what is THAT?: the parent edition

Chip looked at yesterday's post, with all the Lego words, and apparently his thought was THAT GIRL IS BORED. Which: yes... and no. Since we got here, Utah has been blessed (ha ha) with an abundance of rain. Like, rain every day rain. In a thunder and lightening way. In a downpour way. In a there's sun one minute and rain the next way. So we're going a little bit stir crazy.

But it is nice to be spending so much time with mom and Winston, the Little Brother and his Wife, and the LB's tiny baby girl, A. A for adorable, you know.

As I write this, the sun is doing its wonderful sunny thing on the backyard, and I have hopes that Alice and I will spend some time out there today. She's changing so much - even in the last ten days, she has changed so much. Besides the bark eating (which is STILL going on), her vocabulary has just exploded. She is saying mama, daddy, doggie (a version of it, at least), you, moo, bye-bye, hi, uh-oh, up, water, and done. She is making signs for more, hold me, all done, swing, eat/hungry, and milk. It's the most amazing thing, to be able to communicate with her in these small ways. It's like I've been living with a very furry, cuddly, sweet, pooping and crying cat for the last 15 months and suddenly the pet has blossomed into an actual person with likes and dislikes and even an ability to communicate those things. It's as fantastic (and also as crazy) as it sounds. And there's your obvious statement for the day: LIVING WITH A TODDLER IS GREAT! AND ALSO CRAZY! AND SOMETIMES CRAZY-MAKING! What can I say? I'm a giver.

In other news, I don't know if you've ever thought much about it, but the parental house is full of strange and magical things. Things like QUILLOS and ... stuff. Which gives us a unique opportunity for a guessing game, thanks to Eleanor Q (who, by the way, wrote the most hilarious post the other day about the parenting olympics, and really you need to check it out - for it's AWESOMENESS).

Here's how the game works: I'm going to post some pictures of a couple of those strange and mystical objects. And then you all get to guess what they are in the comments. I'll take comments through end of day Monday. The one who comes closest to guessing the objects correctly will win some Mother's cookies, and perhaps I'll throw a little something extra into the package. If you are related to me, you cannot play the game. If you are married to me, you cannot play the game. If you have ever been to my parents' house, you cannot play the game. Sorry folks, I've got to make this fair. And also tip the scales in Eleanor Q's favor. In the event of a tie - or it's just too close to call, mom and Winston will be the final judges, since these ARE their fabulous mystery objects after all.

Go!

Mystery Object 1:



Mystery Object 2 (hint: obviously they are CANS - but you need to identify what the cans are used for - the background is a HUGE giveaway):



Mystery Object 3:



Mystery Object 4:



Mystery Object 5 (hint: obviously from the red/white/blue room - but I don't want you to identify the red/white/blue items, but rather the thing they are sitting on - it is NOT EXACTLY a table):



Mystery Object 6:



Mystery Object 7 (hint: if you're thinking cute/scary/disturbing/adorable Santa Claus doll -depending where you fall on the doll-issue-spectrum- you'd actually be wrong; sort of):



Mystery Object 8:



Bonus Mystery Object: