Lots of travels and excitement!

This has been a busy stretch for me (hence the lack of recent blog posts). At the end of March I was in NYC for a conference. It was a jam-packed week of interesting sessions, seeing old friends, lots of walking, and really delicious food!

Last Friday I finally got the Christmas present that I had been looking forward to: a GREAT seat to see Giselle (my favorite ballet) at the newly renovated Northrop Auditorium. It was everything I had hoped for...and more! What a wonderful gift from my awesome husband.

This past weekend my dad came to visit while my went to a training "up north." (They were also in town while I was in NYC.) Rose had so much fun with her Pop Pop!

My dad even got a picture of ME with Rose!

And, last but not least, there are a couple photos for the "keepin' it real" files. :)

Have a great week, everyone! It may be a fewmore weeks till I post again, as I have some busy weeks coming up. Until then! :)

hello? helllloooooo???

Is anyone there? I thought I heard crickets. I did! Well, I suppose that must be my fault for not posting anything in the last two weeks! Seriously, how has it been that long already?!? Yikes. Here's a quick rundown of what's been happening recently:

* I went to Osmo Vanska's farewell concert with the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra. It was heartbreakingly beautiful. I hate not going to classical musical concerts throughout the year! I am firmly on the side of the musicians and wish the Board would (a) end the lockout and (b) adhere to the recommendations from Senator Mitchell!!

* Rose was sick again last Friday with a fever of 104! It was scary...and also scary that I'm getting a bit desensitized to such high fevers. We didn't go to the ER (on the recommendation of the on-call nurse) and the fever broke around 20 hours after it started. Whew!

* Speaking of ER's, we've started getting EOBs and bills related to Rose's last ER visits (for fever and then for burns). Man, modern medicine is expensive!

* Last weekend Rose had her first sleepaway without her parents around! Mike and I were at a wedding in Duluth, so Rose spent the weekend with Grammy and Grandpa Jack. We all had a great time!

* This is MEA weekend, so Rose got to spend all day with Grammy and Grandma Roles today, and tomorrow she gets to spend all day with her Daddy. What a lucky girl! (Thanks, grandmothers!!!)

* Rose's new favorite words are "uh oh" and "no." She especially loves saying NO to Mac - poor cat! She also refused her bath last night, which turned into a disaster of epic proportions. She tried to refuse it again tonight, but we insisted and her bedtime routine went as usual, so hopefully her sleep will be as usual tonight too.

I haven't taken a lot of photos recently, but here are a few to tide you over until her "official" 18-month shots next week! (Can you believe she is 18 months old already?!)

Rose has been super interested in ears recently. Sometimes it hurts when she pulls on them or inserts her finger.

When Rose is feverish, she just lays lethargically on me.

When she feels good, she LOVES to help me bake :)

Mike and I had a great time at the wedding!

Have a great Friday, everyone!

Who does Rose look like?

I know I'm not supposed to hate my body. And, in fact, for the most part I don't. My stretch marks and flabby belly? Pregnancy and oreos - c'est la vie! Whatevs.   But my chin? Well, that's another story. I hate my chin. Truly hate it.  I know I'm not supposed to, and so I guess you could say that I hate that I hate it. But that doesn't change the fact that I do.

I remember when I first learned what rhinoplasty was, and I immediately wondered if there was some sort of chin implant that I could get for my 16th birthday, just like some girls apparently got nose jobs. (No one I knew, of course, but I had read about such things and I was intrigued!) And, speaking of books, have you ever noticed how many "bad guys" in novels have a "weak chin"? The evil villains and stupid criminals are generally afflicted with my hated facial feature, which certainly hasn't helped my body image at all over the years.  And, as if a single weak chin wasn't bad enough, my recessed chin often leads me to have TWO of them -  whenever I'm caught in profile, smiling, and/or looking down. No wonder I try to delete/burn all photographic evidence of my chin.

This is the trifecta of chin ugliness: profile, smiling, and looking down. Good thing there's a cute baby to distract you!

Asking people who Rose looks like has to be one of my favorite activities, yet now I'm started to cringe at the responses people give. Not only do people say she only looks like me when she cries (which I find somewhat endearing, oddly enough), but more and more people are saying that she has my chin. Yes, my ugly, recessed, stupid, villainous weak chin. Of all the features she could get, why did she lose the genetic lottery and get MY chin?!

But it makes we want to cry when I think of her hating any part of her body as much as I hate this part of mine.

Rose has a lovely chin!

Sigh. I had heard that parenting can amplify all of our worst insecurities, and I'm starting to see how true that is. Yet Rose is so cute and adorable and lovely (not to mention funny and talented and smart and hard working!), so how could we possible have the same chin? Her chin is nothing like mine! Nothing!
 
And yet, in a way I almost hope she has my chin, because maybe she could help me learn to love mine...or at least just hate it less.

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.

51 weeks - standing!

This is going to be a relatively short weekly update. I had a LONG week at work and I'm still not entirely refreshed to face another week. Plus, I want to conserve my energy since Rose's first birthday is only a week away!!!


This week, Rose has continued to ask for opportunities to sit on the potty:

But only for tinkles, not for toots.

(Keepin' it real.)

As you can see, she also has been enjoying her wooden ring stacker:

She has started sticking out her tongue when she's excited (like, to be crawling toward Mommy):

She has also begun giving her stuffed animals and the cats hugs!

She LOVES reading.  This morning she kept bring me books to read:

Then this happened:

Yes, it's the Big Red Barn book. Again.

Wait a minute...are you...standing???

OMG! Rose is standing!

I'm so proud of you, Rose!

Isn't she brave and strong and well-balanced?  Yes, I'm a proud mama.

Have a great week, everyone!

44 weeks / 10 months!

