Thursday, July 24, 2008

A Visit with Jennie & Kieran & Dan

Today my own bestest buddy Jennie, along with her little guy Kieran and her Dad Dan came for a great visit. I have known Jennie, and Dan, my whole life. And Kieran is only one month and one day older than Gwen! It was so nice to see them. We see them so little due to their living relatively far away. It was such a wonderful day. We spent some time with the kids in the backyard, at the park, and hanging out in the living room with Gwen's toys. They came for both lunch and dinner, so we had a nice long visit.

We discovered that the two kids are rather similar in many ways - - some we expected and some we didn't! They both enjoy being two-fisted with their apple slices. They make similar funny sounds. They both seem to enjoy frozen blueberries, which was a new experience for Kieran but an old favourite of Gwen. And they both enjoy speaking their funny blue-tongued language:


Gwen and Kieran have a blueberry-faced chat from Stephanie Allen on Vimeo.

They had lots of fun talking to eachother, and enjoyed Jennie's rendition of "This Little Piggy":


Gwen and Kieran have a chat from Stephanie Allen on Vimeo.


Enjoying "This Little Piggy" from Stephanie Allen on Vimeo.

They also seem to both enjoy playing with cars and telephones - - which resulted in some minor scraps and short-lived mini-tantrums. But it was all in good fun. Kieran even tried - - unsuccessfully, poor guy - - to give Gwennie a kiss. To be fair, she had just woken up and wasn't quite sure what was going on yet. But she let him give her a huge bear hug. What a sweetie!

Here are some pictures from today's big day, although they are a little out of order. Gwen started off in long-sleeves as it was cool early in the day, but the weather got nice and warm, so summery clothes were necessary.









Saying goodbye to friends. We miss you guys!

Friday, July 11, 2008

Words Words Words...

I have been seriously slacking on this blog. The main reason is that my attempts to get good videos have not been met with success. This girl does NOT like to perform for the camera! That goes for the regular camera too. If you just looked at my pictures you would not know just how much she smiles. Turn the camera off and she's happy as a clam, all cuteness and smiles. The camera appears to be kryponite to her smile, and the smiles I do get on camera take effort or the element of surprise. I put lots of pictures on facebook, but I like to save some good ones for my blog. And I was so hoping for a good video before I posted this. Well, the video will just have to wait. It's way past time for a new post!

So as the title says, we have a good many words coming from Gwennie these days. It's so much fun to see her make the connections, and come out with the words! I wanted to write about the words she says so far. Of course we have Mum, Daddy and Lion. Lion used to sound like "Nyny", but now it's more like "Nion". But we also have:

Bird - - "burrr" - - Gwennie loves watching birds and pointing them out.

Cat - - for a while she was something that sounded like "kitin" (kitten), but now it's definitely "row" (rhyming with 'pow'), like the meow sound Etta makes. She even says it in a higher voice, as though she is imitating the cat. So funny! All cats are "row".

Up - - sometimes it's missing the 'p' sound at the end, but it's pretty clear.

Down - - "duuuu" with the u sound like in 'put'. If she wants you to put her down she can tell you.

Uh-oh - - So cute, this one is very clear. If anyone drops something, or sometimes when she falls on her butt, she will say "uh-oh".

Banana - - "nana" or "nanana"

Nana - - also "nana", although she doesn't seem to mix up her Nanas with her bananas. In fact, on the phone to Nana Allen the other day she actually said a very clear "Hi Nana!".

Apple - - "ap" or "ap-pull", but usually "ap". She loooves her "ap"s!

Duck - - this is pretty clear too. She has a few stuffed ducks, and pictures of ducks in her books. She will point to them and say "duck".

Dog - - "dooog" or "duggie". Although she does get dogs and cats mixed up sometimes.

Done - - this one is also clear. But I think she's still working on the concept of 'done'. She loves to drink some water from a glass I hold for her. She will push it away and say "done!" with a smile, but then want it back right away.

Bubble - - "buh-bull". On the advice of Auntie M(elissa), we tried blowing bubbles. She really enjoyed it, and of course we kept pointing at them and saying 'bubble', while she stared and smiled. The next day she was eating her dinner and pointing to the desk in the kitchen, saying "buh-bull, buh-bull, buh-bull..." We figured out that she seemed to be pointing at the bubble container, so we opened it up and blew a few bubbles. Sure enough, she pointed and them and said "buh-bull!"

Bee - - Gwendolyn has a book with pictures of things and animals in it, and one is a bee. When she points at it, we say 'bee' and then 'A bee says bzzzzzz'. She has now started to say bee, and then her version of 'bzzzzz', which is more like a raspberry sound, but close enough! She saw a fly buzzing around and said "Bee! Bee!". Again, close enough, especially since the fly in question was doing a fair bit of buzzing.

Eye - - This is her newest word. We've done lots of "Point to your..." and eye was a relatively new one. But last night she pointed at Gord's eye and said "Eye. Eye." She proceeded to poke him in the other eye and say "Eye! Eye." Back to the other eye...repeat. Then it was my turn. So watch out for flying fingers with little Gwennie!

Those are the words that Gwennie actually says, but it always amazes me how much she actually understands. She enjoys a game of "Point to your..." or "Where is your...". She is very accurate with words like: Mouth, nose, ear, hand, foot, shirt (grabs her shirt), and shoe. She also knows many of the major people in her life, like her Nanas and Granpas, Grammie, Omi, Great Gram, (Great) Auntie Carol, Brenda (her daycare provider), etc.

Gwendolyn is going to be a little dancer. She's usually pretty indifferent to the TV (a good thing probably). But if there is music on the TV, she will stop and look. She will usually also bounce, clap or wiggle to the music. Too cute!

With all this going on, I certainly have to say: One is FUN!