Mama, Dada, Yes & No

First and foremost - we have exciting news to share!! Deidrick is now saying "mama," "dada," and answering questions with head nods/shakes! I think it is adorable, and Rudy of course is thrilled that he says 'dada' too.  Tonight, he even picked his own dinner out by nodding his head 'yes' to two different things, then he grabbed the one he wanted.  Today, I watched a video we took of him when he was 1 week old and it just blows me away to see how much he's grown. 

On another note, I've come to realize that shopping at the Great Bend Walmart is just never going to be an enjoyable experience.  We all know that Walmarts everywhere have their downfalls...but here in Great Bend, I almost have to wonder if you are disqualified from employment consideration if you smile....ever.  First night here, the customer in front of me and the cashier were cracking jokes about me (still not sure why, I did double check I had nothing on my face or TP stuck to my shoe or anything), the next three times the cashiers all looked so unhappy with their lives & didn't even so much as say "hello."  Just a little pet peeve of mine, considering the many years I was a cashier.  As the customer, by being in your check out line - I am essentially putting pennies in your paycheck, so be friendly. 

Anyway... today I finally finished organizing the room.  Poor Deidrick was still living out of a trash bag, but luckily he had no idea! :) Everything has its place, and things are starting to get a little easier..at least here.  I realize that here I've spent so many days organizing this room and making it the highest level of functioning as possible - to only be moving in a few days, but at least I will enjoy this for a little bit longer!  Yesterday, we got to go swimming - and just as I guessed, Deidrick loved it!  We all had so much fun that I can't wait til we get to go again. 

Function in such a small space, has brought us to improvise in some pretty hilarious ways.  First of all, our food is literally a tower on the dresser right now.  We don't really have another way to store it (we're looking into somethings & ALL ideas are welcome!), so it takes over the dresser space right now.  Second is our "cooktop".  We have three large plastic bins that we store almost everything in when we're moving...but no tables to put stuff on.  We fully rely on whatever the hotel has available for space.  So - with only a small electric skillet to cook on, we plug it in and cook on top of one of the plastic bins.  This of course limits our options for meals... poor Rudy has been seriously craving spaghetti since we got here, and I'd do just about anything for some meat loaf and homemade mashed potatoes...but we just can't do that on what we've got.  (That's another thing -- we would LOVE recipes!! We have a small electric skillet and limited fridge space... so we're looking for simple.) 

My favorite memory so far from this adventure, has got to be the way we do our dishes.  It makes me SO happy to have help every night with the dishes now :) and Rudy finally thought of a great way to do them all after a days worth of dishes.  The idea came to him when we gave Deidrick a mashed up banana to munch on while we at dinner.  Of course, he's 7.5 months old so most of it was mashed into his shirt and hair by the time he was done.  Rudy said, "Wanna just run the tub and put him and the chair in it?" I thought he was kidding.  I got up to use the restroom and he said to Deidrick "Oh, mama is going to get your bath ready!"  Nope, not kidding!  Once we got him out of the bath, PJs on and bottle in hand - we got to work on our stuff.  We took it all to the bathroom, Rudy kneeled down on the floor and washed everything in the tub, handed it all to me to rinse in the bathroom sink & then I dried and put it all away.  I love how inventive we can be when we need to be :).

Well friends and family, it is getting late here... tomorrow is laundry day, and I'm sure Deidrick will be ready to get his day going before I know it.  As always, thinking of everyone & missing you all!

Much love from the Sanchez Family in Kansas!