Disclaimer

I've been hesitant to give Liesel raw fruit because I am allergic to it. Not all fruit, but the "sweet" versions like honeydew melon and cantaloupe--BLECH! I can eat the "citrus" versions with no problem so I feast on grapefruit and pineapple. For the most part, I can eat everything in between although it's just a few bites before I feel like my tongue has grown hair and my throat gets itchy. However, Liesel's really past the Gerber stage and trying to be a good mom, I want her to eat good stuff. I decided to see how she would do with fruit finger foods like raspberries and blueberries. She wasn't hot on the raspberries but she LOVED the blueberries. That's kind of a big word for her so I just dubbed them "berries" but even that seemed to be a bit much for her toddler vocabulary. She shortened it to "beer." On Saturday we did our weekend errands which include a trip to the grocery store. Now that her love of blueberries is firmly entrenched in her psyche, she caught one glimpse of them among the strawberries and blackberries and said, "Beer? Beer peese? Beer! BEER!!!" We got a few glances. For the record, we don't give our girl beer.

Liesel is growing in so many wonderful ways though. In spite of the small fortune I've invested in Gymboree clothing, here is her favorite outfit (no kidding, when left to her own devices she picks this out herself):

We're not sure why she likes to have a shoe only on one foot but that's usually how she ends up. Now, she KNOWS when people are complimenting her on how cute she is so she's at least marginally aware of her looks. Whenever I finish doing her hair she takes a good look at herself in the mirror and smiles (pigtails get the biggest reaction). She's into shoes which I thought would naturally lead into an interest in general fashion. To put it simply, she has a little vain streak in her. How she came up with this outfit is beyond me aside from the mostly nude part... she's just like her daddy and she runs hot. Maybe this is a big look in Asia?

A couple of weeks ago I was walking up some stairs with her. Liesel usually has a pretty good stream of chatter going so it took me a while to tune in to the fact she was saying, "two, fee, foa, five..." with every step. I was floored; she can count to ten! Well, mostly... she gets stuck on six and then she just repeats it over and over. Of course, she's a toddler and can't quite say "six" so she ends up sounding like she has Tourrette's. Aside from counting, Liesel also knows her ABC's up to G. When I asked her teachers at daycare if they had taught her that, they responded, "Yeah" in a tone that said, "what do you think we DO with her all day?" Good to know our hard-earned money is going to something useful!

They also tell us she is well-primed to be a big sister. When it's nap time she apparently goes around to all the kids on their several mats, says "night, night" and pats them on the head. They say Liesel herself doesn't want to go down, she just wants to check on everyone else. She's also taken to "mothering' one of the other kids in her class... to the point she will check her diaper to see if she's poopy. Liesel's starting to pull her own pants up which is a good sign she may be ready to start potty training. We'll see. She's clinging to her binkie for dear life and just when I determine I'm going to boil them and stow them away she either gets sick or, more recently, starts cutting her two year molars. I feel so bad for her, I just can't take away what seems to be her only comfort and at times my only sanity to keep her from crying. She's so cute when she asks for it too. Binkie? Then she sucks on her lower lip sort of like, "something's missing here, see?" Does anyone have any ideas on how I can wean her off of the binkie? I was hoping she'd be "sober" by the time our next little one arrives so there won't be binkie envy. I'm starting to worry...

Brent checked in on her one night and found her sleeping like this:

My side of the family will recognize this position as one my dad takes when he is on his laptop. Too funny... maybe she has some Nielsen in her after all!

I recently discovered this video which just put me under. Brent tells me it was shortly after Christmas and she had mysteriously found yet another can of Pringles. When he saw her with her hat, sucker and leg warmers clinging to the can he just had to get some video. I LOVE the attitude she gives him as he questions her about what she's doing:

One final note on Liesel's latest quirks. She doesn't watch TV but we found this YouTube clip of Beaker singing "Ode to Joy" and she will watch it over and over. If we switch it to any other video, even the one of Beaker singing Habanera, she shakes her head... that's not the one she wants. I finally downloaded it to my iTunes and once while we were in the car waiting for Brent I tried it out on the iPod. She looked like a midget teenager with the earbuds watching my iPod. They really grow up SO fast!