Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

... from your truant friends here at Squeaker central. Squeaker and I have had a nice week with her grandparents and great grandparents. Her favorite song "1234" has been replaced by Jingle Bells. She needs some prompting here and there, but does a pretty good rendition.

Sorry for the short and late post. We'll resume a normal schedule next week.

Cookie Dough and Grammy's House

Thanks for coming back for this late post. Squeaker and I arrived at Grammy's house on Saturday. Granddad and I piled into the car and headed north through the rain, sleet, snow, and cold to watch a basketball game. For the record, the Keydets won this round. Squeaker was a little upset that she didn't get to go, but given the amount of yelling (by both of us), she's probably better off not to have been there. She was a little nervous with the Daddy Person gone, so Blankie stayed with her most of the time. Squeaker tried hard at bedtime to convince Grammy that it wasn't time to goto bed. When Squeaker realized she wasn't going to win the argument. She said "Grammy go. And close the door." So she did.

Brite will tell the story of the Cookie Dough...

One of our new neighbors invited Squeaker and I over to make Christmas cookies this week. Squeaker is a fan of cookies, but she also really likes these neighbors and we have never been to their house. She likes their doggies and they have a beautiful horse which came to visit us at our house once. We mixed up all the cookie dough and she let Squeaker lick a little batter.
When my little friend pleaded for more, I explained that we shouldn't really eat the dough. I told her she would like the baked cookies much better, so she would have to be patient. Squeaker was sitting on the counter, so the doggies wouldn't lick her face and so she could help cut out the cookies. We gave Squeaker a cookie cutter so she could out some stars. Instead of using the cookie cutter, she bent over and did a face plant into the dough. She happily raised her flour covered face while she was chewing the bite she had taken out of the dough. Needless to say, I was extremely embarrassed! Our neighbor chuckled and after I cleaned off Squeaker's face, she promised not to do that again. It was great fun, and Squeaker thought the baked cookies were quite yummy.

Have a good week everyone.

Coloring and a Cold

Squeaker seems to be fight off another cold now. She's been cute this weekend though, cute but really out of it most of the time. Aunte Brite got some good video of them coloring together.



Bedtime Friends Watch

This week her bedtime friends have been Elena, Grammy, and Granddad. We're not sure, but we think she's getting excited about her Christmas travels. One afternoon after nap time should have started she had built a hill out of Blankie and Elena was climbing it to find four-leaf clovers (an idea she pilfered from a Pooh book).

The 97th Post!

Rather than celebrate the 100th blog post, the Daddy Person had decided to mark the 97th post instead. Squeaker marked the occasion by being a tough girl. She was running on the sidewalk and slid. Her tights got the worst of it. She has had a busy week adjusting to being home and not being surrounded by doting grandparents and great-grandparents, aunt and uncles. We have spent much of this week working with her on that most difficult of lessons, doing what we're told the first (or second time for that matter). When not working on that Squeaker has been practicing with being very sweet. I asked her if she wanted to get a present for Aunte Brite. With out missing a beat, she said "Yes a turtle and a alligator for daddy." Don't worry Brite, I'll keep pushing for a sweater.

Story of the Week

One of the first things she and Aunte Brite did was visit her fan club at the library. On the way home, Brite overheard Squeaker saying slowly and carefully, "When we get home we will probably read books." Silence from the front of the car. "When we get home we will possibly read books."

Bedtime Friends

No new aliases this week, but in order to throw off our investigators, Squeaker bedtime friends have been cycling through many of the old ones. Most notably, after a long hiatus, Clifford has been masqurading as Dr. Mugwort.

Squeaker and I have been visiting her grandparents this week. Saturday we arrived at my parents house at nap time. It seemed like it I would get a lot of resistance (on many fronts) to putting her to bed right away, so I let her play a while. She was pretty punchy when I put her to bed. Even so, I was a little surprised then when she asked me to kiss her foot. The Daddy person loves Squeaker and all, but she's been walking on that foot for a long time, and you have do draw the line someplace, so I said no. Besides, its really hard to kiss her for when I am already wrapped around her little finger.

She does not have any aversion to kissing her feet though. In case you've forgotten how flexible little people are, she had no trouble pulling her foot up to her face and kissing it. Just in case her foot didn't know it was loved at that point. She also pulled it up by her head and gave it a couple of big hugs.
During breakfast on Saturday these two numbers were up on the table. Squeaker had finished her eggs and was down playing. She waked up to the '4' and deliberately ran her fingers along the letters and said 'four'. We were all flabbergasted. Oblivious to the gasps, Squeaker puttered around a bit then came back to the table, ran her fingers along the letters "t-w-0" and said 'six'.

