Friday Foto (and video!)

Today's Friday Foto is from earlier this week when Teya had her very first visit to the Dentist. Doesn't she look so grown up in that chair? I can hardly stand it! She was so brave and did a great job.

Sadly she does have a cavity that we're going to have to get filled. I think it has to do with the fact that she hated brushing her teeth when she was little. We'd have to pin her down and she'd scream, kick, writhe and cry. It was so horrible that being a light weight 1st time mom I might've just skipped it a couple times. Luckily now she's a great brusher and the good news is she's taught Brinley to love brushing her teeth as well. So even though Brinley is pretty much guaranteed to need braces (the poor dear has her mother's crooked teeth) I don't think she'll have any cavities, at least not when she's three.

Here is a great video of the girls brushing their teeth together. Brinley spits and everything, all thanks to the good example of her big sissy. Gotta love the persuasive power of older siblings!

First steps and 12 month stats

Brinley had her 12 month check up yesterday, here are the stats:

Height: 28 inches, 16th percentile
Weight: 20 lb 5 oz, 36th percentile.

She is officially old enough and heavy enough to sit in a front facing car seat but since she's so short she still fits nicely in her rear facing carrier so we'll probably leave her in there as long as she's happy.

She also had yet another ear infection at her appointment but is scheduled to have her eartube surgery next week so we're definitely ready for some relief in that area!

She's saying a few words now, including Mommy, Dada, Eya (Teya) Da (Dog), No, dont! baby, and Mo (more)

Also in the exciting milestone category, she took her first steps yesterday. She's still very wobbly and I'm sure won't really be walking for awhile, but she's on her way. Here's a little clip of some of her first steps.

This is why Dad's are so awesome!

Taber is really good at coming up with entertainment ideas for the girls. He always does stuff I would never even think of. The other day he set up the web cam and put it on one of the special effects that morphs your face. Then he recorded Teya making silly faces in the camera. She was hysterical! Brinley got in on it too and the laughs got even bigger. Here's the video, my favorite part is about 1 minute and 20 seconds into it when Brinley starts doing close ups in the camera and her two front teeth make her look like a little rat or a chipmunk. I don't know if you'll think it's as funny as I do but every time I watch it I can't stop laughing.

Silly Faces June 28, 2009 from Taber Rigg on Vimeo.

Tired Teya

The other night I sent Teya to her room to watch some TV before she went to bed so I could get Brinley down. When I went in to check on her, this is what I found:

Tired Teya from Taber Rigg on Vimeo.

On the Move

Brinley's mobility has increased 10 fold this last month. She has finally mastered crawling on all fours and she can really book it! She also learned to climb the stairs so baby gates are on full time duty and she loves to pull up on anything and everything she can find. She recently discovered Teya's old push toy and takes great pleasure in pulling up on it and pushing it around the living room. Here is a cute clip of her doing just that.

You'll notice that every time she runs into something she says, "Uh Oh!" It's really funny. And please don't mind Teya's sassy chatter in the background. Apparently she was trying to sleep while we were filming and our actions were disturbing her slumber ; )

Push Toy from Taber Rigg on Vimeo.

I've got rhythm...Who could ask for anything more?

My girls love to dance. I mean, really really LOVE it. Whenever they hear a song with a beat they're both moving. Here are some fun videos of them cutting loose. The first one kind of shows you how Brinley's bootie bouncing has evolved. Teya got a Kidz Bop CD in her last happy meal and it was a huge hit with the Brinster.

The second video is from a couple different days. The fist section was from a Saturday morning when Taber was watching the girls while I was out. I guess he decided to have a dance party with them and Teya was really going nuts. She acts like she ate a bowl of pure sugar for breakfast the way she is hopping around in the video. I like it too because you can see Brinley just kind of rocking out on the floor in the background. The second part is more Kidz Bop dancing by the girls in their jammies. I think it's cute how Teya dances with her elephant and I love Brinley's final pose, she's just too cool ; )

Kidz Bop Boogie from Taber Rigg on Vimeo.

Girls dancing from Taber Rigg on Vimeo.

Silly Songs

So, you may have noticed I've been having a little bit of "blogger's block" This week. I have lots of random things I've been wanting to write about but haven't really been able to find the time to do it. So in the mean time, since it's been over a week since my last post, I thought I'd put up a cute little clip of Teya singing.

We took this right after we got home from our Christmas trip to Arizona. (which is why our tree is still up and our living room looks like a tornado went through it) Teya was just running around the room making up silly songs so we pulled out the camera. I told her to make up a song about Monty but she wanted to sing about winter and spring. I think she mentions Monty in there too though. Anyway, I just like it because it gives you a little snapshot of our spirited little girl : )


Teya Singing 1/4/09 from Taber Rigg on Vimeo.

