Fun at the Building Museum

The National Children's Museum hasn't opened in it's new location yet (at National Harbor, across the water from Old Town), so we don't have anything like that nearby. But there is a great playroom at the National Building Museum, which is actually right across the street from Mom's work. We went there with Memere and Grandpa the day after Christmas to play. The room is full of trucks and tractors, big legos, railroad engineer and fireman costumes for the bigger kids, and tons more. It's all building-themed. There's also a small model house, too! Here are some pictures.

Tooth #11

Well, tooth #11 popped in today, just in time to ring in the new year. It's on the bottom left, and it's one of the canines. Ouch!

Christmas Gift for Mom and Dad

Before leaving for the holidays, I made a Christmas gift for Mom and Dad at daycare. Here are some pictures of us unwrapping the gift. (It was after a bath, hence no shirt!)

More Christmas Pictures

Merry Christmas!

Well, I had a wonderful Christmas! The weather has been unseasonably warm around here, in the 50's or 60's each day, so I've been able to spend lots of time outside having fun. I even got to make it to the playground on Christmas Day!

Santa was really good to me! I got a train table and a cool Thomas the Train set, along with 12 different Thomas trains. I also got lots of great books, cool clothes, and other toys (mostly with wheels on them, ha ha!). And Grandpa made me a beautiful wooden toybox to put all of my great toys in!

I even have a new song, by the way. Whenever I see a sheep--in a book or in my farm set--I start singing "Baa Baa Black Sheep."

At least 10 body parts!

I can identify at least 10 body parts now! If you ask me where my feet are, I will kick them if I'm sitting down or stomp them if I'm standing up. If you ask me where my knees, nose, eyes, ears, mouth, hair or head are, I will point to them. If you ask me where my belly button is, I will pull up my shirt and show you. If you ask me where my elbow is, I will bend my arm and point my elbow up to the sky, sort of like I'm doing the chicken dance!!

I'm getting good at this stuff. Mom says she's going to have to pull out the old anatomy textbook to stump me now!

Flashback: O Tannenbaum

Here are some pictures from picking out our Christmas tree from a tree farm out in the country in Virginia, and then a picture of the final product!

Flashback: Thanksgiving

Finally, here are some pictures from Thanksgiving. I had a lot of fun playing in the leaf pile with Aunt Carly!

Tooth #10

Finally, I have a complete set of 4 middle teeth on the top and on the bottom! Tooth #10, the bottom-left second-to-the middle tooth, started popping in yesterday, after about a week of very inflamed and red gums.

I've also got another painful spot in my mouth. One of my premolars (see tooth #9 post earlier) has come in on both sides but there's still a strip of gums left where the rest of the tooth hasn't surfaced. Ouch!

New words

I have some new words lately! I have these cool touch and feel flash cards with pictures of different animals, vehicles, etc on them and this is how I learned how to identify (and bark like) a dog, tractor, and fire truck. Well, this past weekend Mom was so surprised when I picked up the fish flash card and said "ish" and the card with the smiling baby on it and said something that sounded like "ayby."

In other news, I am now preparing for my big transition in January to the Busy Bees room at daycare. Today I am going over to my new classroom for circle time and I'm going to take my nap on a cot. I napped on the cot yesterday and did a great job, so hopefully today will be the same. Mom thought the cots were pretty hard (they're only about an inch off of the ground and they're made of tightly-woven plastic, similar to yard furniture but without the "give"), so she's shopping around for a way-cool nap mat to put over top of the cot to make it more comfy. Check out this one with cars all over it, and note the seller's name!

New words and tricks

I've got lots of new words and tricks these days. When I see a firetruck or school bus, I start singing the song from my push firetruck toy or the "Wheels on the Bus" song (although you can't exactly make out the words). I also know what cows say ("moo") and, on a good day, what chickens say ("cluck," although this sounds more like I'm clicking my tongue). I also know what sounds cars make ("vroom")! I'm also saying "Hi!" My word for book is "DA!" (not sure where I got that from)

I can also find the mouse in the Goodnight Moon book, though I need a little help sometimes on two of the pages where the mouse does a really good job hiding. I can also point to the red balloon, the cow, moon, and kitty cats.

I just got a new Christmas book this weekend, The Bear Stays Awake for Christmas, which is a follow-up to The Bear Snores On, one of my favorite books. Anyhow, I recognized the bear on the cover from the The Bear Snores On immediately and demonstrated my fake sneeze to prove it to Mom and Dad. See, if you're not familiar with the first book in the series, there's a really great scene where the mouse is seasoning the stew and a pepper fleck makes the bear sneeze and wake up from his long slumber. I can't wait until we get to this page every time I read this book, and I love to sneeze along with the bear.

Tooth #9

Guess what Mom found today?! Tooth #9! You'll never guess where it is. First, a recap of teething adventures to date:

Tooth #1 - 10 months 0ld - bottom front-right tooth
Tooth #2 - 10 months old - bottom front-left tooth
Tooth #3 - 11.5 months old - top second-to-the-left center tooth (not one of the top two middle teeth, as is most common)
Tooth #4 - just shy of one year - top second-to-the right center tooth (now I had a huge gap where the two middle top teeth should be!)
Tooth #5 - 13 months - top left-center tooth
Tooth #6 - 13 months - bottom second-to-the left center tooth (now I have a row of 3 on the bottom)
Tooth #7 - 14 months - top right-center tooth (FINALLY all four on the top!)
Tooth #8 - 17 months - a random tooth in my top-left jaw, halfway between my front 4 teeth and where my molars will be
Tooth #9 - 18 months - the matching tooth in my top-right jaw, halfway between my front teeth and where my molars will be

So I've got a total of seven teeth in the front and these two odd teeth on each side of my top jaw. Still waiting for that fourth tooth at the front on my bottom jaw!

But yes, tooth #9 explains why I had trouble sleeping last night ...