happy hour!

Mike got a haircut last night (sorry I didn't get a before/after shot!), so Rose and I hung out on the patio of a local Mexican restaurant. Her very first Happy Hour! She was madly in love with the Shirley Temple she got :)

And since we were so HOT yesterday, we followed it up with ice cream for dinner. (Please don't report me to the parenting police.)

hello again!

It's been WAAAY too long since I've been blogging regularly. As a result, I've been getting totally overwhelmed about where to even start. So, I decided to just hit the "high" points so you know what's been going on in the Burcusa household.

* My work has been crazy for about a year and a year. Like super, crazy, totally overwhelmingly busy.
* By February it got bad enough that I was horribly depressed and started back up in therapy again. (Should have listened to Mike and done it months earlier! I love my psychologist for helping me so much.) I can't even begin to describe how miserable I was feeling back then. I have a new level of empathy for anyone who is experiencing clinical depression.
* In early May, Mike accepted a job to be a chemistry teacher at Shakopee high school! Yay, Mike!
* Around that time (thanks to a lot of self-reflection, challenging, and creative thinking in therapy) I made the decision to find a new job.
* Also around that time, we transitioned Rose to her toddler bed. (<- my one post of the summer!)
* For Memorial Day we went to Hayward. Rose LOVED Grandma Roles' chickens, and she also got over her fear of the water and eventually went out on the boat once.  :)

Rose also loves the cheese curds and ice cream at the Burnett Dairy!

* Only about a week or so after I decided to find a new job, I was contacted by a former supervisor who wanted to recruit me! (Yes, the universe is amazing sometimes.) Interviews commenced.
* In early June we went to a family party (birthday / graduation / going away) and Rose got to hang out with her cousins.

*My parents came to visit in early June, and they introduced Rose to "rollercoasters"!

 * In mid-June Mike started staying home with Rose. They have been having so much fun together! They go to new parks, visit family, and just hang out together. I'm jealous!

*Right away Mike started with the potty training. (For Rose, not himself. Obvs.)  It was a smashing success! He is like a potty jedi.

*In June I was offered a new job - and I accepted!! I'm super excited that I'm going to be starting at the Minneapolis VA in early September. I'll be working on a rehab team, with patients recovering from stroke. I'll also probably be seeing some amputation and palliative care patients. I am thrilled with this upcoming adventure in my career!
*In late June I also learned that my phone would automatically make fun collages from the pictures I took.

* For the fourth of July, we had a GREAT staycation at home.  And Rose started to enjoy her Burley!

* Mike and I each watched the movie Tiny, which was incredibly thought provoking. It caused us to seriously reconsider our plans to move into a new (bigger) house in the next year or so. We're going to try to make a go of staying in our own tiny house instead! This is going to require a lot of cleaning and organizing...

One cupboard done...

* Rose and I like to go for walks whenever we can. She has started to love picking out her own clothes to wear, and often chooses many of the adorable dresses that people have given us.

 

* Mike took Rose to the cabin again last week, which meant I got to have the house to myself! Ahh, some OITNB, some wine, and some sewing. :)

* Finally, Mike and I just ordered new beds for ourselves (two twins, which is the equivalent of a king-size bed) because we are both light-sleeping control freaks who are unable to share (tee hee). Our plan had been to move our queen-sized bed downstairs to make a nice guest room in the basement, but our plan was foiled when the box spring couldn't make it down the steps. D'oh! So guess who now has a huge new bed? :)

Well, that's all folks! How's that for a whirldwind recap of the past several months?  Now that I'm caught up (and no longer depressed), hopefully I can go back to some more regular blog posts to keep you, my loyal readers, up to date.

Happy Friday!

Rose-isms #6

Sorry again for the lack of posts recently. I promise to write more in August/September once I can have a little more blog freedom. Until then, call me or email me if you're curious.

