Letters To Our Children // January // Liora + Sayings

Missy learned to climb out of her bed a few weeks ago. The 15th was the first time she started coming out at bedtime.  The next day she decided she wanted to sleep in the big bed in her room. This week she decided she wanted to sleep in Mateo's room. SO? What do you do, but go with the flow.

The 8th I had decided to move Liora into Mateo's room. Now he's sleeping in the big bed in her room, which actually was his bed before we moved and she is sleeping in 'his' room (I had planned to call it their room) in the toddler bed.

Since bedtime is a drama, naptime is also somewhat of a drama. Needless to say, we are down to 1 nap.


A day she snuck down out of bed

On the 8th I also started potty training. We went and bought Frozen panties. I tried the "be-with-them-all-day-don't-let-them-out-of-your-sight" method. Sort of worked, but not really. Like the 2 times I went out of the room, she peed on the floor.  I tried a few other days, but decided to postpone. No need to stress myself out, right?

Liora's life is her babies. It's really cute how she says what they are doing. Normally they do what she wants to do. Make sense.

I started a photography class last year, so my goal for this year was to post 1 photo from my camera per week. The last 2 years most photos have been on my phone.

I just read the post of Mateo's 27 months. It looks like they both cut their morning nap at the same time. It's hard to adjust right now, but I should be glad for how long she has 2 naps.

She does also the same thing as in identifying what is from whom.

Liora taught herself to put her jacket on how they learn it hear at school. Very convenient!

We have a little helper at the moment. Unloading the silverware, putting clothes in the hamper, sometimes cleaning up the toys, wiping up messes, putting things in the garbage.

Liora is also talking and talking. I need to start writing down more of what she says.

Kom een keer
Mika tuutje (because he was crying)
Mika spanking
Mika wakker
Lola wil niet slapen
Lekker, yummy
Alina (for Aline)
Lola chuch sing
Filmpje kijken
Protje gelaten
Hairs (for hair)
Toes, tummy, eyes, nose, ears
Boots (one of her favorite words)
Bang, scarwd
Noepie (snoepje)
Lola mee
Pwincess
Baby nigh night
Baby eten
All done
Op
Juice, milk, water
Noodles, friejtes, Donalds, chicken, boterham, tilla (tortilla), ketchup, raisins, bina (banana)

She's 2

Yesterday Liora turned 2. Our not-so-little baby girl. We celebrated a few weeks ago, but yesterday we still had to do something to make the day special, so we invited a few people over for the rest of her birthday cake.

Liora is a (put very by every adjective) independent, bossy, knows-what-she-wants, talkative little girl. I call her our diva.

To quote,

"There was a little girl
 Who had a little curl
 Right in the middle of her forehead.
And when she was good
She was very, very good
 But when she was bad She was horrid!"

She can make us laugh with her dramatic take on life. She gets very excited about babies and is always telling us what she sees.

At her recent visit to the doctor, we saw that she is now perfectly average for her height and weight. This makes mommy happy. She's gained some weight! 11.7 kg and 85 cm. She wears size 22 shoes and size 86/92 clothes.

Liora is still a good sleeper. Pretty soon we'll be down to one nap every day. Right now some days are 2 others, unfortunately, not.

Eating is hit and miss. It seems that she eats better with other people. She loves spaghetti. I noticed that she doesn't really like chicken or turkey and you can forget mushrooms.

Letters To Our Children // August // Liora // 21 Months

http://carriesaindon.blogspot.be/2015/08/back-to-school-2015-letter-to-my.html Link to the first letter in the small circle.

I remembered on Liora's 21 month day to take some photos. Just posting them 2 weeks later.

I checked what I wrote in June about her. She is the same height, but has gained a kilo! That's 2.2 lbs. I noticed that her face looks rounder and her tummy a bit bigger. It's nice to see her with some chub.

Her feet have also grown. I drove to a store to get her some shoes that were on sale. I checked online which store had size 20. I got there, asked the sales lady, she agreed it was a good size. The next day Liora refused to put them on, so I put them on and she screamed. I realized they must be too small. Took her back to the store and left with 22's!

A few weeks ago I took down the gate at the top of the stairs. The first time in probably 3.5 that we don't have a gate. Feels great!

Liora is starting to bike on our little plastic bike. She doesn't seem as sportive as Mateo, although she is a great climber. She goes UP the slide all alone.

This girl is TALKING! Today she said, "Mama, kijk, shoes." (Look at my shoes). She had drawn on them with a marker she found...she knows all the names of the cousins she sees the most. What else does she say? Seatbelt on, Shoes on, eat, drink, night night, bye bye, da-da, teeth (for wanting to brush her teeth), stom (stupid), horse, wa-wa (dog), fiets (bike), applesauce, cheese, apple, bana (banana), pee-pee, wet, hot, cold, open. Probably more, but these are what I can think of. These are the ones she says her self, but she copies the words and sounds that we make.

She's down to mostly 1 nap per day, but I'm hoping when school starts that we'll go back to 2 naps. I'll have to wake her up in order to get Mateo to school on time.

And now the photos of my 21 month DIVA.  Her skirt in the bottom photos I made from a woman's mini skirt I got from Freecycle :)

*edit* I thought I'd see if I posted about Mateo when he was 21 months, sure enough. Fun to compare.  Liora is talking WAY more. She also says kijk and more or nog. Funny thing is she also switches between languages for No. She'll first say it in one, then in the other. For emphasis? She also enjoys jumping on the trampoline, but isn't as brave. I feel like she's been climbing up the ladder more than a month, but then, now we own a swing set, so she has had more practice.  

http://carriesaindon.blogspot.be/2015/08/back-to-school-2015-letter-to-my.html

Link to the next blog in the circle.

