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 // October // Liora // 23 Months

Liora turned 23 months yesterday. Terrible twos are early.

We have a smart little girl on our hands. Too smart. Smart as in she knows how to make her parents and brothers crazy. We'll just leave it at that.

She's interested in the potty, so I'm looking forward to having her trained at an earlier age than her brother was.

Liora can now open the doors and fridge. This month she started riding her little bike. She adores her dolls. They are her babies and she likes to change them, feed them, put them to bed, put a blanket on them, hug and kiss them and then start all over again.

She's grown and gained weight! Size 22/23 shoes, 83 cm and 12.2 kg with clothes on.

I started a photography class in September. I'm taking it with my SIL. I've already learned some great things. So here are some photos of the kids from yesterday, Liora's 23rd monthday.

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 // July

We are back from America. It was a full trip!

This month I am going to talk about my children's language skills.

Both of them had a "language explosion" this last month. I don't even know if that phrase is English or Dutch or one I made up.

Before we left Liora was chattering some and would often imitate sounds. During our time away, she started saying so many words!!! Every day we were laughing at what she'd say. I read an article on babycenter that said she should speak between 10 and 50 words. I decided to write down every word I heard her say. By the middle of the day we had 30 already.

For me it is strange, because Mateo was slower at talking.  We also noticed Liora started making 2 word sentences. Often along the lines of "Mama, look!"  She also is quite the little tattle tale *rolls eyes*.  Any time Mateo does something to her, she comes and says, "Mama, Teo mkqjkjqzerkjmqskerj."  The funniest so far, that I need to write in her book, but I'll write it here was a time we were driving. "Mama! Mama! Teo num-num." Normally I try to ignore her when I'm driving, but then I tried to think what Mateo would be eating, I hadn't given him any food. I turn and look and he was eating his boogies.

In general Mateo has been surprising me with how much he's been saying. It's probably  normal, but as I said, he has been a bit slower. Not that he couldn't perfectly communicate what he wanted, but he did it with few words. I am impressed with his word order in Dutch. It comes natural. Duh. But for me what is still hard to remember is normal to him.

People said that he'd start speaking English when we were in America. I was very doubtful. I told everyone he could understand. I left him with my parents and sister. Sometimes he'd be frustrated if they said they didn't understand him, so they just pretended they did.

After about a week if you told him something to say in English, he'd repeat it.  On July 3rd when mom got back with him she said he had been speaking tons to her!!! *happy dance* That last week he was speaking every day new words and phrases. Super cute, becuase he has a bit of an accent and his great Dutch word order he's using in English. It made me so happy that finally something clicked!  I asked him if he'd keep speaking it when we got back. He said he would and he has been the past 2 days. (As I'm typing, he said "Do this. Mommy. Do it NOW! I schiet (shoot) Daddy")

 

Next letter 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

13, 14, 15

Playing a little catch-up today...

http://missamericamisterbelgium.blogspot.be/2014/12/family-christmas.html (13 months). This was also the day I stopped nursing.

14 Months

14 Months

http://missamericamisterbelgium.blogspot.be/2015/02/valentines-2015.html
(From her 15th monthday)

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

Letters to our Children - March

Last Month's Letter

Link to the next in the circle.

March 12, 2015

Where did the month go? Last month I said I was sure Liora would be walking. Guess what, she's not. But now she takes about 5 steps, then starts laughing and plops down.

I thought my topic for this letter would be "The same, but different."

I think it's natural that when you have a 2nd child, you often play the compare & contrast game. I think having the 2nd is an eye-opener that not all children are the same as your 1st. The 2 kids have the same parents, live in the same environment, yet you can already see at their young ages differences.

The game started with the pregnancy. The first one I got pregnant the first month, so I expected that with the 2nd. It was the 2nd month. What was the same was that I never threw up, but had about a month of a continuous naseated feeling.

I gained twice as much the first time around and needed to visit the bathroom ALL THE TIME, but with the 2nd I kept waiting for that phase and it never came. Yay! I had a hard time sleeping with the first, but the 2nd time around, I slept great, however, everything seemed to take much more effort. Was it having a toddler running around zapping all the energy? Could be.

With Mateo I went to the hospital the day after my due date. With Liora I had to be induced at what the doctor figured was 9 days overdue. If it based on an online calculator, I was 42 weeks. That was a big lesson for me! I know this will sound silly, but I always thought when people went that far overdue, they had just miscalculated...now I know, babies come (or don't ?!) when they want.

My recovery was much better with my daughter, but the homelife adjustment was much harder. I actually still feel like I'm not totally adjusted. Hard to know which ones' needs are the more important ones at a given moment.

Both babies nursed like pros already in the hospital and I don't think every dropped beneath their birth weight, but Mateo started taking a bottle (pumped milk) at 6 weeks and Liora NEVER did. Both loved eating real food, but one ate earlier than another.

Liora slept through the night a few months earlier, but needed to drink much more in the day.

Some differences I attribute to the boy/girl discussion. Mateo crawled and walked earlier, but Liora seems to be speaking earlier and copying lots of sounds and actions earlier.

BOTH kids love attention and try to get it in their own ways and both are easier for other people than for mommy and behave nicely for others.

One area I am hoping for a difference is that Liora is potty trained earlier! She never had a pacifier like her brother, so dealing with her thumb sucking may be something we have to address in a few years.

Differences and similarities...always paying attention to them.

Liora 12 Months