Visiting Nana

We've made a couple of weekend trips back to Wisconsin this month to celebrate my sister K2's high school graduation (which made me feel REALLY old). Little A got a whole lot of extra attention (especially from Nana) while we were back, and she very much liked that.

Hi, Hi, Hi!

Little A's favorite thing to say right now, "Hi!" Once she gets over some initial shyness, the word hi goes on repeat. So much more to update, very soon, but for now a couple pictures of Little A and I at her great-grandma M's 85th birthday party a couple weeks ago.

Heat Wave

Earlier this week it got hot. Seriously hot. Both Monday and Tuesday were over 100 degrees, which does not happen very often in Minnesota. In face, Tuesday was the hottest day in the Twin Cities in the last 23 years. I know a lot of people didn't like it, and I wasn't a fan of our air conditioner refusing to work on Tuesday, but I enjoyed a little taste of summer weather (we're back in the 50 degree area today).

Little A got a water table for her birthday and the hot weather gave us a chance to use it. She had a lot of fun dumping out buckets of water, splashing around and generally playing outside in the warm weather. She also helped me (finally) get our little garden planted. Seriously, how cute is she in her little white hat?

Ouchies!

Now that Little A is walking, she's also doing a lot of falling. She takes it pretty well most of the time, and pushes herself right back up. Last week she had her first injury. I saw her fall on her butt, and thought she was fine, but she was crying so I went to get her. As I got there to pick her up I saw lots of blood coming from around her eye. It turns out she bumped her head on the door frame just enough to get a cut above her eye. And your face bleeds so much! It was really scary for me (and for her too). But she thought her bandaid was pretty cool (and it matched her dress). I know she's going to have lots more little injuries to come, but hopefully we can keep them all small like this one.

Deck Project Complete

Warm weather has finally arrived in Minnesota! And there's nothing better than spending some warm evenings outside on your own deck.

When we first started looking for a house (4 years ago... crazy!), E and I wanted to have a deck on the house, or the space to build one and last summer E built one for us! He did such a great job! Little A and I helped a little, screwing in all of the floorboards, but E ended up doing most of the work on his own.

Over the winter we turned windows in our kitchen into a patio door, so now we can walk right out. Plus the door lets in so much more light, and really brightens up our whole house. Here is a before and after shot of the window to door transformation.
Staining the deck was suposed to be the part where I would do most of the work. But because of some bad weather (and because my husband is so sweet), E stayed home last weekend and got the job done! Doesn't it look nice?We made the deck nice and big so we have room for a table, a sitting area and an area for Little A to play. She thinks the deck is the greatest part of the house.Here's my favorite part of the deck. This was totally E's idea too. He added a gate near the steps so we can keep the little one contained. It is so helpful when I need to run in the house quickly, or water part of the yard. I can still see Little A, but she can't escape (at least not until she masters the latch).

She's Got Skillz

This has been a big couple of weeks for Little A learning to do new things.

She started by mastering the stairs. I had seen her go up a few steps, then one day we didn't know where she went and we figured out she was up in our bedroom (we keep the door closed now).Look how proud she is climbing the stairs!And then an even bigger skill... Little A learned how to walk! We had a busy day on Saturday. After giving her a bath and getting her all ready for bed, she just took off. She had been taking a few steps at a time to E or I (or her train), but on Saturday night she was walking all over. She especially loves wandering around our deck, as you can see in the pictures.
Time for a break to play with that silly Daddy!

Let Her Eat Cake!

So, keeping with my current style, this is a little (well, 2 months) late. But, here is Little A with her first birthday cake!

When we first gave her the cake, she was a little apprehensive. She would just touch the cake with her fingers. We were all hoping to see much more of a mess with this chocolate chocolate cake, so Aunt K3 pushed Litte A's hand right in the cake. Then came the tears. Little A did NOT like getting her hand covered in frosting. So I took her out of the high chair, and tried to get her to play with her cake on my lap (and maybe smeared a little on her face too). She still wasn't happy about it. The only cake she really ate was when I covered her pacifier in chocolate and gave it to her (I, on the other hand, thought her cake was very tasty, and ate a good part of it myself).

And finally a couple of pictures of our little family at the party!