Summer vaction

June 13- this is one of E's favorite new activities, playing with water, she loves dumping it out, taking drinks, filling containers and shaking them until they are empty, and splashing.  She keeps trying to get cups of water full in the kitchen, but since she just dumps them out, we've started saying no.  Today we played with water outside for just a little bit, and you can see how wet she is.

Today was also E's first day home with her dad for the summer, they were busy bees, they ran errands, signed up for swimming lessons, and played on the swings. 

June 12- Shoes are one of E's favorite new discoveries, she knows which shoes are mine and which are her dads, she then carries the correct shoes to the correct person.  Sometimes she tries to put them on our feet, sometimes she tries to put them on her feet (like she is doing here).  Usually, once she brings us our shoes, she demands to go outside.

Today we walked to the park at the community center near our house for the first time.  E had a great time on the slides and bridges.  On the walk home, she picked many dandelions and tried to blow the fluff, she puts the fluff a little to close to her mouth, and we have to pick the seeds off her lips.  

June 11- I worked this morning, so E and her dad went to the grocery store.  Here is E helping to unpack the groceries.  According to her dad, she was quite helpful!  She passed him items, and he put them away.  Later in the afternoon, E and I went to play with two of her friends, L and T.  The three of them had a great time, L has some great toys, and the kids managed to share fairly well.  L also has a small step stool to look out the window which E loved.

June 10- The last day of school for dad!  He's been looking forward to this day for a long time!  After work, we both picked up E and spent most of the evening playing around home.  We played on the swings (of course), looked at the garden, and visited the neighbors houses (when we are out walking, E likes to climb everyone's steps).

Last week of school

Its been a busy week around here as we try and make it through the last week of school.  Dad is looking forward to summer vacation, and lots of time spent with E.

May 9- E got her favorite food for dinner tonight, macaroni and cheese, she absolutely loves it!  Grandma (or Amah as E calls her) introduced her to it, and now E eats macaroni every chance she gets.  Its a true testament to how much she likes it that she didn't even bother with the fork, she just used her hands.

May 8- This was one of E's most favorite things, she got to play in the sink with water! She crouched in the kitchen sink for nearly an hour and filled up two large cups.  She also used a plastic shot glass to dump water in her cups, and to take drinks.  She was pretty wet when she got out, but tonight (6/9) she kept asking to get back into the sink!

May 7- the shape sorter has been one of E's favorites for a long time, but she always used to put the shape in the top.  She is just now figuring out how to put the shape in the correct shape.  So far, she is best at the circle, but she is getting better at the star.

May 6- This was one busy day.  E and I visited my old co-workers at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, E had a great time exploring the library stacks. E also helped with her first piece of archives work, since we had to pick up a collection.  We then visited grandpa and my current co-workers, and E loves the archives work area, so much to get into!  E had lunch at dad's work and got to meet some of his students.  After all that, we went to E's 15 month check up.  She did great, and her doctor says she is right on track, or maybe a little ahead of it!  She weighed in at 18lbs 12oz (putting her back into the 2nd percentile) and was 29.5 inches tall (25th percentile), her head is 40 cm (50th percentile).  She got two shots and was very brave for both of them.

Weekend!

June 5- This has become a common sight at our house lately, we are either starting the terrible twos early, or have a girl who needs to learn a few more words.  I was originally trying to take a picture of E eating her pasta because she signed "please" mid-meal, and had little tomato handprints on her chest, but as you can see, the meal quickly took a turn for the worse.  E as "all done" and there was nothing we could do to convince her otherwise.

We beat the heat today by playing in a tub of water, E had a great time pouring water from one cup to another and splashing.  Somehow, momma got more water on her then E!

E did pick up a new word today, we were watching 30 Rock and they were talking about wool.  Her dad repeated it, and then E did.  As a knitter, I'm thrilled wih the new word.

June 4- Here is E and her uncle at the farmer's market and cows on the concourse.  She had a great time seeing the cows and was even brave enough to touch one.  The second after she did it, she jumped back.  She was even brave enough to scoot to the front row one time, but again, a cow moved, and she had enough.  After the cows E and I played the grass while everyone else shopped, it was her first visit to the capitol, and she certainly appreciated the the grounds.

Here, E is having a great time with her uncle, she's been a little slow to warm to him this visit, she usually runs away when she sees him, but after a few hours she's ready to play or be held. 

June 3- Today was one of the days that I hate, while I had fun visiting with friends, I didn't get to see E after work.  She and her dad had a wonderful time, and he taught her how to blow dandelion fluff.  According to him, she only got a little fluff in her mouth.  She managed to go to bed on her own, and even slept through the night!

June 2- We've been having problems lately with E and her bas.  When she was younger, she could have taken or left bottles, but in the past week she has wanted a ba constantly.  She sometimes plays with them, and sometimes she uses them for milk.  E also knows which kitchen cabinet holds the bas, and will patiently walk you into the kitchen to show you and ask one.  When you say no, she throws a huge tantrum.

June 1- sharing a graham cracker with her dad.  E loves to share her food, and couldn't wait to share this treat. E was a little thrown off today after having a long weekend at home with both her parents, but she was excited to go back to day care  Now that she's in the one year old room, the do lots of art projects and have gym class.

We had her dad's mock trial team over for a dinner, which E liked.  She enjoyed the attention of the big girls, but was frustrated that they all had cell phones and refused to share with her.  She and I spent a lot of time outside swinging to distract her.

