Playdates and Dogs at the Park

We have been up to our usual around here. Trips to the park in the fabulous weather, and running errands.

We have enjoyed some time playing with friends as well. Carly and Silas came over Tuesday. Silas has come to like Lorelei much more now that she screams at him less. :) He was so excited to see her and clung to her and gave her hugs and kisses. It was amusing to watch her look down at him wondering what was going on, much as poor Lily did when Lorelei would cling to her on her unsteady feet. We played for a bit and then even took a walk around Mt. Trashmore! This day I was amazed at how Lorelei was acting. She was not whining or throwing fits and even missed morning nap with no melt downs! However, I could tell that was not going to go over well this morning, so she is still taking a quick power nap, but don't think that will last much longer.

Did get her to blow a kiss finally!

Then today was MOMS playgroup at the park. It was a great day for the park, and Lorelei had a good time playing on the wooden truck they have there. She was very amused by the many friends of all ages she had to play with.

Then the highlight of her trip would have to be the dogs! She heard a dog barking and then saw Lily heading there so she had to go over as well. The lady who had her dogs at the park was very generous in letting the girls pet them and give them water...a petting zoo experience at the park! :) Of course the dog-lover Lorelei was thrilled and kept doing her panting noise at the dogs (thank Aunt Sarah for teaching her that). Funny story: the lady was firmly telling her dogs to "sit" so it was hilarious when Lorelei quickly sat down as instructed! :)

Then after a few trips down the slides (which means mom too!) we headed home. Hoping that fresh air will equal a nice long nap... ;)

Sandcastles

We had the Neptune Festival here at the boardwalk this weekend. We went with our friend, Mirinda, to go see the sandcastle competition. They were amazing! I cannot imagine how they accomplish these with such detail. Would love to sit and watch them build one (you can on Friday) but am sure Lorelei would not be that patient. May have to try that next year if she will sit and play in the sand while we watch.

As I should have known, Lorelei was not content to walk along with me carrying her to see the sandcastles. She wanted to play in the sand of course! This resulted in us carrying her a bit, then letting her down to play, and repeat, while we attempted to get a good look at the beautiful sand castles! It was still great to be able to see them, but a quick trip as Lorelei did not want to ride in the stroller either.

Have put together a little movie so you can see some of them. Not sure how to make a slide show so you get a movie instead! The last one is one that the local high school students were working on. Hope you enjoy since most of you can't see them in person. :)

Bunny Slippers and First Sign

Just wanted to show off the cute new bunny slippers we tried out today. It cooled off a lot today so we are enjoying having fall weather! Had to put on the slippers while I had the chance.

Today was a long day not going anywhere! Thankfully Lorelei was on her best behavior, especially since Brad worked late again today, then even later because of a traffic jam, when he was supposed to come home early! This means some extra time off next week though, so will look forward to that!



Also we have been working on the sign for "eat" and today was the first time Lorelei did it without me saying "eat" or "supper" or a word she associates with food. She would do the sign for a while now when we would say those, but today she finally told me she wanted to eat! So exciting. :)

Girls Beach Trip

Yesterday I realized it is probably one of the last days we would have very summery weather. It was somewhere in the upper 80s and 90 so instead of just staying inside to avoid the heat, I decided we should do the best thing we can do on a hot day - hit the beach!

(If you are wondering about the umbrella, I made the mistake of picking a cheap one out at Walmart...this was our first time using it and it broke as soon as I took it out! It still worked as a small shade spot for Miss Lorelei so I didn't have to worry about too much sun.)


This was decided during morning nap, so quickly got everything ready and we headed out as soon as Lorelei woke up. We were so excited to see that tourist season is definitely over! Those of you who have been here are probably shocked at how empty the beach was. Lorelei was one of the only children there, so got doted on by all of the other beach bums that day. As usual, we went back and forth between the sand and the water, which felt great! As usual, she also ate her weight in sand! What fun can you have at the beach if you are constantly telling her no though? So I just say yucky a few times and then give up and figure its an early lunch. ;) We even had one little boy come and play with us for a while.

It was a great way to spend the day and we are so thankful to be able to make a trip to the beach on a whim like that. Looking forward to the Sandcastle competition this weekend!

First Day of Fall

We are happy the fall is here! One of our tree's across the road is already shedding plenty of leaves so had to get out and explore. As I'm typing now the keyboard is covered in flour because I'm baking leaf cookies! Fall is my favorite season and can't wait for the weather to join the calendar. Now I know some of you are reading this in sweaters and turtle necks in the Midwest, and I'm not complaining but am excited for it to get cooler here again this weekend.

