We’ve had a most excellent day here. We weren’t planning on having a Thanksgiving dinner sort of thing today, at least, because Gavin and Deirdre both had to work, and Mom and Dad thought they were going out to Blackrock to babysit the little boys. Instead, Deirdre called to say she wanted to come into town to do errands and she wanted to know if it would be ok to just bring the boys in, so we unexpectedly all ended up here. Mom thought a bit and sent Dad and me out to buy some supplies, then threw together a completely brilliant vegetarian “chicken” and broccoli casserole that she made cornbread stuffing for from scratch (wow it was good), and she made an apple pie and it was just all around *really* yummy. It had all the tastes of a Thanksgiving dinner, right there in one pan!
And we had a riotous good time, with yelling about politics over Breic’s demands that we pay attention to him, and cheering for Seirid who is getting really good at this walking thing, and it was all a lot of fun. Gavin ate, we think, half the casserole. He had five servings. *giggle* Generally it was just like Thanksgiving ought to be. :)
We also had some tear-jerkingly funny comparisons of American to English, including Deirdre apparently forgetting her loose-fitting pants she uses to teach in. She asked one of her coworkers if she could borrow her pants, which *astounded* the coworker, who stuttered, “D’ya mean borrow my *trousers*?” Because pants here are *underwear*. *helpless laughter*
And Mom, who hurt her knee in July or so, has had to stop explaining she’s got a bum knee, because people didn’t *say* anything, but they all sort of did a o.O look at her. *laugh* Deirdre told a story about another coworker, another American, who was waiting for her boyfriend to pick her up from work and someone asked if she was all right. She said, “Yes,I’m just waiting for my boyfriend to give me a ride,” which caused the Irish woman she was talking to to nearly pop a vein and say, in a strangled voice, “*Never* say that. Give you a *lift*, it’s give you a *lift*!” *howls*
Oh! *Jeez*, that Breic. He was telling us there were giants coming down the stairs, and he had a soccer ball with which he was, and this was his word, “vanquishing” the giants back to their cages.
*Vanquishing*. My jaw fell open and I said, “Did you just say *vanquish*?” and he said, “yes! I’m vanquishing the giants!”
Buh! He’ll be three in three weeks! Buh!
Yes sir. It’s been a very nice day. And I haven’t even done the writing part of the blog yet. :)
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Re: “vanquishing”
He’s been talking for over a year now, hasn’t he? It’s not that hard to believe.
Kids pick up sometimes surprisingly advanced vocabulary depending on what’s around them – there’s a story my parents tell of me saying “parallelogram” at about that age, and completely blowing my uncle away. (I had this truly evil shape sorter, with about 20 different shapes, and my parents had gone through and given a name to each shape, so…)
In Breic’s case, all it would really take is one story read to him in which giants are vanquished for him to pick up on it. This quick language pick-up is one reason you have to be really careful not to swear in front of them, because they will remember and will repeat it at the worst possible time.
Apparently Deirdre’s been playing pirate games with him, and they vanquish the pirates. :)
See what happens when literate people raise children?! :)
*pants* is an english term. Most area’s here don’t use ‘trouser’ sounds too funny with the accent.