Alexander Update - 8 mos

Alexander is scooting well, and playing peek-a-boo by himself. He has discovered ice cream and o-wa pops (taro-flavored popsicles), which he LOVES!

A knuckle by any other name

So Alana can be very descriptive when trying to explain something. She hurt a knuckle the other day, and didn't know what to call it. She was mid-sentence when she realized she didn't know the word, so she plowed on and called it her "finger-knee".

Off we go...

I sing in a chorus. Of course, that means that I have to practice at home in order to learn my songs for our performances. One of the songs that we sing is the Armed Forces Medley and has the US Air Force anthem in it.

The other day, Keith took Alana up for a nap and said "Off we go..."

Alana promptly continued with "...into the wild blue yonder. Climbing high into the sun."

You think I practice a little too much at home? *LOL*

Giggling

Alexander has begun giggling. Alana takes great pleasure in setting him off and will do just about anything, generally singing and dancing and demonstrating a willingness to make a complete fool of herself (just like her parents *g*).

Mustard Truck

Remember the game of 'telephone' you played as a kid, where you whisper something to someone, and they whisper it to someone else, and by the time you get to the end of the circle it's unrecognizable? Talking to a 3-year-old is like that, except they're the whole rest of the circle.

There are different variations on the theme. Some are just inability to pronounce things (pasketti [spaghetti], chawt-lick [chocolate], etc.) Another is replacement of one phrase with another that sounds similar, but is comically incorrect. Mind you, this happens with all of us--like mis-hearing Jimi Hendrix's "'Scuse me, while I kiss the sky!" as "'Scuse me, while I kiss this guy!" and so on (another friend of ours misinterpreted the Ramones' "I wanna be sedated" as "I wanna piece of danish" for years, with encouragement from her older siblings).

Alana has several of these that we enjoy:
Her friend, Tommy, has a bit of an obsession with trucks; construction trucks, big rigs, you name it. The other day, we were getting out of our car and Alana points to the pick-up truck next to ours and says, "Look, it's a mustard truck!"

Hunh?

She says, "Just like Tommy's mustard truck!"

After wracking our brains, we finally realize that she's saying 'monster truck'. *LOL*

She also has a "barbeque doll" (you've all seen these...statuesque figure with narrow waist, boyfriend Ken, etc.)

And, finally, when we're all in the mood for french fries she asks if we can go to "Old McDonald's".

Her own language

Sometimes, we have trouble understanding Alana because her diction isn't quite perfect (or she's speaking in Taiwanese which makes it tricky for Keith). Other times, it's because she's made a whole new language of her own...

Every morning, Keith heads off to work. Every morning, Alana faithfully waves goodbye from the window, calling out, "Aladdas in the biddas! Don't forget your piddas!" ... Every morning.

When we finally asked her what that meant, she shrugged and said, "Goodbye."

That's our reflection, silly!

One day, we all went out to a restaurant. The ceiling was mirrored in the entrance area. Keith was looking up with Alana and asked, "How can we be up there when we're already down here?" Alana looked at him like he had cracked his head and said, "That's just our reflection, silly!"

Baby Kisses

AC was so happy when Alexander, at a little under three months, would open his mouth and try to air kiss her when she kissed his face. “Look at him imitating us!”, we thought. “What a clever little boy!” Finally, one day, when she kissed him, he whipped his head around, locked onto her lower lip and started sucking away with an effort that would impress the whole Oreck/Dyson/Hoover crowd. Which isn’t to say he isn’t clever, but he sure does like to EAT.

Psst…she didn’t really cut my hair, Mommy!

Alana, her Mom and her A-ma went to Linh’s for haircuts. Linh cut Mom’s hair, then A-ma’s hair. Alana’s hair had been trimmed recently, so she didn’t really need it cut. When she asked if she was going to get a haircut, A-ma didn't have the heart to say no so she asked Linh in a whisper to just pretend to cut it.

Linh spritzed her hair with water, snipped the air around Alana’s head, and brushed her hair, then asked if Alana liked it. Alana just looked at her strangely, then turned to her mother and said in a whisper, “Mommy, she didn’t really cut my hair!”

Mmmm….Eye of Newt!

At a restaurant, family friend Mark turned to Alana and said, “What are you going to have? Want some Eye of Newt?” Alana thought about it for a moment, then said, “OK, sure.” Mark smirked and gave her the maraschino cherry from his drink, sans stem. Alana said “Thanks,” popped it into her mouth, and ate it. “So Alana,” I said, “what does Eye of Newt taste like?” She looked at me with a little smile, and said “Ummm. It tastes like cherry.”