Tannis Talking

Yesterday, while in the bath, Tannis started saying her own name. It's very cute to hear her say "Tannis" in her baby voice when you ask her what her name is. (She pronounces it pretty well! Brad still pronounces his name "Bad.") She's also putting 2 words together now (yesterday when we had her on the potty trying to toilet train her, she motioned for us to go away and said "private time" then "close door!")

She also seems to talking a lot more now that she doesn't have her pacifier anymore. It's only been 10 days since we took it away completely... but she went from having it in her mouth almost constantly to not having it at all. We used to think it helped her sleep at night (she had such sleep problems) but I actually think she sleeps better without it because she doesn't wake up at night when it falls out of her mouth).

Volume Works

When Tannis wants something and doesn't get it, she asks for it again, just LOUDER. For example, she likes talking on the phone, and when I'm on the phone, she reaches for it and says, "Phone." If I reply, "Not right now," she demands, "PHONE!" If I say again, "No, not now," she'll scream, "PHOOOOONNNNEEEE!!!!!!" She usually gets her way.

Brad is 4!

Brad turned 4 years old today and we had a big party with nearly 40 people (both adults and kids). He has been talking about his birthday party for about 6 months so was pretty excited. Earlier this week, I took him to the grocery store to look through a cake catalog (with dozens of kids cakes) to pick out the one he wanted... I was sure he'd pick a Spiderman cake (he loves Superheroes and insists he is one) but he picked out a Power Rangers cake instead.

Last year, when he turned 3 years old, and the kids finished singing "Happy Birthday" at his party, another boy blew out his candles and Brad was traumatized (the video shows him howling, "Oh NOOOOOO!!!!" Grandma then quickly relit them so he could blow them out himself.) He's been talking about this for a YEAR now (still saying, "Remember at my 3-year-old birthday party when someone else blew my candles out?!")... for him, it was probably the most traumatic event of his life! So this year, his biggest nightmare almost happened again. When he began to blow out his candles, another boy standing next to him bent down and blew them out too. (We have video of Brad reaching out to stop him and saying sternly, "Do not blow my candles out!") I think the boy might have blown some of the candles out, but we convinced Brad that he stopped him "JUST IN TIME!" so all is well...

Tannis Turns Two!

Tannis turned two years old today and we celebrated with a backyard birthday party... we had 22 people over and kept the kids busy with a wading pool in the backyard and a slip-and-slide. Tannis had fun although I'm not sure she really understood that this day was all about HER. We got her a cake that had a centerpiece on it of Barbie riding a pegasus (Tannis loves horses) and she carried that centerpiece around with her for the rest of the day.

Brad was surprisingly un-jealous about her getting all the presents (we kept reminding him that his birthday was coming up next week) and allowed her to open them by herself at first... then started trying to "help her" and of course, wanted to play with all her new toys too!

We also took her soother (Canadian for pacifier) away from her today... the pediatrician told us she should give it up at 2 years old... so we went cold turkey. I hid them all (from Colin too who loves to pop it in her mouth when she cries!) so the soother-addict is no more. (I'll have to say I'll miss how she always liked the soother handle turned up so it was resting under her nose.)

Scary Dreams...

Two or three times a week, Brad wakes up in the middle of the night and comes into our room telling us he had a bad dream. (We then put him in our bed or I go to lie down in his bed with him.) Last night, this happened, and this morning he said his bad dream was that he had horns instead of ears... not the kind of horns that bulls have, but the kind of horns that cars have!

Passing It

Colin was driving today with Brad in the car, and he was looking for a store. Colin said, "I think I passed it," to which Brad replied, "Yes, you did!" Colin kept driving, looking for the store, and a few minutes later, said, "Yes, I passed it!" Brad replied, "Yay Daddy! You passed it! You shoot, you score!" (Referring to hockey!)