OKOBOJI 2011

We had a great family and friend vacation last weekend in Okoboji. It was our 4th annual trip (though we've only made it three years now because Claire was about to join us in 2009 and we didn't want to travel)! As we enjoyed reminiscing during a photo slide show Saturday night, we all agreed that we must be getting older - it isn't nearly as crazy anymore as it was the first couple of years. In fact, everyone was in bed by 12:00 both nights I believe. Highlights of the weekend included lots of boating, even more food (and at random times), skiing for Matt and the others, swimming for Claire and Annabelle, and showing up Brian in our diving contest for me!

Claire and I also discovered the public sidewalk that runs along the lake. Although we had lots of fun the whole weekend, it's that simple memory that I think was the best for me. We headed down the path while Daddy, Jeff, and John were skiing on Sunday morning before breakfast. Right away, we spotted lots of sailboats and one sailboat that was away from the rest of them. This started a great conversation about a book we often read, Riese Rick macht sich schick. In it, a goat (one of Claire's favorite animals) is sad because the storm blew away his sail. So, Rick the Giant, who had just gotten stylish new clothes, literally takes the shirt off his back to give it to the goat. The goat uses it as a new sail for his sailboat and everything is better. Rick saves the day! We love this book and Claire especially enjoys noticing the feelings of the animals (sad to happy after Rick helps). Later on our walk, we took note of the 'little buildings' that were by the lake near all of the docks. After a while, I asked Claire what she thought was in the little buildings. She told me "Stroh," which I didn't understand at first. After a few guesses on my part of me repeating her, but saying similar words and her saying "nein" and getting that look on her face like "Mami, you just aren't understanding what I'm saying," she told me "Ziegen fressen Stroh." (Goats eat straw.) (Anybody who knows better can correct me, but that's what it looks like they're eating at the zoo and that's always been what we've said.) This sentence helped clarify that she thought that there was straw in the little buildings by the lake. Oh, how I love her logic! :)

Thank you to Claire's adoptive Okoboji grandma Deb and grandpa John for hosting us again!

(Pictures later!...Jen, can you email those during ALL that free time please?) :) :)

A BIRTHDAY in the Life of a Two Year Old!

With Claire's second birthday on Monday, August 1st, I thought I'd have a little fun as a photojournalist. I wanted this day to be special for her especially because it's probably the first birthday she realized it was HER birthday! We'd been asking her for two weeks "Who has a birthday in two weeks...one week...three days...etc.?" and I'd also been singing "Alles Gute zum Geburtstag" to her many times in conjunction with this question. I'd pause at the "liebe" and let her say her own name, which she thoroughly enjoyed! A song with your own name...how fun is that?!? So, without further ado, here's a glimpse into a two year old's birthDAY!

First Request: What better way start to the day than "Loeffel Erdbutter!"

(Loeffel Erdnussbutter = Spoon (of) Peanut Butter)

Second Request: A walk and playing at the park! We even explored a new kind of pine cone (long and skinny) on our walk, and Claire spotted right away the tall prairie grass with the fuzzy tops, to which she requested "haben" (have). Now we're "arbeiten" (working) with the flowers - watering them and picking off the dead ones. She is actually pretty good at deciphering the dead flowers from the new blooms. Here, Claire is examining how HER flower is doing!

Trying out our new finger paints from Tante! She really liked this (and even requested to paint the next day as well).

We invited Sage over for finger painting, and after that and a bath to clean up, we turned on some music. The girls really liked "1,2,3 im Sauseschritt" (song) and grabbed each others hands without prompting to start dancing together! It was so cute. Then, when Sage wanted a turn dancing with Amber (you're welcome, Amber, for not posting the 'embarrassing' pictures) Claire stood there with her hands out insisting that she have her dance partner back.

(I realized for the sake of anonymity, I should take the picture with the license plate number off the blog. Let me tell you - it was a cute one with Daddy and Claire scrubbing the car!)

When Daddy got home, we put on a suit and washed all three cars (our two and her car) together! Now THAT made for a fun in the sun evening! To top it off, Claire invited the neighbor boys, Jeff and Cory, over to draw with sidewalk chalk.

If that's not a FUN birthday, I don't know what is! :)

If anyone knows how to upload more than five photos to blogger, let me know. I had a lot more, but had to pick and choose because of this darn website! Thanks!

Daddy Time = Fun Time

Turns out I don't have a picture of the lego creativity going on - just the exhaustion from all that brain power being put to good use! :)

Matt's had a big task this summer - painting our house. Now normally this wouldn't be such a big deal...hire some college students and they'd have it done in a few days, right? Right! BUT, when you are painting an entire house yourself, and only on your free evenings and weekends, it turns into a pretty lengthy ordeal. Don't get me wrong, he's worked really hard on it and in the most sweltering conditions many days (Remember those heat advisories? Those don't stop him!). All his hard work has paid off because with a new coat (or one base coat and two top coats) of paint and a new roof (thank you for hail damage!) the house looks pretty spiffy!

Now, getting to the title of the blog. Since Matt has been basically done with the house the last couple of weeks, Claire has had more Daddy time! I hadn't realized how much he'd been outside working until we got him back with us. It really makes me thankful for the evenings he is at home spending time as a family, especially because I know not every family is fortunate in this way.

Claire is excited whenever Daddy gets home! I always ask her "Claire, do you know who's almost home?" and of course she knows and anticipates his arrival. Since painting has been done, Claire and Matt have had LOTS of fun playing together again in the evenings. Her favorite Daddy activity, I think, (well, his favorite too!) is building with Legos. Matt LOVED building anything growing up and still does enjoy building on a larger (or smaller H.O. scale) now. Legos are a pastime for him and now that he can share that with Claire it's very special to see. :) It's ridiculous how much more creative he is in building with Legos (giant toddler Legos) than I am. I can build a house whereas he's got a fancy house, car, garage, and landscaping. He's got a knack for it! Long story short, we love having Daddy around again! :)

(Pictures of house and Lego building to come!)

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. :)