Rain – lightning = puddle fun!
7/08/10
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Trip to Minnesota
Over the July 4th holiday, we flew to Minneapolis to visit Nathan’s sister Rachel and her husband Geoff. Mom and Dad Polderman were visiting them, too, which was a great bonus!
Being the Florida-raised girl that I am, I was certain that the ‘heat and humidity’ that they told us they were experiencing was certainly not really hot or humid, so I packed jeans for the girls and me. Let’s just say that our first full day there we sought out the local splash park.
Elisabeth was enamored…and Clara was enthralled. You may be able to tell from her picture below that her Mama was not all wrong about summer in the North being different from summer in the South – the water is a whole lot colder!
7/05/10
Aunt Rachel and Elisabeth -
7/05/10
The second day we were there we went to the zoo. There was a beautiful old carousel that was the highlight of the park for Clara. She was in tears when it closed for the day!
Elisabeth hanging out with me while everyone else rode the carousel. (The pictures of Clara are blurry!)
7/06/10
First Taste
6/30/10
Rice cereal didn’t impress her. After several attempts, we aborted the solid foods for a few weeks. We were out-of-town, and packing baby-feeding-wind-shield-wipers didn’t seem worthwhile. Even now (at 10 months), this Elisabeth of mine is a nursling. She nursed well from her first moments and seems to consider it her own area of specialty!
Surprise!
On June 26, my 30th birthday, Nathan and my sweet friend Kacey executed a surprise birthday lunch – complete with childcare, Chocolate Italian Cream Cake, and an impromptu visit by my parents!
It was a special day and I am so thankful for the blessings of family and friendship that He has given me!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Haircut
After – with her lollipop!
The women at Little Lords ‘n’ Ladies do a fantastic job and Clara loves it!
Sisters before a storm
The light was so pretty before it started to storm. I had Clara run out to the back yard quickly so we could get a picture.
Penguins
The first time Clara told me what she was drawing she was about 17 months. She scribbled some black crayon on a piece of paper, pointed at it, and said, ‘penguin.’
Penguins are still a popular subject in her artwork. Here she is displaying a penguin that she drew on her doodle pad. They are most often the result of drawing a ‘V’, then turning it into an ‘upside-down A’, and then finally adding eyes, flippers and, in this case, either grass or toes…I’m not sure which.
Let me know if you are interested in purchasing a piece of her ‘Polderman Penguin’ collection. She is prolific, so we can fill orders quickly.
Blueberries for Clara
One of our favorite books is Blueberries for Sal, the story of a little girl who goes blueberry picking with her mother. A bear cub and his mother are also on Blueberry Hill, eating berries to grow big and fat for the winter. Both little ones wander off and end up following behind the wrong mothers, but Sal’s mother finds her after hearing the ‘kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk’ of the blueberries dropping in Sal’s small tin pail.
Because this is such a favorite story and because Clara loves blueberries and says “Clara eats blueberries like Little Sal,” when I give them to her, we made plans to pick blueberries when I found a farm north of us. We went with Clara’s best little friend and her mom and 4 month old baby brother. It was a little bit like a (very hot and humid) circus, but Clara’s excitement was definitely worth it. She mentions the blueberry patch almost every day!
I have never been so glad for air conditioning as when we got home. I gave both littles a bath and then we enjoyed powdery-fresh skin and cool clean sheets playing on mommy’s bed.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Sisters
This just about perfectly captures the sentiments of my girls toward each other. Elisabeth loves Clara and thinks she is just about as fantastic as Mommy. The feeling is not mutual, yet, but Clara is generally a sweet, if indifferent, big sister.
To Orlando we go
From 5/24 to 6/9 the girls and I were in Florida. The major occasion was the wedding of my dear friend Andrea from college over Memorial Day weekend, but Nathan had two conferences, one on either end of the wedding, so I flew out early and returned late, enjoying a nice long stay at my parents’ home.
The Lord was gracious to provide safety during our travels and although I do not relish the idea of flying alone with the girls any time soon, I was grateful for His provision of kind airline employees and surrounding passengers.
Just a quick recap of our flying experience for posterity’s sake: When departing Houston, Nathan was also flying out to a conference and so was able to help me through security, but didn’t have time to help at the gate. I checked all our luggage but the diaper bag and stroller. However, the stroller needed to be disassembled in order to be placed in its carrying case to be checked at the gate. After flying so much with our single stroller and seeing the abuse it sustained, there was no way I was going to not put our stroller in the carrying case. Unfortunately Clara decided that she wanted to walk, not sit, and had a classic terrible two’s episode in the gate area. Elisabeth was hungry and screaming, but wouldn’t nurse because she had a tummy bubble so I one child flailing and screaming on the floor and another doing the exact same thing under a nursing cover. I didn’t want to even get on the flight at that point, and I was pretty sure no one else did either! Fortunately reason, or some semblance thereof, returned to Clara and a gate agent bounced Elisabeth while I stuffed our stroller and its parts into the bag. Once we got on the plane, all was well and everyone was happy. I thought to myself, “If only I have help in the gate area, I really think I will be okay flying with these two.”
So, on the way back, Nathan arranged to have my mom help me through security and in the gate area until we boarded. Everything went very smoothly, until we were about 30 min into the flight. Clara started fussing as though she wasn’t feeling well. I wasn’t entirely surprised because she had slept about 14 hours the night before and had woken up with a 102 fever. When I talked to Nathan before we flew out, we decided that I would go ahead and fly home so that if she was catching something, she would be home. Her whining escalated and she coughed, gagged, and vomited a little bit, which scared her. She was beside herself and I couldn’t really care for her and hold Elisabeth. A sweet woman behind me, who was flying with her two teenage daughters, held Elisabeth until Clara fell asleep on my lap. Unfortunately Elisabeth was then hungry, but I couldn’t nurse her without disturbing Clara, so the man next to me held her for a while until Clara roused and sat up. As soon as we landed I called Nathan and begged him to hurry so that he could meet us at the gate. I don’t think I have ever had such an exhausting flight in my life, or felt so helpless!
So that was the traveling part of the trip, here is the fun part!
Elisabeth’s first sink bath
Fun at Nana’s house
The view from the banquet room
In curlers waiting for her hair to be done
My girl, the flower girl
Grammy and Bitty
Clara did a perfect job at the rehearsal, walking up the aisle, inspecting the asparagus ferns tied to the pew, and looking intently at the photographer who was crouching in the pews, taking pictures. The day of the wedding, however, she was feeling the lack of a regular schedule, the waiting was wearing on her, and her little heart was just pretty contrary. Consequently, when she saw me lined up to walk the aisle with the bridesmaids, she wanted to go with me. The wedding coordinator was not about to argue with a two-year-old and so we just went together, me and my big girl. Incidentally, Clara now thinks that she is a flower girl, as though she has been initiated and the title flower girl defines her role and being.
At the Toelcke house, enjoying family time in the pool
Clara in her ‘princess skirt’
A not-so-successful attempt at a picture of the girls together
6/3/10 Clara’s feet felt cold and I asked her if she would like a pair of socks. She wanted some, but then I realized I hadn’t packed any, since it was Florida and summer sandal weather. She still wanted them, so my mom put a pair of her socks on Clara, who wore them the rest of the evening.
Eating Chicago-style hotdogs at Hotdog Heaven with Grampy
Nana and her great-grandbabies
I was also able to see my roommate from college, Kelly, and her little girl, Elizabeth, who will be two in late June.
Dinner at Logan’s Roadhouse with Grampy and Grammy
What a great trip! We loved being with you Grampy and Grammy and seeing Nana and Papa and good friends! We miss you!
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