All grown up

Teagan is learning how to do so many things on her own and loves to practice all her new skills. She says "off" to tell us when she wants her clothes, shoes, or a bow off, but has recently started practicing putting her own clothes on. She can do pretty well with getting a shirt on, or more often, 2 or 3 shirts on! She hasn't managed to get pants on yet, but she certainly tries. She has also decided that baby sized silverware is, well, for babies, and insists on using regular adult sized silverware. And I guess she thinks she has the potty thing all figured out because sometimes I catch her showing her stuffed animals how to use the potty.

Mischief

No box of anything is safe in this house anymore! Teagan has become quite skilled at opening sealed boxes and then quickly emptying out all the contents. She likes to help me unload grocery bags and sometimes she will take off with a box. Before I know it, she is pulling out every bag or kleenex. At least she has a lot of fun doing it!

In other news.... Teagan said her first sentence today, sort of. She was looking out the window at the broom on the patio and said "Dada, bu, swee". Translation: Dada sweeps the bugs.

Cookie Monster!

I made chocolate chip cookies this afternoon, and Teagan really liked them! I've made cookies in the past and she's only been sort of half-interested. Today though, she wouldn't let me offer her bites, she wanted her own cookie! I knew this was bound to be messy, so I put her in her seat with a bib and let her go at it. She decided to use her finger to first dig out the chocolate chips and eat those. When I was cleaning her up, she even had chocolate under her fingernails. Oh my. And now, whenever she walks through the kitchen she points to the cookie jar saying "more, more!" I guess she's a little cookie monster now!

Froggy Friend

Teagan's absolute favorite toy is her stuffed frog. She carries the frog all around the house and loves to give her frog hugs and kisses. I have seen her try to give the frog a drink from her sippy cup on several occasions and the other day while we were eating yogurt, she was quite upset with me when I wouldn't let her give the frog a bite. One night when I was cooking dinner, she was upset that I wouldn't give her "nuh nuh", her word for nursing. I suggested that she give her froggy nuh nuh and she actually pulled up her shirt and tried. So cute.

She also has several other stuffed animals that she loves. They include a dog, a cow, and a penguin.

4th of July

We had a very busy, but fun, 4th of July. We started the day bright and early by going to the parade in Plano. My dad got there early and saved us a spot in the shade. Amazingly, the shade and the breeze made it very comfortable outside. Teagan did great at the parade and was most interested in any dogs that she saw (both spectators and parade participants). While playing with some lollipops, Teagan managed to get one open. Before we even noticed, she already had it in her mouth! So she got her first taste of lollipop and seemed to like it. After the parade we went to Allen to have lunch at Beth's house.

After leaving Allen, we drove to Duncanville to spend the afternoon with Paul's family. The first two times we tried to take Teagan swimming, she was not interested. Today was different. She had so much fun splashing and kicking in the pool.

Thank goodness for Daddies!

Teagan sure loves hanging out with her Daddy. Every day when she wakes up from her nap, she walks out to the living room looking for him saying "Daddy?" as she looks around. On Father's day she woke up and then leaned over and gave her daddy, and only her daddy, a big kiss! She is also a little preoccupied with bugs and I am teaching her that Dad is the one who takes care of that. Tonight when she thought she saw a bug in the kitchen, she went over to Paul in the living room saying "bug" and pulled on him to get him to follow her to take care of the bug.

Multi-tasking

Teagan loves to help sweep. If you even mention that the floor needs to be swept, she will go over to the broom and point to it saying "sssss" until you come and get the broom. When I couldn't find a toy broom for her, I just decided to get her one of those small hand held broom and dustpan sets. She loves it!

Cuteness!

Dallas Zoo

We celebrated my birthday on Monday by taking Teagan to the Dallas Zoo. At first, she seemed relatively un-impressed. She looked at the animals, but didn't really seem very excited about it. She was so serious and quiet! The things that did make her smile though, were Daddy holding her and bouncing her around and then lunch time! After about 2 hours at the zoo, we decided to head home. On our way out we walked by the penguins for the 2nd time, but this time they were all swimming in the water. That was very interesting to Teagan. She loved standing right up against the glass as the penguins swam by. We got her a stuffed penguin toy that she loved playing with on the way home.

Old toy, new fun

Teagan has rediscovered her blue rocking chair that we used to always put her in when she was younger. I moved it into the kitchen and she likes to sit in it to play, eat a snack, or send a quick email from her Blackberry. It has a good seat belt so when she is buckled in I try and take full advantage and do a quick chore like load or unload the dishwasher. Always much easier without little hands "helping."