For the first day of fall Lorelei and I took a trip to Starbucks (had to get the pumpkin spice latte) and also tried out a new park. We will probably make this a regular park because it has a ramp and small slides which makes it easier for this little girl! :) During Lorelei's nap I even got the house decorated for fall. Lorelei was very intrigued by the new decor and really loves the scarecrow. I think she would like to use it as another doll! After Brad came home from work we ran a couple of errands, which included picking out a few new toys with Lorelei's birthday money, always fun!


Thought you would get a kick out of how Lorelei looked after our trip to the park for playgroup today. This is even the second round of dirt. I washed of the first coating at the park. We enjoyed playing with friends and one friend even brought cupcakes! Yum! She also got to ride in a wagon one family brought with a big sister to pull her!









Thought you would also like to see we are making progress with eating like a big girl! Bought a couple of spoons that looked great for scooping and it was a hit with our applesauce! Hopefully will keep it up with more things soon. I must mention also that she also tends to "chug" her food, holding the whole bowl up to her mouth! :) Its rather amusing. Another fun thing she does now is goes "uuuuu" when we are riding on something bumpy in the shopping cart or stroller because she likes the sound it makes. Keeps me amused as well! :)

Italian Festival and Nebraska Game

We have had a rough week with teething and reactions to her immunizations. Lorelei seems to still be having trouble with this as she woke up with a fever again this morning. The molars seem to be giving her a lot to complain about. Hopefully it will settle down soon.

Sept starts a couple of months of busy weekends for us! There are lots of local events going on in the area and we plan to enjoy them! We went to the Italian Festival for lunch on Saturday. We enjoyed live music (the violinist...who did a beautiful job but I was a bit disappointed as I thought we were going to hear accordion players!) as well as some Italian food. We thought they were a bit overpriced, so if we go again next year we will just get some pizza. Lorelei had gotten a long nap this morning, but still had little patience for anything, so we didn't get to enjoy our food for very long.



We had to stop by the grape stomping vat on the way out though. Brad was a trooper and went in with Lorelei. There was a little girl in there before her who seemed to enjoy it...as you can see this did not go over well at all. At least we tried! :)



Then Lorelei proceeded to scream the entire walk to the car. After all of this, we ended up getting ripped off from the guy in the parking lot who we paid $7 and he was only charging $5 an hour later! Let's just say it was a bit of a frustrating experience but we are still glad we went.

Then after a nice afternoon nap, we were able to watch the Husker game! We rarely get a chance to watch Nebraska play here on the east coast. We had our one fellow Nebraskan, Mirinda, over to watch the game with us. Thankfully it was another person to help entertain Lorelei! Unfortunately the game didn't end the way we would have liked, but we enjoyed watching it.



Thought you might like to see the little trick we taught Lorelei to do. We stole this idea from the Checks...maybe we'll get the girls to do it at the same time for the next video. ;)

Visit from Uncle Gary and Aunt Michelle (technically great uncle and aunt but they don't seem that old)

We were excited to have a visit from my Uncle Gary and Aunt Michelle. They are some of my extended family from Wisconsin. Michelle's brother lives in NC so they were having a family trip down at the Outer Banks. We were so glad they took some time to visit us as well!

In the morning before they came, Lorelei was wanting to watch the computer so she put her doll on the chair first, then screamed at me to get her up there. :) She was dancing to "Do Wop Hop" but quit when I tried to film it. Later she even got down by herself!



Lorelei has also decided now that she is one she no longer wants a bottle (refused them each time offered so we are officially done with bottles!) and also no longer wants a morning nap! I'm not so happy about that choice, but try and get her to go down and its basically impossible. It also makes her a bit of bear a large part of the day! She doesn't sleep much longer than her old afternoon naps so the evening is also very cranky. We'll have to work out the kinks soon we hope.

Anyway, she woke up a bit before our visit from Gary and Michelle. They enjoyed seeing her room and reading a few books. Later we went to the park where they got to watch her climb all over. They got some good pics, but I will have to get copies from them! She enjoyed having a new audience and did some of her tricks for them as well. Then we hung out some more and got to visit with Brad as well after he got home from work.

A couple funny moments: Michelle had a purse with a dog on it that Lorelei LOVED of course, so we used that to get her to look at the camera! She even got one of her smiling! :) So now I just need to find one of those purses and we'll always have good pictures. :) Also, while at the park (right by a pond) Gary said "what is making that duck sound?" and Michelle and I look at him and at the ground and right next to him (maybe a foot away) are two ducks! Well, that's what was making the duck sound. :)




Sorry I forgot to take the paci out!

