Kitchen Work Starts Next Week

That's right folks.  The long awaited 2010 Weidner Kitchen Remodel is about to begin.  Stay tuned.

Willa's first haircut

This week Willa had her first haircut.  It was basically a trim but it was still a pretty big deal.  She started off kind of timid, but warmed up pretty quickly.  By the end, she was ready for her glamour shots!

Happy Birthday to Willa!

We haven't been very good about updating the blog lately. A toddler, two full-time jobs, a houseguest for 2.5 months, and an upcoming major home project have all taken up our free time these last few months.

I couldn't let this day pass without acknowledging our favorite little girl's birthday. Willa turned three today and it was a wonderful day. She has shown a new sense of maturity in just the last few weeks - she's willing to play independently which allows Markus and I to get a few extra things done (or done more quickly), her language continues to explode, and she's bouncing and balancing and hopping and skipping and jumping around. She's so much fun right now!

There are some tantrums, but not like we experienced a few months ago - and even those were mild. She's a good listener, which she's proud of, and overall seems to be a happy little girl.

Occasionally our patience is tested, but on days like today, Markus and I are both reminded of our lucky we are to be parents of such a beautiful, caring, smart, energetic, healthy, funny little girl.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Willa!

This kitchen won't last

Yes, we are finally doing a kitchen rehab... after only 5 years of talking about it.  It's going to be awesome:

Liebherr 30 inch refrigerator
Bartazonni 36" dual fuel range
Bosch dishwasher
GE Monogram Advantium Speedoven
and a wine fridge... TBD

I'm also hopeing to do a cool AV system with speakers mounted outside for entertaining!

Here's the old kitchen in case you forget how we still rock the 80s hard.

Willa's first visit to the dentist

Here's Willa before the dentist...

Here's Willa AFTER the dentist!!

Note from Christie: Please excuse how awful I look! It's allergy season and I was still half-asleep. We wanted to share the photos of Willa's visit, so I'm taking one for the team. :-)

December - February Photos

We are long overdue on some posts, but it's been a hectic few months.

The holidays are always hectic. In January, Christie's travel picked up as she prepared for her project launch. January and February were heavy work times, while Markus did extra daddy duty to pick up the slack.

Willa has had the normal winter colds, the occasional bad day (whining, tantrums, no nap or any number of things), but is mostly having a great winter. She's fully potty-trained now, which is wonderful! Her vocabulary and language are both pretty impressive. I'm her mom so I'm supposed to think that, but the pediatrician commented that she has "sophisticated language skills". Perhaps all of my over-talking is paying off for her! She loves to sing and likes to play pretend games now. Her mind is growing. Often times, she's Gunner or Cole (my parents' and sister's dogs) and I'm the other, or she'll say "I'm making pizza dough, who wants some" and we all pretend to eat the pizza.

She loves to sing - actual songs and made-up ones. I get lots of special requests at bedtime ("Mommy, sing a song about Coley" or "Mommy, sing a song about Curious George and the Bunny"). I'm no singer or songwriter, that poor child, but she seems to like whatever song I come up with no matter how poorly I sing or what the words are.

The other thing that makes us laugh a lot is also language-related. She's started understanding past tense but doesn't conjugate verbs correctly yet, or get the pronouns right (everyone is a her), or get the prepositions quite right. I love it because it's been fascinating to hear her language develop and it's so cute and funny to listen to. See below for examples:

"The squirrel flewed!"
"I tooked the cup and blah blah blah"
"I sawed the XXX"
"Zachary put it in her foot" (instead of on his foot - poor Zack!)

Now that she talks in 8-9 word sentences, all of these mix-ups make us laugh out loud. The other thing is that she's very particular about her clothing. She picks out her underwear (organized by character because she has so many pairs courtesy of her Aunt Zee, and just like Zee, Willa is indecisive, so Mommy is trying character piles to help...maybe if she can narrow down to Dora underpants, we'll pick underpants faster...experiment results forthcoming!), and usually her whole outfit - pants and/or skirt (she loves skirts with leggings), socks or tights, shirt, and shoes. She knows what she likes, and she definitely likes to mix patterns (see NYE photos - plaid, hearts, pink, purple, a bit of everything).

Following are lots of albums from the past few months. We post a lot on Facebook now, so maybe we can convert all of the 5 blog reads to Facebook readers. We post video there, too - it's easier than posting here (I can't figure out how to do it). Work has finally calmed down for me - I get 5 whole weeks at home after 6 or 7 trips Jan-Feb. We should be able to post photos more frequently now. Oh, and a kitchen renovation is forthcoming so we'll post those photos, too.

Look how big Willa is now:

New Year's Eve



This album includes a video of Willa swaddling her Baby Marketa. Click on the picture to see the photos and the video:

2010-01-23

This is another album that has 2 videos in it from our Snowpocalypse in February. Click on the picture to see the album and the videos.

2010-02-06 Snowpocalpyse I

Fireplace Install

2009 Holiday Slide Show

Enjoy!

Willa and Abby watch T'Choupi

Snow Photos

OK, I tried to post a few snow photos directly from my phone but they don't auto rotate. So... I took them down. I will have to pull them off and rotate and repost them tomorrow. Sorry! I'll make a full album and post the whole thing (beyond the few I put on Facebook)

Willa on the steps

 

Underpants - a test run

This weekend, we took a big step. Willa has been doing so well at peeing on the potty that we let her try out her new underpants. She did great!

She had no accidents all day Saturday. That night, in the excitement of a juice box and a visit from Aunt Liz, Uncle Luke, Jill and Stacy, she started to pee a little but stopped herself and said, "Mommy, I sit the potty." We ran upstairs and she finished her business. Accidents will happen; I was just glad that she stopped herself and saved the rest for the potty. A good sign, I think!

