My Name Is Now Mom

TerraDactyl has discovered the joys of throwing things away.  She LOVES to throw things away.  I have to keep the toilet paper up on the counter and out of her reach or she will throw it all away, one square at a time.  She is displaying a little confusion on the difference between "trash" and "recycle" though.  She likes using both bins.  But once she decides which bin she wants to put an object into, it's hard to convince her to use the other bin.   And I definitely have to keep the wet wipes out of reach.  A couple times, she's managed to get a hold of them and empty the whole container out into the trash can.  Fortunately, it usually a fresh trash bag, so I still end up using them.  It's just a little more frustrating pulling them out of the package once they're crumpled.   As you can see from these pictures, TerraDactyl is also enamored with the compost bin.  If I leave the cabinet door un-baby-proofed, it's a toss up...

TerraDactyl has lately been showing an inordinate amount of interest in diapers lately.  She likes playing with them and pretending to put them on her dolls and stuffed animals.  I'm hoping this is step one in potty training.   She can reach the top of the changing table, so she'll just snag a diaper and go about her make-believe business.  I've been letting her because she's actually pretty reasonable about it.  Once she's got a diaper to play with, she doesn't keep going back for more.  And really, a 20 cent toy that occupies her for half an hour?  And it's not even ruined at the end?  Definitely worth it.  :) I especially like the elaborate set up in this photo.  TerraDactyl has a diaper on her right side, and wipes on her left side, and Fancy Nancy up on her "changing table" getting wiped clean.  Now WIPES, those I DO try to keep out of TerraDactyl's reach.  She LOVES emptying out an entire case of wipes.  So for ...

Lately, TerraDactyl has been loving books with interjections.  So she likes the Berenstain's B Book because there's a BAM!  And she likes the Cat in the Hat because there's a Bump!  And she REALLY likes Mother Bruce because he ROARS!  Sometimes, she'll just have me read until Bruce roars and then she'll giggle and then we'll switch books.   TerraDactyl also really likes her new water bottles.  A LOT.  She was so excited when she noticed all the cats and dogs on one of the bottles she had to go through and kiss every one of them.   But even if she loves the cats & dogs, she also loves the DJ skunk water bottle.  And she surprised the heck out of DH and I when she recognized the phrase "DJ skunks" and knew exactly what we were talking about.  We thought we were being discreet and not drawing her attention to the water bottle.  :) This amazingly intense hugging thing is something TerraDactyl does all the time now....

 Not long after Christmas we came home to an owl just hanging out on our fence.  There's no flash in this picture, so you can see it's not even that dark out.  He was a super chill owl, too.  He let DH get within like 10 feet to take this picture.  Although, his head was swiveling about the whole time. A while ago, DH and I put locks on our kitchen cabinets to keep TerraDactyl from getting into them and breaking things/making messes.  TerraDactyl has a pretty good handle on what she's allowed to do now, so sometimes I don't latch the cabinet locks immediately after opening a cabinet.  The other day, TerraDactyl took the lock off a cabinet and slipped it around her neck to wear like a necklace.  It actually took some convincing for her to let me take it off her neck. I adore this raincoat.  It's just so cute!  The other day, TerraDactyl insisted on wearing it around the house.  She didn't even ask to go outside, she just wanted to be...

It's all about mommy's clothes!   TerraDactyl remembers exactly which drawer mommy keeps her T-shirts in, and will go straight to it and start playing dress up.  I actually ended up moving some of my shirts just because I got tired of re-folding them all the time.  But I did leave a few just for TerraDactyl to play with.   Usually, she hands the shirts to me and asks me to put them on for her.  But she actually got this shirt on by herself (mostly).   She's also super excited about opening the doors to my dresser and finding more clothes inside.  Check out those curls!  the back of her hair is getting pretty long.  The front, too.  Her bangs are getting to the point where they need another trim.     I tried out another recipe the other day, Earl Grey Yogurt Cake .  It was really good.  Although I didn't really think about the caffeine content when I ate a slice after dinner.  Thankfully, it didn't ...

TerraDactyl is much more interested in presents this year.  It took us a while to convince her it was OK to tear the wrapping paper, but once she got the hang of it, TerraDactyl wanted to open ALL the presents. Initially, she was interested in the presents, but eventually it seemed like she just wanted to unwrap things.  Open one present and move on to the next.  Repeat. Part of her lack of excitement was probably due to the fact that she was opening presents for grown-ups, so they're just not that interesting for kids.  But she sure did like opening them up.  And even playing with the empty boxes.   She also really enjoys making messes, so I'm sure that added to the excitement for her as well.  :) She did like her presents though.  Here she is running over to me so I could read her new book.  Well, the first few pages anyways.  We don't always read entire books during the day because TerraDactyl gets distracted.  But she usual...

Remember that Queen song, We Will Rock You ?  There's that line: "You got mud on your face, you big disgrace"?  Well, TerraDactyl and I should have made our own music video for it.  We went out for a walk, but only made it down the hill to our neighbor's driveway.  They had the most amazing mud puddle, and TerraDactyl spent 10 minutes just running from one end of the puddle to the other.  I took some video, but unfortunately, I missed the amazing face plant.  She must have had her mouth open when she fell, because when she pushed her face up to start crying, her mouth was FULL of mud.  This picture above is after I took her coat off and used the inside to wipe out her mouth as well as wipe off her face. So, after a quick clean up, I picked TerraDactyl up and we hoofed it up the hill to our house, where I intended to go straight to the bath with her.  But when I set TerraDactyl down to open up the gate, she ran over to the front porch and started ...