Well, I'm sad to report that we won't be having another installment of Kids Say the Darndest Things for a while. Since I'm kind of slow on the posting (like it's almost July and I just barely posted the March posts) I've been keeping a running list of the Darndest things that Amaia says, and every time I post one of these I grab a few off the list (in chronological order, of course). Somehow, however, between syncing my list app with the online list thinger, my list was shortened from like 30 things, to like 9. Five of which I'd already used, and the rest I used last time. I dont' know how that happened, but it did, and I'm sad, but what can you do?
Nothing.
Except continue on with the Spot the Difference post (since this list in perfect condition):
*People here call every thing "Brilliant" or "lovely". If you look nice today, it's "Wow Emily you just look lovely". But if something is clever, smart, a good idea, amazing, etc it's "I saw the most brilliant thing yesterday..." (now that word has no meaning...I've said it too many times in my head just now)
*In the states you can use "bucks" as a slang for "dollars". In the UK the slang for 'pounds' is "quid"
*They don't have lemonade here. Well, they do, but it's nasty and carbonated and not anything like real lemonade. And if you ask for a lemonade at a restaurant, you'll get a Sprite.
*Flipping the bird is not offensive here-although some variation or waggle of your two first fingers (peace sign style) is just the same.
*If you are telling some one your phone number, for example, you wouldn't say "5-9-6-4-4-5-2" you would say "5-9-6-double 4-5-2
*And last but not least, the trunk of your car is called the 'boot'
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
General Conference/Church Boredom Buster
Ok,
So I can't take credit for this idea, because it wasn't mine, but for the life of me I can't remember where I saw this (some super crafy blog, that's all I know).
*Update* It was Brown Paper Packages found here:
Anyways, it was an idea to keep kids interested and paying attention during General Conference while you are watching/listening at home. And this worked for Amaia (who isn't yet 3) so it can Work for you, too.
You get some small cups/bowls (we used silicone muffin cups) and fill each one with a different type of small candy: m&ms, skittles, tic tacs, chocolate chips, runts, fruit snacks, etc. Whatever you have. I'd say it's best starting out with only 3 or 4 cups for younger kids, and more as they get older and can remember better.
You get some small cups/bowls (we used silicone muffin cups) and fill each one with a different type of small candy: m&ms, skittles, tic tacs, chocolate chips, runts, fruit snacks, etc. Whatever you have. I'd say it's best starting out with only 3 or 4 cups for younger kids, and more as they get older and can remember better.
Label each cup with a sticky note things like Jesus, Scriptures, Prayer, Family, Prophet, Tithing, Heavenly Father, etc and inform the kids (if they can't read) what each cup is for.
*Edit: An even better idea for kids who can't read, is to get onto your computer and print out clip art for each of the words or phrases you want the kids to listen for. Most recently we used a picture of Christ, President Monson, a picture of our daughter folding her arms (for prayer), a temple, and the golden plates (for scriptures). Since she's not old enough to read, the pictures help her remember which cup is for which word. This is my 1 year old, super excited about Jesus:
Now as you watch conference, if your kids are listening and hear the speaker say Jesus (for example), they go and grab ONE piece of candy out of the cup labeled Jesus. It's that simple! Once they get the hang of it, they won't want to stop!
Now, to take the idea even further....we did the same trick for Stake Conference, but you could also do this on a plain on regular Sunday if your kids have a particularly hard time being quiet. We chose Stake Conference because it was two hours of sitting in one chair as opposed to one hour that's broken up with quite a bit of singing and praying.
We found an empty hair tie thing, but you could also just use one of those 7 day jobbers for pills.
Label each one with a word-we wrote it in permanent marker but realized that was a bad idea-what if we want to switch it up for next time? Luckily it looks like it will come right off this plastic, so no worries.
You don't have to fill them all. Now you have a travel size spill proof little conference buddy! Easy to stash in your already overflowing church bag!
Friday, June 24, 2011
March 2011-2nd Half w Video
Justin's parents came out for a visit-they stayed for about a week and a half. On the first Friday they were here, Justin, Doug and I went to go see the Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre. We had some awesome seats right in the middle front section. We left the girls with JoAnn, who survived (thank goodness).
