Visiting the Farm/Visitando la Granja

Chris, Katy, and I went to the stock show last weekend.  While driving to the stock show, we told Katy we were going to see farm animals.  She understood that to mean we were going to the farm.  We played along, not seeing any harm in calling it the farm.

Chris, Katy, y Yo fuimos a la exposición de ganado el fin de semana pasada.  Mientras estábamos manejando al stock show, dijimos a Katy que íbamos a ver los animales de la granja.  Katy entendió que íbamos a la granja.  Chris y yo no corregimos a Katy porque no pensamos que era una problema a decir que la exposición de ganado era la granja.

Someone was afraid of the cows/Algien tuve miedo de las vacas

Of course, there was a lot more than farm animals at the stock show, including a huge carnival at the entrance.  We spent the day looking at loads of animals, eating fried foods, watching a dock jumping dog competition, and exploring other exhibits.  Katy also rode a little train pulled by a four wheeler all by herself not once, but twice.  

Por su puesto, era mucho mas en la exposición de ganado que animales de una granja, incluyendo un carnival grande a la entrada.  Pasamos el día miranda a un moton de animales, comiendo comida frita, mirando a un concurso de perros brincando del muelle, y explorando otros exposiciones.  Tambien, dos veces Katy montó sola en un trenecito de un moto de cuatro ruedas.

The train/El tren

At the petting zoo/A la granja interactiva

Later during the week, I was driving with Katy when we passed a carnival on the side of the road.  Katy got excited and started saying (in Spanish), "The farm, the farm!"  And then started talking about the animals she saw at the farm.  Whoops.  I guess we shouldn't have played along in calling the stock show the farm.

Luego durante la semana, estaba manejando con Katy cuando pasamos un carnival al lado de la calle. Katy estaba muy entusiasmado a ver el carnival and empezó a gritar, "la granja, la granja!"  Y ella empezó a hablar de los animales que vio en la granja.  Aye! Pienso que no era una idea buena a decir a Katy que la exposición de ganado era una granja.

At the entrance/a la entrada

Oink, Oink

As she splashed through the muddy puddles with barefeet, she kept saying (in Spanish), "I'm walking in the mud like a little pig."

Mientras salpicó en el charco fangoso con pies descalzos, estaba deciendo, "Estoy caminando en el fango como un cerdito."

The Story of Zacchaeus/La Historia de Zaqueo

The Sabbath School lesson last month was about Zacchaeus.  Katy really enjoyed this story and for the first time, she learned her memory verse.  This was such an easy story to reinforce outside of the house because something as simple as seeing a tree from the car window would trigger a conversation about Zacchaeus.  I hope you enjoy this video of Katy discussing the story.

La lección de la escuela Sabática el mes pasado era sobre Zaqueo.  A Katy le gusto mucho la cuenta de Zaqueo and por la primara vez, ella aprendió el versículo de memoria.  Era muy facil a reforzarse a Katy esta cuenta cuando estuvimos afuera de la casa porque un árbol comenzaría una conversación sobre Zaqueo.  Espero que disfrutas este video de Katy hablando de la cuenta.

Something New/Algo Nuevo

I'm trying something new.  I am going to write my blogs in both English and Spanish.  I'm hoping this will help me become a more fluent speaker.  Plus, I purchased Barron's book 501 Spanish Verbs recently, and I'm really wanting to use it more.  Hopefully I'll look back at these early posts some day and laugh at all my mistakes.  Hopefully I will not ask myself, "why did I stop doing that so quickly?"  Hopefully I will say, "that's how I learned how to type accent marks."

Estoy tratando algo nuevo. Voy a escribir mis blogs en Ingles y Español.  Espero que va a ayudarme a estar mas fluente en Español.   También, compre recientemente el libro de Barron, "501 Spanish Verbs," y quiero usarlo mas.  Espero que voy a ver en el futuro a mis primeros blogs en los dos idiomas and reír a todos mis errores.  Espero que no voy preguntar, "por qué paré haciendo eso tan rápido?"  Espero que voy a decir, "es como aprendí a escribir a máquina los tildes."

The Ultimate Toddler Busy Board

I originally saw the idea of a busy board for babies and toddlers somewhere on the internet.  I floated the idea by my dad by sending him pictures of a few examples I found online.  My dad, being the detailed craftsman that he is, went above and beyond the examples I sent.  He built the ultimate busy board!  Not only does this busy board feature several latches, a door knob, a faucet handle, an old phone, hooks, and door stoppers, it has working doors, secret compartments, a peep hole, and lights powered by a rechargeable battery.

At the top of the busy board are two red doors with three different kinds of latches mounted on top, one which must be turned correctly in order to open the doors. Inside the doors are a small shelf and a mirror.  Katy enjoys looking at herself in the mirror! 

