Wednesday, June 26, 2013





Here are a few photos from our trip to the beautiful Rhododendron Gardens a couple months ago. Sorry. I seem to always forget I have a blog.























The last one is my favorite. :)

Paulisms

Hurry! I have to post an update on Paul before he turns two! (Which is this coming Monday.)

Paul's quite the little assistant. After helping aunt Reana cook dinner in the kitchen, he decided he'd also join her in the living room to help watch his cousin Lincoln. In passing, my mom commented on the cute scene, "Oh Paul, are you babysitting?" And when she came back a few minutes later, this is what she saw:



Paul took that babysitting comment very literally! (Yes, that's an apron he has on. He takes his cooking seriously too.)

Here are some more funny Paul moments:

Blair was watching the Heat play the Spurs in the NBA finals. When asked who would win, Paul said something like, "They turn their heaters on."

Paul will often give the order, "mommy, be funny". However, when spending time with Blair, Paul simply pleads, "daddy.... talk!"

How does my almost-two-year-old son play with his toy cars? I overheard this "dialogue" between a toy police car and a delivery truck: "Hi car! I got scratch on my wheel. Awww dear!... I kiss better.... *Muaaa! Oh, thanks!"

The William Tell Overture came on the classical radio station while driving with Paul in the morning. I heard a gasp from the car seat. "It's music!" then after a pause and a slow grin through his thumb-sucking pose, he said in a calm voice oozing with delight, "I like this, mommy."

While at my parent's house, Paul attempted to climb a chair taller than he and I discouraged him by telling him it was dangerous. Immediately he tried again and, again, I told him "no".  After a couple seconds of thought Paul ran into the other room calling "come here, mommy! come here!". I dutifully obeyed my toddler and without skipping a beat he ran into the previous room, quickly peaked around the corner to make sure I was still where he'd placed me, and proceeded to climb the chair.

Paul is an expert at verbal communication and pronunciation... as far as pre-two-year-olds go, anyway. He speaks in sentences up to seven or eight words long and we love asking him to pronounce big words like "internet", "republic", "accidental" etc. because he does an amazing job repeating them back quite accurately. Despite all this, though, Paul has a few words he stubbornly refuses to pronounce correctly. Here's a sampling of those words:

Oatmeal is "EE-oh"
Banana is "Ma-na"
Grandpa is "fafa" although it's beginning to morph into "brah-pa"
Reana is "Rhana"
I apologize for this next one, but please note the "r"...
Truck is "fruck"

He can say all these words correctly just fine, but he prefers his versions for now.

Some of his recent accomplishments include:
Counting to 10 consistently without any help. (With some help he can make it to 30.)
Singing the ABCs
Jumping
Drinking from a cup without purposefully spilling
Saying his full name
Brushing his own teeth (mommy still helps get what he's missed)


Above: Paul loves trying on mommy and daddy's shoes.

Above: Cousin Lincoln's first visit to our place without his mommy or daddy.