Saturday we went downtown-we were going to go do something.....(crap-I forgot what it was) but both of the girls were burning up and lethargic and icky (of course we travelled all the way there before they got sick) so Doug and Jo did the basic sight seeing around London while Justin and I took the girls home.
On Sunday we took the Eurostar to Paris and visitied Notre Dame.
On Monday we visited the Louvre Museum (which is ginormous...)
Tuesday, we hopped in a car and drove North towards the coast, stopping along the way at Normandy.
When we got to our hotel, it was late, so we just went to bed. But hold that thought just for a minute...
The next day (Wednesday) we went to visit this place called St Malo. It's like a castle, with a small city built around it, on a giant island/harbour. What's craziest about this place, it it's a real town-not just a tourist trap. This place is small-like the size of a neighborhood in the States, but it's got stores, churches, the castle of course, schools for the residents, and of course, all of their houses/apartments. It was so interesting to see the kids on their way to school all mixed in with tourists and souvenier stores.
One of the craziest things about this place was the tide. We got there as early as we could, and stayed as late as we could (even though it was raining and freezing) so we could see this (you might want to open the picure larger):
Those tide changes happened all in one day! Every day! Isn't that insane?
On Thursday we spent the day walking around our hotel.....wait what? Sounds boring right?
Except when your hotel is at the base of this castle!
It was pretty sweet-once again this whole little place is surrounded into it's own little community, except this place actually still has the "hi I have a chamber pot under my bed" feel-it still felt very mideval and stuff. Not that it smelled.....
We didn't go home after this, but since it's the last day of the month, the rest will come next post. Sorry!
Solia:
*Solia can wave good-bye. She always waves at Amaia as we're leaving her for her nap
*Solia can say Dadda-she looked right at him one day and I swear she said "Hi dada!"
*Solia can officially crawl on her hands and knees, and go up stairs. She also cruises along on the furniture.
Here are some pictures from walking around Paris:
Saturday we went downtown-we were going to go do something.....(crap-I forgot what it was) but both of the girls were burning up and lethargic and icky (of course we travelled all the way there before they got sick) so Doug and Jo did the basic sight seeing around London while Justin and I took the girls home.
On Sunday we took the Eurostar to Paris and visitied Notre Dame.
On Monday we visited the Louvre Museum (which is ginormous...)
Tuesday, we hopped in a car and drove North towards the coast, stopping along the way at Normandy.
When we got to our hotel, it was late, so we just went to bed. But hold that thought just for a minute...
The next day (Wednesday) we went to visit this place called St Malo. It's like a castle, with a small city built around it, on a giant island/harbour. What's craziest about this place, it it's a real town-not just a tourist trap. This place is small-like the size of a neighborhood in the States, but it's got stores, churches, the castle of course, schools for the residents, and of course, all of their houses/apartments. It was so interesting to see the kids on their way to school all mixed in with tourists and souvenier stores.
One of the craziest things about this place was the tide. We got there as early as we could, and stayed as late as we could (even though it was raining and freezing) so we could see this (you might want to open the picure larger):
Those tide changes happened all in one day! Every day! Isn't that insane?
On Thursday we spent the day walking around our hotel.....wait what? Sounds boring right?
Except when your hotel is at the base of this castle!
It was pretty sweet-once again this whole little place is surrounded into it's own little community, except this place actually still has the "hi I have a chamber pot under my bed" feel-it still felt very mideval and stuff. Not that it smelled.....
We didn't go home after this, but since it's the last day of the month, the rest will come next post. Sorry!
Solia:
*Solia can wave good-bye. She always waves at Amaia as we're leaving her for her nap
*Solia can say Dadda-she looked right at him one day and I swear she said "Hi dada!"
*Solia can officially crawl on her hands and knees, and go up stairs. She also cruises along on the furniture.
Here are some pictures from walking around Paris:
Here are some pictures of the girls-the ones that didn't make the cut for the 365:
Here is the first set of 365 pictures:
Here is the second set of 365 pictures:
Amaia:
*She likes to go around saying "wait, what?!?"
