Mandy in Minneapoland

Wordless Wednesday

2012-02-01T13:04:00.001-06:00

Happy Kid!

2012-01-30T09:32:00.002-06:00

PB, Pine Cones, and Birdseed

2012-01-27T13:27:00.000-06:00

A couple of weekends ago, when we were all still recovering from being sick all week, we spent a long weekend at home together. Normally this isn't an issue, but it had been COLD out so we couldn't play outside and we had already spent so much time in our home while being sick that everyone was a bit stir crazy! I tried to come up with all sorts of ideas to keep Mia entertained. We played with just about every toy she owns (which is a LOT). We watched movies. We put up a tent and tunnel in our basement (she enjoyed that for about 5 minutes and then it was old news). We played with stickers and colored. We played with play-doh. We baked. We made I SPY jars out of old baby food jars, cous-cous, and random tiny objects we collected around the house (note: she enjoyed collecting the odd bits and ends more than actually playing with the jars, so evidently we need to just do some scavenging when we're bored). Finally, as a final straw, and since Sunday was actually much nicer outside, we made pine cone bird feeders. Luckily, last fall Mia and I collected a bunch of pine cones from the trees in our backyard and had put them into a container in the garage for safe keeping, so I could just hop outside and grab those instead of having to dig around in the backyard for some. So, we smothered them with peanut butter and dipped them into bird seed. We added a piece of yarn to tie them to the tree and viola! Pine cone bird feeders. Mia enjoyed eating the PB right out of the jar (or off of a pine cone), which was weird since she doesn't normally seem to like PB all that much (she's a nutella fan, though!). She also really enjoyed the mess of smearing PB and bird seed all over everything! Plus, she finally got to leave the house long enough to "help" hang the bird feeders in the front tree. Turns out, the birds probably never even got to them as the squirrels hijacked them (pine cone and all) within a few days. Now we just have bright yellow yarn hanging from the tree.

Mom said "Don't touch anything!"

Sittin' in Style

2012-01-24T09:34:00.002-06:00

Just wanted to share our new chairs with you! (Note: this post is mostly for my MIL, since I'm sure she's anxious to see pictures of the new dining room chairs that they got us for Christmas.) To go with our "new" refinished dining room table, we got 4 new dining room chairs from Pier One. I think the curves of the chairs pair nicely with the pedestal and curved feet of the table, and the gold works beautifully in our dining room. The gold damask backs are my favorite part - a little something fancy without overwhelming the design of the whole chair!

Meanwhile, I finally moved my grandparents' vintage swivel club chairs up to our house! I had requested these chairs when my grandma was selling the house and downsizing to a condo because they were one piece of furniture that made me instantly remember so many wonderful days and nights spent with my grandparents. At the time, I didn't have a spot for them, but when we re-painted our living room taupe I realized they could take the place of 2 cream-colored IKEA chairs that we had. I think they're a nice, grown-up addition to the room, and I love having that constant reminder of my grandparents in my home.

3.0.

2012-01-20T13:19:00.006-06:00

I hit the big 3-0 a couple of weeks ago, and decided to throw myself a big 'ol birthday bash to celebrate! I had multiple demands:

1) I wanted an excuse to buy a ridiculous cocktail dress which I may never wear again,
2) I wanted to ride around in a limo with some of my closest friends,
3) I wanted supper, drinks, and dessert at Chino Latinos, one of my favorite spots in Minneapolis, and
4) I wanted to party like a college kid at our old haunt, Gasthof's (a German polka bar!).

Thanks to some planning and coordinating on my hubby's part, some stellar babysitters, and a couple of much-needed shopping outings, we were able to pull it all off!

1) I found a dress - a champagne/gold short, off-the-shoulder, ruffled Calvin Klein dress that I would never normally wear - so it fit the bill perfectly! I also found some super high, super sparkly heels to go with it.
2) We rented a limo from one of my brother's friends, which was far cheaper than any of the other options in the cities. Unfortunately, this also meant that we were riding around in an OLD limo, complete with a cassette player and someone's glass of whiskey left in a hidden compartment. And we squeezed 7 people into a back that fits 6. But we brought a few bottles of sparkling wine, real champagne flutes, and enjoyed our ride to Chinos. At Chinos, I was informed that my brother had snuck into the limo and left me with a "dirty 30," which I soon found out meant a 30 pack of nasty beer - in this case, Hamm's. Luckily, he also left us with a nice bottle of sparkling wine, so after our photo op with the Hamm's we moved back to champagne! We were fortunate we had the extra booze because the limo overheated on our trip home, so we cracked open our 4th and final bottle of sparkling wine as we were stuck in a parking lot somewhere in Columbia Heights for a bit (until the driver gave up and called us a couple of taxis to get us home).

3) Although there were 7 of us in the limo, we had a group of 15 at Chinos for supper! Great company, great food, great cocktails, great dessert (complete with sparklers!), oh, and "Happy 30th Mandy!" on the menus!

4) Gasthof's. What can I say? I had to ditch the super high heels in exchange for flip-flops in order to really polka, we went through many boots of cider (without breaking a one!), we saw the Kaiser (but alas, not the little old man I used to polka with in college), Maria did her part to dance with another older gentleman, E-train joined us here, and we were out of there by 12am (as soon as the music changed from polka to club music). Not much has changed - the crowd is a bit different, and they've had to amp up security, but it was a great end to a great evening!

After our limo overheating, and then taxing home, we put the drunker ones to bed and the rest of us hung out for awhile in the basement recapping the night's events for our babysitters. Unfortunately, on our way home, we found out that miss Mia had gotten sick two times since we left, but our babysitters were AWESOME and took care of things. The next day after Dan and Kendra made us breakfast and took off, David, Mia, and I spent most of the day lounging on the couch, napping and watching movies. The following week we dealt with Mia being sick and having to stay home with her off and on (she went from having a stomach bug straight into having mild bronchitis!). David picked up some of the stomach bug Sunday evening, so all three of us ended up home together on my actual birthday, Monday. Luckily they were both doing much better, and we were even able to get out of the house and hit the Blue Door Pub for lunch together! She went to day care Tuesday and Wednesday, only to end up coughing so bad Wednesday night that she made herself throw up, and so, she and I stayed home together Thursday. I then got the stomach bug Thursday afternoon, and David got the cold, and we all ended home together on Friday. Whew! Thus, no blogging. After trying to play catch up all week this week, I think I'm starting to feel normal again (although I think I now have a sinus infection- bah!), and thankfully Mia is all better.

Oh, and for those mommys interested - at her 2 yr checkup last week she was 26 lbs and 35" tall.

January

2012-01-17T13:40:00.002-06:00

No time for an actual post, but just wanted to pass along this blog post that I read last week and loved! It's from one of my favorite blogs to follow, Life in Grace - she is amazing and inspiring, and I can completely relate to her love of January! Speaking of birthdays....I have some stories and photos to share from my big 30th birthday bash, but I'll have to share them another time as I'm currently prepping for a big first day of "work" with my 2 new undergrad students!

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Birthday Cake

2012-01-08T20:44:00.001-06:00

When I decided to throw a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse-themed birthday party for Mia, I really wanted to figure out a way to make a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake. For those of you that don't have a toddler, here's a shot of the club house.

Originally, I was going to try to make the cake in the shape of the clubhouse, so I purchased a dome-shaped soccer ball cake pan (bottom), another, smaller full ball cake pan (head), and some cookie pop pans (for the ears). Then, three days before the party I panicked and decided that more than likely wasn't going to work. Luckily, I found this post on another Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake in which she made the clubhouse topper from modeling clay. After a quick trip to Michael's and quite a few bags of Crayola Model Magic (super soft, easy to work with, and most importantly, light enough to set on top of a cake!), I was set to spend an entire evening making a model of the clubhouse. Two gin and tonics, and one and a half movies later, I had a model!

This made the cake part much easier - I could just make a sheet cake and set the model on top. Since I had seen these fun rainbow cakes before, I decided that I would give it a try. I purchased 2 white cake mixes, prepared them, and divided the batter into 6 equal portions, which I dyed with food coloring gel (it took quite a bit of gel to get the intense colors!).

I used a jelly roll pan for the cake (in order to fit the model on top), so I wasn't sure how to get the full rainbow effect in such a shallow pan. I started dumping the colors in globs across the pan, and then basically made piles of rainbow stacks in each one.

I had serious reservations that any of this would actually work, but ta-da! It did! Here's what the bottom of the cake looked like after I flipped it out of the pan!

For the frosting, I used a recipe from my friend, Sara (1 c. butter, 3 c. powdered sugar, a little whole milk, and then I added vanilla and green gel dye). It was so good!

The final product? Rainbow cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and a fabulous Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to top (Mickey's head is actually Styrofoam balls that I spray painted black and stuck together with toothpicks! I found the Mickey figurines on Amazon and they were the perfect size!).

Amelia turned 2!

2012-01-03T15:53:00.003-06:00

I can't believe my baby girl is 2 years old! I couldn't be more proud to be her mama! The last two years have flown by - time seems to literally accelerate when you have a child. As her birthday was on a Monday, we held her big birthday shin-dig on Sunday, which also happened to be New Year's Day. Even with some snow and ice, most of our party was able to make it. Mia was so excited about the party - she watched us clean and decorate the house (and bake her cake) the two days prior and every time we mentioned her birthday she'd yell "Yay!" The morning of the party David explained to her that everyone was coming just to see her, and she put her hands up to her chin and exclaimed "Oh my!" (She's a bit of a ham, if you haven't noticed.) She was especially excited to have both Nanas and Papas come to see her!

As I mentioned before, we did a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themed party (invites here). The cake was the pi`ece de resistance (insert appropriate French accent here)! It deserves it's own blog post, so I'll work on that later. For now, here's a photo of the finished product. It was pretty fantastic, and best of all Mia LOVED it. We had to constantly supervise her around it once it was assembled.

The party was fun - we ate lots of pizza and snacks, then some cake and homemade ice cream (made by Mia's great-grandpa Leonard!), watched some football, drank some Bloody Marys and beer (or chocolate milk and apple juice for the kiddos), and enjoyed the day with family and friends. The next morning, on her actual birthday, she opened up a few more gifts from us and Nana and Papa EIO, since they had stuck around for the night. Then David and I dragged her to IKEA to look at kitchen cabinets, which obviously is what you should do 1) on a pseudo-holiday when it's incredibly busy and 2) when it's your child's birthday. I don't think we'll get away with that next year! When we got back we were able to enjoy some down time to watch the Rose Bowl and play with Mia and all of her new toys - we even took time to convert her crib to a toddler bed with safety rails. This, coupled with a fire call for David, made for a pretty bad night of sleep as Mia got up once at 11:30pm and then again from 3:30-5am (continually getting out of bed, me putting her back in bed, then her getting back out again...). Whew! It's going to be an interesting week of sleep!

Opening up gifts with her cousins' help! Gavin wasn't really sure what to think of all of the commotion!

Tommy approved of the cake and ice cream, too!

Every day this kid learns or does something new - it's amazing to watch. She's getting to be so self-sufficient, it's terrifying and exhilarating at the same time! She charms everyone when we're out and about - she's not a shy kid in the slightest. Her vocabulary is rapidly increasing, and we're reading longer and longer books all of the time (thank goodness- we needed some new options!). When she goes to kiss someone lately, she makes fish-lips - it's pretty cute! She loves her new play kitchen - she makes pizza and bakes cookies, microwaves cocoa, and just enjoys moving various foods around all of the cupboards and compartments. She loves following the kitty around and trying to get him to play with her (which rarely happens). Piglet is still her lovey, and he's getting more worn by the day (even though there are 2 of them in commission - we may have to try to switch out one of the new ones and see what she does - she already knows when I switch between the 2 because the "new" one is clean and doesn't smell the same!). All in all, it's been a pretty amazing year - I can't wait to see the changes throughout the next one! We love you miss Mia!