Story of the Week

Squeaker and Brite were running errands last week when...

Squeaker: Look Aunt Brite! There is a little white doggie over there. I will get to pet it sometime?
Brite: Sweetie, I don't know that lady and her doggie, so I don't think so. I think you will get to see some doggies this week, though.
S: My get to go to Grammy's house! There will be doggies there! She has lot of doggies. Dorey and Freckles and Heidi and Freckles and Dorey.
B: Well, maybe you can pet them.
S: Aunt Brite, I can't pet Dorey.
B: Why not?
S: Dorey gets frustrated about me sometimes. I can pet Heidi. She is nice.
For the record that Daddy person thinks it is inconceivable that Squeaker used 'frustrated' in a sentence. Furthermore, I do not think it means what she thinks it means.
A little later on in the trip the her thoughts moved on to other adventures.
S: Aunt Brite, my will go to fish like Connor. Daddy will show me. My will fish all by myself, too. My will obey Daddy when we fishing.

Bedtime Friends Watch

We were away from most of our bedtime friends this week. We got home from Thanksgiving dinner with some of the Daddy person's friends last night and Squeaker was very glad to see Ducky and Froggy. Ducky was quickly renamed Baby Linda, at which point I couldn't resist asking if Froggy was "Mr. Nelson"....

Squeaker's Entourage

Since Squeaker has had her first real cold this week she hasn't been very photogenic, so I don't have a great picture of her as I promised. We have mentioned recently that Squeaker has been in the habit of renaming her bedtime friends, sometimes weekly, sometimes daily. Sometimes they are named after people we have seen, sometimes after characters her library books. The editors have decided add another weekly feature. In addition to the story of the week, we will also let you know what roles her bedtime friends have been playing this week.

Hope Bunny, AKA Hopa - Past Aliases: Gramie, Rachel, Mrs. Rayome, Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Arllen, Froggy's Mom, Nurse Laura, Elizabeth's Mommy

Ducky - Past Aliases: Jake, Kamile, Mr. Arllen

Froggy - Past Aliases: Granddad, Libbie, Jacob, Eliot, Froggy, Dr. Morita

Clifford - Past Aliases: Elena, Baby Sidney, Elizabeth, Dr. Mugwort

Squeaker has a new favorite song, her previous favorites include "Cows", "Advarks", and "I like blue lemurs". Her new favorite comes from a recent episode of Sesame Street: Feist's 1, 2, 3, 4. Play at your own risk, especially if you have a tendency for songs to get stuck your head. The editors of Squeakerpants.com are not responsible for what may happen if you show this video to a toddler, though Squeaker seems to really get the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 now. If your child becomes truly obsessed, you can find a couple of mp3 versions out there too . Aside from some counting, this song has inspired a lot more singing. Squeaker sings now, often, out of tune, and mostly original compositions. Tonight she sang that all time favorite, the 'some' song, "Some, somey, somey, some, SOME", instead of eating her last piece of chicken.

Story of the Week - Squeaker provided more than half of the past aliases of her bedtime friends. Put another way while we were cataloging them during dinner. Not surprisingly, she knew as many as the Daddy person and Aunte Brite combined.

Basketball not Ball Ball

Squeaker and I have both been sick this week. She seems to be over her cold. The Daddy person is still working on getting rid of it. We went to our first basketball game of the season today. One of the Daddy person's colleges beat another of his colleges. I thought of course of going to 'ball ball' games with her last winter. Then she kept staring at the jumbo-tron, pointed at lot and periodically said 'ball ball'. Now from our seats in the rafters, she asks me, "What that blue thing?". Since one of these schools has blue as a color, there were lots of blue things, "That's the out of bounds line. No. Scoreboard? No. The mascot! Yes". She liked sitting in her seat and spent most of the first half eating the provisions I had brought along. We spent halftime wandering the arena together watching the 'bimp'. She sat peacefully on my lap during the second half. So peacefully that I realized she had fallen asleep. She slept until the final minute, despite a very noisy crowd.

In blog posts long ago I made the joke that Squeaker would sign please when she wanted a book read to her, because it seemed like she was memorizing them. Brite wanted me to mention that the last phase of reading Squeaker a book is that she sits on the floor and reviews each page, doing her best to retell the story.

