Do these glasses make me look smarter?

Special thanks to Mr. Potato Head for letting us borrow them!

Can you say…..

Today Tyler and I went for a walk and ended up @ a park.  I was standing in front of him, pushing him in the infant/toddler swings.  Suddenly his eyes got as big as saucers, he pointed with his little pointy finger past me and quite excitedly said “quirl.”  I thought, funny, that sounded just like squirl!  I look back in the direction of where he was pointing and sure enough there was a fluffy little squirl about 6 feet away from us digging for something in the grass.  I asked Tyler “What is that?” about 50 more times because I couldn’t believe he said it!!!  The boy will not say ball but he will say squirl…craziness!  And clearly knew what he was talking about.  It was so freakin cute!  (But I might be a little biased!)

Just this past Monday we had his 18month check up and the doctor was like “Can he say 10 words?”  Ummmmm no.  “How about 5?” she asks.  I say weakly “maybe”.  The thing is that he doesn’t really communicate verbally  – I mean he babbles alot and mimics sounds and all and if I say “Say da da” he usually will, but he doesn’t usually say it in response to Craig coming home or anything.  He communicates with his face and gestures – it’s like playing charades all day long.  But he doesn’t say ball or truck or some of the simple works you think you should hear (or they tell you you should hear).

That being said the boy will say the following:

“yea” which is usually heard as ummmm yea, “no” and my favorite variation of the standard no – “no, no, no” while waving his little pointy finger, “mom” or “ma”, “cookie” which sounds like coo-key, “Oh dear” which sounds like oh-dea, “more” which just happened yesterday, of course “Ka” for Auntie Kim, and today we can add “squirl” which sounds like quirl .

I guess that is 8 so we are on our way – and cookie is a 2 syllable word and oh dear is more of a phrase so I personally feel those should count as more!

End of summer FUN and questions to ponder…..

Tyler has been having loads of fun outside. Here we are painting…..the real masterpiece was not on the paper but rather on himself

Cousin Caden and Tyler poolside….

Apparently the pool was too full for the boys’ liking because it was great fun to let water out of the pool…

I’ll trade you 2 goldfish for 1 Lucky Charm marshmellow…

In watching the Olympics, 2 big questions have been floating around in my head….

1. I love watching beach volleyball, it is only second in my book to watching cheerleading competitions….which unfortunately are not an Olympic sport. Anywho…I tried to watch the women’s beach volleyball competitions anytime they were on TV. Of course the swimsuits are tiny and bending over, diving, running, jumping and all would cause things to ride up if you will – and due to camera angles alot of pulling the swimwear out of the bum crack was seen. Which leads me to my question…why is it OK on national TV on a competition which is being aired internationally it is OK for them to adjust their swimwear bottoms (which are more revealing than my everyday underwear) – yet after I have also bent over, perhaps, dived, ran, and jumped over things to either chase, capture, or retrieve my 18 month old son – it is not OK for me to do the same?  Let’s face it, some days you just pick the wrong pair of underwear!

2. Where’s the armpit fat?!?! I’m sure it is because they have like 0% body fat – but NONE of the track and field gals have any of that extra armpit skin or fat – ya know, the fat that not there when you raise your arm but when you put your arm down magically appears between your boob and your arm adding to the reason that swimsuit, bra, and dress shopping are usually not so much fun experiences!

Daddy’s Home!!!

Tonight Tyler and Craig were coloring @ the kitchen table.  I was being domestic and making Banana muffins – your recipe Jen – when I looked over @ their picture.  There were the little Tyler scratches, tracings of Tyler’s hands, and then Craig’s part.  I said “Oh look Tyler, Daddy drew blocks.”  Craig looks @ me with a hurt look on his face and says “They’re not blocks.”  I said “Oh, well what are they then?”  Craig very proudly and smiling points to the “blocks” and says, “Here is the city of Hong Kong (Craig points to “blocks”), here is Typhon Nuri (Craig points to blue swirly thing), and here is Daddy happily flying away (Craig points to red plane)!”

We are super excited to have Daddy the artist back home safe and sound and glad he didn’t get stuck in Hong Kong for an additional weekend because of the typhoon!

Signs….signs…..

