Word Game Answers

Yeah... sorry y'all. That was a little ridiculous. Not your answers, the game itself. But at least now you get to hear what all that nonsense means to him. And me.

I have to say kudos to Cici, though. Good job! *and I'm sorry that Bennett has taught Elizabeth his favorite word of all... MINE!* Ugh...

(1) beepa = pizza
(1) woa = shoe (what?)
(1) boo = book
(3) di-di-dee (short "i" sound) = biscuit, sesame street or christmas tree
(2) wo-wo-woah = cheerios or any cereal
(1) peese = please
(1) dah-doo = thank you
(2) ninny = Bennett or excuse me (and the "excuse me' comes with a little hand slid under your butt because he wants you to get up)
(3) noh = this one actually had 4 meanings, and I totally forgot about one until Lauren guessed it! So, noh = snow, no, nose, and ... weird... milk
(2) eh-doh = Let's go! or Where'd it go?
(1) bah-bak = I'll be right back (and this one comes with one little finger held up to tell you he'll be 'bah...bak')
(1) hah = hat
(1) jooth = juice
(1) ee-thuck = it's stuck (anything that is closed is 'thuck')
(1) dah-dah-dah = jacket
(1) buh = bug
(1) how = house

That's our little man for ya! I didn't include 'I love you' which is 'Ah wuh woo' (which he says to EVERYONE) or 'hello' which is simply 'heh-woah', and Lauren, he does have little blankets and calls them his 'nye-nye's (night-nights).

Oh, this stage is so fun. :)

Word Game

My sister-in-law posted this on her blog yesterday and I couldn't wait to copy her. I'm always wanting to post an update about what all Bennett is saying these days, and what a nifty little way to do so!

So, let's see what you think these words/phrases might actually mean, in "Bennett speak."

*okay, after writing these I realized it's going to be impossible. Oh well. If you want to give it a try, please do, but I understand if you're just like, "what the heck could any of that possibly mean?" So really, this is going to wind up being for me, just so I can look back and remember what he was "saying" when he was 2.

Also, the numbers out to the side indicate how many words his one word can mean. So on the bright side, you have choices on some of these. :)

(1) beepa
(1) woa
(1) boo
(3) di-di-dee (short "i" sound)
(2) wo-wo-woah
(1) peese
(1) dah-doo
(2) ninny
(3) noh
(2) eh-doh
(1) bah-bak
(1) hah
(1) jooth
(1) ee-thuck
(1) dah-dah-dah
(1) buh
(1) how

Have fun...

Break for Snow Fun

I'm supposed to be up here in the office cleaning out closets and cabinets, getting ready to move the office downstairs and Bennett's bedroom over here. We're keeping the nursery in the same place, so as not to have to change anything in there and also so Bennett can move into a big boy bedroom and big boy bed simultaneously.

So, that means that all the crap we've been cramming into this office closet for the last 5 years has to come out. Why is it so hard to let go of some things? Ticket stubs, notes from friends you never ever see anymore, random pictures that don't mean anything, cassette tapes, CD cases (with no CD's in them)...

It's overwhelming. Because I don't just have to clean out this closet, I also have to clean out the cabinets downstairs into which this stuff is supposed to be transferred.

Anyway, I'm taking a break. And I realized I never posted any pictures of our snow day. So, here's a few:

Watching Daddy scrape his windshield before heading to work.

Fussing because he wanted to go 'ice skating' in the street. We had crossed the street earlier to say hi to Aunt Dot (my great aunt that lives across the street), and the entire street was an ice sheet. We slid around a little and he thought it was fun and wanted to do it some more.

I don't know if he's trying to figure out what the white stuff is, or what those weird, hand binding things that I put on him were.

Adorable picture that Greg took.

Snuggling up with Mama after we came inside. Yes, we used our pj's as long johns under our clothes. Use what you've got, right?

Good Daddy

Josh and I are watching our niece, Elizabeth, today while Greg works. She and Bennett get along very well, for the most part.

