Happy 4th Birthday, Ardan!

Rory is looking forward to Ardan's birthday party this weekend at the bowling lanes. Every day this week he has asked if we're going to Ardan's party. Bowling on Sunday should be great fun with the little ones - I'm bummed I won't get to make it.

Speaking of bummers, that is Rory's new word of choice lately. We've been trying to work on some of his word choices of late, in part a response to the language he has picked up from others at school or (the horror!) at home. One of the no-no phrases is "darn it," which I confess that both Matt and I have come to use almost in an endearing fashion over our 10 years of being together (we recently celebrated our fifth anniversary).

So, instead of "darn it" we've suggested the very California expression of "bummer."

Of course, instruction by example always helps illustrate the lesson for youngsters. We've made a game of it, asking Rory how many different ways he can think of to use it:

"I'm out of Ovaltine - bummer!"

"I missed the goal - bummer!"

"Do I have to eat my broccoli? Bummer!"

As you can see, he totally gets it. :)