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.