My "Artsy" little girl

Liesl has really gotten into her watercolor paints that I bought for her. She is using the "Crayola Beginnings" watercolors which are little balls with paintbrushes on them and the watercolor ink is inside. I think she likes the results better than the crayons. I don't think that they give her enough color for her taste. But she loves to paint. When she sees momma's paintings that I have been working on she taps on it and says painting. She is very respectful of it too and careful.

Yesterday, she really showed her stuff with the Mega blocks. She is a "mad stacker". Very fast and accurate. When she is done they all go back in the bag without prompting from Oma. I was quite impressed.

She has been doing very well also with her utensils at the table. She is still using her hands alot but has been practicing her fork and spoon and getting a lot better at it. I also let her have cups with a little water in them to drink and she does pretty good with them.

Saturdays are swim class and last Saturday was the first since......last November I think? She did a lot better this time around. Not that she was not comfortable last class. She is just able to take direction better this time around and understands things better that I am saying. When I ask her to kick, she kicks and says "kick, kick, kick" as she does it. She also did very well with getting dunked under the water over her head (per the instructor's request of course). This class gets to be in the kiddie pool which is much better and we get to walk around a central island that the instructor stays near. I think my little fish is going to really enjoy class each Saturday.

Staycation at the Zoo

Today Grandad, Oma and I went to the Zoo again. We had a great time. Since it was cold out we spent a lot of time indoors. First we stopped at the Butterfly house and Aviary. There were not too many butterflies flitting about because it was on the cool side. Grandad was spending a lot of time taking pictures. He wanted to check out his camera and lenses. After the Butterfly house we went to Amphibiville. We saw many frogs, fish and turtles there. I really liked watching the turtle and the frogs in the rain-forest. Then we went to my favorite exhibit which is the polar bear and seal exhibit. There I like to sit and watch as the seals swim all around me. Our last stops were at the lions and tigers and red pandas. Three pandas were all out playing on the ground and in the trees. They have beautiful tails which are striped. Grandad took me home after the zoo and I met momma there. Can't wait to see where we go next week.

"My Book"

Tuesday we all went to the Perry's to watch our weekly shows. Tommy and I had a good time waiting for Heather and Jim to arrive watching "Yo Gabba, Gabba" with the kids. Both of them glued to the TV because they both don't get a lot of TV during the day. At one point, Tommy was on the phone and the kids walked out of the room. I think I gave them less than a minute before I followed them into the kitchen and found Gavin standing in his shopping cart to get onto the kitchen counter to "shop" for some jello which he was putting into his cart. Liesl was holding the cart for him below. They were stunned to get caught and it was so funny to catch them.

Later on, Heather gave Liesl her Easter basket so she wouldnt get everything all at once (thank you Perrys!) She had all kinds of cool stuff in there. Sidewalk chalk, an Abbey board book, some bath books she was interested in like Gavin's, some nestling cups and some tights (which will come in handy on Easter). It was super late and past her bedtime so a little crabby. Well, Gavin wanted to check out the new toys too and was checking out some of the stuff and Liesl wanted to look at it too. Finally, out of her erupted a "My book" that was so clear it made us all laugh as she swiped it back. I haven't heard her say the word "my" or "mine" until then.

Yesterday, Liesl went to Opa Peter's Dr with Oma and Opa. She fell asleep in the car so Oma took her in and was letting her sleep in her arms. When they were waiting in the exam room, the Dr. came in. When he did, Liesl woke up and just blurted out "Doctor". Which was another thing I hadn't heard before and kinda funny.

Breakfast with Oma and Grandad

Grandad, Oma and I went to breakfast this morning at Leos. I sat in a booster instead of a high chair. It makes me feel so grown up. I read the menus and decided that the dessert menu was the best with all the cakes and such. I did eat a kids meal today of scrambled eggs and toast. I didn't care for the sausage so fed that to Oma. She was happy cause she didn't get any meat with her french toast. Oma gave me lots of her french toast today so it evened out that she had some of my meal. Momma will post pictures from breakfast and my cute little outfit I got at the mom to mom sale.

Once we got home Oma had some cleaning to do so I helped with my very own swiffer that Oma shortened for me. This is so exciting to be able to help Oma. The rest of the day I played with Ota. After my nap Oma, Floyd and I went for a walk. I walked myself from the top of Miriam to Oma's house. I loved looking at the trees and cars. I made sure to point all the trees out to Oma in case she missed one. Same with the cars in the driveways. We ran across a couple of dogs who barked and didn't want Floyd to pee on their property.

