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"

Questions and Answers

So the other night, I put Willa to bed and went downstairs. I turned on the monitor and could hear her drifting off to sleep as she drank her sippy cup of water, or so I thought. After about 15 minutes, I hear:

"Hi, how are you, Lookaaas (Luke, who is Markus' brother)? I'm fine. Yeaaaahhhh. Loookaaaas. Loooooookaaaaaas. Loookaaaas."

And on she went. I think she sang happy birthday in there, too. She went on for at least 5 minutes, talking to herself and calling for her uncle Luke.

We've been teaching her questions and answers, or ways to respond. Please/Thank you/You're welcome. How are you/I'm fine. Why/Because. I love you, Willa/I love you, Mommy. See you later/see ya lada. She's apparently figured out the concept, based on the exchange I heard the other night. Sometimes she'll ask "why XXX" and then immediately say, "Because". Saves me some time!

She loves talking on the phone and often can't wait for the how are you part so she can answer.

Markus' dad arrived for a visit on Friday, so Willa's been enjoying her visit with "Ireland Pop-Pop". Tonight, she followed him around saying "Eyelin Pop-Pop, what doing?" Oh, "what doing" is her new question. We hear that so much more than why. I'm changing her diaper - "what doooing?" "Changing your diaper." "Why?" "Because you peed in it." "Yeaaah." Then I start putting Butt Paste on. "What doooing?" "Putting Butt Paste on." "Bu Pees."

Markus started telling Willa she's nosy since she's always asking questions, so now she walks around saying she's "noazee".

Today, we went to the Please Touch Museum. Luke works there and was on-duty today so he arranged for tickets for us. How nice! We rode the carousel and Willa said the whole time, "I don't like it. Git off Mommy." Then when it was over and we got off, she cried because she wanted to go back on. Indecisive like her mother.

She started combining sentences in the last few days.

"I don't like it Mommy. Take it."
"Grape fell. Git it Mommy. Pick it up Mommy."
"Climb up Willa's new bed. Lay down."
"No this music, Daddy. Pretty singing, please." Pretty singing = opera to Willa. She calls opera "opalawa". Then she claps if it's a live version of a song and the applause is heard on the air. It's funny.

And so many more I can't think of at the moment.

Oh, she's up to 18 or 19 with the counting, and can go to 20 in French (with some help)! She's got red, orange, green, blue, pink, and yellow down pat. Sometimes knows purple. The fact that we buy obnoxiously bright colored shoes for her (i.e., bright orange) has helped her learn her colors (go get your ORANGE shoes, Willa). She knows circles, and loves to draw them. She makes circle after circle after circle when she draws at her easel. Tonight, I wrote her name (and of course, I drew a circle around it). Then she started making all these lines with the marker (she had temporarily forgotten about circles) and said W-i-j-k-l-l-l and then I don't remember, but a bunch more letters and straight lines on the paper. And then, "I did it!" She was so proud that she, ahem, wrote her name.

I know this may not be as fascinating to our faithful blog readers (Mom...um, Aunt Sue, do you still check?), but I wanted to try to capture more of what Willa's saying and doing. Now that she repeats almost any word, it's impossible to keep track. So, no pictures tonight. Just words. Trying to make sure we don't forget the things that make us smile.

W for Willa

Yay!

/O.CAN.KPHI.SV.W.0188.000000T0000Z-090809T2330Z/ DELAWARE PA-PHILADELPHIA PA-CHESTER PA-MONTGOMERY PA-

659 PM EDT SUN AUG 9 2009...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR SOUTHEASTERN MONTGOMERY...EAST CENTRAL CHESTER...PHILADELPHIA AND DELAWARE COUNTIES IS CANCELLED...

THE LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS HAS MOVED INTO NEW JERSEY.A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1000 PM EDT SUNDAY EVENING FOR NORTHERN DELAWARE AND NORTHEAST MARYLAND AND NEW JERSEY AND EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH ALSO REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1100 PM EDT SUNDAY EVENING FOR

SOUTHERN DELAWARE AND NORTHEASTERN MARYLAND.LAT...LON 3953 7521 3955 7524 3946 7538 3946 7541 3943 7542 3942 7548 3946 7555 3950 7557 3952 7554 3957 7553 3962 7558 3982 7540 3983 7521 3991 7496 3980 7492 3977 7488 TIME...MOT...LOC 2258Z 334DEG 35KT 3980 7515 3956 7549

Family dinner!

Willa's new bed!

July pictures

Scroll down - I posted earlier tonight. This post is pictures-only! The albums aren't edited so you'll see lots of pics.



July 4 - we went to a ceremony at Independence Hall then hosted a big bash for our neighbors and friends. Lots of random photos of people you may not know. We were graced with the presence of local celeb Fergie (long, white hair), a former block resident who now live 2 blocks away and owns 3 very cool bars in the city.


July 29 - Willa's one teacher is a pro at toddler hairstyling. On this day, she French braided little pigtails! Willa smiled and then broke out the ham.


