New words

There's no way I could capture everything that's been going on or all of Tamsin's new accomplishments, so this post will just be about learning to talk. She's known many words for a long time now, but she wasn't consistent with them. Recently she's just exploded with all kinds of new words, and they're getting clearer and easier to understand. Sometimes it really sounds like she's saying something but it doesn't seem possible so I'm not sure if I'm hearing things. For instance, yesterday she was eating some broccoli for dinner (that in itself was a big accomplishment!) and I asked her what color her broccoli is. She immediately said "Grn!" So in addition to naming things, I think she 's getting colors like green, blue, and yellow. She also says "purple!" very clearly. Here are some of her current words that we're sure she said:

Backpack

Cloth

Car keys

Purple

Calliou

Cat (said repeatedly when a cat came on TV)

Ball (also very exciting when one shows up on TV or in a book)

Banana

Dog

All kinds of animal sounds - Roar, Baa, Woof, Meow

Pants

There are lots more all the time and sometimes really random words. In addition to saying more, she very clearly understands pretty much anything we say. She can point to pretty much anything in a book. Her favorite book is a farm with lots of animals in the background. She'll find the rooster, the cat, the bug, the caterpillar, the cow, the butterfly, and pretty much anything you ask her. She's still a happy, curious bundle of perpetual motion. She's always giggling and pretending and tearing through the house like a tornado. She definitely lets us know if she doesn't want to do something, but she's never just cranky or upset for no reason. It's hard to believe she's almost a year and a half already!

Tamsin's drum

Tamsin got a new drum and maraca set today. Here are some videos of her trying it out:

Small update

It's been a long time since I posted here! Since Easter we moved, I finished another class, and Tamsin grew quite a bit! She's so fun now. She runs nonstop and can say a lot of words. Most of the time they come out as a very emphatic, "Ga!" but sometimes they sound like the word. She still loves to make animal sounds, she loves to dance and especially loves doing anything outside. I'll see how many recent pictures I can post before she wakes up from her nap and I have to start chasing again!

Tamsin combing her hair.

Hugging her friend Jordan.

Being a super happy baby!

Easter

I went a little crazy with the pictures here so I won't even try to caption them all. We had a really nice Easter! It started with church where Tamsin and Evaleigh both made it through the entire service! Then we had dinner at Mom's with all of the family and had an Easter egg hunt for the babies. It's so fun having Leah and Joel and Evaleigh here! After all of the pictures there is a video of Tamsin demonstrating what a sheep says. She doesn't quite have the "Buh" sound incorporated yet.

Tamsin's Current Events

Ever since she could crawl, I would play "I'm gonna get you!" with her when she was crawling away. She always giggled when I picked her up. Recently, she started turning around and running towards me when I went to get her. Now she doesn't even wait for me to chase her. She walks away, then she'll suddenly turn and run as fast as she can straight towards me. I have to pick her up and say, "Gotcha, gotcha" and then she wiggles free and runs off again.

She already used the potty a few times! I think it was by accident during the week, but on the weekend I put her on it as soon as she got up and she went right away! It's still too soon for serious potty training, but she's definitely on the right track!

One of her favorite things now is to put things in other things and carry them around. Here are some good ones of her walking:

(Sorry they're sideways; I guess I can't hold the camera that way for videos like I do for pictures.)

While I was writing this, Tamsin decided to empty her bookshelf. Here's a picture of her with the bookshelf in the background before, and some pictures of her sitting in a giant pile of books!

Tamsin buys a potty

We went shopping for a potty today. Here's Tamsin checking it out.

Tamsin and the Laundry Basket

Tamsin was having fun tonight pushing some toys around in the laundry basket. By the time I took this, she had already pushed it down the hall to the kitchen and then back again. She's doing so well with walking now! You'll see a little of it here.