Feliz Cumpleanos Teag!

Today is Teag's birthday, hurray!  Unfortunately, he is celebrating it by himself in Morelia Mexico, and won't be home until late.  But all the same, the girls and I want to wish you a super happy birthday!  We love you so much, and hope you have a great day relaxing under the Mexican sun!  We couldn't ask for a better dad, you're the best!

Love,
Ree & The Squirrels

Dany Vocabulary

As posted recently, Dany just turned three.  Despite her young age, one of her strengths is communication; she can express herself very well, and uses often-impressive vocabulary to do so.  Even still, she frequently struggles with some of the more tricky pronunciations of things.  Or maybe she just puts her own stamp on them.  Here's a list of some of the most recent (and most entertaining) ones:

Noor Dobs (door knobs)
Optagon (Octagon)
Polka Ducks (polka dots)
Bitar (guitar)
Percules (Hercules)
Quarter (Porter, a little boy in our ward)
Mexi-go (Where Dad went this week)
Calapittar (self-explanatory)
Keppitch (an older favorite)


I love listening for what will come out of her mouth next.  I especially like to hear her try and pronounce "accidentally", and "actually".  And when you ask her to do you a favor, she says "Oh sure!"

Such a big girl.  To borrow a phrase one of my friends wrote to me in an email, "(s)he's growing up faster than I gave her permission."  Thanks Sarah, that sums it up perfectly.

The Best Age

Rory is at one of my favorite ages.  She's so smiley and chubby and cuddly, it's the best.  And she's too little to be willful or defiant, or even really senselessly whiny.  Too little to get into things and make messes.  It's fantastic.  I've been snapping pictures of her like crazy, with all her funny little moments.

After she was released from the hospital, Rory was on oxygen for a few more days at home.  But she didn't let that phase her, she mostly took it in stride.

 

And if her rings weren't handy to chew on, she improvised.

 

But we were so happy to finally take that canula off, and say so long to the oxygen.

 

Rory loves to spend time with her sisters, they can usually get the best giggles out of her.

 

And Maisie has been teaching her how to play chess.  We think she's a prodigy :) 

 

The rest of these are just ridiculously cute pics.  I tell ya, I love this age.

 

  

  

  

And the last one is because I love how babies will always grab onto your fingers and hold tight.  

 

So sweet.

Under the Sea...

Teag and I have been trying to create opportunities for our family to spend quality time together.  Sometimes it's just stuff we do at home, like having a "picnic" in front of the fireplace, but other times we go out for adventures.  A few weeks ago, we decided to go to the Living Planet Aquarium to let the girls see some sea creatures they'd never been able to see in real life before.

I don't think either Teag or I realized that the aquarium is just a "preview" right now.  As such, it didn't take us nearly as long to go through it as we thought it would, and there wasn't as much to see as we'd been hoping.  Still, it was pretty cool to see what was there.

 

The girls really like to see the jelly fish and the seahorses, but were quite fearful of the octopus, even though Teag and I thought it was pretty amazing.  One of the things they really liked was seeing "Nemo", or a clown fish.

 

And there's another one off to the left of the pic.

 

The aquarium has a few places where you can touch things, but it took some real convincing for our girls to agree to touch anything.  Finally Maisie touched the smaller, immobile things in the small tanks.

 

After she did, Dany decided she would touch the starfish too, at least.

 

But they both let Dad touch the other things instead.

 

Neither one of them wanted to get anywhere near the stingrays, even though you could pet them too.  Both kids kept a very safe distance.  Teag and I, however, wanted to make the most of this adventure, and both stuck our arms in to pet them.

Seriously weird.  It wasn't what I expected it to feel like at all.  It was pretty fun, and I think it was awesome to be able to see these things up close. 

I'd expected bigger animals truthfully, but I guess that's supposedly down the road.  All in all, the girls really seemed to like it, and have a good time.  An interesting way to fill a few hours.

Birthday Girls

For those of you who don't know, my two oldest daughters have birthdays within a week of each other.  When I was pregnant, I prayed that Danyn wouldn't be born on Maisie's birthday, so they could each have their own special day.  Now as time passes, I realize it's still pretty hard to ensure that they each get something fun, at least at this age.  Too many comparisons are drawn, as the remnants of the first birthday cake are still lingering by the time the second is baked.  But still, we try.

Maisie's birthday was first.  She turned six this year, our big six year old.  Seeing as how her "girly Lego's" were such a hit for Christmas, Teag and I decided to buy her some more.  Unfortunately, it doesn't really seem as though there are many Lego's made for girls, so we went with Pirates instead.  Instant hit.

 

  

Maisie also had a present that was shaped like a big cylinder, and Teag told her we'd bought oatmeal for her birthday.  Funnily enough, she didn't seem all that disappointed.  She was just mad that he'd ruined the surprise.  The "oatmeal" was actually TinkerToys.

 

Grandma and Grandpa Rogers came over to celebrate with us and shared Maisie's chosen birthday dinner of Roast Beef, mashed potatoes, and corn.  What six year old picks that?  Grandpa read stories with the girls while they waited for dinner to be ready.

Maisie was also excited to receive some Shrinky Dinks from Grandma and Grandpa, as you can see.

 

After dinner, we had Maisie's specially requested birthday cake.

Maisie talked for days about how great her birthday was.  The kids at school all made her birthdays cards, and she got to wear a birthday crown.  She got her favorite dinner, and presents she loved; it was a good day.

Six days later, it was Dany's turn.  Dany had requested a pink cake, and my mom had given me the idea of doing a carousel.  Dany wanted to help me make it, but I wanted it to be a surprise, so we settled for letting her help me with the cake part.  I have an especially cute video of it, but it won't post.  Not sure why.

 

For her special birthday dinner, Dany requested pizza, breadsticks, and broccoli.  Yes, broccoli.  I must be doing something right.  Once again, Grandma and Grandpa Rogers came over to celebrate.  Dany got a Magnadoodle from them which she played with right away.

 

As well as some Playdoh stuff.

 

But the best part came when she opened one of the two Leapster games we got her, only to have her get an unhappy look on her face and say, "I don't like Wall-E".

 

Gotta love hearing that as a parent.  But she's warmed up to the game quite a bit in the subsequent days.  Then we brought out her special cake.

 

And celebrated our second daughter turning three.  

 

Unfortunately, Dany got diagnosed with strep throat the day before, so she was pretty mellow for the whole celebration.  Sick on her birthday, two years in a row!  But she was in good spirits and had a good time.  I think she played with her Playdoh for a good hour after she ate her cake.

Happy birthday to both my beautiful girls!