Story of the Week
Brite: Squeaker are you awake?
Squeaker: Yes. (softly and curled up on her pillow) There was a 'pider on my pink blanket.
B: There was a what?
S: A 'PIDER was on my pink blanket over there.
B: What did you do?
S: My pulled my legs up, up, up.
B: How did you feel about there being a spider in your bed?
S: My pulled my legs up.
The next day (after Squeaker's linens had been laundered), Squeaker got a wooden spider from one of her puzzles and hid it under her bed.
S: (giggling) There is a 'pider under my bed. Find it Brite!

That's all for this week. I didn't take any pictures, so I don't have any new ones to post this evening. I'll get some good ones this week.

Better Bedtime

Sorry for the late post. The Daddy person went to bed early last night and forgot to blog first. That said, it has been a quiet week for Squeaker. The bedtime troll apparently got sold off with the rest of the Halloween costumes. Bedtime is still a little drawn out but is far less acrimonious, mainly because Squeaker has changed tactics. When I put her to be last night, we had the usual one more hug and one more kiss. As I headed for the door, she launched herself from the bed, not as a monster but to get one more sweet hug. The daddy person finds it very hard maintain a maximum of three goodnight hugs under such circumstances. Have a good week.

Scary Creatures and Halloween

Squeaker had fun at Halloween. She's busy introducing herself to a terrified kitten who shortly thereafter swore off catnip. She also made the rounds hunting candy with a couple of dragons. In the interest of full disclosure, the spooky season has brought out Squeaker's inner demon.

Bedtime has become a bit trying recently. Aunt Brite and the Daddy person have allowed requests for extra goodnight kisses and hugs to prolong the bedtime routine. Squeaker has become ever more demanding in the pursuit of a few more minutes of bedtime. This week we drew a line in the sand.

I spent some time this afternoon searching the internet for all manner of female imps and demons from ancient mythology but I was unsuccessful in finding one that accurately depicted the bedtime monster. The best representation I can find is from the penultimate scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Specifically, I am thinking of that beautiful apparition who smiles sweetly before turning into a shrieking zombie that helps consumes the bad guys in holy fire.

When I put Squeaker in bed last night, I succumbed to a couple of reasonable requests for kisses, and then made it plain that I was leaving. She launched from her bed to the middle of a room, flexed like bodybuilder in the throws 'roid rage, and screamed for 'one more kiss'. I put her back in bed, got her calmed down and said goodnight. Whereupon the scene repeated itself and I left the demon shrieking in her bedroom. Shortly thereafter she went to sleep. Squeaker either doesn't remember the demon or doesn't hold a grudge. She woke up this morning all sweet and nice.

Having been away most of this week teaching, Brite wanted me to point point out, without a trace of bitterness, that the demon has been around all week and didn't just arrive with Halloween. Also, in the interest of not leaving our readers thunderstruck by the horror of this revelation, Aunt Brite has suggested that I finish with a few more pictures of Squeaker and her friends.

Crow Tastes Really Good With Salt

Last week I spent a little bit of time talking about Squeaker's sleeping habits. In particular I mentioned that "Inexplicably it still doesn't occur to her that with the sides down, there really isn't anything keeping her in bed." I wrote that on Sunday night. Well... No, no, let me start at the beginning.

We lowered the side on the crib at my parent's house, but she still had somewhat of a barrier between her and the outside world. The next time she slept in her bed was Tuesday afternoon. We got back a home a couple of hours after nap time. The late start did not dissuade her from chatting with her friends. She finally fell asleep after 5 pm. Since she needed to have dinner and some awake time before she went to bed at 8, Uncle Mack and I went up to get her out of bed. She was sound asleep. Waking her up is an unusual experience. To say that we almost always let her wake up on her own would give you the impression that occasionally we wake her up.I don't recall the last time I woke her up, so I was surprised when Uncle Mack and I stomped into the room and she didn't wake up. We talked to her. Not a muscle twitched. Uncle Mack and I realized together that something was amiss. We also thought it was a little funny that she was scrunched up on the left side of the bed. Her head was resting on Hopa and her feet were on the rail. The bed is maybe two and a half feet wide. Squeaker is every bit of three feet tall, so it wasn't a very comfortable position. I thought about getting the camera at that point, just because it was such a funny position. I decided that even bounced off the ceiling a flash going off in your eyes would be a rough way to get up. I did get the camera upstairs before she got out of bed, but first we called Aunt Brite. I yelled downstairs (which also didn't wake Squeaker up) and told her she had to come upstairs too. When Brite came into the room, I asked how many books she had let Squeaker take to bed. The answer was three. That would be the pile on the left. Squeaker apparently got bored with those three books, because we found her with those three on the left and that pile on the right too. We don't know if she brought them all at once or piecemeal, but Squeaker carried all those books with her into her bed. If you look back a the first picture, you can see that she was actually sleeping on a couple of them. She actually hasn't gotten out of bed since then, or at least she's figure out not to make is so obvious. We've started cataloging the books that go into bed with her to make sure that she isn't working a bait and switch on us.