Today, we did underpants again and no accidents again! We switched to a pull-up when we went out to dinner (I don't think we're quite ready for underpants away from home yet). It seemed like she turned a corner about a week ago - she started peeing more frequently on the potty instead of just in the morning, and while I was away this week, the teachers at school said she started peeing on the potty there, too.

I gave her a hug once and said, "I'm so proud of you!" Now Willa tells me, "Mommy, I'm so proww fuv you" for no reason at all. It makes me laugh each time.

This is a big milestone for Willa. I can't wait to tell the pediatrician at our 2.5 year checkup on Tuesday. Next stop, poop (on the potty)!

Fashionista

 

 

Willa rides her bike

Willa got some practice today riding her bike around the courtyard!

Willa goes pee!

Big news - Willa peed on the potty tonight!

It's been a long several months and I don't mention it much on here, but she's known when she has to pee and poop for a long time. She just wouldn't sit on the potty to do it. Tonight, she willingly sat down and after a drop came out, she wanted to get up. I cajoled her into sitting back down and sure enough, she peed on the potty!

She was excited, I was so proud, we did high fives, fist bumps, hugs, kisses, and stickers all over her little body. Willa put the Sesame Street stickers in a circle around her hemangioma, which I thought was funny. Then she transferred them to her wrist and made a bracelet. She loves making circles...I was so excited, I didn't care how many stickers she wanted to have.

Let's hope this pee pee on the potty thing continues. Way to go Willa!

Late August/September update

1. Willa's school closed for one week before the new school year started. Willa and I stayed at Didi and Pop-Pop's house and had a visit with her Grammy, Aunt Krista, and cousin Emma while in town. Willa stayed all week, I stayed until Wednesday (see #2). Willa had a great time and I suspect the family did, too.

2. Markus and I went to Montreal - alone! - for a long weekend to celebrate 5 years of marriage. We had a wonderful time - shopped, ate, rode bikes (on the road - quite a milestone for Christie given her fear of bike riding...hmm, breaking bones as a child couldn't have anything to do with that?...), ate, walked, drank our favorite beer brewed in the outskirts of the city, and soaked up the nice weather and culture there. Markus wants to move there. Seriously.

3. Willa had pneumonia. Seriously. We came home and a cough from 3 weeks prior had re-surfaced. Since I was on vacation the day after Labor Day, I figured what else could be better than a doctor's visit? They diagnosed pneumonia and wheezing, which resulted in 2 more hours at the radiology lab waiting for a chest Xray to confirm no "structural" problems in the lungs. No structural problems found, azithromycin started, problem solved within days.

4. Christie found out she has a deviated septum and "stiff" eardrums. Years of allergy suffering finally taking their toll, apparently, since there have been more sinus and ear pains this year than in my entire life. Started a course of heavy-duty antibiotics and steroids to reduce inflammation and get rid of any possible infection. Must return in 5 weeks to see if the problem was due to infection-related inflammation, or if I'm still having problems, must get imaging to look for "structural" problems. What is it with structural problems? Here's hoping the pills do the trick. Otherwise, surgery (eww, nose surgery) is how they correct this problem...oh, and the ENT told me I could get tubes for my ears if they remain problematic. I thought tubes were for 2-year-olds?! What the heck?

5. As a result of the septum issues, I am returning to the care of an allergist after a 10 year hiatus. I'm sad about this...thought I could manage with my regimen of pills, nasal sprays, and eye drops. Allergy shots are probably likely to be part of my life again (I got them for 15 years, then took my 10 year break). I'm so excited. Not.

6. Christie turned 33! Hooray for old age! Well, I'm not old, but I'm no spring chicken either. But I'm not as old as my Dad either - he turned 50 on September 15!!! Ha ha! I have crow's nests around my eyes (or eagle's nests as I originally called them when I forgot the name - Markus corrected me, thankfully - but some days I feel like they look as big as eagle's nests!), well, that's enough. I'm pretty healthy (save the nose/ears/throat/allergy stuff), I have a family I love, I'm employed, we have a nice home and food, so what's their to complain about? I could come up with stuff, but I'll save it. Markus took me out for a nice dinner and his brother, Luke, baby-sat Willa. What a stand-up 25 year-old-guy, huh? Baby-sitting his 2-year-old niece who adores him. How lucky are we?!

7. Markus got braces today. 18 months of hell, as he said. On a conversation about an hour ago, he wondered if he should have done it. I told him he'll be very pleased with the results in 18 months. In the meantime, I've roasted squash to make him some delicious homemade curried squash soup for his dinner and jello for dessert. I remember the post-orthodontist visit tooth/mouth pain. I'm sure after a few days, it will get better.

Next up - travel. Lots of travel. Between Markus and I, one or both of us is travelling each week between now and the last week in October (one week together for a family vacation to Florida, though Markus is going to Seattle for a conference, taking a redeye and meeting us at the Philly airport to head directly to Florida - exhausting!). Blog updates may be sporadic given our schedules. We're still here, mostly healthy, and Willa is awesome (as usual).

Happy Fall and stay tuned for more updates and pictures!

Hemangioma, part 2

Willa, pointing to her hemangioma : "Mommy, whatssat?"

Mommy: "What did I tell you it is? Do you remember?"

Willa: "Eee billy (pause) joba"

Mommy: "That's right, hemangioma."

Willa: "Ee billy (shorter pause) joba"

Hemangioma

Willa, pointing to the strawberry hemangioma on her chest: "Mommy, whatssat?"

Mommy: "It's your hemangioma."

Willa: "Ihman (pause) joba"