random tidbits

We have this game called "Dinner Games" - it is a set of cards and you draw one at the dinner table and play that game.  It is actually pretty fun and Elisabeth loves it.  One of the games is a feel good kind of game.  You're supposed to tell uplifting stories from the news, but since we don't let Elisabeth watch the news (nor are there any uplifting stories in the news these days...) we let her make up happy stories.  The card says "take turns going around the table telling blahblahblah..."  So, I read that to Elisabeth.  She asks to go first.  She gets up and starts walking around the table while telling us her story.  Her new name is Elisabeth Bedelia.

We just had our basement painted, and I guess they left some of that blue tape on the trim somewhere.   Elisabeth found it and asked what it was.  Doug told her it was tape.  She said, "Goosetape?"  So, now, duct tape will always be Goosetape just like our non-minivan car is The Pizza Car for reasons I will explain later.

Charlotte has a surprising number of words.  Doug and I set out to make a list and we've decided she's really not far behind.  Of course, none of you could recognize the words and unless she is pointing at whatever it is she wants and saying the word, we have no idea what it is either.  We do think she is putting two words together, though.  Like 'mama wawa' and 'ma wawa' - meaning Mommy's water and "the sippy cup that Elisabeth has, is looking at, or is thinking about looking at anytime in the next 24 hrs," in that order.  Oh, and did I mention that approximately half of Charlotte's words sound like boo or moo:  spoon, moon, bird, bug, ball, blanket... but each has its own inflection.

Charlotte says "eowm" instead of "meow," which in fact sounds a lot more like what our cat says than meow.  Charlotte is incredibly good at mimicking sounds, just not so good at utilizing sounds as words to tell us what she wants.  Instead she chooses to use the sheer power of her vocal cords.

Elisabeth records every single kids show on television onto the DVR.  She does it behind my back and it drives me nuts because it fills up the DVR.  Do we really need 62 episodes of Dora, 48 of Diego, 15 of SuperWhy, 18 of Curious George and then a smattering of Martha, Word Girl, Word World, Clifford, Backyardigans and Blues Clues?  She knows it annoys me because today she asked Doug not to come into the room while she was doing it.  Then she fessed up that "mommy will be mad because I just recorded a bunch of shows."  

I went through and deleted a bunch of shows.  As expected, the next morning she asked for a specific episode of a specific show, which I knew that I deleted.  The look of hurt in her eyes was piercing...

Another little snippet of things I learned from working close to the jail:  people wearing sneakers without shoelaces likely just got out of prison.  They're a rather friendly lot, for being 8am, having just gotten out of prison.  But, no Mr. No Shoelaces, I don't really want to "have a smoke with you."