used to go to heaven all the time…Grandad died. Why?”

Me: “Let’s think of rhyming words.”

Teagan: “Okay. Grass and…walk!” (I must say I was relieved.)

Teagan: “There’s a bad guy in my room!”

I bolted up the stairs not knowing what I would find, and when I found nothing, I brought her up to have her point it out. It was the mom from the dollhouse.

“I don’t want Mason to grow up.” She actually gets very emotional about this and we get into heated, existential debates.

Teagan: “Why does Daddy have to work?”

Me: “Because we need money.”

Teagan: “We need money to buy ice cream? We already have ice cream. I don’t want Daddy to go to work.”

Teagan: “Are you Daddy’s age?”

Me: “Well, Daddy is 8 months older than me.” Which lead to a discussion of months vs. years. “Months are less than years. Mason isn’t a year old yet, he’s just months. He’s 8 months." Apparently she didn’t grasp the concept.

Teagan: “So are you 8 months?”

She’s been in a big Chipmunks and Chipettes phase lately, so we borrowed the latest movies from the library and watched them sing all sorts of chart toppers. I showed her Beyonce’s Single Ladies and she simply asked, “Where’s Britney?”

In church, looking through the LDS Gospel Art book:

Livi: “This is Thomas S. Monson, he’s our prophet.”

Teagan: “He’s our prophet too!”

In the bathtub:

“My toots look like fireworks.”

Playing Potato Heads.

Teagan: “Mom, this is my Potato Head. Ask me about her family!”

Me: “Where’s your mum?”

Teagan: “Oh, she’s dead.”

Teagan: “Sad! Do you miss her?”

Teagan: “No.” She won’t be giving my eulogy!

Ended up with toilet paper hanging out of her bottom. I tried to remove it.

“But I want a tail!”

This little woman is so wonderfully weird and crazy curious and I love her funny little personality when we aren't at odds over something trivial that snowballs into a meltdown.

10 Months of Mason

• All of a sudden, at 9.5 months he got really good a crawling. Mostly bear crawling, on hands and feet, or one knee and one foot. It's kind of adorable.
• He is the master of crying and whining and waving and flailing (the list goes on) until someone picks him up. It's almost like he forgets how to crawl when he's upset and will just plant himself until someone takes pity on him - which always happens, because he's so stinking cute.
• He started standing up against things around the 8th of the month - first the bathtub (probably the worst thing surface to start with) then the crib. I remember the first morning I went in to get him and he was standing up in the crib, on the side closest to the door, and I jumped, it surprised me so. The look on his face suggested he was pretty surprised to be there as well. 
• He's a terrible napper - 1 hour on a great day.
• Got roseola at the beginning of the month, towards the end of our cabin week with the whole Richards side of the family. We didn't know what it was at the time (I think that's the nature of roseola) but he was throwing up and feverish for days. So sad. He broke out in a rash (a sign that it's cleared up) the day after I took him to the doctor. Of course.
• Almost daily, I have people commenting on his beautiful eyes, his cheeks, his hair. Some of the latest and greatest comments:
•  Women telling me they are swooning and thinking about having more babies when they see him
• "He looks like the Gerber baby!" (All the time)
• "He has cherub cheeks! I could hang him on my Christmas tree."
• "He makes the perfect little Hansel."
• We made the switch to formula at the end of August! Brandon and I spent two nights at the cabin towards the end of August to celebrate our anniversary. I left some breastmilk, but planned him to have a lot of formula. And guess who slept through the night? I can count on no hands the number of times I've gotten a good night's sleep since his birth, so 
• filling him up at night
• me forgetting a power source for my pump (oops)
• him messing around too much to nurse properly these days (seriously, bedtime has us both in laughing fits lately because he'd rather smile and squish my face than nurse)
• me not having the patience to nurse
• expenses minimized by living with the in-laws
• these all combined to convince me that formula might be best for my little man at this stage of the game. And I think it's paying off in his statistics that came back at our closer-to-10-than-9 month appointment.
• Stats:
• Height: 28" (10th percentile) this has his father concerned
• Weight: 20 lbs. (45th percentile)
• Head: 18 1/4" (75th percentile)

Cyclical Questioning

I’ve never known a child who asked more questions than Teagan. Granted, she’s the first child I’ve ever had, but I hope it’s just her and that my next ones don’t ask nearly as many. Most of her questions revolve around “Why?” and I can’t seem to answer them well enough for her, because they just breed more questions. Questions like “Why is that a house?” and the age old “Why is the sky blue?”

