21 months old and still kicking'!
We celebrated by spending the day in the town of Frankenmuth- aka. Little Bavaria. What a riot!
First off let's recap my favorite things about Sophia this last month:
1- Words, words, words!!! Once again, she's my little parrot. Talking so much and learning more and more every day. She has started forming sentences (albeit small ones) as well. Some of her newly acquired words. Home, grape (in Chinese), rice, awesome, bowl, where? (she also put her hands up for emphasis when saying this), all aboard (she likes trains a lot!), we did it (thanks Dora), Oh no!, stand up!, eat it, hahaha (like not laughing, actually saying ha-ha-ha, it's kind of hilarious), helmet, happy, funny (loves this word), clap, stomp, toast, butter (loves this food!), bubbles (see previous post), bush, pop, color, clean up, read it, piggy, whale, I'm coming!!!
Man, that's a lot, right?
2- Twirling: I don't know where she picked this up, but it makes me so happy. When she's out playing in the grass, or dancing, she loves to twirl. It's so cute.
3- Dairy!!!! If you've been following along, Sophia's had some major food allergies. One of her biggest was dairy. We've been doing accupressure treatments to help her and she is now able to eat dairy! We gave her some mac n cheese and she loved it! It's so wonderful to not have to stress about that anymore, and to see her have to go through awful allergic reactions. I can't even begin to express how happy this makes me.
4- Forward looking. No, not in terms of her being progressive, but her carseat is now forward facing. Kind of exciting, mostly much easier to get to her and hand her stuff. And I love being able to see her in the rearview mirror.
5- Sing, sing, sing. She still loves songs and music, but is getting all the songs with hand motions now. She LOVES "Popcorn Popping" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and always sings "If You're Happy and You Know It" in the bathtub. She always claps and says "Yay!" at the end of a song (including when we're in Church- haha)
6- Potty?! I was not intending to potty train her early, or anything. But she kept telling us when she was wet, and when she had to go poo. So I thought, why not run with it? So I got her a little kid potty and she loves it! (It's a frog, and she likes to sit on it and say ribbit). I just basically let her sit on it when she wants to now, just to get her used to it, but she actually went pee in it the other day?! It was crazy. I don't know if she really realized that she did or cared, but it was kind of awesome. I would love to be done with diapers. We'll see...
7- Counting: she is starting to learn her numbers and can count to 5, sometimes to 10 (not always in the right order- haha) She's so cute about it though. I love hearing her count random things (like shelves, stairs, books)
8- Tippy toes: I don't know if it's just because she's short and wants to see higher, but she walks on her tippy toes a lot! It's adorable. Maybe she'll be a little ballerina :)
9- Saying prayers: one of my absolute favorite things. We say prayers together every night, and she'll repeat what we say, and does a really good job of it! She gives a very emphatic amen, and always follows that up with a kiss (also a family tradition for Rick and I ;)
10- Tantrums: okay, they're not my favorite, but she's gotten really good at them sometimes! Just to let you know she's not always perfect- haha
Here are some cute pictures of Sophia and Rick- she loves her Daddy!
So, as I said, we went to Frankenmuth. It's a little town that was settled by Germans back in the 1800s. It claimed itself "Little Bavaria" and totally lives up to it. Also, since my Dad is German, I got an extra hoot out of it. It's cute, quirky, and a ton of fun!
We had lunch at the famous Bavarian Inn
Where the waiters dress like this...
...and this (live accordion, anyone?)...
...and this! It was awesome. And we got some good traditional German food. I got rouladen, a very delicious German meal we always make for Christmas. It was like having Christmas in September! (although my mom's is always the best :)
Cutest little town. It was kind of like being in a Disney movie (i.e.. Beauty and the Beast, or Sleeping Beauty - you get the idea)
And the stores/ their names killed me!
Who can resist the "Kandy Haus"???
So much fudge...
mmmm....
And what's a German town with out a tribute to large portions of German-water? (aka. beer?)
Das es good? Ya?
I loved this fountain- kids playing around a May-pole.
Das Flag
The biggest Cuckoo Clock ever?! It told the entire story of the Pied Piper. Here he is leading away the children. So cool.
My little Bavarian Maiden.
haha- she looks like she's in the stocks or something.
Cute little Heir and Frau.
The town
The Cheese Haus!!!
Once again, how could I resist??
I love cuckoo clocks (it must be the German in me) and here was a whole store of them!
So cool.
Now the other random part of Frankenmuth- the world's largest Christmas store?!
And when they say that, they're not joking. Imagine a whole Costco packed with every type of Christmas decorations ever, and then multiply that by 3. Crazy!
Very large Santa's.
They had every type of ornament you could ever imagine.
Literally a whole section of Flamingo ornaments.
We bought one with a picture of Michigan on it.
They are open year around, and are always playing Christmas music.
I think the people who work here must really like Christmas, or absolutely hate it by now!
Another fun month gone by, and another fun trip!
