Kids say the darnedest things...even when vocabulary is limited

If you are my friend on Facebook this is old news but I got such a good reaction from my FB friends and I know many of you do not do FB so I thought it was worth a re-post.

Josh learned the sign for "coffee" last month.  This past weekend, Tyler told Josh it was time to get out of the house and added, "But first we have to go somewhere and  get something for Dad.  Do you know what it is?"  Josh shrugged.  "It is something Dad gets every weekend"  Nothing.  "It's hot"  an instant realization comes across Josh's face and he shouts, "Mom!"
Hee-hee-hee!  That boy is awesome!

I asked Josh how school was.  He signed "teacher" and "funny" while making a bad face.  "Your teacher is not funny?"  He shakes his head and signs again "me" "teacher" "funny" as he shakes his head no.  "Your teacher doesn't think you are funny?"  He nods, signs "4" "talk" and "friends".  "You talk to your friends four times and she told you that you aren't funny?"  Yes.
I love how good he is getting at communicating and all the hilarious things he says.  Even if his teacher doesn't find his antics amusing, I do.

Whenever I ask Josh how he likes his new teacher he twists one side of his face into a slightly sour look and teeters one hand back and forth (think "Eh, she's so-so").  I saw one of the aides from his class last weekend at a restaurant.  I asked her how she felt about the new teacher.  She paused and asked how Josh liked her.  I told her this is what Josh always says and made the face and hand motion.  She laughed and said, "That is exactly how I feel about her too!"  At least he is accurate.

Yesterday I was playing Guess Who with Josh.  I told him that my guy had a mustache.  He started closing my guy and I stopped him.  "He has a mustache.  See?"  Josh signs that he has a beard.  "Well, yes, but he has a beard too."  He looks at me confused.  "Some guys have a beard and a mustache at the same time."  No kidding, Josh looks at me with big eyes, points both index fingers at his temples, then hands extending out fingers extended with a "pckooo" (perfect "mind blown" hands and sound).
He only gets funnier.  I was so worried that I would miss all of the fun things that kids say, and I guess I have missed some, but my kid has some serious humor and is good at expressing it even though it must be hard.

We were talking about Valentine's Day and Tyler asked Josh if he has a girlfriend.  Josh instantly nods yes and says, "Mom".  Tyler asks, "Who's your girlfriend?"  Josh looks at him like he is touched in the head and nods bigger and says louder, with hands held out to his sides palms up, "Mom".

I think that being out in SLC has done Josh some good as far as communication.  He tries harder and puts more together.  He is really coming into his own.

Where did the year go?

So I never even finished writing about my awesome Hawaii trip.  I had been waiting for my husband to bring me a flash drive with more pictures but when he finally did I was so busy with my new job that I never got to it and the later it got...well, you know how it goes.  I hope to finish those later but for now I think I need to play catch up.

I got a job in Holladay at a care center.  People (usually older adults) come after a hospital stay following surgery or an accident if they are unable to return home.  I help them get stronger, learn to perform their daily activities more independently, learn to live with any new parameters (weight bearing status, motion restrictions, etc), and essentially return to their prior living environment safely and with the same level of independence as before.  I love it.  There is nothing more satisfying than helping someone get back home.

Since Tyler and I are both working in the SLC area we decided to move to cut down on commute.  We found a place we love, it is just a rental but it feels like home. It has been really fun to do our own thing and set up the house the way we want.  I will have to take some pictures.  It was amazing to see how everyone dealt with the move.  My son took it so well I couldn't believe it, no issues going to a new school, to daycare, or sleeping in a new room.  My husband made a 180 again (he is always doing this to me in different areas of life).  I would come home after work and think, "What happened to the house?!  It looks so clean!"  He has been so wonderful about cleaning up after everyone and helping me out without any nagging.  Not that he was terrible before but to do this of his own accord and so consistently...it has been great.  He has also changed in his relationship with Josh.