*She's gotten rather bossy lately: "DON'T talk to me about that" or "I told you I wanted that!" or " Don't look at me!" etc
*Amaia does this awesome crazy face (which you can see up in the top right corner of that collage)-if you ask her for the crazy face that's what she gives you.
Here are some random pictures I had...
So, instead of uploading the videos to the blog (it takes forever and then I have to dumb them down, and you can't see them for crap, etc) I've just started uploading the videos to YouTube. You might have seen my post that says I have a link to YouTube on my sidebar-well I deleted the link. It takes you to my channel on YouTube, but since I've listed all my videos as 'unlisted' they don't show up on my channel. The only way to view the video is with this link (which you can copy/paste if you want to forward to anyone):
I'm in the process of uploading the previous blog videos-so far all I have are Jan, Feb and March of this year. I'm thinking I might add links to each specific video on the sidebar once I get them all uploaded, other wise you'd have to go find the specific post to watch it....we'll see.
Adios!
Spot the Difference {6}
The emergency room is called the "Accident & Emergency" Room
*The 'main street' is called the high street (every town has one)-and it really is the 'main' street, not just named that.
*On the roads here, in between the two lanes (down the middle of the two directions) is a dotted white line. Always. The double solid yellow lines are along the side of the road by the curb, meaning you can't park there. If they are red solid double lines, it means you can't even stop there.
*So you know how redneck people talk 'funny' (sound different than most people)? They kind of have that here too. There is an obvious difference in speach. Some people talk very properly like you hear most British actors or whatever. But lots of time people don't pronounce their "th" sounds. It's either a "f" sound or a "v" sound, depending on the word. It's almost like a slang thing. Drives me crazy how it sounds :) (not like I'm tyring to be rude, it's just wierd)
*Some words that are swear words here (that aren't in the States) are: Pissed (like pissed off), Crap, and we all know about Bloody. Pretty sure I said 'crap' my first week teaching RS....oops...
*The 'main street' is called the high street (every town has one)-and it really is the 'main' street, not just named that.
*On the roads here, in between the two lanes (down the middle of the two directions) is a dotted white line. Always. The double solid yellow lines are along the side of the road by the curb, meaning you can't park there. If they are red solid double lines, it means you can't even stop there.
*So you know how redneck people talk 'funny' (sound different than most people)? They kind of have that here too. There is an obvious difference in speach. Some people talk very properly like you hear most British actors or whatever. But lots of time people don't pronounce their "th" sounds. It's either a "f" sound or a "v" sound, depending on the word. It's almost like a slang thing. Drives me crazy how it sounds :) (not like I'm tyring to be rude, it's just wierd)
*Some words that are swear words here (that aren't in the States) are: Pissed (like pissed off), Crap, and we all know about Bloody. Pretty sure I said 'crap' my first week teaching RS....oops...
Kids Say the Darndest Things {7}
*(Looking at a picture in a book): That kitty goes 'meow meow', and that spider goes 'spider spider', and that butteryfly goes 'bzzzzz' and that flower goes 'sniff sniff'
*Me: Amaia, come here I want to kiss your face!
Amaia: No! My face has boogers all over it
*Me: Amaia, go tell Daddy he's a brat.
Amaia: He's a captain NOT a brat! Grrrr.... (yes she growled at me)
*Justin: Amaia, will you go get that out of Solia's mouth?
Amaia: No, it's ok if Solia eats that-I don't mind
*(Me going to the bathroom): I think I've been holding this since this morning!
Amaia: Thank you for not going pee pee in your underwear! Thank you...!
*Me: Amaia, come here I want to kiss your face!
Amaia: No! My face has boogers all over it
*Me: Amaia, go tell Daddy he's a brat.
Amaia: He's a captain NOT a brat! Grrrr.... (yes she growled at me)
*Justin: Amaia, will you go get that out of Solia's mouth?
Amaia: No, it's ok if Solia eats that-I don't mind
*(Me going to the bathroom): I think I've been holding this since this morning!
Amaia: Thank you for not going pee pee in your underwear! Thank you...!