Dress up

This weekend Momma made the mistake of thinking it was later in the month than it was. We got up on Saturday morning looking forward to swim class and got all the way down to Warren and swim class doesn't start until this weekend! So Liesl and I picked up Oma and want to the Mom 2 Mom sale at Crittendon. We picked up a lot of really nice clothes for 2T, a brand new potty chair, a brand new Ernie and Abbey doll, and some really cool books. YAY Mom 2 Mom sales!

Liesl has been carrying around her Abbey Doll since I bought it this weekend. She doesnt like to go anywhere without it and if it is missing from her arm it is "Abbey, Abbey".



One of her new favorite game is to play dress up. She loves to put clothes on top of clothes and put on hats and glasses. Basically it is to put as many articles of clothing on top of each other as she can. She also is attached to this blue straw hat at Oma's that it is a permanent fixture in her dress up box.



She also is having a good time coloring. Yesterday, Granddad spent time crouched down on her little chairs coloring with her and when Oma went to color in the same book, Granddad wanted to know who had been coloring on his picture?

Went to the Zoo with Oma

Yesterday Liesl and I went to the Zoo for the first time this year. Everyone was active. We only spent about two hours there since we had to get back for mommy who was off work early. Before going to the Zoo Liesl and I brought mommy a picnic lunch to work and we sat outside and ate. We arrived at the Zoo about 1PM. Our first stop was the Butterfly house(my favorite of course). Liesl seemed to enjoy the butterflies flitting about and comenting on when and where she saw them by saying fly, fly. We then walked through the aviary and she pointed out the birds as we went through.




Next stop was the polar bear exhibit. I was dissapointed that the polar bears were not swimming about but there was plenty of activity from the seals. Lies enjoyed watching them swim around and over us. She sat on the ledge and pointed whenever she spotted one coming or going. She was especially interested in the blind seal who didn't move around much but stayed in one spot. He was not in his usual spot in front of the water flow but on the opposite side of the tank.

We then walked to the Giraffes and Zebras. She was interested but not very vocal about these animals. We tried to get in to see the Kangaroos but the entrance was closed. Next stop was the lions who were walking about. Liesl proceeded to growl like a lion as she does so many times when seeing pictures. This went on for quite a while and she did not want to leave until I promised her we were going to see the tigers and monkeys. The tigers were not as active. One was sleeping and the other sat very regally on the edge of the exhibit. The Chimps were also lazing around in the building just laying near the window to catch some sun.



The red pandas were active. This is the first time I have seen them both out together and interacting.

Sad the weekend is over

Thursday Momma worked the late shift which is already hard on Liesl but what made it worse is that someone had the nerve to call at 7:30 pm and ask at 7:50 when I have for the day and kept me on the phone until 9 pm. By the time I got to Oma's to pick her up it was time for bed and she was not letting me go after that. We had planned to spend the night thank god.

It was a good weekend overall. Liesl got to spend time with her Kaethe tante and Kathy this weekend when they came to spend the weekend for the Jaeger Banquet. Which is always good. Liesl drew another picture, this time Oma has it on the fridge of course.

Liesl visited her Oma and Opa Fritz this weekend for the first time in I think a month? Opa's surgery went well and Liesl was over her cold ....finally so we thought it was safe. This week Oma Ronnie thinks it would be ok to restart on the regular schedule pending that Opa obeys his Dr.'s orders. She had a good time over there playing with her toys and watching Snowman and Elmo vacation. It was good to see Oma and Opa again.

On the way back we visited Kaethe tante and Kathy at Mom's house. In the car, she grabbed her cup holder off the side of the car seat and was balancing it on her nose with both arms outstretched to the sides. I was laughing so hard. She didn't just do it once either. It was like she was practicing or something. That night I put her to bed and she was sleeping next to us when we were watching a movie. During the movie there was some clapping. She opened her eyes wide and clapped and said "YAY YAY YAY" and then nursed herself right back to sleep....about an hour later...another clapping scene and she woke up with a less robust "yay yay yay".....and clapped and then fell back asleep.

Last night, watching a movie with her in my lap sleeping.... She kinda woke up when there was some gunshots in the movie...kinda sleepy eyed watching a little. When the movie was over I asked Jim to take the Netflix movie out of the player. Liesl woke up and saw that he was changing out the DVD and said "Elmo?". Cracked me up.

