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!!!

Well child visit (12 months)

Finally, we got to see the doctor for a well child visit and not for illness! Rose is growing right on track :)

Two months
weight:  12# 6.4 oz (85th %ile)
height:   23.5"  (86th %ile)
head:    15.5" (66th %ile)

Four months
weight:  15# 10oz (86th %ile)
height:   26"  (95th %ile)
head:    16.75"  (85th %ile)

Six months
weight:  17# 7oz (78th %ile)
height:   27.25"  (93rd %ile)
head:    17"   (72nd %ile)

Nine months
weight:  19# 9.6oz (65th %ile)
height:   28.75"  (87th %ile)
head:    17.5"   (66th %ile)

Twelve months*
weight:  20# 9.6oz (61th %ile)
height:   30.5"  (89th %ile)
head:    17.75"   (55th %ile)
(I'm pretty sure the printout is using the WHO norms now, not the CDC norms like in the 1st 9 months)

She is loving her wheely bug!

She gives great hugs and kisses!

The cats agree that she has an awesome stroller!

Birthday Girl!!

The last 52 weeks sure have flown by!  It's hard to believe that a year ago on Friday night, I went into labor. Then was in labor all day Saturday. And into Sunday. But then she arrived!! Finally, she arrived. Oh, glorious April 22nd!  A wonderful birthday for Rose, Mother Earth, Great Aunt Louise, and co-worker Angie!  Happy birthday to all! But before we get to the celebratory goodness of this post, let's quickly review the events of the last few days...


Last Thursday I made the incomprehensible error of saying to Mike, "Gosh, Rose hasn't been sick in about two weeks!"

Are you done laughing yet?

Now are you done?

Yes, as you probably predicted, Rose was awake for several hours on Thursday night, and had to stay home on Friday due to vomiting and diarrhea. Yuck!

On Saturday we tried to feed her bland-ish foods, like cheerios for breakfast, nutella bread for lunch, and cheesy bread for dinner. At lunch Mike and I joked about who would get the most nutella on their face.

Mike "won."

Then after dinner I got hit HARD by the virus Rose had had the day before. I'll spare you the sordid details, but I'll just say it was bad enough that I was debating going to the hospital for dehydration treatment. Thankfully, Mike found some ondansetron in our medicine cabinet and I'm so incredibly thankful for that miracle drug! I was finally able to keep some water down after that. (And, yes, looking at those pictures above is making me feel ill now, even as I type two days later!)

Sunday was a day of recovery for me, and of increasing nausea for Mike. That's right, he got the bug too. Meanwhile, Rose was basically recovered and was bored silly in our house. Huge thanks to Jack, Marsha and Anne for coming to visit (instead of the dinner we had had planned at Jack and Marsha's). Rose greatly appreciated the entertainment and Mike and I greatly appreciated the rest! Thank you!

As a result of my extreme nausea and fatigue yesterday, we had VERY few weekly pictures to choose from. But here are a few to commemorate her last week of portraits in her "weekly onesie" outfit:

As of this morning I had only eaten about 5 frosted mini wheats in 48 hours, so I decided to use some of my much-valued PTO in order to continue to rest and recover at home today. Rose was excited to have me home (normally I'm leaving for work by the time she wakes up) and gave me LOTS of kisses to prove it. (As you can see, we're switching from lip kisses to cheek kisses now. I'm pretty sure lip kisses last week had some role in our household virus sharing!)

I then had the opportunity to drop Rose off at school (and take some pictures), since Mike was still feeling "off" this morning. (But I must apologize to all her teachers for subjecting them to my stench - after I got home, I realized it had been 72 hours since I last showered. Ew!) Here's Rose in her classroom:

When I went back to pick her up at the end of the day (after several hours of rest, answering work emails, and folding laundry), this sign was on the door:

Looks like she and her friends had a great day celebrating!

For dinner we got special birthday sushi!

"Yummy avocado rolls!"

Which was then followed by something, judging from the look on her face, truly disgusting:

Yes, it was Italian dessert custard. Oh, the horrors! And then the whipped cream got on her wrist, which was truly awful!!

At least Mac was willing to distract her from the misery her parents had subjected her to.

Then it was time for present!  Formal thank yous will definitely be sent at a future date. In the mean time, let me summarize by saying that she got a fun vintage card:

And a fun pop-up card:

(Rose started clapping each time the pop-up card opened)

 Even mother nature sent some confetti (aka snow) to help celebrate.

Please let it be warm and sunny soon!!!

Happy Birthday, Little Miss!!! We love you so much. Hope you had a wonderful first birthday, Rose!