It was a good Christmas...

2011-12-27T20:51:00.003-06:00

Christmas Eve with my side...

Mia was really helpful opening up ALL of the presents!

It's about damn time we see this girl in some maroon and gold!

The "inspiration" piece for mine and David's new room at my parents' new lake house!

Christmas day with David's side... Mia showing off her tights...and belly button...

Teddy, with his fancy Christmas tie!

Merry Christmas from Us to You!

2011-12-23T12:00:00.000-06:00

2 cards, because we simply couldn't decide! All photos by Amy Rondeau Photography, top card designed by Amy, bottom card created on Snapfish.

More Holiday Fun!

2011-12-22T10:13:00.000-06:00

Last weekend my family was able to get together for supper at Pizza Luce and the Hollidazzle parade downtown Minneapolis. It was Mia's first time to the Hollidazzle and she LOVED it - especially seeing Santa in his sleigh at the end! She is constantly saying "Santa!" and "Ho-ho-ho" these days. Needless to say, she's pretty excited about Christmas. The time together was especially important as my brother, Stephen, flew to Jamaica a couple of days later for the week, so he won't be around for our big family Christmas Eve. It was also a treat to have both of my brothers' girlfriends, Kendra (Dan) and Lori (Steve), around!

Mia has enjoyed helping me to decorate Christmas goodies. I gave her a bottle of sprinkles and let her go crazy over the almond bark pretzels. She had a hard time keeping her little fingers out of the gooey almond bark!

David, Mia, and I did our own Christmas morning last Sunday. We snuck this red play kitchen upstairs after she went to bed and she got discover it the next morning! It is a hit. We were a little worried that she wouldn't actually know what the phone is as it looks like a normal phone and not like the cell phones she's used to seeing, but sure enough she figured it out quickly! "Hi Minnie!"

Our friend Laura brought a present by the other evening - Mia loved it, but I think she enjoyed the time with Laura even more!

Here's a quick shot of our tree this year - we added big, clear bulbs in addition to our normal colored mini lights and we really liked the result (but it does give off a LOT of light!).

Finally, here's a little Christmas scene from Miss Mia: the nativity, complete with baby Jesus on the roof, an elephant, and a Christmas tree!

Cinnamon Popcorn Balls

2011-12-16T12:17:00.000-06:00

I saw the recipe for these on Angela's blog over at Fixing It Fancy and decided to give them a try in this year's batch of Christmas goodies. They were quick, easy, and fun to eat! Mia even liked them! Recipe is here, but I've summarized it below.

Cinnamon Popcorn Balls
5 quarts air popped popcorn (1 1/2 cups unpopped)
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter
1/4 cup white corn syrup
1 cup red hot candies
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda

Mix all ingredients except popcorn and baking soda in a microwave safe bowl. Cook on high for 1 1/2 minutes, stir, continue cooking until the red hots melt. Add in baking soda, mix well. Pour over popcorn and stir until well mixed. Form into balls or spread on parchment or wax paper and let cool.

Note: The original recipe says to put the popcorn in a paper bag, add the mix, stir, then microwave the whole thing for 1 1/2 minutes, repeating 2 more times. I skipped this, simply because I forgot. It didn't make much of a difference - I'm guessing I could have spread it a bit more evenly and had the syrup "set" a bit better, as I've seen for some paper bag caramel corn recipes, but I don't think it's necessary. The original recipe also doesn't include directions on when to add the baking soda, so I just added it after the syrup was all melted - not sure of its function.

Now I have a few large ziplocks full of cinnamon popcorn in my pantry and I get to smell the goodness every time I open the pantry door! Yum! Thanks for sharing, Angela!

Slow down! (Amelia Update!)

2011-12-13T13:42:00.003-06:00

We're LONG overdue for an Amelia update! The kid is growing up way too fast! The other day, I literally walked into the living room to see her doing this:

How she managed to find both David's computer, his pad and pen, and my phone, we'll never know! Evidently we've instilled in her the importance of a good list, not to mention a laptop and cell. I keep saying that she's into everything these days, which is still true, but now if we attempt to remove her (or it), we get treated with a crazy tantrum and/or hollering. I think the terrible 2s may be here...for example, the other night while David and I were having supper (she was done eating already), we told her not to do something and she threw up her hand and yelled "No Dada!" then looked at me and said "No Mama!" We kept our calm and told her that it was not okay to yell at us, but as soon as she left the room we started silently laughing - David said that we're lucky she's not a witch as we'd be on fire! She redeemed herself later that night, though, by noticing an scrape on my cheek and giving it a kiss to make it all better! So sweet.

I think the biggest change has been her increased independence. Everything is "No! Mia!" meaning that she either wants to keep whatever she has that she thinks is hers or that she wants to do something herself. This is pretty much constant. Getting out the door in the mornings is a challenge - first I have to convince her that it's okay to leave and go to daycare, and then we have to duke it out to get her shoes, coat, and hat and mittens on. She also changes her mind, a lot. We'll give her an option to pick which jacket she will wear and she'll pick one, we'll start to put it on, then she'll pick another one, and so on (maybe this just means that we have too many jackets....and shoes...and hats...but a girl should have options, right?). It's exhausting.

In addition to the increased independence, is a desire to 'help.' So she likes to try to help in the kitchen with the cooking and baking. This works out okay most of the time, but sometimes it gets a bit messy:

She was helping me put sprinkles on the spritz cookies, but decided that she should pop one of the uncooked cookies into her mouth, which meant that I got to dig it back out. Needless to say, she was not happy.

Her hands were green from the sprinkles and dough, but I realized later that her FEET were also green because she had been stepping on all of the sprinkles that she spilled! Too funny.

Good thing we're heading home for Christmas in a little over a week as we constantly hear about Nana B and Papa B, and Nana EIO and Papa EIO (as in E-I-E-I-O...). Nana and Papa EIO were at our place for a bit this past weekend, so she got in some play time with them. The day after they left I found her talking on her play phone to Nana EIO. I'm pretty sure she was demanding that she come back.

So, wish us luck as we dive further into the terrible 2s! Any suggestions, besides crazy levels of patience? Cocktails? That seems to help by the end of some days! :)

Mickey Mouse Birthday Invites!

2011-12-09T09:45:00.001-06:00

Let the fun begin - we're planning another birthday party over here in Minneapoland! Miss Mia will be 2 years old on January 2nd! Since she's crazy about Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, we're doing a Mickey and Minnie-themed party. And since I love Pinterest, I started looking for party ideas on there awhile ago - check out my Mickey Mouse Birthday Party board if you are interested in what I found. While on there, I happened across a great idea for invites, which I could either buy on Etsy from here or I could make them myself (her's are a bit cuter, and reasonably priced if you're looking for a quick invite!). Being slightly insane, I decided to make them myself. Last night. I cut out over 100 little circles and ovals! They are cute, though, don't you think? The white part with the info pulls out of the pants pocket. Now it's on to designing a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake...

Holiday Fun

2011-12-07T11:10:00.001-06:00

Getting our Christmas tree this year was a bit more fun than normal as Mia was around to "help," which basically meant that one of us chased her around the tree lot while the other tried to find the "perfect" tree. In the end, we grabbed one of the last ones we saw, which Mia happened to point to, changed our minds at the last second to grab the one next to it, and away we went (David, as usual, hauled it home by hand - only a half a block walk, thank goodness!).

Mia really enjoyed decorating the tree - she put up lots of plastic ball ornaments - but she didn't understand that she was supposed to spread them out, so we have random concentrations of ornaments along the lower part of the tree. Now she likes to pull them off and throw them around the house, or move them to other parts of the tree, or try to holler for the kitty to come play with them (which she knows he does, but he never wants to do with her).

I was able to wrap the first round of presents after she went to sleep Saturday night, and the hubby was busy watching the Big Ten championship football game. We put them out around the tree and she managed to make it almost an entire day before we found her on top of her cousin Emory's gift, slowly ripping open the corner. The presents have been stashed in the office for the remainder of the season.

Deck the Halls!

2011-12-02T19:40:00.001-06:00

Flash mob at the U! Hope it helps to get you in the Christmas spirit!

Movember

2011-12-01T19:47:00.001-06:00

This is what I had to look at (and kiss - eew!) for the last month! David decided to participate in no-shave November, or Movember, with some of his fire fighters to raise awareness for male cancers. I can't decide if it was a good or a bad thing that, because of his job, he could only grow out a mustache...

Oh Little Girl...

2011-11-22T13:47:00.001-06:00

Because when I say "Smile!" I definitely want to see you tilt your head and close your eyes! Ridiculous.

Dress up is even more fun when cousin Niko is around!

Our living room, after the tornado (aka Mia) hit!

Got one!

2011-11-17T11:15:00.001-06:00

I half-decided that I'd like to get a Cities 97 sampler CD this year since I legitimately listen to most of the artists on this year's sampler, but I wasn't willing to wait in line (in the 19 degree weather!) for one, so I just told myself that I'd swing by "my" Target in Roseville on my way into work and see if I happened to get one. I was, of course, running late this morning (more so than normal), but stopped anyway only to be told that they had JUST sold the last one! Dang! So, I thought, "oh well," and went into work. Meanwhile, I set up my ELISA and worked on cleaning the ice out of the -80 freezer rubber seals (yes, this is what I spend my days doing...) and headed back up to my office. I checked the #sampler23 updates on twitter only to see that the Northeast Target hadn't reported in as being sold out yet. I debated for about 2 minutes, threw on my coat, grabbed my wallet and was out the door. (Dave, if you're reading this, just remember that I had started my experiments for the day first!) :) In about 30 minutes I had ran to the Quarry, found a large stack of samplers left, was handed 2 of them (the limit per customer) from the guy in front of me who told me that he figured I was coming for them since I was the only other one walking with purpose (loudly, heels clinking...), grabbed the Glee Christmas CD for $5 (with a Target promo coupon - nice idea by them), and was back in my office. Now I'm listening to the splendid music as I attempt to refocus and actually get back to work. Awesome. And worth every crazy minute.

Mama Mia!

2011-11-10T12:08:00.001-06:00

Look what I found Miss Mia doing this morning...

Dog days of FALL?

2011-11-09T13:49:00.001-06:00

I wish I could grab a photo with my real camera, but here's a quick look at Jonas enjoying the beautiful sunshine today, surrounded by golden leaves (from behind my closed patio door, which, if I open, will immediately ruin the picture!).

Friday Video Update

2011-11-04T14:52:00.002-05:00

Mia learning how to spin!

Daddy teaching Mia to be a zombie..."Brains!"

Pizza Mia!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T14:37:00.000-05:00

Carving pumpkins with Grandma B! Mia wasn't excited about putting her hand into the pumpkin, but did help daddy design his jack-o-lantern, and then helped Grandma out by scooping the 'guts' back into her pumpkin!

Here are some pictures of our little Minnie Mouse! She looked pretty cute, if I do say so myself!

Say "cheese!" Phony smiles already!

We took her trick-or-treating for the first time with our friends, Sara and Rob, and their two little ones. Lucky for Mia, Tommy is 3 and was really into ringing the doorbell and saying "trick or treat!" She backed away a couple of times, but once she realized she was getting candy, she was all in!

