Maple @ The Zoo

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Nearly three weeks of holiday went a long way toward restoring my vigor. Just before the break, work was nearly crushing me. Now, things seem under control. There’s imminent insanity, but it’s all manageable.
We went to Greece for our vacation and really loved it. We only hit two locales: Athens and the island of [...]

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Maple: (with Play Dough in hand) Daddy, I’m going to bake you an antama.
Daddy: Sounds good. What’s an antama?
Maple: It’s a special treat that we eat.
Daddy: Oh, what are the ingredients?
Maple: First, you make a mixing bowl. Then, you use half past a flour, a pair of salt, baking powder on top of a cake [...]

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So it has been a while since I wrote, despite my best intentions. You know how it is.
A lot has been going on here, so I’ll just bust ‘em out.
Working in an international environment created the daily opportunity for me to hone my abilities in spoken English. Given the intrinsic mushiness of words, and [...]

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Maple & Molly Get Ice Cream from Fratelli’s, originally uploaded by scottpartee.

Sure, it was sugar and lactose free. But it was ice cream. Maple will tell you so.

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Maple: in silly mock surprise voice Trees don’t eat cheese!
Daddy: That’s right! Where did you learn that? Did you read that somewhere?
Maple: AbleDee.com!
Daddy: You what?
Maple: I learned it at AbleDee.com!
Daddy: What is that?
Maple: Whenever I make something up and say something silly, and mama and Daddy ask me where I got it, [...]

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Maple Reading

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We were looking for something to entertain Maple with, when Halane pulled out the set of dominoes we bought during our trip to Culebra, Puerto Rico.
Maple always likes to know the singular and the plural of any new vocabulary word. So she asked.
“Is it dominoes and dominoses?”

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Maple: I am from Amazon.com!
Daddy: Did you just say you’re from Amazon.com?
Maple: Daddy, it’s AAAAamazon, not Awwwwmazon.
Daddy: You’re not from Amazon.com, you’re from Atlanta, Georgia
Maple: It’s AAAtlanta, not Awwwtlawwwnta.
—-

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When we moved to Vienna, we decided that we didn’t need telephone or cable service into our home. The reason for this is that in the very near future, all one will need to communicate with the world and pull entertainment from that same world is a broadband connection. Anyone telling you otherwise is wrong. [...]

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“Once upon a time, there was a dog named Scamp. He wanted to buy some shoes, so he went to the store, and he tried some on. He put on a sweater, and his jacket, and his socks, and his underwear, and his pants, and his shirt, and his collar and his coat and his [...]

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We arrived home from being out on the town. Maple followed me into the kitchen. “May I have a pancake?” she asked.
“No, Maple,” I replied. “We don’t have any batter.”
“Do we have flour?”
“Yes.”
“Do we have milk?”
“We do.”
“Do we have butter?”
“Uh huh.”
I think I see where this is heading.
“Do we have eggs?”
“Yup!”
“Then we can make pancakes!” [...]

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Of course it remains true that one should monitor one’s word choice in front of a toddler. F-bombs, negative remarks and forbidden foods are simply off limits and relatively easy to control. However, the next level of self-censorship is upon us. Witness this snippet of Maple’s pretend conversation she was having between a couple of [...]

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Happy New Year From Vienna
Click the link to see our New Year’s Video Greeting.

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Originally uploaded by scottpartee.

I’m fairly certain that my daughter is the first toddler in history whose first utterance upon seeing the Christmas tree was “what a disappointment!” But that’s what she said.
In reality, the disappointment comment was her being silly. She [...]

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