New House

Well, we have been moving in for the past couple weeks. I say moving in because we still have things scattered to the winds...in the garage... in the condo garage....in the condo storage....some things at mom's. Liesl's crib hasn't been set up yet or her room really organized. But all of this is to be expected. Liesl was a little weirded out with all of the stuff being packed up in the condo and moved out but she handled it pretty well with the help of 36 mini Barbies. The new house has lots of room for the kids to play. We put it to the test on Saturday with three toddlers and a 10 yr old. Gavin, Grady, Liesl and Aly were all over playing on the swings and toddler slide and playing in the pool. Of course the Perrys have been over a few times to help and play since the move and Gavin and Liesl the explorers have checked it all out. They especially like the front room that will be my studio. It has wood floors and is quite big to let little feet and giggles echo through the house. Jim and I and all our friends and family have been working very hard to get the place in order. Thank you to all of you. We finally got our china cabinet in thanks to Heather and Tommy this weekend and hopefully we can get the bookshelves in this week to eliminate the other half of the boxes from the garage. I was also able to finally find the box of dirty dishes in and get them put away last night. Liesl has been very cooperative throughout this whole process.

Liesl has been really coming into her own with the talking. She has started to put together short sentences (2-3 words normally) Like "Thank you daddy", "Bubbye Momma", "Water, Momma, Please". She can repeat just about anything and she loves to use people's names as she sees better results with it. This weekend, Aly spent the night at our place and Liesl was so excited to see her in the morning. She loves to call for Aly to get her attention. I think this little girl has a Barbie collection bigger than Heather, Shannon and I combined. Even without the mini Barbies. One of her new favorite songs to sing is Ring around the Rosie. She likes to sings the "Ashes, Ashes" part and she loves to hold hands in the ring and sing the song. She also learned to say "I love you", she has been saying it a bit this weekend. She and Grady kissed eachother this weekend. They both leaned over and planted one on eachother's lips. It was so cute. One thing Liesl has been doing is having Oma Gabi wrap her babies up in a blanket that Aunt Gloria made for them and she rocks them and shhhhhh, shhhhhh, shhhh them and sings rock a bye baby to them (in her own way). Jim bought her some gardening gloves, her own rake and hand spade at the hardware so she can help momma with the garden. Everything is coming into place.

Great Weekend

It was a great weekend overall. Liesl and I went to our final swim class on Saturday then picked up Dadda and Grampa Jack for a Zoo trip. We managed to get all the way to the giraffes and back. We got to see a lot of things and spend a lot of time with Grampa Jack. We were all exhausted when it was all done and napped for several hours. Sunday we took a last minute ride to go visit the rescued greyhounds at the cider mill and then to Lake Orion for mexican. Once we told Liesl that there was a chance of "cado" there was no backing down. She ate a gianormous amount of guacamole and mexican rice.

Conversations with Liesl

This morning I had a conversation with Liesl on the way to Oma Ronnie's house. She was telling me all of the animals that she sees at the zoo. She was naming them all off and telling me sometimes what they do or say. When I asked her what animal she likes best she told me the giraffes. I believe she likes the elephants best because she gets upset sometimes when I tell her there are no elephants at our zoo. Plus her favorite zoo animals in her toys to play with are the elephants.

Coloring on the Wall

Yesterday Liesl wanted to color at her Oma Gabi's house. So Oma put her at her table with her crayons as she was making lunch. When she turned around after a couple minutes to see how she was doing, Liesl had managed to color all over the walls and floor with orange crayon in a corner of the kitchen.

Last night, Liesl and I went to babysit Gavin while the rest of the Perrys went out to dinner for Aly's birthday. The kids were both great. We did a little bit of reading and playing with the matchbox cars and then Gavin passed out in my arms watching TV. I barely had to babysit. Only problem was that Liesl didn't want him to be sleeping. I managed to keep her away from him for at least an hour but I am pretty sure that he wanted to stay sleeping. I think it was the easiest babysitting gig I have ever had.

Monkey on her back?

Friday night we and the Perrys went to the new Sonic on van Dyke for dinner. It was quite a cool experience having the waitress roller skate on over with our food. The babies were a little crazy trying to escape through the windows. Liesl was so ready for a nap. Jim and I decided to go to the Drive in at the Dome. Liesl fell asleep through the whole double feature of Ironman/Clash of the Titans. It was a very good night overall. Saturday, Heather and I took the kids to the zoo with my mom. It was a beautiful day at the zoo. Liesl did a lot of walking and being carried....didn't want too much of the stroller business but that is ok. We all went over to the Perrys for "snacks" later (watched our shows) and the kids played nicely...well as nicely as they do when they are tired. Yesterday, Tommy and Jim moved our "new" fridge and stove from my friend Mike's house to Mom and Dad's temporarily. Unfortunately it is only 9 days before closing! Wish we could have waited but we wouldn't be getting such a deal on them if there wasn't a rush on it. Thanks Tommy and Heather for all of the help and fun this weekend! Looknig forward to seeing Aly's new colors in her room and the birthday party Tues!

