I finished them

Finished girls costumes ....check
Fixed long standing garbage disposal issue....check
Cleaned up about a weeks worth of dishes....check
Helped Liesl with her "homework" reading her books....check
Got a little family game time in....check

What a great day it was. I got a lot in and still feel ok even though I coughed so hard I lost my cookies. This alien virus is really killing me. Hope it is on its way out because I would love to see Robbie again. I made a Dorothy costume for Jeannie using one of her dresses and eyeballing a picture from the movie. She even has ruby slippers from some red velvet fabric I had let over and a blue bow for her hair and a toto stuffed dog. Going to be the hit of Pleasant street. Liesl is a super cool looking witch. Her hat has feathers in it, she has striped purple and black tights, moons and stars on her dress, sparkly spiderwebs on her cape, and authentic looking broom and a raven to carry around. I am quite proud of it. Made the dress and cape from scratch using one of her dresses as a guide. Liesl wore it all day and she is super proud of it too. I can't wait til Halloween to show them off. I made them so well they will hold up to a lot of dressing up. Liesl watched the Wizard of Oz in her costume today. She is super excited to show the costume off because she had a hand in making it. She also likes the whole coordination with her sister thing. Liesl has been doing really well with her "Bob books". The are super cool reading teaching books mom got for her. She has made it through the first 6 books and she is definitely catching on. I am sure some of it is due to her wearing her glasses all of the time. She doesn't seem to be resisting them bat a anymore. She is also doing well with her writing too. The books also help with that. Hoping soon she will be writing her name. We will start on that soon since she is writing the S pretty well now and we are over that hurdle. Had a lot of fun visiting Grady this past week. Liesl is missing hanging out with him. They had such a blast with the Gator and visiting Klackle's cider mill and riding the pumpkin carriage. They both got to pick out a pumpkin and get some doughnuts which was their highlight other than riding the seesaw and Liesl jumping off on Grady. Poor guy.

Jeannie has learned how to wave back to people which is super cool. I put the legs on the standing toys and she has really gotten into standing with them and playing. I tried a little banana with her this evening. She does really well with the spoon and feeding herself.. I am so happy with how well she does in her own crib for naps and her bedtime. She does ok with the brace but it could be better. I am sure that it's restriction is not something that makes her happy.

Liesl has been talking a lot about Ota, trying to wrap her mind around it all. Wondering what happened. In the car she was telling me she wanted to hug him. Not in her dreams, for real, she wanted to hug him tight. She misses him and doesn't fully understand. I feel bad for her, he was a big part of her life and she loved him so much.

Gator Day

It was a Gator Day as promised. Liesl lived being Grady's copilot and Grady especially loved that Liesl didn't really wanna drive. They had a super big blast. They both even went so far as to yell " best Gator Day ever!". Grady loved peeling out and doing burnouts with the Gator when we yelled stop. They both had permanent smiles on thier cute little faces. We went for a hike earlier in the day in the woods and picked up some leaves. Liesl asked Grady to run up a hill and as they were getting to the top she cut him off not allowing him to pass although I don't think it was deliberate. It's all fun and games until tears are shed. We also spent some TV time watching Sesame street. They discussed calming your " inner monster" hope it works. We then visited the park for about an hour while Jeannie took a nap. What fun. I thin we will stay another night.

Crazy week

Well I still have this coughing fit thing going on although I don't think I am contagious. Still not going to see Robbie with the possibility. Not worth it. Mom did end up catching it though and she was there a lot during the past week...... Hope they don't get it. Opa is doing a lot better thank god after a few scares. Oma Ronnie says that she thinks it is on its way out for her too. Liesl looks to be better too. No more coughing fits in the night. Went to dinner the other night at Outback. The day was a little warmer out so they had the doors open in the back I am assuming because a wasp came in on
My plate and ended up on my face and stung my hand....needless to say I got a free dinner because I just mentioned it because I wasn't ready to order my entree yet and gave it as an excuse to the server, then the manager visited our table and checked that everything was ok and hooked us up.

Jeannie got new furniture this week. I can't believe it took this long to deliver. Thank you Oma it is beautiful. Now everything has its place in there unlike our former arrangement..... I can't believe it was even semi functional. I have new glasses. Has anyone seen my older pair? Still looking. Prescription has changed a little only. Started taking out a lot more toys for Jeannie to play with on the floor. Batteried up the electronic ones and she is loving her new freedom. She really enjoys playing with her sister when they both get down there. Liesl is being a very good big sis and says that Jeannie is sharing her toys with her. Little does she know that there are very few toys there that were not hers first.

Oma left Sunday morning early. I miss her already. Have Tango'd a few times with her and it helps. Nice to see her when she is on the other side of the planet.

Been working on sewing Halloween costumes yesterday. Have so much planned for Liesl's costume. Looks looks she is going to be the witch from Oz and Jeannie will be Dorothy. I will have to find Liesl's little black terrier stuffed dog. Hoping this all comes out.

Drove out to Greenville today to visit Dee and Grady. The kids had a blast hanging out, playing games, trains, marbles and making dinner together. They made such cute little pizzas. Grady was super excited to hang out in his crib and watch Cars with Liesl. They are all in bed now and Dee and I are ready for another day packed with fun because tomorrow is "Gator day". Grady gets to take Liesl out in his Gator. These country boys know how to show a girl a good time. Maybe we will go to the cider mill and hang out for a whole or the petting farm. Liesl has requested a hike. Jeannie has been doing well here too. Loves all the cuddling Dee has been giving her and Grady shared his crib with Jeannie too! He is such the ladies man.

