April?!

Yesterday I left my keys at work, so I can't park in my heated, underground parking spot today.
#firstworldproblems

50 weeks

Can you believe how close we are to Rose's first birthday?!? One year ago I was freaking out about when Rose would arrive (she came with perfect timing), nine months ago I was freaking out about returning to work (I've since been promoted), six months ago I was worried she wouldn't roll over (now she's almost walking), and now I'm trying to relax and enjoy our time together since it all seems to work out in the end. :)

This past week Rose got to spend lots of time with several of her grandparents!

Ninja came to town Monday through Thursday. She brought along a "see and say" that Rose totally loves.

Grammy took care of Rose on Thursday afternoon, as per usual. (No picture, sorry!) Rose loves seeing Grammy on Thursdays, and we are so appreciative of the time they get to spend together! (Thanks, Marsha!)

Friday night we went up to the cabin, where Rose got to spend some good time with Grandpa Fly and Grandma Roles. Grandpa showed her all the photos of her cousins ...

...and Grandma helped her learn to crawl up the stairs! Rose also enjoyed pointing out all the knots in the wood to Grandma.

Rose also loved the big fish pillow at the cabin. She is her father's daughter, after all.

We came home early on Saturday afternoon, so we took our weekly photos at home, as usual. (Only two more weeks of weekly photos!)  Rose has been enjoying "cruising"...

...and walking (with assistance). Any bets on when she'll take her first solo steps?

I had a couple other really cute pictures to upload, but after multiple attempts yesterday and today I'm just going to give up and direct you to our most recent Snapfish album instead.  Scroll to the end of the album to see her making her adorable "where?" gesture, to see her stealing her dad's glasses, and to see her clapping for herself as she plays with the potty. For the past month or so she's been loving reading her Potty book, watching me go potty while she's in the bathtub, and playing with her potty seat in the living room. Then for the last couple weeks we've been setting her (fully clothed) on her potty seat while we read books. Sunday, just for kicks, we took her diaper off as we were reading - just a few minutes later, she peed in the potty! Whoa! Mostly I thought it was a fluke, but then she did it again tonight! Now, I have no unrealistic expectations that she'll be potty trained by a year old or anything like that, but I'm hoping we can just continue to give her positive experiences with the potty. It can't hurt, right?

Have a great week, everyone!

weekend

We all had a great time at the cabin this past weekend!  :)

(More pictures will be coming!)

First haircut!

Before (side):

Before (front):

Prepping:

"I'm not sure about this smock thing, Mommy..."

During:

"Yep, I hate it!"

After:

"Thank heavens that's over!"

(And it only took a bottle and jar of Puffs as a bribe!)

49 weeks - Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! We had our Easter celebration early (yesterday) with Mike's family. Anne was a wonderful host and everyone contributed a tasty dish to the festivities.

Rose enjoyed playing her new favorite game, which we affectionately refer to as "fake out."

"Here you go, Grandpa Jack!"

"Ha ha! Just kidding!"

(Can't get too mad at this cutie!)

We had another family portrait taken (thanks, Marsha!)

Instead of an Easter basket (of which she got several from family! thank you all!), we gave Rose a full kleenex box to enjoy.

We ate like kings: ham, cheesy potatoes, ramen noodle salad, scalloped corn, and lemon pie. Yum!

Annie appears confused as to why her "little" cousin is so much taller!

Overall we had a fabulous time, but Rose definitely hit her limit pretty quickly. I think she's an introvert, just like her parents - she likes being with people, but she needs a lot of down time as well!  We ended up leaving right after dinner so we could get her to bed right away. Thankfully, she woke up much happier this morning.

Her official portrait of the week highlights the cute thing she does with her hand after she deliberately drops something ;)

"Where'd it go?"

Rose started getting tired again shortly after her the photo shoot (less than 2 hours after waking up), so we quickly packed up to head out to the zoo, thinking she would just take a nap in the "magic sleep machine" (aka the car). Unfortunately, she was already overly tired (i.e., still recovering from all the excitement of the day before), so she didn't fall right asleep like we had expected. Instead, she cried all the way to Apple Valley, at which point we turned around to come back. She then continued to cry all the way back through Edina, and only fell asleep right before our exit. So we made a quick decision to head back to the zoo again so as not to risk waking her only seconds after falling asleep. (Good thing we were driving our more fuel-efficient vehicle!) In the end, she got a good 45-minute nap, and we were all able to enjoy the animals!

hugs for the kitty cat!

signing "all done" after lunch

 Can you find our little miss in these lineups?

Rose's favorite part of the whole zoo was the FISH!

Well, that and teething on her daddy's hat. :)

My favorite part was the PENGUINS!

(Mike, what was your favorite part?)

Have a great week, everyone!

What a week!

