Bluestocking Biddy

Sunday, March 05, 2017

Fake spring

We are all feeling better compared with last weekend, although not 100% yet. It seems that Jeff was actually hit hardest with this cold, and it is the worst cold any of us have had in recent memory. Jeff and Maren both had fevers, and while Maren and I are both still coughing a little, Jeff has some nasty lung issues remaining. But we are all improving.

We are about halfway through winter semester, and winter lasts all semester long here. It won't really be until the end of April that winter is completely over and we are sure it is spring. That said, we have had a couple of "fake springs" this winter, where the highs are above freezing for several days in a row, and lots of the snow melts. We went out for a walk/trike ride today and it definitely felt like spring. We didn't even need to wear hats. But it is supposed to get much colder again soon, and probably will stay below freezing for a couple of weeks before we see any more melting.

The only picture of Maren on my phone from this week:

Monday, February 27, 2017

Colds

We are all sick with colds over here, and I am sort of miserably tired. Maren had a fever Saturday afternoon and most of yesterday. She and I stayed home from daycare/work today. A photo from Saturday night:

Maren was not feeling well enough to eat anything at dinner, but we offered her a variety of things just in case. The closest she came to eating was stuffing peas into a medicine spoon. She seems to be feeling better as of this afternoon, so hopefully we are nearly done with being sick.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Little cutie

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Forelle pears

A few weeks ago, Jeff took Maren grocery shopping and they saw these fancy tiny little pears called Forelle pears. Maren spent the entire grocery trip eating one of these little pears, and has been somewhat obsessed ever since. The other day Jeff finally brought some home from the grocery store, and Maren has been carrying them around the house almost constantly for the past couple of days. Here she is yesterday with one of her Forelle pears, which, by the way, she says almost perfectly.

Also a couple of weeks ago, my graduate advisor came to Regina to give a talk. It was wonderful to see her, and the talk was well received. Maren did not say her name (Jennifer) until many hours after they had met, but now she says "Jeffuff" whenever she hears the name Jennifer, or anything that sounds like it, including gender, general, generate, etc. So here is a picture of all of us together with Jeffuff:

Sunday, February 05, 2017

Nudibranch

Last night as I was putting Maren to bed, she suddenly looked up at me and said "noodle (pause) butt." I was not sure what she was trying to say, so I repeated back "noodle butt?," and she said "No. Noodle butt." She kept repeating this, and I kept not understanding.

Then this morning, she was looking at a book that we got from the library (we have checked out this book probably two other times), and it was finally clear that what she was trying to say was nudibranch, which is similar to a sea slug, and pictured in the book.

Maren's language is kind of crazy. She is starting to string words together, and is repeating almost everything we say, even if she doesn't understand it yet. Tonight at dinner she said "mommy eat it" then "daddy eat it," then "baby eat it," when deciding who should eat each pea. Here are a few videos from today – they are kind of long, so watch at your own risk, but I think they are amazing because they showcase Maren's awesome language development. The first one has the nudibranch.