When I was going through files to get the pictures of Blue Pony I found a bunch of pictures from a finger painting adventure earlier this month. Here are the pictures:
Clean up time!
New Blue Pony January 28, 2010
Today I had a lunch meeting downtown. Since it is Thursday I had Lizzie with me. She was very good through the meeting so I decided we should go to the super toy store on capital square. They have a lot of unusal toys. Almost everything has samples out for the kids to play with and Lizzie loved it. There was a rubber horse there that you can sit on and bounce around the house. Liz kept going back to it. She rode it all over the store. So, I gave in and bought her one. She then spent most of the afternoon riding it around the house. I would like to introduce you to this new friend, now named Blue Pony.
Today it is Little Cat December 29, 2009
Last week I wrote a post about Lizzie referring to herself as Little Frog. This lasted for a few days. Today she switched to Little Cat. This involves a lot of meowing. She also told me that, “Little Cat likes sweet peppers.” As she was requesting pieces from the cutting board while I made dinner. I assume this was her translation of the extend bit of meowing just before the request.
Christmas Pictures December 27, 2009
It’s been a great and relaxing weekend! We hope you had a wonderful Christmas too. Bill got the video up earlier this evening. Here are the pictures:
The living room all set and ready for Lizzie to wake up!
Santa brought Lizzie a trike and art easel. She just stood there for a bit staring at everything before she put everything together. (She was a bit sleepy.)
Petey got a toy with catnip and feathers!! We could not manage a picture without a blur...
Lizzie ignored the trike at first, but started drawing on the chalkboard right away.
Lizzie took a break from unwrapping presents to wrap herself.
Lizzie received the full Little People manger scene from Nana, Papa, and Granddad. She then spent majority of the day playing with it, especially the sheep.
Lizzie had to try on her new swimsuit! She also wanted to go swimming, but we drew the line there.
By Saturday, Lizzie fully warmed up to the trike, and started giving her animals rides.
Bear can come along too!
Bill is enjoying his toys too. Lizzie thought Gracie would like the new Wii games!
We hope you all have a happy New Year too!
Christmas Morning in 3 Minutes December 27, 2009
Just for fun, I decided to take some timelapse video of us opening our Christmas presents. I think it came out pretty well:
The action’s a little hard to follow at this speed, so here’s a cheat sheet. (The timestamps are visible in the almost-readable text in the lower-left corner of the video.)
- 9:39:08: The sorting begins
- 9:45:24: Lizzie picks out her first present to open
- 9:46:15: A recycling truck (Lizzie’s favorite vehicle) is revealed
- 9:48:26: Asked what she wants to open second, Lizzie hands the recycling truck (still in its box) to Mommy
- 9:50:07: The stuffed tiger is cute, but there’s a truck to be played with here
- 9:52:32: Petey starts playing with an empty box
- 9:53:43: Ooh, Grandma knitted Lizzie a sweater!
- 9:54:38: Back to the truck
- 9:58:30: Opening up the Little People nativity set (box 1 of 3). Daddy decides not to get most of it out at this time
- 9:58:45: Kathleen begins opening what she thinks is a teakettle
- 9:59:15: With a little prompting, she actually opens the box to find…
- 10:00:15: Pajamas? Bill had better go get that teakettle she’s been wanting for so long…
- 10:05:42: It’s Lizzie’s turn again, but she’d rather just play with that truck
- 10:12:45: Lizzie got some cute new sheep slippers, but they don’t fit over her sleeper feet
- 10:16:11: Mommy got a new scarf and hat, which Lizzie will now model
- 10:18:42: Petey hops up on the couch to inspect Kathleen’s presents. Disappointingly, none show any sign of containing catnip
- 10:20:38: Lizzie decides it’s time to try out the push trike that’s been sitting in plain sight since she got up. Daddy and Mommy both get turns pushing her around
- 10:24:29: Lizzie remembers there are presents to open. This one is a sea otter puppet!
