Look at my new Wheels

After countless hours (read: months) of Tash just sitting beside this walk/ride toy and pushing the buttons, she finally stood up and walked with it a couple of days ago. Since she was a late walker, everyone asked if I had one and that it would help her walk. Well, exactly a month ago she took her first 'walk' and still showed no interest in this toy other then to press the buttons.

I wonder if the batteries finally dying helped? Either way, she was doing circles around the basement with it for about 20 mins after she 'realized' she could walk with it. I got played out before she did. She can push it, but can't turn it, so when she runs into a wall she just stands there waiting for you to turn it.



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In other news and I'm not sure if it's related to her recent walking with the car/truck, but today she learned to stand on her own. Normally she would use the nearest object or us to pull herself up to take a few steps. Today she got up on one knee then stood up and started walking all over the place. Almost exactly one month to the day she took her first steps, today, she finally decides walking it better then crawling and has been walking all over the house without us encouraging her like we have been for a month.

I have to admit, it's super cute seeing a toddler walk. She has not walked with any consistency in the past month, just a few steps here and there, so to see her walk around the island, down the hall or around the basement is still amazing me! She still wobbly, but when she falls to her knees, she gets right back up and keeps walking and giggling!

Let the Zoo visits Begin!

In the Zoo newsletter last week they mentioned that their stingrays had arrived. I got super excited and since yesterday was a nice day, I packed up our stuff and headed to the zoo. I took Tash lots last year, but she was still not really old enough to thoroughly enjoy the zoo, so I was really hoping now that she's older, she'd enjoy it more.

We arrived just as the doors opened for the exhibit and were able to get in a nice spot to see the Stingrays go round and round the pool. Each time they came by us Tash would point at them and giggle, it was so cute! The exhibitor gave a great presentation as well, I learned quite a few things I did not know about stingrays;

- Without a blood test, they are unable to tell which are males and which are females until they are 4-5 yrs old. At that point the males will change shape!
- The females carry the eggs inside them, the babies hatch inside them, then emerge (?) and the mom re-obsorbs the egg shells
- They have a lifespan of up to 20 years!
- They arrive at the zoo inside plastic bags just like fish! They have to put them in the pool in the bags, and once they are adjusted to the water they let them out. For this reason they are only getting 10 at a time.
- These stingrays are from New Jersey and Florida, where they are over populated due to the hunting/killing of sharks which are their natural predators. Since they are low in numbers due to hunting, the stingrays are thriving a bit too well.
- They like shrimp and most eat clams but the ones at the zoo hate clams!

If you are in Calgary, I highly recommended checking out the Stingrays. The guy said they will be allowing touching/feeding of them around the end of March. :0)

Pictures from the zoo! I'm not sure why I take my camera anymore, I have like a bazillion photos of the animals there. Especially ones in the African exhibit, my favourite part of the zoo. :0)

Snow Angel

A couple of days ago after a big snow fall, I thought it would be fun to take Tash out in the snow. She of course did not have the same idea of 'fun' as me and after only 10 mins outside she was none too pleased. Today I thought I'd try again, since the snow was 'pack-y' and I thought we could make a snowman. Translation: She'd sit on the deck out of the snow, I'd make the snowman then quickly move her to it for some 'quick' photos then we'd go inside. :0D

The whole thing took about 20-30mins, and while she did not cry like she did previously, she was none too pleased near the end of it.

Mommy what are you doing to me? (pic from the other day)

The nice 'safe' step away from the snow!

Who is this guy beside me?

Snow Angel! (with help from Mum)

Valentine's Day

When I originally bought Tash her ado{red} onsie and picked up these jeans (bought bc they were on sale!) I had no intention or even thought to use it for a Valentine's Day photo session to scrapbook. For me, this is odd, I always plan these holidays out, buy some small cheap prop or some shirt or dress so I can take pictures and scrapbook them, for some reason I just never thought to do one for Valentine's Day, it's not a big 'thing' for Owen and I.