What a week this has been! Rose is recovering nicely from the hand, foot and mouth disease. She has been getting her appetite back and has been in a wonderful mood! We also decided that she is officially talking. For the longest time she would say something and we would ask each other, Was that a word? Or was she just playing with sounds?  We didn't want to jump the gun, but now we definitely agree that she is not only talking, but that she uses FOUR words! Her first word was cat ("ta"), and she also says mommy ("mamama"), daddy ("dadada"), and bottle ("ba")! The last couple days she has also been saying "yayaya," usually in a really loud voice, but we're not quite sure what that means yet.

Here's a video showing Mac being a sheister and Rose practicing her yayas:

Here's another video with Rose saying mommy and bottle:

(Note that we were cued into the meaning of "ba" by the fact that she will shove her face into my chest when she says it!)

In other news, we got a new car!!! Mike did a ton of research and we ended up taking home a Toyota Venza! I'm still quite intimidated by it (it's so nice! and big! and smells new!), but I think it will be great for longer car trips. We're definitely planning to continue using the Elantra for my daily commute and for our city driving, but I'm exciting to ride up to the cabin in it next weekend!

I have a habit of naming our cars. My first Saab was Eleanor, the Saturn was Audrey, and our current car is Lantra. We're still deciding what name suits the Venza, but so far I'm leaning toward Fernando. Yep, it would be my first male car. But somehow that seems appropriate from its appearance, doesn't it?

I'll take a better picture soon! (Notice all the gross snow we still have!)

Yesterday when I was at work Mike emailed me to let me know that our dryer broke. You've got to be kidding!, I said. Sadly, he wasn't. So Mike did a ton of research in a short amount of time and we bought a dryer yesterday. Thankfully, since we wash cloth diapers every 48 hours, we can pick it up later today. Sigh.

Finally, I had a terrifying experience at daycare yesterday. Mike and I had bought the dryer together, then he dropped me off to pick up Rose while he drove home to start making dinner. Rose and I were just hanging out for a little bit; I was chatting with her teachers and she was showing me her new favorite toy. I don't usually stay for more than a couple minutes at pickup time, but yesterday I felt some pull to stay. There were only five babies left at that time, and then another mom (who happens to work upstairs in the preschool room of the school) came in to pick up her son (who is only a couple weeks younger than Rose). We were chatting about how he still does an army crawl and will sometimes crawl right out of pants, and I looked away to start packing Rose up to head home. Then the mood in the room perceptibly shifted and I heard her say "What's happening? What's happening to him?!" I looked over and it was very clear that he was having a seizure (grand mal, most likely, in my non-expert opinion) - his limbs were jerking, his eyes weren't focusing, he started having bubbles in his mouth, and his lips turned blue. I was really proud that I remained calm in the situation, making sure that they were calling 911, that someone was at the door to bring the paramedics in, ensuring that he was lying flat and his head was protected during the convulsions, and reassuring his mom (who was understandably panicking!) that the ambulance was on its way and we were doing everything right. It felt like it took forever for the paramedics to arrive. Forever! I have no idea how long the seizure lasted because I was operating in (calm) panic mode myself. It was such a relief when it finally ended and the paramedics came in just seconds later. But as Rose and I were walking home, I lost it. I started to imagine how I would have felt if that had happened to Rose, and I started to feel guilty about joking that she "catches everything" that goes around school. It was just so incredibly scary. It's one thing to hear about how seizures are not so uncommon in kids (2-5% of kids will experience a febrile seizure), but it's an entirely different thing to actually see it happen to a kid you know. My heart goes out to him and his family this weekend. Please give the kids in your life an extra hug this weekend! Rose has already gotten a million extra hugs and kisses from me and Mike, and I know there will be many more to come.

48 weeks / 11 months

Saturday:

We test drove SUVs! Thanks to a series of incredibly generous parents and in-laws, I've never bought a car. I was super intimidated at the dealerships, but eventually it turned out to be pretty fun!  I think we have it narrowed down to a few different models, so now we just have to finish our research to make a decision that makes the most financial sense for us.

BTW, Rose was dressed for spring on Saturday, even though we still have ridiculous amounts of snow around. (I'm so tired of winter!!!!)

"Go Twins!"

Sunday:

We took the last of the frozen milk out of the freezer! I'm still nursing Rose at night, but this feels like the end of an era. Thankfully she seems to really like formula now. I'm proud that the frozen milk lastest as long as it did - this was the result of a LOT of pumping. Whew!

Sunday we also took Rose's weekly portraits.

Monday:

The last dose of Rose's 10-day course of antibiotic. She liked the taste so much that she always wanted to hold the medicine syringe after taking the medicine!

 

Then, as I posted yesterday, she got sent home from school with a fever due to hand, foot and mouth disease. Sigh. At least she's a happy girl as long as we stay up on her ibuprofen. Fingers crossed that she gets over this illness quickly and recovers for a good, long period of time!