We enjoyed our visit to the zoo on Monday. I took a few pictures, but most of them framed a wild animal between my parents and Squeaker's head. Artsy, but not that interesting. She did make friends with this bronze panda while we were there. We saw elephants, seals, a cheetah, zebras (penned next to the cheetah, which is just wrong), small and large hippos, pandas, and a very bad orangutang. I will let Squeaker tell her about her.

Story of the Week

S: 'Rangutang up on wire.
D: What did the Orangutang do when it was on the wire.
S: 'Rangutang almost pee peed on Granddaddy.

Tour de Grandparents

Squeaker and I have been riding the grandparents circuit this week. Rain kept us indoors for much of the first leg of the trip, but things cleared up nicely for the weekend. Squeaker and her Aunt are pictured here next to a memorial for her mother. It was dedicated this morning by Grammy and Granddad's church. Squeaker carefully smelled all the flowers.

While we have been traveling, the Daddy person has had some trouble getting naps to happen exactly at nap time. The one day I actually got her down on time she sat in her bed and chatted away for three hours. Inexplicably it still doesn't occur to her that with the sides down, there really isn't anything keeping her in bed. Most of the rest of the trip her naps have been both later and shorter than usual. This pattern has given me an extra opportunity to observe her when she tired.
I have come to the conclusion that Squeaker is pretty funny when she's punch drunk. While I was putting her to bed tonight (40 minute nap in the car, half of which was in my parents driveway) Squeaker started playing Brite's rhyming game, somewhat with me but mostly with herself. She got the easy ones like "Daddy waddy" I got "fireplace". Go ahead rhyme "fireplace". When she's tired now, she gets really chatty, chatty enough that I have a hard time keeping a straight face during bedtime. We went to the playground this afternoon. This week's sentence of the week is a single word. Between the last two pictures, she said 'backwards'. We are headed to the Zoo tomorrow. If I get some good pictures, I will post them when we get home. Have a good week.

More Story Time with Squeaker

Stories of the Week

This week I think I am going to let Squeaker speak for herself, so I have two stories of the week for you.

Squeaker believes in having a personal relationship with her Librarian, a nice man named Ron. He spoke to Squeaker and Brite the first time they went to the library and is almost always there when they visit.

On the way to the library Squeaker says, "We go li-brary today."
Brite: "Yes Squeaker."
S: "We take back old books get new books."
B: "We'll be there in a little bit."
S: "See Ron at library Brite?"
B: "Maybe. I don't know if he's working today."
S: "Ron. He's good man. Squeaker's friend."
Brite giggles: "Ron seems like a good man."
S: "Umm. Yeah. He takes care my old books, when I get new ones."
Brite chuckles at the thought of the Squeaker-centric universe. Sadly for all involved, Ron was off that day.

Squeaker has been learning the ABC song. She sang the parts she new at dinner with Brite, the Daddy person, and Uncle Mack. The Daddy person corrected a couple of her mistakes. Brite looked at Squeaker and said: "Tell Daddy how old you are Squeaker". Squeaker's answer was "I am two." Brite glared at the Daddy person and said, "Why don't Daddy and Uncle Mack sing you the ABC song?" After some joking they seemed to agree. However, only the Daddy person was 'singing', and he did so deliberately off key and without rhythm. At about 'H', Squeaker looks at the silent Uncle Mack, and says, "Uh Oh, Uncle Mack forgot it". Much laughter ensued at Uncle Mack's expense.

That's all for this week.

PS - For the record, squeaker has kept renaming her cadre of friends, formerly know as Froggie, Ducky and Hopa. I will try and keep you informed of the changes, but for the moment I have lost track of who's name is what.