Katy can also turn on a light in the compartment behind the red doors by using one of the light switches located just below the red doors (more on the other light switch later).

Also below the red doors is a working mail slot.  Items dropped in the mail slot fall to a compartment at the bottom of the busy board, which Katy can access by opening a yellow door with an abacus mounted on it.  Of course, Katy has to properly unlock the latch at the top of the yellow door first. 

Just above the red doors at the top of the busy board is a red light, which is linked to door bell mounted next to a door knocker and peep hole (more on the peep hole later).

Katy's favorite part of the busy board so far are the wooden sorting rings and all the things she can do with them.  In the picture below, Katy has all the colored rings on the bar of a circular towel holder.

The wooden rings can also be sorted on the labeled wooden board just below the circular towel holder, and the wooden board easily slides out of the green pieces of wood holding it on the busy board should Katy want to sort the colored rings on a horizontal surface.   

Katy can also slide the wooden sorting rings through a narrow opening into the same interior compartment connected to the mail slot.  The narrow opening is just above the yellow door on the far left side (see picture above).  The other openings running across the top of the yellow door are a square and a circle that fit wooden lacing beads.  

The second light switch just below the red doors at the top turns on a light behind the peep hole. When you look through the peep hole, you can see different pictures by spinning a wheel mounted inside the busy board.  Katy has yet to master closing one eye to look though small openings, so the peep hole remains a mystery to her. 

Katy's busy board is more than just a busy board.  There is a backside! 

On the back side of the busy board is an easel covered with paint chalk. 

The red bin at the bottom hinges up so that paper rolled from above can be tucked down nice and tight. 

The paint chalk is also magnetic, and the deep red bin at the bottom is plenty big to hold all of Katy's magnets.  

Not only is the busy board fun and functional, it is also gorgeous.  Just look at all those finished woods and beautifully painted surfaces.  Something this nice deserves to be passed down to cousins in the years to come.  Are you reading this Casey and Dennis?  

Birthdays, Valentines Day, and Everything In-between

The last couple of months have been quite busy.  Katy turned two in January and she celebrated with three birthday cakes.  The first cake was really just a slice of cake on her actual birthday that she shared with her cousin Elijah.  Two days later, we had a very small birthday party.  Our dear neighbors across the street generously provided an adorable caterpillar cake for this party.  A week later, Gigi, Pops, and Grandma Sullivan visited, and we enjoyed a third birthday cake, this one decorated by Katy (thus the reason some of the plastic cats atop the cake appeared to be sinking in snow banks of icing).  Katy was happy to share her third birthday celebration with Pops, whose birthday was just a few days away.

Cake #1

Cake # 2

The party crew. 

Katy's birthday gift from Leonardo. 

Cake #3

Big shout out to my dad, who made Katy an amazing busy board for her birthday.  One side is a magnetized chalkboard/roll down paper for drawing.  The other side is filled with knobs, latches, slots, cubbies, and lights for hours of entertainment.  It is a real labor of love, and an amazing one-of-a-kind toy! This thing really deserves its own blog post, which I hope to do soon.

Thanks to an awesome story time group at the library, Katy also experienced her first Valentine's celebration.  After story time, the toddlers made Valentine bags, exchanged treats and cards, and then went home with an adorable heart shaped balloon.  In the evening, we had a Valentine's dinner complete with heart shaped french toast, sausage, and fruit.

Raisins with a message: "To one of my favorite peep-peep-peeps!"

Why did I take the picture by the outlet?  Ugh.

Aside from birthday and holiday celebrations, the downtime in-between has been full of activity: birthday parties, biking trips to the library (compete with picnic lunches), walking at the lovely convention center grounds, taking advantage of free admission week at a local museum, crafts galore, adventures in eating and cooking, tons of books, and lots of free play.  Katy is at such a fun age - she is able to experience so much of the world around her and much of what she experiences is new to her.  What an amazing time in life!

She likes Legos!!!! Can't wait to start our collection!

Play Dough, Dry Spaghetti, and Beads

Katy's first time enjoy bouncy inflatables with out fear!

Foam letters +water = fun!

Nature scavenger hunt

Making grocery shopping a fun activity.  

She rediscovered her Duplo blocks and loves them!

Mixed media art.

Helping dad repair the dishwasher.

Playing with clear water beads - so cool!

Morning snuggles are the best. 

Tea with Ria

Chris was out of town for work last week.  Whenever Chris is out of town, I fill our days with visits to friends.  Talking to an adult everyday, even for just a few minutes, is important for my long term sanity.