- 10:27:40: Kathleen got a nice soft blanket, and demonstrates it to Lizzie with a quick round of peekaboo
- 10:28:30: Lizzie spends the next minute exploring the entertainment possibilities offered by the tissue paper the blanket was packed in, while Kathleen opens a present for her
- 10:29:56: Having seen the present, it’s back to the tissue paper
- 10:31:46: Lizzie briefly quits the room to retrieve Bear, so that he can join in the tissue paper play
- 10:32:57: Lizzie discovers that a book has been unwrapped on her behalf, and gets Daddy to read it to her
- 10:36:48: Daddy’s reading now complete, Lizzie brings the book to Mommy for an encore presentation
- 10:38:49: Nativity set, box 2 of 3
- 10:50:18: A new box of Legos is opened and immediately emptied on the floor
- 10:53:49: Bill gets a new hat
- 10:55:05: Having opened his last present, Bill starts playing with Lizzie’s Legos
- 11:01:37: Nativity set, box 3 of 3. There are now something like 40 pieces to be kept track of
- 11:02:43: Kathleen’s pretty sure there’s one more present under this pile somewhere…
- 11:05:04: The opening of gifts is complete. Lizzie joins in on the Legos.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Lizzie the sea lion or is it little frog? December 24, 2009
Lizzie has had a bad cold this week. Her temperature was up all day Monday and Tuesday, but the fever broke yesterday and she is feeling much better. She still has the nasty cough that started on Sunday, but we are hopeful that it will clear up soon and we will avoid croup. She does her best to keep the cold entertaining though. After about half of her coughing fits she’ll turn to me with a smile and say, “Lizzie is a sea lion.”
However, she is confused about her sea lion status. Because last night at bathtime she decided she was actually a little frog. This was cute and I played along while she was in the tub, washing Little Frog’s feet and hands and hair. Lizzie continued to refer to herself as “Little Frog” all the way to bedtime. We brushed Little Frog’s teeth, and read Little Frog stories. Little Frog even put on monkey pajamas and made monkey noises. I asked if she was a monkey and was informed, “Little Frog is being a monkey.”
This morning I went in to get Lizzie thinking she would be back to being Lizzie and Little Frog would be long forgotten. No, I was immediately told, “Little Frog all done sleeping. Little Frog awake!” This continues, Little Frog turned down my offer of flies for breakfast and is currently enjoying her cereal.
Swimming December 15, 2009
Today was Lizzie’s last swim lesson of this session. She started in September and it is amazing how far she has come! Swimming is one of her favorite things to do and she likes to practice at home with or without water. I finally remembered to bring the camera today, so I am posting pictures. Lizzie and her friends Anika C. and Anika Z. are going to continue together in the next session starting Jan. 5th. Their current teacher, Caitlin, is also the manager at the pool and she switched herself around so that she can keep teaching them. They are a great little group and always have a lot of fun. The three girls are within 6 weeks of each other, and all the first born. I really like getting the half hour every week to talk to the other two moms about the weird things we are encountering as our girls enter toddlerhood.
Here are the pictures. (There was a fourth girl who joined our lesson today as a make up lesson, so you’ll see her in some of the pictures.)
Our little fish settling in for her lesson.
The pool is built for lessons, there are little bays with shallow steps for the kids to sit on while they wait for their turns. Each bay holds a different class.
Lizzie, Annika Z., and Annika C. listen to their teacher, Caitlin
Lizzie prepares for a jump
We find that the girls are often most entertaining when they are on the steps waiting for their next turn to go out with Caitlin and work on a skill. Here, Lizzie is absorbed by something interesting on Annika Z.'s foot...
Lizzie is getting very good at her backfloat. She's been practicing in the bathtub at home 
Lizzie's backfloat is getting so good that Caitlin even let go of her completely for a little bit today. Lizzie was able to float on her own! (Though this picture is from just after that moment.)
At the end of the lesson they always do something fun, usually riding around on this giant red foam turtle, which the girls love.
Turtle time is also a good chance to work on their kicking, which the girls get into...
There is no question--Lizzie loves her swimming lessons!
