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!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
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!
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Monday, July 06, 2009
Willa and her baby...
Sunday, July 05, 2009
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
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.
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