The Obstacle Course and Big Girl Bed

On Thursday Brite, went upstairs to get Squeaker after she had woken up from her nap. See picture number 1. Do you notice anything out of the ordinary? For several days we have found Hopa, Kamile, Baby James, formerly known as Jacob (sorry little guy) originally known as Froggie, blankie, and all her books on the floor. We didn't know if she was throwing them out so could sleep or if she was getting bored. Whatever the reason, they were on floor when Brite came in, with Squeaker asleep on top of them.
Brite managed to remain composed so she decided to take the Socratic approach with Squeaker.

Brite: What happened Squeaker?
Squeaker: I threw baby James out of bed.
B: Then what happened?
S: I threw Hopa and Kamile out.
B: What happened after that?
S: I threw blankies out of bed.
B: What did you do next?
S: I threw ALLLL my books out.
B: And then?
S: Go to sleep. (This is not the answer Brite is expecting.)
B: Where did you go to sleep?
S: On Hopa. (Brite loses her composure).
B: Were you in bed? (speaking slowly and clearly)

Squeaker looks around for the first time.

S: Umm. No. On floor.
B: Did you climb out of your bed?
S: Umm. Yeah.
B: Did you hurt yourself? Are you OK?
S: Got boo boo on my elbow, Brite.
B: Honey were you sad? Were you crying?
S: My say Brite. (with a smile)

After that the Daddy person was told what happened. He beamed for a while and it was decided that the crib needed to become a big girl bed. Squeaker enjoyed a reading to Hopa while the Daddy person took the side off her crib and replaced it with side rails. Since then she's been adapting to sleeping in her bed. In other news, the sandbox continues to be a big hit.

Thanks Uncle Mack

Last weekend when Squeaker went to the Steel children's museum, she was fascinated just playing in the sandbox. Aunte Brite and Uncle Mack thought about ushering her on to the other exhibits, but decided to let her stay where she was having fun. The sandbox turned out to be too much fun to leave. Even though she was warned that she had 'two more minutes', she had a small fit when it was time to leave. What stopped the fit was Uncle Mack explained that sandboxes were not indigenous to children's museums. So using a little extra lumber from the house and some sand, a fully formed sandbox sprung forth from the earth yesterday.

Sentence of the Week

"No Brite. Froggy named Jacob. Ducky named Kamile" I returned a phone call to some friends we had seen last spring. Squeaker listened and guessed who I was calling. I explained that it was our friends from out west and that she had seen them twice before. I recounted the details for her and showed her pictures of their visit. I was asked to repeat the story a number of times. I finally got her off topic with a visit to the children's museum. That afternoon she decided on her own that new names were in order for her friends. Hopa almost got renamed too, but the Daddy person and Aunte Brite didn't like that idea as much.

Have a good week.

Why Oh, Why Oh, Why Oh?

Squeaker, Brite and Uncle Mack are out of state this weekend, so the main event this week was a ten hour car trip. Squeaker barely slept but none the less the trip has gone well so far. The intrepid travelers are planning on going to a steel children's museum on the way back. There is a good chance that we'll be posting a trip report sometime this week, so check back around Thursday and see what Aunte Brite has to report. Meanwhile, enjoy Squeakers new favorite word game

Squeaker's Story of the Week

Squeaker: Say piglet brite.
Brite: Piglet.
(Brite laughs, Squeaker does not.)
S: No Brite rhyme. Go for it Brite!
B: Piglet wiglet.
S: Say sample.
B: Sample ample.
S: Say polar bear.
B: Polar bare snare.

Later daddy jumped in and got
S: Say watermellon daddy.
(long pause as the Daddy person runs for a thesaurus)
D: Watermellon fellon

Have a good week.

Happy Birthday Squeaker

That's right readers, Squeaker is the big 2. We've had a busy weekend, and the Daddy person has been fighting a cold, so I don't have much in the way of stories for you. These pictures I think tell a pretty good tail by themselves. No my spelling isn't that bad, I'm talking about the special pancakes. Regular features will resume next week.

A Necessary Life Skill?

