Thanks Uncle Mack

Last weekend when Squeaker went to the Steel children's museum, she was fascinated just playing in the sandbox. Aunte Brite and Uncle Mack thought about ushering her on to the other exhibits, but decided to let her stay where she was having fun. The sandbox turned out to be too much fun to leave. Even though she was warned that she had 'two more minutes', she had a small fit when it was time to leave. What stopped the fit was Uncle Mack explained that sandboxes were not indigenous to children's museums. So using a little extra lumber from the house and some sand, a fully formed sandbox sprung forth from the earth yesterday.

Sentence of the Week

"No Brite. Froggy named Jacob. Ducky named Kamile" I returned a phone call to some friends we had seen last spring. Squeaker listened and guessed who I was calling. I explained that it was our friends from out west and that she had seen them twice before. I recounted the details for her and showed her pictures of their visit. I was asked to repeat the story a number of times. I finally got her off topic with a visit to the children's museum. That afternoon she decided on her own that new names were in order for her friends. Hopa almost got renamed too, but the Daddy person and Aunte Brite didn't like that idea as much.

Have a good week.

Why Oh, Why Oh, Why Oh?

Squeaker, Brite and Uncle Mack are out of state this weekend, so the main event this week was a ten hour car trip. Squeaker barely slept but none the less the trip has gone well so far. The intrepid travelers are planning on going to a steel children's museum on the way back. There is a good chance that we'll be posting a trip report sometime this week, so check back around Thursday and see what Aunte Brite has to report. Meanwhile, enjoy Squeakers new favorite word game

Squeaker's Story of the Week

Squeaker: Say piglet brite.
Brite: Piglet.
(Brite laughs, Squeaker does not.)
S: No Brite rhyme. Go for it Brite!
B: Piglet wiglet.
S: Say sample.
B: Sample ample.
S: Say polar bear.
B: Polar bare snare.

Later daddy jumped in and got
S: Say watermellon daddy.
(long pause as the Daddy person runs for a thesaurus)
D: Watermellon fellon

Have a good week.

Happy Birthday Squeaker

That's right readers, Squeaker is the big 2. We've had a busy weekend, and the Daddy person has been fighting a cold, so I don't have much in the way of stories for you. These pictures I think tell a pretty good tail by themselves. No my spelling isn't that bad, I'm talking about the special pancakes. Regular features will resume next week.

A Necessary Life Skill?

Story of the Week

"Corn Please" Its too hot, so Brite makes her wait. While she waits she says to herself, "This corn Squeakers. Nobody else eat." Brite finally gives her her ear of corn and there isn't any sound other than eating for a couple of minutes. No sounds until, the Daddy person and Uncle Mack both reach for ears of corn from the serving dish. Then without missing a beat, "This Squeakers corn, nobody else eat it". Brite has asked that the record reflect that such pronouncements are never made when just the two of them are eating. They tend to occur whenever the Daddy person is at the table, and especially when Daddy, Uncle Mack and one of Squeaker's favorite foods are being served. The Daddy person would like the record to reflect that thing are not as in ages past. Very little food is removed from Squeaker tray. Instead she's clearly watched her seconds disappear from the serving dish one too many times. She's been concerned about this pattern for a while. The last couple of months she's often asked for more of her favorite foods, even with a full tray. These requests tended to occur when the Daddy person reaches for the serving spoon.

Pony Tails and ...

We have had a busy week here at Squeaker central. The Daddy person goes back to teaching tomorrow (yes, on Labor Day). So there has been lots of reading books and getting ready for classes. I am going to let Squeaker speak for herself this week, in her own words an on the video. Without further ado, then here are our "Sentences of the Week". The committee could not decide between our two nominees, so we're going with both. First one of Squeaker's contributions to our dinner conversation, "Uncle Mack having milk. Brite having water. Daddy having water. (pause to self correct) Gatorade. Daddy having Gatorade." Second, from a car ride later in the week, Squeaker had been playing with her penguin, Pablo, a new member of the family. He apparently got in trouble because Brite overheard her saying "Look at eyes Pablo. No! No! no run in road. Cars ... hurt, boo boo Pablo. Terrible boo boo. (Brite then spoke up for Pablo, saying that he had been a good boy, which Squeaker acknowledged and corrected) Good penguin."

Enjoy the video, too.

Sentence of the Week

The Daddy person is starting to think that we may need to rename this feature. The committee is open to suggestions, but right now "Squeaker's Story of the Week" is at the top of the list.

Squeaker has a minor
obsession with "Neigh Neighs". Whenever we are out driving through any kind of country road, she starts to call for them and if we actually see one, she wants to see them again. Needless to say we ty anything to distract her from saying "Neigh neigh neigh" over and over. One day, I told her that when Daddy and I were little kids we rode horses at our Grandfather's farm. We told her the names we remembered. She latched onto this story and has asked me to tell her about "Brite's neigh neigh" and "Daddy's neigh neigh" several more times.

At breakfast, after at least a few weeks without her asking about this story. She says "Brite had horse named Star. Daddy horse had named (then corrected herself) Daddy had horse named Sugarfoot. Uncle Will had horse named Flash. Momzie horse had named (self-corrected again) Momzie had horse named Ginger."

She was trying so hard to tell the story like I do that she actually used the word horse. I've only heard her use horse once or twice because she just loves saying Neigh Neigh. Since we first told her about the horses, we have realized that some of the names are associated with the wrong people. For example the Daddy person's horse was Mandy, we think. We're not sure how Squeaker will take it when we tell he we got the story wrong, so we're waiting until she's old enough to read the blog to find out.

Have a good week.

How not to get your picture taken...

Squeaker has had a busy week. We made a day trip to spend some time with family this week. I tried to get a picture of her playing with her aunt's sunglasses, but between her desire to run around and see the pictures and the slow shutter speed on my phone, it was a hard picture to get. I'll let you decide if I succeeded or not.

Squeaker also got a visit at home from one of her great aunts (sorry, Corky made me) and a doctor. In case you are curious, yes she did want to play "baby Dr. Whitman", which worked out well since our friend was on her pediatric rotation.

The Sentence of the Week

... will follow tomorrow morning. I need to confer one more time with the committee.