Storytime December 13, 2009
Tonight was my turn to enjoy bedtime storytime with Lizzie. I read her a few stories and then she decided it was her turn. She read me Each Peach, Pear, Plum. Often, when Lizzie decides to read us a story it sticks pretty close to the actual words, since she has several books mostly memorized. Each Peach, Pear, Plum has very detailed illustrations, and instead of telling me the story, she made her own story using the illustrations. It was an excellent story about the Mommy and baby birds flying in the sky: she even took a moment to count the birds, so that the story could be adjusted to “One Mommy bird and three baby birds.” There was also a running story line about the baby that wanted it’s “nuky” (aka pacifier) and the frog that found it and wanted to give the nuky back to the baby. Plus, our little swimmer had to point out that the frog went swimming, the ducks were swimming, and the horse was going down the hill to the water to swim. All in all, it was a very interesting new interpretation on a book I thought I had memorized!
The other fun note at bedtime tonight was when Lizzie decided that the peguin on her pajamas at her right knee was sad. This meant that the peguin needed a hug and a kiss, which it was given.
Snowstorm! December 10, 2009
We got hit with a blizzard on Tuesday night. Well over a foot of snow fell on us, it is hard to tell how much because the wind made sure we got lots of drifts! Lizzie and I were home as church and daycare closed. Bill was trapped with us until after lunch because it took awhile for the snowplow to get to us. Today Madison is back to normal, though moving slowly over the slippery streets.
Lizzie was not as pleased with the snow day as you might think. She just moved up to the Duck room at daycare last Friday. This is the room for two and three-year-olds and Lizzie loves being with the bigger kids. They have a fairly structured day with storytime and music time and art projects. They also work on learning the alphabet, counting, shapes, and other good preschool lessons. The big focus right now is measuring. Lizzie has a jump on this because of her love for baking. Lizzie had a great day on Monday, and happily showed me all over her new room when I came to pick her up. Tuesday and Wednesday she woke up wanting to go to daycare. Today she spent the morning insisting it was “Daycare Day, no Mommy and ‘Izzie day.” However, she seems to have settled into the reality that she has to wait for tomorrow.
Here are the pictures of the snowstorm and our inside playtime.
The view from our front windows on Wednesday morning. We can usually walk underneath the branches of the tree without ducking.
Lizzie insisted on helping with the shoveling.
Bill took care of most of the driveway with the snowblower, but Lizzie and I had to dig out the front door.
Lizzie liked playing hide and seek behind the snow piles.
Lizzie at the end of the driveway after we had it mostly cleared.
Lizzie took good care of Bill while he was working from home. He was served tea and cookies.
watching the snowplow clear our cul-de-sac
Lizzie rolling out cookies for the tea party with Gracie and Bear.
Today it is bright and sunny. Though we aren't going to go above freezing anytime soon, so the snow will be here for awhile (like the next four months!).
Hugs & Kisses December 7, 2009
In the last few weeks, Lizzie has picked up an important fact: a hug or a kiss can make practically anything better.
This has come out in a few fun ways:
Every now and then, Lizzie will throw a small tantrum over something. It doesn’t do her much good – Kathleen and I have gotten pretty good at ignoring these, or taking them as a sign that it’s time to start the bedtime process. So after a minute or two of crying or pouting, she’ll decide that it’s not going to work, calm down a bit, put her arms up, and say “need hug”. Well, that works – who could resist it? – and after a few seconds’ worth of hug she’s quite calm, and says “Lizzie better!”
Of course, she’s also learned that a kiss makes any owie feel better. Lizzie still runs into things or falls down a fair amount, and every “bonk” naturally requires that the affected area be kissed immediately. Occasionally, she’ll even intentionally (but lightly) slap her hand against something and say “Hand hurt. Hand need kiss.” to whichever parent is looking most pliable at the moment.
The healing powers of hugs and kisses aren’t limited to Lizzie, of course. Now and then (particularly after Lizzie has bonked into something) one of her animals (usually Bear, shown above in his “hugs and kisses” t-shirt) will re-enact an earlier episode – Bear’s paw gets struck against the table, followed by the declaration “Bear hurt hand!” and a kiss to the injured limb. Or I’ll suddenly be notified, “Bear crying. Bear need hug.” and have to drop everything in order to comfort Bear for a few seconds until I’m notified “Bear all better.” (This also happens when we’re reading The Velveteen Rabbit, when we reach the page where the Rabbit and all the toys have been taken outside. A large tear is visible on the Rabbit’s cheek, and when we reach this page Lizzie always points out “Bunny crying. Bunny sad! Bunny need hug.”)
If only all of the world’s ills could be solved so easily…