August 1 - we decided to get some "nice" pictures of Willa. Her face is changing and her legs suddenly look so long in these pictures I think.


August 5 - hot off the presses, pictures from Willa's bedtime tonight in her new bed!

Willa-speak, sentence style

We're onto full-blown sentences now, along with advanced words (helicopter, anyone?).

Some of our favorite Willa sentences:

"I do pickup" = I have the hiccups.

"I someone" = I hear someone (we say this each night when Daddy walks in the door and she gets so excited)

"Willa do" = I will do it myself, thank you very much.

"Wrap up" = Cover up [object - could be baby, fork, water bottle, little horse] with a napkin, dish towel, wash cloth. Leads to frustration on Willa's part, so Mommy or Daddy must help. Such a mother hen, trying to swaddle her things.

"Good minning, Mommy" = Good morning

"My come up" = I want to come up into your bed and snuggle with you and Daddy.

"Amanee sunnle" = Family snuggle!

"Amanee walk" = Family walk - she loves these!

"Amanee trip in Willa's caa" = Time for a trip in the car. She loves "Willa's caa" and looks for it each morning on our walk to school.

"My go potty" = I have to pee/poop. She's not going in the potty yet, but knows when she has to go. A step in the right direction.

"Rockabye baby Willa. Mommy sing." = I want Mommy to sing Rockabye Baby to me and personalize it with "down will come Willa, cradle and all". We do this at least 10 times each night before bed (and I pray Markus isn't listening on the monitor); Willa likes to switch up the name - sometimes we rockabye baby Stella, or Daddy, or our neighbor, "Kaffryn"

"Hap berday dear Kaffryn" = Happy Birthday Kathryn! Our friend, Kathryn's, birthday was July 3. At least once each day, Willa breaks out in song to wish Kathryn another happy birthday. Still, even though it was a month ago.

I can't think of any others right now, but she makes us laugh with her new statements. Many of her sentences have progressed to 5 or 6 words. She's also counting to 14 by herself in English and French. She loves to count. I guess most kids do. And the alphabet is coming along; we watch Elmo and India Arie on YouTube almost everyday singing the ABCs. She moves her mouth along with them and can recite most letters by herself. She misses E - J sometimes, but with prompting can get through the whole thing. It's so amazing to just listen to her (and any other toddler, she's just the one I see everyday) and hear how much they already know.

Finally, big family news: Willa's sleeping in her "big girl bed" for the first time tonight! I'm away this week, but Markus tells me she was so excited when the mattress was delivered Monday. They set it up tonight without the bedframe, so it's nice and close to the floor, and she loved it. Markus said she went to bed without a problem. What a good girl. I can't wait to see it when I get home. Markus took some pictures tonight and uploaded some older ones, so I'll load them to the site in a separate post.

-Christie

Sunday

Morning: walked to Old City and home via Headhouse Square Farmer's Market

Afternoon: Puma store, Kmart, NY and Company

Beautiful day!

Listening to Black Eyed Peas now!

June catch-up

I think if we aim to post monthly, we might be able to achieve it! June was a busy month for us. I was back to my old job and things were going full swing. I had 3 business trips and Markus had 1; finally we had some family time together in the third week in June. I'll start my normal travel schedule now, which is every three weeks. I've been home for three weeks and it's been pleasant. I think this interval will be manageable for all of us.

Willa is wow. I don't know how else to say it. She surprises us each day with something new. We're not always pleased (i.e. when tantrums became more frequent) but most developments are good ones and we enjoy watching our little girl grow. Luckily for us, the tantrum/sharing problems lasted all of 3-5 days and haven't resurfaced since then. I know they'll likely return at some point, but we're enjoying the lack of them right now.

Willa's language is quite good, I think. She puts 3-4 word sentences together now and repeats everything. Yes, we're watching our swear words. She repeats everything. Lots of words have "ees" on the end right now (milkie, covee for cover, coppy for helicopter, etc). It makes me (Christie) smile. I love listening to her talk. As I was leaving for my last trip to Indy, she and Markus watched me leave from the patio. I told her I loved her and she said "I love you" back. It was the first time and it was a wonderful farewell. She spent a weekend at the shore with her Grammy and Pop Pop last weekend; the funniest part was when Markus' mom called him and then Willa started saying "Maa-kees". So now she'll call him "Maa-kees" sometimes, especially if she's trying to get his attention. What can you do but laugh? Then Markus taught her to say my name, which is "Kee-see". I love toddler talk! She can count to 10, sometimes stumbling in the middle but can get to 10 with some reminders. She also surprised me with being able to recite most of the ABCs! Again, if she misses some and we start back with the right letter, she can pick it up again. When she gets to W, she says W Willa. Smart girl. :-)

She's curious about what's going on around her and likes to know who people are. She's keen to recite peoples' names so much so that at school, she's known as the shout out queen. We do early drop-off at 8 am, so she's one of the first to arrive. As each child arrives, she shouts their name and runs up to give them a hug or a point to the arm. It's been neat to see her recognize people at the park or in the neighborhood, too. Since we drop her off early, I don't know all of the kids in her class or the school but she knows her friends when we're out and doesn't hesitate to say their name and start talking to them. That little brain of hers remembers a lot - more than I realized!

