Phonics for Hungry 3-year Olds and Lessons for Young Ladies of Good Taste

Okay, this is one super hard to type post! Instead of typing out the phonetics when they were said, I am just going to have you say the sounds of the letters instead of the actual letter themselves when they are in quotation marks. Example: A says "A" as in apple. B says "B" as in bike.
Here is a practice sentence! When Hank wants a bite of food she says "A" like Apple, not "O" like Octopus... or most people for that matter!

Got the hang of it? Good! Here is the story!

We were sitting at a lonely dinner, just the kids and I, and to make conversation, I picked up a hard-boiled egg and asked Clark "what letter do you think egg starts with?"
Clark: I don't know.
Me: Egg starts with E! E says "e" like egg! Egg is spelled E-G-G. E says "e," G says "g."
"E" -- "G" ... "E" - "G," "E" "G" ... EGG!
Clark: And E says "e" like CLARK-TOMATO!
Me: Laughs. No, Tomato is spelled T-O-M-A-T-O. (sound it out like I did above... you get the idea :))
Clark: How about Banana Chip!
Me: (thinking... do I dare start on blends or do I go through another long word??!?)
"B" "A" "N" "A" "N" "A"...

At this point, HANK starts to join in! I'm still looking at Clark helping him through it, but every time I say "A," she's right there with me! "A!" "A!" "A!"
I looked over to congratulate her on being so-o-o smart, and the poor dear is leaning as far as she can over the table, pointing to more banana chips (her new favorite), begging for more!

So, here is what I learned from the session:

E says "e" as in Clark-tomato

A says "a" as in FEED ME!

That Old Dishwasher!

I've heard it said that if you spend a lot of time with someone, you start to look like them, talk like them, and yes... act like them.

Apparently my mom has spent WAY to much time with her old broken down dishwasher, because she's starting to act just like it. Noisy, splashly, takes forever...

Thankfully she doesn't look like a massive square and sit under the counter sulking about how broken she is all day.

...yet.

Hannah LIKE!

Hank tried chocolate for the first time tonight.
It's official. She is a girl!

Yertle the Squirtle-Penguin

Lately I have been reading the kids an alphabet book and working on the sounds with them...
...and a Laura Ingalls Wilder book and showed Clark the word "Ma" and was making him read it whenever I pointed to it...
...and Grandma C (thanks Grandma!) has been reading him Yertle the Turtle...
...and we see a lot of Squirrells.

So, Clark was looking at a book that was a little old for him with a picture of a penguin and reading it to me.

I don't remember all that he was 'reading,' but the main points were:

Ma says Ma like Squirtle!
And dat's Yertle da Squirtle-Penguin!

Anyway, it loses a bit in translation, but it was just about the funniest thing I had ever heard.

She's THROUGH!

Hank has NO interest in talking. She thinks her cuteness quotient will go down significantly the second she starts and she wants nothing to do with it. So... she's learning some signs. She learned "all done" incredibly quickly and is a huge fan. She figured out all on her own that it can be used at various and random other times than just in the highchair. Hating being still as she does, and having a diaper change requiring so much being still, she jumped up the second it was done and ran off waving her little hands, announcing she was through with that ordeal.
It's her favorite sign ever because it's like a double princess wave =) and it means she gets to run away! run away!!!

Hanky Tonk

Han's new hat for her birthday.

From the front:

From the back:

From the cheeks:

From sitting innocently still:

From up close grabbin':

Howdy Marm!

From the floor!

Mrs. Walk-to-Grab?

...just doesn't have that magical ring, does it. So while I think we'll keep calling her Mrs. Crawl'n'grab, the truth is, about 2 % of her grabs today have been walk-to-grabs. --- Which means that out of the 100 things she's grabbed in the last 10 minutes, she's walked to 2 of them. Maybe I'll just call her Mrs. Grab-grab-n-grab. I took her to an antique store today! She did GREAT! Of course, it was drizzly and cold, so she couldn't move her arms in her great big bulky jacket, so that helped a bit. Almost pulled over a plant though. If there's a way, she has the will.