"Put me down mom! I have more candy to get!"

Somedays it's extra good to be a Gopher...

2011-10-31T11:51:00.002-05:00

Happy Halloween (weekend)!

2011-10-28T12:25:00.003-05:00

I'm hoping to find some time to dress Mia in her costume and do a mini photo shoot this weekend, but in the meantime, here's a quick reminder of what she looked like for last year's Halloween! Enjoy your weekend everyone!

This. I love.

2011-10-27T09:52:00.000-05:00

Don't you just love it when you find music that speaks to your soul? I happened across the Daniel Martin Moore CD "In the Cool of the Day" after hearing a couple of his songs on various TV shows recently (I think possibly both were on Parenthood, for those of you interested, which I promptly grabbed David's phone from him and shazam'ed!), so I decided to download the whole CD and give it a whirl. LOVE it. It's perfect for some peace and quiet time (which is in short supply in our household these days), and possibly some baking as we stay indoors and start to prepare for the cold to officially set in. I can't get enough of it, so I thought I'd share. Is there a CD (or a song) that you can't get enough of these days? If so, please share!

Ah...October

2011-10-24T21:21:00.002-05:00

Gotta love free labor.

We may need to find a smaller rake...

Gallery Wall

2011-10-13T15:13:00.000-05:00

I finally broke down and made a gallery wall after we repainted our living room. The thing is, I love the idea and look of a gallery wall, but wasn't sure I was going to jump on the bandwagon since they are SO popular now. But...I had an idea. I have very little usable wall space left in our house, and I always seem to find fun new prints that I'd like to put in my house but never have a place for them. Plus, I have a crazy amount of photos that I'd love to display now that we have an adorable kid to photograph, but have no where to display them. So bam! It hit me. Gallery wall. Above the couch. Photos AND prints. The best of both worlds and room for new stuff! I picked out some of my favorite candid and professional shots of Mia, our family, and even a couple of pre-baby pics, added in 2 prints that are absolutely perfect for us, and away I went. I didn't want to try to match all of the frames, and I've incorporated various metallic-y sheened items into my living room over the years, so I did a mixture of black and metallic frames, which I think is turning out beautifully. It's a little eccentric, just like me. It's still a work in progress, as you can see since it's not balanced yet. I like it this way, because it means that I get to keep my eyes open for new art and add in new fun photos (like a beautiful, breath-catching pic of Amelia in the apple orchard from our family photo shoot a couple of weeks ago - don't look for it, it's not up there yet!).

Here's a close up of my two prints.

One is a Story People print, which says

"There are lives I can imagine without children but none of them have the same laughter & noise."

Some of you may remember that we have another Story People print in Mia's room, so I have a long history of loving this artwork.

The bigger one is a newer print by one of my favorite local artists, Michael Birawer, which I've blogged about before. The funny thing about this print is that although I've loved his work for a long time, I hadn't actually purchased a print for myself (yet). I had a few magnets, and had purchased a poster for my old boss as part of a lab gift one year, but hadn't broken down and bought one myself. Why? I couldn't decide! I loved too many of them, but I'll admit I really loved the 'green bridge' one of the Hennepin Ave bridge. However, a couple of my friends also loved this one and purchased it, and so, I didn't really want to get the same one that everyone else was getting (I'm kind of like that, as some of you may know...). BUT....I wanted to make sure to purchase a Michael Birawer print for the new gallery wall, so I headed to his website hoping to find the perfect one and THERE IT WAS. An Evening at the Bank. Like it was made for me (and David). I couldn't have commissioned a more perfect piece. I ordered the smallest printed canvas immediately (after a few super-happy-freak-out emails were sent to tell others of my discovery), took it to the Carter Ave Frame Shop, right near my old college apartment, had them frame it up all fancy, and there it is, on my wall. A perfect addition to the gallery.

Perfect Fall Day

2011-10-06T14:24:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday, the last true day of fall in my opinion as it's been 70-80 ever since and not at all fall-like, we spent all day outdoors. We started the day at a local apple orchard, that was almost in our own backyard. Victoria Valley Orchards IS in someone's backyard, in the middle of a residential area in Shoreview. It made the perfect fall setting for family photos! We were able to get pics with the beautiful morning light coming down through the apple trees, and of course, pics of miss Mia finding and then eating an apple directly from the tree! Can't wait to see the final products!

After photos, we drove about an hour north of the cities to Wild River State Park with Laura and Gabe to do some 'hiking' (really walking on trails, some of which were paved) and picnicking in the park. The air was crisp, the sky was blue, and the leaves were gorgeous. Mia enjoyed her time in the backpack carrier, but had even more fun running around on the paved trails. Here are some photos from the day:

New Dining Room Table!

2011-10-03T11:47:00.001-05:00

A couple of years ago I obtained my grandparents' table after my grandpa was moved into a nursing home (or more truthfully, my mom obtained it and immediately passed it down to me). The table was in bad shape, having been stored in not-exactly-ideal conditions, so it was put into storage at my parents' farm until we could get it restored. No one seems to know much about the table, my mom and her brothers and sister just remember it being their table when they were growing up. My mom's aunt Dee Dee said that it was left for my grandparents by my grandma Mandy's parents, so it's from the Gieseke side of the family.

Here's the only before picture that I have, from the sale. The table is in the middle, topped with random chairs and this beautiful golden horse clock (wonder who lucked out and ended up with that gem?).

My parents, having also recently acquired an old table from the other side of the family, tracked down a furniture restorer in St. Peter and had that table refinished (that should be a whole other blog post on its own!). Once we saw the work that was done on that table, we had them take ours in to be restored, as well. One month later, this is what we now have in our dining room!

Here's what we know about the table: it was made by St. John's Table Co. in Cadillac, MI (as deduced from the brand label on the table's pedestal), and more than likely it was produced in 1909 (as deduced from a stamp of 09 underneath the tabletop), which would make it over 100 years old! The table top is quartersawn oak, which is a beautiful method that was popular during the late 1800s-early 1900s, as part of the American Arts & Crafts movement (same movement that generated all of those great Craftsman homes in the twin cities). So what is quartersawn oak, exactly? I had to google it, but the best explanation I can find is at The Barnyard Gazette. I'm stealing their image for a quick visual, because it's the best I've found:

The logs were first cut into quarters, then each quarter was cut so that the planks were exactly perpendicular to the growth rings. This gives each plank a unique look due to the visualization of the growth rings (or what's officially called "medullary ray flecks," I think). This took a lot of labor, and wasted a lot of wood, so it's not done much anymore, which is why pieces that have this are of a higher value.

Additionally, the edge of the table, right below the tabletop, is ridged, meaning that the oak was bent specially as it was shaped into an oval. This is also unique.

The table was found with 2 9-inch leaves, both of which were terribly warped and I was afraid they were beyond repair. Fortunately, the furniture restorer works with a woodworker, who was able to save them. Better yet, when my mom went to pick up the table, they showed her that the pedestal that the tabletop sits upon actually splits into two by a unique mechanism. She asked if the table perhaps would accommodate more leaves then, and they hadn't considered that. She hauled it up to my place last night, and sure enough, we can pull the table apart even farther than anticipated! The end result is that it can accommodate 3 more 9-inch leaves, which would give us an 8 foot long table! So, we're having them make us 3 new leaves to match the first two, which means we may have to do some fancy dinner parties this winter.

For now, we're using the chairs from our old dining room table (a hand-me-down from David's parents, which I realized yesterday I've had for 10 years - through college and grad school, up until now!). That table got moved down to the basement to be used as a winemaking center for the hubby. I'm looking forward to finding some fun chairs to go with the new table...although I'll have to keep a look out for a large number of them now that I will have an 8 foot long table! Can't wait for the official finished product, but right now I'm enjoying the beautiful new addition to our home! I'm off to buy some clear vinyl to cover it so that miss Mia doesn't immediately destroy it with food or crayons (I already found her on top of it this morning!).

How does YOUR garden grow?

2011-09-30T12:32:00.000-05:00

Because ours looks like a jungle right now - the pumpkin vines have taken over the entire garden, the tomatoes are overflowing, the grape vines are spreading, and soon it'll all be dead. Here's hoping we can rake in some good pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, and herbs before the next frost (because covering all of that for the first, super early, frost was ridiculous and I refuse to do it again!).

She really loves pulling the green cherry tomatoes off the vine and eating them! (Not the red, ripe ones!)

The trellis system has been started!

Who needs to go to a pumpkin patch when you have one in your backyard?

Fall Recipes

2011-09-26T11:48:00.002-05:00

As the weather has quickly cooled off, and we still have a ridiculous amount of produce left in the garden (mostly tomatoes), I've been trying a few new recipes. Last night I tried out this simple tomato sauce with onion and BUTTER recipe from the Smitten Kitten. I tweaked it as I was 1) using fresh tomatoes that were threatening to rot on my countertop (I blanched and peeled them this way - SUPER quick and easy - who knew?) and 2) I had a lot more tomatoes, and lots of fresh herbs, so I didn't have the true tomato to butter ratio that the recipe is for. I did one pan of tomatoes (red and yellow) with yellow onion cut in half and the butter, but then added fresh thyme and oregano. The onion was supposed to be removed at the end, but I ended up breaking it up as it cooked in the sauce and left it in. The other pan was tomatoes, a roughly chopped red onion, butter, and basil. I also didn't remove the seeds from the tomatoes, which I was worried about, but it turns out if you simmer them long enough that extra juice will cook off. We're eating this over pasta tonight, so I'll let you know if it's horrible. I was just happy to find a relatively quick and easy way to use up all of those tomatoes!

From the Smitten Kitten:

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions

Adapted from Marcela Hazan’s Essentials of Italian CookingAnother thing that blew my mind about this sauce: I, for one, am a grated parmesan junkie. I not only sprinkle it over my bowl of pasta, I like to have additional nearby, to apply a fresh coat to the layers of pasta that follow. So you can imagine my shock to find that I liked this dish even more without the parmesan. The flavor of the sauce is so delicate, fresh and sweet that it needed nothing at all.

Serves 4 as a main course; makes enough sauce to lightly coat most of a pound of spaghetti

28 ounces (800 grams) whole peeled tomatoes from a can (San Marzano, if you can find them)*

5 tablespoons (70 grams) unsalted butter

1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved

Salt to taste

Put the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan (it fit just right in a 3-quart) over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste (you might find, as I did, that your tomatoes came salted and that you didn’t need to add more) and keep warm while you prepare your pasta.

Serve with spaghetti, with or without grated parmesan cheese to pass.

Last week we made Spaghetti with Roasted Tomatoes, Garlic, and Pancetta from the Italian Dish - SO GOOD.

From the Italian Dish:

Spaghetti with Roasted Tomatoes, Garlic, Pancetta
adapted from Canal House Cooking

serves 4

3 ounces diced pancetta (or bacon if you can't find pancetta)
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for the pasta
2 anchovy fillets
1 cup coarse fresh bread crumbs*
4 tomatoes, tops sliced off, seeds scooped out
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
small handful fresh thyme, parsley or basil leaves, chopped
salt & pepper
8 ounces spaghetti

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Fry the pancetta in a skillet over medium heat until browned and crisp around the edges. Use a slotted spatula or spoon to lift the pancetta out of the skillet to a plate. Leave the rendered fat in the skillet. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the anchovies to the same skillet. Use a wooden spoon to mash the anchovies until they dissolve. Add the bread crumbs and cook, stirring often, until they are golden. Keep the cooked pancetta set aside for later.