We are so glad to have family visit and get to meet Lorelei!

Spinning Fun

This was after her party Saturday but forgot to add it with the others. She thinks this is pretty fun as you can tell. :)

Friend Birthday Party

We were so excited to have Lorelei's party here in Virginia with our friends, and of course, her adorable little friends! As most of you probably know I go a little overboard with most food etc for parties...well that wasn't about to change for my daughters first birthday party! Brad was excited about decorating too...but lost a bit of the enthusiasm at the wee morning hrs. (as did I, he is such a trooper to put up with all my crazy plans) He still helped though, which is the important thing!

We ended up staying up late AGAIN getting ready for the party. We were up till about 12:30 from the Rascal Flatts concert Thursday night...so two nights in a row is really getting to us by now! Anyway, by the time we got the house cleaned, cake frosted, and living room decorated, we made it to bed by 1:30 am. Now in college this was no problem...you can nap any time you want! We are way too old for this now. ;) The middle of the night fun included Brad accidentally tearing down the kitchen ceiling, and me almost dropping the cake AFTER defrosting and before refrosting...if that gives you any idea we were exhausted.

Here is the kitchen ceiling (to be fixed Monday) and also the finished cake.



Here is Lorelei's reaction to the living room...



And the decorations outside, which we put up during morning nap.



Lorelei was SO excited to have her friends over to play with all her toys! The kids all played so well together! Then we enjoyed some lunch, where Lorelei preferred to eat off of everyone's plate other than the one Brad was trying to feed her.



Here are Lorelei's friends. Silas (Brad's coworker, Andrew's son, who is about a month younger than Lorelei.) Then Lorelei, Lily (17 months), Kira (17 months, and Chase (turning 3 in Oct) (children we know through MOMS club) They are such good friends!



Lorelei with best bud, Lily.



Lorelei's reaction to her Elmo card! :)



Lorelei enjoying her cake. She LOVED being sang to AGAIN. She mostly just ate the frosting off the cake. :)



Lorelei enjoying one of her amazing presents! Sara (friend from MOMS you hear about often) made her an "I Spy" quilt with things she loves like puppy's, cows, John Deere, cats...so fun! She loves it. Then to top it off she made a MATCHING quilt for the baby doll they gave Lorelei! She is enjoying them so much! Thanks Sara!

Well those are most of the highlights from the party. We are so glad to have friends to celebrate with!

Dr. Appt and Fall Weather

Lorelei trying on Dad's shoes after work one day.

We enjoyed some beautiful fall weather earlier this week. I was excited to start wearing some pink and brown! :) Great for short sleeves and pants.

The more interesting info would be Lorelei's 1 yr appointment. She did a wonderful job and didn't really cry hard until the shots (and who can blame her for that). She came in at 22.9 lbs (75%) and 31 1/2 in (97%). This means she is as tall as two year old! I was so proud of her for being SO good. She had no problems with the shots afterward, although they say she could get a fever for up to two weeks after the appt.

Here are a few pics I took that afternoon to try and show how tall she is. :)



And then a couple for fun. She loves sitting on her toy box and looking out the window.



Fun story: Usually when I rock Lorelei if she is fighting it I will say "Do you want me to call your dad?" or say "Brad" and then she gets totally still and quiet and goes to sleep. Well the other night Brad was rocking her with this same problem so he said "Do you want me to call your mom?" Well this backfired as she frantically shook her head yes and was very excited about this offer.

Birthday party #4 blog soon to come!

Who Do I Look Like?

Okay well we had to dig up some old pics from our parents...naturally I had a hard time finding good pics of Lorelei to go with them! As you can see she is way ahead of me in the hair dept. on her first birthday, thankfully! Although it may not be that obvious in the pics I think she definitely looks more like her daddy. :)

Well Lorelei slept in this morning apparently to let me get finished with this never ending blog! Finally done! (well for this trip anyway) Will let you know how the 1 Yr Dr. appt goes today as well as the Rascal Flatts concert!

Lows: Lorelei's sickness and sleep deprivation, being clingy

Highs: For Brad, lots of golfing, seeing friends; Eliz, no cooking or doing dishes! Both, lots of steak, lots of cake...I know all we think about are our stomachs ;) and most importantly, spending great time with family

The Grandparents

Since we had both sides together had to get a picture...of course Lorelei didn't want to cooperate and sit still for the pic, so this is the best we could do. :) Thank you to the grandparents for everything!

The Third First Birthday Party

After the trip to the zoo, we had to have a party with the Bohlmann side! First Lorelei did a little swimming, but it ended up being a little cold to last too long. Had a great time playing with Grandpa and Dad though!








