My First Words

My first word was “DOG.”  An interesting choice seeing as we didn’t have a dog when I was a baby.  However, I still own a stuffed animal seal christened “DOG.”  Booh-booh, at the tender age of one, is a much more social child than either her mom or dad ever were or will be.  It is only fitting that her first word—an actual word used correctly —would be “HI!”  This came around 9 months and quickly became a favorite.  She amused church goers and grocery shoppers alike by indiscriminately greeting all with a loud “HI!”  Some tried to get her to say “goodbye” but all in vain.   And now at 15 months, we have added a few more properly used words to our repertoire. “EAT!”  And then there is “TEETEE,” which is applied to any mammal remotely resembling a feline (foxes, horses).  While I was terrified of the large tiger we encountered at the Alabama Zoo, Eole, with great enthusiasm, met him with “Hi TEETEE!” But none of these words can match the explosive power of The Great Word: the Word to rule them all: “NO!” Or as Eole says, “NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!”

Monkey See, Monkey Do

You better watch out. You better not cry. Better not pout; I’m telling you why: Eole is watching your every move. Luckily, she is only picking up on the good habits such as brushing her teeth (even using a hair brush to brush her teeth because we certainly don’t use hair brushes for our non-existent hair),

blowing her nose into a tissue, washing with soap, shaving her face with Dad’s electric razor, and of course, talking on the cell phone or IPOD or calculator. 

These conversations will usually begin with her picking up any item that has buttons, pressing a few of the buttons, putting said object up to her ear, saying “Hi?? Glabababa? HAHAHAHAHA!”  I guess I laugh a lot when I’m on the phone.

Full Circle

Apparently, Dan’s father had to travel for work a lot when Dan was a young child. Dan -- or “Danny” as I’m sure he was called at the time-- got so fed up with his dad leaving, that he decided to pack himself in his father’s luggage. Fast forward 27 odd years and Dan now finds himself hopping on a plane weekly for residency interviews, and, well, shall we say that the circle is complete?

What We did over the Holidays

Baked cookies….

Baked more cookies....

Baked Brioche

Baked ALOTTA sourdough bread

Ate aforementioned goodies which lead to the following weight gains:

Eole: 1 pounds

Julia: 5 pounds

Daniel: 10 pounds

Read Christmas Stories

Watch Raymond Briggs “The Snowman” bi-daily, including Christmas morning when the opening of presents had to wait until the 29 minute movie had concluded with, yet again, the tragic loss of Snowman.

Opened presents!! Thanks for the gifts, Santa, et al.