Put the tomatoes, cut side up, in a baking dish and slip some garlic into each tomato. Season the tomatoes with plenty of salt and pepper. Mound some bread crumbs onto each tomato, getting some inside the tomatoes. Scatter herbs on top. Drizzle 4 tablespoons of olive oil over all. Roast the tomatoes in the oven until they have browned a bit and the interior is supple but the tomatoes have not collapsed, about one hour.

Cook the spaghetti in a large pot of boiling salted water. Drain. Return the pasta to the pot and remove the tomatoes from the baking dish and set aside. Stir the oily tomato juices and any bits of bread crumbs from the bottom of the tomato roasting dish into the pasta. Add a little olive oil and the reserved pasta water and toss.

Pour the pasta into a serving bowl, place the tomatoes on top, sprinkle the pancetta over all and serve.

And finally, this didn't use up our produce, but it was a good fall meal: Acorn Squash stuffed with Harvest Quinoa. We decided we really loved the harvest quinoa, but next time we'd make that separately and just have the acorn squash on the side (with butter and brown sugar, as we like it!) - the quinoa could stand on it's own as a meal!

From Craft:

Acorn Squash Stuffed with Harvest Quinoa

Ingredients
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 cups cooked quinoa
2 cups baby spinach, chopped and steamed until just wilted
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cubed into 1-inch dice
1/2 cup chopped apple
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup cranberries
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
Sea salt, to taste
Ground pepper, to taste
2 medium-sized acorn squash
1 cup lower-sodium vegetable broth or homemade stock
1/4 cup milk cheddar cheese, shredded
Serves 4
Directions
Step 1: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cook quinoa according to package directions. In a small pan, sauté onion and garlic in 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat until softened but not browned. Place in a large bowl and add quinoa, cranberries, sweet potato, apple, almonds, and sage. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Step 2: Slice acorn squashes in half lengthwise, and scrape out seeds and strings. Place face down in large casserole or roasting pan, fill with 1/2 inch of vegetable stock, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
Step 3: Remove squashes, reserve any remaining stock, and place them face side up in pan. Fill each cavity with about 1/2 to 2/3 cup stuffing. Drizzle with olive oil and any remaining stock, and cover tightly with foil.

Step 4: Bake until squashes are cooked and slightly soft to the touch, about 30 minutes. Remove the foil for the last 5 minutes of baking, sprinkle with cheese, and bake until cheese has melted. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

You need to check out the original sites for photos of all of these - yummy!

Mia says "TGIF! Let's party!"

2011-09-23T15:11:00.001-05:00

Amelia Update, 20 1/2 months

2011-09-22T14:59:00.001-05:00

Twenty and a half months will really be twenty-one months in just over a week! Fall is here, the early frost (3 weeks!) wreaked havoc on the gardens, flower pots, and fields, so I'm feeling the pressure of fitting things in before the snow arrives again. That included getting the living room painted and the oak tree taken down (see below), but will also include (hopefully) getting some cement re-sloped near our house to avoid future water in the basement, trimming the remaining trees on our property, planting 2-3 new trees (yay! hopefully this weekend!), and finding some time to get some family photos taken with the fall colors. Which brings me to the Amelia update, which has been a long time coming!Looking back over the summer, I can't believe that we're dealing with the same kid - how did she get so big so fast?? She's constantly jabbering now, and will frequently answer your questions - granted, it's usually all "Yeah" or all "No", depending on her mood, but she answers in a way that makes you think she really means what she says!. Other times, she'll pause and go, "Umm...." (wonder who she gets that from!) She also says a lot of "Oh no!" and "Whoa!" She is starting to sing! She really loves listening to us sing "Old MacDonald" and the alphabet song, plus she'll try to request songs at bedtime (usually "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"). She can even kind of sing "E-I-E-I-O."She's even trying REALLY hard to count! She's got 1 down, and usually 2, but 3 is a bit harder. We count ALL of the time now!She's definitely gotten bigger and stronger - she pulls herself onto everything - including the dining room table! She hasn't crawled out of her crib yet, but I have caught her swinging her leg up, so I think it'll be soon (yikes!). She LOVES her slide in the backyard and when we drive past the park on the way home from daycare, she says "Whee!!" She'll even go down the big slides at the park by herself. We're currently trying to teach her to jump, stand on one leg, and throw a ball, which is pretty amusing for all of us.She still loves Piglet (she takes him everywhere!) and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - although she's more excited about Minnie these days! She loves to watch mom cook and bake, trying to color, playing dress up, doing puzzles, and reading books. She's very demanding - she will make sure you know EXACTLY what she wants, so I think we'll all be happy when she finally can just SAY what she wants!Here's a little bit longer video- she was having fun watching herself in the camera viewfinder!

Home Improvements (?)

2011-09-20T15:04:00.001-05:00

I have a bit of writer's block today (not good, considering my experiments weren't ready to go this morning and all I need to be doing is WRITING), so I'm going to share our recent house projects with you (but I'm probably not going to be able to actually SAY much about them!). The weekend before last, the hubby and I went a little crazy and decided to repaint our main floor living room in TWO DAYS. This is saying something because 1) we have a TODDLER and 2) the walls in our living room are textured and therefore take extra time to paint, plus they go all the way upstairs as we have an open staircase in that room - thus, we ended up painting 1.5 rooms instead of just 1! The only way this project was even remotely feasible was because we had lined up my brother and his girlfriend to babysit on Saturday as we had an evening wedding, and since we then couldn't use our season tickets for the Gophers' football home opener, they took the kid to the game. So...they took off with her at 10:30am for tailgating before the game, and we had 6 hours before we needed to actually leave for the wedding. We almost didn't get the first coat on in that time! We had spent time the night before moving furniture and decor out of the room and wiping down the walls, but we still needed to tape off everything before we started painting on Saturday. It was nuts. Luckily, we were able to pop in an old Big Bang Theory DVD and hammer it out. The next day, Mia cooperated by agreeing to go in her pack 'n play and watch Toy Story in the middle of the (well-ventilated) living room while we hastily put on a second coat. Here's a look at the previous wall color (yes, it's mint green, don't judge, I kind of loved it). Sorry for the weird pics, I took one quick as we were moving things out, and I just found an old one that was actually supposed to show off our (then new) stained floor, but you get the idea.

And, viola! Here's our new living room - freshly painted, with new curtains (they still have the wrinkles from the packaging), and a new rug that I found on clearance (both the rug and the curtains are from Target). I think it's perfect!

The wall above the couch is blank in these pictures, as we're in the process of creating a gallery wall of photos and prints. I'll share once it's a little farther along...Meanwhile, this past week we had our beautiful, old oak tree in the front yard removed, as it died this summer. Here are just a few shots of the process. We found a guy that was willing to come in and take it down for far less, by himself, and it only took him 2 days (plus a few hours on the third day to finish the clean-up). It was so sad to see it go - and now we notice how much privacy it added as I feel like our entire front yard is on display (which isn't actually true). We plan to plant a tree this fall yet to help make up for it!Just to give you an idea of the size of the tree...

My attempt to get a shot of the "rubble" - but I didn't want to interrupt the man with the chainsaw, so it's taken through our window!

Our new view. So sad!

There's No Place Like Home...

2011-09-16T12:03:00.001-05:00

I found Miss Mia some sparkly red shoes to go with her Minnie Mouse Halloween costume, and promptly tried them on her yesterday...didn't realize that my photo would come out looking quite so much like the Wicked Witch of the East! Love it.

Contagion Microbial Billboards

2011-09-14T10:44:00.002-05:00

Just saw this come across on Twitter - in Toronto, Warner Bros. had microbial billboards made to promote their new movie, Contagion! Here's more on the making of the billboards. The time lapse of the billboards is above, while the trailer for the movie is below. I haven't seen the movie yet, but the billboards are genius! See, microbiology is cool!

Oh, and for those of you interested in the science behind Contagion, here's an interview done by Maryn McKenna (author of Superbug) with the science advisor for the movie - beware, it has spoilers! I haven't read it yet as I'm waiting to see the movie for myself first!

Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Trip 2011

2011-09-13T11:45:00.030-05:00

The hubby and I finally took our first official vacation since having Amelia! Since we weren't traveling for a conference this time like we did last April in Florida, I'm counting this as our first actual vacation-only trip. So where did we choose to go on our first vacation post-baby? LA! - because the Gophers played USC over Labor Day weekend - so where else would we go?!?

We flew out Friday morning, did the kitchy-tourist stuff around LA: Rodeo Drive (we didn't last long, but it was fun to see in person!),

Robertson Blvd, which was much more to our taste - we even ate at The Ivy, (but didn't see any celebrities),

and of course, Hollywood Blvd (which I loved - too much fun! and way less fancy!). We found miss Mia some Minnie Mouse stuff to bring home with us (she is in LOVE with Minnie Mouse right now!) at the Disney studio shop, which was great.

Oh, and did I mention that we drove around town in a Ford Mustang convertible?!? It was fabulous. We were going to rent a Jeep with a soft-top, but opted for the Mustang since we could get a good deal on it (trunk space for luggage and an automated top goes a long way to making things easier on us!). Oh, and we had to stick a big M on the trunk!

Here's the HOLLYWOOD sign - if you look really closely! We didn't try to get any closer, but it was fun to look up and randomly see it!

That evening, after checking into our motel near the USC campus (the Vagabond Inn - cheap, but clean, thank goodness!), we ventured out to find a wonderful Mexican restaurant nearby (La Barca, which had great food and good margaritas), then mustered up the energy (we had been up since 4:30am our time!) to get all dolled up and go out downtown. We hit up The Edison, which is a prohibition-style lounge in downtown LA that had a dress code, a bouncer that was enforcing said dress code, and a $50 per person minimum to get a table. Lucky for us, we had already eaten, so we headed down to the bar and enjoyed a couple of prohibition-style cocktails before deciding we needed to get some sleep. I would HIGHLY recommend this place, and if we're ever back in LA, we'll be making reservations and enjoying some more time there.

Saturday started out with a FANTASTIC breakfast at Jack's and Joe near the USC campus (OMG. Amazing food. Cute spot. I want this in my town!) We sat at the breakfast bar (on tractor seats!)

and watched them make the food.

The place was full of USC fans, but we were welcomed anyway. Then we sweet-talked our motel into letting us leave our vehicle parked in the lot until after the game, walked across campus, and met up with the rest of the 3,000+ Gopher fans, about half of which were at the alumni tailgating party, which was inside a park on campus.

The lines for alcohol were long, and they ran out of tequila, but the food and company were great! We even ran into friends from Trimont - Adam and Eve - (also UMN alums) and got to catch up with them for a bit! Then it was onto the Coliseum for the game.

The seats were great, the fans were loud, the USC student section was impressive (wow), and the game was close - what more can you ask for, besides what would have been a stunning win for the Gophs?!

Between the 3rd and 4th quarters, a guy (dressed as a Trojan) rode a horse onto the field and the torch was lit!

Oh, and we saw Glove Guy! This guy sits in our section at the Bank, and always wears these ridiculous maroon and gold gloves. He was about the same distance in front of us here as he is back home!

After the game, we picked up our car and took the coastal highway up to Santa Barbara to enjoy the rest of the weekend. The coastal drive was beautiful, and well worth the extra time.

