....toddler slang, apparently. Jonah has come up with some fun ones on this trip. Here are some conversations I have had, or overheard, this week.

On the road to Texas, we stopped in Van Horn to get some lunch. In the drive-through at Wendy's I was reminding Jonah who we would see in Texas. Grandpa, Marmee, Uncle Jaime, Aunt Christel, the Rowdy Girls, Uncle Mike, Aunt Joy. He interupted me there...

Jonah: "Mama, Joy is da sea?"
Me: "What, Jonah?"
Jonah: "Mama, Joy is in da sea."
Me: "You mean, Washington D.C.?"
Jonah: "Yeah, Mama. Joy is washin' in da sea."
Me: *laughing*
Jonah: "Uncle Mike washin' in da sea too"

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Uncle Mike found my grandfather's (Dubbie) guitars in the closet, and got them out to play. Jonah has always wanted to get his hands on those guitars, so Mike taught him to strum the strings with a pick. Quite a few interesting comments stemmed from that interaction...

Uncle Mike: "Hey, Jonah! You ready to jam [on the guitar]?"
Jonah: "Yeah! I wearin' my jammas!" (He was wearing his pj's)

Uncle Mike: "Hey, Jonah. I don't think you want to pick your nose. That's not very rockstar."
Jonah: *open mouth staring with finger lodged in left nostril*

Jonah: "Ruby, you wanna' tickle the streams?" (as he handed her the guitar pick)

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Kathleen: "Jonah, which Sesame Street character is your favorite? Do you like Big Bird?"
Jonah: "No. Big Bird will squish me into jelly."

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Jonah: "Mama, look! Winter Bines!"
Me: "Winter Bines?"
Jonah: "Yea! Yea!" Pointing out the window, "Winter Bines!"
Me: "Oh! Wind Turbines! Can you say wind?"
Jonah: "Wind"
Me: "Turbines?"
Jonah: "Turbines"
Me: "Wind Turbines?"
Jonah: "WINTER bines"

Gracie turned 4 months old last Friday, which means time for another well-check with the pediatrician. She weighed 13 lbs, 3 oz which puts her squarly in the 50%. They shot each of her legs twice with vaccines, plus an oral vaccine. Poor baby was fussy all afternoon.

I was able to get Jonah's 3 year well-check scheduled for today as well. He's in the 90% on weight and 75% on height. Although, the doctor said just by eye-balling that those percentiles didn't match up. We were supposed to get Jonah measured again before we left, but somehow it didn't happen between the freak-out over the flavor of sucker he chose and the wailing baby.

Jonah needed a vaccine too, so Michael came along with us to help toddler wrangle. I just couldn't see myself soothing Jonah after a shot and holding Gracie down for her's at the same time. This was a two man job.

Jonah was full of toddlerisms at the appointment. He insisted on taking his "allience" (the shrieking toy ambulance) with him to the doctor. Then once we were there, he told me, Michael, the receptionist, the medical assistant, the doctor, and the nurse, (several times each) that he "would not like a shot, phank you". I'm pretty sure he told Dr. Vargas at least 5 times. He also told Dr. Vargas that he "would not like chicken spots, phank you." Huh? Oh! Chicken Pox. Duh.

Everyone I spoke with this morning told me about horribly long lines at the polls. I didn't plan ahead and mail in my early voter registration, so today was my one and only chance. I loaded Jonah in the stroller and Gracie in the sling. The diaper bag was stocked with snacks, a portable DVD player, movies, and Hotwheels. I had no idea how long we would have to wait in line so I prepared for the worst.

On the way to the polling place, I tried to prep Jonah for a long wait, telling him he could chill in the stroller, play with his cars, watch movies, eat snacks, la la la.

As we walked up to the building, Jonah was "reading" all the signs, "V-O-T-E spells don't come in here, Mama" and "W-E-L-C-O-M-E says we don't need to vote, we can go home now". He was obviously not looking forward to being stuck in the stroller.

Happily, my last name starts with "W", and our line was super short!!! We were in and out before 10 minutes passed. Gracie smiled at everybody and Jonah ate an organic sucker while I voted. And we all got "I Voted Today" stickers.

I was mourning the loss of toddler slang in our home after reading my sister's blog last week. Then, out of the blue, Jonah whipped up a big batch of toddler-speak and served it all weekend. If I don't blog about it now, I know I'll forget it all.

"Mama, your shirt is hatchin"
translation: Mama, the logo on your shirt has cracks in it

"OH! Daddy can't ask me!"
tanslation: Daddy didn't give the answer I wanted

Jonah knows two things for sure. 1) He is allowed to have one sippy cup of orange juice in the morning, and 2) if Dixie steals his Cliff bar, I will replace it. He was obviously trying to work the rules in his favor when he held his sippy cup out and told me that Dixie drank his juice.

Janice was playing with Jonah on the floor when he said, "Meemaw, you're my best friend.....No, wait....you're my best girl".

We took Jonah to the Fall Festival at church on Friday night (dressed as Woody) and he came home with quite a collection of suckers. He had three unwrapped on Saturday morning and was carrying them around like a little boquet singing, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. Please don't take my suckers away."

And lastly, Michael and I were hugging in the kitchen this morning when Jonah came charging into the room hollering, "Hey! Whas goin' on in here?!"