I'm doing Baby Talk in 2 installments this month. Half of the funny things that happened occurred while we were at my parents' in AZ, so this edition is the Home Edition, and then we'll have Baby Talk 2: The AZ Edition.
* Every time Shaelyn (or anyone else for that matter) passes gas, she grabs her bum, yells out "poop", then giggles hysterically. We're not sure at what point this behavior goes from adorable to inappropriate, but we figure we have a few years on this side of the fence first.
* While coloring, Shaelyn will hand Michael or me a crayon and say "culuh paypuhz" and demand that we color on specific spots. She's very bossy about coloring. I wonder where she gets that from...
* Shaelyn figured out that Michael and I sit in the same seats every night at dinner, so now she points to the chairs she wants us to sit in, and we have to comply.
* I washed the cover on Shaelyn's princess couch today and left the foam cushions on her bed. I came in from the laundry room and found her wrapped in foam. I wouldn't think that would be too comfortable, but maybe she saw it like George Costanza saw velvet, and wanted to be ensconced in it.
* Sometimes Shaelyn walks down the stairs just fine all by herself, but usually first thing in the morning and right after her nap, she wants me to carry her down. Only she has a very specific pattern for this: on the 1st step, she says "hand" and then expects to hold my hand down this step. On the 2nd step, she says "shirt" (surt) and wants to hold on my shirt-tail while going down. Then on the 3rd step, she points at my belly or chest (but usually belly since it's the part of me that sticks out the most) and says "me", which means she wants me to hold her. I think it comes from me always saying "come here to me!" before I pick her up. Either way, as long as I am comfortable carrying her, I'm always going to when she asks in such a funny and cute way.
* While cleaning out Shaelyn's closet to prepare for the change in seasons as well as her size in clothes, I found two pairs of shoes that now fit her - one a pair of borrowed hand-me-down black church shoes, and one a pair of pink ballet-looking shoes that her Aunt Jeanine bought her when she was just a few months old. I went ahead and tried them both on her to see if they fit. The black shoes are her first pair of "big girl" dress shoes with hard soles, and she immediately wanted to run down stairs to all the hard surfaces to hear them click. And the pink shoes looked just like little ballet slippers once they were on her feet. So I've decided this is Shaelyn's first official foray into the dance world (both ballet and tap, which are the basic starting classes for preschool dancers). It looks like she's going to enjoy them both!
I'm pretty sure "click your feet" is an official tap term. Just kidding, I know better. But seriously, can't you see the beginnings of some shuffles and flaps in there?
Shaelyn calls the ballet shoes her "pretty shoes" (piddy soos) and of course loves to wear them all the time, even when she has nothing else on.
* Shaelyn and Maggie (the kitty) are quickly becoming little best friends. Or at least on Shaelyn's end. I can't tell how much Maggie really likes Shaelyn, but she is surprisingly tolerant and even seems to enjoy some of the attention. Lately when Shaelyn ventures upstairs while I'm working on something downstairs, I'll hear her giggling hysterically. The result is always that she is giggling at Maggie - either brushing her with her hairbrush, or opening and closing the flaps if Maggie is hiding in a box, or just flat out chasing her. A lot of times I find her just upstairs talking to Maggie while Mags is laying on our bed.
* Maggie's new favorite place to take a nap is on the glider in Shaelyn's room. Shaelyn loves finding her there, because then she can rock her! She'll run over to the chair, start violently pushing it, and say "rock, rock kitty!" (wok wok kee-eee). And the cutest thing: Shaelyn has started reading her books to Maggie if she stays in the chair long enough. I caught her reading Dilly Duck and ABC to her, both of which she had placed on the chair upside-down to herself so that they would be right-side up for Maggie. How cute is that?!
* Shaelyn has started "gasping" whenever she sees something that pleases or surprises her. As a typical drama queen, sometimes the gasping lasts a lot longer than is necessary, but is so adorable.
* Shaelyn loves to talk to Daddy on the phone, especially since he's been traveling so much lately. The other day, she was talking to him, then said "Supah" and put the phone up to Super Why's ear. I had to tell Michael (she talks to him on speakerphone) that he was now talking to Super, so he would know to change his conversation. I can't remember what exactly he said to Super, but something like "Are you having fun with Shaelyn?" or whatever you would normally say to your little girl's favorite doll. Shaelyn didn't want Super monopolizing the conversation, though, so she quickly took the phone away from him so she could have Daddy back all to herself.
