Strawberries!

Last week we went strawberry picking, and it was glorious! Annabel stuffed her face, and Alexander ran up and down the rows searching for the biggest berries. Hooray! Summer is finally here!

Here is a picture from the Silverton Strawberry Festival, held the week before strawberries were ripe for U-pick. Our guests from the Netherlands--Bram, Mirjam, and Marius--joined us.

Mouthful of Words

Annabel is talking more and more each day. She's constantly trying to repeat what she hears us say, and the mangled versions she comes up with are quite something. Her latest favorites are:

Jo-Jo!
She says this with such gusto that if she has anything in her mouth at the time, it's bound to come shooting out. We were so delighted when she first said "Jo-Jo," that we all cheered and clapped and now when she says it, she'll often cheer or clap for herself.

She'll point out Jo in pictures then point to Eric and say, "Erk."

She doesn't say Kevin yet, but when I try to get her to, she'll often say, "Tchees," because she knows they go together.

She also likes to look at books with the Alphabet in big block letters. When she sees the letters, she starts swaying back and forth, singing, "Aeeee, Beees.....Aeeee, Beees." That's all she knows of the song. But she'll also start singing the alphabet song any time she sees big block letters, like on signs. Whenever we go grocery shopping at Roth's and she sees those big green letters, she starts swaying and singing.

A couple of days ago, we were all sitting around the table talking about oma and opa's boat trip to Poland. Alexander was remembering when he had been on their boat and saying that he'd like to do that again. All of a sudden, Annabel threw up her arms and said, "Oma!" then grinned at us, looking very pleased with herself.

She Loves to Swing

We knew this before. From her very first swing experience in Bend a few months ago, we've known that we have a swing-loving girl. What we didn't know until just yesterday, was that she can hold on and swing all by herself--with pushing help, of course.

And she LOVES to swing. Absolutely loves it. Michiel was out there with her for half an hour just swinging away. Every time we try to stop to go do something else, she signs for more and runs back to the swing.
It's amazing what our children can do. I had no idea she was ready to swing by herself. I wonder what tricks Alexander has up his sleeve...

Let Them Eat Watermelon

Is it summer already or what?

If it were, we'd be eating outside and running through the sprinkler afterwards, but alas, it's still too cold for that.

Give it another month and I'll be complaining about the heat.

Little Helper

Annabel's got three more teeth now and is working on another...that'll be 8 in all! She's growing up so fast.

Lately, I've been discovering so many things that she can do. Last night, she helped me pick up the toys in the living room. I gave her simple instructions like, "Can you pick up the ball and put it in the basket?" And she toddled about doing everything I asked her to do. She loves to help put things in baskets, boxes, drawers, and bags, but I haven't often enlisted her help to do actual clean-up. Now I see that she is so ready to help.

She's been helping me with the laundry. I hand her the washed clothes and she puts them in the dryer. She's working on helping to hang up the diaper covers, but they're a bit unruly for her, and she gets easily frustrated.

Another relatively new development is that she's learned the meaning of nodding and shaking her head. When I ask if she wants more yogurt, she nods with gusto. If she's standing up or walking when ask her if she's ready for bed, she practically falls over shaking her head so vigorously.

She learned to say "no" a while back, and since then we've been trying to focus on "yes." Just the other day, she said "yes" for the first time. It came out a little more like "yesh," but her meaning was clear. I think it involved a "do you want to nurse?" or "do you want to go outside?" question. Those are her two sure bets.