Happy 2012

I'm not sure why I haven't felt too inspired to post about the holidays. We had fun. We spent lots of time with Granddad and his wife and her kids, which was fun. The food was great, and K loved seeing everyone.
Present-opening was much different this year, since K quickly got into the ripping-off-of-paper thing and then started trying to open other people's presents. She got to open 2 presents Christmas Eve after we got to my Dad's place after church. (That was our first trip to church with her ever, and it went much better than expected. We went to a German-speaking Lutheran church in town and things were much simpler and shorter than what I was used to from Roman Catholic services growing up. K was very well behaved, and the loudest she got was quietly pointing out the sheep in the stained-glass window beside our pew.) Then on Christmas day, she got to open more with us at home. Apparently my Mum and I have the same taste in books, because we already had all of the books Mum gave her. Oh well, it just means we've got some good presents for other kids' birthdays in the future. The first gift we gave her to open came from Grandma, so she said "Grandma" (E-ma right now) with each present she got for herself after that. I wonder if she thought all the gifts were from Grandma? The biggest hit was by far the pink stroller that Tita got for her. She loves that, and would take it to bed with her if she could. Her other favourite is a sliding-windows version of Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see that Granddad got her. It's a great book
She was very well-behaved, and seemed to enjoy the turkey dinner this time, which she hadn't at Thanksgiving. Everyone was very impressed by how good she was. By the time Christmas dinner was over, she was pretty tired and ready to go home. I took her over by the front door to my Dad's condo to change her diaper, and when I was done, she stood up, grabbed the front door handle, and said "Hause" (nach Hause = go home). At that p.oint, we figured out it was time to make a swift departure.
A few days after Christmas, my Mom came to visit for 4 days. As usual, DH found it a little stressful, and she had a few of her mood swings. She seemed sometimes to get offended if K didn't want to play with her or read stories with her, although K was quick to adjust to her being here and obviously remembered her from skype and possibly her last visit here in Aug/Sept. Mum kept trying to pick up German words from us and use them with K, but I'm hoping she won't keep doing that, because I think it will be confusing for K. K's starting to translate words now (said "down, runter" when wanting to get off the couch at Granddad's), and she seems to realize when she needs to use an English word vs a German one. She usually points out "Eichhoernch" (Eichhoernchen) to us and "Quirrel" (squirrel) to Grandma. Her vocab continues to expand, and she's putting together a ton of two-word sentences. I think I've even heard her string three words together, apart from the "thereitis" or "whereareyou" that she's been saying for months.
Unfortunately, she's in a picking-at-her-face phase these days, so all our photos either have her plastered in bandaids or covered in scabs. This one from New Years' is a little better than most of the rest:

She's trying to jump these days, but can't get her feet to lift off the ground yet. She's singing up a storm at times, and can manage to sing most of Twinkle Twinkle fairly tunefully. She'll also attempt the first two lines of Backe Backe Kuchen, and is getting better at the ABC song because we sing it morning and night when we brush her teeth. She can count to 11 in German at times, though she'll often bypass 2. She's able to count from 1 to 10 in English too, as we always count with her when going up or down stairs.

I think we may be getting close to me trying the 3-day potty training method in about 3-4 weeks. I've got a Friday off, so I could try it over the weekend. She often keeps her diaper dry for hours at a time, only to soak it after. She goes and hides when it's time to poop, and then announces "tinky bumbum". She'll ask for a diaper change too at times ("Windel wechseln"), which is nice, though it is pretty rare. It's more common for her to deny that she's made a stink or peed.

She really seems to love babies these days. She always wants to see baby pics on my computer, and when we went and saw our 3-month-old neighbour on Christmas day, she was willing to share my lap with him, kissed him on the forehead, and when I handed him back to his Mum for a snack, she walked over and kept trying to hug him and pull him back off her lap, saying "mehr Baby" (more baby). I told DH he should listen to her, she must want a sibling. He said the more I keep pushing, the less likely he is to agree. I hope that's not the case, as I think AF is approaching and I'm getting more sad with each passing month that we're not getting lucky.

One thing K's doing these days that I think is so amazing, is that she is so good about sleeping. Yesterday she woke up from her nap crying after only about 40min. I went in, picked her up, gave her a hug, wiped her nose, and then told her it wasn't time to get up yet, but was time to sleep more with baby and Charley (her bear). Then I laid her down, and she went back to sleep for another 1h45min. Wow. That's not the first time she's gone back to sleep when I've told her it's not time to get up yet.

Eating continues to go well, though her weight is holding steady since she's had a cold for a while. Last time we measured, she was about 11.6kg, 88cm. She's getting lazy now though - she used to take the stairs herself, but since she got sick and had no energy for a few days, so that I'd carry her up and down stairs, she now asks "Mama tragen" (mommy carry) or "carry" so that she doesn't have to climb up herself.  

All in all, 2011 was a pretty awesome year, especially after I stopped pumping. I hope in 2012 I'll be able to talk DH into #2 and get PG (either as a natural miracle, or via FET) quickly. I'm looking forward to being able to do more things with K this year like reading books, drawing, painting, and maybe even playing a board game. I hope I get to experience this all one more time before my womanly parts close up shop!