Kids say the Darnedest Things: Vol I

I have been meaning to talk about K's word explosion over the past few months. I had grandiose plans of getting it all on video and sharing it with you live and in person. But I always forget, and she seems to clam up when I put the camera on.

Around 15 months her talking, which had always been decent (she was a babbler, and of course a screamer, from early on), just went nuts. She was a parrot - anything we tried to get her to say, she would at least attempt, if not nail. In the past few months she has been working on her 2-3 word sentences, ABCs, counting, nursery rhymes and even jokes. She also has great retention for locations of items around the house, and even her grandma's house.

She can now:
recite the full alphabet song (though several of the letters are not intelligble)
count from 1-10 and sometimes up to 15
correctly identify blue and green (about 75% of the time)
correctly identifiy most common animals and their sounds
correctly identify common household objects and favourite toys
knows all the main people (and animals) in her life by name
sings - twinkle twinkle, old mcdonald, zoom zoom - going to the moon, patty cake, itsy bitsy spider
correctly identify the letter "o" (not sure why) - all other letters are still hazy

her favourite phrase is "oh no!". Of course accompanied by dumping out an entire box of toys, or letting spaghetti fall to the floor.

the funniest is she likes to tell jokes or be sarcastic. She often will call us "silly mommy" or "silly daddy", or place an object on her head (like a car) and yell "car head!" while laughing maniacally. yesterday in the car she kept taking her toy train and placing it behind her head. then she would look at me (through the mirror) and hold her arms up in a "where's that" gesture. I would say "where's the train, keira?" and then she would "find" the train and triumphantly show it to me. Just like we used to do when we first learned peekaboo.

Of course, with all this, comes the "mine" stage. Like her toothbrush, shoes, a water glass. Basically anything her eye can see is "mine". Like the train station we pass every morning is "my train" and she gets upset if I don't stop and let her play with it. I truly hope this is a short phase because sharing is not currently in her vocabulary.

Sorry for all the words. Here are a few recent pictures to round things up:

her "oh no!" face

(I shared this already on my photo blog. apologies to repeat readers)

chilling with her Aunty Tara and Uncle Alan

giggling over a private joke with her shoe

Keira is 19 months old and I am already concerned for the cell phone bill costs considering how much she talks

My sick baby

We just got over a nasty fever. Spiking at 103 over several days. Thankfully no other symptoms accompanied the fever.
After 4 days of Buzz, Woody, Winnie the Pooh, Elmo and Simba many times over, the fever broke.
I did pop off a few shots of K sleeping peacefully in her fever induced state. We rarely see this since she usually thinks sleep is for sissies, especially in daddy's arms in the living room!

Memories: Canada Day

Only 2 weeks after the fact. I am getting better!
On Canada Day we hit some local festivities at a train museum/city park with my good friends A, M and their little A's. Candy was consumed, balls were thrown, day old chicks were petted. fun was had by all.

playing with shutter speed on the model train:

goat side-eye:

squee! 8 week old pittie puppy

I swear to god they were having fun:

Meet Lulu

Lulu is pretty important in our house. Wherever K goes, she goes too. She came with her own stroller. The stroller has a canopy and basket. My husband talked the seller down to $5 I think for both of them. Best $5 we ever spent.
Her lovely green blue eyes:

Lulu rarely spends more then a few minutes in the stroller until K pulls her out to carry her. That's about how long K herself lasts in a stroller before demanding "down".

just a post dinner stroll - galoshes, pjs and a pram:

oh and the photo above won me a weekly photo challenge over at one of my favourite blogs, the Paper Mama
So I get to tell y'all that in fact, I am awesome :)

Teddy Bear Picnic

In the rain? Sure, why not. Another annual neighbourhood festival/parade, known as the Teddy Bear Picnic. They even have nurses on site to provide teddy checkups and prescribe them a clean bill of health. It started to drip in the morning, but thankfully never settled into full downpour.

terrible shot of me, but I am rarely in photos, so I have to take what I can get (and I am too lazy to edit it)

mounties and bagpipes to start. Not cliche or anything

James Dean of the Bear crowd

peanut gallery

a pirate Shriner. Whoda thunk it?

looking for the next big thing:

which was the Falun Gong marching band

We moved onto the fairgrounds to find some friendly faces

fun was had by all

showing off her massive intelligence - rings are mastered, so next = astro physics!

who thought this was a good thing to bring to a children's festival?

tensions are starting to run high

and on that note, bye bye!

Hats Off to You

If you are still patiently waiting for updates. ::sigh:: I am so behind. wanted to share a few street festivals with you that we attended back in June. And the OCD in me won't let me post new stuff till I catch up with the older posts I want to do. That makes for quite the backlog sometimes.

This is Hats Off Day, a great neighbourhood street festival and parade.
classic car show

vintage neon sign

Wondermom juggles 4 kids in a double stroller and backpack combo

and just in time for a self portrait

K did great in the Ergo and even fell asleep on the walk home. I am looking forward to more hikes with her in this come fall when its not so hot!

next up: Teddy Bear Picnic!