Vonnahme family blog

Shining

nathan — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:05:34 +0000

And God, please help Beren and me to shine brightly as jewels in your crown. And, please make me a pink one. And if you already have, then thank you.

–Lily, praying, quite a while ago but I forgot to post it

First lost tooth for Lily

nathan — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:00:39 +0000

Last night, as her group viola lesson was starting, that tiny little tooth wiggled out!

This morning, the tooth fairy had exchanged it for a dollar and three pieces of candy. I wonder if the tooth fairy is
immune to this global economic crisis thing?

First lost tooth

admin — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:30:04 +0000

Beren lost his first tooth today, a few days before his 7th birthday.
Looking at the tiny thing, we felt like it was only moments ago that we first noticed it in his mouth. He had a one-tooth smile, just as endearing in a new way as his toothless baby smile.
Now he has a minus-one-tooth smile, but it’s just as endearing, in a new way, as his perfect baby tooth smile.

Some till their ground, but let weeds choke their son

nathan — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:43:13 +0000

On priorities:

— George Herbert, The Temple

The facsimile is awesome but modernized text is more readable:


O England full of sin, but most of sloth!
Spit out thy phlegm, and fill thy breast with glory;
Thy Gentry bleats, as if thy native cloth
Transfus'd a sheepishnesse into thy story;
  Not that they all are so; but that the most
  Are gone to grass, and in the pasture lost .

This loss springs chiefly from our education:
Some till their ground, but let weeds choke their son;
Some mark a partridge, never their child's fashion;
Some ship them over, and the thing is done
  Study this art, make it thy great design;
  And if God's image move thee not, let thine.

Some great estates provide, but do not breed
A mast'ring mind; so both are lost thereby.
Or else they breed them tender, make them need
All that they leave:  this is flat poverty.
  For he that needs five thousand pound to live,
  Is full as poor as he that needs but five.

The way to make thy son rich, is to fill
His mind with rest before his trunk with riches:
For wealth without contentment, climbs a hill
To feel those tempests which fly over ditches.
  But if thy son can make ten pound his measure,
  Then all thou addest may be call'd his treasure.

Cirdan’s current lexicon

nathan — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:29:26 +0000

It’s been almost exactly a year we last wrote about Cirdan’s “talking”. His current lexicon, sorted again by frequency:

Mnyaa!	“match”, either things that match or matches for striking a flame
Mama	Mama
Lahlah	Grandma, especially Gmom
Baba!	Papa
Baba AH!	Papa, I’d like your help or attention on this matter.
Nana!	Liliana
Mooh	milk
Boo	blue
Boo Mooh!!!	2% or 1% milk
NO	no
‘ihhhh	high
COCOA BEEBEE	his small puppy, Baby Cocoa
COCOA MAMA	Mama Cocoa
Luke	ukulele
Ipp	pick
Nih!	mandolin
Tahh	guitar
Ahhw, Ahhw, Ahhw	octave mandolin
Nahe	blanket
O	Cheerios™
Caww, caww	raisins (Beren coined that one but we taught it to Cirdan)
DihwDeh	Cirdan
DihwDeh Diddih	I did it

He actually communicates his thoughts pretty well. It’ll be nice when he can enunciate a little more clearly, but it’s fun to remember his idiosyncrasies. He’s learning language a lot like Beren did.

Lily’s funnest recent word is “weller”, as in “You’re doing that weller now, Cirdan, GOOD JOB!” Shouldn’t that logically be more correct than “better” as a comparative adverb?