Weekends at Home

All good chefs taste as they go...in case adjustments in flavor need to be made.

"Mama, I've got to move it off this burner...it's going to boil over!"

"Stir, stir, stir...these noodles are going to be TAS-TY!"

(Notice that we emptied the diaper bag right before we started this meal.)

Just a typical day with Mama ~ "I don't know if this is going to turn out too well! Everything is an experiment and we definitely didn't follow the recipe! Hopefully Daddy will still eat it."

Matt, Claire, and I have been spending lots of time at home relaxing on the weekends. This time together is just what we need after busy weeks apart!

On Thanksgiving, Omi, Opa, Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Lori all came to us. It was wonderful! We had so much fun hosting and combining our families for the first holiday at our home. Omi and Grandma both helped out a lot by bringing dishes to share...and Grandma shook, I mean cooked, a tasty gravy! Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Lori all stayed overnight. We laughed together playing 'Partini.' Grandma and Grandpa won, but cheated. ;)

Other weekends lately, we've taken a couple walks in the fifty degree weather, had many cozy fires (some all day!), spent a bit of time with friends, decorated the tree, played, danced, sung, cooked (see above pictures), and blahhhh...cleaned.

It's been a wonderful life! :)

Trick or Treat

Claire with the neighbor boys, Cory the monkey and Jeff the giraffe

Daddy's little girl

Mami's goofy little bee

"What do we have here?"

We had LOTS of fun trick or treating on Halloween (or Beggar's Night as it's called here, which is the night before Halloween). Who would think when you move two hours away the traditions change?! Anyway, Claire was a bee. She got to wear her costume at a daycare party on Friday, where they had a parade. I don't know if she knows it, but she was saying 'bee' the whole time at the party. (Pretty sure it was just a sound to her!) Then Grandma and Aunt Lori were here most of the day on Saturday to go shopping and, let's admit, really just to see Claire in her costume and be a part of the fun! :) Mami made the costume Thursday night...nothing like the last minute, which is when I'm the most motivated! I used things we already had around the house because I don't want to get into the habit of fancy, expensive costumes. All it took was an old yellow tank top of mine, some scraps of black fabric from hemmed pants that were too long (good thing I'm short!), two hangers with paint tape and black nylons, and LOTS of safety pins. Oh ya, and also two super cute pigtails sticking straight up for antennae. During trick or treating, we just stayed on our one block. We were fortunate to have such nice weather and not even need jackets! Claire stuck her hand into the candy bowls to pick what she wanted. I tried to influence her to get Snickers and Reese's first, but we ended up with a variety. She also liked watching the kids come to our house and get candy. The best part of the evening though, if you asked Claire, would probably be either A. the animal crackers that Grandma put into a little Halloween container, or B. sorting her candy after the fun. She took it out of her bucket and thought about where to put it down, then eventually put the pieces back in. Slowly, her candy has been disappearing, though she hasn't been allowed any. Maybe she's sneaking it when we're not looking. Or maybe Daddy has something to do with it. I don't know. :)

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.