speech pathology

I've mentioned before that we have been slightly concerned with the delay in Phin's verbal progress, but as long as he was making small but steady improvements I had decided not to worry about it too much.  A couple of months ago he really started to take off with the full parroting stage and now I have the pleasure of arguing with him about everything!  

me: Go get your alligator.

him: That's a dinosaur.

me: Would you like a clementine?

him: No, I want a gunkin (pumpkin)!

me: There's Santa on your pajamas, ho, ho, ho!

him: That's Grandpa!  No ho ho.

me: Oh, you sneezed!

him: No!  I burped!

He has also decided to randomly add the "ch" sound to all sorts of things.  There's chochit (chocolate) of course and the chitchen (kitchen) where we eat chunch (lunch) and he calls himself Chin and all little animals (baby bears, penguins, puppies, what have you) are also Chin.  Whenever it is time to say a prayer, we try to quietly ask someone and starts before he realizes or else it is always, "Chin's turn!  Garble, garble, garble, daddy, garble, .... (sometimes short, sometimes really long) garble, garble AMEN!"

Some other cute things he says are die, for goodbye, so we tell everyone he is cursing them, and doom for moon.  Anytime he sees the moon in the sky even in the middle of the afternoon, he says, "Night night doom!"  He's obviously a bit of a fatalist.

it's been awhile

There has been so much going on lately and a lot of laying around at the same time.  I did something to my back and I couldn't even sit at my computer desk!  I know -- the tragedy!  I am not quite sure what happened, but I imagine rather than it being just one thing it was a combination of raking, leaning over Phin, moving furniture all over kingdom come, and never forget the infernal laundry!  So my back was hurting and then add in a combined about 7 hours of sitting in the fiendish church pews (I am sorry, but those benches can be wretched after prolonged exposure) over the course of a few days because of various meetings and I was completely laid out last Sunday afternoon.  The following week consisted of me taking the kids to seminary, laying on my bed, taking kids to school, laying on my bed, moving all of the dishes to the edge of the counter then kneeling to put them in the dishwasher, laying on my bed, going to the chiropractor, laying on my bed, vacuuming, laying on my bed, teaching my class, laying on my bed, being in charge of RS meeting, laying on my bed -- I'm sure you get the idea.  Then on Friday, after I had gotten a back brace and was feeling a teensy bit better, I caught the virulent stomach bug that has been mowing down the entire city (Lucy, Phin, Ibby, and I got the vomiting part and the other three members of my family just feel yucky and wiped out) so spent a couple of more days in my bed.  I do have a pretty comfortable bed so that is good. 


Our friend just left with the greeting, "Have fun celebrating the genocide of this country's indigenous people."  Okay.  And don't forget the raising and subsequent slaughter of millions of top heavy turkeys.  Let's all go enjoy that, shall we?

dahliaaaah

Last Thursday night it froze so everything not winter hardy turned black!  Fortunately I was out in the dark gathering up the green tomatoes, peppers, zinnias, and some lovely dinner plate dahlias (that had to fend for themselves since I'm too lackluster to stake anything).

I even dug up the bulbs to save for next year so we'll see if I'm capable of letting them exist that long.  I also pulled up the rest of the garden and gathered the zinnia tops for seeds.

Another Halloween picture -- we went to our first ever Murder Mystery party.  I was Madame Garlique and Matthew was Balihi the RodgersandHammerstein monster.  I already owned everything that made up my costume (except the garlic I had to buy), who knew I was so bohemian?  And we found Matthew's seersucker suit at an estate sale that morning for one dolla'.  And really, I must insist that people take my picture from above only!  That chin = not good.

And I think I need this for Christmas:

I promise that I would use it to go to the store!  As long as it wasn't too hot or too cold (basically for about two weeks out of the year).

lions, and glenda, and flamenco dancers -- oh my!

Another crazy weekend!  The kids didn't have school on Friday so the insanity started a little earlier than usual with free scary face pancakes at IHOP, a trip to the library for a costume parade, taking Ella to the school for Madrigal practice while I conferenced with some teachers, shopping for some last minute Halloween items, taking Charles to a carb fest at Avanti's then upon finding we were at the wrong location scurrying across town to the other restaurant, getting everyone ready for the trunk or treat at the church, and dance practice. Saturday started bright and early with the girls and I going to Chicago and the boys going to Peoria for cross country sectionals and ended with Matthew at stake conference, Ella at a teen party, me and the little girls at a neighborhood party, and Charles holding down the fort with sleeping Phin and taking notes on the "Rally to Restore Sanity/and or Fear" for us.

::shopping on Michigan Avenue

::eating at the Melting Pot -- mmmmm

::going to the Lion King -- I'm not a huge fan of the movie (or the story, or even the music necessarily), but the costumes, dancing, and singing were fabulous!

::lovin' the city!

::always playing

::Charlie running -- look at that great form!

::Happy Halloween!

::he may not be able to see us, but we can see that he's pretty cute!