Ghetto Sandbox

We had a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa this weekend! We always enjoy when they come to stay with us. After brunch on Sunday, we went into the backyard to do some minor pruning of our two geriatric pear trees, and see about transplanting a tiny red maple tree that had sprouted in our hedgerow from the neighbor's tree nearby (my parents are excellent landscapers and very handy in the garden, but this particularly lovely maple was too intertwined with the other hedges to be a good candidate for transplantation - boo!).


Meanwhile, Jake and "Gee-dah" were occupying themselves in a patch of unused soil behind the house (which, I come to find out, is rather nice, as dirt goes). They performed their own archeological dig, turning up a plastic cowboy (probably a toy from when my father-in-law played there as a boy), a number of metal clothespin springs, and a rusty vintage clothes hanger. Grandpa termed it our "ghetto sandbox." Tee hee! Jake had a great time getting spectacularly dirty and filled his shoes and pants and jacket with the sandy soil, which will soon be planted with a nice patch of shade-loving perennials once mama finds an hour or two of spare time (ha!).


I guess it's time to think about getting a real sandbox for my spoiled soiled little guy. Anyone else out there have a boy who is fond of dirt?

small, Medium, LARGE

Jake delights in seeing the difference in sizes between objects lately. Particularly in food and animals. His room is decorated in an animal theme, with elephants, alligators, dogs, and chickens galore. There are bigger animals on some of the accessories (crib bumper, area rug) and smaller animals on other accessories (bed skirt, curtains). Jake will point to the small elephant and say "bebee" and point to a larger elephant and say "dada."

So out at brunch today with Grandma and Grandpa, Jake bit one fry and called it baby, then looked at the uneaten fry in his other hand and called it mama. Then he ate all of the "baby" fry, and said "Oh no! Bebee!" He cracks us up constantly these days!

Gee-Dah's Little Helper

Here is a great picture of Jake when we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa a few weekends ago. Jake was having a great time helping Gee-Dah* in the garden, but insisted upon stealing her gloves from her! Grandma is easily charmed by Jake-a-boops, so she happily gave in to his request.




*Jake has taken to calling Grandma "Gee-Dah." It came about because we were trying to get him to pronounce "G-Dad" for Grandpa, since Jake refuses to say "Grand" - Ma or Pa. Up until maybe a month or two ago, he was still calling me, and my mom, and my mother-in-law all "MA!" We finally got him to pronounce "Mema" about a month ago, and around the same time really tried to push him to call Grandma something exclusive so it wasn't so confusing when two or three of us were together. Anyway, he was supposed to call Grandpa "G-Dad," but instead he calls Grandma "Gee-Dah" and still calls Grandpa, simply, Dad. Poor confused little guy! :)

A Little Caulk Should Do it...

Someone has recently become very interested in the contents of Mama's toolbox. Hammer is one of his new favorite words. But today, Jake's professional recommendation while putting together his new Little Tikes Slide was that a little caulk and some pliers would do the trick.


I still referred to the directions (which-were-five-pages-long-but-only-showed-you-pictures-then-gave-you-warnings-in-every-language-imaginable-but-still-couldn't-tell-you-what-you-were-supposed-to-do-IN-ENGLISH....but I digress...)

My OTHER blog!

Just posted some fun pictures over at my other blog, thought you might want to check it out if you are not already a regular visitor ;)

Jake the Honda Lover

Jake has inherited his mother's love of cars, and I am amazed at his ability to recognize specific brands of cars. Jake is particularly gifted at being able to identify the cars we drive: if a silver 2004 Honda Accord crosses his path he yells "Daddy!" When he sees a red 2003 Honda Pilot - he chirps "Mommy!". Should he happen across a graphite 1999 Honda Odyssey? "Mema!"


I was also delighted when he did the "more" sign and said "Again! Again" after seeing a cherry red Ferrari last week - a good sign! :)

Vocabulary Explosion

(this picture has nothing to do with the post, it's just a recent one that I liked and I had no better picture to use)



Jake is learning more and more words every day. It's amazing the words that he has soaked up like a sponge and is just now beginning to verbalize. The other day, my mom and I took him to get his haircut. We were standing near the cash register when the drawer popped open. "Money!" Jake happily cheered. My mom and I looked at each other in amazement and cracked up - we had no idea he knew that word, but he knew darn well it was an important one! :)

Holy Guacamole!

I wanted to put an end to the rumors and just confirm the news myself.... YES, I did, indeed, cook dinner for my family last night. I know, I know, it's shocking and hard to believe, but it's true. (For those who are not in the know, the last meal I prepared was in the summer of 2007. Seriously.) I sauteed ground beef with taco seasoning, made a big pot of mexican yellow rice, chopped lettuce, microwaved refried beans, made up little bowls of salsa, sour cream, mexican cheese, and cut up some limes - the whole thing!


We had a lovely make-your-own-taco dinner and even Jake had a good time rolling his own soft-shell tacos. Ralph also prepared his first-ever bowl of fresh guacamole, and everything was delicious. There is even talk of making this a regular event in the Vasami household.

Except for this tiny mishap, everything went very well! Apparently when they say "reduce to low heat and cook for 25 minutes" they really mean it....