Letters to our children - Liora

Click here for the next blog in the circle.

This month's letter is for Liora. I realized I hadn't updated her FB album since her first birthday! Oops. Yesterday Liora turned 17 months.

Loving her outfit and hair...

I think she is purposely deciding not to walk. It is NOT that she's not capable. She takes now about 8 steps then sits or lets herself fall. She sneaks up the stairs whenever possible and has now mastered climing on and off of the couch. Including climbing from it onto the end table and over onto the other couch. I also caught her one time ON the keyboard. Shhh, don't tell her daddy. That she managed to do by climbing on the amp, to the chair, and up again.

Right now she's in a stage where she is copying up a lot. We all find it pretty funny. Especially sounds. But also movements. If she sees me shaking my finger, she beings.

She is getting more apt with clothing.  She knows that shirts goes on her head and shoes on her feet. She tries in her way to dress herself. I think she's going to be pretty girly in this area. She already likes to have things on her feet. Socks, slippers, shoes. If it falls off, she brings it and sticks her foot out. She also will put things around her neck, like a shirt or blanket. Either it brings her comfort or she thinks it's a scarf or necklace.  She likes to play with hats, but not really leave them on. I guess that's normal.  I'm tickled anytime she leaves an elastic in her hair for more than a few minutes.

Most of the time I let her feed herself. Especially since I read it's good for them.  Mostly she does pretty well. Of course, she and the floor are a mess after, but I don't mind. It means I can enjoy my food and then help her when I'm finished.

The past few days Liora has enjoyed exploring the lawn. It is so cute to see! She goes in the playhouse, stands at the fence to watch neighbors' cats, she then goes to her little slide and then comes in and checks what I'm doing.

I'm afraid the time of two naps per day are nearly over...it was great while it lasted :)  But no complaints from me. She sleeps 12+ uninerrupted hours per night.

This is going to be an exciting month for Liora.  She gets to meet her great-grandma for the first time! And then she will go to daycare for two weeks. I'm sure she's going to love it.

Playing outside a few weeks ago

She can clearly communicate her wants...

Putting her shirt on

New tricks: unrolling the toilet paper, climing on the toilet

For some reason I like this one...

Little lovies



17 months! Taking a few steps

16 Months

15 month check up. Average weight, a bit on the tall side, making her slightly underweight.

Standing! And climbing stairs!

Drivings cars

Obsessed with the computer

Fun at the petting zoo

Fine dining while waiting at the doctor at 7:50 am

Baby gymnastics

She loves feeding herself

First time playing outside

Her First Birthday Party

I always say the first birthday party is for the parents and pictures...the baby has no idea what is going on for them!  Liora must have known what was happening, because she was taking her second nap already when the first guests arrived. She was a perfect little angel during her party and took a 3rd nap towards the end of the day.

The party was supposedly a Sofie the First party, but I think it ended up only being on the invitation. The rest was princessy. 

Even though hubby probably disagrees and thinks I made it more complicated than necessary, I tried to keep the day reaaaaallly simple.  However, I did want to make a birthday cake.  I had great plans and thought I was very prepared.  But, of course, there were complications and I felt that the whole morning was stressful trying to prepare.

It started off when I didn't have enough sugar last night. Thankfully my SIL lives in the same street. Yay. Cakes were baked. I started the icing and could not find any of my food colorings besides yellow. I needed to make purple! I borrowed that also, but couldn't get purple.  First thing this morning I drove to the store to get more food coloring.  My icing was a light gray and an ugly brownish purple. Mauve? After quickly googling, I found out that mixing red and blue does not necessarily create purple icing like one would thing. Yes, it makes gray...

At this point of the day I gave up. There was no time (or energy and ingredients) to start all over.  I iced with what I have and stopped to clean up.  I figure I may use my same ideas next year. If I don't show anyone what I was aiming to create (and they don't look at my Pinterest board), it is ok. I am pleased, however, to say that the cake and icing was yummy!

It was a nice afternoon. I'm glad for the ones who could make it.  I think everyone had a good time and that is what is important to me. 10 of the 12 played outside most of the afternoon.

Video of the pinata. I bought them in Spain. I'm not sure if that's how they do it there, but it was cheap fun. Another one.

Month Updates

Liora also started standing up in her bed last week. She actually seems like a different baby than when we left to Spain! Since she picked up the crawling thing there, the whole house is a new discovery. She takes things off the pantry shelves, goes through the doors, pulls stuff off the table and she even managed to climb onto the first stair.  We now have installed the gate upstairs by the stairs.  She also started pulling herself up. So she'll stand against the coffee table to take things off, or stand against the window to look outside.

Yesterday was her first day to have only 2 feedings. She drank 90 ml of hypoallergenic formula.

40 Weeks (+/- 9 Months) PLUS room update

With the move, I did not get around to doing my typical month update.  L is now 9 months.  Actually, today she is 9 months and 1 week, so we are nearly to the 'longer out, than in' day.  She is awake now with a fever, so it is a short update. Enjoy the photo of my little lovey. 

Liora 8 Months

I guess I forgot to post them last month...9 month post coming up tomorrow :P

 

7 Months

Hubby was away with the camera on Liora's 7th monthday, so I took the photos on my phone and since we were going on vacation the next day it slipped my mind to post them. Oops, next week she is 8 months already!