Play Dough

Today Mama made playdough for me to play with. It was too hot at first and I was afraid of it, but then I started playing with it and it's awesome! I like it when Mama makes snakes and I get to cut them into little pieces. I also got some stickers today to make art with. They're really fun, but it's more fun to stick them on myself than on the paper.

My awesome Tacoma playdate

I had a playdate with my friend Naomi (who just turned 8 months old a few days ago) in Tacoma yesterday. It was really fun, but I have decided that I never want to learn how to share. Life is so much more fun when I steal toys from others kids and won't let them read books with me.

I almost forgot!

I forgot to tell you in my last post that we had a really fun few days with Auntie Jenn (who is not really my Auntie, but is one of Mama and Daddy's best friends) this summer. We went to the childrens' museum and played in the grass at Seattle Center. The sad thing is that she came to visit because she left to go to South Korea for a whole year. I can't believe I won't get to see her for so long. She has a thing called a webcam that she says we can talk over the computer with and I can show her my sweet dance moves. I suppose that will be good enough. She says she's having a really good time so far, so I think that instead of being sad about not seeing her I'll just look forward to hearing all about her adventures.

I did it again

I can't believe I waited so long to post anything on here again. Blame Mama, she's the one who controls the computer. So much has happened in the past two months it's going to be difficult to put it all here.

After my last post Mama, Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa Farrell, and I went down to Utah for a visit. We drove all night...well, I didn't drive. I sat in the back and slept most of the time. I also watched cars drive past in the dark (headlights are cool!), and ran around a rest stop for a while. Everyone else drove...except Princess Daddy who slept in the front seat almost the whole way there. Our first few days down there were really sad because we had to go to Grandma Diane's cousin's funeral (which I behaved myself quite well at because I knew it was important to everyone). After that I got to meet my Grandpa Dean's family though. We had two different barbeques to go to. The first one had the best toy room EVER. Although I think Mama and Daddy enjoyed it more than I did. They also had a giant trampoline with a wrestling cage-type thing around it, so I got to jump around all I wanted. Daddy even jumped with me in the 102 degree heat. He got really hot and tired. At the second barbeque I got to go swimming just in my diaper. Daddy got in with me and we had a really good time. Everyone was really excited to meet me, and I was very well behaved (most of the time). And adorable. As usual. We did a lot of other fun stuff while we were there including going up to a giant ski jump that I really wanted to go down. I don't think they let babies do it though. Jerks. Daddy had to leave early to go back to work (boo) but Mama, me, and Grandma and Grandpa got to stay for a few more days. We stayed at this really cool place with lots of swimming pools and mineral baths. I swam three times in two days and had a blast. I saw lots of birdies flying in the sky, and now I sign "birdy" every time I hear or see a bird. I'm a little obsessed. At the end of the trip I got to meet one of Mama's friends from when she was little and play with her daughters Amelia and Grace. We had a fantastic time playing in the sprinkler and jumping on Amelia's big girl bed. Mama says we were getting into trouble just like she and Eryn used to do. Then we drove all the way home overnight again.

The day after we got to Raymond it was Henry's birthday party. His mama's whole family was there, so I got to meet them all. I guess I met them when he was born, but I don't remember. There was yummy food, cake, a swing, and lots of dancing, but the best part was Henry's little baby counsin. She was adorable and I just wanted to play with her the whole time. Once she was sleeping in her carseat and I accidentally fell on her while I was petting her hair. I felt really bad and cried about it, but she didn't even wake up. It was pretty funny. Henry got lots of really nice presents, and I really liked playing with all of them.

We also went camping this summer at Baker Lake. I had a really really good time. There was a big dog there for most of the week and I really liked him. I liked to play with the rocks at the shore, and drive my cozycoupe around the campsite. Henry was there for a while, and we really liked chasing each other around the trailer and giggling in the corner where no one could see us. He's a really funny kid and I absolutely love playing with him. I did have a lot of accidents while we were camping though, but overall it was really fun.

Just last weekend I went down to Raymond with my Mama to go to the fair. I got to see all sorts of animals, which was really cool. I even almost got kicked by a crazy cow in the cow barn. Mama was a little scared, but I thought it was funny. I really liked watching the cheerleaders dance, and danced along on my Grandpa's lap. I did real big-girl cheerleader moves, which makes Mama and Daddy worried that I'll be a cheerleader (neither of them know anything about cheerleading). After that we got to see a real rock concert at the fair. I danced the whole time we were there, and everyone thought I was really cute. People were taking pictures and trying to dance with me, but I was just grooving in my own world and didn't even notice. When they were all done playing I raised my hands and signed all done so that everyone would know that the concert was over. Then I clapped because they were really good. I got to play with Henry and my new friend Ruby June a lot in Raymond and we had a really good time.

Speaking of Ruby June, she and her family just moved up here and I really like going over to play with her. She's really fast and I like trying to keep up with her. Once when I was over there I even threw dirt in her hair and she liked it. She's awesome!