Physically, she's doing the almost-run/walk-really-fast. She hasn't quite mastered jumping yet - the first time she got air under her feet, she fell on her hiny. She likes to hold onto something and jump for now (she's smart like that). Something that has become a pasttime at this point is hanging. At the park, she loves to hang on the bars. Or she'll grab onto the bottom of the swing, lift her feet and let her little body hang and swing. Her core strength must be quite good to be able to do this! Markus also taught her how to climb some of the equipment at the playground, which is great except that now she climbs to the top (which is taller than my head) and then I have to try and catch her if she falls. If only I were 6'1" like Markus! She's daring and adventurous and strong.

She's not signing nearly as much but she's saying more French words. She loves to watch Elmo's Song on You Tube...anytime we're near a computer, she says "Elmo Song". As soon as it comes on, she gets a huge grin on her face. Since she turned 2, we played a few bits of Sesame Street and she likes it okay, but isn't captivated for really long periods of time. However, we have these French books with a character named T'choupi. He's very popular with French-speaking kids. Anyway, Markus searched for him on You Tube and found videos. They're 5 minutes each and wouldn't you know, Willa loves them. We watched at least 10 or 12 different episodes last Sunday! I'm hoping that some of this French will be retained in her brain. Markus and I are going to Montreal for our fifth anniversary (!) in September and will pick up more T'choupi books to help Willa continue to learn French (or basic French, anyway). T'choupi has a little teddy bear called "Doudou" and Willa loves pointing him out in the books now, too. He squeaks in the videos and is very cute.

She had her 2-year physical in June. The pediatrician is pleased with her growth; to think she was barely on the charts when she was born! Look how far she's come:

Weight = 28 lbs, 9 oz (50-75%)
Length = 34.65 in (50-75%)
Head = 19.25 in (75%)

Those are the highlights, I think. Now that we're able to post from our Blackberries again, we should be able to post more often (and avoid super long posts like these!). We've posted some pictures in the last few days, but there were several albums from late May - late June that we skipped. Here are some photo highlights - enjoy!

Three Plates of Sloppy Joe!

Our little girl was HUNGRY tonight.

Awesome Website

timeanddate.com

Willa and her baby...

We are enjoying a nice night on the patio and having some success getting Willa to eat her pasta. Yay for progress...

Mobile

For the longest time I was unable to post to Blogger from my
Blackberry. Suddenly it looks like my problems are gone. And of
course now there are so many other places for me to share info. In
fact Facebook is arguably the best place to do this. However it does
lack some of the features that I think make Blogs relevent still;
namely tagging and the ability to easily embed rich HTML content on a
post by psot basis.

Alas I am unsure of where my time is bes spent. Facebook offers the
slickness while Blogger is more of an "archive" tool with its robust
searching and chronological indices.

I guess post everywhere...

I will try.

--
Sent from my mobile device

More artwork from earlier this year

More of Willa's artwork...

Willa's Recent Artwork, July 2009 Edition

We haven't been great about posting anything, much less Willa's artwork. Here's a glimpse of what she's been up to lately.

4 July 2009

I think we're kind of overdue for a post... Waaaay overdue. Anyway, we had a great 4th of July with friends. We started out the day at Independence Hall and then did a big BBQ with friends from the neighborhood. I think it was one of the nicest days we've had in what has become one of the nicest Summers in memory.

Mother's Day, a budding artist, and a birthday celebration

A lot has been happening in our lives lately, which means we haven't had much time to update the blog. I was re-reading some of our very early posts last night and it's so weird to think where we were in our lives when we started this blog and where we are now.

Our first posts remind me of the movie "The Money Pit" where this "dream" house ends up costing the couple so much money...we can relate. The good news is that three years later, we no longer have those house-related problems that first plagued us. The house is in good working order and thanks to some renovations and updating, it looks a lot nicer on the inside. We're glad to call this house our home (most days, anyway).

Willa's birthday was on May 8 - what a great day! I made mini-cupcakes and took them to school for afternoon snack. The kids loved them, and I was so happy to be able to visit school and watch Willa interact with all of her friends. She loves everyone in the class, as evidenced by her constant "where's XX (insert any of the 16 kids' names here)" anytime she's not at school. After school, Daddy came home and per our usual Friday night routine, we blasted the Friday Night Floor Fillers from BBC (dance/club music for those not familiar). Willa loves it, and on that Friday, we put on her sunglasses and gave her a little glo-stick like so many club-goers have, and we danced around the kitchen. We're fools, I know, but we have fun. :-)

The next day, Markus' family came down to celebrate Willa's birthday with us. We gave Willa her gift, a water/sand table. Because she plays with sand at school everyday, we're using it only for water. She loves to play in the water, so much so that our water usage has increased a unit in the last month. As guessed, she loved the table, and so did her three cousins ages 2 - 6 who were visiting. I was so glad that kids of all ages like it. What a fun toy!