We've had our muffins this morning and they're running around playing, so Josh and I are trying to get some stuff cleaned up. I'm washing dishes and here comes Josh with a huge cardboard box from the chest freezer he recently bought. He takes it into the living room and sets it in the floor. I think, 'Okay, he's taking it in there so he'll have plenty of room to break it down before taking it outside.' Well, he sets it down and then leaves the room. Inside I'm going, 'Grrrrrr........'

But then he returns... with a utility knife and packing tape. And he becomes the best daddy/uncle ever:

Pigs

Don't worry, it's not about food.

(I was told my last post was a little heavy on the food talk. I didn't even realize it until I went back and read it and it totally is! Ha ha! Oh well, I am eating for two.)

This one is about cops. I don't usually use the term 'pigs' when I talk about cops, but this morning it is well deserved.

I had to deliver some food to a neighbor a couple streets over this morning. As I approached the stop sign at the end of our street, I knew I didn't see any cars coming in either direction. As I released the brake and began to make my left turn, something told me to check again. I had all this food in the car that I didn't want messed up and I thought to myself, 'the last thing I need is for some idiot to run that stop sign and hit me.'

Right about then I looked back over my right shoulder and here comes a Douglasville COP flying through the stop sign. If I had already accelerated more than I had, he would have T-boned me. But thankfully, I had a hunch that I needed to double check, so I was able to avoid that situation.

Well, as I would have done to anybody that had run a stop sign, I honked at him. I then pulled on out and made my turn, coming up behind him at the next stop sign. I was hoping to make eye contact with him through his rear view mirror so I could do the whole throw-your-hands-up-in-the-air-as-if-to-say-what-the-*%$#? thing. But I didn't have to, because he didn't waste any time getting out of his car.

He got out and started walking back to my car with this look on his face like he was about to give it to me. But ohhhh, was I ready. I immediately rolled my window down and when he got there I said, "Hi...." rather sarcastically and with raised eyebrows.

I had mixed emotions at this point, because while I knew I had done nothing wrong, I'm the kind of person that would still worry that he was going to give me a ticket for honking at him or something.

So anyway, he had this look on his face like he was all high and mighty and he was about to use his uniform to make somebody feel two inches tall. After I so warmly greeted him, he said, "I was just wondering...." and it sounded like that was to be followed by a "... why the hell you just honked at me."

But he didn't have a chance to get that part out. Because as he was saying it, he looked back over his shoulder at the stop sign (he had just run) and said, ".... oh, ...well, they did just put up a stop sign there..." and kind of nervously tapped his hand where he had it resting on my door. I said, "That stop sign has been there as long as I can remember." But by that point, he was already headed back to his car with his tail tucked between his legs.

Ugh!!!! My blood was boiling! Stupid PIG.

I almost wish he had hit me. How satisfying would it have been for him to have run a stop sign, hit me, and then have to write out his own police report.

I guess I'll just have to settle for knowing that he's going to think about this every time he comes to that stop sign and be embarrassed about it. But that's probably wishful thinking.

Weekend in Asheville

Just got home this evening from a bachelorette weekend in Asheville, NC. It was a nice, much needed weekend away with my best girl friends. My girlfriend from college who happens to have also been one of the photographers for our wedding, Annie, is getting married next Sunday.

So we all took off to the mountains this weekend to celebrate "Hell Freezes Over Weekend." Because since we have known her, she has sworn she'd never get married. Well, what do ya' know? She happened to meet the right guy and has been forever changed.

Asheville is such a great little town. The downtown area is so great, with tons of cute boutiques and great restaurants. Friday night we went to an Indian restaurant called Mela. I have to be honest - when Miranda first told me we were going to be eating Indian that night, I was a little disappointed. Of course I wasn't going to say anything, but Indian is not my favorite. But I figured I could find something that I would be able to handle.

Oh, man. If you are ever in Asheville, you should try this place. It was so wonderful. We started with some appetizers, one of which was an Indian version of fried chicken tenders that were served with the most wonderful sauce of cilantro and mint. Heaven! So, so good.