I have been working on learning more signs all summer and now I know a ton. I also have started saying more words. I finally learned how to say Mama, although it sounds surprisingly similar to how I say banana. I also know how to say car, dog, owl (because of Daddy's tattoo), up, down, no (which is a fantastic word by the way), and some more that I can't remember right now. I really try to repeat everything Mama and Daddy say to me, which ends up sounding pretty funny sometimes. I am so over walking by the way. Now I run. Everywhere. I run all the time. And I'm getting really fast. I still fall down a lot, but it's so much faster than walking. I also now have like 15 million teeth, including a whole gaggle of molars. They hurt a lot when they were coming in, but now it's nice to be able to chew things so well. Another big thing that happened this summer is that I now take a bath in the big bathtub so all my toys fit and I can flop around like a mermaid. It's really fun. Mama says that every day this summer I learned how to do something new, so perhaps I should be blogging more often so that I can keep you all updated. Isn't that the whole point of this thing anyhow? I'll try, I promise.

The Last Two Months

Holy guacamole I've been neglecting everyone. I've been pretty busy and just haven't found time to blog about it. This is going to be a long one, so settle in for a while.

May was pretty exciting. Mama, Daddy and I took a trip down to Portland to see some of their friends. I got to meet my new friend Flynn, and a new friend who won't be born until November, so that was pretty exciting. Everyone was amazed that I could run around as well as I did. We played in the park for an entire day on Memorial Day. It was sunny and really fun. I really liked the slides at the park, except that they made my hair stand up all funny when I went down them. Here's a picture of us at the park. I got to play with a camera, which I discovered was really good for hitting "Auntie" Jenn in the face with.




After that I got to go to the children's museum up in Everett with Mama, "Auntie" Renee, my friend Sara and her mom Janet. We had a lot of fun playing with everything there, including the water tables and the theater stage. It was really fun to play with a friend, since that is something I haven't gotten to do very much. Sara's really nice and she yells at me when I hit her on accident. I like that. It keeps me in line. They also had a really cool airplane I could pretend to fly, and big play structure on the roof. Auntie Renee took me down the really big slide (Mama was too scared), which was really awesome. Here's a picture of me and Sara playing with the ping pong ball plinko wall.




In June I went down to spend a week at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Raymond with Mama. Daddy had to work so he couldn't come, which made me sad. We did a lot of fun stuff, including tie dying a lot of clothes for everyone. Mama made me a few dresses, a coat, a hat, some socks, and some other stuff I forget right now. I didn't get to dye with them, but my new friend Jenna babysat me for the whole day. I really like her and I had a blast. I also got to play with my cousin Henry a whole lot while I was down there. He can't walk yet, but I'm determined to get him to walk. I grab his head and try to make him stand up and walk. Everyone thinks it's funny, but I'm doing him a favor by helping him. He really liked to chase me around. He can crawl almost as fast as I can run! He's super talented like that. One whole day we got to sit by the river at "Grandma" Carolyn's house. Everyone was worried that I wouldn't like the river because it would be too cold, but I really liked squatting in the water and throwing rocks. They even put a thing called a crawdad in my hand and I thought it was kinda cool. I think that that playing in the river was my very favorite thing I did the whole week. Mama says that I'm sure to enjoy some place called "Baker Lake," but I'm not sure what that is. Apparently I'll find out in a few weeks. Here's a picture of me playing in the river.







Oh, and the Penguins won the Stanley Cup. My Daddy and I were really, really happy about that. Here's a picture of us watching the final game.




So far in July I have done a ton of stuff. I spend the fourth of July on my Grandpa Gary's boat with some of his friends. It took me a while to get my sea legs, but I really liked it when the boat rocked. I ended up liking it when the boat rocked. The fireworks didn't start until very late, but I stayed up and watched them. They were really pretty, and the sound didn't even bother me at all. I also got to go swimming in my kiddie pool at my Mimi's house. Both Mama and Mimi sat in the water with me, and it was really fun. Then my friend Sara came to join me. We both had a great time playing in the water. Here's a picture of me in my Fourth of July dress making silly faces.

I've been learning lots of new things over the past two months too. Mama bought me some kid's sign language DVDs so I can start using my hands to ask for things instead of throwing temper tantrums, and I really like them. I can say lots of things now and Mama and Daddy always know what I'm asking for which makes me really happy. I've also started running pretty fast. I'm still a little clumsy, and I fall down a lot, but I'm still working on it. My new favorite things to do are play with Molly my dolly (I feed her and brush her hair a lot), play with my magnetic letters on the fridge, and draw with crayons. Mama even found me a great art table at a garage sale a few days ago, and it's just the right size for me to sit at to draw. I still really really like to dance, and expanded my catalog of moves quite a bit. I now spin around to some songs, and run in place to others. I even sing along with the songs sometimes, and make up my own songs other times. I don't say any real words yet, but why would I when I can sign everythign I need? I think that's about it for now, but I'll try to write more often than once every two months. My family and I are leaving in a few days to go on vacation to Utah, and I'll be sure to write all about that when it happens.