March 2011-1st Half
Solia:
*Solia loves the bath. She gets so excited when I go to turn on the water that she practically dive bombs out of my arms into the bathtub.
*We've officially started 'sleep training' Solia. We thought that it would be a problem with the girls sleeping in the same room-thought we'd have to re-sleep train Amaia after we fixed Solia, but she just sleeps right through it.
*It's a struggle to get Solia's PJs on every night-she hates it and fights it like crazy.
*Solia can crawl! And climb up stairs! And pull herself up to kneel on the furniture.
Non 365 Pics
365 Photos 1
365 Photos 2
Amaia:
Amaia 'lifting' with me, a swan eating a piece of bread that landed on his back, and the hair from Amaia's first real haircut (not counting the little bitty trim I gave her when she was like 3 months to make her mohawk flat across the top)
*Solia loves the bath. She gets so excited when I go to turn on the water that she practically dive bombs out of my arms into the bathtub.
*We've officially started 'sleep training' Solia. We thought that it would be a problem with the girls sleeping in the same room-thought we'd have to re-sleep train Amaia after we fixed Solia, but she just sleeps right through it.
*It's a struggle to get Solia's PJs on every night-she hates it and fights it like crazy.
*Solia can crawl! And climb up stairs! And pull herself up to kneel on the furniture.
Non 365 Pics
365 Photos 1
365 Photos 2
Amaia:
*Amaia's learned to say 'excuse me' instead of just interrupting (for the most part)
*Instead of me telling her movies for story time (like Cinderella, Mulan, etc) she'll ask me for a 'different' store (one she hasn't heard yet), and then we'll play "numbers" (as she calls it) where I say a word and she tells me the letter it starts with
*Amaia can spell her own name!
*When Amaia throws a fit, I usually ignore her until she calms down. Sometimes while I'm ignoring her, she'll yell "Just frrrrrrreakin' talk to me!!!"
*Amaia started saying prayers out loud. She'll actually says things like "bless daddy at work" and "thankful for pacaroni and cheese"
*Sometimes when I'm trying to talk to her or see her face, she'll put her hand up and say "this is my stop hand!"
*Amaia knows all of her letters-uppercase and lowercase
*When she takes a drink during lunch/dinner, she always claims its to 'get all the crumbs out' of her mouth
*She calls an elevator an 'elephant gator' or just an 'alligator'.
Amaia 'lifting' with me, a swan eating a piece of bread that landed on his back, and the hair from Amaia's first real haircut (not counting the little bitty trim I gave her when she was like 3 months to make her mohawk flat across the top)
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Link to YouTube
So I realized after, what do you think, a year?...of posting videos to this blog, that they look like crap. No, the videos themselves rock, but since they are so long, I have to really dumb them down in order to be able to post them on Blogger because you are only allowed like 100 MB and that's not very big. Well, once they get dumbed down, everything is all terrible resolution and all pixely-which isn't all that bad if you are watching it in that little bitty box.
But, say you want to actually be able to READ any of the subtitles I've added so you can actually understand what in the world Amaia is trying to say? Let's say you open the video up to full screen to make it all bigger. Problem solved, right?
Wrong.
The words are so blurry that half the time they are hard for me to make out-and I'm the one who wrote them.
SOOOooo...I've decided to upload all my blog vidoes to YouTube since you can upload much bigger files. Right now I've got like 200 minutes to go uploading the February video (granted it's one of the longer videos) so as of yet there is nothing on there.
Here's the link:
Link :)
I'm pretty sure that takes you to where you can find all my uploaded videos (someone tell me if it doesn't work)-but like I said-it'll take a little while to get them all up, so don't forget to check back later if you check and it's still empty.
But, say you want to actually be able to READ any of the subtitles I've added so you can actually understand what in the world Amaia is trying to say? Let's say you open the video up to full screen to make it all bigger. Problem solved, right?
Wrong.
The words are so blurry that half the time they are hard for me to make out-and I'm the one who wrote them.
SOOOooo...I've decided to upload all my blog vidoes to YouTube since you can upload much bigger files. Right now I've got like 200 minutes to go uploading the February video (granted it's one of the longer videos) so as of yet there is nothing on there.
