more updates

As I mentioned in my last post, we spent Memorial Day weekend in Hayward. In addition to the awesome lumberjack show, we also spent many hours:

Climbing stairs!

And playing in the dirt!

(Daddy and daughter dressed alike!)

Rose had so much fun with these two activities over the weekend!



In other news, Rose had her first major "owie" today. Mike tells me that she recovered very quickly from her faceplant. In fact, she apparently recovered much more quickly than I have! I'm ready to keep her wrapped in plastic bubble wrap to protect her (and her precious brain!) from more bruises.

She also got scratched by Mac today. Sigh. Today was not a good day for an over-protective, guilt-prone Mommy.

updates

Man, I have really missed blogging in the last few weeks! Between busy work, traveling, and playing with Little Miss, I can't believe how little time I've had!  Here are some updates to get you all up to speed.

1.  For Mother's Day, Mike tilled up our front yard so we can put in a new front path and have a front yard vegetable garden. I'll post more pictures as the project progresses!

2. Rose has been so interested in shoes recently. The other day she spent about 15 minutes trying to wear her Daddy's birkenstock. Her feet have also gone through a HUGE growth spurt recently. She was happily wearing the pictured shoes at the beginning of last week, but by Friday afternoon they were pinching her toes and she would scream whenever whe'd bring come close to her. I had no idea that feet could grow so much basically overnight.

3.  A couple weekends ago we took a trip up to Cabela's so she could see all the fish. She loved it! She is started to wave to everything interesting she sees, especially airplanes that fly over head.

4. Since I'm no longer taking weekly photos, I decided to take monthly photos instead. Here is Rose at 13 months!

5. We've been getting so much rain recently that it's been hard to find places for Rose to play. (She gets so bored of our little house!) After much deliberation, we finally decided to bring her to a McDonald's play area, only to find out that it's WAY too big for our little girl. Whew - good thing we don't have to go back to that place again for several more years!

6. Last weekend (Memorial Day) we went up to Hayward. I have more pictures on my camera (which I'll post at some point), but here is one from the Lumberjack Show that we went to. It was awesome! I love lumberjack shows! I highly recommend going if you ever get a chance. (Rose, however, was indifferent and Mike had to leave to let her nap instead. Sorry, Mike!)

7. We also discovered last weekend that my daughter LOVES cheese curds. Atta girl!

8. Rose has also been getting more and more opinionated recently. She definitely knows what she wants and when she wants it! (It reminds me of this blog: ReasonsMySonIsCrying.) Here she was crying because I very nicely asked her to stop biting my shoulder.

9. That same day that we went up to Cabela's, we came back to have lunch at Anchor Fish and Chips. As we were sitting out on the patio finishing our meal, a man came up and asked if we wanted his tickets to the Twins game that afternoon. Heck, yeah! Not only were they amazing seats (last row of the main floor off of 3rd base), but the seats on either side of us were empty so Rose could spread out a little bit. Mostly she enjoyed sitting on the floor, eating ice cream, and walking around the concourse. She did a great job all through the 7th inning! But when the rain delay hit, we figured we should wrap it up and not press our luck through her usual dinner hour. It was so much fun to be able to try out a baseball game with Rose for free!

Okay, that's all I've got for now! I'll try to upload my camera pictures soon and post another blog update in the not-too-distant future. Happy May, everyone!

Montreal

Mike and I did a little international traveling at the end of April / beginning of May. I had a conference to attend in Montreal, so Mike tagged along and we made a little vacation out of it. This was a huge milestone for me, because the longest I had been away from Rose had been about 16 hours (8pm to noon). Leaving her for 6 days (in the wonderful care of my parents) was so hard, yet so good for both of us...or at least that's what I tell myself -- but it was also so good to come home to her at the end of the week!

Montreal was an amazing city. We spent two days being tourists, and then Mike left the camera in the hotel room while he went off to explore neighborhoods during the conference. Thus, we basically just came home with lots of pictures of churches. :)

I totally got reprimanded for using my camera on the plane.

Such pretty architecture in "Old Montreal"

I think this was city hall.

Notre Dame was stunning inside!

Here was a bazillion-ton brass sculpture representing, from bottom to top, the life cycle from birth to death.

The Cathedral of Mary, Queen of the World (or something like that - I really liked making up my own French interpretations!)

The city from the top of Le Plateau Mont Royal (say it fast and you'll learn how "Montreal" got its name)

St. Joseph's Oratory

It was a great trip, but it's also great to be back home again!

walking!

On Friday Rose starting taking more than just one step at a time. Here's our walking girl!!

Happy birthday (party), Rose!

Oh, blog, how I have missed thee! I can't believe how long it's been since I last had a chance to post an update. I blame the craziness of last-minute birthday planning, international travel (!), craziness at work, and a temporary incompatibility between Firefox and Blogger which left me unable to upload photos for a couple weeks. So, without further ado, here's a little update - with pictures!

Rose's birthday was on April 22nd (a Monday), but we postponed her birthday until the following Sunday so my parents wouldn't have to come out for two consecutive weekends (since they were planning to take care of Rose the week of the 29th - more on that in an upcoming post!). It turned out to be very good planning since the weather on the 21st was gross (snow!) and we were all sick in the house, whereas the weather on the 28th was lovely! Here are some photos from Rose's wonderful birthday party. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend, and thanks to everyone else who sent cards/gifts - I promise to send real thank you cards out as soon as I can!

Saturday I stayed up late to decorate. As you can see, we had a little ladybug theme. 

The highlight, IMHO, was the photo collage I made of Rose's weekly portraits!

The weather was perfect - basically the first nice day of the year.

Rose didn't know what to make of eating outside!

We're a little short on outdoor furniture, so we made do. :)

My cousin Ben and his wife Heather were even in town for the party!

Me and the birthday girl :)

Rose did not like her first bite of cupcake!

But she quickly came to her senses and gobbled it up.

Mmmm, chocolate cupcake and milk. Yum!

Rose gots lots of time with her grandparents.

All of her grandparents!

She got lots of fun gifts.

And her cousins help her to play with all her new toys!

Happy birthday, Rose! Can't wait to see what adventures the coming year brings. I love you!

Congrats, Mike!

(We had Rose's birthday party, then Mike and I were in Montreal for a week, and this past week we've both been super busy at our respective workplaces. I promise I'll write longer updates soon!)

Mike is too modest to brag about himself, so I'll do it for him... He successfully defended his pharmaceutics thesis today!!! Yay, Mike! Please join me in congratulating him on this huge accomplishment. Now he's off to a month home with Rose before starting the teaching program at the U in late June. Congratulations, Mike!!!