On Thursday we visited some elderly friends from church.  As we prepared for our trip before leaving the house, I packed a few toys in a small box for Katy to take along.  At the last minute, Katy brought me four tiny tea cups to add to the box.  I didn't want to add the teacups.  We were already walking out the door, and I didn't want to stop to open the box again.  Moreover, I didn't want another toy to keep track of mentally in hopes of not losing anything.  But Katy insisted on the tea cups, and I gave in.  Praise God that I gave in!

When we arrived at our friends' house, Katy was clingy and shy. After a few minutes, Ria noticed Katy's tiny teacups and poured some juice into one.  Within a few minutes, Katy was willing to join Ria at the table.  What followed was one of the sweetest things ever.  On one side of the table sat Katy, barely able to see over the top of the table, sipping juice from a tiny teacup and eating carrot sticks from another.  On the other side of the table was Ria, small and slightly hunched but happily sharing her juice and carrying on a conversation in her thick South African accent.

After tea, Katy gladly toured the garden with Ria to look at all the plants.  As they walked out the door hand in hand, navigating the threshold and the obstacles of the raised front porch, I wondered who was relying on who more for support.  When Katy and Ria returned to the house, Katy acknowledged that I was still there, as if to comfort herself, and then invited Ria to sit on the floor to play with the rest of the toys in her box.

Praise God for friends in all shapes and sizes.

My first Spanish Joke

One of the hardest things to master in a second language is humor because it usually requires not just comprehension of grammar, vocabulary, and verb conjugation, but it also requires an understanding of idioms, culture, and small nuances in a language.  Understanding and using humor in a second language is a serious skill.  So, it is with great pride, that I present to you the first joke I made up in the Spanish language:

Q:  Que hace el pez perezoso? (what does the lazy fish do?)

A:  "Nada." (nada means both nothing and he swims)

I know it's ridiculously corny and it probably isn't even original, but I don't really care.  I made a joke in Spanish and that's pretty. darn. awesome. 

Guácala!

When Chris changes one of Katy's stinky diapers, he usually exclaims, "guácala." which means yuck or gross in Spanish.  Katy has since learned this word and frequently uses it when she has a stinky diaper.

This past Saturday night, we spent an evening with friends handing out around the convention center.  Katy's little friend Leonardo was there, which made Katy very happy.  Katy adores Leonardo.  Her face lights up when she sees him.  I love watching Katy play with Leonardo because he brings out her social side like no other toddler.  This past Saturday was no exception.  Katy and Leonardo climbed and rolled and danced and laughed and ran and held hands all night.

But now back to the guácala.  Late into the evening, Katy was walking behind Leonardo.  Leonardo's pants were sagging a bit in the back, perhaps because, as we realized half way through the evening, his pants were on backwards (dressing a toddler is challenging at times).  Upon noticing Leonardo's saggy bottom, Katy informed me that "Leonardo tiene guácala" (Leonard has guácala). Yup. Not only does my girl use guácala as a noun, she also knows what it looks like on someone else.

3-D Paper Heart Birth Announcement Art

When my sister-in-law was pregnant with my very first nephew, I made him a little something for his nursery incorporating the nursery theme and colors and the first letter of his name:

Two years later, when my sister-in-law gave birth to my very first nice, I knew I had to make her something special as well.  I was inspired by this image, and others similar, that I found on google:

After verifying the nursery colors, I punched out lots of hearts in three different sizes, scored them down the middle, and folded them in half.  This task was much more tedious than it sounds.  Next I created a template with cut outs for my largest flowers.  This was also much more tedious than it sounds.  Then, it was time to start gluing.

I used the smallest hearts to fill in the space between my larger flowers.  Gluing all those little hearts in place was also very tedious.

I finished it off by adding a raised strip of decorative paper containing baby's name, birth date, and birth weight.  I framed the print in a shadow box style frame.  The end result was well worth all the tedious work it took to get there!

Learning English

Katy recently started repeating English words, phrases, and sentences more frequently, which is entertaining because Spanish remains her dominant language.  When Katy says Happy Birthday, she does not pronounce the H in happy and she pronounces the rth in birthday like a soft r in Spanish.  The result is something like "Appy Burrdaye."   More recently, Katy heard Chris say, "Oh-uh, Spaghetti-ohs," when something fell.  Katy repeated the phrase as "Uh-oh, es-paghetti-ohs."  Chris found this particularly humorous because, in his words, "it sounded like my mom."  

Seeing Katy speak English is both exciting and anxiety inducing.  I want her to speak English and I know that by the time she is ready to start school, she will speak it more fluently no matter how much we emphasize Spanish.  At the same time, however, I fear that by learning English Katy will lose her ability and desire to use Spanish.  In short, I fear that this is the beginning of the end.

For now, all I can do is try to enjoy the changes as they come, which isn't as hard when Katy says things like es-phaghetti.  And I can start letting Katy watch TV...but only in Spanish.  I haven't given up hope altogether.