Blanket

Teagan has entered the gatherer stage where she wants to take an armful of toys everywhere she goes, including a baby doll, purse, and of course her blanket!  She has latched onto a particular one, a green jungle-themed blanket that Claudia rejected and was stored on the bottom of the pile for the last 5 years.  So as to compete, Claudia has decided that her ladybug blanket is her favorite and now we have to drag them both everywhere.  Although it is cute that the girls go and find them for each other and know they are special.  Her other favorite thing lately is mirrors.  I think she knows how adorable she is and wants to look at herself all the time.  Although, we also have one not so pleasant stage that Teagan is going through, which is tantrums.  She struggles with transitions, especially leaving places and getting strapped in the car.  I don't blame her though because she gets strapped into the carseat a minimum of 4 times a day with drop-off and pick-up for Claudia's preschool.  She runs away, screams, and arches her back while I pin her down to get her in her seat.  Poor thing!

Claudia is super interested in reading books now and although she still doesn't have the patience to practice her words with me very often, she likes to sit down with a stack of her favorites and "read" the story to herself.  She especially likes The Berenstain Bears and (cringe) Dora the Explorer.  She borrows Glen's Kindle Fire and has her own profile to access the kid's books and games.  Teagan also loves books and her favorites are the Sunny Day Fairy series, which were Claudia's favorites at that age too.  I'm so glad Neely bought us the whole series because they're out of print now.  The stories are very basic, but the illustrations are beautiful and there are lots of animals and other common objects for us to point at and practice saying. Claudia's other new thing is telling jokes, especially Knock Knock ones.  She doesn't understand how to make them funny yet, but she keeps trying.

We're getting a couple sunny days now that it's March and a lot of rain, but when we see the sun, we run straight out to the park.  Neely is so close to having her baby, only a couple more weeks.  We're getting excited for her.  Also, my dad had a hip replacement surgery last week and it went well.  He needs to use a walker and take it very easy for 4-6 weeks for the bone to attach properly to the implant, but after that, he's hoping to get back walking without pain and playing golf by this summer.