This morning I woke up and there, beside me in bed, in place of my husband, was El Toro, the Hallmark Gold Bull. In the six years O and I have been together, we've never done the Valentine's Day thing. Never. So to wake up to this "surprise" got me in the spirit of the "holiday" and I decided on the spur of the moment to get him Hallmark Gold's Bernice the Dragon and take a picture of Tash to put in the Dragon's hands for O. These are some of my favourites that I captured. At almost 15m she's still really not liking stuffed toys, even stuffed toys with sexy voices that move. :0D Most of the photos are without him, or him in the background. I'm going to see if Owen can put Bernice up to her mouth for a kiss, she likes them ok if you animate them, but just won't hold them on her own or play with them.

Another Sign!

Natasha has mastered another sign - "more". She actually knows this one a lot more then "done". I can sign "more" and she will sign it back or ask her more and she signs it, but when I ask "done" she still only does it half the time. Today I was asking her if she was done and she actually said what sounded like "Done!". heh

I can never get a video of her walking towards me bc she drops to her knees and crawls to me to grab at the camera and most of the time when she walks, she has something in her hand, or is completely distracted and does not *think* about it, she just does it. That's my theory at least. She's still a little wobbly on her feet, but I think she's going to be running before we know it.



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I spoke too soon! She started walking all over the place after I took the video of her walking away from me. :0) I **think** she's got the hang of it, although I think crawling is still her preferred way to get around since she can move so much faster. :p (ignore my pjs :P)


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First Word and Sign

Everytime Tash has said what I thought was a 'word', Owen is always quick to say "She's just babbling, she has no idea she's saying Mama or Dad because she's repeating it randomly". His logic of it all always bugs me, but I just ignore him and continue to believe that she is indeed saying Mama or Dad even though she says Mamamamamama and Daddadada instead of just Dad and Mama.

Yesterday though, there was no disputing that she actually said a "word". I was doing my bi weekly grocery shopping and while in the fruit and veggie section I picked up some Bananas and said, "Look honey your favourite, Bananas" and she promptly replied "Nana!" I said again "Banana" and she pointed and said "Nana". That night when Owen got home I got one and said "Do you want a Banana for supper Tash?" and she again said "Nana!" :0) Definitely no disputing that she said Banana.

About a month ago (maybe) I started trying signs with Tash. A couple of the toddlers in our playgroup do signs (please, drink, eat..) and in an attempt to try and eliminate the tantrums she had started to have, some I thought due to me not understanding her, I thought I'd try teaching her to sign. I started out with 3 - drink, done, and eat. After about a week of doing all 3, I dropped eat and stuck to "Done" and "drink". This morning after it looked like she was done her breakfast I said w/o even thinking "Done?" and she held up her hands and waved them for the sign "Done". I stood there a bit dumbfounded and said again "Are you done?" (w/o signing it) and she again held up her arms and waved her hands. :0)

Now, I'll be honest and she does wave them for a long time, but she has NEVER done it. I've spent a month, maybe longer waving my hands above my head like a weirdo and she has always just stared back at me like I was nuts (I probably looked a bit nuts) but this morning, she signed Done, I did not even sign done to her.

The other ladies in my playgroup did say it would take some time (and I expected that!). I think J started with her little one at 9 months and it was 3 months of her signing to her before she started signing drink. She said after she picked up that one, she started doing other signs almost right after seeing J do them.

I have no plans to have her 100% sign, but I thought it would be nice for her to be able to communicate a few basic needs - drink, done, eat and say please & thank you.

She walks again!

O and I were playing with Natasha in the playroom this afternoon when she decided it was time she try this walking business again. Of course my camera with video was on the upper level of the house, but I did get some photos and a cute video of her 'briefly' walking to O. I figure in a couple of weeks she'll have it down pat. I remember when she rolled over and crawled for the first time. She did it once, then it was a week or two before she started doing it with any regularity. Owen was more excited this time then on Tuesday, since I saw her walk across the room and he only saw her take a few steps last time.


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Pictures of the walk across the room;