Georgia-isms

I thought I should keep track of some of the funny things that Georgia says (and not usually on purpose!)

She calls the moon, "boon".

Trying to say ok, she says, "OOOOOH-Tay!"
This is especially funny when she is giving a treat to an animal and keeps yelling louder and louder, with no success. The poor animals can't translate Georgia.

One that she now says correctly is ice cream, which she used to call "gak-guah"

I asked her the other day how old I was. She said 5. The very next day, Dave was talking to her about how old he was. He tried to get her to say "thirty" and because of the difficult "th" sound, it sounds like "forty" when she says it. So, I am 5 and Dave is 40!

She often says, "No like it" when she doesn't want to eat or try something

A cute little phrase that she picked up (probably from me) is, "sounds good?" She will add it on the end of a sentence  Today it was, "mama, watch Veggies Tales and eat lunch. Sounds good?" And I had to break that little heart of hers because we had no time to watch TV.... it was lunch & naptime!

Georgia had a little band-aid on her finger today. After her nap, she took it off and was carrying it around the house. I told her to throw it away because we only use them once and they get dirty. She looked at it and said, "No. Clean!" and then refused to throw it away.


The way she says water is "wah-wee" and milk is "neek"

Last week we were leaving the grocery store when a homeless man came up to us and asked for change. As I reached for my purse, Georgia kept saying, "mama! Santa Clause!" The man thankfully just laughed it off and told Georgia, "Now, you be a good girl for your mama!" Whew. That was just a little awkward.

noise?

I don't know if I will continue with the monthly updates on Georgia. I will continue to update about her, but would love to do more updates about what she is doing and saying, as opposed to the milestones she is meeting.

Lately, she has been asking about noises that she hears. She will cock her head to one side and stand quietly for a minute and then ask, "Noise?". I guess its one of those things that she is just starting to comprehend and investigate. So far a few of the noises we have heard are cars driving by, a cricket in the backyard, and horns honking. I have to admit the cricket scared her and she refused to go back outside. Bless her.

After London....

We have now been living in the US for a little less than three months.
I thought it might be interesting to mention some of the things that we find odd now that we live in the US.

The first one I was going to talk about was the grocery store. The average grocery store here is maybe 5 or 6 times bigger the size of the average grocery store in the UK. Maybe even more like 10 or 11 times the size. So in the beginning, it was overwhelming to go to the store. It was just so big. There were so many things, and so many options. Things that we hadn't seen in two years, and new things. Reading labels is more difficult here - they "sneak" gluten into things. There aren't strict requirements for labeling here, so under the allergy information, they don't have to put "contains gluten" like they do in the UK. And products here contain so much junk! Seriously.... reading labels here is a pain. And time consuming.

From Tescos, a grocery store in the UK: Would you like some sardines with your desserts?

Besides the stores being huge, they are also empty (of people). Shopping at grocery stores in the UK at pretty much any day or any time were like being at a Black Friday Sale. Seriously. Running into people with your cart, waiting in long "cues" for checking out, hoping that whatever you were planning on getting at the store was still there. I once went to the store in the evening and they didn't have any chicken. At all. Like rows and rows of bare shelves. I have yet to be at a store in the US when they run out of whatever you wanted to buy. In fact, I was so surprised when I went shopping right at Thanksgiving time and was able to get everything on my list and even better - it was all on sale!

Living in the UK has expanded my dinner ideas. I now get frustrated at regular grocery stores trying to find things like risotto rice (and please not just a box where you add water and microwave for 2.5 minutes), gluten-free products and Indian foods.

One thing that our family has enjoyed very much has been the weather. I am probably the first to admit it! I love the sun and warmth, and moving back to So Cal in October was just perfect. I have felt bad posting picture of us enjoying the weather (because we have a lot of friends who are not blessed with living in such a great climate), but that is one wonderful thing about living here.

The weather in So Cal (even though its the winter right now) is about as nice as our summer in London. Actually, maybe nicer - there is a ton more sun, but not as much rain. And in fairness, we had a few nice days in London. But, Georgia is accustomed to the cool weather. We are the odd ones out when we go to the park. Georgia will be in short sleeves, or maybe long sleeves and hardly ever a jacket. The people who are from So Cal will be wearing winter jackets and hats. No joke. This isn't a problem for us until it starts getting hot in June and July, and then Georgia won't know what to do with herself!

I am loosing my walking legs. We have gotten so used to driving everywhere here - the nearest grocery store is a mile away. It is just easy to hop in the car and drive, as opposed to walking. We do live in a "walkable" area - the library and park are both two blocks away.