On Mother's Day, we went to our Mother's Day place, Marathon Grill. This is where we had my first Mother's Day brunch when Willa was still in the hospital, and we've decided to continue the tradition. We had a nice breakfast, Willa loved her sausage (big surprise), and had lots of fun during two play sessions at the park. I left that night to fly out to Indy for the week. Came home on Thursday and have been enjoying two weeks at home before returning the first two weeks in June.

Willa's continuing to blossom socially and developmentally. She talks to people and animals ("Hi Puppy" or "hello" to people) on the street when we take walks. We do early drop-off at school, so she's there before most kids. I now have a little more time to spare when I drop her off, so I've watched her greet the other kids as they arrive. She runs up and says "hi XX" and points or waves. She's so excited to be there everyday, which makes me so happy. Her memory is impressive and just this week, I tested her counting skills and she counted to ten by herself! She sometimes gets stuck after 6 - she jumps to 9 - but when I remind her of 7, she goes in order to ten. We usually count the steps in our house or when leaving or coming into the courtyard. Now, if I don't count, she'll do her own number sequencing as we climb or descend stairs. It makes me smile. She's learning!

Her former nanny, Valerie, bought Willa some new French books when she visited her family in Belgium. I've been reading them to Willa and she continues to say some new French words. I also borrowed some Spanish kids books from the library and read those to her. I'm so hopeful that she'll enjoy languages like Markus and I do.

She loves to color and do art projects. I just bought a book about art projects for toddlers so that we can continue to foster her imagination and creativity. She loves to sing, and her new favorite song is Elmo's Song. We still don't watch TV with Willa, except on rare occasions, but one night we watched Elmo's Song on You Tube and she liked it. Now she asks for Elmo's Song at times, and we usually oblige. She gets big smiles and sings along with the "la la la la, la la la la" part. It's so cute.

We've taken lots of home videos and if I ever figure out how to load them, I will start sharing them with you. Some are hilarious.

We have some pictures taken over the course of the month, and one album contains pictures of the artwork that Willa has done since starting at Beginnings in February:

20090508

20090509 - Willa's Birthday w Fausts

20090513 - Willa in the setting sun

20090514 - Willa the hipster

20090516

200920090519 - Willa's Artwork Feb-May 2009

Happy Birthday, Willa!

Two years ago today, I unexpectedly went into labor and remember being so surprised when the doctor announced it was a girl. I was convinced we were having a boy. I don't remember a lot about that day due to the anesthesia for my c-section, but I cannot forget hearing the doctor tell us it was a girl and my response, "It's a girl?". I was so excited!

In the last two years, we've seen our little 5-pounder develop in so many ways. She's now 27 pounds, walks, talks, sometimes demands, laughs, cries, makes us laugh, makes me cry (and maybe Markus, too), and is simply the most precious person in our lives. Her personality has developed so much since her first birthday, I guess in part because she can now talk.

Her language skills have exploded, as everyone said they would. She's now putting two and three word combinations and short sentences together. She remembers people who she hasn't seen recently, recognizes peoples voices on the phone, likes to sing and dance, is pretty opinionated about the clothing and shoes she wears, likes to eat, play at the park, and be a helper to her mommy and daddy.

Many days, we're tired at the end of the day, but I don't think either of us would want it any other way. We've been so lucky to have Willa as our daughter for two years now. She brings us so much joy and laughter; I know her third year will be full of more exciting developments, though we hope the terrible twos aren't too terrible!

Happy Birthday, baby girl!

Vacation

Christie posting here. We had planned a family vacation and decided that a cruise might be nice - we'd unpack once but get to see different places throughout the course of the trip. I'd done some research and read that other parents recommended getting a room with a balcony so that the parents could read or hang out outside while the kiddos nap or after they go to bed at night. I was so glad we did this! The room was a bit bigger, which was nice, and the balcony was a nice - and shaded - area for Willa to play.

We flew to San Juan on April 19. We had received upgrades to first class, which made the flight a lovely experience. And we had nice big seats, which meant we could spread out and recline, which allowed Willa to take a nap. Hooray! We had a day at sea, then went to Aruba, then Curacao, another day at sea, Sint Maarten, St. Thomas, and back to San Juan. We flew home on Sunday and Willa and I were upgraded again. And this time, she slept for 2.5 hours. Hooray again!

We thought it was a good trip and we had a nice time. We both liked the Celebrity cruise line (from our cruise when I was pregnant) better than Royal Caribbean (this cruise). We also think we're done cruising for a while. Traveling with Willa should only get easier, so we'll probably stick to hotels and resorts, especially ones with pools and playgrounds. As you'll see in the photos, she loves the pool. Wasn't so sure about the ocean, but when I positioned it as an opportunity to wash hands (one of her favorite activities) she was game.

