Little Tidbits of Tenley

Hello all!

Tenley is at this awesome phase where she can understand me really well and communicates back pretty effectively and it's so much fun. I just feel like she's so smart and it's adorable. Every morning (actually, throughout the day) she goes to our pantry and opens the door, then pulls down a box of a snack she wants (or thinks she wants) and drags it into the room I'm in and brings it to me, with a look that clearly says, "Please, mom!" Then she does a cute little smile (she is very sneaky) and signs "more" until I either give in or tell her to pick a different snack (which she does).

Her favorite snacks by far are the Welch's fruit snacks (for obvious reasons) but she has twelve teeth so my concerns are that fruit snacks are not good for little baby teeth. She also loves raisins, which are equally bad for her little teeth. I try to help her out by giving her string cheese after and milk to neutralize the sugar (or whatever dairy does for that stuff), but I'm still a little worried. I try to be really good about brushing her teeth each night, but it's a battle every time. Some nights, she is awesome about it and I feel like I did a sufficient job, and then other nights I'm pinning her down and trying to tickle her to get her to show her teeth on her own but she knows that game now and is really good at keeping her lips closed. Anyway, I'm taking her to the dentist next week with me to get her little baby teeth checked out. She's had teeth since like four or five months old, so I really want to make sure they're doing okay so far. That should be an interesting appointment. I have no idea how they plan on getting a look in that stubborn little mouth of hers.

Also, thanks to Tenley, I'm getting really good at identifying the sounds things make--specifically from the next room. Like when she's moving magnets around on the fridge, or pulling trash bags out of their box, or dragging a cereal box into the next room with her (or dumping said box on the floor), or ripping up tissues, or getting into the trash can in our room, or flipping through books (and accidentally ripping pages). It's not my favorite game, considering I always end up with more work and cleaning up the inevitable mess she made, but it sure is good practice with patience.

Tenley is obsessed with bellybuttons right now. She is always poking hers or Dalin's or mine (or pulling up our shirts to find them), and I always tell her that her little baby brother is in there. Then she will sweetly give my belly a kiss and gently rub my tummy, only to jump on it seconds later as she attempts to crawl over me. It's a good thing babies are well-protected in the womb! Still, he is going to have to be tough to get by around Tenley. She was the most mellow baby and now she is the most independent and active and fun toddler. It will be so interesting to see how this next little guy turns out. I hope he is just like his sister because she's a wonderful little girl (or, if his personality is different, I hope he's at least as equally happy and awesome as she is). I know I'm going to love him no matter what though and I can't wait to meet him!

Speaking of our little fellow, I had a doctor's appointment two days ago and it was nice to hear his heartbeat sounding loud and strong. Dalin was operating the the doppler and it took him all of two seconds to find the heartbeat. He couldn't have guessed better if he'd tried. I guess with all the practice from Tenley, he's basically a pro now.  My next appointment will be the glucose test, so I'm less excited for that, but it wasn't as bad as I had expected last time so I can't imagine it would be worse this time. Thank goodness they found an orange drink for me at the last second though. I was getting really nervous about the cherry drink sitting on the counter in there since I do not like cherry flavoring (I love fresh cherries and maraschino cherries and I'm fine with cherry soda, it's just stuff like cherry cough drops, candy, and popsicles that I think are gross). Luckily my nurse is awesome and she checked several places until she found me an orange drink!

Well, Tenley is asking for "mumby" as she has been calling me recently (I guess she hears a "b" in mummy haha) so I better go give her some help. I hope you were all enlightened by General Conference today! Elder Dallin H. Oak's talk really stood out to me, and I liked the two after his also. A lot of great messages learned today! Makes me excited for tomorrow:)

Have a nice (chilly!) fall day!