Claire's News

So many changes! Claire is 15 months old as of November 1st.

• Signs and says 'book!' I've been trying to figure out how to spell the way she says it, but haven't yet. It's a b sound though. :) We were sitting in her rocking chair together before bed a couple nights ago and she looks at her bookshelf, says book, and signs it, too! She adores books! I suppose I can deal with her wanting to read instead of going to bed. ;)
• 'Brushes' her hair with her travel size hairbrush! Just within the past few weeks, I've started putting her hair in little pony tails on top of her head - it's so darn cute! (Not to mention it keeps the hair out of her eyes - it's long!)
• 'Brushes' her teeth! She's 'played' with a toothbrush for a while now, but now she's started putting the brushing side into her mouth. I really think she's trying to imitate us! She also just cut her 7th tooth - lucky number 7! :)
• Dances! Claire has been dancing for over a month, but I can't remember if I've blogged about it. She's too cute just stepping her feet back and forth and walking....I mean dancing...around.
• Says "dis" when she points to things, like she wants me to tell her what it's called that she's seeing. Matt insists she's not saying "das" (German for that), but maybe she's saying "this" in English. She's definitely consistent and even though she's not saying either word perfectly, she is communicating!
• I also think she's saying "bye" now. :)
• Signs 'eat,' which is new - before she's always signed 'more' when she wants food because we only used 'more' at mealtime. Right now, she only signs 'eat' when prompted.
• Enjoys playing outside and 'driving' the car while we're outside. She can be crabby and tired, but if we go outside she's so distracted that she forgets why she's crabby and just loves exploring!
• Wants a spoon when she sees one and tries to use spoons and forks. Usually she needs help scooping the food onto it. Sometimes she tries for a while, then says "to heck with it!" and goes back to the proven hand method.
• Says 'choo-choo' for trains (Daddy's girl) and also for other big trucks. I have to admit we think it's pretty cute, so we don't always tell her otherwise when she 'choo-choos' for big trucks. (Action included!)
• I swear she says "Sage!" At the pumpkin patch in mid-October, she was definitely saying "Saa" and referring to Sage. Our babysitter, Lisa, hasn't heard it yet, but it doesn't surprise me because these girls spend 40 plus hours together a week! (Have I mentioned that I love that they are able to go to daycare together?!?) Lisa claims she hears Claire say lots of other words during the day too, but she'll never do it for me! It goes both ways I guess. :)
• Has begun to differentiate between dogs and other animals. Says 'cat' and usually only signs 'dog' now when it's actually a dog! She LOVES cats and dogs, which I think I've said before. Today at 'Thanksgiving' on the Dodge side, she loved playing with Bailey and even 'took him for a walk' by holding his leash. She learned this at daycare, where she holds Nanny's lease. Nanny however, does not pull her along, while we had to be careful with Bailey because he was REALLY excited to be taking a walk.
• Points to the sky when we hear 'das Flugzeug' (airplane). (This has been for a while!) Tonight we were reading a book with an airplane in it. She pointed to it and asked "dis?" and I told her "Das ist ein Flugzeug.' Then she was pointing up and I had to explain that it was just a picture of a plane. :)
• Many other fun things I'm sure I'm forgetting! Maybe I'll edit this when I think of them. :)

Pumpkin Patch

A beautiful Saturday in October (Hmm...I see a pattern here! We had so many beautiful October days. Thank you Lord for such an awesome fall!), we headed to Patch's Pumpkin Farm in Adel with Amber, Ross, and Sage. After a wrong turn down the interstate (I won't go into details, so as to save embarrassment of the lead driver), we made it there! It was like a small petting zoo. There were llamas, donkeys, cows, goats, chickens, and horses. Claire was apprehensive of getting too close to the animals. She did have a great time playing in the 'straw maze,' which was actually just bale after bale of straw with no rhyme or reason. She was intrigued by the giant blow-up caterpillar, trying to enter the exit (against the force of a strong fan!). She probably wished she was old enough for the bounce house, too! We even got to ride on a tractor-pulled barrel train. I thought it was fun looking at all the pumpkins in the patch as we rode through, but I can't say Claire was too enthused. I think the highlight of her day was the straw bales! Who can blame her?!? ;)

(I've tried three times now to add pictures, and keep getting an 'error' message. Grrrrr....)

Octobulous Fun! - Part 2

At Grandma's, we hauled Grandpa's newly restored pedal tractor outside for a photo shoot. Grandpa gave us permission to use it for 'a minute,' but what he didn't know didn't hurt him. ;) We carried it out and put it in front of the old red bale shed. (Unfortunately Grandpa is taking it down, even though it has so much character!) It made for a great backdrop. It's very difficult to get a good picture of a little girl who is always on the move though! It was still fun trying. We even had a clothes change while we were out there! Aunt Lori was our photo assistant and tried her best to keep Claire on the tractor while Grandma and I were snapping away!