Anyway, Rose has been such a cutie pie and a total terror recently. In other words, she is a total toddler! She feels everything so strongly - she is a great reminder to always live in the present moment. I'm trying to learn from her.

Last Friday we went out to the local FroYo shop for afternoon snack as a very special treat. Rose gobbled up her delicious pineapple ice cream with kiwis. When we went to the bathroom to wash up before heading home, I asked she needed to use the potty. She turned on her super cute voice and replied, "need more ice cream, Mommy."  :)

Rose still loves baking with me, and her favorite thing is to make "muff-mahns" (aka muffins). Tonight she told me a really long story about how daddy was going to eat a muff-mahn, and Mac shouldn't eat his muff-mahn, and Mommy shouldn't eat the muff-mahn, etc., etc., So I grabbed my phone to capture the cuteness of the "muff-mahn" story, but of course she immediately clammed up. I tried to entice her to re-tell the story by asking, "Can I ate eat Daddy's muffin?" (since she had just told me "no muff-mahn, Mommy!") but of course she replied "yes, mommy!"   Ah, toddler defiance...you'll just have to take me word for it, but hearing "muff-mahn" makes me smile every time!

Finally, here's your moment of zen:

(She will only sleep with her pillow, three quilts, one cup, three board books, giraffe, Baby Boo, Baby Oof, lovey, Corduroy, and puppy dog.)

a couple photos

I realized that I haven't posted anything in the last couple weeks. It's not that nothing is happening, but rather that so MUCH is happening!  I promise to post more lately, but as a quick overview we are dealing with:
* Mike staying home with Rose during the summer
* Job updates
* Potty training
And a whole bunch of cuteness as Rose continues to expand her verbal capabilities!

I promise to write more as soon as I have the time and energy, but here's a couple photos to tide you over...

baking

Have I ever told you how much Rose loves to help me bake? It's become my favorite weekend tradition!

This weekend we made strawberry rhubarb bread, strawberry rhubarb pie, and peanut butter / oatmeal / chocolate chip cookies. Yum!

I appreciate having such a great helper, Mike appreciates the cuddles, and Rose appreciates licking the beaters/bowl!

big girl bed

I meant to post this a few weeks ago, but totally forgot!

Rose is now in a "big girl bed"!  It happened rather suddenly, after she was crying in bed and I walked in to see her attempting to launch herself out of the crib. We try to avoid brain injuries as much as possible in this house, so it was clearly time to make the transition.  At first I was worried about how she'd adjust, but it went really well! Once she falls asleep (which is a different story), she stays in bed all night long (knock on wood).

She also loves laying in her bed during the day and saying "Mommy turn lights dark. Mommy go away" so she can pretend to sleep.  

We tucked a pool noodle under the fitted sheet to help keep her from rolling out of bed, and so far that's working pretty well. As in, she's only fallen out twice, poor thing. Otherwise she really loves her new bed!

Rose-isms: barnyard edition

Rose and I were reading a barnyard-themed book yesterday. She would point out the animals, and I would tell her a little more about the animals. On the chickens page...
Rose:   Rooster!
Me: Yep, that's a rooster. A Daddy chicken is called a rooster. Do you see all the other chickens on the page?
Rose: Chickens! (pointing)
Me:  Yep, those are Mommy chickens which are called hens. The Daddy chicken is the rooster and the mommy chickens are hens.
Rose, after thinking for a moment, pointed to three more chickens:  Ninja chicken! Pop Pop chicken! Gigi chicken!

Yep, because if there's a mommy chicken and a daddy chicken, there clearly must be a chicken for her grandparents as well :)


On a similar note, we told Rose we were going to the Farmer's Market this morning. After thinking about that for a minute, she said,  Old MacDonald Market! and started singing the song to us :)


And, for your daily dose of cuteness, Rose insisted that "Baby" wear a raincoat if she was going to have to wear one, so here they are splashing in puddles together:

Hope you're having a great weekend!