We took lots of pictures and I didn't spend too much time weeding through them. I uploaded most, so forgive the tons of photos. It was more an issue of not having hours to spend going through and picking out the top 10 or 20. So, if you have 20 minutes, look through them all...or speed through and pick only a few. Your choice. :-)

In other news, today was my last day at Elsevier. I'm returning to my old company, but I've taken a position with more responsibility. It does mean travel again, but I'll also be leading a team so it was a good opportunity overall. We'll see how Willa (and Markus) does once I start traveling. At the start, I'll be making two late Sunday/first thing Monday through Thursday trips per month, but after I get the team up and running I should be able to cut back on the travel a little bit. I'm excited and apprehensive (mostly from a personal perspective and wondering how Willa will adjust to me being away), so we'll see how it goes.

And now, here are the pictures.

20090419 - Vacation - Travel Day

20090420 - Vacation - 1st Day at Sea

20090421 - Vacation - Aruba

20090422 - Vacation - Curacao

20090423 - Vacation - 2nd Day at Sea

20090424 - Vacation - Sint Maarten

20090425 - Vacation - St. Thomas

20090426 - Vacation - Travel Day

Family Portrait

 

A picture

Courtesy of Christie's parents, from a few weeks ago. We know posts have been sparse; hopefully we'll have some time to post photos soon. For now, we present Willa all decked out for swinging in the sunshine:

From Drop Box

Willa speaks French!

Last night, I was reading Willa one of the French books we bought in Montreal. We read it pretty regularly. Last night, she repeated one of the words to me (toujours, which means always) after I read it. I was so impressed! We were just talking to her old nanny, who used to speak French to Willa everyday, and she asked if Willa said any French words. She will be so excited!

Not to brag or anything, but Willa also knows Spanish. Not really, but she no longer refers to her water as water. It's "agua". She started that in late January and hasn't stopped. Not sure where she picked it up, either. Could we have a budding linguist here?

Markus and I were talking last night about the fact that there are so many international people with their kids at the park. There are several Italians and French, a Spanish couple, and yesterday we met a Dutch woman whose husband is German. Willa should have no trouble learning any languages; what an interesting mix of friends she will have as she gets older. We're thrilled about that, as Markus and I have always been interested in languages, travel, and other cultures.

Willa is blossoming. More new words all the time (tonight it was applesauce, achoo, and asparagus - we weren't practicing "A's", it was a coincidence), and she talks all the time. She's talking in sentences (incomprehensible to us) - she just jabbers while she plays. We can understand her words, but when she starts reading her books aloud or talking while she plays, we have no idea. She giggles like crazy, still loves her new school, has pooped on the potty and peed a few times, got over a nasty diaper rash that started because of a bout of diarrhea, weighs 27 pounds (we're in 24 months clothing now!), likes to dance and sing, climbs the stairs in upright form now rather than crawling, is independent, feeds herself, ummmm....there's more...likes to pick out her own clothing and the shoes she will wear (already?!), has started asking why, has NOT climbed out of her crib yet, ate raw asparagus tonight (3 pieces, so it wasn't just for show, she really likes the stuff), eats like a champ much of the time, loves ice water as opposed to warm or not-ice-water (I think because she likes to shake it), gives hugs and kisses, and is still our favorite little girl in the whole world. Our favorite little girl who will be two years old in just 8 weeks. It's going so fast...which is why we take pictures. Check below - I made a few posts and included lots of pictures to catch you up on the last month.

Willa tries to eat her Tadoodle

So my dad and my sister bought Willa this Tadoodle set for Christmas. These particular Tadoodles have a sponge-like top and they work kind of like stamps - you put the Tadoodle on this certain part of the holder and it activates the ink, then you can color with it.

The Tadoodles are sitting in the office within Willa's reach. She was playing with the Tadoodles. I was doing something, Markus was doing something (he was in the office I think), and at some point, I took Willa in the kitchen for lunch. I looked at her and noticed that her mouth was yellow. She loves to suck on these Tadoodles! She even got yellow ink on the back of her onesie...it made me laugh. Then I grabbed the camera.

200920090308 - Pretty in blue

Mommy goes away

My job doesn't normally require travel, which is a main reason that I took the job. I had to go to London last summer, which was a great place to have to go for work. I don't mind occasional business trips to interesting locations. In early February, I was asked to take on another project, which would require at least one trip to Germany. I said yes, so I was sent to Munich for five days the last week of February.

Markus, of course, is a pro at taking care of Willa alone (though he did confess that he was a bit nervous about this trip because now she's so mobile and full of energy). Everyone was fine here in the US. I was fine in Germany, though tired from long days of work. I'd go to the Munich office and work, then come back and do work with my US colleagues after dinner since it was the middle of their work day. There was only one English TV channel, so it wasn't like I had anything better to do.

