talking, Thanksgiving, general update

Well it's December and it's really cold here. Yesterday it was around 15 degrees and with the wind chill I'm sure it was colder. And what did we do? Got our Christmas tree! Either Scott or I have been sick since Thanksgiving and we felt like we needed to get it. So I was planning on taking a cute picture of us all with our tree outside, but it was so cold we didn't take one! We basically took the first tree we saw and got the heck out of there! 

Here are the two pictures we did take. Harner Farm has some really cute little houses that Wren loves to explore: 

Wren has been "talking" a lot more lately. He is very conversational sounding, especially when he first gets up in the morning. He has a lot to say! He sounds like he's saying things, but who knows what he's saying! :) He has been saying some words that we can understand, like:

Mama

Dada

down

on (always wanting lamps and things on -- we have been putting up some Christmas decorations -- a ceramic Christmas tree and a fiber-optic Santa. He wants these "on"!)

hello

bye

hi (he says "hi" over and over with big smiles when he's glad to see us)

'nana for banana (or sometimes "sha-nana")

wiwi for kiwi, which he just started doing, which is pretty hilarious!

all done (a favorite while I'm clipping Wren's nails or changing  his diaper, as if it will make it true)

still says DAH! for done (with meals)

lately Wren has been "stretching" when he's done with his meal too -- arms above head and he says really loud "ahhhhhhhh!"

FFOP! which means "flop!" as in "when I'm tired, down I flop!" from a song on his Music Together CD

kind of says duck and quack

says "meee" for "moo"

baa for sheep

he's made a barking sound for a long time

"wheeee!" when he's thinking about playing at the park, usually when slides or swings are involved. Wren also says this when we drive down the big hill by our house. :)

"get down!" -- I almost forgot this. How could I forget? He does it all the time ... when he's standing on a chair or something else (CD player, table, walking toy...) that he knows he shouldn't be standing on. He says it until we look at him and then get down. We put his little chairs in the basement because he kept standing on them and he could see them through the cat door from upstairs so would sit in the kitchen looking down there going "get down! get down!"

in general Wren will imitate more sounds and words when we ask him to "say _____"

Okay there's more but I'm not thinking of them right now. For a couple of weeks, Wren was kind of cranky and he only wanted milk to drink and wasn't eating much of anything else. It wasn't very fun for any of us! But by being more consistent about when he can have milk (with meals) and how much (just one sippy), it worked itself out and Wren quit demanding milk all the time. He still wasn't eating much, but then Thanksgiving came, along with lots of family and lots of snacks, and that seems to have ended that little phase! :)

We had both our moms, Wren's Aunt Lori and Uncle Kirk with cousins Tyler and Anna, and Aunt Nancy and Uncle Rod for a few days around Thanksgiving. We played a lot of Mario Kart on the Wii, some Ticket to Ride and Sequence, ate tasty food (including snack mix that Wren really liked to eat, coming to the table to get each piece one-by-one from Gramma Dixie. Wren also discovered raisins this week -- yum!), and just had fun hanging out. It snowed just enough for Anna and Tyler to make a snowman and for it to feel cozy inside the house. Wren LOVED having his cousins and family around. He was just fascinated by Anna and Tyler and they really liked playing with him too. We are going to go visit them in Mississippi for a little bit at Christmastime so that is going to be awesome.

Wren can run now and can be very fast! He has little "work" boots like his dad and loves to wear them. He is good about coming to put on his shoes and other gear when it's time to go out (but Mommy still has trouble with those mittens), and he is very patient about coming in the door and waiting while Mommy takes it all off again. It's very sweet how Wren lifts one foot so I can take off his shoe, then the other... then off he goes!

Wren really likes to carry around some electronic items when he's upstairs -- Mommy's hair dryer, a charging cord, and especially the cord to Daddy's shaver. He was very into the hair dryer, and now the shaver cord seems to be the favorite: he pretends it is a phone, so when he sees it laying around wherever he left it last, he says, "hello! hello!" and runs over to it. It's very silly. His phone conversations (with the cord, one of his play phones, or our old cell phones) go like this: "hello! bludhueuus sjefiodiujlkj bjjudhdhallj ... BYE!" :)

Wren still likes the bath a lot and starts yawning as soon as he gets in. He likes to line up some ducks and push them off the side so Mommy or Daddy can put them back in for him. He likes to use the washcloth to "wash" his face (just putting it up to his face near his mouth) and he will use dry cloths to wash his toys' faces out of the bath. He is getting into filling a bath cup from the faucet and pouring it out.

Wren can point to several body parts, his own and Mommy and Daddy's: ears, eyes, nose, mouth, bellybutton (especially fun), a certain part in the diaper area (an interest sometimes in the bath), and he's starting to learn hands, feet, and stomach.

Wren is really enjoying pull toys right now and likes to dump things out, and stack up blocks. He loves to bring us books and sit in our laps while we read. He responds to things on the pages and that's really fun. He's still doing a lot of signing which is very nice for understanding what he's thinking. Wren is definitely understanding a lot of what we're saying, and probably lots more than we even know.