Jargon

Today one of Seth's church buddies came over while his mom had a Dr.'s appointment. He and Seth had a grand old time running around, throwing balls, playing with trucks, and chattering. I like to think that my speech therapy ears can understand every toddler, but more often than not I am stumped by their crazy jargon. I imagine nursery leaders must get pretty confused by the barrage of different languages they hear every week. Seth's pronunciation is pretty clear, but there are several strange pronunciations he has held onto. I know I've written about some of them on this blog before, but there are a few new ones too.


Bee bo = Belly button. Thanks, Sandra Boynton.
Dave = Joseph Smith. What? I really don't get this one.
Do or Die! = "Doo-da day" as in "Camptown races sing this song Doo-da, Doo-da... Oh doo-da day!"
Mama Pots = President Monson. President = Pots, Monson = Mama. Flip flop the words and whala! you've got Mama Pots.
Mama Eyring = President Eyring. Logical, huh?
Monteydada = Snuggly bear blanket. Used to be snuggly monkey blanket, but we lost that one!
Noni = Moroni (I guess church words are tricky)
A dee sa pots = Silly nonsense phrase that may have once meant something, but now Seth says it just to get a laugh out of us.
Te tel = Temple.
Tee tots = Aunt Krista (it also used to mean chicken and kitty cat, but he has since developed those words).
Wefi = Nephi.
Yo yos = Yogurt.


If only we had known what "Do or die" meant when Seth repeatedly shouted it at the pool lifeguard over a period of 15 minutes. Maybe we shouldn't have egged him on with our giggles :)

Seth must miss his family because he always tries to find them when we are in public. He finally learned to say "Grandma" but is still working out the gender details. Unfortunately I don't have enough fingers to count the times he's yelled out "Grandpa!!?" to random women at the store.

Seth also likes to find friends and famous figures. Every little boy is "Ben," every old man is "Mama Pots?" (which he says *crystal clear* leaving poor old men everywhere wondering what mamapots means), and bearded men are always "Jesus."

I know this picture has nothing to do with this post, but isn't it awesome? We had a GREAT Stake Pioneer Day celebration.

p.s. I have given up on blogging about our summer trips and visitors but you can see a great album documenting the fun on my facebook. We are really lucky this year and will be seeing most of our families again this Fall so I'll try to be better and take pictures/blog about those adventures.

Reassurance

Usually I just use this blog as a picture dump and update of family activities, but seeing as I have way too many pictures to go through from our trip to Utah it'll need to wait a bit longer.

I have really enjoyed reading this year. I don't speed through dozens of books like some people do, but I have read more books this year than any of the past few years, and I've found some gems!

My most recent read was Phoenix Rising, a fictional YA book by Karen Hesse about a nuclear accident in Vermont. The morning after the shooting in Colorado I opened up to these paragraphs:

Science class kept echoing in my mind. Today was our first full day back at school since the accident. Instead of his regular lesson plan, Mr. Sobel had talked about nuclear stuff.

I liked it better when science didn't come so close to home. When it fit neatly inside a textbook, with five questions at the end of each chapter, questions easily answered if you read the assigned pages.

I thought she did a great job at expressing what it feels like to face something you weren't expecting and don't want to face. Further down on the same page, she states very simply this major theme through the words of the main character's Grandma:

Sometimes you have to do things you'd rather not.

 Events like the awful mass shooting are unwelcome reminders that this life is full of things we'd rather not do or deal with. In difficult times, I am so thankful for the reassurance I find through words like these:

All your losses will be made up to you in the resurrection, provided you continue faithful. By the vision of the Almighty I have seen it. -Joseph Smith

And these:

Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend. -Mosiah 4:9

And these:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. -1 Peter 1:3

1st week as Homeowners

Things have felt a little unorganized and crazy around here lately!