One day he had a conversation with Josh about how if Josh had a specific name for him he would know Josh was talking to him (Josh has always called him "Mom" which is my name or "Mama" which is grandma's name.  To be fair this is what Josh calls everyone because he can't say anything else).  I heard Josh practicing his "D" sounds and within a week or two he was saying "Da" to refer to Tyler regularly.  Josh now asks when he is coming home, if we can call him when he is at work, asks to sit next to him, ride in the car with him, and celebrates when he gets home.  And Tyler is reciprocating with spending more fun time together and taking on more Josh responsibilities.

I will try to write a Halloween post later with pictures.

This Christmas was fun.  I loved putting up my tree for the first time.  It is a white tree and I have black, dark grey, silver, and red ornaments.
We went to the holiday party for the Boys and Girls Club.  Josh picked the only empty table to eat at.  A woman joined us and I found out she was "the helpers" wife.  So I schemed with her.  Josh still requires me to be an interpreter much of the time.  Santa can be a hard one.  Josh wants to be a big kid but he is nervous about trying to get his point across with signs and gestures and, honestly, I don't think any Santa would be able to figure out what he is saying (Josh is smart like that, he knows when he needs me and when he can do it himself).  So I have to come up with him and he never gets his moment with Santa like other kids do.  When I refused to come up to Santa with him Josh was reluctant until Santa greeted him with, "Hello there, Josh!"  Josh was stunned.  He sat on Santa's lap with wide-eyed disbelief.  "Let me see...I believe you want a Tiger Claw action figure, is that right?"  Josh did the perfect Home Alone face and loudly whispered, "MOM!" then nodded at Santa.  It was a perfect Miracle on 34th St moment.

I was totally spoiled this Christmas.  Tyler and I had agreed to keep it a practical Christmas and not spend much on each other.  As time went on, I realized that Tyler may not be following the plan completely.  On Christmas morning it was obvious that there was a "special present".  Now you must understand these two things, I DO NOT want a smart phone and my husband is well aware of this although he thinks I need one and I have wanted a B7 Audi wagon since they came out.   This is what happened.  My husband knows as much as I love this car I would never buy one because I tend to be too practical.  A beater car works just fine and I don't need a nice one, yadda yadda.  That being said, I LOVE this car.  I now find myself thinking the exact words I have heard my husband say for years.  I look back at it as I leave and miss it.  I think about it during the day and wonder when I will drive again.  I worry about where I park.  I think that speed limits shouldn't apply to cars that want to go faster.  I want to drive people places.  It has been great.  Also, my husband did a great job with doing the work on the car himself and getting it for a great deal so even my sensibilities are not offended.

Buddhist Temple 2014

We checked out a replica of a Buddhist temple.  It was so beautiful and peaceful.  

Ringing the gong is supposed to help clear your mind before going into the temple.

This statue is made out of wood then coated in black paint and lastly gold leaf.  It was HUGE!  This picture doesn't capture the presence this had.  

Every detail was perfect.  The sand was raked into calming lines and swirls and they even had these cute gargoyle guys. 

LOTS of coy fish.  So many.  And there was a group of them ganging up on another one incessantly and so violently that it was being pushed all the way out of the water.  It was mildly disturbing.  

Thai food and pineapples

Tyler and I stayed in Waikiki for a few days.  We still spent our days with Richard but our nights were in this odd city; a mixture of San Francisco, Las Vegas, some Asian big city, and Hawaii.  The shopping there was crazy.  Think Caesar's Palace type shopping only outside for many city blocks. The only thing that rivaled the amount of shopping was the amount of restaurants.  One night we wanted to find a place to eat so Tyler used yelp to find food within 1 mile, lower priced, at least 3 stars, and it gave us over one hundred options.  We decided to go with an authentic Thai restaurant with 4.5 stars and over 600 reviews.  When we got there I almost chickened out because we were the only white people and most of the other patrons didn't even speak English, they were showing passports as ID, also their menu stated that they use MSG.  With 600+ reviews at least a few of them had to be from mainland Americans right?  I am glad we didn't leave, it was good food and we didn't get sick. 

We were also obsessed with pineapple.  We ate some almost everyday.  So when we saw a couple enjoying a pineapple drink we knew we needed one.  They were trying to take a selfie so Tyler asked if he could take it for them.  He took one then pretended to run with her camera.  You should have seen her face.  It was pretty priceless.  Anyway, the drink was good; they took a pineapple, cut off the top cored it, blended it up and put it right back in.  Because it is so fibrous it was almost like a smoothie.  Yum!

Hanauma Bay 2014

I know all of these pictures are very similar but this place was just so amazingly beautiful and none of the pictures do it justice.  This is an absolutely beautiful nature preserve that is a must see must snorkel.  This is one that the tourists absolutely got right.  They have a parking lot that really dictates how many people can be there at once, once the lot is full, there is no parking for miles.  

You see that dark stuff in the water?  That is the reef.  I was so close to it at times I had to let the waves take me over while I thought skinny thoughts.  If the water was any lower I may not have been able to get out there.  But being that close to the reef means that you get a really up close and personal view of the fish/sea life.  Because it is a preserve, the fish are not scared of you and even the fish that are usually more skiddish will let you get pretty close.  We saw the most amazing parrot fish and you could hear them crunch the coral as they ate it.  

This was possibly my most favorite place to snorkel.  Other places you had to dive to see the good stuff.  Here there were so many fish and they were right there swimming right next to you.

We also saw a turtle here but it isn't the best place to go if you want to snorkel with a turtle.  Not enough room unless you go out pretty far.

And although I didn't get any pictures, we saw plenty of Mongoose here.  I didn't know Hawaii had Mongoose but apparently they were introduced as an experimental rat control that did not work.  Instead they ate the bird's eggs until the birds began nesting on small islands off the mainland.  I know that means that I shouldn't like them but they were so cute it was hard to have any bad feelings toward them.

Again, I wish I could give you a glimpse of how great this place was; I could tell/show you the fish I saw there, describe the water, but I think it is one of those things that has to be experienced.  

Tide pooling 2014

Tide pooling was a can't miss activity with Richard.  I wish that we could have done more of it.  Sure it is fun for the rest of us, but when you tide pool with Richard you are sure to see something awesome.

Can't be getting sunburns.  We heckled Richard and Ben plenty while taking this picture.  It was so good to see Ben and spend some quality time with him.  I adore his brother and sister and so it was no surprise that I liked spending time with him too.  

This was the strangest, fastest moving starfish I have ever seen.  Looks like it came out of the movie Aliens.  Tyler says that when they were snorkeling later he moved a rock and found two of these about a foot across!

Tyler found this guy and showed us.  "I found a cone snail!"  Richard looks in the net and says, "Good identification Tyler!"  Cone snails are poisonous and so you can't touch them.  This guy was trying to sting the net and it made me nervous.  About 10 minutes later I found something I thought looked interesting.  "Hey what is this? Oh, it's a rock." Tyler:  "Good identification!"

A sea cucumber that has spit its gross white stuff out and an urchin

Kids love to pull Richard over and show him things that they have found and they love to see what he has.  He is always patient and tells them facts, lets them touch it if it is appropriate, he is a good teacher.

Hermit crab

This is a box crab.  They look just like rocks!  Richard caught this one.  It was my goal to catch one as well.

Look at how weird he looks all opened up ready to fight

After seeing the box crab Tyler and I went to looking with much more purpose.  We found this little black rock crab and spent like 5 minutes catching him.

We were so proud we turned to Richard to show him

"Nice job!"  He says without a hint of irony as he has 3 box crabs in one hand and is going for a fourth.  It was like a scene from a movie.  The crabs were perfectly content just sitting in his hand.  When Tyler tried to hold one it got away.  Just add crab whisperer to Richard's many talents.

Tyler caught this guy but he (the crab) also looks kind of dumb.  

Tyler tried and tried to net a fish so I had to catch this Sculpin just to show him I could.  And that is Richard's box crab next to him.  

I finally got my box crab!