4 Word Sentences!! :)

"Vogel...poopoo...unser Auto. (Bird...poopoo...our car.)" Yes, I had pointed out earlier that a bird went poopoo on our car! I'd showed her a while ago, so I know she was creating this sentence herself instead of just repeating what I'd said.

And that's just the example I was thinking of when I decided to add it to the blog for record-keeping. Claire has been creating these long sentences a lot lately! She also creates plenty of long sentences and stories that we don't understand. I'm sure she's saying something, but I can't ALWAYS understand. Nonetheless, it's so fun to watch and help her develop. :)

Raindrops?

Funny story...I was carrying Claire after bathing her and thought I felt water on my foot (she was dried off at this point). I asked her "Claire, hast du Pipi gemacht? (Claire, did you go pee pee?)" to which she replied "no." "Hmmm...ich hab' gedacht, dass ich was auf meinen Fuss gefuehlt habe (Hmmm, I thought I felt something on my foot.)." She then told me "Regentropfen (raindrops)" and just when I was about to explain that we were inside and that only could have happened outside, she said "draussen (outside)." Guess I didn't need to explain after all! I thought it was great how she was making this connection and maybe even making a joke. :)

(Inquiring minds want to know, I guess...no, she hadn't pee'd.)

Claire's Updates

Here are some fun and things happening with our girl! :) Tomorrow marks 23 months old and pretty soon we'll start talking years instead of months. Does that really signal the end of babyhood?

FYI...this may only be interesting for die-hard Claire fans! ;) Read on if you will!

• Claire has started giving the BEST hugs and you can't ask for this kind! She wraps her arms around my neck like she's never going to let go. I know these won't last forever...I close my eyes with each one and cherish the moment!
• Don't say anything around Claire that you don't want a toddler to say! She is repeating everything these days. They're usually three or four word phrases or parts of our sentences. The most current one I can think of was with Opa... "geht wieder weg (going away again)" in reference to the cat, Mopar, going away again. I think she's a cat lover, though she likes dogs too.
• Some of her favorite phrases to use on her own are "I do dat (I do that)" or "I find it."
• Just this week, she started taking stairs (a couple) very slowly without holding on to anything. She will decline my hand and carefully do it herself. This feels like 'big news' to me!
• She loves to play independently with Legos now! She has been doing this for at least a month, but she'll very carefully choose her blocks that are all alike (tall and slender) and puts them together into a tower. She can do this for about ten minutes, I'd guess, before she needs 'backup' to help.
• Our morning routine goes like this. "Mama!" and then several more times of calling me if I don't answer or come into her room right away. We then take the diaper off because "Grosse Maedels brauchen keine Windel. (Big girls don't need a diaper!)" and cuddle on the couch with a basket of books. She very much likes to choose which books we read and we read for quite a while to wake up slowly (she's much more like Mami in this sense...likes to cuddle and wake up slowly for the day, unlike Daddy who is a burst of energy right off the bat!). After books and cuddle time, it's breakfast.
• This week we've also started talking about her dreams first thing in the morning. Now, I'm not sure she really remembers her dreams at this point. Usually I start her off by asking "Hast du suesse Traueme gehabt? (Did you have sweet dreams?)" and she'll tell me "ya." I will ask her "Was hast du gemacht? or Was ist passiert? (What did you do? or What happened?)" and she'll give me a word. She gives me words here and there an I piece it together and ask lots of questions (like I said...don't know if she remembers anything but it's fun conversation and fun to imagine!). The most "vivid" dream from this week is this... Claire climbed a tree. A cat was also in the tree. There was a goat eating straw. There were some more details that I forgot, but we talked about this dream a long time! So fun!
• We are potty training! I'd say she makes it about half the time. She is getting much better at telling us when she has to go, but sometimes we still don't make it to the potty. I have an "all or nothing" philosophy on this which is sometimes a pain. It means that we don't put her in a diaper unless she's napping or sleeping...no diaper for playing outside, walks, to the zoo, or runs to Target or Trader Joe's or TJ Maxx (all stores she likes to say...lol). We bring plenty of extra shorts and wipes along for accidents. We've tried several different things...we started having her sit on the potty often and for long periods of time, but go figure, that got boring. We have used "incentives" (not bribery, people!) like getting a pea or a grape or a cracker or something (healthy and tasty) for sitting on the potty and trying or succeeding. Now we are on to asking her frequently "Musst du Pipi oder Poopoo machen? (Do you have to go peepee or poopoo?)." She tells us no most of the time, but sometimes yes! She also thinks she's funny and will tell us "no...ya...no...ya...no!" I have to admit it's cute!
• She makes me laugh! It brings a smile to my face knowing she is doing something clever or 'making a joke' or whatever. This evening we were outside playing. She requested a "wasserfall (waterfall)" because we learned what they were yesterday at the zoo. So we filled a bucket and made waterfalls, then she decided she wanted to water the flowers. (Hopefully they're not waterlogged...the soil was definitely still wet from last time! Maybe she has her mom's ability to kill the easiest of plants, but let's hope she has Omi and Opa's green thumb!) We refilled the bucket a couple of times and then she told me we needed more water again. It wasn't empty, so I told her "Wir muessen den Eimer nicht auffuellen. Es gibt noch Wasser in dem Eimer. (We don't have to fill up the bucket. There's still water in the bucket.)" at which point she dumped the water out, showed me, and told me "mehr (more)." Smarty pants!
• I mentioned she likes to read books by herself now. We still read a ton together, but sometimes she gives me a book to read and then takes her own book (that's a polite way of showing me her preference!). I was getting ready in the bathroom the other day and she was in her room, sitting in her new hippo chair from "Grandpa" as she puts it (it's from Grandma too, Claire!), reading books from a basket. She said "krabbeln (to crawl)" and I figured out she wanted her book with the crawling baby. When I was back in the bathroom I heard her 'read' the book "krabbeln...sitzen...weinen...tragen...tanzen (to crawl/sit/cry/carry/dance)." Then it was the cutest thing, she started asking questions like I ask her "tanzen?...no...tanzen?...no...tanzen?...no...TANZEN! (dancing?...no....dancing?...no...dancing?....no....DANCING!)" and I could just picture her in her chair going through each picture until she found the dancing baby! Now THAT was cool! :)