Story of the Week

"Corn Please" Its too hot, so Brite makes her wait. While she waits she says to herself, "This corn Squeakers. Nobody else eat." Brite finally gives her her ear of corn and there isn't any sound other than eating for a couple of minutes. No sounds until, the Daddy person and Uncle Mack both reach for ears of corn from the serving dish. Then without missing a beat, "This Squeakers corn, nobody else eat it". Brite has asked that the record reflect that such pronouncements are never made when just the two of them are eating. They tend to occur whenever the Daddy person is at the table, and especially when Daddy, Uncle Mack and one of Squeaker's favorite foods are being served. The Daddy person would like the record to reflect that thing are not as in ages past. Very little food is removed from Squeaker tray. Instead she's clearly watched her seconds disappear from the serving dish one too many times. She's been concerned about this pattern for a while. The last couple of months she's often asked for more of her favorite foods, even with a full tray. These requests tended to occur when the Daddy person reaches for the serving spoon.

Pony Tails and ...

We have had a busy week here at Squeaker central. The Daddy person goes back to teaching tomorrow (yes, on Labor Day). So there has been lots of reading books and getting ready for classes. I am going to let Squeaker speak for herself this week, in her own words an on the video. Without further ado, then here are our "Sentences of the Week". The committee could not decide between our two nominees, so we're going with both. First one of Squeaker's contributions to our dinner conversation, "Uncle Mack having milk. Brite having water. Daddy having water. (pause to self correct) Gatorade. Daddy having Gatorade." Second, from a car ride later in the week, Squeaker had been playing with her penguin, Pablo, a new member of the family. He apparently got in trouble because Brite overheard her saying "Look at eyes Pablo. No! No! no run in road. Cars ... hurt, boo boo Pablo. Terrible boo boo. (Brite then spoke up for Pablo, saying that he had been a good boy, which Squeaker acknowledged and corrected) Good penguin."

Enjoy the video, too.

Sentence of the Week

The Daddy person is starting to think that we may need to rename this feature. The committee is open to suggestions, but right now "Squeaker's Story of the Week" is at the top of the list.

Squeaker has a minor
obsession with "Neigh Neighs". Whenever we are out driving through any kind of country road, she starts to call for them and if we actually see one, she wants to see them again. Needless to say we ty anything to distract her from saying "Neigh neigh neigh" over and over. One day, I told her that when Daddy and I were little kids we rode horses at our Grandfather's farm. We told her the names we remembered. She latched onto this story and has asked me to tell her about "Brite's neigh neigh" and "Daddy's neigh neigh" several more times.

At breakfast, after at least a few weeks without her asking about this story. She says "Brite had horse named Star. Daddy horse had named (then corrected herself) Daddy had horse named Sugarfoot. Uncle Will had horse named Flash. Momzie horse had named (self-corrected again) Momzie had horse named Ginger."

She was trying so hard to tell the story like I do that she actually used the word horse. I've only heard her use horse once or twice because she just loves saying Neigh Neigh. Since we first told her about the horses, we have realized that some of the names are associated with the wrong people. For example the Daddy person's horse was Mandy, we think. We're not sure how Squeaker will take it when we tell he we got the story wrong, so we're waiting until she's old enough to read the blog to find out.

Have a good week.

How not to get your picture taken...

Squeaker has had a busy week. We made a day trip to spend some time with family this week. I tried to get a picture of her playing with her aunt's sunglasses, but between her desire to run around and see the pictures and the slow shutter speed on my phone, it was a hard picture to get. I'll let you decide if I succeeded or not.

Squeaker also got a visit at home from one of her great aunts (sorry, Corky made me) and a doctor. In case you are curious, yes she did want to play "baby Dr. Whitman", which worked out well since our friend was on her pediatric rotation.

The Sentence of the Week

... will follow tomorrow morning. I need to confer one more time with the committee.

Breakfast with Squeaker

I am starting this week with the...

Sentence of the Week

"Pancakes! Pancakes! Eat those! Eat them! Ready? Ready?" We've been on the road a lot this summer, so Squeaker and I haven't had pancakes for breakfast in a while. When we got her up this morning, I announced that we were having pancakes. As was our habit, I set her up in her high chair so that she could watch me cooking. She seemed happy with the idea of pancakes, but once they started to take form on the griddle, the words started pouring out. The daddy person just couldn't seem to cook them fast enough for her. I think what she said says it all.

While we're on the subject of breakfast, there have been some changes over the last month. As I mentioned before in this blog, Squeaker had oatmeal for breakfast every day. Most of the time we put applesauce and cinnamon in the oatmeal. Sometimes we made it with bananas or banana baby food. If we didn't have milk then we would use baby yogurt. For most of the last year, oatmeal of some flavor was what Squeaker had for breakfast.

