Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I'm sure you're wondering how Scott did while we were away? Ummm WONDERFUL! I don't know if he actually knew we were gone. He was spoiled to the core by two sets of grandparents and we got pictures sent to us regularly which helped me out a lot to see what a good time he was having.
We left a basket of new cars for Scott for him to have one new one each day while we were away. The picture above is of new car numero uno! My mom said he really was excited to get one everyday...even though he really had no idea that it was a countdown until we came home.

Scott spend lots of time building towers with his new blocks, especially since we had record heat while we were gone and there were many days that they could only go outside to the park or swimming in the early morning and late afternoon and the middle of the day had to be spent indoors.

Some days it was too hot for clothes!!!!!

We wanted to keep Scott as close to his normal schedule as possible which includes regular visits with "JAY". Scott also got his adjustment from Dr. Katie each week while we were gone!

Scott also discovered a new favorite show - Disney's Little Einsteins. So long Mickey Mouse Clubhouse...Little Einsteins is his favorite. He calls it "Ein-eins". If you haven't seen it give it a try (because I'm sure you've had about as much MMCH as you can take) they play classical music and famous pieces of art and teach kids about famous composers and artists while the Little Einsteins take their journey in each episode. Very cute!

London

Well it hasn't been quite a week since we've been home so that still makes my posts about the trip somewhat timely, no? You only get London for now...the flight over was...really bumpy...not horrible....it could have been worse....but I have had more comfortable experiences in my life. We landed around 10am London time and after collecting our bags and taking the underground we made it to our hotel in one piece by around noon. It was raining...which we weren't at all surprised about, frankly it was a wonderful change in weather from home. After getting settled we met up with Taber, our travel partner to be for 2.5 days, and headed to lunch - at our first of many (MANY) pubs. I wouldn't say I'm a picky eater, maybe restricted?! I don't know but the soup of the day was on the menu for me 2 meals a day for 5 days....if you care the best one was a potato leak at a random pub the first night.
After lunch we set out to explore the city....

I am doing my best not to put 5 million pictures of the same stuff everyone has seen over and over - but I am including some of my favorite shots of the "big important places".

We saw some sights the first day and managed to keep ourselves awake until nearly 8pm (thanks to Taber for being such a go-getter!!! if it weren't for him we would have hit the hay at 5pm - not a joke). Staying up really helped us get used to the time difference.

Day 2 began with a tour of the Tower of London. We got there basically when it opened (I recommend this, no line, not terribly crowded) and it was perfect time to take the tour with this charming chap...

Our Beefeater friend gave us a fantastic history of the place. It turned out to be one of the best tours we had.
Love the little plaza below...I could totally live somewhere that looked like that....but not here because evidently there were many beheadings that took place in the square...no thanks!

After our tour we roamed around for another hour or two...I took a lot of pictures of all the horse displays for Scotty P. (this a reoccurring theme in my photography during this trip...when your kid loves something you find yourself loving it too. And we found a toy horse at the gift shop dressed in battle gear to bring home to Scott. He loved it!)

I just adored the child sized armor (in theory...who actually sends their toddler into battle?!?!!) I really just wish we could dress Scott and Parker up in tiny armor and let them play!

After the Tower and lunch at a pub (number 3 if you are keeping score) we wandered this end of the city for the rest of the day. We saw St. Paul's Cathedral, millenium bridge, Tower Bridge, etc.

It was the most bizarre day for weather. It was nice in the morning. Then it literally down poured on us as we were leaving the tower, freezing, pouring rain, then below, probably only an hour later, sunny and hot...bizarre!

The Tower of London from across the Thames.

We stayed out on that side of town for the whole day because that night we had tickets to a play at the Globe Theater. It was such a neat experience...so much history just sitting there looking around! It was freezing but we had blankets and hot chocolate and it ended up being the perfect cozy night.

The play we saw was a little off the wall, to say the least. It was called the god of Soho. We weren't even 100% sure we followed it all. But regardless the experience couldn't be beat!

The Globe at night...

The next day we walked past the palace (for the zillionth time because it was across the park from our hotel) on our way to breakfast. It was Taber's last day so the guys enjoyed a traditional English breakfast. I enjoyed traditional English tea!!!

After we said goodbye to Taber Brian and I explored more of the city. We went to Tate and the British Museum. And of course took more pictures with horses.