May 31- E absolutely refused to eat dinner today which is why she is carrying her snack lid around. We let her have snacks in lieu of dinner, but that wasn't enough, she had to walk around with it.  Here, she is about to go up the stairs like a big girl. She is determined not to crawl up stairs any longer, which really worriers her dad and I .She does ok on this step since she can hold on to the wall, but the other stairs are much harder.

Ti-ti, Up, and No

May 30- We went to the Monona Memorial Day parade this year.  It was E's first Memorial Day parade.  She enjoyed most of it, there was music, a whole section of dogs, kids walking and throwing candy (although she didn't collect any), veterans, and old cars.  The only thing she didn't really like was when the fire trucks beeped their horns.  We spent the whole parade at the edge of the road, with E often actually sitting in the street.  It was the most dirty she's ever been.  After the parade we had lunch at Grandma and Grandpa M's house and then went home and played.

We also had a parenting milestone at bath time today, it was E's first "accident" in the tub, bath time was cut short for some cleaning!

E has known how to say "no" for a while now, but today she really had it working for her.  She vetoed several outfits and chanted "no" for most of the car ride to the parade.

May 29- E isn't trying to climb the coffee table, or practicing her high kicks.  We went to the zoo on the 28th, and she got a pack of zoo animal trading cards.  She learned that if you stepped on the card with bare feet, the card stuck and you could move it around the room.  So, here she is, getting a card to stick.  You can see it on her foot.  Since it rained all day today we took E mall walking to get some of the wild out.  She had a great time, and even got to play in the toy-ride ambulance.

E also learned to connect "up" to going up the stairs.  She climbed the stairs with me three times and said "up" each time she went up a step.

May 28- Our zoo is celebrating its 100th birthday this year, and Saturday was the kick off.  So we took E.  The zoo was absolutely packed, but we got to ride on the carousel, and get a piece of birthday cake.  E even ate her own mini-cupcake!  It was her first time actually eating a sweet.  We had some flashbacks to a trip to the zoo last summer, when she was about four months old.  For one, she was wearing the same outfit (a new sunhat though) and last summer's was the first time we took E to the zoo when she was awake.  E's favorite part of the zoo was the polar bear, it says "wooo woooo."

May 27- Here is E and her dad looking at momma's ti-ti (pretty) flowers.  E walked around the yard pointing out the ti-ti flowers for both her dad and I.  She doesn't have a real favorite, although the pink geranium is high on her list.  We are working on having gentle hands when we touch flowers.  That isn't coming along as well as ti-ti.  Now, we just need to teach her to say Titi the next time she sees her Titi Willy!

May 26- All packed up and ready to go to Grandma's house.  E was such a good helper getting all her things together, although she is carrying my lunch, not hers.  Duck Duck goes along each Thursday for company.  Today, Uncle Ted was around to play too, and they went to story time at the bookstore, and to play at the Ba.  E also went to the hardware store, but didn't want to go, she screamed the entire time.  I think she just likes to remind us she has opinions sometimes.

May 25- E's love of using a fork is clear here, as she tries to eat soup with a fork.  She and I shared dinner tonight, and she stirred my soup frequently, she also refused any bites with a spoon.  This was her second day in the one year old room at daycare and they certainly wear her out.  She was asleep at 7:30 tonight one of her earliest in a long time

May 24- E and Grandpa at the "ba." Ba is E's go to word it currently means button, ball, bottle, book, and playground.  The meanings are all very specific and she uses it correctly when she talks about those things.  As soon as he gets to Grandma and Grandpa's she starts asking to go to the ba.  Today was also a big day, it was E's first in the one year old classroom.  She's leaving her beloved Miss. Chris, so her dad and I are anxious to see how it goes.  To top that off, today Uncle Ted came to visit, E warmed up to him quickly and even let her uncle play ba with her.

May 23- We took E for new shoes today and learned that she knows how to make vroom vroom noises when she drives cars.  I was pretty excited with this new skill, I've been trying to teach her it for a while now.  She also got to play at the library where she colored a picture and tried to put together a puzzle. 

 May 22- This was another big day for E, she and I went to the Sassy Cow creamery open house with her friend A and her parents.  The girls had a wonderful, they got to see cows (according to E, cows say "wooo wooo"), play farmer, try ice cream (E refused), play in a field, and color pictures.  E loved the farmer play station and would have stayed there all afternoon, her favorite was pretending to milk a cow and collecting the "milk" in a plastic bottle.  I didn't have my camera at the creamery, but fortunately our friends took pictures. 

Second road trip

May 21- We visited Minnesota this weekend and got to visit with lots of friends and family.  We had breakfast with Uncle Nate, who got to see E eat with a fork for the first time.  We then got to go swimming with Titi Willy and her daughter who showed E how to splash and play in the pool.  In the evening we went to a reunion with some of my friends from college, their little girl had this bubble lawn mower which was a favorite will all the kids.  E made sure she got lots of turns.

May 20- This was the first day of our road trip to Minnesota, we left at night so that E would sleep in the car.  She woke up after two hours so we stopped at the Black River Falls Perkins where E played with the table display and had a little snack, we learned that she still doesn't like ice cream, and she also doesn't like pie.  After the stop she cried the entire rest of the way to Woodbury, MN.

May 19- E is eating orzo pasta, it is her new favorite food.  She insists on feeding herself which is a huge mess.  As she gets more and more independent about eating, she has to have more and more bowls.  I'm not sure why.  Although it has taught her to say bowl!

May 18- In the last week or two E has become determined to eat with a fork, not the plastic kid forks we got for her, but with a full size grown up fork.  She's pretty good at it,  but it is difficult to get the food all the way to her mouth on such a long fork.