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