First, a synopsis of my sweet husband's tough week. Stephen's Grandpa passed away, so Stephen took Seth on a 24 hour trip to Utah Friday the 8th for the funeral. It was a wonderful experience and he was thankful that he was able to be there. Plus, both sets of grandparents plus others got to see Seth and enjoyed their short visit. Stephen and Seth arrived home at midnight and we moved out of our apartment at 8am. We were blessed by a lot of helpful ward members who made it possible for us to clear out and clean the apartment in time to arrive at our house at 11:30am. On Monday and Tuesday Stephen oversaw (and helped with a lot of the physical labor) having everything moved from the high school in his district to a warehouse as they will be moving into a new location this summer. One of these days happened to be the first 100 degree day in San Antonio this summer. So after a very hot day of being outside and a weekend of little sleep, we happened to be picking up a washer and dryer we bought on Craigslist. It was a long, hot process to pick up/drop off the truck and move the washer and dryer in a truck without a ramp (we did not realize the truck was ramp-less until we arrived at the woman's house). By Wednesday night, Stephen was exhausted! On Thursday he (not surprisingly) came home early from work sick with aches and a fever. This quickly morphed into a terrible stomach flu, which we now believe was food poisoning. He spent 5 days feeling terrible and is finally recovering.

Phew... that was a lot! So we haven't set up our bed yet, we have boxes everywhere, our rose bushes are dying, and a host of other things! On the bright side, a lot of simple things have worked together to make life happier: the former owner's pest control company had a mix up and gave us a free organic spray treatment outside, we got a sweet lawnmower for cheap from a ward member, having laundry machines so accessible is everything I ever dreamed it would be, the glass cook top stove is sooo easy to clean, and having your own backyard is amazing when you have a toddler.

Seth loves the new place. He likes to say "house" when he goes outside and sees the roof; although at first he thought it was a "temple" because of the chimney. Haha :) He knows that going outside often means hand-watering the grass (we have water restrictions because of the drought) and is absolutely in heaven when he gets to play in the water. While outside he frequently puts his hand in the air and says "airplane" which really sounds more like "hairpiece." We must be near a military base or something because we see and hear military aircraft all the time. When we're not in the backyard, Seth enjoys the 3 minute walk to the park and prefers to push the stroller rather than ride in it. He'd push the lawnmower too if Daddy would let him! He's very interested in faces and likes to stop us in the middle of something to point out our eyes or request to see our teeth by saying "Aaahhhh, teeth!" And blessing of all blessings, he has actually slept in until 6am several times in the past 2 weeks. His body finally realized he wasn't getting enough sleep so he's been taking 3 hour naps every afternoon, compared to the 1 1/2 hours he used to do. yay! I'll take it while it lasts.

Well hopefully someone made it this far in the post. I wanted to document some of this transition period for us.

Seth, helping me make pancakes one morning.

The joy of a simple stick in the backyard

Seth recently became a carnivore. Before he wouldn't touch meat and now he loves it.

Giving Dad a hug while he was sick. Okay, Seth was really watching a movie, but it looked cute!

Seth loves to watch the "One in a Million" videos on the Primary website.  You can tell Stephen had the chills because he was wearing flannel pants in June IN Texas!

Washer and Dryer from Craiglist!! They are in the garage, but Stephen last night Stephen put down a big rug so it doesn't feel sooo.... garage-y.

MMMM SUMMER FOOD! 

My first attempt at making guacamole was a success!  I used this recipe and really liked it.

There's a farmer's market two blocks over from our house every Wednesday.  I bought this tomato there and it was delicious!

Also bought this cantaloupe at the farmer's market. So sweet and yummy. 

The watermelon was my best buy. Since no one else in the house likes watermelon I  ate the whole thing by myself over the course of several days.

As much as I like fruits and vegetables, I love good treats. I made this Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake (recipe and pic from Mel's Kitchen Cafe) for a belated Father's Day celebration. Mel is also responsible for the amazing Caramel Apple Cheesecake Stephen made for me a few months back. This woman has some good cheesecake recipes!