Here's the link:
Link :)
I'm pretty sure that takes you to where you can find all my uploaded videos (someone tell me if it doesn't work)-but like I said-it'll take a little while to get them all up, so don't forget to check back later if you check and it's still empty.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Spot the Difference {5}
*You know how every penny looks the same, and all dimes look the same, and all (the fronts of) quarters look the same? Well I was looking through my 1 pound coins the other day-out of 19 coins, 11 of them were unique! There some repeated fronts and backs, but they were all in different combinations.
*Here, you have to actually hail a bus like you would for a Taxi (in most places). Bus routes (called roots) overlap and so you have three busses going down the street going different places so you have to flag down the one you want. If you don't, it'll just drive right past the bus stop. Why stop if no one wants to get on?
*Kids start 'primary school' when they are 4 years old.
*The light swtiches in the houses are on the wall OUTSIDE the bathroom.
*To say it's 9:30, you'd say it's half of 9, or just half 9.
*Here, you have to actually hail a bus like you would for a Taxi (in most places). Bus routes (called roots) overlap and so you have three busses going down the street going different places so you have to flag down the one you want. If you don't, it'll just drive right past the bus stop. Why stop if no one wants to get on?
*Kids start 'primary school' when they are 4 years old.
*The light swtiches in the houses are on the wall OUTSIDE the bathroom.
*To say it's 9:30, you'd say it's half of 9, or just half 9.
Kids Says the Darndest Things {6}
*I took my bracelets off-I not so bee-tee-full any more
*If a bad guy comes in our new house I'll catch him
*Apparently I had asked Amaia something she already told me, so I hear "I already said that two times Mommy!"
*After we go to Tesco, we be soo fickin' durty, and take a bath.
*(Solia was crying): Let's go fix Solia.
*I called Justin a brat one day for making a joke at my expense and Amaia yells "Daddy's 'Captain' NOT a brat!"
*If a bad guy comes in our new house I'll catch him
*Apparently I had asked Amaia something she already told me, so I hear "I already said that two times Mommy!"
*After we go to Tesco, we be soo fickin' durty, and take a bath.
*(Solia was crying): Let's go fix Solia.
*I called Justin a brat one day for making a joke at my expense and Amaia yells "Daddy's 'Captain' NOT a brat!"
February 2011-2nd Half w Video
Justin left us for two weeks! He had a business trip to Houston and was able to pick up some stuff for us. You can see all the bounty we got in one of the 365 pics with the girls. We got stuff like goldfish, hair ties for the girls, crafting supplies, video games (that you can't buy here-different region just like with DVDs), books, new suitcases to put all the crap in, clothes for all of us, ingredients and food products you can't buy here, etc. Pretty much, we made out like bandits. Too bad he's not going back for at least 6 months so we've got to make it all last!
Solia:
*She's starting to get up onto her knees and onto her feet-we had to raise the crib bars so she couldn't fall out.
This is the "nursing mother's room" in our ward building-the building is so small that there are no empty rooms to nurse in, and since I'm (at the moment) the only nursing mother, I get a storage closet with a chair in it. And it's freezing.
Some pictures of the girls that didn't make the 365 cut:
365 1st Half Photos:
365 2nd Half Photos:
Amaia:
Here is the link to the video uploaded on YouTube:
Solia:
*She's starting to get up onto her knees and onto her feet-we had to raise the crib bars so she couldn't fall out.
This is the "nursing mother's room" in our ward building-the building is so small that there are no empty rooms to nurse in, and since I'm (at the moment) the only nursing mother, I get a storage closet with a chair in it. And it's freezing.
Some pictures of the girls that didn't make the 365 cut:
365 1st Half Photos:
365 2nd Half Photos:
Amaia:
(Bracelets on her ears as 'earrings', a balloon man, silly string, making the "welcome home" sign for Justin)
*When we read scriptures, Amaia starts yelling for us to say "and it came to pass" if the verse doesn't start with it.
*When we pray at night, she'll always tell us we need to "say it at Spanish" (not in Spanish).