Park in the Dark?

The Perrys and the Tierneys went to the Rochester Park last night to let the kids play on the toddler swings and play structures. We all headed out early enough but the cloud cover seemed to make it dark a lot faster than usual. The kids loved playing on the swings and slides together but I didnt manage to get very good pictures with the low light. Liesl was none too happy when we decided to leave the park when it got too dark to play.

Afterward we all took a drive to look at houses in Oakland Twp. We cant believe the size of house that we can get in this economy. There is a really nice one that we found that has a great play structure right next to it, a pool and tennis courts.


Liesl and I had a wonderful relaxing day this morning. She was very cooperative with getting dressed and ready. She played around in her play tent and with her little truck. I managed to get her into a cute new little outfit and she proudly posed for pictures for the blog.

A, B, C, D.....

Mom has an ABC learning toy on the fridge that Liesl loves to put the letters in and learn about them and it sings the ABC song.....Which today she started to sing with it. How cute is that. Wish I could have seen it. Gonna have to con her into doing it tomorrow or something. Also, the Elmo in Grouchland movie has a countdown from 10 with Bert and Ernie to start the movie which she likes to do with them. Didnt think this would start so soon! She started stringing more words together yesterday, like "No More"

I also signed her up for a swim class at the Warren Pool again which i am looking forward to every Saturday morning. Hopefully she will be back into Tumble class again on Tuesdays. Kindermusik is probably out. Really pricey and mom liked the storytime better. But Storytime will be sporadic from here on out until Sept when they start classes back up in Romeo. We are going to try and see what Rochester has for the spring/summer.

Tonight, Heather and I are hoping to take the kids to the park again so I might be able to post some cute pics of them all tomorrow.

Her first Drawing

This is her first drawing. The first time that she has sat down and drawn something herself. All the other times she has watched and eaten the crayons. Dont get me wrong....she did her fair share of crayon eating last night. I think the drawing was inspired by Momma and Oma's Stamp Class last night. She did so well in her high chair stamping and snacking on pretzels with the girls.

Mom and I thought about the last blog and determined she has been saying "all done" which is really 2 words stung together too but I think that "tooth hurt" counts for more of a 2 word string especially since she is telling you something about herself and not just trying to get out of a highchair.

One new thing that she has been doing, as recent as the last 2 weeks is saying "hug" and resting her head on your shoulder and giving a big hug. We are loving it. She has also been giving a lot more kisses out too. My happy smiley little girl is so good to wake up to. She has been doing alot better with the crib. She slept in it for nap-time on the weekend and for bedtime on Sunday for about 3 hours. It is a good start and I am sure she will get used to it. She has been doing better at self soothing at sleepy times with a little help from momma rubbing her back. She has had to resort to it because she has been having an awful time nursing with this sinus problem hanging on from the cold. I think today her nose will be dry for the first time.....maybe in about 2.5 wks. She was a little crusty so I am hopeful. But she did do a little coughing this morning.

Stringing words together

Yesterday when I was playing with Liesl she pointed to her cheek and said "tooth hurt". Then pointed to the other side and said the same. That is the first time that she has strung a couple of words together that I noticed. She is doing very well with answering questions like "Would you like some eggs?" or "would you like a banana or cocoa wheats?" She answers with the "yeah, yeah, yeah" bouncing and excited that you are understanding her. or squinches up her face and shakes her head back and forth.

Rochester Park Fun

After 2 weeks of being sick I thought that Liesl deserved a day out at the Park. Well, it really wasn't a full day. Maybe an hour outside.....with the stroller ride back and forth. She still has a little cough and runny nose but think it is just residual. We were again thinking about the zoo but thought better of it because we would be going in and out of exhibits and didn't want her getting hot then cold then hot then cold over and over. She had a nice long nap (2.5 hours) and woke up really happy. I asked her if she wanted to go outside and play on the slides and the swings and she answered with a big grin "yeah, yeah, yeah" bouncing up and down. So we bundled her up and put her in the stroller and took as stroll down to the Rochester Park to play.

