Squeaker of the Lost Ark

I took dictation this morning as Squeaker recounted her adventures from yesterday. She took a little prompting on the first part of the story, but mentioned details that I had forgotten. The second part of the story was drawn from her contemporary narration of events.

muzze
moo moo
baby milk
daddy milk
neigh neigh
wee
doo doo
bop
mmm..
werk
um um
hikee
up
neigh neigh
down
baybee book
up
down

As you can see Squeaker hasn't gotten the hang of articles or pronouns yet. It also isn't clear that she uses anything but nouns. I will translate our adventures. We went to a Children's Museum (muzze) yesterday. The toddler area was a farm. The high point of the trip would have been the cow that we both got to milk (moo moo baby milk). We also got to ride a horse (neigh neigh). We explored the rest of the museum after that. Squeaker doesn't have words for the light up stairs, the electronic drums, the canal system, or the heart model we saw. She did enjoy her foray into the four story jungle gym built into the building, especially riding down a long slide on the Daddy person's lap (wee). On the way out we went to the farm section and discovered the rooster crowed (doo doo) when you turned a wheel to make it morning. She stood up twice in tunnel that was too short for her (bop) and got sad (mmm..) when it was time to leave. So we gave the cow a big hug when we left.

After the museum we went to one of the Daddy person's colleges to pick up some papers to grade. Don't tell Squeaker, but this was the genesis of the trip. We ate lunch (um um) on their lawn and played a little frisbee too.
The Daddy person had been warned that Chatty Cathy might want to spend a lot of time discussing the days events when we got back into the car. Instead of Chatty Cathy, I was riding with Squeaker Zombiepants. Not surprisingly the morning's adventures led quickly to a nap. In order to make sure that we were in the car long enough for a nap we headed back through the mountains, rather than taking the most direct route home. This route had an additional advantage. Since the promised rain hadn't hit we were able to go for a hike (hikee) up the mountain you see here. Squeaker was focused on horses (neigh neigh) so the Daddy person may have mentioned that there was some chance we would see one at the top of the mountain. If you look at the first set of pictures you can see the 'pasture' at the top. As we hiked up the mountain (up) Squeaker read one of her books and accepted flowers from the Daddy person (leaves of three give it to she). We got to the top and had some water and a snack before we headed back down the mountain (down). After a bit of a descent the Daddy person realized that Squeaker had dropped her book (baybee book). What followed was a trip back up (up) the mountain and a fruitless search for the book (baybee book) and the completion of our trip down the mountain (down).

We got back down about the time the promised rains came. It rained so hard on the way home that Squeaker could well have made some comments, but the Daddy person wouldn't have been able to hear her. That enforced lack of communication was fortunate because when the big, "why is Daddy crying", pieces of hail hit the car, Squeaker kept reading though her book. Ditto with the thunder and the winds. The last twenty minutes of the trip took about an hour. In case you're still wondering about the title, between the muzze and the hikee it seemed like a big adventure.

Have a good week. Time for exams!

Hot Pink Mini Skirts, Boatin' Baby, and Waffle House...

...so have gone the continuing adventures of Squeakerpants.

We've had a busy couple of weeks here at Squeaker Central. The pink mini skirt in question belongs to Hope Bunny, not Squeaker. One of or friends had a gift certificate for "Build-a-Bear" and rather than using it to build a bear, she decided to help expand Hopa's wardrobe beyond the basic faded pink t-shirt. The Daddy person wasn't there for this excursion, but from what I understand, Squeaker herself was given some latitude in picking Hopa's new wardrobe.

Apparently Squeaker headed straight for the bin with the mini skirts and requested one for Hopa and another for herself. Fortunately for Aunte Brite, they did not fit the baby, although if you look closely in last week's video, you can see Squeaker trying to wear it as a hat. Realizing that the daddy person might need to be mollified, Hopa's new shirt was chosen accordingly. Of course with the way Hopa's team is playing, I am expecting her to move from ball bunny to starting pitcher in no time. In case your wondering what Squeaker is doing in the pictures, she seems to have forgotten how to smile on command. After these two, I asked her to show me her teeth and she started pointing at them. Incidentally, Squeaker's next adventure was my idea.

So far Squeaker has enjoyed many of my favorite outdoor activities. We've been hiking, fishing, driving, and strolling around town. We haven't managed to do either of my other favorite activities yet, biking and kayaking. This week we checked off one of those remaining activities. I had an unaccustomed day off on Wednesday and the weather was nice to boot. We loaded up the kayak and took it to one of the nearby lakes and went for a spin around the coastline. Yes, that's a coast guard approved toddler life jacket Squeaker is wearing.

Yes, she wore sunscreen. Yes, she had a good time, at least for the first half an hour. I have discovered that Squeaker speak for "Daddy, this is getting boring, when are we going home?", is to plaintively say "Hopa?!" in the midst of an outdoor activity. Since we were on a park lake, the scenery was pretty constant, so we only stayed out for an hour. Squeaker did enjoy it when we chased the geese. Saturday, weather permitting, we're going for a bike ride.

Our last adventure of the week came in the form of our regularly scheduled Saturday morning Pancakes. The Daddy person has been giving and grading tests these last few weeks. In that spirt, I'd have to give myself a 25% F- on the pancakes this week. Of the four ingredients we had only one in the house Saturday morning. In a desperate attempt for extra credit, the Daddy person loaded the little family in the car and headed off to Waffle House. It turns out that Squeaker likes their waffles. That's all for this week. I'll try and get some pictures of Squeaker in her Rickshaw for next week's episode.

Editor's Note: Aunte Brite accompanied us on the boating trip and acted as Squeaker's seatbelt. Otherwise the Daddy person would have had to fish the baby out of the water at least once.

Sleepy Baby?

Squeaker and I had a nice weekend together. We enjoyed our customary pancakes yesterday. She clearly still likes them, but I think I need to start mixing things with fruit again. I have a couple of pictures and a
story to add, but for now enjoy the video of Squeaker going to sleep. About one minute in the video equals fifteen minutes in bed.

Sweets Again

Sweets is the theme for this week and their are two reasons for it. First as you can see from this weeks pictures and video, she's been eating sweet potatoes. Second, she's been much better this weekend about letting the Daddy person and Aunt Brite out of her sight. So she's gotten sweet again towards other people. Enjoy this video, yes the color is off in the 2nd part. Yes, I meant to do that.

I had Brite put together a list of her vocabulary as it stands now, or more accurately how it stood last week. Misspellings are our attempt to explain how she says something.

FAVORITE THINGS:
Hopa= Hope Bunny
Bankie= for her favorite yellow Blankie
Dog Dog
Ball Ball
Donk =Donkey
Jeesees= Jesus
Clop Clop= Camel
Weeeee= the Slide
Up= She says this over & over when she hears an airplane.
She also loves talking about all the people in her family.

GENERAL WORDS:
Pants
Jeans
book
boon = balloon
baby
home
egg
op= open
coz= close
dur= door
One, Two
Blue, Pink
Gu gl =Good Girl
Out/In
Up/down
Choo Choo = Train
Durty= Dirty
Chng= Change me please :)
Peas
Cheese
mik =milk
Duckie
Vroom: Car
Dank= Thank you
Shoes
docks= socks
Fish
And lots of Animal Sounds: Meow Meow, Neigh Neigh, Moo Moo, Baa Baa, Chee Chee


Have a good week Squeaker fans. Might want to adjust your post reading schedule to Monday mornings until after exams....