That night we got settled into our B&B and walked down to the Brewhouse, which was a nearby brewpub (because who doesn't want to end a day of football with beer sampling and fried apps?). On Sunday we drove about 30 minutes into the mountains to the Santa Ynez wine region. With good intentions to take a more complete survey of the vineyards in the area, we started in Solvang and never left! Solvang is a Danish touristy town that has 6 or so wine tasting rooms (most of which are from vineyards that aren't open to the public). We started the morning off with delicious Danish pastries and coffees at Mortenson's Bakery, then hit the following:

1) Lucas & Lewellyn (recommended by Adam and Eve and the best wines overall, they had the best merlot and cab sauv by far!)

2) Sevtap (cool vibe! the winemaker was actually doing the tastings, and he was one crazy and entertaining Turkish guy! I loved the old half wine barrels to hold the wine and the chalkboard walls! This one also had a stage for live music.)

3) Carivintas (all proceeds go to dog rescues! cute place, great watercolor-type labels of different dogs for all of the wines!)

4) Lion's Peak (recommended by a cyclist that David knows)

Lunch (finally!), and then...

5) Tocatta (we didn't really love this one, I think I was getting burned out from all of the wine!)

We grabbed a coffee and some water and headed out of Solvang in an attempt to hit Gainey Vineyards before heading back to SB, but they closed early and we missed out (evidently the owners of Gainey are originally from Owatonna, MN!). Instead, we made the trip back to SB

and hit one of the many wineries in town - Carr Winery (which, as I was numbering these, I realize is 6 wineries. That was too many!). The tasting room was actually in the warehouse with all of the wine! They also served wine on tap, which we were fairly fascinated by and ended up grabbing a bottle of their "sparkler" to take back to the B&B with us.

We hit up State St, which is the main street for restaurants, shops, and bars in SB, grabbed sushi at Arigato, headed home to drop off the car, and then walked back to State St to grab a beer at another brewpub (and happened to catch part of the Vikings/Texans game being replayed, which was random!). Monday we were moving a little slowly after all of the wine and sun, but we ran up to UCSB and picked up my cousin, Taylor, who just started college there and took her out for a quick lunch.

This is the beach just down from her campus. Ridiculous, right? She said they don't go to this one because they have their own private one - ON CAMPUS!

After that it was back to the road for us as we had 4 1/2 hours to drive back to LA, turn in the rental car, catch a shuttle to the airport, check in, and get on our plane to come home! It was touch and go for a bit because of all of the holiday traffic, but we made it with a little bit of time to spare! All in all, it was a fun trip, but went by too quickly and we came back feeling like we needed another vacation already! Luckily, we had taken the next day off, so we could play with Mia, unpack, do laundry, mow the lawn and do other various things that need to be dealt with when you return from vacation. Now it's back to the grind, which is why I haven't posted this for over a week!

We won!

2011-09-07T13:08:00.003-05:00

Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Cookies challenge, via Twitter, that is! I submitted this photo of Mia eating Sweet Martha's cookies at the MN State Fair. The only requirement was to incorporate Sweet Martha's cookies, and coincidentally, I had already tweeted this particular photo the day before. All I needed to do was re-tweet the photo with the particulars (@andrewzimmern and @sweetmarthas, along with #bizarrecookies) and I was golden! Okay, really Mia was golden because who could take a look at her sweet, chocolate covered face, and NOT award us the prize? Here are the rest of the winners - I think we were in pretty good, creative company!

MN State Fair 2011 Edition

2011-08-31T08:59:00.009-05:00

We took Mia to the state fair twice last weekend - we had to get in our fix before we all head out of town for Labor day weekend (more on that to come!). We took advantage of my free lunch pass in as a UMN faculty/staff member on Friday and hit up the barns, visited the new baby lambs and piglets in the Miracle of Birth Center, grabbed a few of our fave snacks (french fries, gyro, chocolate shake, frozen cider, and a corn dog for Mia!), checked out the amateur wine competition, and just enjoyed the fair until it started getting busy and we high-tailed it out of there. We went back on Sunday for a longer session. We got in, grabbed a quick breakfast at Blue Moon Cafe, hit the barns we hadn't seen on Friday (Mia got to pet a bunny!),

strolled through most of the buildings, found Mia some Minnie Mouse ears (to almost complete her Halloween costume!), ate some more of our faves (cheese curds with 1919 root beer, turkey sandwich, more frozen cider - Mia and I found a new fave!, and Sweet Martha's and milk - of course!).

It was a good couple of trips, but now I'm at home avoiding the fair since the actual craziness surrounding it is only fun when you are also participating (not when you're just trying to get to work, which is right next door for me!).

Country Livin'

2011-08-30T13:50:00.002-05:00

While "back home" for my parents' 50th birthday tiki party, we had our friends, Laura and Gabe, in town to help out with the festivities as well as to partake in some "country livin'" for the weekend. Laura lucked out by getting to come down Thursday night - just in time to catch The Band Perry at the Martin County Fair. In addition, because we had Mia along and my family does farm, we spent a good deal of time in the animal barns where she got a quick education on how to judge pigs, cows, and sheep from Dan's girlfriend, Kendra. They even got to guess how much a large bull weighed - and came very close to the correct weight - oh the excitement! Oh, and who could forget the goat trivia game we ran across in the 4-H exhibit building? Laura almost made us do all of the trivia questions - she was pretty excited.

After multiple claims of "country livin'" we decided we needed to start tweeting the fun. Here are some tweets to recap the #countrylivin weekend:

mandyinminneap: Heading to the red carpet...#countrylivin

laura7983: About to drink at a place called "Bar" #countrylivin (the aforementioned "red carpet," which does not have its official name anywhere outside or inside the bar, nor does it have red carpet any longer, but is still legally called the "Red Carpet Lounge" - we asked the bartender since we were the only ones in the bar that night!)

mandyinminneap: The hubby just got a hole in one! #countrylivin (True story!)

laura7983: Had an awesome time doing some #countrylivin with @mandyinminneap, @dwbraz, and @gabemortoncook this weekend!

mandyinminneap: #forgottotweet hitting a deer at 70 mph on I-90....#countrylivin (Unfortunately, also true - the Jeep is still in the shop, but thankfully neither David nor Stephen were hurt! And Mia wasn't in the vehicle!!)

There were many more examples of country livin' but they're so normal for those of us that grew up down there that we forget about how odd they seem to outsiders. Such as - not locking the car when it's at someone's house (I still do in town), cramming a couple of people into the back of the Xterra for a quick ride home post-party (it was just David and Gabe, so not that big of a deal!), walking with our golf bags down to the golf course (maybe a better example is all of the old people that constantly drive around in their golf carts?)... Maybe Laura has a few more?

Tiki Party Success!

2011-08-23T09:41:00.022-05:00

The proof is in the pictures! See for yourself - a fantastic time was had by all!

The tent!

Our lighting job inside the tent - two girls, one tall ladder, a little green curling ribbon, and a whole lot of gorilla tape!

The bars! Laura and I made 7 pans of bars in 2.5 hours! Blitz baking!

The guests of honor (my parents, on the left) and the hosts (my aunt and uncle, on the right).

Dan and Grandma Evie playing lawn Jenga. I think she won.

The s'mores station! Getting a good photo was a bit difficult, but it was a hit!

Because what party ISN'T fun with life-size photo heads?

A surprise from my parents' neighbors - what they will look like at 80...

The mai tais were making everyone a little goofy...

A late night of partying, but they look pretty happy, don't you think?

(Note: I had to steal a few pictures from other family members via Facebook to give you a full representation of the evening! Thanks Missy and Jan!)

Tiki Par-tay!

2011-08-16T13:31:00.005-05:00

So what do you do when BOTH of your parents turn 50 in the same month? Throw one big blow-out bash, evidently. And what do you do when they turn 50 in September, and they are both farmers, therefore going to be REALLY busy during their actual birthday month? You throw said big blow-out bash a month ahead of time. In August. And because they both grew up in the same small town area that they currently reside and work in, said party needs to be ENORMOUS, necessitating that the party be held at an appropriate location, in our case, my aunt and uncle's lake home. And because I can't have a party without a theme, we're making it a tiki party at the lake! This is convenient because we used to hold tiki parties in the summer at our house, so we have a few decorations stowed away that we can use. Other than that, though, we needed to come up with a party plan. The party will be held outside at the lake, however, we did rent a large tent in case of rain (weather outlook for the party at this point is a possible chance of isolated thunderstorms, but temps between 60 and 80, which would be perfect!).

Since we're dealing with a potentially large crowd of people, we had some of the food catered in by my good friend, Lacey of Lola's Larkspur Market in New Ulm, MN (look it up for lunch or supper if you ever head down to tour Schell's Brewery!). In an attempt to stay with the tiki theme, she's making pork satays with mango salsa and jerk chicken wings. Then we're supplementing the meat with various salsas and dips (tapenades, spinach artichoke, bruschetta, queso) for bread and chips. Luckily we have some wonderful family and friends that are helping out with some of those! Meanwhile, I was able to mix up one batch of green olive tapenade last night, and plan on making Kalamata olive and roasted red pepper batches tonight. For desserts, I'll be making a bunch of different bars and cut them to bite-size pieces. I had a grand scheme to try to do mini pineapple upside down cakes (altering this recipe a bit, using a mini muffin tin) and mini chocolate lava cakes (same goes, here), but they proved to be a little more tricky than I liked so I scrapped that idea. Lucky for my girl friends, they got to have the "failed" attempts at girls' night last night. So instead, we're doing Rice Krispie bars, Special K bars, cream cheese brownies, Kraft caramel bars, rocky road brownies, and key lime bars. Maybe this fudge that I've been wanting to try out, too. We'll see.

Additionally, we're making a s'mores station! I somewhat ridiculously excited about this. I saw this photo on Pinterest,

originally from a photographer's website, and fell in love! Since we couldn't find the right size/shape trough to hold the sterno cans, my little brother ended up making a 5 ft long holder out of wood, which will have circular cutouts that just fit the individual cans along the length. I then convinced him to spray paint it black (his response originally was "this isn't hgtv"). But I think it's going to work out great! I found little lime green plastic bowls to hold the graham crackers, marshmallows, and Hershey's bars, and will use a ceramic volcano cup to hold bamboo skewers for roasting the marshmallows. Pictures to come, I promise!

Most importantly, the beverages! We've got two kegs ordered because beer is always necessary, however we're also doing 2 cocktail punches. Mai tais (lots of rum!) and sea breezes (vodka, and cranberry and grapefruit juices). We're mixing these up by the gallon and serving them in plastic pitchers, which will stay cold in a tub of ice. We have enough pitchers that we can always have another gallon ready in the fridge to exchange out. I think this will be an easy way to serve the cocktails since having a staffed bar was simply not an option (but would be totally fun!).

We found the parents some retro tiki outfits after scouring the local mod/vintage/thrift shops. Dad got a shirt, and a beachcomber hat, which I'm sure he's super excited about, and mom got this dress, although it was a little too much of a mumu, so she chopped it up and made it into a tunic. Mia got a matching skirt out of the deal, so I guess I can't be too mad that she cut it up.

All in all, we're busy taking care of the last minute details. Thankfully our friends, Laura and Gabe, are coming down for the weekend to help out at the party (and then enjoy some lake time the rest of the weekend!). They can help keep the food and cocktails stocked and deal with any other details if we're busy with guests. T minus two days until we head home to start the official party prep! Here's hoping it goes off without a hitch!

Kid nerd

2011-08-13T20:02:00.004-05:00

My cousin Jessie found this mini pink plastic microscope for Mia when she was visiting us a few weeks ago. Yes, my child will be a science nerd, if I have anything to say about it.

