Practice Makes Perfect

My darling son spent most of this morning polishing his delivery of his first sentence: "Bye bye, Daddy!" Never mind that he didn't say it when Daddy actually left that morning. He also is just starting to shout, "Hi Daddy!" or "Hi Mommy!" So I guess he has a few sentences. But only about 10 words so far. I know, he's a boy and it's still early, and he points and understands a lot of commands and babbles, so I know it's coming. It's just hard sometimes to hear him say all of these jumbled syllables and not to be able to figure out what he's trying to say. But he is so stinking cute. Oh, and he's started practicing yoga, too: he puts his little hands on the ground and bends low enough for his head to touch the floor, leaving his little bum up in the air. Ahh!!

My OTHER favorite Ren & Stimpy moment that I feel comfortable sharing with a nonspecific audience is this song. I can't find the whole thing in an embedded player, but try to enjoy it anyway :)

I have finished the Grammar part of that eighth grade final I'd been picking at over the past few weeks, so now it's on to "orthography," otherwise known as vocabulary. Here we go!

Vocabulary Geek-Out #1

1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication?

Alphabet: the letters of a language in their customary order.

Phonetic: of or pertaining to speech sounds, their production, or their transcription in written symbols.

Orthography: The part of language study concerned with letters and spelling.

Etymology: An account of the history of a particular word (one of my favorite hobbies!).

Syllabication: To syllabify. (I hate when people ask for the definition of the wrong word!)

Syllabify: to form or divide into syllables.

Haiku News

Sixteen awarded

Prez. Medal of Freedom, in-

cluding Harvey Milk.

Steven Tyler falls

off stage during concert; now

his status unknown.

Ultramarathons

crazy enough, but this one's

through the desert--argh!!