A compilation of words (and gestures) that Toby finds important enough to learn and say, organized chronologically.
Duh
Digger, as in the construction truck. He’s learned how to specify more trucks as he’s learned about the variety of truck videos on YouTube
Ooooh
A mooing sound in conjunction with pointing to a cow
Ahce creahm
Ice cream, said low and fast
Beh
Ben, another primary kid at church. He can identify Ben’s voice from across the chapel and will swivel to find him
Barking like a dog
While not a definition, exactly, it is almost an automatic response to seeing a dog now. It is often accompanied by dropping to his fours, crawling around, and getting patted and cooed over by his sisters and Mama.
Me!
Usually the response to any question, and most famously it is used for giggles by asking strange things like, “Who would like food on their head?” or “Who wants me to eat their cake?”.
Muh
Emma, though he usually doesn’t say it unless slurring at the end of saying Katya’s name.
Fuh
Airplane, though no one understands this one.
I-do-ihh
“I do it!” said urgently and loud, whenever someone dares help him with something. He started slurring together phrases like this pretty young.
Tata
Katya
Buh
Either “bubbles” or “bus,” depending on context
Truh
Truck
Rrrrieuh
He makes the sound of a fire engine to identify a fire truck
Schhwoo
The sound of a helicopter, accompanied by twirling his finger in the air (Heidi taught him that one, unknowingly).
Duh Truh
Dump Truck. He learned this and is other first transportation-related words pretty early.
Arfah
Dog. We’re not sure how he came to choose this word over “dog,” but it certainly makes sense!
Gahleegee, Geegee, Guhleekee
Kitty. This is usually paired with “Arfah.” If he says one, he has to say the other, and it usually goes back and forth “arfah, kitty, arfah…”
Dada
Daddy. In June 2009 he started holding up his hand to his ear like a phone whenever he said Dada’s name.
Mama
Mommy! This is usually paired with “Mama” and goes back and forth “Dada, Mama, Dada…”
Typed this up for facebook and decided to share with a slightly larger audience.
1. Whenever I have to play the “2 lies 1 truth” get-to-know-you game, I usually write that I helped kids hold tarantulas in my last job.
2. The other truth I put is that I’m a twin. No, she’s fraternal, and yes, she’s older. Supposedly.
3. I don’t have a stock lie that I tell. Any ideas?
4. I’ve never had a retail job. My first job was as a newspaper girl, then a tutor, then a lab rat. Then boring post-college jobs.
5. I play World of Warcraft. Amusingly, half of my Facebook friends might judge me for that, and the other half might judge me for not being a level 80 yet.
6. My first computer was a TI-99. My sister and I had it hooked up to our little tv in the basement and checked books out of the library to get programs for games.
7. Before my senior year of high school I participated in a college chemistry program. I got the highest score on the organic test, so won the special “hat” from a polymer demo. I think my parents threw it away when I went to college.
8. I have several daydreams for the future. One of them is to restore a historic mansion. I’m not exactly good at interior decorating though; I just like old houses.
9. I have a secret addiction to novelty and designer toys. But I rarely buy them.
10. I often compete with my high school self, who was a major nerd and disgustingly good at everything in school. It’s hard living in the shadow of yourself.
11. I’m a better-than-average cook, but I’m also a lazy cook. You don’t want to see my knives.
12. I’m an uneducated chocolate snob. That’s probably the worst of any kind of snob. And I still eat anything.
13. I was pregnant while working at the tarantula job listed above and still feel ick when I smell white vinegar (which we used for cleaning windows).
14. My favorite food ever is tomatoes stuff with sausage, covered with salt, and buried in a mound of dirt and left to ferment.
15. I have a good sense of cute.
16. I threw an eraser in 2nd grade while the teacher was gone. I’m not sure how she noticed it when she got back, but she threatened to make us all stay after unless someone copped to it. I was terrified since I had never stayed after, so admitted it was me, thus shocking my poor teacher. And yes, throwing an eraser is pretty much the worst thing I’ve ever done in school.
17. I’m always too cold, regardless of the actual temperature.
18. I saw my not-yet-husband Mark in a religion class we had together and had a huge crush on him. I was too shy to really followup other than commenting on his TMBG shirt, but months later I happened have a class together with his best friend, and gradually started dating Mark while we campaigned for our friend to be university class president. How cool of a nerd girl romantic plot is that? I could make a movie!
19. While hanging out with Mark and our friends in that impressionable first stage of getting to know each other, I laughed so hard that orange soda came out of my nose. This is both testament to how funny we all were together and also how much Mark must love me to have witnessed that and still stay.
20. Speaking of campaigning, the best thing I have done in several years (other than raise a few wonderful kids) is help with Obama’s campaign. I think I amazed myself with what I could do. The excitement and good feelings have sort of faded, but I still have a memory of how intense that time period felt.
21. I have a green belt in aikido. Only black belts seem to mean anything to people, but that does represent about 3 years of my life. This is the 2nd time I’ve stopped. Maybe someday I’ll have a black belt.
22. On accident, I started collecting friends in other countries. When I’m retired I’ll probably never stop traveling.
23. I do have a dream that my kids will live in another country with me someday, but I don’t think relatives would forgive me. So they can consider this their first warning.
24. I first started surfing the web using Lynx because I didn’t know what Netscape Navigator was. Heck, a lot of you probably don’t either.
25. #14 was a lie I put in to see if you actually read everything I wrote. And to give me two extra statements.
(I believe Katya wrote this from a prompt her teacher gave)
If I were President I will have ice cream every day. If you did something nice you could have some. There would be two different favors every day. You have to bring your own bowl or ice cream cone. I really wish I was President.
I’m in the middle of trying to get rid of some of the things that cost money that I don’t use to their fullest, such as paid hosting. Along with that I lost the domain name I had through yahoo, so heidihoopes.com will no longer work (though at the moment it still does). tryptophantastic.com still does, and shortly I’ll have an alternate address as well for those of you who can’t remember that. In the very least, you should add it to your bookmarks or feeds and make it easy for yourselves! Thanks for bearing with me.
There’s been a renaissance of instant messaging in our house. After I sent Katya a variety of smileys, including a very mad one, we had the following exchange:
(12:34:15 PM) K: do you need to go in a time out
(12:34:26 PM) tiertreu: yes!
(12:35:34 PM) K: key now go in your bedroom
(12:36:04 PM) ***tiertreu stomps to her bedroom
(12:36:12 PM) tiertreu: (many more mad faces)
(12:36:16 PM) tiertreu: WAAAAH
(12:40:07 PM) K: you may come out when you learn not to get mad
(12:40:20 PM) tiertreu: but I’m not mad!
(12:40:27 PM) tiertreu: I’m silly?
(12:40:52 PM) K: your coco
(12:41:09 PM) tiertreu: I know =))
We’ll test whether workplaces block vimeo, along with youtube!
Toby has started scooting, and in true Hoopes kid fashion, does it, well, a bit oddly. This was videotaped a few weeks ago, so he’s since become more streamlined, but the technique is the same.
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