Family Fun

2011-08-10T10:00:00.012-05:00

We've had a lot of family in town lately, so we were able to A) get out on a date for our 6 year anniversary (a brief stint at the uptown art fair, then Chino Latinos for supper, and Stella's rooftop for beers to end the evening - just like the cool kids, minus Jenny this year who was around for our anniversary last summer and we did almost the exact same thing, but earlier and with a baby!), B) mom and I made it to my brother, Stephen's, 9Tomorrows concert at the Loring Theater the night before as David graciously offered to stay home with Mia,

and C) spent a family fun day with David's folks on Sunday - exploring the childrens' museum,

enjoying the beautiful weather and some excellent pizza and ice cream at Punch and Grand Ol' Creamery, and even managing to tear out a few bushes in our front yard while Vicki and I watched Mia play with her water table. In among all of that, I taught the last quarter of the general microbiology course for undergrads at the U, got back some results from a big experiment that I submitted in April, and hopped back into research mode while I prepare to lose my only labmate this week as he's starting grad school himself this fall. It's been a whirlwind the last couple of weeks! In addition to all of the family fun, we were able to sneak down to meet Ryan and Emily's new baby girl, Jenna! So precious! Can't wait until she's big enough to play with Mia!

Cole "Camp" 2011

2011-08-03T14:41:00.015-05:00

In lieu of an actual Cole camp this year (in which my mom's side of the family normally gets together for a long weekend in June every year), a few of us decided to get together in the Twin Cities. (Okay, Jessie really booked tix for her and her sons to come up and visit and then informed me and Niko and Missy that we were all getting together, right Jess?) It was great to have the girls around, and to see Jessie's boys - they're getting so big! Will is almost 4 and Huck is exactly Mia's age - now 19 months! If you remember, I mentioned that Jessie and I had Huck and Mia on the same day - in two separate states! It was pretty exciting. So it's always fun to get the two of them together to see how they get along. It was amazing to me, again, to see how much bigger Huck seems - he's not much taller, but he's a lot more dense. They seemed to get along fine, although Mia kept calling him baby (she's saying this A LOT lately - to all kids, not just babies). Huck can already say "please" and "thank you," which we'll have to start working on a little more with Mia (evidently we don't encourage this enough...). Because we moved the pack 'n play downstairs for Huck to sleep in, our stairs were left unguarded (normally we use a toy and the pack 'n play to block off the bottom of our stairs since we don't have a railing or wall on one side to easily put up a baby gate). This led to the kids wanting to play on the stairs all of the time (why is that?). In addition to watching the kids play - which we did a lot - we took them to the Como Zoo, David's fire station (Will LOVES firefighters and has been excited to see "Fireman David's" station!), played outside in the wading pool, water table, and sprinkler, made and ate homemade ice cream (Will kept asking when the ice cream would be done - we made it Saturday afternoon and he didn't get any until Sunday afternoon. He wanted some for breakfast, but we held him off with monkey bread!), shopping at my favorite thrift store (for a couple of hours - we came back loaded!), and (for the adults) stayed up late talking, playing Pandemic (I got Niko hooked!), trying out drinks for the parents' 50th birthday party (we've got a great BOOZY mai tai recipe!), and discussing plans for next year's Cole Camp. Ready for picture overload? And these are just the few that I took...

Proud Mama!

2011-07-28T17:26:00.005-05:00

The girl put her "new" dress-up heels on all on all by herself and walked around like the diva that she is!

A girl after her mama's heart

2011-07-26T13:51:00.005-05:00

This is my daughter. She climbs onto and over everything these days. Nothing is safe. So what did we find her doing a few days ago? She was innocently playing with an empty sippy cup on a chair.

A chair which just happens to be situated next to a pot of herbs.

Viola!

She was picking spearmint leaves and putting them into her sippy cup (and a few into her mouth, of course!). Mojitos anyone?

Outing with Uncle Dan and Auntie Kendra

2011-07-24T19:48:00.004-05:00

Mia lucked out and got to spend the afternoon with Uncle Dan and Auntie Kendra today - they were in town and volunteered to take her so that we could finish up a few things (tree removal for the hubby and errands for me). She got to go to the Grand Ol' Creamery for ice cream, and enjoyed sharing with Uncle Dan, then she went to the zoo to see the animals. Looks like they had a pretty good time - thanks to Kendra for the pics!

Props to Liz!

2011-07-21T09:42:00.003-05:00

Have to share a link to a new blog started my Liz, a good friend of mine for a LONG time (I was her nanny when I was in high school...so a LONG time). I really love her recent post about going without in which she stayed off of Facebook for 3 whole days. For us older folks, that may seem kind of trivial, but you have to remember that the generations behind us practically grew up with Facebook, therefore to stay away from it entirely for 3 days is quite a feat! (Seriously, we could have a whole other conversation about how to begin to TEACH these kids that are essentially living in social media...a topic I've given quite a bit of thought to recently.) But back to Liz - take a look at her inspiring blog and see what you think. Maybe you'll get sucked into Freerice.com like I was this morning - you can take quizzes about chemical symbols and famous paintings, among many other things (but sadly, no biology). It's addicting, and by answering questions, you are donating rice to people in need. Or better yet, spend a little money to get a new pair of TOMS shoes and have a pair donated at the same time. Something for you, something for someone in need. (Moms, take a look at the Tiny TOMS - adorable!)

So big!

2011-07-19T09:14:00.004-05:00

Mia really enjoys dressing herself - she likes trying all of her shoes and even tries to get into mom and dad's (or our guest's) from time to time. She can put on hats and sunglasses and gets pretty close to putting on her jackets and sweatshirts. Last weekend, however, she tried putting on dad's shorts. This was the result. She thought it was pretty funny.

She also started saying her own name! She says "Mee-aaa!" I don't think she was nearly as excited about this as we were, though. It was more like "Yeah, so what? Of course I can say my own name. Let me do it again."

"What? I'm not supposed to bite this?" I'm pretty sure her 2 yr molars are making their way to the surface. She's biting EVERYTHING, including us, lately.

More house projects

2011-07-13T08:50:00.009-05:00

Just a quick update on some more house projects. I found these fabulous wood chairs at the Back to the 50s Car Show swap meet (for $40, total!), but they were in need of a new coat of paint and some new cushions.

They were a perfect find for our deck as one of my previous red chairs broke during pub crawl (the wood was rotting, so I think someone sat down too hard in it and it finally gave away). The remaining chair moved off the deck and these new ones took their place. Perfect! It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the chairs are pretty low and actually angle down to the back, making for a more unique design than my previous chairs. I was having a hard time finding a cushion that fit the new chairs since they are a bit wider and deeper than traditional patio furniture, but I came across some thick square cushions on clearance at Target yesterday, and they are a PERFECT FIT! I was so excited that I may need to head back and pick up another set just in case something happens to one of these!

We also took the hot weekend to repaint our bathroom, which needed a new coat of paint on both the walls and the ceiling as you can see in the pics.

We went with a Dutchboy color - Water Slide - for the walls, which I think gives the room an overall lighter and fresher look.

Up next? Removing the two huge maple branches from our backyard that came down in Sunday's strong winds.

So sad! Then it's on to re-painting the living room!

Miss Fashionable

2011-07-11T15:10:00.002-05:00

She requires not ONE headband, but THREE!

Unfortunately, she didn't keep any of them on, so her hair looks like a wild rat's nest today! The curls are beautiful, but they're pretty crazy to manage. In other news, her 18 month checkup was this morning and she's a perfect 23.8 lbs (50th %) and 33 inches (70-75th %), which is just where we want her to be. No shots, which was a good thing, because for the first time she actually recognized that she was in the doctor's office and was not a happy camper! Could make for an interesting 2 yr appt!

4th of July Weekend!

2011-07-06T19:55:00.014-05:00

We spent an extra long weekend back home with our families over the 4th. The weather was just about PERFECT - sunny, hot, and almost entirely free of rain! This meant we did a lot of boating, swimming, sitting on the deck, and playing in the yard, which was awesome.

Only a couple of pictures were taken at my family's cabin, but here is one of Mia and Grandpa Jon enjoying the morning out on the deck.

We enjoyed an extra dose of family time at David's parents' cabin, as his brother's family was there, too! Three kids on their side (7 1/2, 4, and 10 months!), plus Mia, meant that there was never a dull moment! Mia got to try out her cousin, Gavin's, floaty, which she LOVED and demanded that we buy her one immediately.

She then proceeded to show him how to play...

Blast off with Daddy!

Quick family pic!

Gavin.

Mia LOVED picking Grandma Vicki's flowers and putting them behind her ear!

Grandkids with Great-Grandpa Leonard.

Best photo with Grandma and Grandpa - next time: one camera so everyone is looking in the same direction!

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. The best part, however, was having my parents' cabin to ourselves on Tuesday morning, after getting a full night's sleep (Mia had us averaging about 5 hrs each of the previous nights!). We enjoyed breakfast, coffee, and some reading and cartoon time before having to get ready and get on with our day. It was a much needed quiet end to a busy weekend! Hope all of your 4ths were just as much fun!

Mia is (almost) 18 months old!

2011-06-30T11:24:00.005-05:00

Can't believe, as of Saturday, our baby is a year and a half! It seems like we were just celebrating her first birthday and all of a sudden 6 months has passed! She is definitely all toddler now - she's constantly into things she knows she shouldn't be into, she climbs on everything, she hollers/screams when she wants something and can't actually SAY what she wants, and she knows how to throw a good ol' temper tantrum like the best of them. We're working on time outs, although I'm skeptical how much she actually understands about what is going on at this point. On the flip side, she is a smiley, laughing, dancing, hugging, kissing little light in our lives! As much work as this stage is, it's continually rewarding! Since I'm feeling a bit nostalgic, here are some pics to see how much she's grown over the past year and a half:

Baby Mia!

Six months old!

1 year old!

1.5 years old and SASSY!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-22T10:14:00.002-05:00

This may be the most depressing thing I've seen in a while...

2011-06-21T09:42:00.002-05:00

Via: Online PhD Programs

Thank god I'm already done! Although I am stuck in the post-doc, pre-"real"-job part.

Amelia Update

2011-06-17T09:24:00.002-05:00

It's been awhile since I've posted an update specific for Miss Amelia, so here we go! She's 17+ months - almost a year and a half old! She has fully emerged as a toddler - she's walking, running, climbing (on top of the dining room table, into the bay window, up the stairs...), talking back (no!), yelling, singing, dancing, and embracing her naughty side more and more! We're (very slowly) trying to introduce the concept of a time out, so we'll see how that goes. Last week she pushed down the other (older, bigger) girls at her day care when they were out on the playground, but hasn't done anything since then. So David and I are quickly trying to figure out how to parent an actual kid - and not just a baby anymore! (Thank god for other parent friends and good books!) Meanwhile, it constantly amazes us how much she is learning and growing - she understands so much more than we realize, which is awesome and a little scary. She loves being outside (and throws a good tantrum when she has to come back in), walking the dog, playing with her IKEA kitchen stuff (still!), playing with balls, rocking in her rocking chair and watching Mickey Mouse, playing with her tea set and dancing to the songs it plays, and reading books. (On that note, thanks to the other mommys that played along with the book exchange - she got 4 books - and they were all new to us!) As far as talking goes, she has started calling kittys "E!," she knows what dogs, cows, and lions say (she even said "E!" when we saw the lions at the Como Zoo last weekend!), she can identify her nose, ears, teeth, tongue, and eyes. She can say "All done!" when she's done eating at the table. She learned "Blast Off!" from Uncle Daniel and periodically says it regardless of whether or not he's actually around! She's still pretty tall, but staying petite (except for her big tummy - too cute!), and her red hair is staying super curly and getting long enough that we may need to contemplate getting it cut soon. She goes to her first dentist appointment next week - she has all but her 2yr molars at this point. Oh, and she's brushing up on her home improvement skills so that she can start helping us with all of our house projects:

More pub crawl pics!