*Justin likes to call Solia "Soliloquy"-Amaia tries to say it but it sounds more like "So-wuck-wee"
*Amaia's learned the phrase "I no mean to" and likes to say it every time she does something she's not supposed to, regardless of wether she 'mean to' or not.
*Amaia knows all of her letters, uppercase and lower case. She'll go around spelling everything she sees
*Since she doesn't know what she's spelling, she'll see a box of cereal and say "c-r-u-n-c-h-y--dat spells 'Amaia'!" Apparently, everything spells Amaia.
*Did I mention that she actually knows how to spell her own name-but for some reason still thinks that everything spells Amaia, even when they don't begin with an A.
*If I say: Amaia don't hit Solia (i.e.), she'll say "My can hit Solia ever my want!" (whenever she wants....nice)
(You know, I still havent' figured out when she says "my" if she's doing the whole 'improper proper noun use' thing, or if she is abbreviating Amaia...)
*Apparently when Justin was younger, when Joey would sing to him, he would tell her to stop-apparenly he didn't think she was that good of a singer. Well, Amaia likes to tell me to "please stop" (with the sweetest voice) when I try to sing.
*For a couple weeks now, everything has ben "so so feeking (blank)": It's gunna be so, so feekin' yummy; I so so feekin' tired; etc.
*When Amaia is doing something she knows she's not supposed to be doing, the second you confront her (no matter what way you do it), she'll yell "what, em?!" all defensively
*She's starting to do things only because I said not to, just to spite me-she's also gone from tantrums when she's mad to physical violence-pushing Solia over (which smacks her head on the not so soft floor), scratching, throwing toys, kicking, etc.
*If she needs something, instead of asking for it or saying she needs it, she'll say "I forgot a (get my blankie)!" and then make this look that says "what in the world was I thinking?" It's hilarious.
Here is the link to the video uploaded on YouTube:
February 2011-1st Half
Solia:
*Solia can go from laying down to sitting up on her own
*When I feed Solia, she'll remover her fingers long enough to shove the spoon in there, and then she'll stick her fingers right back in and 'suck' her food down (works great when I had to give her tylenol and stuff)
*Solia's started the finger foods-Rice Krispies cereal. Did you know the "regular" Cheerios here are like Honey Nut Cheerios-maybe minus the 'nut' part-yea, definitely not plain cheerios. Hence the Rice Krispies.
Girls Non 365 Photos
365 1st Half
365 2nd Half
Amaia:
*Solia can go from laying down to sitting up on her own
*When I feed Solia, she'll remover her fingers long enough to shove the spoon in there, and then she'll stick her fingers right back in and 'suck' her food down (works great when I had to give her tylenol and stuff)
*Solia's started the finger foods-Rice Krispies cereal. Did you know the "regular" Cheerios here are like Honey Nut Cheerios-maybe minus the 'nut' part-yea, definitely not plain cheerios. Hence the Rice Krispies.
Girls Non 365 Photos
365 1st Half
365 2nd Half
Amaia:
*She has to have a small towel every night. I usually give her one of the ones I use for Solia's spit up (a clean one, of course). She'll use it to repeatedly dry off her thumb, then suck, dry, repeat. If I forget to get her one, she'll get into the little closet in her room and grab one of Solia's blankets (lowest shelf) and use that.
*We have a GPS in our car-and we paid like 10 bucks so that it was the voice of Snoop Dogg telling us where to go. It's tight. Amaia calls him "snoop Gog" :)
*She likes to tell us that she'll needs to go upstairs (or go/do whatever) for "a couple whiles"
The ducks out back-Justin playing "neerom bonk" with Solia like he used to play with Amaia-the view out of the girl's room window (towards the back of the house)
Spot the Difference {4}
Crackers = Savoury Biscuits
Cookies = Sweet Biscuits
Chips = Crisps
Diapers = Nappies
The # symbol is called a "hash"
Z = Zed
H = Haych
Stroller = Pram/Buggy
Cookies = Sweet Biscuits
Chips = Crisps
Diapers = Nappies
The # symbol is called a "hash"
Z = Zed
H = Haych
Stroller = Pram/Buggy
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