Miscellaneous photos

A couple weekends ago we had a picnic for lunch, and I had asked Rose to pick out where we should have it in our (relatively large) backyard. When I came out with the food, I saw she had picked this scenic location directly in front of the compost pile. Ha!

A different day she and I walked to McDonald's for an ice cream cone. I think it's the first time she had ever been there. As we were sitting outside I was explaining what a "drive through" is, and she watched car after car get handed bags of food through the window. Then she turned to me and said, "Mommy, lots of people want ice cream today!"  Ah, she thinks McDonald's is a specialty ice cream cone store that only sells vanilla cones! :)

She was SO proud to have saved up her birthday money to get this super-special Rapunzel tower! [Thanks especially to her cousin Eleanor (and E's parents) for helping to make this present happen.]

Tomorrow is "bike day" at daycare. Previously she has always refused to participate. But tonight she was willing to (finally!!!) try her skuut bike -- a gift from when she turned two. She's already basically outgrown it, but she did a great job inching along. My brave girl!  She made some progress with balance and steering tonight, and now is looking forward to bringing her bike in to school tomorrow. Yay!

Memorial Day weekend

We had a lovely Memorial Day visiting my parents!  The weekend was replete with:

Cheese curds!

Neighborhood walks!

Delicious food and drinks!

And fun with little miss!

She's explaining the rules to her game of finding the "surprises" in the Easter eggs.

Hope you all had a relaxing long weekend!

Wacky hair day 2016

Rose was really excited about "wacky hair day today." She decided she didn't want any "ponies," but did want lots of barrettes. (I think the bangs are her pièce de résistance.)

As we were leaving the house this morning, she turned to me and said "but Mommy, you forgot to do your wacky hair!" :)

photos

I haven't posted many photos recently (perhaps due to the Burcusa pink eye epidemic of 2016?), so here's a few on this fine Sunday:

The Mothers Day present I got from Rose :)

Children First Ice Cream Social!

Rose, just being silly :)

 Hope you had a great weekend!

summer vacation countdown

Only a few more weeks until we head out for our massive two-week family road trip!!!!! I can't believe that, after about a year of planning, it's almost here. So excited!!!

You can see the interactive outline of our trip HERE.  (For some reason I can't figure out how to insert a screen shot or to embed the google map, so you'll just have to click on the link to see the details.)

Yellow pins show where we're sleeping, black pins are restaurants recommended from a "road trip foods" book I read awhile back, and the other pins are activities/hikes/sights in each general areas we're staying. (Restaurants near our campsites/hotels are all tagged in my guidebooks, in case we don't have cell service in the national parks.)  As you can imagine, I've read more than a couple guidebooks and read more website recommendations than you can shake a stick at. Hopefully I will have achieved my goal of having a "good enough" sense of what our options are in each area, without going overboard and micromanaging our schedule either. Knowing the three of us, we will need the chance to be a little spontaneous or we just might kill either other after 16 days crammed in my little Subaru and our 3-person pup tent! Besides, if we like it, we can always plan to go back again in a future year. :)


If you have any last-minute tips for us, please let me know!  I've already started a packing list, a to-do list for Mike the week before we leave, and a things-to-buy-with-our-dividends-during-the-Memorial-Day-sale-at-REI list...

Rose-isms

Rose has always had the habit of twirling her hair as a self-soothing strategy, ever since she was a baby. We never discouraged it because we thought it was cute and, to be perfectly frank, we were just relieved that she wasn't sucking her thumb. But now it's turned into a problem because she is starting to get snarls in her hair from twirling it and then she is pulling out the snarls...resulting in a couple bald spots on her head!  So we're trying to gently remind her not to twirl her hair, to encourage an alternative behavior (clasping her hands "to give them a hug" instead), and to style her hair differently to discourage the twirling.


Last night I put "ponies" in her hair again for the first time in over a year. She looked in the mirror and said "I look like a new woman!"   :)

4yo "well child" appointment

I put it in quotes because Rose and I have been anything BUT "well."  We found out at this appointment that I have pink eye in both eyes (really bad in my left eye) and she has mild bilateral pink eye as well as bad ear infections in both ears.

I look like Bob Costas at the 2014 Olympics!

Antibiotics for both of us!

She is still managing to smile!

Hopefully we can keep up the R&R and get TRULY better soon!



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)

Fifteen months
weight:  23# (70th %ile)
height:   32.25"  (91st %ile)
head:    18.25"   (67th %ile)

Eighteen months
weight:  24# 9.6oz (72nd %ile)
height:   2'10" (98th %ile!)
head:    18.5" (68th %ile)

Twenty four months
weight:  27# 12.8oz (66th %ile)
height:   2'0.25"  (98th %ile)
head:    19"  (72nd %ile)

Thirty months
weight:  31# 6.4oz (80th %ile)
height:   3'3.25" (99th %ile!)
head:     19.5" (83rd %ile)

Three years
weight: 32# 12oz (71%ile)
height: 3'3.75" (96%ile)
BP: 86/50

Four years
weight: 38# 3oz (74%ile)
height: 3'7.75" (99%ile)
BP: 88/52