Thanksgiving

Recap:

Awoke at 2am to an aroma of roast turkey (Justin put it in last night at 10:30pm for slow roasting).

Watched Poky Little Puppy's First Christmas for the third (forth?) time with Uli.

Ilse rolled-over for the first time!

Icing on the Cake coffee. Mmmmm.

Cooked. Ate. Cleaned. Ate some more.

No naps.

Pizza for dinner.

Bedtime at 6pm (thank you, no naps!).

Disagreement over which Star Wars is movie "number one" (I say A New Hope from 1977, Justin insists its Phantom Menace, '99). Consensus not reached.

Hope your Thanksgiving was as good! Happy Holiday!

Three

My first baby is three. Wow.

And she's a lovely three. Smart. Funny. Beautiful.

But very, very three, if you know what I mean.

She's inquisitive, playful, and continually testing boundaries.

She has a growing vocabulary that includes phrases such as "You're being ridiculous, Mama!" (which she uses when I am insane enough to ask her to stop jumping on/off the furniture or to change out of her pjs) and "I just don't like to think about it" (which is usually preceded by my question, "Do you know you're being very rude?").

She loves her little sister and when we play house Ilse Louise (or "Ilse-Sueeze" per Uli's pronounciation) is her baby. However, Uli doesn't like it when Ilse looks at her toys and moves them out of her line of sight if she feels Ilse is paying too much attention to any one baby/fluffy animal/set of blocks (I try reminding her that rather soon Ilse will be mobile and able to do a bit more than just look...).

Sharing continues to be a difficult concept for her (I now completely understand why parents would have a big, fancy away-from-home birthday party for their three year old---neutral toys. I would do anything to avoid a repeat birthday tantrum with screams of "Those kids are playing with my toys! No, no no! I want them to go home!" Soooo embarrassing...)

I'm still not certain about television for a child her age, but she watches a PBS show here or there when a day is going well. Curious George, Super Why!, Sid the Science Kid, and library videos of Ni Hao Kai-Lan. And she's been introduced to the spooky world of Scooby Doo (the age-appropriateness of which may or may not be hotly contested in our home, but a show which I admit she does seem to enjoy). She also loves "the zoo show," especially on nights when we all pile into mommy and daddy's bed and enjoy a movie and popcorn before it's time to sleep.

She's beautiful, my girl. And is definitely now a young child rather than a toddler.

Happy three, Uli! We love you!

Wordless Wednesday: Sisters

If it were up to them it'd be all jammies all the time.

Uli Plays House

Smiling for the camera, October 2011

I'm in the hallway. 

Knock, knock.

Uli opens my bedroom door.

Uli:     Hello! Come into my house.

Me:     Why thank you for inviting me in. What a lovely house you have!

Uli:     Yes, and see this baby here? (Gestures to Ilse propped up on the bed.) This is my baby who just came from my uterus.

Me:     Well, my goodness! She seems very large and healthy. You must take good care of her. What's her name?

Uli:     Ilse-Sueeze. She's a girl baby.

Me:     So nice to meet her.

Uli:     Over here is my kitchen (motions toward the dresser), here is the basement (points to the closet) and this is the dining room (rocking chair). And now we should have breakfast. Would you like pancakes and eggs and cheese? Hands over a cup of barbeque-flavored sunflower seeds.

Me:   Mmmmm. Oh yes, delicious.

Uli:     And now it's time for bed. Quick, get into bed! Runs and jumps onto the bed, jogging Ilse who starts, stares and then smiles at her big sister. Uli throws the blankets over both of them.

Me:     Gets into bed. Snore. Snore.

Twenty second pause

Uli:     Okay, now wake up! It's morning. What a lovely day. Okay, now go out of the room, into the hallway and then knock to come in!

....and....

Repeat. Like, ten thousand times.

Elusive Baby Smile

She gives them so freely in person, but they're hard to catch on camera.

Love!

What's the opposite of an ovo-vegetarian?

Because What do _______ eat? is one of her new favorite topics of conversation.



Uli:   Mama, what do lizards eat?

Me [not really current on lizard cuisine]:   Umm... Bugs. And plants. Well, maybe not plants... Eggs?

Uli:   [horrified] No, not eggs! Eggs are where baby birds grow! They grow up inside and pop out of the shell. Lizards aren't allowed to eat those babies' eggs, no!

Me:   Some lizards maybe do eat eggs I think. And meat.

Uli:   Maybe meat, yes. But not the baby bird eggs. It's not okay to eat eggs.

Me:   Some animals have to eat eggs and meat.

Uli:   Not me. And not lizards, not any more.

She's on a crusade.

A Walk

We went on a walk tonight (our usual evening pastime) and we all wore hats and gloves, it was so cold. And even with her hat on my poor baby's ears were still chilly when we got home. Brrrrrrr. 

I'm already mourning the warm so I'm going to dwell on the loss share a lovely memory from this summer/early-fall. My sister sent us a Little sized doll wrap for my daughter, and Uli loves carrying her babies on walks just as I carry Ilse. Isn't she adorable? 

The Good Old Days, when one didn't need a parka to be outdoors...
[aprox 30 days ago]

Sure is hard to believe that I used to carry her everywhere. It wasn't even that long ago...

Summer 2009

Never really got the hang of the back carry...
But this one time, it worked!

Rain, schmain! (Hi Liz! Thanks for Uli's doll wrap!)

Memories. And a lifetime more to make! How many miles will we walk? I wonder. :-)

Babywearing

http://babywearinginternational.org

It's international babywearing week, and I'd meant to make a whole big deal about it and try new wraps and talk about the types of carriers I have and post lots of pictures. But I didn't get around to any of that.  


Instead, I've been hanging out with my family and being back at work part time and going on evening walks in the last of the beautiful weather. But I've been wearing Ilse every day through all of that, so I think I can still say I celebrated the week properly even if I didn't blog about it.

Happy babywearing to all!