Then we ordered pizza in, opened presents from the Bohlmann's, sang Happy Birthday (she loves this) and had chocolate cake. She didn't exactly inhale the cake, but hasn't had her usual appetite, probably from the cold or teething. We did have to get a few pictures though. :)



Thanks to Mom and Heather for another special celebration! We are so glad you came to see us!

The Bohlmann Visit and Zoo

Since we were ONLY 7 hrs away (well compared to a 24 hr drive its short) we enjoyed meeting up with the Bohlmann side as well. Mom and Heather drove to Denver to hang out for a day. After we left the wedding we were able to see them before getting Lorelei to bed. They enjoyed some bath time giggling (probably even better because she was overly tired!) and then we got to visit when Lorelei went to sleep.

The next day we made a trip to the Denver Zoo. We are "zoo people" since a trip to MY grandma in Milwaukee always involved a trip to the zoo. We were excited to see what they had in Denver. Although the polar bear did not feel like swimming (much to my dismay as this is one of my fav things to see) we did get to see how huge it is! Lorelei and Heather were both petrified as you can see. :) We did get a chance to see quite a few animals we had not seen before, and many of the exibits were very up close and personal. As you can see Lorelei was able to go nose to nose with a Komodo Dragon. It was one of the most active animals as many of them thought it was nap time. :) She also LOVED the fish. Probably the biggest hit for her. She was able to watch them easily and most of them were very colorful.

A couple of amusing moments were when Lorelei was walking and then decided she just needed to sit down...in the middle of the road! May not sound as funny was pretty amusing to those of us watching. Also as most of you know Lorelei never wants to sleep...well this definitely applied to the zoo. She was so exhausted she was practically falling asleep while we were trying to feed her lunch. She fell asleep just sitting there after inhaling much of our gigantic hot dog! We enjoyed about 20-30 minutes of the zoo in peace while she slept. :)

She loved her Aunt Heather and had no problem going to her...much to the dismay of the grandmothers who were getting the "I want mom" screams much of the time. We are glad that she likes Heather so much...now if only she could come babysit! :) As we were leaving the zoo she was perfectly happy to walk away from us with Heather waving goodbye to everyone she saw..."Goodbye Zoo People!"

Congratulations Dennis and Raechel

Brad was so glad to celebrate with Dennis on his wedding day! The boys have been friends since Kindergarten...as you can see in the oldie picture! Dennis is the blond in the picture and Brad is the one with the paper covering half his face. ;)
So great to be able to have friends for so long!



Overall the wedding went okay. Lorelei played on the floor (thankfully carpeted for quietness) most of the wedding. Naturally we didn't last the whole time, but what I did hear of the ceremony was wonderful! The pastor even read letters they had written to each other and they said their own personal vows. Thankfully there was a nursery of toys to play with so I could still watch through the window. Also thankful to the grandparents for helping entertain! We didn't last long at the reception but did enjoy some food and visiting. My favorite part was seeing Brad all dressed up. :) Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Nelson!

Denver and Dinosaurs

Friday we headed to Denver. Brad's friend, Dennis, got married there, and we had to be there a day early for a tux fitting and rehearsal. (More to come on the wedding)

Since the wedding was not until 4 on Saturday, we headed to a park we saw when scouting out the church location. We were excited to see it even had a theme: dinosaurs! Since this was my brother's favorite thing as a child, I had to make sure and get some good pics for him! Lorelei LOVED being able to play on this playground.

The Stahl Family

We must start with the cousins first! Lorelei enjoyed being able to play with Hannah and Karter. Hannah is so good at playing with her and loved showing her all of the animals. She would go and find kittens for her to pet. Karter moves around so much that Lorelei just loves to watch him and follow as much as she can keep up.

(For the grandparents...you can click on the collage and see it bigger...we'll get your pics sent to you soon!)

























Then of course Lorelei loved being able to spend time with her Grandparents. She did have some definite stranger anxiety (which I just saw is usually hitting full force at this age, so at least we are right on track. ;) ) but she still enjoyed her time with them.

Favorite things to do with Grandma Stahl: go find the animals, work on my somersaults, play "round and round the corner"



Favorite things to do with Grandpa Stahl: play "wrastle", walk outside, ride the hotel luggage cart



And of course we can't forget Aunt Sarah! She is an old pro and Lorelei warmed up to her fairly easily. They enjoyed walking around the farm. She especially had fun on the trampoline looking at the dogs underneath, and learning to make the panting sound with the dogs! She was also the best at making her smile and laugh during church and family pictures. :)



It was so good to see all of you! We miss you guys! (Don't worry still more entries to come!)