That's all I have time for tonight...I will edit by adding as needed! I had more updates, but they've slipped my mind anyway! :)

Amoosh What?

"Yay! We're here...I am ready to EAT!"

"What? No bread? I'm STARVING!"

"Stoked my food is here! And they're FRENCH french fries...delicious!"

Gnocchi with hazelnut oil, champignons, etc.

"It's our anniversary and we brought the camera. Would you mind taking a picture?"

Yesterday, Matt and I celebrated our FIFTH wedding anniversary. We both feel like it's been a loooong time that we've been married, okay just kidding...it's gone by so fast! Mark and Brenda came down to babysit, which was awesome for Claire and for us! Matt and I were gone from 4 to 10...that's a long date and we don't usually even go on short dates! Let me detail it a little more...

The evening (okay late afternoon) started out with an "are you serious?" when I asked Matt to grab the camera. We have a big DSLR which is a little annoying to haul around, but captures Claire instantly unlike a smaller camera. We've been pondering also getting a pocket size camera to take out on occasions like this, but for last night, it was the big honker.

First, we to the movie Super 8. Matt loves going to movies. I don't. It's not that I don't like seeing movies, I would just rather rent them because I'm stingy and would rather spend $8 on a really good lunch from my favorite cafe, La Mie. But, I went to the movie with Matt out of LOVE. (Cheesy, I know! And hey, it was a good movie that I'd recommend...and, they wouldn't have taken my theatre gift certificate at La Mie anyway.)

Next, we were suppose to go out to eat. We tried to make reservations for about 45 minutes after the movie ended, but alas, they were already booked. Who are these people that call and make a reservation so early? I mean c'mon, we made them on our way to the movie theatre...that should have been early enough!

So, since we had to wait another two hours, whiny Matt showed up. But, he went to the Arts Festival with me out of LOVE. And, after a few minutes even had a great attitude about it! We walked around and admired art that we can't afford, he got a beer, I got a sugary refreshing lemonade, and we had a great time. We both agreed that this kink in our plans...i.e., the Arts Festival, was much enjoyed!

So back to next, we are heading out to eat at a fancy pants newish restaurant in town! It's a place we'd not normally go, but we had a "Merry Christmas!" gift certificate from Aunt Chris. She does a great job getting us gifts that we would never splurge on for ourselves! We ordered what we thought looked good off the menu, though we didn't completely understand it. Cranky Matt was back now, because this guy gets that way when he's hungry and has nothing to eat. My friend Theresa is the same way. :) Her husband and I have been known to tease them both about it...just a little. All Matt wanted was a basket of bread, but I guess they don't serve that in fancy French restaurants.

Much to our relief, food showed up! It was our "amoo(insert jibberish here)"...our amoo what?, we thought. "Salmon tartar" (with some sort of white creamy condiment that I didn't catch again), announced our waiter proudly. It looked raw. I asked the waiter. "It's salmon TARTAR" he repeated, this time more clearly. (Translation: Didn't you hear me the first time?) We understood at this point that tartar must mean raw. I went to the hostess, who had menus to look at, and, thinking she was a little less intimidating (20ish year old girl), showed her what I ordered, and asked her to double check to be sure that this was not my appetizer. Pregnant women cannot eat raw seafood, I explained. It was not my appetizer...whew!

For those of you who are as confused as were were with the "amoosh boosh", here's what Wikipedia has to say.