My entree was grilled chicken that had been marinated in cashews, yogurt, cream, saffron and cardamom. It was served with a pineapple mango chutney. Wow. I'm going to puree pineapple and mango and dip my grilled chicken into it for the rest of my life now. It was so good and refreshing!

Everyone loved their food. We all had said that we would all kind of share our meals, but halfway through dinner we realized no one had offered to share anything because everyone was so into what they were eating! Not only did we not want to give up any of our delicious food, but we didn't care to try anything different. I highly recommend it.

Saturday morning we headed to a spa. We each had a facial and a massage scheduled. Since there were 7 of us, we couldn't all be serviced at the same time. There were only a few of us being treated at one given time. Not to fear for the rest of us who weren't, though, because we had full use of their heated pool, sauna, and hot tub. Of course, I wasn't able to take advantage of the sauna or the hot tub since that's a pregnancy no-no, but I did put my legs in the hot tub. It was seriously hard to keep myself from just getting on in. Really, I had to keep telling myself that it wasn't worth risking the health of my baby just to feel good for a few minutes. But it was like having a big piece of warm chocolate cake with a scoop of cold ice cream in front of you and being told you can't eat it. Gosh, I don't know which would be worse. But let's hope I'll only have to be faced with one of those situations in my lifetime.

Also making the time pass nicely was the great food that Miranda so graciously brought for us to snack on. She and a couple of the other girls stopped by an Earth Fare on the way over and picked up some fresh fruit, olives, cheese and crackers, hummus and pita chips, sandwiches and orange juice and champagne for mimosas. It was so good! And the ladies at the spa were nice enough to take it and transfer it to nice serving trays and bowls. We pretty much took over the spa for the afternoon. It was quite the experience. We all walked around all day in big fluffy robes and sandals, sipping on hot tea and mimosas, getting our faces renewed and our bodies massaged. What more could you ask for?

That evening the ladies partied it up, but being preggo, I decided to abstain from the festivities. I joined them for dinner but headed back to the house afterwards. I had some sleep I needed to catch up on anyway. It was fun listening to the all the night's stories this morning, though. They had a good time even though it sounded like Asheville may not have been ready for that rowdy bunch of girls!

I was glad to get back home today. Josh and Bennett picked me up from Miranda's this afternoon and I was so glad to see them. They both had huge grins for me when they saw me.

Josh's parents were at our house with them this weekend. We had a closet project that needed to be addressed, so Josh thought it would be a good opportunity to accomplish that while also having a little help with Bennett while I was away. Steve and Lynn were happy to come. Steve is a huge help when it comes to carpentry projects, and Lynn is fantastic with Bennett. He absolutely adores her. They must have had fun - he didn't take a nap at all yesterday! His little engine just kept on running, and they let it, since as soon as Bennett laid down it would mean the work would have to stop. The closets that were being worked on were right next to his room.

Anyway, thank you to Lynn and Steve for all your help, thank you to Josh for being a wonderful dad and husband, and thank you to my girls for helping me relax for a weekend! I love all of you!

The Conversation Went Like This:

Woman at Grocery Store: "Oh, look at you!" (admiringly) "How much longer do you have?"

Me: "Til May."

Woman at Grocery Store: "Til MAY?!?!!"

It's a good thing comments like that don't offend me in the slightest.

But yes, I'm pretty big. I don't have my 24 week appointment until next week and I already look like I did when I was 8 months pregnant with Bennett. Go figure.

But the good thing about being so obviously pregnant is that people are so nice to you. I was at Sam's today and a guy that works there came up and unloaded all my things onto the check out belt for me. Another guy met me at the exit and offered to load my car for me.

I remember when we went to Vegas with my family when I was about 6 or 7 months pregnant with Bennett. If I walked up to a crowded roulette table, there would almost always be a guy that would give up his chair for me. And if any of them were smoking, they would put their cigarettes out. It just gives you a little hope in humanity, you know?