"Dah-doo"

We're not sure what this means. I think it is something like "ho-hum". Payton just randomly decides to say it and repeats it over and over again as he wanders around the room. "Dah-doo, dah-doo, dah-doo." Sweet boy.


So, I need to record his sweetness. The words in his repertoire, thus far in his short 14 months of life...


"dal-dun" = "all done", he says it and signs it with his hands waving. It is especially cute when he does it when he is done nursing. He sits up, says "dal-dun" and then slides off the bed.


"moe-oh"= "more", he's never signed this one. It means he wants something. If he's standing by the back door looking up at the counter, he wants some butterscotch chips that happen to be in a giant bag that I purchased from the chocolate lady in something like 5# form. He's eaten most of them. If he's grabbing my chest and looking down my shirt, well, it means he wants milk. Duh.


"die-die"= "bye-bye", he's waving when he says it and we are leaving. For some reason he doesn't have his b's yet.


"da-da"= "dad", of course. It sounds an awful lot like dog, but there is a slight difference in inflection. One day Bill heard him yelling repeatedly from the bedroom and he thought it was dog, but came anyway. I mean why would he be talking about the dog while he was in the bedroom, right? Well, PT was standing in his crib, looking out the window, yelling at the dog. There is a different.


"wru-wru"= his NEW word for dog and every other animal except a cow. When we went to the zoo he pointed and "wru-wru"'ed at every animal that he saw. We were close up with the cow however, so he was either scared or recognized that this was not a dog. I couldn't get him to moo though.


"rah-rah"= we believe is "Kyra". He yells at her in the morning. She's his only hope since I gave up being a morning person after Christmas break. (aah, maybe I'll try again, who knows.)

"tda-tda"= Tasha. There is a slight difference from "da-da" and you usually have to know who he's talking to to hear it, but it's there. Typically he is yelling this one, trying to get her attention.

"Momo"= Momo, my mom. He's got her twisted around his finger when he says that one. All smiles my mom is, all smiles!

"mahm!", that's me. It's usually very loud.

and last, but not least, his newest verbage that he OVER uses out of context...

"owie" is his way of getting your attention and getting what he wants. My 2 favorite stories of this are: 1) Bill was holding him by his overalls, in public, and he was saying "owie, owie, owie" over and over; and 2) I was checking my email and he was saying it. It progressively got louder and worse so I got a little concerned. I went back to find him holding his 2 pillows, trying to get up on my bed, so I could nurse him to sleep. Little boogie!

Oh, and his one sign without words: "please"... hand to tummy with a swipe and a big cheesey smile because he KNOWS when he does that one he gets what he wants.

Fable of the Porcupine

It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions even though they gave off heat to each other.

After awhile, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth.

Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. This way they learned to live with the little wounds that were caused by the close relationship with their companion, but the most important part of it, was the heat that came from the others. This way they were able to survive.

Moral of the story: The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but the best is when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person's good qualities.

WW: Go Bears!

Oh, PT...

Things that happen while I'm on a 10 minute chat with a friend:

• the plunger ends up in the kitchen
• 50 blank cd's are strewn across the floor
• the dog dishes end up on the couch
• I find a notebook in the hall
• the recycle bin is dumped into the backyard

I think I miss the days when he just unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper onto the bathroom floor. Oh wait, I don't... that was just this weekend!

I love you PT. I'm going to shower while you sleep. You can clean up your own mess when you wake up from your nap.

Are You There God? It's Me, PT.

I don't know why these playground phones are so entertaining for little kids, but PT loves them. Typically they have 2 "phones" to yell into and you feel like the 2 kids are actually talking to each other. In fact, I have a shot of Tasha and PT doing that at our park. But on Friday, I went to the zoo and there were something like 5 or 6 of these things throughout a small play area. What? Who's talking to who? Is it a conference call? Is there call waiting? I don't know. At some point I figured that they were just sending their thoughts out into the universe. Then it reminded me of the book by Judy Blume, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. Aah, memories of my youth. I'm old.

Shipping Out 2010

My friend Scott kind of challenged me to come up with things I accomplished last year. Part of me wants to strangle him (chuckle, chuckle) but since I walked right into the challenge I guess I have to live up to it. It's hard for me to look back and think of things I've done as successes, but I think this process has actually been good for me. You know, I DID do something worthwhile this year! I think that part of what I have to recognize is that some things that come easy to me are hard for others. Sadly, a few things on this list are fairly simple for others but were HUGE hurdles for me (see items 3 and 5, specifically!).


So, here's what I've got:

1. Found, registered, and joined the PTA at a new school for Kyra. (McKemy Middle school, a public school in Tempe, but not our home school)



2. Volunteered to be the Parent Council Co-Chair at Tasha's school. (Desert Marigold, a Waldorf inspired charter school)



3. Filed all the paperwork to get Payton's birth certificate. (a multifaceted process if done after the first 7 days your child is born, at home, with no medical staff present)



4. Lost all the weight I gained while pregnant with Payton.



5. Successfully nursed Payton for a full year (and running...)



6. Planned a trip to the Gila Valley Temple Open House for the young women and their families. (I had plenty of help from my presidency and family)


7. Successfully pushed to have Bishop's Youth Council and Bishop's Youth Discussion on the same night and held regularly, even though we only had about 4-6 active youth at the time.


8. Started tutoring again, working for a non-profit that my friend runs and actually wants to turn over to me and her daughter.