Find me on our new family blog!

Hi everyone! You'll probably be hearing from me more frequently now at https://ritchierambler.blogspot.com, where Mike and I are going to try to do a bit more family blogging. I may still show up here every once in awhile, though :) Thanks for reading! Shannon

Spring is in the air!

How about a blog post for Mother's Day?  Mom, this is for you, since you're always asking when I'm going post something :). I drafted this a month or so ago but now I'm finally posting it!

When I drafted this, Spring was in the air and warmer weather was gracing us with its presence.  Then it rained for a couple of weeks.  Today the sun came back and Caroline spent every minute she could outside.  Great way to spend Mother's Day.  

Merry Christmas

We are enjoying a wonderful time with C's Ritchie cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.  We were laughing for about half an hour tonight at the little cousins' antics - just jumping up and down and spinning around and climbing on all the adults.  Is there anything better than family time (and great food) at the holidays?  

Hope you're all doing well wherever you are.  Merry Christmas!!!

Yes

For an introduction to Five Minute Friday, click here.

This week's one-word prompt is: Yes

Ready?

GO.

Yes is an interesting word.  Here's my stream-of-consciousness on it: I've been thinking a lot lately about language learning as Caroline and I are both learning a language at the same time!  I'm studying Russian, and she is learning English.  There are many similarities to how we're learning these languages - we build a base vocabulary based off of high-frequency and easy-to-understand words that we hear and see in the world around us.  We generally don't pronounce things right at first (proud to say Caroline must have a bit of Caribbean in her as she drops the end sound off of all her words :).  We can slowly build vocabulary by listening to a sentence, identifying the words we know, and filling in the gaps for what we don't with context clues.

Caroline is very bright and already knows over 60 words at 18 months (words she can consistently say; she can recognize probably 20 more but just can't say them yet).  It's been interesting to see the order of the words she learns.  Dada (now Daddy) was first, bye-bye, ka-ka (now Kitty), ball, hi etc.  Truck and bus suprised me next, but we see them a lot and she likes how loud they are so that makes sense.  Momma came a little later (but so glad to hear her say it), and now she rushes through more complicated words like "helicopter" and "butterfly," coming out something like "lacacopter" and "mmmfly!"  

But she still hasn't said "Yes."  OK, she says "Yeah."  And she definitely has been saying "No" for awhile.  I suppose we just don't say the word "Yes" that often at home - we're pretty informal, and I'm teaching her other awful things in addition to "Yeah" like "where's your toes!?" instead of "where are your toes!?"  I wonder when I got so slack about saying "Yes."  I was taught growing up that it was "Yes or Yes Sir/Ma'am" and NEVER "Yeah."  Need to try to get back to that before we get to an age where eye-rolling comes along with "Yeah."

Picture of the week!  The first time she really sat still to pose for me.  Love it.

Hope

For an introduction to Five Minute Friday, click here.

This week's one-word prompt is: Hope

Ready?

GO.

Hope.  Hope is not a topic I'm easily able to put words to.  But I like how it sounds.  Say "Hope" to yourself and then sit quietly for a minute.  It's a nice feeling.  "I hope" a little more heartfelt and earnest than "I want" or "I would like."  

Ok, Caroline just climbed out of her crib for the first time.  That was unexpected, it's pretty high.  Pretty stealth too, didn't hear anything till she opened her door.

Here's a picture of a rainy Fourth!

Follow

For an introduction to Five Minute Friday, click here.

This week's one-word prompt is: Follow

Ready?

GO.

What a great word-of-the-week!  Caroline has recently started to mimic what we say and do, which is so exciting because it means we can teach her new words!  This week, for the first time, she said "Meow meow," and she touched her nose and her ears just like I did during "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."  It's kind of funny, now that she's discovered "ears," she loves to run up to me and tug gently on my ears.

Now that I have a little shadow following me around and mimicking what I do, I guess I need to be careful and set a good example!    She caught me rubbing my itchy nose on my sleeve the other day during dinner and proceeded to pull up her shirt and smear it with all the food on her face.  Smart girl.

Door

For an introduction to Five Minute Friday, click here.

This week's one-word prompt is: Door

Ready?

GO.

The Kentucky Derby is tomorrow!  I thought I would talk about that, because the horses line up and then the DOORS fly open and BAM - the greatest two minutes in sports.

Except they're "gates," not "doors."

Oh well.  My family watches the Kentucky Derby together every year.  My mom makes a fantastic Kentucky Derby pie - if you're not in the know, it's a pecan chocolate pie, and it is RICH.

We each pick a horse - some pick based on the name, others on the odds.  Then we scream and cheer at the television for two minutes, and congratulate the one that picked the winner.

It's just a small tradition, but we look forward to it every year.  I particularly love the montages NBC puts together and shows before the race - a little piece of America, part of our heritage that makes us so unique.

Below is our first Spring picture of Caroline.  She LOVES flowers, though we've had to teach her to be "gentle" so she pats the flowers instead of tearing them up by the roots.  Work in progress :)