MoseleyWorld

Still editing the photographs from Italy so, here are some tales from the land of Saxon.

posing for her mother

Warning: Proud Parent Statements are forthcoming!

Saxon is almost two (well, technically, she’s 21.5 months) and has become quite the talker. She adds words to her vocabulary every day and is starting to combine them into sentences that make sense, most of the time. For example, this morning she was walking down the hall, combing her hair and I asked, “What’s up Saxon?” Reply: “Combing the back of my hair, Daddy.”

Last night, she was examining a Kansas State Wildcat mug - the clear kind that has liquid-filled walls and “stuff” (basketballs, #1’s, wildcats) floating around in it. She first tried to drink from the mug, then turned it sideways and upside down. Repeat process then ask, “Where did the water go?”

Saxon loves playing in the car. Anybody’s car. Let her get in yours and you’ll be amazed how many buttons she can push. When it started getting warm this year, I noticed the A/C in my car making a strange noise, a deep, throaty rumbling when the fan blows. A couple of weeks later, I was working in the yard and Saxon was hanging out in my car. I walked up just in time to see her trying insert a nickel into the A/C vent…and there were a lot less pennies in the change inventory. If anyone has a clue how to extract pennies from a GMC Yukon’s A/C system, give me a shout out.

Saxon can count to five in Spanish and to six in English - and on a good day, to ten in English, but most of the days those sevens, eights and nines get mixed around.

Saxon loves to have us read books to her. She’s really enjoying the Big Sister book her Aunt Christy sent. Saxon also walks around pointing at Carey and saying, “Mommy’s Tummy. Mommy’s Tummy,” after which she will come over and give the tummy a kiss and say, “baby…baby sister.”

We’ve just returned from a week-long trip to Italy (more updates forthcoming) and seeing vastly different cars is one of the things I really enjoyed. Our rental car was a 4-door Opel Corsa hatchback (GM Built?) with 5-speed manual shifter and Opel’s new diesel “ecoflex” engine. I was amazed at how peppy a 75 horsepower engine could be.

bologna, italy - starting an alfa romeo convertible the old-fashioned way.

Most of these cars only a raised eyebrow (kind of a “What in the world were they thinking” when they made such a small car?), but this time I kept seeing a car I really like.

Last year Mercedes-Benz introduced the 2008 C220 Wagon “Estate,” a new/improved version of the C-Class wagon that was sold here from 2002-2005. But I saw more of these new body style wagons in Italy than I’ve seen in total the older C-Class wagons in the U.S.

If you’re like me and think the Mercedes Estate might be a good replacement for a gas-guzzling GMC Yukon, don’t bother rushing to your local Mercedes dealer to get one. Like the Opel Corsa diesel (52 mpg), the Mercedes Estate is not sold in the USA.

Carey’s sister Ashley and her husband Mike came down from Chicago so Mike could run the Big D Half Marathon. Saxon had a great time hanging out with her aunt and uncle and for the next couple of weeks, whenever Saxon saw a young pretty lady with blonde hair, she would say, “Ash-leee. Ash-leee. Ash-leee?”

fabulous spring weather

kisses from Aunt Ashley for Saxon

When we were getting into the car, Carey was putting something in the trunk and Saxon said, “trunk.” Aunt Ashley said (jokingly?), “that’s the trunk, sometimes Daddy puts Mommy in the trunk.” I’m thinking that Ashley thought this would go right over Saxon’s little head, but for the rest of the car ride - the rest of the day - and the rest of the weekend, Saxon would say, with a very concerned look, “Mommy trunk? Mommy trunk?” Saxon proved to us once again how she is always listening and how much she really does get!

we’re in the process of a makeover of the guest bedroom into Saxon’s new “big girl room.” we’ve gotten lots of compliments on the new, orange rocking chair (by Nurseryworks) that’s already been moved up into her room. Saxon’s made the switch to her new room - photos to come soon!

One of Saxon’s favorite books is Curious George. She often brings me the book to us saying “read a book, read a book, george, george.” One minor problem: the only Curious George book we have is titled Jorge el Curiosa and it’s, you guessed it, in Spanish. Well, neither Carey nor I habla much espanol (but Saxon’s nanny, who speaks almost all Spanish to her, does), so we make up the story.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the Curious George books, written in the 1940’s and I bet many of you read them as kid. So, you can imagine, making up the story isn’t impossible considering the wonderful illustrations, it’s just harder than reading.

So, the other night when Saxon wanted me to read “george, george,” and the bait & switch for a book I could actually read to her didn’t work, I figured I’d give it a try in Spanish.

Reading as clearly and quickly as I could, I felt pretty confident reading about the “amarillo sombrero” the evil “hombre” used to lure Jorge into his net so he could capture him and take him across the “grande mer” and lock him up place him in the zoologico.

About this time, Saxon, sitting in my lap, turned her head around and stared at my mouth with an expression that ranged somewhere from confusion (my being optimistic) to disgust (realistic). Determined to pretend as if Dad was fluently bilingual, I continued on, getting this same look from Saxon every three or four pages.

Since Saxon can count to three in Spanish, says “mas” when she wants more, leche (sometimes) when she wants milk and probably knows as many, or more Spanish words than I do, I guess she could tell my Spanish sucks. Oh well.

Carey’s sister, Teresa, flew in from Chicago to join us for Easter weekend. Here are some photos from the weekend.

on the move at my office

hanging out with kitty