The Rosetta Stone (really bad picture - nice reflection)

At the British Museum there was also an exhibit done by the woman who used 14,000 Rx pills (the average taken by an English citizen in their lifetime) and had them spread out in an incredibly long box (and it was still done in several layers). I found it fascinating. And it makes me cringe to think that Americans use MORE meds in their lifetime than Brits do.

That night Brian and I ventured out after dark to take pictures of the sights at night. It ended up being one of our favorite things to do and we made a point to do it in every city afterwards.

The next day went to the History and Science museums near Hyde Park (and spent a bit of time in Hyde Park itself) then went to the National Gallery in the afternoon. It was especially neat to see the countdown clock for next year's Olympics in Trafalgar Square.

That night we went out again to the other side of town to capture the Tower and the bridge at night. Our night time outings ended up being some of our funnest memories! It was so fun to see the city at night!

Our last day in London we went to Notting Hill and Portobello Rd. for the morning.

"Bad guy soup" - sort of an inside joke for my mom : )

We had a great time in all the fun shops and found some amazing food! Score one for no pub grub!

We took our lunches to Kensington Gardens and spent the afternoon walking there and Hyde Park....I could live there!!! And we made sure to see the Peter Pan Statue while we were there!

Gee thanks....

Loved relaxing in the parks...

We found this most amazing tree...seriously straight from Lord of the Rings or something right?! I can only imagine playing in a tree like this for hours and days on end as a kid (or now!!!).

A view of underneath.....

London was amazing! We enjoyed every second we were there!
Up next....Scotland!

Hair

Look at all that hair....it sticks up now and we even get a bit of bed head in the morning and after naps....we'll be getting our first haircut in no time! Well, maybe not but we are getting there : )

Blocks

Scott got a new set of blocks from grammie and grandpy this week. We were supposed to wait until mommy and daddy left on our trip but we just couldn't wait...we were ALL too excited to play.

It has been hours of fun stacking, knocking over towers, driving cars through, trotting his horses through everything we've built. Scott is loving them!

Translation

Scott turns 18 months a week from tomorrow. One and a half! Say what?!?!! Sadly Brian and I will be traveling in Europe without our baby boy on his 18 month birthday (sniff sniff). Not that I had a big plans for the day but still it is sad to miss the milestone. I have finally overcome the anxiety of the trip (mostly), it will be a long time away from Scott but I know he will have fun and probably hardly miss us. Actually this week my parents have already started staying at our house to help transition Scott and he could not possibly care less if I'm around or not, he only wants Grammie or Grandpy to feed him, read to him, play neighs neighs, put him to bed....etc!
So with his 18 month birthday right around the corner I started realizing I haven't documented what he's up to lately.
The biggest change of late is his ever expanding vocabulary! It takes a bit of translating to know what he is saying (hence the title of my post) I'm pretty good at it but there are still a few that must frustrate him to no end because he is clearly telling me exactly what he wants but I have no earthly clue what it is.
He's of course mastered the basics:
Mommy/Mom - also the feminine of all people, my mom gets called this, sister, Andy etc.
Daddy/Dad - also the masculine of all people
"Moe" = No, not to be confused with "Muh" which is more
"Day"= Yes/Ok
Hi
Bye

Then there are the more complicated words that need translation:
"Druk"= Truck
"Dru"= Draw
"Girr" = Giraffe
*these three must taken in context, I've spelled them differently because to me they sound different but to you, they will sound the exact same. Obviously if he is holding on a truck, giraffe or crayon you know which he is talking about immediately. If we are in the car he will usually yell "druk" and he is probably pointing out a truck driving next to us (this goes on for the entire car ride many days! whatever keeps him happy!!!!!) If he grabs your hand in the house and pulls you somewhere saying "dru" he usually wants you to come draw at his easle with him. You get the idea - check the surroundings and you'll be distinguishing them in no time.
"pu" = pull....he really likes to pull you around the house by the hand the whole time telling you that he is pulling you
"bob" = this one took me a while but it means BAA, as in Baa Baa black sheep. He can also pronounce it BAA if you ask him what a sheep says but if he asking you to sing the baa baa black sheep song then it's BOB!!!
"baw" = ball, not to be confused with bob, context clues people
"beahhh" = bear
"Arrow" = yellow, he will usually respond with this first when you ask him what color something is, he knows the difference, I think he just likes saying it
"Gree" = green
"buu" = blue, not to be confused with bob, baa, baw
"Nack" = Snack, this is a personal favorite because it is so funny when he says it, and he says it a lot, the boy loves to eat
"Peas" = Please, usually he signs it but every once in a while he uses his words....YAY!!!!
"Neigh Neigh" = horse
"Roar" = lion, tiger, bear, dinosaur - again, context clues
"Oooo Oooo" = monkey, are you seeing a trend? at this point all animals are identified by sounds only, elephant is especially funny because he tips his head back and goes "whoooo" but forgets to do the trunk motion with his arm
"Baby" = he knows that small animals are the baby version of whatever animal we are looking at: "baby neigh neigh" "baby roar" etc., he also says baby to the babies we see in the grocery store or the park, sometimes they are the same age he is but he still calls them baby
"Go" = usually he wants to do "on your mark, get set, GO!" when he says it. He says "go" then races himself across the house, backyard, park etc. also a great way to get him across a parking lot or park - race to destination, works everytime
"Duck" = Duck
"Whaa" = Walk, usually means put me down so I can walk
"Ruuu" = Rock, usually said when sitting in the rocking chair for stories and cuddling but we are not rocking yet (bossy much?)
"Chayr" = chair, usually wants to sit in the big chair at the table by himself
"Cheese" = Cheese, the boy is in love, I will expand later

