Words and Signs and Funnys

Yes, we admit it. We've been so self absorbed in our house situation we have been incomplete in reporting all the goodness around. A good lesson.

Upon reading past blogs to see what we have told you all out there in our cyber family, we realized that we did not tell you so MUCH!

A biggy! Celia's first word! It all started when we were both ill about a month ago when Celia was almost 9 months. We were in Blockbuster and a young teen couple were in the same isle. The girl was quite interested in Celia and Celia stared back at her. Now Celia's been waving for quite some time, but all of a sudden she waved and then said, "Eye." What did you say? Did she say, hi, I wondered? I was sure I was mistaken.

Next stop, groceries. Celia, normally shy and reserved, started the trip out with a band by telling everyone "Eye" with a wave in the store! It was sooo funny!! Now, she's so proficient she actually says "Hi" with the "H" sound, and sometimes adds, "Hi dada!" (Like she did in the middle of the night when Steve went in to comfort her and put her back down.) Here's my attempt at a video: They never perform on cue do they? :)



Also, I have been signing to Celia since she was very little. Just easy words. At 8 months she started to do the "milk" sign whenever she wanted to breastfeed! It was so exciting to us!! So we started adding more words. Still, she just signed "milk." Ah well, we figured. This week, all of a sudden, it's like a light went on for her. I tell her "I love you" all the time in sign language and the other morning in bed she clasped her hands in front of her heart and swayed back and forth like I do when I say it and gave a high pitch "ahhhh." Here's my attempt at a video which didn't really catch it. Oh, and no there was no attempt to make myself presentable at 7am in this video:




She also started doing the "more" sign while eating. It's more like clapping, but same thing, right!? AND awhile back I figured a sign for her to show me she was done eating and I've been doing it after each meal once she slows down, and just yesterday, there it was!! "All Done." (a swipe of her hand above and across her tray) Speaking of food, this kid is so funny! She eats EVERYTHING!! Her favorites are humus (???!!!), cottage cheese and kiwi! She ate ethiopian food the other night!

Anyway, we are having SO much fun these days! We are out in the garden everyday, she's big enough to get in the backpack now for walks, she's graduated from crawling to pulling herself up on things. This is funny. I wondered why she wasn't interested in this earlier. Well, upon watching her, I realized she's too short to pull herself up to what normal babies would: the couch, the coffee table etc... So once we figured that out, she started to pull herself up to the bottom step and the stereo on the floor of her room! Yep, height challenges she will clearly face forever as a Voller. :)

Steve and I are going away for our 4th anniversary this weekend. We are going on the wine tours of Leelanau Peninsula here in Michigan and staying in an Inn on Suttons Bay! We are so excited and so in need of some time away. We are both (especially mom) nervous about leaving Celia for 2 days. We will miss her soooo much! I know, it's crazy, but it's true. Lastly, the garden is going well! Our peas and potatoes and going up like rockets and our spinach and spring greens are TRYING to make it. Some pesky bug keeps eating them in their infancy! This is the first year our beets and carrots aren't making an appereance.... hmmmm... We got rhubarb plants from our neighbor and Great Grandpa Roth and Grandpa Larry came over to help us expand our garden by 3 times!! Now it's remove all the clumps fast enough time to get in the corn and beans and cucs this week! love to you all. We know we have been distant, but we are finally in the clear with much stress and self involvement. what a relief.