Little Miss is growing up! She's finally starting to feel better and her sunny disposition is really starting to shine. She's so much fun to be around!

Last evening I took a couple photos before her nightly bath. Her little body is so cute, I could just eat her up! (I used to think it was weird when people said that about babies. Now I'm finally starting to get it! Well, at least about my baby...I don't want to eat anyone else's baby.)

This morning we started taking our weekly photos in the living room, but as soon as we started we had another photo to add to the "keepin' it real" files:

I quickly cleaned up the random spit-up, then Rose was off to play! I was having such a hard time getting clear photos because she kept switching from toy to toy. She's a little bundle of energy when she's feeling good!

"I love to read!"

Thinking about standing...

 
Well, she's a bundle of energy until the "tired eyes" suddenly hit!

We had some errands to run anyway, so we piled everyone in the car and Rose was out cold within seconds. Yes, the car is back to being the "magic sleep machine" once again. Like mother, like daughter.

After the errands were complete, we decided to check out Eden Prairie Center. None of us had ever really been inside it before, so we figured it was as good a place as any to get some walking in while the weather is still cold. And then we discovered Rose's new favorite place: an indoor play area!

Our little peanut, who had been looking so grown up at home, suddenly looked so small among all the other kids! But she absolutely loved it - she even pulled herself up to standing (which she has apparently been doing for weeks at school, but it was the first time I'd ever seen it)!

The other exciting part of the morning was that Rose drank a bottle that was 2/3 milk and 1/3 formula. We're coming down the home stretch on our milk stash, so we need to transition her to formula pretty soon. Every time we've tried giving her a formula bottle in the past several months she has flatly rejected it. Then Mike came up with the gradual transition idea and so far it seems to be working (fingers crossed)!

Speaking of food, after Rose tuckered herself out in the play area, we headed off to Biaggi's for lunch. Rose really must be feeling better because she ate three big slices of bread (dipped in olive oil and parmesan), she sucked all the flavor off my cucumber salad, and she ate all the avocado off my sandwich. And she was a delightful lunch companion in general - she sat quietly eating while we enjoyed our meals and conversation, and a wonderful time was had by all!
 

Have a great week, everyone!

almost six months (lots of photos!)

The last two weeks have been a bit of a blur. Rose got a bad cold (with a high fever) that has been coupled with teething (drool everywhere!) which meant we took some major steps backward with sleeping. But I'm sure you're all tired of me complaining about that, so let's just say that Rose has been back to waking only once per night for the past few nights so I'm hoping we're back on track again.

In other news, Mike was in Chicago most of the week, and thankfully my parents were able to spend Sunday through Wednesday with Rose and me. I don't know how I would have done it without them! They were awesome: my mom helped me rock Rose when she was crying for four hours straight on Sunday night / Monday morning, my dad got up early every morning to eat breakfast with me and to watch Rose while I got ready for work, and I came home to a wonderful home-cooked meal every night. It was great for me, and I'm so glad she got some more quality time with them!

Somehow I didn't get any pictures of my parents with Rose, but here is my dad's arm as he's feeding her and my mom's back as Rose is spitting up all over her.  ;)

(definitely "keepin' it real"!)

On Thursday my parents took off and Grammy spent the day with Rose! Once again I neglected to get any photos, sorry. But I hear that they had a wonderful time together. :) Thanks, Marsha!

Today Rose and I had a lovely walk with Dotty and her sons at Lake of the Isles. The tree colors are just gorgeous right now! I love autumn.

By the time we got home from our walk it was about 10, Rose had not yet taken her morning nap, and we had to leave for swim lessons at 10:30. Needless to say, swim lessons were a disaster this morning. Sigh. Rose was so tired that we left early, she fell asleep within about two minutes of getting into her stroller, and she proceeded to sleep for two hours. (This from the girl who usually maxes out with two 45-minute daytime naps!)

After such  a long nap, Mike and I figured we needed to do something exciting to keep her awake until her very short evening nap. (Rose usually sleeps for ~45 minutes at about 9:30, 1:30 and 4:30 - we figured her sleep from 11:30 to 1:30 today should hold her over until about 4:30 then.)  First we went to Once Upon a Child and got a few "sleeping bags" to try to keep her warmer at night, since being warm seems to help her sleep better (that's mommy's girl!). (For the record, OUaC is my new favorite store for deals on baby clothes and gear that Rose will outgrow within three months. Why did we not shop here earlier?!?) Then we went to Schuler to look for shoe leather and then to Target to buy soda. (Exciting, right?)  Finally we went to the Convention Grill for a late lunch / early dinner. Rose was such a big girl sitting up in a high chair for the whole meal! But she would not let us eat without also feeding her... and we were terrible parents and had neglected to bring any baby food with us. Oops! So, without even knowing that this is what we were doing, we embarked on the path of Baby-Led Weaning - aka, just giving your baby table foods and skipping the purees and spoon-feeding. Rose was a fan!

This makes me feel so much better about not following the "rules" for introducing solids - Rose loves chunks, complex flavors, and eating what we're eating, so BLW seems to be a good idea for her.  We're going to continue experimenting with this approach at home (while also still giving her some purees) and will let you know how it goes.

I also took some photos of Rose as she was playing today. Just for fun. :)

(She had better not be trying to steal MY teddy bear!)

Okay, she can have my teddy bear. (How could I resist that face?!?)

Then again, maybe I'll just give her one of her own million teddy bears instead.

And I took some  photos of Rose as she was watching her Daddy walk back and forth in front of the window as he was mowing the lawn.

Isn't she the cutest?!?  But you can see she was starting to get her "tired face" on. And with that, it was about 6:30 and time to start her bedtime routine.

Speaking of "tired faces," it's about that time for me too. We're doing Rose's 26-week / 6-month "portraits" tomorrow morning - stay tuned for more photos!