Friends

Claire continues to amaze me at what all she understands and words she picks up on. This week, after coming home from Lisa's, I asked her "Was hast du heute gemacht? Was hast du mit deinen Freunden gemacht?" (What did you do today? What did you do with your friends?) To this she replied "Anna, Sage." Now it's clear she didn't know exactly what I was asking and that I was referring to her daycare friends (Sage is with her all day, but Anna goes to a different school.), but the fact of the matter is she knew I was asking about her friends and she knows that her friends are Anna and Sage. Then again, yesterday, I said something or other about her "Freunden" and she told me their names once more. Technically, Anna and Sage are her Freundinnen, but we'll let the gender changes slide at this age. :) She also still points to the doors where we displayed our friends' Christmas cards and looks for Anna, Sage, and others. Maybe we should have left them up for several months. :)

Leaps and Bounds

I've been meaning to post this for about 4 weeks. You can see how well I've followed through! ;) I have been so impressed by the language development of my 16/17 month old. I love this stage. Language is so interesting to me, and not just foreign language, but all of it!

"Bist du muede? Willst du ins Bett gehen?" (Are you tired? Do you want to go to bed?) I asked her. I got the MOST ardent head shake ever! I could hardly keep from laughing. It was so fun to have her answer my questions and to know she understood exactly what I was asking!

Fast forward 4 weeks...we've gone from fervent head shakes to this...

We can ask her ANY question, and the answer will almost certainly be "nein" or "nein, nein" if she really means it! Now, sometimes she knows exactly what we're asking. But other times, she clearly doesn't. I would say that she at least knows it's a question, but today she may have proved me wrong. I'm not sure. We were on a lengthy car ride home from Lisa's (daycare) which was taking longer than usual because of traffic. I knew she was getting impatient and told her "Du bist so ein braves Maedel Claire, weil du so geduldig bist." (You're being such a good girl Claire, because you're being so patient.) At this point, I'm just trying to talk to her to keep her mind off of us being in the car for too long. To this, she replies "nein, nein." So one of two options - 1. she understood I was calling her patient and replied that she's not really that patient, more like on edge, or 2. that she had no clue what I was saying. At first I was thinking 2. for sure, but then I thought of other times. If we're driving and I ask her if she wants to sing or if I start singing a song she doesn't want me to sing, she'll tell me "nein." Then, if I ignore her 'no' and keep singing, she'll adamantly say "Mama...Mama....Mama!" until I stop. So, she doesn't just tell me no when she is answering a question, but also when she does not like what I am doing. :)

A couple times a day, by the way, we do get a 'yes' (which is not a word she actually says yet, but just nods). We also get a lot of "peas" (combined with sign language) for please and just recently "bitte" for please. And even with all those no-s, I'm still having such a blast with my girl at this stage in her development! :) Matt and I are both so proud of her and pretty much think she's really smart (remember, we're her parents)! ;)

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!