Octobulous Fun! - Part 1

October was a super fun month for us! Matt went home quite a bit to help out on the farm in September and October, even when harvest was over. He and Mark pulled out a fence and worked on getting things in good shape for the winter and next spring. He enjoyed helping out!

Claire and I went home one weekend for just a Saturday and had the best time! We hung out with Omi and Opa in the afternoon, then headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's for the evening.

It was beautiful weather that day and we spend a lot of time outside. Claire had fun chasing the cats at Omi and Opa's; she especially liked Tuxedo. He tried his best to get away from her for some peace and quiet, but she usually found him again. Claire played on the neighbor's swing set and slide. She had fun going for a paddle boat ride on the pond, where Opa even caught a frog! Claire was hesitant to touch it, but when she saw Mami do it, she decided it might be okay. She also enjoyed the challenge of trying to keep her balance while walking across the rocks. Inside, Opa and Claire took the stair challenge (How many times can we go up and down?) and read books together!

Silly Talker

Claire is so fun at this age! She is a very silly girl. According to Lisa, our daycare lady, she's the goofiest baby she's ever had. We like goofy around here, so that's quite the compliment! ;) We rarely catch her silly moments on camera, but we did manage to get one goofy cutie pie picture.

About two weeks ago, Claire showed me that she's actually been paying very close attention when we've taught her 'more' in sign language. She'd always just clapped her hands together to mean 'more,' when technically she's suppose to touch just her fingertips together. A couple times when she was eating, she just used her fingertips. I'm sure she just didn't have the fine motor skills to do it before, but she was obviously observant with exactly how our hands moved. She hasn't done it since then, so I'm thinking maybe it just takes too much concentration, and when you're hungry, you're impatient!?

I love that she is able to communicate with spoken words now! She's a talker and she sees balls ALL OVER! It may actually be a ball to play with, or a big red concrete ball outside of Target, or a round object in a book. To her, they're all balls and she's thrilled that she can say that word.

She is also loving her big girl toys. She likes her dollhouse from Grandma and Grandpa, and especially likes when Daddy helps her with it! She likes it when we put the 'baby to bed' and sing it the same song that Mami sings her when she goes to bed. She likes me to rock the cradle for the baby too.

Proud Mama

She's off - jetting down the driveway! LOVES going on walks! This was last week. As you can see, she has her swimming sunglasses on. She likes to do everything that we do and Mami had her sunglasses on. So we found Claire's and she handed them to me to put back on anytime they came off. Guess we'd better set a really good example!

Sleeping Beauty - We have to get in some extra cuddle time with Daddy gone. :)

Climbing! A few weeks ago, Claire figured out (or maybe Matt taught her) that she could climb up onto our low retro chairs herself. Then, I got new chair cushions for my birthday. They are thicker and therefore higher. She has yet to climb up with the new cushions, but she's tried. She also tries to climb into the bathtub now. Better watch her on that - could be dangerous!

I've decided I go in spurts when it comes to blogging. :) These are just a few of the things she's doing at 14 months that I wanted to record before it's too late (i.e. I forget)!

• Tonight I asked Claire "Wo sind deine Schuhe?" (Where are your shoes?). We were in the kitchen and she turned around and walked right to the cabinet in her room where we keep her shoes. This makes me especially proud because it shows that she's understanding German! Sometimes I wonder if it's really worth it to speak German to her all the time. It takes a lot more effort on my part and I can't say everything the way I want to. Then, times like this, our choice to raise her non-native bilingually is reaffirmed...she's getting it! Now if only I could make some native German friends around here that have kids. ;)
• Claire can sign some words! She uses milk, more, finished, please, dog, and bath. Some of these are sporadic, but she knows them all. I'm happy that we've done some sign language with her because it helps her communicate. I wish that she knew more, but we're not as consistent with signing (the 30 or so words we know).
• Dog - Claire generalizes this word when we're reading books. She calls horses dogs and even cows. I suppose I can see the resemblance. She'll figure it out I'm sure.
• She definitely says ma, da, hiii (hi), bah (bye), ba (ball), uh-oh, and bu (bitte=please). She just started saying bitte this morning (edited Saturday, October 9th) when she wants something (the telephone) and I ask her to say please, she also signs it at the same time she says it - I was excited. I think she's even combined "hiiii da" and "bah da" when Matt's coming and going. Matt had lots of fun tickling her last night, but tonight we're on our own again...probably through Tuesday.
• Claire loves to take (short) walks and visit the neighbors! Tonight we walked outside and she yelled across the street to say hi to the neighbor who was just arriving home. Cory noticed we were out and yelled across the street to say hi to "Baby Claire." Then we walked down the driveway and to the house next door. She looked at the house and signed 'dog.' Marie and Paul have two dogs and they're usually looking out the window. Tucker especially loves Claire and gets soooo excited whenever he sees her outside. Then we walked a little farther and Claire wanted to cross the street. I helped her do that and once we were on the sidewalk on the other side, she started walking up the driveway to Joe and Jen's. She knows where those fun boys live! I stopped her, but by this time they were all outside inviting us in for pizza. We have the best neighbors!!! Claire had told me "finished" less than 15 minutes prior, but I guess there's always enough room for pizza. We stayed and played with Cory and Jeff until bedtime. :)

Single Mom?

