vaughn to english dictionary

when we went to the doctor for vaughn's 18 month check-up, the doctor asked how many words he could say. i foolishly answered 10-15. when we really got to thinking about it, he can say a lot more (31 at the time of the appointment). this is the complete list as of today. so if you're going to spend some time with vaughn, this translation should help.

ah-apple
bawl-ball
BANG!-banging two objects together (mostly goat heads)
bane-bank
ba-bath
bean-bean or any small hard object like candy
beh-bed
bee-bee
beedle-beetle
by-bite
boo-blue
boot-boot
ba-bottle
bra-brush
but-button
bye-bye
ease-cheese
chock-chocolate
co-coat
bine-combine
kow-cow
rar-cracker, or the sound a bear and alligator make
da-dad
down-down
eh-egg
ire-fire
gate-gate
gi-get it
go-goat or go
geen-green
pa-grandpa
haa- hat
hi-hi
hep-help
eye- ice or eye
joo- juice
ki-kitty
nigh-knife
me-me (or someone to take him somewhere)
ma-milk
mine-mine
mum-mom
moon-moon
mo-more
night-night
oh-open
owt-out
ow-owl
pla-please
coot-scoot to zelda
wheat-sesame street
boo-shampoo
who-shoe
saw-socks
pie-spider
poon-spoon
ick-stick
t-tea
chi-three
do-two
uh-up
wa er- water
weeeener- wiener
wee ah-white out
pooh-winnie the pooh
yeah-yeah
lellow-yellow
z-zelda

vaughn's also been getting lots of teeth. the bottom left molar erupted on the 17th, with that canine and the bottom right molar coming in on the 25th . andyesterday, i saw the little points of his top canines poking through. looks like we'll have to get some more ibuprofen.
vaughn also loves to take the ornaments off the christmas tree and moving them all over the house.

a happy halloween you have!

i know this is a day late, but hopefully the pictures make up for it. mom made the costume, and vaughn (even though he usually hates hats) wore it most of the evening.

here he is trimming his grandma's tree with his light saber:

dancing king

vaughn has really gotten into dancing, and will sometimes start boogeying to random music on the tv or in restaurants.


he's learned to use the sleep and snooze button on this radio, so he can turn it on and off at will.

rhinos, and dolphins, and bears, oh my!

there was also one lion, and one tiger, and lots of other animals, but those were vaughn's favorites. today we went to the indianapolis zoo with josh's parents. vaughn would not nap on the way down, and fell asleep when we pulled into the parking lot. but he woke up as we were walking in, so he didn't miss any animals. i was afraid that most of the animals would be inside due to the cold weather, but i think the only things that weren't out were the australian animals because they were constructing the cheetah enclosure (opening memorial day 2010) right next to them. it was kind of hard for vaughn to see an animal unless it was moving. the first three: deer, red panda, and tiger were all sleeping.

vaughn absolutely loved the bears (he has a resin brown bear that he sometimes carries around) and kept making growling noises at them. luckily, they weren't threatened.

he really like the rhinos (also a resin replica), and wanted to go and see them again after we walked past them a second time.

there was a really cute baby giraffe and two adorable baby elephants, and vaughn was very upset that he couldn't take a bath with the elephants.

(josh just told vaughn that grandma was taking a baby elephant home with her)

the dolphin exhibit has and underwater glass gazebo and you can watch the dolphins swim over you. after spending quite some time with the dolphins, we left. and then vaughn started making the 'more' sign and we went back for a second visit. the last stop was the ocean exhibit, where you can pet dog sharks as long as you follow a few rules. use two fingers, put your hand in after their heads have swum by, and don't touch their fins. vaughn had the cutest smile on his face(away from the camera of course) after he touched the first shark. here he is breaking the rules on his second shark:

a month of harvesting

so i've been too busy (lazy really) to post recently. with all the food harvesting and vacationing and vaccinating, it has really been a busy couple of months. and although i'm not taking nearly as many pictures of vaughn as i should, i did manage to get these taken. vaughn was very helpful in the garden this year:

washing and freezing carrots
picking peaches in michigan

harvesting potatoes

eating apples from a local orchard

picking sweet corn
(and feeding the husks to the cows)

carrots wait for no one

that's why vaughn eats them now.

this carrot was plucked out of the ground, washed, and eaten. i was surprised how big and straight this grew, especially since mom said they would come out gnarled and stringy. this was our first attempt at carrots, and i consider it a success. we also planted a second batch in sand to see if they would grow any straighter (these carrots are in the black tubs behind vaughn). vaughn ate quite a bit of it though, and i thought it had a pretty good flavor. i'll have more garden reports as more things ripen.

synchronized cows?

our bull died last year, and instead of replacing him, we decided to synchronize the cows. we injected them with gnrh, breed whatever comes into heat. then 7 days later we inject them with lutelase; breed what comes into heat, then breed everything after a second gnrh injection. we ordered some new straws from montana (murray grey and waygu), so i was worried that we'd have a lot of cows that didn't come into heat. but i think we only had 1 cow that may not have been in actual heat. mom had to breed 10 cows in one day, but only 6 at one time. i think it worked really well, but i guess we'll have to wait 9 months to know for sure.
vaughn has learned some animal noises, and one of them is a cow. we brought him out while we were working the cattle, and he'd moo at them while they were in the chute. he liked to pat the cows at long as they were confined in the head gate. he would also play peek-a-boo with them while he was confined in his playpen.

here he is trying to herd the cows out of the barn. he found that making a scary face made them move faster.

pin pricks and pin heads

mom says i don't put enough of myself in my posts. that they are more like news reports and less like a journal. so as a special treat for mom, i will recount my day at the immunization class.
i drove down early this morning to learn how to be an immunizer. the class was half pharmacists and half new grads, waiting to take their exams. i couldn't believe how annoying the new grads were and that they were soon going to be my fellow pharmacists. i fully expected these things to come out of their mouths:
'when i become licensed i'm going to be the smartest, most specialized, helpful pharmacist ever!'
'i have the same awful haircut as two other girls in the room, but luckily i know how to use bobby pins to make it even more awful with a bump in the front'
'because i'm thin, i like to wear shirts that are so tight, they show off my bra straps'
yes, they were pretty horrible, and one of them (the first example) kept asking these stupid questions to try to show off what she knew, which didn't work because it just made it obvious that she didn't read the class packet beforehand. the class was informative, and the actual vaccinating was easier than i would have thought. i have to go to cpr (yuck) class tomorrow, but at least it gets me out of going to work.

to ikea

mom, vaughn, and i went to visit rachel this weekend. my nephew ellis turned three this past weekend. we went to the park to celebrate with bug cakes and hummus.

in addition to going to eli's third birthday, we went to ikea. (which is what ellis kept repeating the WHOLE trip there) i wanted to get vaughn a table and chairs and some storage units for his toys. while we were at ikea, vaughn needed a nap. rachel made a makeshift bed out of kitty pillows and a blanket and vaughn slept about half an hour in the cart. ellis decided that he too needed a cart bed, so we stuffed his cart with pillows too.

i had a hard time of it trying to choose something juvenile, useful, and something josh might like. i decided on this.
josh helped me put the bookshelves together, and dad and vaughn put the table together this morning. vaughn had juice and a biscuit at the table and was pretty proud of his little dining area.

monday we helped rachel pack up some of her things for the move to vermont. since she's hiring a moving company, there wasn't a lot for us to do, so after ra and trey took us to dinner, we drove home.

oooink

on monday vaughn got two more birthday presents. aunt carol got him some puzzles and bridget sent him this:

thanks to his aunts for such thoughtful gifts.

happy 1st birthday vaughn!

on monday, my sweet son turned one. but since i had to work, we celebrated on sunday. rachel and her family and catherine came home for the holiday weekend, so i had lots of help preparing. we decided on a race theme, so we got checkered material and rachel and trey made tablecloths and a banner out of it. mom got a race car pinata and we used grandpa's indy 500 glasses. trey was nice enough to grill the chicken. and mom, catherine, rachel and i made potato salad, beans, bi-layer jello, four layer dip, and cream cheese dip.
josh swept the shop and after dinner they had a race on the plasma cars. ellis has spent a lot of time on the cars, but instead of using his arms to propel the car, he uses his feet. we thought that a father/son race would be fun, but ellis wanted to steer AND put his feet down, which wasn't possible with trey on the car. so halfway through the race ellis starting crying and screaming, but the still managed to win. brian and ben (josh's cousins) had car trouble and no pit crew, so they sadly came in last.
afterwards, we had cake and ice cream. mom made this awesome race track cake, but it was too windy for the candle to light, so we had to pretend. vaughn probably would have put his hand on it anyway, since he grabbed it off the cake.

all of vaughn's guest were very generous. he got books (pigs in hiding, scarlet monster lives here, and a wrinkle in time) from aunt catherine, lego blocks and a stacking wooden train from mom, an inflatable pool (we put him in it and he splashed around, but it was a little cold) and little swimmers from rachel, and clothes from grandma deb. he also got a swing, flashlight, shape sorter, and a zebra bouncer. we got him a puzzle and a hammering bench which he has already dented. vaughn got so many toys, we are seriously going to have to reconsider his play area setup.
the rest of the pictures are on the web album. thanks to everyone that helped with preparation and clean up, and we missed those that couldn't come. hopefully we'll see you during his second lap!