T Minus 2 weeks til Halloween

I had the best intentions of making a Halloween costume for the girls but I am not sure that is going to happen. Let's hope for the best. Well, we have been sick in this house for weeks now, Jeannie too and she has had a hard time sleeping in her bed because she wants to nurse all of the time.....I haven't hardly been able to visit baby Robbie since he was born. I am looking forward to letting the babies hang out together. He is still so very small to play though. Jeannie has been trying more foods. She tried squash at Frankenmuth, mashed bananas, peaches and a little mashed potato as well as the apple raspberry sauce. I have some broccoli puréed in the freezer waiting for her.

Jeannie is army crawling like a pro now and I can hardly catch her in time before she gets things in her mouth and doing a little better with standing assisted. I was trying to take pictures of the girls in the leaves with the 35 mm this evening and she was getting into those leaves like they were candy. I think I got some really good ones but I am unsure because it is film. I still love film but I do hate the wait. I found a couple rolls in the basement that had not been developed that should come in this week. I will take these 2 in when I get those back. We went to Frankenmuth for my birthday celebration this past weekend. Opa and Oma Ronnie were too sick to attend and I am glad they bowed out. Opa has been having some issues with the coughing and actually passed out this evening after we visited them! Oma had a scare. Frankenmuth was quite nice for the scarecrow festival. I had a nice free chicken dinner at the Bavarian Inn with pumpkin ice cream! Mom, Dad and Aunt Gloria came and we walked around and did some fun events like pumpkin catapult, face painting, pumpkin painting and a maze all of which Liesl fully enjoyed. Dad was very sleepy from the gigantic beer he drank at dinner and almost missed the catapult!

After Frankenmuth I knew something was amiss with me and soon found out I had contracted the plague as well. I stayed with mom Monday and Tuesday because I could hardly move to take care of the girls then I visited Veronika today who also is sick. Wishing we could all get over this.

Jeannie has not said Momma again for me but I do have it on tape for evidence. Well wishes to the Perrys and to Opa and Oma. Safe Travels to Oma as I may not blog before then. We will miss you and we will try and blog as much as we can and Facetime! Yay for Facetime! It has gotten us through some rough spots these last couple months.

Too sick to make visits

Liesl has had the plague for the past week. Well maybe not the plague but she has has the stuffiest nose and worst cough I have ever heard her have and it keeps hanging on. I thought after all of this time that Jeannie would avoid it but I see the runny nose today. So sad.

Jeannie had her 6 month appointment with Dr Hina this past week. I looked back in my baby website to compare Jeannie and Liesl. Liesl was 17 lbs 9 oz, 17 inch crown, 27 inches..... Jean is 17 lbs 7 oz, 16.75 crown and 26 inches. Keep in mind that Jeannie's cloth diapers are heavier and she just got fed too. Couldn't believe Liesl was bigger. Guess watching Jeannie all day makes a difference in your perspective. Jeannie has been army crawling u a storm. Spinning and skooting along. She is not as far along with her sitting up as Liesl was and Liesl was standing up holding her crib rail if I put her up to it when we took 6 month pictures. I attribute it to her hip issues which we will be going to the orthopedic this week for. Dr Hina thinks that she may be in a brace for a short while to correct it. We have been trying more solid foods. Let her have some pureed peaches this morning and she tried a little of my corn muffin at dinner last night. She is doing a little better. She had a few shots at the Dr. this lasts time again and she has an appt in a month again but won't get measured until 9 months but since I have set up a tv in the basement and the wii so Jim and I can watch Netflix in the evening when doing laundry and cleaning down there we can weigh her. Can't wait til she learns some more babble. Was watching video of Liesl this week and reading her blog and looking forward to all the fun we will be having with this little one too. I organized all of Liesl's drawings into her "portfolio" so I can keep them for later. Oma will be leaving for Australia after this week so trying to get all the Oma time in we can. Miss little baby Robbie. Might be 2 weeks of seclusion for me. Liesl and I harvested the garden for the last time of the season and all of the tomatoes have been getting ripe on the sill. I just stewed 1/2 of them and they have been really coming in handy. Amazing how much we use tomatoes.

This past Thursday was my birthday. Liesl made me some cupcakes (pupcakes) at Oma Ronnie's house, pink confetti with pink frosting. I let my little pink cupcake eat a little pink cupcake. Liesl dressed so darn cutie for my birthday. We had a free dinner at the rainforest so Jim and I took the kids there. It is so much less stressful there with them because they get distracted by everything there. We will be going to Frankenmuth for another free dinner this weekend for the scarecrow festival and Liesl and even Jeannie can dress up. Maybe I can put the pumpkin sweatsuit on Jeannie and put Liesl's Dirndl on we shall see. Last night the girls and I came over Oma's for game night with the Kaethes. Jim has midterms so bowed out but we saved a seat and a drink for him.

Jeannie started using some of her sitting up toys this week. She is really enjoying the sound stage just as Liesl did. I also brought out the standing piano and I will bring out her zoo carousel soon. Just need to get a little more organized. I also have been getting rid of smaller clothes again. She is in the 9 month plus now and size 2 diapers when she wears those at Oma Ronnie's. She is still into the binkies and almost put herself down for her nap this afternoon.

First word

Jeannie spoke her first word to me today. I know I wasn't imaging things or making something of nothing because she said it over and over when I asked her to say it and she was so proud of herself. It was so cute. Glad we got it on film. Just in time for her to be 6 months and my birthday