Rebecca has had quite the family month.

Lots of visits. Don't have pics of them all, but here she is with her aunt Fiona who's wearing the most kid friendly and popular necklace ever:


Here's she's in swing-induced bliss, being pushed by her cousin Lucas:



And here she is with cousins Nicholas and Lucas, as well as aunts Trixa and Fiona:


She may look like she's trying to escape, but she absolutely loves hanging out with her cousins.

Tales of the Compressed Day Off

Yesterday was my compressed day off - which naturally, I spend with Rebecca.

What did we do?

Highlights:

• We watched the squirrels in the backyard. They may not be kitties, but they are still intriguing with their fence acrobatics.
• We coloured and coloured and coloured (Note: It seems evident that Becca is a southpaw. If she picks up a crayon in her right hand, she will transfer it to the left. All her colouring is done with her left hand).
• We danced in the living room to the music on the radio.
• We read some books.
• We sang the Skinamarinky-dinky-dink song many times.
• Rebecca was "reading" a magazine when I picked her up, and as she twisted around, she gave me a paper cut on the mouth. It was so painful that I chucked the magazine across the living room. That was my parental "low" moment of the day. I didn't make any inappropriate exclamations or direct any negative feelings towards Rebecca, but I was definitely ticked off with the magazine.
• We were rescued from our shopping cart woes by a considerate Daddy who witnessed our struggled to extricate safety straps from a cart. It was a long time before anyone offered to help, despite the fact that I was trying to achieve my task one-handed.
• This same cart turned out to have a defective wheel. This only became a problem in the cookie aisle when I moved to the side in order to let someone pass. Afterwards, I had to use all my strength to get the fully loaded cart to turn left. In the meantime, Becca had been denuding the shelves. We don't buy cookies for home, so it must be the packaging that appeals to her - but still!
• I couldn't find Hershey's kisses for my recipe. I told Rebecca that I needed Kisses, and she gave me about nine kisses. That was the best moment of my day. And she made the mmm sound before each kiss.
• Rebecca tried to take food from someone else's cart.
• Rebecca said "flower" for the first time. (Today, she said "crayon" for the first time).
• Rebecca and I visited with my parents. She was adorable and affectionate. She hung out with Mom while I went for a run with Dad. When I came back, she was watching me from the front door, and gave me a big hug.
• Rebecca scraped her knee for the first time, running to the park.
• Rebecca rode on the swings and said "whee" almost the entire time.
• Rebecca put her feet in the fish pond and amused the goldfish.
• Rebecca played with water in a small washing basin. She systematically added leaves. weeds, and small clumps of dirt to it. It was fascinating. I don't know what her goal was, but she was certainly determined. She was so angry with me when I tried to take her away from the basin, that she tried to bite me.
• Rebecca had a bath in my parents' soaker tub and had her hair washed with salon shampoo.
• Once in the night, Rebecca woke up with teething pain. I cuddled with her on the couch while I watched the tail end of "The Astronaut Farmer", and it seemed to distract her enough that she was able to go back to bed - no problem.

Interactive girl!

Glossolalia

To describe it as the gift of tongues might be a bit of an exaggeration, however, Rebecca *is* perpetually talking now. The trouble is, while it's crystal clear that she is always saying *something*, I'm not always sure what it is.
The past few weeks, it's as though she is in language super-sponge mode. She's picked up several new words this week, just from having us repeat them to her. Her favourite game right now is to look at a book (or the results of a Google image search) and say "What's that?" (although not incredibly well enunciated). We tell her what "it" is. We also repeat the question back at her, asking her to identify animals and objects and body parts. New words in the past few days include "eyes", "mouse", "Elmo". There continues to be confusion with dogs - they are "woof woof woof" or "Bailey" or "kitty" but never "dog" or "doggie". Bailey is the neighbour dog.
As predicted by the doctor, Rebecca is now using two word phrases. "All gone", "all done", "what's that?" are those that have been identified.
Another fun change is the arrival of spontaneous kisses. Recently, Becca was playing in the living room with Greg while I put away her clean laundry. She suddenly stopped, and ran into the room where I was, all the while making the "MMMM" sound. She gave me a big kiss, and then went back to her toys. It is very sweet.
We are still having problems with high-high-pitched screams of joy when she's excited. It's ear shattering fun, and we continue to use the strategy recommended by experienced friends - stating immediately that she should not scream, but not making such a big deal of it that she realizes it can become an attention getting device.

New dress