She had a lot of fun giggling on the swings and sliding down the slides. Creating static with her little fleece suit and shocking momma when she picked her up. There were a little too many kids on the closer of the playgrounds so we tooled down to the baby gym at the far end of the park to play. There she found another little girl...both of them a little shy...to play with. She climbed up on the dinosaurs and up on the slides and sat blocking the tube with the other little girl on the other side.....both staring at each other and not moving. pretty cute . Her hands got really cold so we decided to make our way back. She was not happy at all and she started to protest the move. She didnt want to go into the stroller and I let her walk....of course she started to run right back to the playground. I told her we would visit the playground on the way back home and she did ok with that. We played at that one again for a couple minutes but when we started to go back she completely melted down in the stroller. Strapped in at the waist and hanging out the side looking at the sky and screaming. We just kept strolling and singing Old MacDonald and she calmed down ....still staring at the sky then eventually sat back down like nothing ever happened.

Nice try.........

Well, I tried to take my Dr's advice about how to get Liesl to transition to her crib.....yeah, his method was a little flawed. He wanted us to put her in the crib, calm her down, leave the room, if she was still crying in 15 min go back in and calm her, then same 30 min from that, 45 min from that 1 hr from that....and he said do not give up otherwise you will be encouraging her to cry. Well, mom tried it yesterday.... for 2 hours.....It definitely doesn't work on her. She was determined. When mom took her out of the crib she calmed down instantly and went to sleep but she couldn't put her down to sleep, she was so jumpy after the crib incident. Needless to say, we will not be trying that method again. I have a few ideas of what I will try but not sure which it will be first. Good luck to me this weekend.

Today, she is with Dadda. Oma Gabi went for a girls only weekend and couldn't watch her today so he took the day off to watch her. He is having a great time with her today in their pajamas. It will be a long day for me waiting to go home to the two of them. But thank god for the weekend.

18 month Dr visit

Liesl had her 18 mo Dr visit today. Dr Schnur has been trying to convince me to wean her off the bottle. Little does he know that I have not stopped nursing yet so dont think it would be right to stop the bottle. She really only gets one or 2 bottles a day anyways. He checked her out because of the cold and said that she is doing much better than last week. Nothing wrong with her lungs or her ears. He doesn't think that she will have ear issues like I did when I was a kid if she came out of this cold without an ear infection too. Which is awesome news! She was extremely clingy in the exam room and didnt like the Dr messing with her or being "detached" from momma. She wasn't even having anything with being weighed either or measured. She did lose over a lb this past week by my count too. WOW. I am not suprised through either. The Dr was not worried about it. He said that she is doing very well with her words and to keep working on eating with the utensils and a cup. She got more shots again... cant leave without those. She was able to make it to her last tumble class today. She was a little shy and quiet today because of the last of her cold but mom said she had a good time. She is finally eating better and nursing as well. Dad was fedding oranges to her like crazy for lunch. Hope it helps!

1 more breaking through

Looks like she is pushing through 4 teeth at once now.
She currently has:
Top:
Both Central Incisors
Both Lateral Incisors
Left Canine Cuspid (just broke through the gums)

Bottom:
Both Central Incisors
Right Lateral Incisor (just broke through the gums)
Both First Molars (just broke through the gums)

And yes... she still has the cold. Doing better though. She is able to drink properly some of the time now. Before she would not be able to breathe through her nose so would be gasping. her nose is running constantly. Most of the time as soon as you wipe her nose there is more coming out (and she hates the aspirator). I took her off all the meds Saturday and Sunday and she did fine with it. She has been eating and drinking very little if anything at all some days since she has been sick. She did manage to eat a little yesterday so I am hopeful this will be over soon. But now Oma and Grandad are sick too!

She is doing ok with napping during the day but it seems like the nap has been advanced later into the day (2:30) and is sleeping 1-3 hours....Which I don't believe is enough for her for the day especially since she only goes down for one nap now. Sometimes she will wake up way too early into her nap and believes she is done for the day which is even worse. She has been pretty easy tp put down this past week while she has been sick...mostly. She lays down and I rub her back and she just passes right out most times. I hope that continues. Still hates her crib though in most cases but she does like to crawl in there and read sometimes.

She has developed a new favorite movie which she will watch strait through. I am not necessarily proud of that. But it was the best thing for me to keep her relaxed to try and get her to sit still when she has been sick. Elmo in Grouch-land is he by far favorite movie right now. very cute movie but I have seen it like 20 times already.

One part of her being sick is that she is extremely cuddly and clingy. I am loving it. I cant get enough of her wrapping herself around me.