Our son, the sea mammal

Elizabeth started talking very early and has always been pretty advanced verbally. However, she still struggles with enunciation and pronunciation, as 3-year-olds often do. David and I usually have no trouble understanding her, but that's because we're so used to listening to her talk. We're trying to work with her to get to say some of her consonants better, but I have to admit that some words we just haven't really wanted to correct, because the way she says them is so incredibly cute, and it would seem like she was all grown-up if she started pronouncing them correctly (for example, I got a little sad when she stopped substituting "bama" for "bottom" - it was just so darned cute!).

When Elizabeth first started referring to her brother Jonathan, it sounded like she was saying "dolphin." Jonathan took it good naturedly, as the awesome big brother he is. Since then, she's graduated to a "J" sound at the beginning of his name, but it still sounds like "Jolphin." And, his new name was sealed when she brought home her first preschool project this week. It was an "All About Me" poster, on which she drew a self portrait, which looks a lot like modern contemporary art, and answered several questions, which the teacher wrote down for her. Since this was completed on the first day of school, the teacher had no time to learn to decipher Elizabeth's specific preschool-ese language before completing this project, but I'm sure she tried her best.

On the poster, the members of Elizabeth's family are listed as : Daddy, Mommy, Josh, Jolphin, and Star. Since we don't know of a long-lost son named Josh, we assume that she stammered while trying to say "Jolphin", making the teacher think her brother's name was Josh, and maybe she had a pet named Jolphin. And, of course, the Star is actually for Scar, our cat.

She also had to list 3 "super-cool" facts about herself on the poster, which were as follows:

1) "I like to go to Wal-Mart." (We knew this, since "Wal-Mart" was one of her first words, which she started saying to us when she was about 15 months old if we told her that something was "All gone.")

2) "I can get some yummy food at the Pez Restaurant." (We were stumped on this one, until I asked her what restaurant she liked to go to, and figured out she was actually saying "PIG" restaurant - which is what she calls Corky's.)

3) "I don't have sisters, but I have one brother named Josh." (Again, this one is news to us. I'm trying to convince David to come clean and tell me about his other son, but so far, no luck...)

But, speaking of our actual son (Jolphin), check out this picture David took last Sunday before church:



Those who know Jolphin well will marvel at the fact that he is wearing anything other than his standard "uniform" - a white t-shirt and jeans, which is what he wears 7 days/week. But, what you might not be able to see is that he's actually wearing a flamboyant gold WOMEN'S sweater. This was apparently a dare from the high school girls who went with him and our church youth group on a mini-mission trip last week. Oh, what power the members of the opposite sex can have on a high school lad! But, on the other hand, as the teacher of those high school's girls' Sunday School class, I can confirm that they were truly impressed and actually SQUEALED when they saw he was wearing it. So, I think he actually won out in that situation.

It's raining, it's pouring...

We haven't been able to sing that song very much in Kentucky this summer. In fact, before today, we had only received 0.39 inches of precipitation in the month of August - when the average is usually over 3 inches.

So, when we got a nice soaking today, we were excited. You could literally see our dry, parched lawn turning green as the rain fell. We can thank the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay for today's (and probably tomorrow's) rain - too bad she had to create such havoc before she did anything good!

Playing with friends

This afternoon, Elizabeth walked around the block with me to her little friend's house. This friend is about a year older than Elizabeth, and the two girls have loved each other from the first time they met. It's so cute to watch them run up and hug each other everytime we meet while walking around the block. But, today was a momentous occasion, because we went to ask if the little girl could come to our house and play. Not babysitting, not because their parents needed a break or wanted to spend time together, but because the 2 girls simply wanted to play together as friends. Sigh...our little girl is really growing up...

The girls had a great time together. They jumped in the leaves in the front yard (no, it's not really Autumn here - we just have a tree that likes to jump the gun every year), played out back on the swingset and in the sandbox, and played inside with all of Elizabeth's toys. It was very sweet to see them playing together. I'm sure it will be the first of many, many times! And, we're really glad about that, because this little girl is about the sweetest girl we've ever met.

Almost ready for Chip 8

I shamelessly bribed Elizabeth to get this on camera tonight:



That's "Kitty Kitty Wash Wash" from Camp Crestridge, for those who don't know/recognize it. She insists that I sing that song to her every night at bedtime. She needs to work on the pronunciation a little bit, especially the last line which she usually pronounces "too-dah-lee" (instead of "true to thee"), but she still has a few more years to get it perfected before she heads to Starter Camp!

