18 Months

18 months old and still the cutest boy to have roamed the earth! I'm a lucky mama!

First I must address the above picture. What time warp was he put in during the taking of this photo? It's like a glimpse of the future adult ButterBean!!

Anyway, at 18 months his favorite words make him a total boy:
"Caw" = car or outside, whichever he feels like
"Daaa" = still raving about dogs
"Baaa" = Ball

Other words just make me laugh every time he says them --
"heenghh", which is lotion, soap, anything else that can be rubbed into skin or into his "hayyh" (hair)...diaper cream in your hair? Sure! Yogurt? You bet! Nothing better than hennghh in your hayyh, right?

Many words are still very similar
"Ba-ul" (Bottle) could be easily confused with "Bah!" (glass of water) or "Baaa", which is ball.
or
"Bey-ee" = belly
"Bay-ee" = berry
"Bay" = bear

And here he is with a favorite toy: mommy's "tone"

Small Town vs. Big City

Visiting me at Serpent Lake 

I'm in a "rural" Minnesotan town. I'm from Minneapolis. 
The differences between people in a city hospital and a rural hospital has struck me as quite funny! 

Example 1: Conversations
Rural Hospital: Nurse 1 -"Hey, what is the best cure for poison ivy?" Nurse 2 - "Brew your own sumac tea and drink it for 10 days before you think you'll be in contact with any poison ivy"
vs
City Hospital: Nurse 1 - "Hey, that smells good, what are you drinking?" Nurse 2 - "Soy pumpkin chai tea latte." 

Example 2: Breakfast
Rural Hospital: eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, muffins, 
vs
City Hospital: everyone brings Greek yogurt with or without fruit and granola...everyone (I secretly eat my peanut butter and honey toast before I get to the hospital so as not to be ridiculed ;) jk)

Example 3: Conversations again
Rural Hospital: Nurse 1 - "My brother and father-in-law are both buying Ice Castles! (enormous fish houses for ice fishing. they apparently have everything you could possible need. I know nothing about ice fishing) I can't wait for winter!" Nurse 2 - "Oh, jealous!"
vs
City Hospital: Nurse 1 - "We just booked our trip to Cancun for this December." Nurse 2 - "That's so great! You have to go to a warmer climate at some point during the winter, or you just go crazy!"

Example 4: Opinions on Commuting
Rural Hospital: 5-10 minute commute...15 tops
vs
City Hospital: 20-30 minute commute...1.5 hours tops

Example 5: Conversations once again
Rural Hospital: "I got my paintball gun calibrated this weekend" (I think he said calibrated...like ice fishing, I know nothing about paintball guns)
vs.
City Hospital: "The show at Guthrie Theatre this weekend was amazing!"

All true examples! 
These three weeks of rural Minnesota have proved I'm more of a city girl, though I don't think it needed to proved. 
Besides missing my adorable bundle of giggling boy, I also miss my grocery store, full of organic goodness...slim pickin's at the grocery store up here!

Turns out sand doesn't taste good...ButterBean now knows this

Away from home

Part of being in anesthesia school in a metro area means that I don't get very much regional experience (spinals, epidurals, nerve blocks) and so I have to go out to rural hospitals to get that! I've been 2.5 hours from home for two weeks and still have one more week to go. I've gone home on the weekends, but otherwise have been living in a call room in the hospital! It's like being back in the dorms - walking down the hall to the bathroom, needing a key to get everywhere, no kitchen. Yep. I've tried to study a bit, sit out by the lake that is only a couple of blocks away...but really I've use this time to watch lots and lots of Olympics! USA!
Three weeks is a long time to be gone from little ButterBean, so this week my mom brought him up Wednesday through Friday so that I could see him in the evenings. 
He has a had a great time with the lakes near by!

All of his running around has resulted in something he has never done before: fall asleep on the hotel floor! 

We had a lovely dinner on a golf course, where ButterBean had a great time running free! His new word is "car", which comes out like a question, "caw?". Most conversations now sounds like "mumble mumble mumble, BALL (baahhh)!! mumble mumble Caw? mumble mumble mumble naNAAHH?" I must talk to him with a lot of questioning inflection because his conversations always sound like a continuous string of questions. 

ButterBean's favorite food: Ketchup!

A baaaahhhh!!

I'm so glad he was able to come visit me!!!