We scored some great deals at the thrift store near the hotel, including a pink felt butterfly purse for Afton, which she absolutely adores and has to take everywhere with her. We also got some duplos, which included a girl duplo and a boy duplo. Their names are girl and boy. Very creative, right? In the car the other day, she was singing lullaby to the girl ("uh bye, uh bye, uh bye") and then interrupted herself with, "Diaper change? Yup. Diaper change." She's getting very good at counting and can go up to about 14 now. She can recognize a lot of letters and numbers and favors the letter B. I probably draw B for her 563 times a day.
As Afton’s vocabulary rapidly expands, her grammar and pronunciation are lagging behind. She often repeats phrases as she hears them. For example, when she wants to be held she says “hole jou?” (hold you) and when she wants you to give her something she’ll say “de go” (there you go). “Fork” and “frog” are especially funny to hear her say (they both sound like another four letter word starting with ‘f’. When she heard me say that I was feeling like I was in a funk the other day, she repeated that last word in a similar fashion. The other day, we were all three sitting on the couch and Afton pulled out a book with a frog on the cover, pointed to it and shouted what sounded like an obscenity. Robyn and I couldn’t stop laughing. We took a video demonstrating her pronunciation of those three words, but we don't want it to get leaked and ruin her presidential campaign, so we're not sharing it here. (If you really want to see it, let us know).
She loves to model everything she sees us do, including grooming and hygiene. When she sees us putting on deodorant, she’ll come up to us and say “Aton de-o-wo-want?” I finished a stick of deodorant this week and let her have the empty tube and it is currently one of her favorite toys. She has a hard time reaching her armpit, but has found that it is just as fun to apply it to any surface of her body, including her face, feet, and bum. She’s even licked it. Robyn says she smells like her dad lately.
Afton loves to walk on various surfaces and see how the feel under her feet. Her favorite is the bumpy yellow metal plates on the sloping sidewalk before the crosswalk. Whenever the surface on which she is walking changes, she always comments “walk on gass” (grass) or “walk on siwak” (sidewalk). Sometimes she gets confused, though. Usually she confuses dirt with a similarly colored material and will say “walk on poop,” even when we’ve corrected her.
Robyn has written in the past about how good Afton is at remembering names. She will usually remember everyone she’s seen that day when she says her nightly prayers. She also is good at remembering what names belong together. We can’t say “Sarah” with out her saying “Hannah,” or vice versa. The other day as we were praying we prompted her with “Mima,” to which she added “Papa,” and “boat.” I guess she knows all the members of that part of the family!
This week we had our first experience shopping at Whole Foods. We loved it, except for the prices. Dallin loved the pickle and olive bar as well as the salad bar. Robyn got some freshly ground hazelnut-chocolate butter. Afton grabbed an apple and took a bite out of it before we could stop her. We brought it through the checkout line, but they gave it to us for free, which was nice of them. She must have been hungry because she ate it all the way down to the stem.
Mima made Afton a quiet book. It’s quite the labor of love and must have taken her hours upon hours. Afton is only allowed to play with it at church. Her favorite page features a knife, spoon, fork, plate, and cup. As Sacrament Meeting started this week, she inmediately turned to that page and loudly repeated "fork, fork, fork" as only Afton can pronounce it. I wonder what the people in the pew ahead of us thought. Here she is before church showing how excited she is to have her church book:
**UPDATE -- AUGUST 23**
This week’s Afton update is brought to you by the number 2. Afton loves to count. She can actually count all the way to 13 (with some prompting), although she doesn’t really know how to count objects. Whenever there are multiple things she will say “one two doggies” or “one two babies,” etc. If there’s only one, she’ll often ask “other truck?” or “other bird?”
This update is also sponsored by the letters A.G. Afton has figured out that that is her nickname, so she has referred to herself that way frequently this week. “AG’s high chair,” or “AG walking.”
The word of the week is “self,” as in “by myself.” She loves to be independent and when we offer to help her she’ll often say “no, self!”
Another word worth mentioning this week is flag. Last week we mentioned how she pronounces “fork,” “funk,” and “frog.” It turns out “flag” is a similar word. This video we recorded is too good not to share. I promise we’re not modeling that pronunciation for her. (Backstory: we passed a large American flag on the road. It somehow sparked her memory of when her cousin Eleanor was holding the signal flag on the boat and Afton had no flag to hold).
While in the stroller on their way home from the commissary this week, Afton turned around and looked at Robyn and said “stinky toot, I did it!”
Afton loves animals and had lots of opportunities to see them this week. We took advantage of our new zoo membership one day and went to their show. Afton loved it, especially the part where Dr. Bones (a dog) flew down to the stage on an airplane, combining two of her favorite things to say and point out. When it was time to leave the zoo, she said “No! More animals?” Until we mentioned dinner, and she immediately said “food food food!”
On Saturday we went to a festival put on by the base chapel. They had a petting zoo with goats, a lamb, a pig, a rabbit, lamas, and ponies. Afton loved it. They also had free pony rides. At first she was hesitant, but by the end she only left kicking and screaming. She’s been talking about the ponies a lot since then.
That festival also provided Afton with an opportunity to get away from the yucky vegetables we usually try to feed her and eat her first hot dog. It was love at first bite.
Whenever you come on post you have to pass through a gate where they check your military ID. Afton loves it. As we approach she will excitedly say “hi guards, hi guards!” She’s also learning how to salute, as she sees her dad and the guards exchange salutes so often.
Afton seems to have an aversion to hair. Whenever she finds a loose one on her body she’ll say “ew, hey-ya!” until we pull it off. When she finds one in her mouth, she’ll either do the same or just sit with her mouth open and her tongue sticking out until we remove it for her.
We had the sister missionaries over for dinner this week, Sister Sasser and Sister Lee. The latter was Afton’s favorite, she calls her “Sistuh Weef.” Afton was hamming it up for the sisters like we’ve never seen her do, showing them her toys and laying on the cuteness.
One last Aftonism this week: One day Afton was peacefully cuddling with Robyn in bed (a rarity) when Robyn asked her what she was thinking about. “Jesus,” she sweetly replied. We thought this was adorable, and assumed she said it because the only time she usually hears the phrase “think about” is at church when we talk about thinking about Jesus. A few days later, however, Robyn repeated the question and Afton’s reply was “Donald Trump.” I guess her dad isn’t the only one who spends too much time thinking about her presidential campaign!
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