"Mom, the bird looks good! The ladder is safe, too."

Opa's Girl

Ready for bed. Schmusetuch in hand. Smiley girl. :)

"I brought Mommy both my shoes, one by one, and handed them to her to put them on me. Then I snagged her cell phone. I LOVE playing with it and opening and closing it!"

Drinking like a big girl - her favorite. Good thing Mommy only keeps water in her water bottle! We had so much fun with Daddy at the Sculpture Garden! We sure miss him though.

"I got so excited when I heard Mommy say 'Daddy,' and even rushed out to the kitchen to meet him...turns out though she was only asking me if I wanted to call him on the telephone. I was bummed, but I still had fun talking to him. Hopefully he gets home tomorrow before my bedtime, or maybe Mommy will let me stay up late just to see him...I'll have to try to twist her arm."

Since Friday, I've felt like a single mom. Matt's been up north helping his dad farm. He's been having a great time and working really hard! We miss him, but we've been doing well alone. I give all the credit to God on this, because I'm not really an 'alone' type of person. I'm good for a few hours, or even a day (we all need some alone time), but any longer and I am just dying for some company (even if just sitting on the couch together watching TV). Normally this would put me in a bad mood, which makes it not fun for Matt when he does call or come home. Yes, I am admitting my faults and now you all know me a little better than before - at least I know I need to improve. :) Well, this time it's been different - praise God! My attitude is very positive and Claire and I are doing very well on our own. (The house has even been lots neater. I'm not blaming a messy house on Matt, but he's 1/2 the mess and now that it's only me, I have taken more responsibility for keeping it tidy. I'm also trying to help Claire learn not only to 'raeum aus,' but to also 'raeum auf!' (Basically, pick up after herself.))

Here's the run down of Claire and Mommy time...

Friday we spent the whole day together. I had the day off because of conferences Tuesday and Thursday night. This extra day was thoroughly enjoyed! We picked up lunch at a coffeehouse and met Daddy at the new(er) sculpture garden downtown. It was a beautifully warm and sunny day. Claire had fun walking around in the grass and stopped for just a bit to eat her lunch. We also went to visit Daddy's colleagues and had fun rolling, holding, and 'throwing' (probably really dirty) balls that they gave Claire. :) On the way home, we stopped at the library and picked up some German books to read. They had a whopping TWO whole books to check out!

Saturday Omi and Opa came for a visit. We went to Fuddruckers - yum! Claire enjoyed Opa's burger and avacado. She even had some potato wedge fries. Then Opa babysat while we ran errands (ok, so actually it was easy - they both slept while we were gone). Claire took them on a walk and we had fun simply spending time together.

Sunday we started off the day at church. It was an awesome message about 'dreams' God gives us in our lives (not the kind you have when you're asleep). :) There were several things that hit home for me - thank you Lord for using Pastor Mike so often to speak to people and send your message! Check out www.hopewdm.org to hear the sermon or read The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson. I have big dreams for our lives (Matt, Claire and I)...check back later, maybe much later, and I'll tell you more. :) All in God's timing! Sunday afternoon Claire helped roast a chicken, make two batches of delicious wheat pancakes (to freeze - convenient!), and mix cookie dough (to keep in the fridge for those "I really need a chocolate chip cookie!" times). She sat at the counter in her high chair to help, watched the chicken roasting in the oven, and even helped out by testing out the step ladder (I think OSHA hired her.)! We had lots of fun together and it felt good to be so productive! (Side Note: We also ran to to grocery store, book store, and toy store and got back home in less than an hour! I felt like super woman. I didn't even know that anyone could do it in that amount of time, let alone pokey me. Matt probably won't even believe it when he reads this. After all, in his experience I am the one who takes 15 minutes in the grocery store to purchase one item...while he's waiting in the car. Opps!)

The last few days we've also been spending lots of time outside enjoying this beautiful fall weather! We've gone to the park to swing, slide, and walk across the bridge twice. I showed Claire how to wiggle on the bridge so that it moves up and down - fun. We took a long walk around the neighborhood. We played cars with Anna yesterday. The fresh air is so nice! Last but not least, I'll leave you with some pictures from our adventures. (No time to rearrange, so they're at the top...grrr.)