As an aside, I like Aaron Copland's Hoe Down playing as the soundtrack for this commercial, too. "Oatmeal, its what for breakfast!" Anyway, back to the story....

Squeaker finally revolted against oatmeal a few weeks ago. I wasn't there for the uprising, but since then Squeaker has been having scrambled eggs most mornings for breakfast. She seems to have adjusted to variety. That's all the news that's fit to print.

Zoo

Ainsley and I went to the Zoo this weekend. I didn't get any good pictures of her, because well, it was a zoo. She had a great time. When we told her where we were going the night before, she reeled off a list of animals she wanted to see "bears, elpants, toucans, 'raphs, tigers, sea otters" and many others. We did a pretty good job of seeing the animals on her list and many more. I also tried again, twice this week, to get a good video of her playing in bed before nap time. I failed again, the first time because of technical difficulties and the second time because she wasn't cute about going to sleep and complained the whole time.

Sentence of the Week

"Elvis come new house?" This weeks sentence is shorter than usual, but I shocked the heck out of the Daddy person. We were driving back from the zoo and I was playing some classic rock (Squeaker likes it). Elvis came on and so I introduced them. Squeakers reaction was that I should invite him over for a play date. What I didn't know was that Brite had heard one of her friends speaking on the radio this week. Brite had discussed inviting her friend over to play. Needless to say without the back story I was confused how Squeaker had gotten the idea to invite Elvis over to dinner. Well, a one for the money...

Guest Posts Revealed!

Aunt Brite came through in a big way. We have lots of stories from the last few weeks and pictures too. Without further ado, I leave you in her hands.


Several months ago I signed up to teach Vacation Bible School. I really enjoy teaching young kids and many of the expected attendees where ones I already have a relationship with through teaching Sunday school. As the time grew closer however, Squeaker entered into a stage of separation anxiety. Instead of being excited to go play in the nursery during the sermon at church, she sobbed and cried when I left her. This happened for the three Sundays heading into VBS. Needless to say, I was
very concerned about leaving her for 2 1/2 hours. Not only for her, but for the poor person holding her! We had many "baby conversations" about it and and she would always say, "church, sing Jesus, play nursery, Brite come back", and yet I was still apprehensive. A very sweet friend of ours came to help in the nursery specifically to help with Squeaker and that certainly alleviated some of my anxiety.

The morning arrived and she cried as usual and she held on very tight to me. We decided it would be nice for her to have something familiar, so she held Little Froggy as I walked out the door. Her loud sobs echoing down the hall after me. It was a really challenging moment for me, because I just wanted to run back in and comfort her. But it is more important for her to learn that other people can comfort her. My sweet friend slipped a note under my door about a half hour alter saying, she stopped crying almost immediately!. Every day following got better and better. When I came to pick her up on Wednesday, I said "Were you sad today?" And she smiled and said. "No sad, Happy!" One of the most important aspects of this change was these two young girls, Rachel & Libby, in the picture above. She very quickly learned their names and wanted to have them over for lunch. I am so grateful for their willingness to give up some of their summer to help this little one.


This past week, Squeaker and another friend of ours went to the County fair. We watched a pet parade where these little kids competed for the cutest pet. She really liked the little girl and dog wearing matching tutus! She went on the moon bounce for the first time. She wnet in with several little girls she didn't know and mostly watched them bounce. She stood up a couple times and then tried to bounce. After about 2 minutes she said. "Brite, out please. All done" (The picture above was taken right after she got out.) She adored seeing all the animals. She came home and kept talking about the moo moos, neigh neighs, sheep, pigs and most of all the llamas. It is so neat to watch her excitement over seeing them up close instead of just in books. She was so tired when she got home, but we still needed to eat a little lunch. While she was sitting there, she put her hands on her ears and rocked her head from side to side singing, "Llamas, llamas, llamas." This would have to be her first songwriting venture. Our final fun on the way to the car was for Squeaker and her friend to try driving the John Deere Cart. It was a great day!

Yesterday, we had a wonderful time at a family reunion nearby. Sadly, we didn't take any pictures because sometime she can be a handful. She really enjoyed seeing her cousins, Aunt Wanda, and her Uncle Keith. She also took Granddaddy to the playground for a long time where they played peek a boo through the holes in the tunnel. Momzie brought the red wagon from the farm and gave her some rides. I wish I had the camera when her Uncle Mack took her to play disc golf. (This is his favorite sport...it's like golf only instead of a ball you use small, dense frisbees and throw them into metal baskets) She was in the red wagon with his bag of discs and he was pulling her up a significant hill. He would throw his disc from the tee and she would sit watching intently from the wagon. When they got to the basket, she got to have a "fri-bees" (squeaker speak)and put it into the basket. She tried to throw it sometimes and seemed to have more fun yelling THROW than actually doing it.