* Shaelyn's new favorite "talking on the phone with Daddy" game: Morse Code. She's always liked to push the buttons, but now she does two or three in a pattern, then Daddy repeats it back to her (or adds a few more rhythms to make it sillier). She squeals with laughter, and it's a great way for them to bond when he's gone for days (sometimes weeks!) at a time.
* Shaelyn's favorite letters are P and Z. Whenever she sees a P (and she sees them everywhere...) she makes this hilarious "puh" noise and then loudly says "P"! Z just comes out in a loud, sing-song voice that makes the letter sound even funnier than it already does.
* Our "guest room/office" has been a DISASTER for the last 6 months or so. Since we brought the computer downstairs and had no overnight guests, the room became a dumping ground for everything we have yet to organize. The door permanently stayed closed and there were times I forgot we even had a third bedroom. But now I'm trying to make that room a playroom for the girls, and so I had to tackle the mess. (It was so bad you could barely open the door...). Shaelyn of course wanted to accompany me, so I told her what a MESS the room was, and she has now affectionately started calling the room "mess". Sometimes when she heads up the stairs, I ask her where she's going and she says "to mess". What kid doesn't want to play in a room full of chaos? Maybe I don't even have to convert it into a playroom. She likes playing in the mess more.
* While I was cleaning "the mess", Shaelyn had a fun time contributing to the mess. I left the room for a minute and came back to an even worse disaster than I had already cleaned up. But she loved popping the bubble wrap under her feet. Every kid's playroom should have a bubble wrap floor.
* Shaelyn loves pushing her stroller around and around the family room. Today she found her Cars DVD in her backpack from our trip to my parents, and felt that it deserved a cushy ride. So she took her baby doll out of the stroller and strapped Cars in. Hmmm. Wonder if she'll be trading baby sister for any other Pixar DVDs...
* While on vacation, Shaelyn ate a whole box of fruit snacks by herself. Some days she had fruit snacks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. One time Michael told her that the purple ones were his favorites. Ever since then, she saves the purple ones for Dada. So sweet!* Shaelyn watched a Super Why! episode that spelled out "go" for the beginning of a race. It really excited her and now she goes around saying "G-O Go!". It's just early training for being a cheerleader later. On the agenda next week: learning how to spell "be aggressive". (In this video, she actually says "G-O-G Go!". Of course she wouldn't "perform" once the camera came out.)
These last four aren't really funny, but I wanted to document the ways Shaelyn constantly blows us away:
* She is so observant. While waiting for our suitcase at the baggage claim, she got very excited when a blue suitcase came off the belt. It wasn't ours, and she pitched a fit when we didn't pick it up. How could we know that she would know what our suitcase looks like (ours is blue) when she's only seen it twice in her life. When we finally retreived the suitcase (after Shaelyn pointed it out to us), she then said "car seat". Holy cow! She knew we checked that and were waiting on it too? What else does she know? Pi to 20 places? She also pays attention to what Michael and I drink from (a blue UNC cup for Michael, a take-home lemonade cup from a local baseball game for me) and tells me whose cups they are when she helps me unload the dishwasher.
* While reading her "colors" book on the plane, Shaelyn turned to the blue page and said "Dada" and then the white page and said "Mama". Michael and I were confused about our connections to these colors until we realized Michael was wearing a blue shirt and I was wearing a white shirt.
* Today I heard Shaelyn saying her ABC's in order in the kitchen. She knows all her letters and I figured she was just reading them off of one of her toys that had them listed in order. When I peaked over the couch to look at her, I noticed she was staring at the ceiling and reciting the letters in order from memory. She got all the way to "Q", then skipped to "X, Y, Z". I haven't been able to get her to do it again since.
* While washing our hands today, Shaelyn said "un, too, fee, fouh, FIVE!" Where is this coming from?!?! She never ceases to amaze me.
* I included this last video for posterity sake, but not everyone may want to watch it since Shaelyn is throwing a tantrum through the whole thing. She's very Daddy-centric lately (more than ever before) and really freaks out when he leaves for work. Poor girl. I wish he could stay home all day too. To take this video, I turned on the hall light that had been off, so she's not only freaking out about Daddy leaving, but the light being on as well - which is why you'll see her over at the light switch saying "off".
I love this cute girl!