My mom was able to join me on the trip, so it was nice to have a travel buddy. We tried a traditional Bavarian restaurant the one night. The sauerkraut was delicious, the sausage was okay. The taste was good, but I prefer a crispier crust rather than a soft (slimy?) boiled sausage...anyway, what was absolutely delicious were the pretzels. Oh, the pretzels...pretzels are one of my favorite foods, and these were not quite life soft pretzels but similar. And you could get them with butter. No wonder my pants were tight when I got home.

I digress. So my mom and I were able to sightsee together on Saturday, so we did some walking and shopping; she had done some sightseeing alone earlier in the week while I worked. We were so lucky - the weather on Saturday warmed up to 50 degrees and sunshine. It was warmer there than it was at home. We flew home on March 1, which is when the pictures below were taken.

Willa hung out with Daddy and Uncle Luke (who crocheted the black beanie that Willa models in some of the photos), and we also have a picture of a school project. Willa's theme that week was community helpers, so they colored a paper about letter carriers, then the school mailed the paper home to demonstrate what the letter carrier does. I know, she doesn't understand all that, but it was cute to open up the envelope. We have lots more art projects now, they do one about every day. We haven't taken photos yet, but there was a doctor's kit (made by Doctor Weidner), a picture with cut-outs of mice, and last week they made aliens (the theme was space). We'll do an art porfolio soon for Willa. For now, here are pictures from March 1.

200920090301 - Willa's mail and laying on the floor

Willa and a friend in the high chair

I don't remember what was going on at the time, but Willa looks exhausted here. She and baby were taking a break in the high chair on 2/17.

From 20090217 - Willa and baby in high chair

Valentine's Day at Seger Park

It's been about a month, so I realized we're due to post some pictures. We spent Valentine's Day doing our usual Saturday morning routine - wake up and get dressed, walk to Reading Terminal Market to be there right at 8 (hey, puts the early wake ups to good use), buy our produce and meat, and then get coffee and scones for breakfast. It's been fun, because there are some regulars there we've begun to recognize and we usually make small talk with our neighbors at the next table thanks to Willa.

After we returned home and unpacked our loot, we took Willa over to the park. She loves the park, which I probably say in every post. I'll say it again - she loves the park. Markus and I were just saying last night that we're so glad we live right across the street - makes it so easy to go. If we lived just a few blocks away, I don't think we'd go as often. And it's so worth it! Willa burns energy, makes friends, we make friends and see people we know, the house isn't torn apart because we're outside, and Willa sleeps better (3 hour naps, people! From a girl whose naps are usually 1 h 45 min, 3 hours is such a treat).

Valentine's Day was really the first time this year that it was warm enough to play, and Willa became very interested in the area for older kids because there's so much more climbing. Wanna see her having fun? Click on the picture below:

20090214 - Valentine's Day in the park

Happy Valentine's Day

RTM on a Saturday morning

Snow at Khan Park

Beginnings

As most of you probably know, Willa started at a new daycare yesterday. Anyone who knows me knows that I am anxious and get nervous easily, so you can imagine that I was pretty anxious over the weekend. How would Willa do? Would she cry? Would it take weeks for her to adjust? Should we have left her at the other daycare?

I don't know if it made any difference, but I talked to Willa about it a few times over the weekend. I figured it couldn't hurt because I've read that at this age, children understand far more than they can say.

On Monday, I took her to Beginnings, the name of her new school. She was a superstar! She got down so we could take her coat off and then off she went! She followed a classmate into the potty* (see story below about Willa's interest in the potty) to watch and then started running around. I called during naptime and the teacher said she did really well in the morning - a few whimpers in the morning, but she did the art project, which was making sheep with dixie cups and cotton balls. I was told she did really well with the art project, too, so that made me smile. She ate her lunch and took a nap. All great signs for a first day! When I went to pick her up, she was having fun but ran up to me right away. I know she was glad to see me, which is a nice feeling.

Today, she did great again - no crying at dropoff, played, ate her lunch, took a nap, and is already making the teachers laugh. She's got three teachers and helpers from Temple University's early education program, all of whom are very nice.

I was sad to say goodbye to her teachers last week and will miss some of them a lot, but I do feel good about Beginnings. I like that she's in a nice, big room with lots of windows and it looks out onto a little playground that's just for her school. It's two blocks from our house - how can you beat that? They include potty time in the daily schedule for kids who are interested (but there's no pressure if the child doesn't want to), they do art projects each day, and there's a weekly tumbling class we can sign up for. We saw the tumbling class during our tour and Willa was verrry interested, so I think we'll sign her up. She's such a climber monkey (she climbs up onto her highchair in about 3 seconds flat now), I think she'd love it. Oh yeah, they provide snacks, so I only have to pack a lunch, and they have a huge refrigerator where I can keep her half-gallon of milk and her lunch bag; the other place had a dorm-size fridge and we weren't supposed to send any food that required refrigeration so I would send field-trip types of packed lunches...