rapunvaughn

a few weeks ago, mom decided that vaughn needed a learning tower. so mom and dad got some plywood, and we started to make a pattern. since our kitchen is smaller than mom's, we made a single-wide of 18". we were trying to decide how to paint it, and josh suggested a castle. mom said if we found a picture of what we wanted, she'd do it. vaughn likes it so far. here he is testing out the durability of the counter top:

birds and bees

josh and i got some bird feeders about a month ago, and have since been seeing all kinds of birds coming to the feeders.
mostly finches, doves, and sparrows, but we've also had a pair of cardinals
and an unknown blue bird (i've been told it's a blue finch).

the bees have been going crazy on all the blossoms. when i was walking past the crab apple tree i could hear them buzzing. this one has her pollen baskets full.

yesterday josh found these by the playground. i think there are 8, but are hard to count. they are cute now, but i know they will just grow up to eat my raspberries. josh thinks we should let the barn cats find them.

one of these things is not like the other

aunt emily came for a visit last weekend and while she was here, she took a walk around the farm to see the animals. she helped feed the cows and gather eggs, and saw our very pregnant goats. we were hoping that they would kid before she had to leave, but they waited until the day after she left. josh called me at work to tell me that kiora had 3 kids, but only one survived. when i got home at 10:30, i saw that rosalie had also had 3 kids. this year we've decided to quarentine the kids at night and re-unite them after morning milking. luckily the singleton is the only male, so it's easier to match them up with their moms. can you tell which one is different?

let me show you why they call me the velour fog

vaughn has been making all kinds of developments. the other day he mananged to slide down off our bed and open the door to find us after his nap. today josh saw that vaughn has also been doing this to his crib:
and when i got home from work, he was doing this:

death to the pyrogens

poor little baby vaughn is getting another tooth. that makes four on top and two on the bottom. we've been letting him sleep with us for the last two nights since he doesn't want to sleep in his crib. last night he woke up covered in sweat so we changed his pjs and brought him in bed with us. this afternoon he felt very hot (fever of 101) and spent most of the evening snuggling with his grandma. looks like he'll probably be sleeping with us again tonight. at least he has a new haircut to make him a little cooler.
mom and i went to town today and got some flowers and shrubs to plant around the house. it looks a lot better since it went from dead weeds and roofing material to this:
we planted boxwood, burning bushes (not pictured), roses, blue bells, hyacinth, mint and rosemary. when it warms up a little we'll plant some flower seeds. vaughn even helped with a tiny rake and shovel, although it was mostly by directing us from his wagon. when everything is blooming, i'll post more pictures

can you come back later? we're trying to escape

mom got vaughn some foam rubber mats for christmas so we could have a play area for vaughn. josh decided that it needed to be enclosed so he could put vaughn in there while he was doing something productive. usually vaughn would play quietly with his multitude of toys, but sometimes he would stand at the make-shift fence and cry. this led to the cardboard tunnel so vaughn could escape whenever he liked, but also go in when he wanted to play:

unfortunately, it also led to this:

one day a few weeks ago when i came home from work, i asked josh what he had done, and all he said was, "i built a fort." vaughn loves it and it's big enough for an adult to get in just in case vaughn gets stuck. that's only happened once though. here he's made in out.

Each more identical than the last

after 8 months of floating, i finally have a store! and it's the one i really wanted, too. vaughn has been crawling around like a little spider. and he's been practicing standing without any support and walking with help from me or josh. his 9 month check-up showed that he's in the 90th percentile in height and weight. as a result, we had to finally retire the infant seat and get a bigger one for him. we also had to get him some new clothes last weekend. he's eating just about everything now, even tasting some forbidden peanut butter. and if he gets very hungry, he helps himself:

wham! ka-pow!

i know that this hardly counts as a post, but here's a picture from the day:

drover eli

two weeks ago we went up to michigan to see rachel for an early birthday celebration. we went to ikea and i was overwhelmed by all the stuff. afterward we had a delicious dinner of lamb and potatoes and cake and ice cream for dessert. on sunday dad, trey and eli went to the hardware store while the girls watched clatterford. here is the outfit ellis wore to the store:

after we got back i finally got carol's christmas/birthday present finished and shipped to her. and i've already started on the next one.

2nd period

this will be a standard battle to the death

mom and eli played a lot of table hockey this week, and here's some of the action caught on tape. ellis thought that a hockey puck was called a hockey pocket for the first day. maybe he'll watch some games with trey now.

goodbye gallbladder

about a month ago i had really bad stomach pain, and when i went to the doctor, he thought it was an ulcer, a bacteria or virus, or food poisoning and gave me some pills for it. it still hurt a week later, and when i went back, he gave me antibiotics for a uti. four days later i had an ultrasound, and they finally determined that it was gallstones.
so last monday, i had my gallbladder taken out. i was scared and nervous about it, but an hour and a half later i was awake and in recovery. they gave me pictures of the surgery, and it was infected and about three times the size it should have been. my incisions still hurt and i can't pick up vaughn yet. josh and my family have been nice enough to feed, dress, and change him, and put him to sleep, to give me time to rest and recover.