Selected Highlights

Back from vacation. I have some longer posts in me, but here are the highlights of the vacation:

El Chico stepped on something unknown but sharp while at my uncle's lake house (and on the beach, in the lake, on the dock, in the woods, etc.). By the time he told us his foot hurt it was all pus-y and infected. So he's now in the middle of a round of antibiotics (his first), and he was unable to go into the water for the last 5 days of our trip. Which kind of sucks when you're on vacation in a state famous for its lakes.

I sewed El Chico a dinosaur costume for Halloween that was much more complicated than the pattern looked from the envelope. The costume looks great, but we almost missed our flight home because of it (I had to finish everything at my grandma's because my sewing machine is broken) and El Grande got really pissed at me. Note to self: No more McCall's patterns.

We went to a family reunion in a town of under 500 people. There were 120+ people at our reunion.

It was a potluck. Have you ever had Walking Taco Salad? Ingenious, really, but I can hardly think of anything more Midwestern. Except that we washed it down with rootbeer from a keg and had jello salad for dessert. So my previous statement was wrong.

(Walking Taco Salad: Take a snack size bag of taco chips or dorito chips. Cut off the top of the bag so the chips are in a little envelope-bowl. Crunch up the chips, then spoon onto them taco meat, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, tomato, and salsa [aka "taco sauce']. Hold the bag and eat the taco salad with a plastic fork while you walk around.)

El Pequeño made the sign for "nurse" three times. In each case I was either across the room or in another room. Once he was with my mom, once with my dad, and once with El Grande. All three times he started really fussing and they couldn't soothe him, but then they realized he was making the ASL "milk" sign (which is what we use for "nurse"). When he did it with my mom she brought him to me and said, "You haven't been teaching him signs yet, have you? Because he just made the sign El Chico used to make when he wanted to nurse." He's three months old. No one can tell me babies don't know what's going on around them.

Comments

[Jamie]

Next week, differential equations!

Welcome back.

[Jody]

See, El Chico is brilliant, but your mom is GENIUS.

I am vicariously heartbroken for El Grande. One cannot spend so much time in the great state and not be able to go in the lakes: it's cruel and unusual punishment.

Let's cross-blog soon about the grand old events (ha ha ha) at the Assembly, no?

Yeah, make that a big fat raspberry-accompanying NO.

Welcome back.

[JustBreathe]

I remember how much I missed mid-western food when we lived on the east coast. Walking Tacos are brilliant, we used to get them at college basketball games.

At my in-laws family events there are at least 27 kinds of jello. It is astounding. I think the number of jello recipes is inversely related to the size of the town.

Poor El Chico - nature is dangerous.

[Brooklyn Girl]

Welcome back!

Curious to hear more about a Walking Taco Salad, but you know, according to this morning's edition of Morning Edition, jello salad is once again tres chic. Who knew?

[boxing octopus]

1.) what is walking taco salad? sounds yummy. almost a yummy as cold rootbeer from a keg. mmmm, cold, creamy rootbeer.

2.) that is amazing about the signing. around what time did you start teaching him signs? should i start with flippy now, at 3 weeks? or is that too soon?

[E]

I've not had Walking Taco Salad, but I knew that I had landed in the rural midwest when I had my first bite of Tater Tot Hot Dish.

You'll post a recipe for WTS, right?

[Jill]

We were also on vacation last week, and made a trip to an emergency room in the middle of night for antibiotics. Number 2 son had ear infections. In the room next to us was a guy in an orange jump suit with shackles on his wrists and legs, getting his forehead and arms stitched. We wondered why there were so many state cop cars parked in emergency parking. Ahhh, nothing like vacationing with kids!

[Lisa V]

I bet the taco salad is similar to 7 layer bean dip? Very small town, very fattening, and yummy. It's kind of in a green bean cassarole, amborisa salad, funeral potatoes category for me. Pot luck food from childhood.

[Moxie]

I just posted the Walking Taco Salad recipe in the body of the post.

BoxingOctopus, from almost Day 1 with El Pequeño I started saying "nurse" very clearly right before I'd latch him on. After maybe 3 weeks or so I could tell he had the connection--if he was fussing and I asked if he wanted to nurse he'd get all excited. At maybe 2 or 2 1/2 months I started adding the sign when I'd say "nurse" as I latched him on. Honestly, it hadn't even occurred to me to test to see if he recognized the sign alone already. I started the sign with El Chico when he was around 5 1/2 months, and have written in my book that he started recognizing it at 6 1/2 months and made it himself at 7 months.

Jody, I'm planning on blogging about the most recent non-decision, so if you want to too we should roll them out together.

If it wasn't so freaking hot outside I might consider making a 7-layer jello salad. I love me some 7-layer jello salad.

[wix]

walking taco salad sounds weird. almost as weird as frito pie where the bag is just cut open and the chili and cheese are put on top. then again, i won't eat hamburgers or sandwiches that are still wrapped in paper of any kind, so maybe my aversion is purely idiosyncratic.

we never did get around to working on signs with CX. i regret it, but we have developed some 'homegrown' signs, words, and signals to stand in for the official versions. most of the time, we can figure out what's up.

[Julia]

I'm jealous about the signing. I'm signing with Hannah, and while I think she knows what I'm saying, she hasn't signed back yet. She has, though, developed her own sign for hungry: she sits with her mouth hanging open and stares at me. :)

[Rayne of Terror]

Super baby! 3 months is so fantastic. Must be a genius :)

In the last couple weeks my 7 month old has started signing back. Once he got nurse down he has seemed to pick up steam and has asked for more (bouncing) and cereal. I love it.

[Gerah]

MMMMmmmmmm (said in a Homer Simpson voice)... Walking Taco Salad.....

[Gerah]

Oh, and P.S. I did sign language with my daughter. And it helped that my next-door-neigbor-psuedo-grandmother-to-my-child
is an interpreter.

Now that my child is two, it's pretty cool to see all the signs she learned. She still does some and we make her do them on demand for kicks. Ah, fun with children. And making them display their talents like some side show in a circus...

[Kris]

I didn't do signing with my kids per se. But I did teach Ben the sign for "more" when he was about 6 months old (had just started solids). Then I forgot about it. And a month later, he spontaneously began using it on his own, and he used it until he was like 2 years old, until he started talking. It just shows how receptive babies are to it! I'll have to teach Ava more signs, for sure. El Pequeño must be brilliant! ;)