She's been tired this week, I suspect from all of the changes. Her normal bedtime was 8/8:30 and she'd wake up around 6:50. This week, she's been going to bed at 7:30 without a fight and sleeping til 7:15 or so. She's eating a lot, too, so maybe it's a growth spurt (example: Sunday morning breakfast - 1 Kashi waffle at 7:30, 1 bowl of Life/Cheerios/All Bran cereal mixture with milk at 8:30, 2 breakfast sausage links at 10:00). Since she's tired, she's cuddly and snuggly, and I love that because I know someday all too soon she will refuse.

We're attempting to take more pictures and video, and now that Markus is back into blog posting mode, we hope to update the site a bit more frequently. Check back soon!

* Potty interest: Willa is very interested in watching this whole pee-pee process. She likes to watch it happen and provide sound effects (pssssssshhhhh - she can't say 's' properly just yet, they sound more like 'sh') while you go. She's very clear on what needs to be done with toilet paper. She'll sit on her potty, fully clothed, and will reach for toilet paper. She goes through the motions and sticks the T.P. in her potty. Then she gets more T.P., "wipes", sticks it in her potty and repeats until we stop her. It's quite funny, especially considering she's still got a diaper and pants on! It is at this point that I'm glad she's clothed because she also likes to reach down into the potty and pull the T.P. back out...we're working on explaining that it should stay in the potty. Anyway, next we wash our hands. Good hygiene is very important! Then we do this all over again the next time I have to pee and Willa is in the room. I never thought bathroom trips would be so full of entertainment (or that I'd be on such display!).

Mosaic

I think these were all taken on Thanksgiving Day.

Willa and her baby

Willa Movement Series

Baby Loves Disco.

At Shampoo...

IMG00126-20090201-1453.jpg

Thursday Bathtime

Bathtime!!

IMG00120-20090129-1919.jpg

I'm back

After a long - too long - hiatus, I've returned to the blog. Yes, I'm still posting at Facebook and yes, I'm busier than ever... But, I will find the time to parallel post to this site. In fact, there are ways of tying the two together which I've tried in the past. The bottom line is that I'm going to make an effort.

I've relinked my blackberry to the blog which was probably the major reason for my inactivity. We'll once again be posting extemporaneous photos via Blackberry...

Oh and the music below is from an Australian band.

Empire of the Sun - Walking On A Dream

A very important word

I can't believe I forgot this one. She started saying it in early November. We haven't practiced too much since then, but we will continue to work on it.

bama - OBAMA!!

New words mid-January 2009

Willa has a few more new words that I wanted to keep track of:

1. Tata - tickle
2. Ooyoo - orange
3. Doodzie - Lindsay
4. Bataa - Bartosh (little boy at school)
5. Wye-wee - Riley (girl at school)
6. Koo - school
7. Wazzit - what's that
8. Juh-juh - Justin
9. Owee - ouch
10. Moymoy - Mwemwe (the nickname of her primary teacher at school)
11. Pata - pasta
12. Ka - cat (finally!)
13. Liya - Olivia (teacher at school)
14. Mee - Mia (friend from school)
15. Ree - Sriram (friend from school)
16. I can't reproduce it in my head, but she did try to say Joaquin today (another friend from school)
17. Woo - Luke (uncle Luke!) - not to be confused with "woo woo" which is dog
18. Hiny - no translation needed
19. Heddo - hello
20. Boto - lentils
21. Javi - Javi (short for Javier, friend from school)
22. Lexa - Alexa (friend from school)
23. Berga - Burger
24. She attempted to say broccoli, but it was a jumbled mess...A for effort, though!

And a few new signs:

Water
Milk
Fish
Brush teeth
Cereal
All done

She caught the cold that I had, so she coughed all night long and woke up a few times. I feel bad for her because I know how I felt with this cold (and I was taking cough medicine, Mucinex, and eating cough drops). As of this morning, our daughter has become a non-stop snot machine. Her nose will not stop running!!

Before her cold, she did many funny things this week. When you say raise the roof, she starts dancing and pushes her hands toward the ceiling. Future club kid?

She's also become very interested in her food. This week, I made sloppy joes and she garnished it with cheerios and peanuts. Sounds unappealing to me, but she ate it! The next night, I strained the brother from the chicken soup I had made, so she had a bowl of noodles, chicken and vegetables. She added cheerios and popcorn to it - and ate it! Every bite had to have a cheerio or piece of popcorn. I figure if that's what it takes for her to eat the dish, it's okay with me. Last night, I heated some sausage and chicken for her, put cranberry relish in the other part of her plate, and put a little pizza sauce on the side (she likes to dip her food). She ended up dipping her spoon in the pizza sauce and then in the cranberry relish and eating it. Yum!

She also had pinkeye last week so we've had to give her eyedrops. By the third day, she was reaching for the eyedrops and trying to put them in her eyes. It's amazing how much these little people observe.

No pictures today; just stories. Hopefully we'll have some photos soon. Now, back to wiping a certain little girl's nose...

Willa - Future Fashion Designer?