People:
"Chay" = Charlie
"Woey"/"WoWo" = Zoey/ZoZo one of Scott's very best friends he usually calls her Woey but sometimes her mom calls her ZoZo (and I have also adopted the habit) so he'll pick up on it and call her WoWo - hilarious
"Jay" = Parker J. Parker is far too complicated at this point and since most everyone calls him Parker J. anyways Scott picked up on the Jay part. So cute!
"Melmo" = Elmo
"Tatie" = Auntie (Hilary) he usually just calls her mommy but sometimes with encouragement he'll say tatie
"Abbeeeee" = Abby, his good friend we go horseback riding (amongst other things) with

He also finally got tooth #6, we are slow on the teething front which does not hold Scott back from eating whatever he wants. He is still a bit picky. Lately he doesn't like foods with skins (blueberries, grapes, plums), he goes back and forth on liking chicken and certain veggies. He loves eggs and all carbs (ALL, I have not met one that he doesn't like), melon, bananas, yogurt, applesauce and fish. I made the mistake of giving him a small bite of real cheese (from a cow) - like he'd died and gone to heaven. Mommy's fault. After just a small amount he tends to get mucousy and I know it will only go downhill from there. So no more cheese sorry buddy, he does like goat cheese and digests it much better with no mucous so for now goat cheese on gluten free toast is a staple, and the only thing he gets when he asks for cheese.

Potty training: No, we haven't started. We haven't really even started talking about starting. However I'm noticing some signs that make me think it will be on the horizon sooner than later. First he beyond cannot stand being in a dirty diaper. He used to be able to play for hours (not that actually let him go hours in a dirty diaper) in a dirty diaper, pee, poop, no worries, he only got diaper changes because I checked regularly or I smelled it. Well lately it makes him bonkers, he whines and pulls on his diaper. He is also able to tell him that he has pooped. We are not quite to the "tell me when you need to go" stage yet but if I ask him he says yes or no and is not lying. The other thing, which is funny and gross all rolled into one and I debate writing it because Scott will absolutely die of embarrasment in the future when he finds out I shared this but its too funny and its another sign that he is getting ready for p-training, Scott does something I call the "Poop Scoot". He only does it when he has a dirty diaper, he sits on the ground and scoots forward and back, just like a dog who has an itchy butt. Hilarious but so so gross. Especially gross if you don't catch it in time it spreads it every where! SICK! Hopefully you didn't sit down to read this with a great snack because you've definitely lost your appetite now! So I think when we return from our travels we will talk about the potty and get it out so Scott can sit on it etc. Just go from there. No rush. No pressure. Just expose him to it.

Swimming: The kid is fearless in the water. He jumps off the steps, off the side wherever. He can hold his breath a long time and is getting much better at kicking. He can turn around and try to go back the way he came. He sometimes will use his arms (not super coordinated but still trying) and he is really good about keeping his booty up (instead of trying to be in the upright position and sort of walking in the pool). The summer has been really fun seeing how much he has progressed in the pool!

I simply cannot believe Scott is almost 18 months!!!

Choos {Shoes}

Scott loves to put on our shoes. Mostly daddy's shoes but mine work too. Mine actually stay on a little better. Tennies and work shoes are his favorite and he's learning about flip flops! Hilarious!

Please ignore mess on dresser!

Goofus!