As you can tell, she is exhausted from the excursion and taking a nice long nap, which gave me to time to write this up. We will try to get some video up this next week, so you can see her in action:)

Sentence of the Week

"Ohh... pretty shirt. Momzie bought shirt for you. Put on? Help Brite Help" As a bit of translation, Squeaker is still working on pronouns. She uses them confidently, but backwards, so you mostly means her and me mostly means us. Have a good week. We will do our best to get some good video of her at play.

Big Girl Food

In case the picture is a little too blurry, that yellow thing in Squeaker's hand is an ear of corn. She at half of it on the cob before asking to have the rest cut off. It seems to be too much work the other way. Squeaker eating corn, even on the cob isn't so much news on its own, but she's pretty well left jars of food behind. If we go out of town, we take a few jars along just in case, but I don't remember the last time we actually had to use one. We ate lunch out in the valley on Friday. Squeaker had broccoli quiche, kiwi, grapes, tomatoes, and cantaloupe. There seems to be little chance that she'll be much of a fan of Dr. Atkins. Just about her favorite food is hot, buttered rice. Fortunately for her, the Daddy person has been riding a lot the last few weeks, so hot, buttered rice has been on the menu a lot. We share food fairly often and I am sad to say she's developing a mistrust of her father. Actually it isn't so much mistrust as a clear understanding of how this sharing-food-with-daddy-thing plays out. i put some of the food on her plate and start eating the rest of it. Particularly in the case of rice, once she realizes that we're sharing, Squeaker asks for more, even if she hasn't touched what I've given her yet. Apparently she's seen the Daddy person eat the last of the rice one too many times

Sentence of the Week
"Daddy boat, Granddaddy Boat, Daddy, Granddaddy, chick hommy river."

There are unconfirmed reports that Squeaker also got to meet a Lama this week, but we are still waiting for confirmation from our field reporter. Have a good week.

Coming Soon: Stories from VBS

We are currently experiencing technical difficulties. We're still waiting on the VBS story from our guest author. Check back shortly, but for now enjoy this weeks conversation.

Sentence of the Week

Squeaker and I were driving back this morning. She started flying through the book I had placed in the car when this exchange took place. Froggy is a new stuffed animal friend. I think its a gecko.

Squeaker: "Done this book. New book! Done this book. New book!"

The Daddy Person: "Ok. Take your time with it."

A few seconds pass.

Squeaker: "Done this book. New book!"

The Daddy Person: "No see if Froggy wants to read it."

Squeaker: "No Froggy sad. New book!"

The Daddy Person: "Ok, new book."

Do You Like My Hat

Squeaker wants everyone to know that she appreciates all the attention from friends and family this last week. She doesn't quite understand why everyone has been around and giving her extra hugs.

I forgot to mention last week that Squeaker watched fireworks for the first time. Aunt Brite took her to a park near where they were being set off so she could see them and hear them but not be blown away by the idea. Needless to say she enjoyed the experience.

Sentence of the Week

'Daddy cows over there.' Squeaker is a much better traveler than she was this spring. She gets very excited when she sees cows and horses.

Have a good week. Sorry for the delay in this post. I sent it from my phone, and like a few other things Apple touched this weekend, it didn't work the first time.

Sentences of the Week

"Not Mickey." Squeaker makes a very distinct sound when she sees something interesting or out of the ordinary. Monday morning a mouse was brought into the house by the usual suspects. Brite was thinking on her feet and said referred to the animal of interest as "Not Mickey". Squeaker then spent much of the rest of the morning talking about 'not mickey'.

"Back bed. Rub Back. Go Sleep. Get up" Last night as I put Squeaker to bed, she wanted to use the potty. I reminded her that we were going right back to bed. She filled in the details for me about the rest of the routine. Speaking of using the potty, Brite wants everyone to know that we are not really potty training Squeaker. My suggestion that we were rid of diapers was a little too exuberant. We are just experimenting for now. That's all the news that's fit to print. Sorry this post is a little late. We had internet issues again last night.