My Parrot

This is my parrot, Rory...

She repeats everything I say. 

Me: "Do You want to go the store Rory?"

Rory: "Store Rory"

Me: "Mommy is going to cook dinner now"

Rory: "Mommy cookie dinner"

Me: "cookING dinner, not cookie"

Rory: "Rory cookie"

Me: "No cookies for Rory, we are going to eat dinner soon"

Rory:  "Rory cookie"

Me: "Rory is having pasta for dinner"

Rory: "No, Rory cookie"

She sometimes just repeats the last word I say:

Me: "Rory, do you want milk or water?"

Rory: "Water"

Me: "Water or Milk"

Rory: "Milk"

Sometimes my parrot picks up on things that I say or someone else says and says it all the time.  The lastest is "Yeah Ok".  As In:

Me:  "Rory do you want to go to the park"

Rory (oddly said with a little bit of Canadian accent): "Yeah, OK"

Me: "Rory, time to get ready for school"

Rory (with even a bit more of a Canadian accent): "Yeah, OK"

The best is the 3-4 sentence words though, those make me so proud!  Even better when they are unprompted

"Rory is in the mirror"

"Mama get monkey down" (pointing to stuffed animal)

"Water for Willow" (pointing to Willow begging for water from the faucet)

and we get a lot of...

"Mama do it"

"Dada do it"

"Rory do it"

Although... I could definitly do without "What is this" being asked 100 times a day.  Its great that she is curious and sometime she is really asking and its legit, but if she points to the cat one more time and says "What is this" I'm going to flip!

Rory also points at any shirt I wear that has lettering and says "ABC".  We are working hard on DEFG.  She can point out O's and I's.  She knows A's and R's too but isn't quite confident enought to point it out unprompted.

She can count to 3, although sometime she misses 1, and sometimes she misses 3.  So I guess that actually means she can just say the number 2.

She can also do any animal sound under the sun now.  Including some obscure ones like Goat (Bleet), Snake, Alligator (Chomp) and Donkey.  She still thinks a Lion says ROOOOAAARRRYYY!  and Dogs go heh, heh, heh (panting, I had to google how to spell dog panting sound).

Rory also now addresses Mickey more formally as "Mickey Mouse" but she does still call Minnie, Meme.  You should hear her say Abby Cadabby, it is the cutest!

It really is amazing to watch her language skills develop.  She can pretty much express everything she needs to in words now and it allows her personality to really shine through.  Every single day she has new words from either school or from us.  20 Months is such a fun age!

Recent Happenings...



Oh No, Its been 10 days since I last posted.  I think that might be a record.  I really have no good excuse or reason.  Sorry.  Worst Blogger ever.

This weekend I had the stomach bug from hell.  No joke, this might be the most sick I have been in 10 years.  I was literally in bed from Friday night to Sunday night moaning and groaning and hurting all over.  Tim is the best at taking care of me when I am sick.  Way better then I am in the reverse situation.  I always think he's just being a baby, which I realize is not nice of me at all.  He brought me medicine and ice packs and water.  He went to store and got me sprite and chicken soup.  He checked on me often to make sure I was ok.  And he took care of Rory ALL weekend.  She has a little cold herself and was up alot during the night both nights, so I know that wasn't easy.  She must be working on some more teeth.

I was a pretty bummed all weekend though, I had a bunch of things lined up that I wanted to do that I was not able to.  Saturday we were supposed to celebrate Ellen finishing her doctorate - Congrats Ellen! - but I had to miss it!  And Sunday was the Susan B Komen walk and I missed that as well.  Tim and Rory walked with out me though!  Aren't they cute in their shirts!

Last Tuesday was 30 days on my Beach Body Fitness Program!  I am feeling really great about the progress I have made.  I have more energy and feel stronger.  The numbers aren't truly reflecting my progress but I have lost 4 lbs and 1 inch so far.

Here's a few more pics from last week that I love that I haven't posted yet.

Rory actually got up the courage to step onto the first bar for the first time.  She was actually really proud of herself even though you can't tell here.

Ha, she was so mad because I told her she had to go down the stairs herself and she wanted me to carry her! 

Nashville: Everything Else

Our trip to Nashville was not all about running, there was definitley some vacationing going on too.  Saturday after we napped and ate and felt human again we went out on the town. 

First was the Craig Morgan concert.  If you know me or read my blog you know that I love concerts.  When we got there we sat on the top level of what was really a very small auditorium.  I think I maybe sat for half a song before I had to go wander off to see if I could get closer.  I was able to get on the floor about third rown and took some awesome photos up close and personal. 

I am a sucker for celebrities.  I love touching them and meeting them, I think its the coolest thing.  Craig Morgan threw out his drumstick and a girl I had been chatting with and me both caught it.  She was gracious enough to give it to me since she said she lived in Nashville and got to go to stuff like that all the time.  I was so pumped.  He was signing all sorts of things so I was able to get it signed too. 

My favorite concert buddy Ellen was a little mad (sorry, I wander) I didn't bring her down to the floor right away but Ellen, Amy and Brenda came down shortly after me and we had a blast dancing and singing to Red Neck Yacht Club.  Craig Morgan puts on a fantastic show, I would recommend putting him on your must see list!

The other cool thing that happened while we were partying it up on the dance floor was we got to meet the Marathon 3rd place finisher Justin Gillette.  He was nice enough to answer the millions of questions I had about what it was like to be a professional runner and how it all worked.   He won 19 of 25 marathons last year!  He was not too happy with his time but blamed it on the rain - makes me feel better about my time, thats for sure!  Being a recreational runner it was really cool to meet someone that actually runs for a living.  And he has a son name Miles, which I think is awesome!

We then mosey'ed on over to Honky Tonk Row, but had to stop for a photo in front of the double tree first.

First we went to a piano bar.  I was a little annoyed because I wanted to go somewhere more country but we ended up having a blast.  I may have wandered away at this bar too, but this time I took Mackenzie with me! 

The next bar was the full Honky Tonk experience.  Great band, packed bar, people falling on the floor, lots of dancing.  We took a cab home, capped off the night with some pizza and went to sleep about 3am.  What a long amazing day!

Sunday we all took a tour of the Grand Ole Opry.  This was my second tour but I still thought it was worth seeing again.  There was a sad feeling in the air since George Jones had just passed away a few days earlier.  They had white flowers all over to honor and remember him.

After the Grand Ole Opry we went to The Bluebird Cafe (wearing the t-shirt now).  The line was really long and they pretty much told us we would have no chance of getting in so we bought tshirts took some photos and headed back downtown.  (I stole a lot of these pics from Mack)

Ha, Love this one too! 

We ended the night at Tootsies listening to some great bands.

Man, I love Nashville!  Great trip with great friends!  Wish I was back already!  Where are we going next?!?!