So Willa has this habit where she insists on looking in her closet and picking out a bow (coat, which in this case is a hoodie or sweater). Girlfriend likes to layer, I guess. If we're anywhere near her room and she doesn't already have a hoodie, sweater, or fleece on, she walks into her closet, points, and says "bow". I pick her up and she has to pick out the bow to wear.

Yesterday, she was wearing a blue and white argyle shirt and black pants. We went through this little exercise and she picked out a pink hoodie. A short while later, she wanted to pick out another bow. So I picked her up and let her look around the closet, thinking we'd do a swap. She reached into the back of her closet, where some of her outfits for spring (Christmas gifts) were hanging. She picked out a green dress. The green dress is size 24 months; 18 months fits her well right now, but she certainly still has room to grow in this size. Needless to say, I knew it would be a little big.

Willa insisted on wearing this dress, so we took off the hoodie, put on the green, flowery dress, and then had to put the pink hoodie back on. The pink actually worked with the dress; if the leggings had not been black, the outfit might have looked alright. The dress still had the tags on, which I thought was fine, that she'd have this dress off within five minutes. After an hour or two, I figured I should rip the tag off.

She took a nap and then we went for a walk (still wearing said dress and hoodie). The bundling up process covered everything but her pants, so she looked okay. It was kind of nice, so we decided to swing by the park for a few slides. At this point we realized that her dress was hanging out of the coat and that she looked ridiculous. Markus tucked her dress into her pants, giving her a bubble butt and bubble belly. When we got home, we took these pictures to remember Willa's first foray into fashion. Oh yeah, this was taken at the end of a busy day of playing, hat-wearing, and napping so her hair is all disheveled, too. As if she needed any help looking crazy.

20090104 - Crazy Willa Outfit

I made a few other posts tonight so scroll down if you'd like to read more and see pictures from Christmas.

Pictures from Christmas

We had a very nice Christmas and were fortunate to see many members of our extended families (who were all very generous, particularly to Miss Willa). The best part is that we didn't get sick after Christmas this year! We were exhausted after all of the excitement and were thrilled to have a long weekend to recover.

Willa enjoyed Christmas, but I think her favorite part was being an elf: handing out presents, and helping put the trash in the bag. She's very much into putting things away right now. I know this will not last. But it's nice right now. Anyway, she got lots of new toys and clothing and has been enjoying many of them on these long holiday weekends that just ended. The little people, her purse, Legos, crayons, rocking horse, puzzles...time to start phasing out the remaining baby toys to make room for the new ones. We cleared out the coffee table from our family room area so that she has space to roam around and spread out her toys and play.

Here are some photos from our trip to the Boyometro, as we call it.

20081225 - Christmas and Christmas Eve Pictures

Willa's Words at 20 Months

Here goes...

1. Apple
2. Manna (Banana)
3. Nyyyye (Nice, which means cat)
4. Mao (Meow)
5. Puppy
6. Woo Woo (former word for puppy, until she started saying puppy this week)
7. Baa (for sheep/lamb)
8. Happy (today's new word)
9. Boo (Boot; today's other new word)
10. Book
11. Mee (Eat)
12. Cwacka (Cracker)
13. Takoo (Thank You)
14. Bebe (Baby)
15. Potchy (Tchoupi, which is a character in one of her little French books)
16. Peepee
17. Poopy
18. Potty
19. Wawa (Water and Willa)
20. Bow (Coat)
21. Dao (Belly - don't ask me, but she lifts up her shirt constantly and shows us her "dao")
22. Ear
23. Nooo (Nose)
24. No No No (no need to translate)
25. Yah (Yes)
26. Eye
27. Deet (Feet)
28. Doo (Shoe)
29. Niw (Milk)
30. Nye-Nye (Night Night)
31. Wack (Quack)
32. Ear
33. Hair
34. Hanna (friend from school)
35. Sadie (friend from school)
36. Didi (for Didi, which is what she calls my mom)
37. PopPop
38. Doody (for Dani, which is what she calls Markus' mom)
39. Maa (Max - friend from school)
40. Nao (Nell - friend from the neighborhood)
41. Harley (the dog next door)
42. Alan (our neighbor with the dog)
43. Helene (our neighbor with the dog)
44. Mommy
45. Daddy, sometimes called Di-Da
46. Elmo
47. Waydo (Radio)
48. Psss (the sound of peeing)
49. Yay
50. Hi
51. Ball
52. Wayzee (Raisin)
53. Chee (Cheese; another new word today)
54. Cup
55. Up
56. Down
57. Out
58. More
59. Bye Bye
60. Wow
61. Ott (Hot)
62. Ahhh (after a long sip of water)
63. Bean
64. Cookie
65. Bottle
66. Two
67. Five
68. Momo
69. Key

Wow, more than I thought! I'm sure there are more, but her vocabulary is expanding so rapidly. She's also learned some new signs. Now she can do the signs for:

Eat
More
Please
Thank You
Shoes
Socks
Cracker
Banana
Bath
Sleep
Hat
Bus
Hurt

That's all I can think of. Not bragging, just trying to keep a record of what she can do and when. :-)