2011-06-16T09:45:00.008-05:00

Just wanted to share a few more pics from pub crawl as I just got them from Laura (thanks!)! Included is our annual full group shot in front of the Lamplighter. This is after the FIRST bar people. Yep, we were already doing pretty good at that point. Granted, it is a (dirty) strip club, at 11:30 in the morning, that requires a LOT of booze.

No Sinclair Dinosaur this year? No problem! We'll just use Dax.

Rice St Pub Crawl 2011

2011-06-15T11:41:00.013-05:00

We survived the 4th annual Rice St Pub Crawl! After missing last year (due to the fact that we had a 5 month old in residence), we were back with a vengeance! This year we started the crawl early at 11am instead of our normal 3pm start, then we grilled out, enjoyed a bonfire, some lawn games, and for the most part sobered up at our place for the night before (just about) everyone went home.

Highlights from this year's crawl include:
1) Mr. Ryan Fett actually made the bus for the first time in 4 years! In fact, everyone actually made the bus this year - except a newbie that had car problems and didn't make it to the crawl at all (sorry Joe!).
2) Early start = mimosa/fuzzy navel/screwdriver fish bowl. Much better than the random mixes of year's past!

3)Starting things off at the Lamplighter bright and early - nothing says classy like drinking in a strip club at 11:30am!
4) BINGO. We made BINGO cards pertaining to the crawl, which was fun for the first few bars, but were quickly forgotten for the remainder. Next year, back to the "rules!"

5) Deep fried tacos as Dean's. The perfect drunken food, as always. Add to that pull tabs and a meat raffle and you have all the makings of a good time.

6) No Captain David sightings at Brady's, but we made friends with the bartender, and for that matter, pretty much everyone else in there. I think they loved us.

7) No one got kicked out of a bar! Woo-hoo! Evidently we're growing up. Actually, no one got really sick, either. But we did have two newbies (little brother and his girlfriend) that passed out as soon as we got home at 7pm...clearly they couldn't keep up with us old people.

All in all, it was another good crawl. Looking forward to next year, but glad to have this big event over with for this summer! (A big thanks to Kelsey for taking lots of great pics!!)

Hey Girl! It's Amelia, wanna come over and play?

2011-06-08T09:41:00.000-05:00

Suffice it to say - we've been busy, again.

2011-06-06T11:58:00.003-05:00

T minus 5 days until Rice St Pub Crawl 2011! After a long Memorial day weekend back home with our families (graduation party, softball games, a round of golf in the rain, and plenty of family time), we spent the last weekend working on house and yard projects (again!). But I think we're just about ready to host the 4th annual pub crawl - and have a spectacular yard to come back to! A branch/compost pile that has been slowly growing over the past 6 (!) years that we've been living in our house was hauled away, we mulched our entire veggie garden and vineyard to cut down on weeds, and we caught up on laundry and housework. Luckily, we took a break Saturday afternoon to head over to St. Anthony Park to hit up the art fair, eat some yummy gyros and homemade ice cream, and checked out the shops and art vendors in the area. It was a much needed break! Here are just a couple of shots of Mia from Memorial day weekend - all decked out to go out on the boat for the afternoon!

Worldess Wednesday

2011-05-25T15:06:00.004-05:00

House and Yard Project Updates

2011-05-24T09:07:00.015-05:00

The last week and a half has flown by! When we weren't at our jobs working, we were busy working on projects around our house and yard. Since we'll be heading back home for Memorial Day weekend, we knew we wanted to get some outdoor and indoor projects completed in order to truly enjoy the start of summer when we return (not to mention being ready to host our first big party - pub crawl - since we had Mia!). So here's a quick recap of the big changes we made at our place.

1) Last weekend David rented a BIG tiller and dug up a large chunk of land alongside our back deck. We expanded our normal veggie garden area, plus added in room for 8 grape vines! We planted 8 cold-hardy Marquette vines, which, if we're still here in 3-5 years, we will be making WINE from! We also planted our entire veggie garden and set up a play area for Amelia, which resulted in us being outside for almost 12 straight hours. We found the play set for Mia on a garage sale in our neighborhood for $40 - it didn't want to come apart, so David had to strap it to the hood of the Xterra and drive it home. Needless to say, Mia LOVES the slide. We also had a sandbox/wading pool that we purchased online last summer (using a gift certificate I won on Angela's blog!). It's in the shape of a butterfly, so one wing holds the sand and you can put water in the other wing (or use that wing to cover the sandbox part when not in use). It also has an umbrella for shade, which is critical for our little red head. I'm really excited to put it to use this summer.

New view of the backyard.

The vines - not much to see at this point.

One vine up close.

Veggie garden.

Mia's personal playground.

2) This past weekend was wet and stormy, so we spent a lot of time indoors (except when we went out Saturday morning to check out the city-wide rummage sales - lots of good deals for a grand total of $10.75!). We decided that we needed to finish up a couple of projects so that we could move on to the more exciting projects we have planned for this summer (painting, painting, and more painting!). David has been working on setting up a wine cellar in our basement, but it hasn't been coming together like we had hoped. We have an area under the outdoor cement stairs leading to our main door that hasn't been in use for the past 6 years that we've lived in our house. Why? Because it was full of dirty, gross sand, and LOTS of spiders! After the recent basement flooding we experienced this spring, we decided to clean it out and try to find a purpose for it (this was after my dad was up and suggested that it may make a good wine cellar). So, here's what we were dealing with:

This is all of the sand that we pulled out of the cellar!

Unfortunately, after multiple rounds of cleaning and attempting to seal the cinder block, we still had some water leaking into the space. Meanwhile, David had found 2 awesome handmade wood wine racks (7 ft tall, 3 ft wide, each holding 160 bottles - so enough for 6 linear feet holding 320 bottles!) on Craigslist. Although only one rack would actually fit in our cellar space, we purchased both (we didn't want to separate the set, plus we figured we could use them both eventually). Since we were still having water problems, we really didn't want to risk ruining the racks (or, god forbid, the wine they held!), so we came up with a new plan. Unfortunately, this plan was devised about 3 1/2 hours before we had company coming over for the evening, so we spent Saturday afternoon scrambling around our basement, reorganizing the entire area in order to accommodate the new wine racks, plus still make use of the cellar area we had cleaned out. Luckily, we were able to get it all done just in time to clean ourselves up before the company got there! Then, we were able to use our new wine space to bottle the latest batch of wine - a blackberry merlot that is probably going to be named Rapture Rose' or Rapture Red, since we bottled it on the day of the proclaimed "rapture." Then we tried out our new zombie apocalypse board game with our guests!

(Note: there aren't any pictures of the cellar, suffice it to say that we moved one of our plastic storage shelves in there and stuffed a bunch of stuff on it that we don't frequently use - so at least it now serves a purpose and isn't just holding dirty sand!)

3) The rest of our weekend was spent starting ANOTHER batch of wine (a Cabernet Sauvignon that will be the first batch to go in David's brand spankin' new French oak barrel!) and cleaning out our full tile shower, ripping the old, mildewy caulk out, and finally (last night) redoing the caulk. It was a busy 2 weekends, but well worth it to get so much accomplished! Now we can relax going into our holiday weekend.

Mia update: We decided that she OFFICIALLY became an all-out toddler this weekend. She is a force to be reckoned with...

Danimal Graduated!

2011-05-17T15:00:00.007-05:00

My baby brother (I have to say this because 1. he's the youngest of my two younger brothers and 2. he's much larger than me so to say 'little' brother is very misleading) graduated from UMN last Friday! The majority of the family (minus Stephen, who was getting ready for a concert, plus Laura, who was taking Amelia back to our place after supper) got together at the Red Stag Supper Club in NE Mpls for an early supper/happy hour before heading to commencement on campus, then out to Excelsior, where we met up with the rest of the family, plus some extended and honorary family, to party at Bayside during the 9Tomorrows' concert. It was a good night. Now he's moved back home, where he will start his big boy job with AgReliant in a week!

Video update

2011-05-11T14:05:00.000-05:00

Here's a video of Mia walking around with a hat over her head - I posted on this awhile ago. She does this a lot.

Here's Mia playing with the new pots and pans and utensils we found her at IKEA last weekend. She stayed quiet and occupied for an HOUR with these. It was insane - and better yet, she's still playing with them. I think I may have a young chef on my hands!

Lucky Mama

2011-05-09T09:39:00.003-05:00

With these two hooligans, how can I NOT be the luckiest mama on earth? (...and can you see the resemblance?? wow!)

Jewelry Frame

2011-05-07T19:11:00.004-05:00

Look what I made! Take one slightly gaudy, gold painted plastic frame that you find at a thrift store for $1.50, cut out some cork board tiles to fit inside the frame, cover with leftover fabric (that just happens to match the top of the hope chest that is right under the frame), hang on wall, add lots of jewelry, maybe a few special hankies, and other odds and ends, and viola! A jewelry frame. Fun and functional. And damn near free!

Grilled Grapefruit Margaritas

2011-05-06T09:11:00.004-05:00

Happy Cinco de Mayo (1 day late)! I found this recipe a-LONG-while ago, and filed it away in my bookmarks to make another time. I'm so glad we finally tried them out, because they were AMAZING. A little work up front led to a great night of drinking! ;) Check out the recipe at Well Fed, I borrowed her beautiful picture since we didn't remember to take any of our own. If you're just looking to try them out, go ahead and just do 2 grapefruits, but if you suspect that you'll be drinking them for a few days (like I will), then I'd make 4 grapefruits right away. I just stored the remaining juice and spiced simple syrup in the fridge. Also, be sure to use some good tequila, don't bother with Jose' for these guys! They are worth the extra expense! I can't wait to drink a pitcher of these out on my deck this summer - who's with me?

Mia's Fave Board Books

2011-05-05T13:53:00.006-05:00

So J-Funk recently did a blog post on her daughter, Layla's, favorite baby books. I thought this was a FANTASTIC idea because we LOVE books over here in Minneapoland and we are always looking for new recommendations! (Thanks J-Funk! We're going to check out some of Layla's faves soon!) We hit a few consignment sales this spring and loaded up on board books because Amelia is a READER. She LOVES her books and will pull them off the shelves and sit down and read them all by herself, and we have to read at least 3 books every night before bed (sometimes more, lots more). Books are constantly scattered across our house, but it is awesome.

Here are Mia's current faves:

The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss - her all time favorite. She will make us read this OVER AND OVER. I think it's got to be the rhythm that she loves so much. She also likes to point to one picture in the middle of the story that she believes is a doggy.

Which brings us to...That's Not My Puppy by Fiona Watt, Rachel Wells. She actually received That's Not My Snowman for Christmas, and she loved it, but when we found this one, we knew that would become a quick fave! J-Funk mentioned that Layla has That's Not My Tractor: hint, hint Grandpa Jon!

The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. She doesn't actually let us read this entire story yet, but each page has a different animal on it and she loves to hear us do the different animal noises! The first page has a sun on it, so instead of doing an animal noise, I started saying "Good morning!" and I didn't realize that I would always tilt my head when I did so until she starting mimicking me! So now whenever we say "Good morning!" she tilts her head (very dramatically - it almost touches her shoulder) and smiles.