This weekend Liesl wanted me to read a "storybook" to her. Storybook meaning, mostly words covering each page with one smaller picture. I read her  Lady and the Tramp and Dumbo all in one sitting. She sat so still for them. I was quite impressed.

It's all about the Barbies

Yesterday Liesl didnt let go of the Barbie and her toddler friend all day long at Oma Ronnie's house. When it was time to go home I couldnt pry them out of her hands so the Barbie backpack and Barbies went home with her. The only other thing I have seen her cuddle as she was going to sleep was her Abbey Caddabby doll. She was cuddling those Barbies in the back seat like it would be the end of the world if they were to fall out of her hands. Today I took back a bunch of bottles to the store and surprise, surprise I had enough for a Barbie. She will be so excited when I get home.

I have made a decision that when we bring out my old dollhouse that my Grandad made me from Grandma's model house that I am going to remodel the house. The roof is currently brown and the siding is yellow. There are carpet samples and wallpaper samples in it. I am going to get new ones and paint the walls maybe like out house and put little pictures from proof sheets on the walls to make it look like family pictures. I also think I am  going to paint the siding pink to make a pink and brown house just like our new house. I think she will like it. Polly Pockets should work in it for size and I guess dollar stores carry dollhouse furniture. I am so there.

Today Liesl went to the zoo with Oma Ronnie and Opa Peter. A nice change from the rest of the week where she was stuck inside because of the rain.

busy, busy, busy

We all have been super busy this past month with house stuff among other things. I couldn't believe it when I saw that I haven't been blogging for almost a month now about the little girl. Had a bit of Momma guilt there. I had just started earlier and the powetr went out in the middle of some good stories. Hope I can recreate it.

At the end of last month Oma Gabi and Grandad went on a bike trip with their club on the east coast for a week so I took a few days off to cover for her. Liesl did a lot of hanging out around town among other things like visiting the zoo a couple times. The day before Liesl and I went, she had gone with her Oma Ronnie and Opa and they had been in the process of learning peacock. When Liesl and I went the first time I took her in the backpack. When we got to the giraffe/zebra/peacock junction she started pointing and yelling at the top of her lungs "cock, cock, cock" which was hilarious. Since then she has been calling every bird she sees a "cock-cock" and sometimes a "pea-pea" which are almost equally as funny. She really loves to shorten words which is really funny and clever.

 She has really started to repeat everything you say.....EVERYTHING! She can say just about everything and she knows that we are amused so loves to repeat things for us. She has quite the sense of humor. One thing that she has started to do is say people's names. She really loves Shannon's name...and of course Aly's name....she loves Aly in general because she is a big kid and really looks up to her. very cute. She especially loves to play dolls with Aly. Liesl does love her dolls. She has really gotten into barbies in the past month. I got her a Happy Meal at McDonald's that had a Mermaid Barbie in it which she loves to carry around also an Ariel Barbie which she can take in the tub with her. Oma Ronnie and Opa Peter bought her a Barbie backpack to hold her Barbies and a Barbie and toddler Barbie in swimsuits that she can also take in the tub. She definitely knows how to say Barbie too. One night at the Perry's she had all of Aly's 20 or so Barbies laid out going "ooooh, ooooooh" the whole time. Then later on in the evening she had them all in a row like a sleepover  saying "night night" to them all.

This past Sunday was Aunt Gloria's 60th Birthday surprise party. Liesl had a blast visiting with everyone and playing with Gavin. She had been practicing Aunt Gloria and Shannon's names before we went along with the word suprise. She wouldnt stop saying SUPRISE when Shannon was on the phone with Aunt Gloria before she arrived and it was a wonder it was still a suprise when Aunt Gloria arrived. When she was running to her Oma Gabi later in the evening she fell right on her face and scraped it on the wood floor. After she stopped crying she said Shannon, Shannon....So I brought her to Shannon who gave her and ice pack which she walked around the house with for the next 30 min.

Yesterday at Oma Gabi's house Liesl came up with names for all of her baby dolls including the boys....All of thier names are ......Shannon.....No surprise there but completely hilarious.