An amuse-bouche [amyzbuʃ] or amuse-gueule [amyzɡœl] is a single, bite-sized hors d’œuvre.^[1] Amuse-bouche are different from appetizers in that they are not ordered from a menu by patrons, but, when served, are done so according to the chef's selection alone. These, often accompanied by a complementing wine, are served as an excitement of taste buds both to prepare the guest for the meal and to offer a glimpse into the chef's approach to cooking.

The term is French, literally translated to "mouth amuser". The plural form is amuse-bouche or amuse-bouches.

There's a little glimpse into our evening celebrating five years! Our meal finished off wonderfully...the server even brought me delicious carrot-ginger soup once he heard from the hostess that I couldn't eat the original amuse-bouche. For the main course, I had the gnocchi and Matt had a steak with fries. We finished it off with a dessert amuse-bouche (probably actually has a different name) and rich molten chocolate cake and ice cream with caramel. It was fun being out of our comfort zone and treating ourselves to an extra special date! We had great food and fabulous converstion. Happy five years to us! Thank you to all those who made this marriage and this evening possible. :)

Steel Trap Mind

If Claire's anything like her Omi and Grandma Diekema, she'll have a steel trap mind. My mom can remember birthdays and dates like it's none of her business! Lately, Claire has really been showing us how much she remembers of what's happening around her.

Yesterday, we were reading a book that had "der Schwimmreifen" (literally, swim tire, but imagine an inflatable swim ring) in it, which she told me reminded her of Onkel Alex. Several weeks ago, we took Onkel Alex's Fahrradreifen (bike tires) back home for him after Matt had repaired them. It took me a minute to figure out why she was thinking of Onkel Alex, but man, once I did, I thought she had a great memory!

Today, we're reading the same book and we saw "das Klebeband" (tape). I reminded her of rolling the tape down the driveway into the street and then crossing the street to get the tape and do it again. Then I asked Claire with whom she played this game. She told me "Tante" and was exactly right! They played this fun (and don't worry, it's safe, they looked both ways each time before crossing on our very quiet street - "Schau mal Rechts. Kommt da jemand? Nein. Schau mal Links. Kommt da jemand? Nein. Jetzt duerfen wir ueberqueren.") game a couple weeks ago when Tante visited us!

Here's what I found most impressive. She was sitting on the potty today and we were reading books while we were waiting for...something...to...happen. I would say the beginning of the two sentence or two part rhyme and leave the last rhyming word off to see if she could get it. She did so well!

"Draussen ist es kalt und grau. Drinnen gibt es gleich ______ ."

She said kao (Kakao=hot cocoa)!

"Wenn Emma laut zum Essen ruft, gibt es Rappelpamp mit ______."

She said Luf (Luft=air)!

"Wer sitzt lange auf dem Klo? Emma mit dem nackten ____."

She said Po (Po=bum)!

"Alle sitzen in der Runde quietschvergnuegt zur Abend______."

She said stunde (Abendstunde=evening hours, literally)!

"Emma will nach draussen gehen, denn da ist so viel zu ____."

Here she said guck, but it's suppose to be sehen. Both mean to look/see, but I'm thinking she didn't really know this well enough to interchange them here.

Now, I'm the mom and I'm suppose to be enamored with my daughter, and obviously we've read this book a lot. But, isn't that cool?!?

*Disclaimer: Sorry for all you English-only speakers! Many of my posts have to do with what Claire is saying in German, because that's what I hear from her, and that's what I'm most proud of because she's obviously growing up with virtually everyone else speaking English to her and I'm putting forth a lot of effort to pass on to her a language and culture that I love. It makes all my insecurities about my lack of certain language abilities, and raising her non-native bilingually, seem less when I see her doing so well and developing in German just like she is in English! Believe it or not, as confident as I seem in this language journey, it's actually just confidence that I have the DRIVE to do it and move forward. It's definitely not that I think I'm so great in German! On a lighter note, the rhymes really don't translate well in this book...well, rhymes and jokes don't really translate at all. You'll have to petition Matt for his SECOND post of the life of this blog if you want to hear about her English development. ;) Or, maybe, just maybe, I'll have to brag about her English someday too! :)

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best Daddy for my girl!

Claire and I were driving earlier this week and were having a conversation about Daddy, considering we hadn't seen him in a few days and were missing him. Not even thinking Father's Day was coming up, I was telling her how great of a Daddy she has because he's so fun, such a hard worker, and almost always in a good mood. She agreed with me by replying "mein Daddy," (my Daddy) which I think is so sweet because with that one little word before his name, she's claiming him as her own! :) He really is the best and believe me, he's all hers!

As Promised...

"I've got this."

"Claire, we've got to use two hands. Take it back nice and easy now."

"Keep your eye on the ball and connect."

"And follow through. Look at that shot!"

Onkel Alex got Claire a set of golf clubs for Christmas. She likes to hit the ball around on her own, but he came down in January for her first set of lessons. Alex isn't a pro, but he's pretty good. He will be able to teach her a lot for a while, then she'll start whipping his butt on the course! Watch out Alex! ;)