When we were on our vacation a few weeks I was paying special attention to the signs along the road – not very exciting I know but on twisty turny mountainy up and down roads I can’t read a book, so that leaves not a whole lot to do in the car except look out the window and think. We were driving through Vermont and I saw a little wooden sign for a gas station that was a few miles up the road and below where this little wooden sign read “gas station”, it read “right @ fork in road” for clear directions on how to get there. This just struck me funny – I don’t know why – it just seemed so country and yesterday in the time of technology & GPS that we live in where you can find and do anything with the right cell phone (call, music, movies, GPS, internet access, etc). I mean – we were in the country, but everything listed on these wooden Vermont signs by the side of the road always had more specific instructions like, “left @ general store”, “1/2 mile past pine tree” or such. It just seemed funny…..

Which led me to think of what the funniest/weirdest sign I have ever seen was – hands down this one is the winner -

I saw this when my friend Donna and I were in Korea visiting a friend of hers (we were on a long lay-over on our way to Mongolia for a mission trip). This sign was in the Starbucks there in downtown Seoul, Korea.  In Korea you are not supposed to flush TP due to their plumming – so by the toilet there is a little waste basket for you to throw your used TP away in instead of flushing it – gross I know!!! I was 17-18 weeks pregers with Tyler when I went on this trip so I was forced to frequent quite a few bathrooms because I was drinking lots of h2o like the good little pregnant mommy I was trying to be. I would pick a shrub to pee on ANYDAY over many of the bathrooms used that trip!!!

Do you notice anything different about me???

So asked my sister Kim (know as Auntie “Ka”) when she came to my house this evening.  I looked @ her and tried hard to find something different.  I was sure I was missing something that was supposed to be blatantly obvious to me but I couldn’t.  She turned her head slightly to the left and then the light hit it….a little sparkle, a speck of gliter stuck on her nose….or through her nose!  My little sis got her nose pierced today!

I’m shocked on many levels – not because I have any issues with this, as boring as I am, I once wanted desperately to get my eyebrow pierced but feared the pain and ramifications of doing such a thing – meaning what would my parents do if I went through with it!?!  I am shocked that she got her nose pierced because you say the word “needle” in front of her and the girls face turns a very ghostly white and she feels light headed and you either better be ready to catch her on her way down or change the subject pronto!

I think the story is pretty funny myself….Kim went with her friend today to the tattoo place because her friend wanted a tattoo.  While there Kim decided she wanted to get her nose pierced.  So she did.  Kim’s friend walked out tattoo-less because while there she changed her mind.  But Kim came out with a little sparkley surprise to show off – she’s always full of surprises!

Hey Daddy – Look where I went today….

Today Auntie “Ka” really wanted to go to the Fort Wayne Zoo today so finally I said “OK, OK, I’ll go.”  I got to see monkeys, penguins, otters, sharks, fish, kangaroos, snakes, and I got to pet an brown gecko.  Mommy actually thought possibly get a gecko when I get older – it it much cuter and not as gross as your standard newt or lizard and we all know snakes are not even a possibility! Here are some pics from our trip.  This is what I would look like if I were an exhibit @ the zoo….although don’t you think I’d fit in better with the monkeys?!?!

As I said in the earlier post….Auntie “Ka” wrapped around my little finger!  That girl will do anything for me   Mommy pointed out that it is fitting that she is a Kappa Delta don’t you think because the greek letters for KD, like on her shirt today, look like “Ka”!

This was Mommy’s favorite part – the “moon jellies.”  Apparently if you touch them they won’t hurt you.

Then, your mom took a picture of you when you were little in it, mommy’s mom took a picture of her when she was little in it, and today mommy took a picture of me in it….a picture of me with Little Poof!

Hey Daddy….

While you are in China eating turtle stew (mommy told me and can I just say ewe!!! If you can eat turtles, why can’t I eat chunk bark?!?) here’s what I’ve been up to…..

Playing in the “plastic puddle.” This is my kiddie pool @ Grandma’s that according to her looked much bigger in the picture that was on the package when she bought it. Mommy was teasing Grandma that if she spit in it a couple times it would be enough to fill it up ha, ha, ha

Of course I have Auntie “Ka” wrapped around my little finger – I just hold my arms up and and she picks me up and I point to where I want to go – and she goes. I had to check out the fish wind spinny thing in the garden and Grandpa’s big “wagon”.

I was doing some work once we came inside so I had to put on my safety goggles….

This morning I played outside with Auntie “Ka”, mommy, and Grandma. I gave Auntie “Ka” a kiss……..

….then I squished her!

Vacation Pics….