TN & KY vacation

Two weeks ago we took Teresa to visit my extended family in Tennessee and Kentucky and we had a great time. Here are a few videos of Teresa enjoying our adventures:

Teresa observes fish at Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg, TN:


Teresa pets a goat at the Louisville Zoo:


Here's a rare one: David is videoing and I don't know it! I'm pleased that he caught some of my better mommying moments. I'm sure we will treasure the footage of Teresa blowing bubbles with her great grandmother for years to come. I was delighted when Grandma offered me 3 of her lovely plants (including a "purple shamrock") - they survived our journey home and are now thriving.

Teresa says...

Teresa is 16 and 1/2 months old. Today I kept a list of all the words she spoke and signs she signed. Here they are, more or less in the order she spoke them:

Words:
nuh = nurse
nana = banana
dot (new word today)
bay = blankie
baby
hocka = hungry (as she climbs on high chair)
apple
book
muh = more
mun = milk
cookoo = cookie
bee = pen
No! (pointing the way I do when I scold her)
da/dats = that
nuh = nose
bear
cat
wackawacka = duck sound
bat = bath
uh-oh
up
wawa = water
bubba = bubble
car
buh-oo = balloon
woowoo = dog sound (her word for dog)
hay = hair
Papa
sigh-ow = outside
wet
bea = bird
hot (while touching cool oven door, and later when pointing to fire in a book)
rock
egg
Mama
kock = sock
ball
Memere (when hoping to see her Memere on Skype)
maaa = sheep sound
ow!
zzz = flying insect sound
wiss = fish
pop (when watching me open a container)
biss = spill
ree = rain
bock = chicken sound
meh (funny strained sound) = horse sound
poopoo
joo = juice
ah gah = all gone
walk
down
moo = cow sound
bye bye

Signs (she does these while saying the word for all except those marked with *):
nurse
*cereal
*elephant
more
bird
milk
water
fish
all gone
*horse
down

She knows many more words (such as eyes and berry) and signs (such as frog and potty) but it's pretty neat to see all that she communicated in a single, average day (in which she woke at 7:45, napped from 12:30 - 3:30, and went to bed at 8:45; she was awake at home with just me for 10 hours).

Recent harvests

Okay, even I'm tired of salads now. But my lettuce is still producing abundantly, so I give it away as often as I can. For a recent potluck, I picked some buttercrunch lettuce and pulled up a few carrots, too:


A few days later I picked lots of green and wax beans (and a zucchini, too). Yesterday I tried blanching the green beans for freezing. It seemed to work well, but I won't really know until I pull them out to eat in a couple months! Sliced zucchini, coated with olive oil and garlic powder and then broiled, continues to be my favorite way to eat these yummy veggies. But zucchini bread is a close second!

Fun in the sun videos

Teresa tells you what she's doing in this video. She's very good at dipping her bubble wand in the spill-proof bubble tumbler my mom found. She's even blown a couple of bubbles successfully. But most of the time she prefers to dip, over and over, and then touch things with the wand. :)

Hamster cheeks!

Sliding with her godparents Memorial Day weekend. Don't worry - she wasn't hurt. ;)