Lately, I’ve been caught in a net of questioning and I can’t seem to answer my way out. Por ejemplo:

Driving down the street:

Teagan: “What was her name?”

Me: “I don’t know.”
Teagan: “Who was dat?”

Me: “I don’t know.”

Teagan: “I’m asking Daddy. Daddy, who is dat?”

Buddy: “Sally.” (just to end the barrage of questions)

Teagan: “Who’s Sally?”

Another day:

Teagan: “What’s dare names?”

Me: “I don’t know.”

Teagan: “Why don’t you know dare names?”

Me: “Because they’re strangers.”

Teagan: “Why are day strangers?”

Me: “Because I don’t know them.”

Teagan: “Why don’t you know them?”

Me: “AARGH!”

Teagan: “IS it nighttime?”

Me: “Yes.”

Teagan: “Why is it nighttime?”

Me: “Because it’s dark.”

Teagan: “Why is it dark?”

Me: “Because the sun is down.”

Teagan: “Why is the sun down?”

Me: “Because it’s nighttime.”

Teagan: “Why is it nighttime?”

She doesn’t believe me when I tell her I don’t know, so she pushes me until I can make up an answer. From this day forward, my strategy is just to answer with confidence and pray for minimal follow up questions. Pray for us.

9 Months of Mason

• Life with Mason is a roller coaster. In the sense that he's happy one minute, screaming the next and back to laughing in a minute, but also that he rolls everywhere. That's his main mode of transportation. He finds himself under all sorts of things and stuck against walls. It's interesting to watch - he turns his head to look at whatever it is he's trying to get or where he's trying to go and follows his perfectly round head there, all the while trying to keep an eye on the prize. He'll do great spins one day.
• Still not crawling - he will get up on his hands and knees on occasion, but he prefers to roll at the moment.
• We spend a lot of time fishing things out of his mouth. No teeth, but he likes to eat like an adult - french fries, milkshakes and other such delights and if he'd only grow teeth, he'd be able to eat so many more delicious things.
• He does NOT like mashed potatoes. Both times he's tried them he has shuddered and made a pouty face, often sticking out his tongue. Idaho may be tough for him.
• He does, however, love to suck on noses. I don't get him.
• He is a delight when he is being played with. Not so much when you put a pile of toys in front of him when you need to do something as simple (and necessary) as showering or dishes.
• Fights getting into his carseat like his life depends on it. Doesn't mind it once he's in, but getting there is a struggle every time. 
• Still isn't sleeping through the night, but I can usually nurse him back to sleep.
• Went for his first dip in Lake Coeur d'Alene and loved it. The lifejackets squished his cheeks delightfully and we all had a good laugh at his chubby expense. 
• Had his first ice cream cone (cast offs from some cousins who took pity on him) and loved it.
• Bath time is his favourite and he loves to sit under the spout to try and catch the water as it comes out.

I couldn't decide which picture was the cutest for his 9 month photo (appropriate that he's sans clothes, since it is his preferred state these days.) I really should have gotten him into modeling. What a Face.

 

We moved to Moscow this month and have been surrounded by family, which has already proved wonderful. Mason has taken a particular liking to his oldest cousin, Jacob, and looks around for him if he knows he is close. He could be screaming, and one look from Jake puts a smile on his face. They seem to have a really special connection and it melts my heart just a little - I don't think Jake minds it either. He may "have to" take Mason to a Stake Dance one of these days.

So Long, Library!

Of course there are libraries where we live now, but I wanted to pay special tribute to our library in Las Vegas. We’ve spent a good amount of time at the Windmill Library since it opened just miles from our house shortly after we moved into our house. We got to know some of the librarians there and attended quite a few storytimes. Teagan really enjoyed storytime, singing the songs and reciting the poems, making the mad faces when they asked her to make mad faces and doing every action they suggested (I took her mostly because I enjoyed watching her listen to and follow instructions.) She looked forward most to the stamp the librarian gave you at the end. She would curl up in a ball at the end with her hands on her head and wait for several minutes for them to get to her. An outsider might have thought she was braced for a bomb or an earthquake, but it was just a stamp.