Video of Brinley at 6 months

Brinley is getting her 6 month pictures taken next week, but in the mean time I had to post this little video I put together of all the fun things she's doing these days.

We've introduced her to solids and you'll see from the video, it took her awhile to warm up to them. She loves her rice crackers though and lately is pretty fond of squash.

She is getting more mobile every day and has such a funny way of moving. I call it the "downward dog" crawl. It's kind of a mix of yoga and the inchworm. You'll see in the video.

She started sleeping through the night about a week and a half ago and it's pretty heavenly. She goes down at 7pm and wakes up at 7am. Now if only I could get Teya to do the same! : ) Anyway, hope you enjoy!


Brinley at 6 months from Taber Rigg on Vimeo.

She's on a roll!

Yesterday Brinley turned 5 months old and also mastered her newest trick, rolling over. I put a little video to show you the progression of her roll. For the longest time she'd roll half way and then get her arm pinned underneath her and couldn't pull it out. Then you'll see in the clip, one day she just figured it out and now there's no stopping her! Every time I put her down on her back it's only a matter of seconds before she has popped back up on her belly.

And here's a short little clip of her laughing. Her giggles are the best!

Uda Girls Shakin' It!

So I need to do a big post about our Thanksgiving break, but here's a video for your viewing enjoyment until I have more time to post. A little background, over Thanksgiving we had a talent show as part of our family reunion. Me and my sister Liz convinced our cousin and our other sisters to do a little hip hop with us. None of us are really hip hop dancers so enjoy our ghetto moves. Still, we had a lot of fun. Oh yeah, and the big guy in the back is my sister's husband Tau. He watched us rehearse so many times that he learned the dance. With a little bribery we suckered him into doing it with us! Good times!

Twilleys

About 6 months ago Teya started making up words and one of them was Twilley. We have no idea where it came from and we had no idea what it meant until she started cupping her hands and petting her "twilley"

Through Teya's vivid imagination Twilleys have now become common place in our household. By observing Teya and her Twilleys we have learned that they are furry, can fly and are very small. Most recently she likes to throw them at our faces so they can cover our eyes. We get a kick out of watching her interact with these imaginary friends and play along by petting the twilleys, catching them in the air, and keeping them for her in our pockets.

Here's a little video of Twilleys in action. We went back to the apple farm this weekend and while we were there Teya suddenly lost interest in her surroundings and started chasing Twilleys.


Twilley from Taber Rigg on Vimeo.

Isa turn the wheel

As a mother of a two year old I am very familiar with Dora the Explorer and all her wonderful little friends. If you haven't ever watched Dora, you should probably be grateful. Don't get me wrong, Teya has learned a lot of great things from her, like buckling her seatbelt to be safe, counting, colors, and even a few words in Spanish. Still, Dora's uncomfortably loud and overexcited voice can really grate on you after awhile and the little songs on her show are SOOO catchy you can never get them out of your head!

Which leads us to Isa turn the Wheel. A song from Dora's Pirate Adventure that Teya is totally hooked on. The whole song only has 3 lines, "Isa turn the wheel" "Turn the wheel Isa" and "I'm turning the wheel" But those three lines are super catchy. Taber had them in his head all day the other day and finally gave in, googled the song and just watched it online (if you can't beat them, join them right?) Anyway, here's a little clip of Teya singing the song on her new play house that our sweet neighbors gave her. The best is the very end where she gets really into it, closes her eyes and raises up her arm. Pretty cute if you ask me!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

The other morning I woke up to the sound of Teya's little voice on the monitor. It took me awhile to figure out what she was saying, and then I realized she was actually singing. It was so cute because she was all alone in her dark room, laying in her crib singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. When she got done she shouted "Yay!" and gave herself a round of applause. I went in to get her and she said, "Mommy I singin!"

So I tried to get a clip of her singing it again and this is the best I got. Since I've never really taught her the words she just kind of slurs together a bunch of sounds to mimic what she thinks the song says. Still, if you speak or understand toddler you can tell that she is indeed singing Twinkle Little Star. Pretty cute if you ask me!

Bounce House in Action

A few posts back I talked about making a bounce house by setting up a tent in our guest room and sticking a blow-up mattress inside. Well yesterday I took some footage of the girls having a blast in there so I thought I'd put it up so you can see how it works in action.

Just some background info: Since the mattress doesn't fill up the whole tent I put blankets and pillows in the crack that it doesn't fill in case someone falls. So when Teya tumbles off the side towards the end of the clip, don't panic, she had a nice soft landing. In fact, she usually throws herself off the side a couple times when she's in there just because she gets such a kick out of landing in the pillows. Also, I notice the girls love it best when I play fun music for them to bounce to, hence the repetitive background music. A 3 minute plus extended version of raw footage can be seen here for the Grandparents and Teya's most die hard fans. Anyway, this has been such a fun thing to help us get through cold days when we're stuck indoors.

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