Baths, Dress-up, etc.

The first time I put bubbles in Tae's bath, she freaked. I had to drain the tub and wash out the tub. She happily told them "Bye-bye" as they went down the drain. We've now decided bubbles are great.

We've also decided Taelyn is a girl, through and through. When we are at home she is either taking her clothes off or putting more clothes on. I've heard it only gets worse from here.

On Saturday, Tae and Jon were on their own while I went to violin lessons and a Stake RS Activity. When I got home Jon made me close my eyes. When I opened them he was holding a Taelyn sized dress. He informed me that they had gone shopping and when he picked it upto look at it, she immediately loved it and he just had to buy it. At this point in the conversation Tae looked at me and said "La-la. Dress. La-la." He said it was a confirmation that he had to get it. It does make me laugh because I can never get him to look at dresses with me. Apparently it has become a tradition because daddy has been the one to buy her Easter dress both years she has been alive. Because Easter falls on General Conference weekend this year, we let her wear her dress on Sunday. I tried to get some pictures after church. Most of them turned out like this:

But some of them worked. [I'll just throw in here that I LOVE digital cameras. It takes 30+ pictures to get a few good ones. I'm glad I can take the 30+ pictures and not have to pay to get all of them developed! What did people do before digital cameras?!]

Talking Up a Storm

**WARNING: DUE TO MY LACK OF POSTS SINCE THE FIRST OF THE YEAR, I HAVE GOTTEN VERY BEHIND ON SOME IMPORTANT MATTERS. BECAUSE TALKING IS ONE OF THESE, EXPECT THIS POST TO BE EXTREMELY LONG.**

I vaguely remember a time when Taelyn didn't talk...but not really. She is getting really good at linking her words together to get her point across. Most of the time we understand what she is saying, but there are times when we haven't a clue. Most of you won't care enough to read for the list, but I'm sure that in the future I'll be glad I wrote it down.

• My favorite is that she refers to herself as La-la (that is what Jon calls her). I've called her La-lu a few times. I quit calling her that when she said "No-no momma", then pointed at herself and corrected me "La-la".
• Dropping her off at daycare each morning is one of the hardest things ever. Picking her up is one of the best. She has to tell everyone "Mommy's here". Except it comes out "Mommy seer". It melts my heart. She won't leave her room until every teacher in the room has acknowledged that "Mommy seer".
• She loves telling me about her art. I picked up the picture they did at daycare. I commented on how beautiful it was. She had to tell me "La-la paint. Hands. La-la."
• When she first started saying "Help me" it drove me nuts. She repeats it until she gets whatever help she is asking for. Then one night her blankey was stuck in the crib bars. She looked at me with the most desperate look on her face and said "Hewp me. Mommy."
• 2 weeks ago I forgot I had egg rolls in the oven on broil. When I remembered, I threw the oven door open and the smoke alarm went off. Now whenever we sit down at the table to eat she points at the smoke alarm and informs us "Beep-beep. Ears. Beep-beep." I think she is phased for life.
• She critiques my driving. If I accelerate or stop too quickly, my turns are not smooth or too fast, or if I hit any bumps I hear a "WHOA!" from my backseat driver.
• My mom and Taryn come out every other weekend for Taryn's league volleyball. We've taken Tae to several tournaments. Whenever someone mentions Taryn or ball or anything semi-related she says "Tear-n. Ball. Tear-n" accompanied by a repeated spiking motion.
• She loves singing. She's getting pretty good at singing along with "eat-sy beetsy" (Itsy Bitsy Spider) and "I God" (I Am a Child of God). She also often requests "Tempow" (I Love to See the Temple), "Pop-pop" (Popcorn Popping), and "Sees'us sun" (Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam).
• She loves the temple. We drive passed it on our drives. Occasionally we pull over, let her get out of her car seat and stand on the console so she can put her head out the sun roof. Two weeks ago Malissa watched Tae so Jon and I could go to the temple. Before we left I made the mistake of telling her where we were going and that Malissa was going to watch her. She had a total meltdown. Between her sobs she was pointing from herself to the front door and saying "La-la. Tempow."
• We had another problem with biting a few weeks ago. After realizing I had offended her, I felt strongly that instead of getting after her for the negative behavior, I needed to emphasize good behavior. I've been working on teaching her that 'Big girls are nice to our friends'. Each morning we go through all of the children and say they are our friends. We talk about being nice. Each night when I pick her up I ask how her day was. She usually responds with "La-la. Big girl. La-la. Nice."
• The last two days she has come home from daycare with stories like "La-la. Push. Awa. Push. La-la." or "Cher-sh. Pich. La-la. Pich. Cher'sh". We're not quite sure who is the offended and who is the offender, but we know who is involved. She makes sure she tells us several times during the evening. We're still trying to emphasize big girls are nice to our friends and big girls don't push or pinch.
• When ever we are out driving, she loves pointing out objects: bird, tree, balloon, bike, truck, etc. She always says 'hi' and 'bye' to new objects she notices.
• She hates the sun being in her eyes. Occasionally she gets really upset and yells "No-no. Sun. La-la. Eyes. No-no, sun." If daddy is in the car and mommy is driving, daddy blocks the sunlight. Over the weekend, mommy taught her that she can cover her eyes and it is much more effective than scolding the sun.
• She recently started saying "Hole-ju" (hold you) when she wants held. A few days ago while we were at home, Jon came up behind me and put his arms around me. I leaned back and was enjoying it until Tae burst out with a very loud objection, "No-no. Daddy. Hole-ju. Momma."
• A few months ago when we had sister missionaries, Taelyn learned to love hanging out with them. She calls them "Sissers" and signs 'missionary'. Now that Malissa is living with us, we have tried to get Tae to call her Malissa. She won't. She calls her "Sisser" and still signs missionary. Malissa left for a week. Every morning she was gone and several times each evening she would ask for "Sisser". Tae was sure excited last night when Malissa got back.

If you can't tell, I could go on and on about cute things that she says. Like how she struggles with her 's' sounds...except when she says Flip (Taryn's horses name). It very clearly comes out as "sip". Or that she loves her cousins Nick and Owen. She says Owen great, but Nick comes out as "Neek". I'll leave it at how much I love this age. I love the communication, the talking and learning, the funny way words come out and mostly I love how much more her little personality is showing through each day. I love being her mommy.

Our Nanny-House Elf

This is Malissa:

You may (or probably actually didn't) recognize her from this post. We sent her home in December. She will be attending BYU in May. She called us and asked if she could live with us for a month or so. She offered herself as a house elf in exchange. We are more than happy to have her. She is an incredibly happy person, her laugh is infectious, and we absolutely love her.

House Elf vs. Nanny

So if you had your choice, would you prefer having a house elf, or a nanny?

Ours is flying in as I type.

I'm slightly partial to calling her a nanny, because when will I ever have a nanny again?
I guess the same could be said of a house elf...