We also participated in numerous reading programs. One of those programs was the “1000 Books Before Kindergarten” program Teagan started when she was about 2 and a half. Since then, we’ve been filling out reading sheets, 100 books at a time and taking them in to the library for a stamp, a prize and the next sheet. Resolved to finish what we started before we moved, a few hours before we loaded the truck we headed to the library, laden with nearly 50 books and a dozen movies to return and a list of books 901-1000 – heavily featuring titles like “Everyone Poops” and anything that began with “The Berenstain Bears and”. I wanted to make it a family affair, a sweet little moment together, as I felt we needed to celebrate something so exciting. Well, that exciting thing took a more exciting turn when we unloaded. I strapped on the diaper bag and grabbed the gigantic bag of books and movies (we’d been relying on the ones we’d borrowed since we packed ours) from the boot while Buddy got the kids out of the car. I started to straighten up and heard a yelp and whipped around to see what was wrong. A scream this time. “Hold still!” Buddy yelled at me and continued to tell me that Teagan was attached by the hair to the incredibly strong Velcro on my diaper bag. So, while I stood still, hunched over at the back of the van, Buddy held Mason with one arm and tried to free Teagan with the other. I do not exaggerate when I tell you it took several minutes and as my legs began to burn I asked what was taking so long. He finished then and I turned around to see my sweet girl. The top of her French braid had been snared and it took a whole lot of effort and a whole lot of crying to free the poor little thing. So, with a tear streaked face and tangled, fuzzy hair, still whimpering we embarked on a sweet little moment together. She greeted her friends (the cutouts from Monsters University and Frozen) returned a record number of items and claimed her prize – a book. It was pretty perfect that Miss Joanna was the librarian working the children’s desk – she always greets Teagan by name and always found something nice to say about the way I looked when I was pregnant with Mason, even if it was a lie…which it had to be. Glad we got to say goodbye to her. Everything else went off without a hitch, except that we’d forgotten a few items at home and had to make plans to come back anyway. Which made the fact that she couldn’t bear to part with the beloved Alvin and the Chipmunks CD we’d renewed countless times. I made plans to return it on the sly with the other few items the next time we visited the library. The real last time. So long, library!

8 Months of Mason

• We squeezed him into his swimming suit (his belly snuck out of the rashguard on several occasions) and went swimming for the first time on June 9th and seemed to like it.
• He adores his sister, despite her constant efforts to lift him, poke him, yell at him, scare him, feed him against his will and just plain love him too much.
• He still loves attention and will grunt and scream and cry to get it. I'm told he'll be happier when he's mobile. I'm thinking about a cardboard cutout of myself to keep him entertained - he's thrilled as long as he has someone's undivided attention.
• People find lots of things to comment on, but his beautiful blue eyes and sweet cheeks are the most common. 
• Got his 6 month shots a little late because of our Canada trip, and was devastated in the office (as was his sister) but recovered quickly at home, smiling and laughing the rest of the day away.
• Loves to be in the bath - we kill a lot of time there lately.
• Loves music - he always calms down when I sing to him (usually, "You are my Mason" or "Mason is my darling"...feeding his ego, naturally).

7 Months of Mason

• Met his Canadian family for the first time and loved them.
• Multiple people have told me that "he doesn't look real. He is too cute to be real." And it's true.
• He may have a bit of a complex, though. He thinks the world revolves around him and isn't happy unless someone is making direct eye contact and fawning over him. And more often than not, when we are out and about, there is someone doing just that. But I don't have time to sit and stare at him all day, much to his chagrin. 
• He is starting to find his voice and babbles "dada" a lot, along with an excited stuttering when he is happy and laughing. He growls constantly, asserting his masculinity.
• He is sitting up on his own a it better, only really falling when he is reaching for something too far from his grasp or if he is being "helped" by his sister.