Monday, September 12, 2011

Selah-Speak

Selah talks--a lot.  At least, it seems like a whole lot to us, probably because Korban didn't really talk at all until he was three, and he still struggles with communication.  So it seems amazing and miraculous to us to have a little one who talks so much.  She is pretty easy to understand, but she has a habit of just saying the first syllable of a world twice instead of the whole word.  It's pretty cute.  Here's a list of some  of the things she says:

Tor-tor=Korban
Pig-Pig=Piglet
Bank-bank=Blanket
Chick chick nug nug=Chicken nuggets
Fish fish=Fish sticks
Bean beans=Green beans
Pop Pop=Pop-Tart
Ronicheese=Macaroni and cheese
Dine-in-a-soar=Dinosaur
Kang-in-a-roo=Kangaroo
Ah-nen-oh-me-me-me= Anemone (Seriously--it's in one of her Baby Einstein books.  Has six syllables when she says it.  Hilarious!)
Cha-Cha=Her dear friend Charlie

Lately she has gotten in the habit of telling Korban "Stop dat!  Hear me?"  Oh my.  I don't even realize I say something so much until I hear it from the kids.  She also tells Korban to "go play" when he is aggravating her.  He says "Alright kiddos," at random intervals and it's funny to me.  Guess he hears that one a lot.  I call him "little man" sometimes. He has picked up on this and the other day he told my mom "Sit down, little man."  Boy was she surprised!

Also, Selah likes to compliment people.  It's sweet.  Her favorite thing to "like" is someone's shirt.  No matter what I'm wearing, she says "I yike dat shirt, Mama."  The other day we were outside, and she was playing with our dog Pat.  She told him "I yike dat tail, Pat-Pat."  I would've never thought to give the dog a compliment on his tail, but she is right.  He does have a very nice tail.  It's fuzzy and curls over his back right nicely.  And he doesn't wear shirts, so she needed to find something to compliment him on.

Tonight when we had our "dee-ocean" as she calls our devotion, she said prayers.  She wants to be like Korban.  She repeated whatever he said, and it was so sweet.  We helped her out with some things to say.  For example, we said "Bless Korban," and she said "Bless Tor-Tor."  (He pretty much thinks that's his name now.  When they are playing and it is his turn with a toy, he tells me "It's Tor-Tor's turn."  Maybe he just wants to make sure she understands.  Because heaven forbid there be any miscommunication with the turn-taking business.)  But back to Selah's prayers.  She said "Bless Mama," without us prompting her and I thought my heart would burst.  She also said "Bless baby, bless hairbow, bless duck park."  So that was her first "on her own" prayers and I don't ever want to forget it.  I also need to take her to the "duck park" really soon.  Tor-Tor too.

Speaking of being proud, Korban said out of the clear blue "I like the Rebels.  Ha-wee Ta-wee!" (Hotty Toddy!)  He is his father's son!  And tonight during prayers, the very last thing he said was "Bless sitting at the table eating Push-Ups."  Ha!  He is very fond of Popsicles.

Korban had a little stomach bug on Saturday.  By that night he didn't really have any symptoms except for a low-grade temp and he was kind of dragging around.  I was asking him questions like "Does your stomach still hurt?  Does your head hurt? Does your throat hurt?"  Finally he said to me very patiently "No more belly still hurt.  No more head hurt.  No more throat hurt.  I just sick."  That cleared it up.  I think that might be the longest thing he's ever said.  He was probably tired of me asking questions!  And today when we left school, he told his teachers good-bye.  When we got to the door, he turned back around and said "Bye friends."  So much cuteness.

Well, the kids have been asleep for a while now and for some reason I am still awake.  Considering that,  what with the sickness and all Saturday, I didn't even lay down until 5:30 Sunday morning, there is really no good reason for my eyes to still be open right now.  Good night all!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Organizational Skills

If you know me at all, you know that I am not an organized person.  But I want to be.  Somewhere inside me, there is an organized woman.  She just can't find her way out through all my clutter.  My household needs structure, organization, and my life in general needs less clutter.  It would be easier on all of us.  And I would like that.  So I have had a real brainstorm about meal planning and I thought I would share it.  I love to cook.  Really, I do.  But I hate it when I am scrambling at the last minute trying to throw something together and I am lacking an ingredient or I forgot to defrost the meat.  Also, we are trying to pinch pennies any way we can.  Our church recently had a couponing class and it was awesome.  So I have been collecting coupons and trying to wrap my head around all of that business.  I have an iPhone.  Those are powerful tools in the hands of organized people.  Mine mainly just confuses me.  But I am learning!  I like that little calendar feature.  I mainly use it to keep up with appointments, but my bright idea consisted of using it to streamline my meal planning.  Brad just got paid, which means I get to go grocery shopping.  (Yay!)  I planned out meals for the next two weeks and plugged the meals into my handy-dandy calendar as events.  So if I opened my calendar for September 2nd, it would say "Jambalaya."  Every event you enter has a spot for location, and in that box I put the name of the cookbook that the particular recipe is in.  I even set alerts to go off a couple of days in advance for all of the recipes that require defrosting meat so that I will remember to lay the meat in the refrigerator in time.  Additionally, I used the little note feature in my phone to make my grocery list.  I am forever making really great grocery lists and then leaving them at home, so this is pretty awesome for me.  I always have my phone with me; therefore, I always have my list.  I have my coupons ready to go, and I am ready to tackle the groceries stores tomorrow morning.  I'm hoping this works out well and is a system I can keep up with.  I know it sounds crazy, but I was pretty excited about it.  Anything to help us along.  Actually I was really excited about it.  I called my mom and said "Pick any date between now and September the 16th, and I'll tell you what we're having for supper that night."  "September 7th," she replied.  "Meatloaf!" I proclaimed.  She said "Wow!" like I had just done a really cool magic trick or something.  She was probably humoring me, but it made me feel good.  Also, she is going to help me shop tomorrow, which I really appreciate.  I bribed her with coupons for chocolate and Ben and Jerry's ice cream.  :)

In case anyone is wondering how family devotions are going, we read about Moses' staff turning into a snake tonight.  Both kids got excited and said "Nake, nake."  Hope they don't go looking for one.  Also, they had a short-lived but very lively brawl in the middle of the story and after that, Selah inserted a finger up each one of my nostrils.  But we made it through and afterwards they sat and looked at the Veggie Tales book together, so I think maybe they are getting into it.  Also, when we prayed Korban said "Bless coupons."  He knows about the coupons because he saw my stack of them and tried to scatter them, and I explained to him that I needed them for grocery shopping.  He does like the groceries, so maybe that is why he thought the coupons needed blessing.  Hope it helps me out tomorrow!