Shawna’s Whimsical Weblog

Doug recently upgraded my Wordpress blog software from 2.1.3 to 2.5. I apologize to anyone who had to witness the huge list of pornographic spam links that would show up in Google Reader on my last 2 posts. If you were looking directly at my blog, you wouldn’t have seen the list but the Comments field would have been turned off. I’m hoping the problem is now fixed. I know you are heart-broken, but you will just have to find your “sexy bums” and “machine bondage” some place else.

With the weekend high temperatures hanging around 90 degrees F, Tim and I got into a discussion today about our ideal temperature range. I said I would love it 67 - 77 degrees F year round. Tim said 75 - 85 degrees F (he’s part lizard). So what do you say? If you could live year round with only a 11 degree fluctuation in temperature, what would you pick?

What else would an 18 month old be working on learning? Marshall went for his 18th month check-up last Tuesday and looks great! He’s up to 26 lbs and they tell me he’s 34” tall. I still think they must keep mismeasuring him. That would put him in the 90% for height. We are delighted that Marshall has started to mimic words. For example, I’ll point and say “elephant”, Marshall will return with an “eh- eh – ah”. On Easter we turned his car seat around to face forward. He has current obsession with wheels and vehicles. He likes to point out trucks while we drive with an enthusiastic “AH!” (short “a”, as in cat). I think my favorite word he is using at the moment is “wuh-bel”, for “shovel”.

Fine Motor Skills
In addition to building blocks, and feeding himself with a spoon, Marshall has started to make attempts at other feats in coordination. He sometimes will try to blow the bubbles, but is really more interested in taking the wand in and out of the small bubble tube. He also will blow on his hot food, like he has seen his parents do. Presently it’s a lot of spit with some blowing involved. He can blow a small whistle with some success. If I ask Marshall to jump he will rapidly squat up and down, maybe getting one leg off the ground at times. He also likes to spin balls, cylindrical blocks and rings in place.

Do
Marshall has learned his second person’s name, “Do”, for our friend and sometimes neighbor “Dorothy”. It fits perfectly in his wheelhouse of other similar sounding words he can say: “bowl” and “toe”. He now uses “Do” as frequently and with the same context as he uses the word “Gaka”. We go to playgroup with Luca and others on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons in Mira Mesa, which is very nice. Occasionally we head to the Carmel Valley playgroup on Wednesday morning, if Mimy and Connor are going. It’s amusing to Tim and me that Marshall will call for “Gaka” while Gaka isn’t around, but doesn’t really take advantage of time spent with him. While at playgroup he mostly still wants to swing on the swing, gawk at individuals playing basketball or climb up and down the play structure stairs (very rarely does he opt to go down a slide). However, sometimes he can be found throwing the ball around or digging in the sand with the other kids, especially if Mimy brings her sandwheel toy.

Abstract
“boo”, is what Marshall will say when I ask what color a blue object is. He pointed out some “boo” patches on a blue and white soccer ball this morning. He can also correctly identify red, green and yellow. He also likes to mention when things are “hah” for when they are “hot”. If he sees that food or drink has steam coming off it, he will let us know that it is “hah”. Even if an object was once hot (his space heater or the oven), he will point and say “hah” at random points during the day.

Picture Update
I finally got around to putting up Marshall’s March pictures. I also went back and added MaMouse’s Thanksgiving pictures in the 2007 gallery and hope to put the ones from Christmas in there soon as well.

Oh, what a feeling!
Here is a video of Marshall dancing on his 18 month old birthday.

I could go through the effort of recounting my recent trips to Anza-Borrego or to the women’s floor hockey tournament in Philadelphia, but EK and Dorothy have already done such a good job of it on their blog.

Their stories can be found here.

Thanks to everyone involved for making both trips so memorable. Banana Cream Pie!