Bridger's finished cross-stitch

In March 2005, I received news that devastated my Type-AAA personality. I was sentenced to strict bedrest for the remainder of my pregnancy, which was scheduled to last until June 1. I remember breaking into tears as I told people the news. How on earth was I going to sit in bed for up to 2 months with nothing to do? I'm the person who has to have something to do every single minute of the day, or I go stark-raving mad.

Well, I learned a few things about myself during the (what ultimately turned out to be) 6-week bedrest process. Most importantly, that there was something much more important than me and my wants - that little baby growing inside of me. My doctor told me that every day I survived on bedrest could possibly keep the baby out of the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for 2 days. So, I was very lucky to survive on bedrest as long as I did because, although she was still born 4 weeks early, Elizabeth didn't have to spend a single night in NICU. And, according to his equation, if Elizabeth had succeeded in arriving when my pre-term labor started, she could have been in the hospital for several weeks, or even months.

The day after my initial devastation, I started to get industrious. I wasn't allowed to move, but there was no way I was going to waste away in absolute boredom for several weeks. I don't watch TV - especially brain-sucking daytime TV - unless, of course, UK basketball (or the Olympics, as I've been watching this week) is on, so I needed other options. Fortunately, I could do a lot of my work from home, so the weekdays went by relatively quickly. But, to combat boredom, I also decided to pick up a long-lost hobby - cross-stitching. I chose something to cross-stitch for my baby, and for good measure, also offered to make one for my newborn niece as well.

Fortunately, I haven't been restricted to bed for some time. But, I've continued with the cross-stitching, since I've found it keeps my mind and hands busy while I sit and watch TV with David in the evenings. Since my work schedule gets so hectic, I don't have a lot of time to devote to it, but slowly I've been able to continue. This past year, I've been working on a piece for Bridger, my nephew who was born last September. It was very elaborate, but I was determined to get it finished by his first birthday. Here's the final product, which we gave to Erin and Brad as an early Christmas present this past weekend:



The verse from Psalms is the life verse they chose for him at his baby dedication. It's very appropriate, since the heritage of his name can be traced to the mountaineer, Jim Bridger, who spent a lot of time in the "hills."

Now, I'm on to my next project - another baby cross-stitch for Amy's baby boy, due in November!

Mini-family reunion

We had a fun time at Calk Lake this weekend for our mini-family reunion. My dad and Pat, Mom, Amy, and Erin and her family were there with us. We stayed at Pat's family's lodge, which was right on the lake. The lake was absolutely beautiful and the weather cooperated very nicely by cooling down some just in time for the weekend.

Jonathan with the lake behind him:



Gran holding Baby Bridger (aka Moose):



Opening presents in advance for Bridger's 1st birthday (which is actually about a month away):



The girls playing with Bridger's presents:



Bridger sneaking a chance to play with them himself:



The mist rising off the lake water in the morning:



The kids playing in the wading pool:



Jonathan and David playing with the volleyball:



Swimming in the lake:





The girls playing in the hammock:



Making ice cream (the old-fashioned way):



Playing outside:



David and Amy (with Baby William aka Little Burp in residence) waiting for dinner:



Dad's 60th birthday cake:



The girls helping him blow his candles out:



Opening presents:



The icing on Elizabeth's face verifies the cake was good (and you can all see how great Amy is looking!):



Jonathan fishing:

Ready for Calk Lake

In preparation for our trip to Calk Lake next week, David bought Elizabeth a mini-fishing pole and has been teaching her how to use it this afternoon.



It came with a little plastic fish to be used for practice. She's gotten pretty good at reeling it in, but we still weren't quite brave enough to let her try casting yet!



An added benefit was watching Scar stalk the fish as it hopped through the front yard!



As you can see, Scar's not looking very well at the moment. In addition to her normal hideous appearance (with one ear missing and a huge scab on the top of her head), she's had a big sore open up on top of her head and she's starting to lose huge clumps of hair and is getting very skinny. Poor thing!

Elizabeth also spent some time hanging out in the tree in our front yard this afternoon:





(Don't call the authorities - David was hiding behind the tree and standing next to her.)