Along the animal noise theme, she recently fell in love with this book: Let's Go To the Farm, a Fisher Price Little People lift-the-flap book. It's a big board book, with a TON of flaps for her to lift up on each page. We haven't gone through all of the flaps, mostly because we were trying to preserve it for awhile (she's wreaked havoc on a number of flap books!), but each page goes through different subjects, e.g. shapes, colors, animal babies, animal noises, etc.

She also really loves Five Little Ladybugs by Melanie Gerth, which has five plastic ladybugs that disappear with each page turn. We have a few of these (Five Little Monkeys, Five Wishing Stars), but the ladybugs are her favorite. Good counting practice!

This doesn't even really scratch the surface! We have a TON of books, but are always looking for new recommendations, so please send them our way!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-04T13:12:00.001-05:00

Mommy & Mia

2011-05-02T21:00:00.001-05:00

Lots 'o stuff

2011-04-29T11:46:00.010-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts - April has been nuts. This week has been nuts as I ran what feels like a bazillion (that's a technical term) experiments, plus officially submitted my superantigen review for publication in FEBS Journal (it was an invited review that my grad school boss asked me to write with him, I spent the entire month of February writing it and putting together figures, it went out for peer review - an unusual thing for a review article, we made the revisions, re-submitted, and it was finally accepted this week, so then we had to upload a few more pieces that the journal wanted, plus review the pdf that will be available online immediately, and all in all, I'm glad it's DONE. Minus approving the proofs of the final edition. Okay, so it's almost done. Bah!) So, that being said, it's been busy.

What have you missed for the past month? On the advice of a fellow mommy-blogger, J-Funk, we purchased a gyrobowl for Mia to eat her yogurt out of. I had seen them before, but hadn't heard of anyone that had one, so wasn't sure if it was worth it. So far, so good, though! The thing makes it extremely hard for her to spill yogurt all over the place as the interior bowl stays upright at all times.

However, it doesn't prevent her from doing this...which is her preferred way to eat yogurt lately.

Oh, and you're screwed if she just decides to chuck it across the room. The only real concern I have with it is, because the interior bowl constantly moves, it can be hard for her to scoop by the food that's inside it. There isn't a steady surface that she can push the yogurt against to fill up her spoon. So, we may need to come up with a better option. I think this bowl will still be useful for snacks, though.

Cousin Niko also came to visit a couple of weeks ago! She went to the kids' consignment sales with Mia and I, which was a lot of fun. We found all sorts of goodies for the kid, plus it's always nice to have a teacher along when you're looking for kids' books! She and Mia got along pretty well...

Here she's showing off her new gray and pink Nike tennies that we found at one of the sales - all grown up in her big girl shoes!

Other than that, she's just growing, walking, talking, understanding (and responding) to more and more, wants to be outside as much as possible (she LOVES walking the dog) and generally just getting into all sorts of trouble. This weekend we celebrate daddy's birthday (he's just hoping for some nice weather to do yard work - so we've been told to go shopping and leave him be!), and Miss Mia will be 16 months old on Monday!

Oh, on another note, she was 22 lbs 5 oz and 31.5 inches at her 15 month checkup!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T18:58:00.007-05:00

We enjoyed Easter as a family of three up here in the cities. Church, to a park for pictures, Granite City for brunch, then home for some relaxation, yard work, and a family walk with the dog. Mia is enjoying spending more and more (and more!) time outside, and she and Jonas are learning to share the backyard (or Jonas is learning to give her a bit of space and not bowl her over every time we put her down on the ground!). We definitely need to find her some sort of jungle gym or outdoor toys SOON, as she is climbing on everything! Outside, she climbs up the deck stairs and then tries to walk down them because she doesn't like the hard, dirty steps on her knees (I can't tell if it's because they're hard or dirty...), then she climbs onto and into the fire pit. Inside, she tries to step on or sit on most of her toys, and she just learned how to climb up onto the white chairs in our living room (which have no arms, so once she's up, she has 3 sides to fall off of!).

Goofball!

2011-04-19T09:09:00.005-05:00

Mia likes to put on mommy and daddy's hats, but lately she's been putting them on her head and then pulling them down to cover her face! She then proceeds to walk around the kitchen completely blinded by the hat and she thinks it's hilarious when she runs into something or falls down. I managed to snap a few pictures of her in my hat this weekend - I have a sneaking suspicion that she can actually see through the weave in this hat so that it's not as dangerous for her to walk around with it covering her face. What a goofball.

We survived!

2011-04-13T13:37:00.004-05:00

We all survived our time away from each other, and even managed to have a little fun doing it! The warm weather, sun, and time together was great for David and I and Mia had a great time with grandma and grandpa B. It's good to be home, but David and I have jumped into crazy work weeks and Mia is dealing with a cold and another tooth coming through (I think it may be her first canine!). More later when I have more than 3 minutes to devote to a post!

Mommy and Mia's Day

2011-04-05T17:44:00.007-05:00

After grabbing a mommy-daughter lunch at Potbelly, we ran to Target to pick up some last minute travel items, then to the Como Park Conservatory and Zoo. Currently, the Conservatory is featuring their spring flower show in the sunken garden. It was beautiful and smelled amazing, but it was super busy, so I didn't get any good photos of the baby girl in there. I did try to capture a few of her walking down the paths and playing on the benches (she was obsessed with sitting on the wooden benches placed throughout the conservatory). She rarely looked at the camera, and was constantly moving, so I had a hard time getting a good shot, but I still like the record of our big day together.

She passed out in the car on the way home, then we walked the dog, gave her a bath, and are currently eating supper. I gave her a tub of yogurt, which she loves, but most of it ends up all over EVERYTHING and not actually in her mouth. Oh well, she has to learn to feed herself somehow, right?

How can you not miss this face?

Big Trip!

2011-04-04T15:25:00.003-05:00

I'm off to a work conference this week in Clearwater Beach, FLORIDA! I fly out first thing Wednesday morning, but am planning to spend the entire day playing with Miss Mia tomorrow, and therefore plan to be off-line as much as possible. It's my first work conference in 2 and a half years (whew!), and my first extended period away from the baby girl. Because it's in Clearwater, FLORIDA, David is joining me for the weekend, so we'll both be experiencing being baby-free for the first time together - which means that grandma and grandpa B. are taking care of Mia! Why, you may ask, do I keep capitalizing FLORIDA? Well, it's April here in Minnesota, but we still have snow on the ground, and as I write this it's still only 45 degrees out. Spring is here (I have bulbs poking through my front garden to prove it), but it's been one LONG winter and therefore, I'm trying to focus really, really hard on the fact that I'm going on a pseudo-vacation to a much warmer locale in an attempt to distract me from the fact that I'll be away from Amelia for FIVE WHOLE DAYS.

So, the conference is Wednesday through Saturday, I fly out first thing Wednesday, while the hubby has the baby for one additional night before he hands her off to his mom and flies out late Thursday night to meet me. We both are coming back Sunday night so that we have a little extra time to enjoy the beautiful FLORIDA weather. (It's supposed to be 85 degrees, with lows in the mid-60's - you have NO idea how great that's going to feel, unless you've also been stuck in this winter hell!) Since I do actually have to attend at least a few session of the conference Friday and Saturday, David will be on his own both mornings. He thinks he'll be bored, but I keep reminding him that while I'm stuck listening to yet another presentation on how important HIV in the brain is (a point that is highly debatable in my opinion), he will be out laying on the beach or riding a bicycle or drinking margaritas. I think he'll be fine.

With that, I'll let you know how the whole 'being away from the baby for the first long period of time' thing goes. Meanwhile, let's just hope grandma and grandpa B. realize what they're getting themselves into...she just started working on another tooth this weekend.

Oh no!

2011-04-01T09:01:00.001-05:00

The kid just learned the words "Don't" and "No" this week! Yikes!

A much deserved photo update...

2011-03-28T09:56:00.008-05:00

It's been awhile since I've posted photos of the kid, so here is a reminder of what she looks like! ;)

Basement: Undone.

2011-03-27T09:38:00.004-05:00

Our guest "bed"room, minus the bed, but no worries, we're still taking visitors, you just have to...

...sleep on the bed in the middle of the living room floor...

...and crawl around all the rest of this junk to get to the bathroom. Thankfully, there is still beer stocked in the mini fridge and a large screen TV to keep you company!

Busy.

2011-03-25T09:03:00.002-05:00

Is it spring yet? Evidently not, considering we got another few inches of snow this week and haven't made it into the 40s for days. Bleh. I've been swamped in the lab as I am trying to get some useful results to include in my poster that I will be presenting at the SNIP (Society of NeuroImmunoPharmacology, you're jealous, I know) conference in a couple of weeks - at least it's in Clearwater Beach, FL, thank god. And as is typical for research, any time you really really need some new data, everything quits working. This is the life.

Meanwhile, we had a long weekend last weekend and we planned to travel back home to visit both of our families. Unfortunately, I came home Thursday afternoon to our basement flooded from all of the spring thaw (in the 50 degree spring weather we had briefly last week). We spent the night cleaning up water, pulling up carpet, and running fans to try to dry out the carpet pad in our basement guest bedroom. The next morning, after assessing the situation, we decided to go home anyways. There wasn't much more we could do except watch the carpet pad dry out. We had a brief, but enjoyable, trip back home, and thankfully came home to a dry carpet pad on Sunday. Then it rained on Tuesday and we started the process all over again. The basement flooded - through the egress window, which is what we thought had happened originally. This time instead of thawing snow, we had rain piling up in the driveway that seeped into the egress and then down into the bedroom. David came home to wait for the Maytag repair man (oh yeah, during all of this our dishwasher was also broken), so he started cleaning up water in the afternoon, and I was able to come home early to help. My parents graciously offered to come up and help us figure out what was going on - which led to David and my dad sandbagging and caulking around the egress window as the rain switched to ice cold sleet, in the dark. We ended up having to rip out the carpet pad in the bedroom and we had enough water under the pad to have to suck it up with the wet vac. Since then it's been too cold to have any more raining or thawing, so we'll just have to wait and see if the caulking will solve the problem. So, our basement, which we recently FINISHED, is a disaster. It lasted a month. I'll post pictures this weekend, if I remember. The mattress from the guest bedroom is on the floor in the living room, and the bed frame, dresser, night stand and any other junk that we had to move away from the water is piled on and around one of our couches. Last night, David and I went down there to watch a show on our DVR and could sit on the loveseat, but had to put our feet up on the bed, since we didn't have room to recline our seats. Oh, and the mini refrigerator door seems to be breaking on top of everything else! Bah! Ridiculous.

Amelia is walking. All of the time now. A couple of weeks ago we noticed that she was walking more, and all of a sudden this week she is almost entirely walking. It's wild to see her saunter across the room. She's getting quicker every day! She likes to sing and dance and bounce on our knees. She still loves the pets, Syd has been letting her harass him more and more (I think he likes the attention). She's blowing kisses and saying "HI" all of the time (evidently she's decided that is her new favorite word - it's nice to have a break from hearing "doggy" all of the time, though!).

That's about all I have time for. I need to get to get back to work!

Wine Cork Art

2011-03-11T14:15:00.006-06:00

I finally managed to start AND FINISH a craft project, probably my first one since Amelia was born. The hubby and I drink a lot of wine. A lot. And we keep all of the corks. And since we've been drinking so much wine for years now, and saving all of the corks, we had quite the collection going. It was time to do something about it. I had (and still have) a plan to fill in a tray with wine corks as a fun table centerpiece, but couldn't quite envision how it was going to work (and meanwhile, the tray I had purchased for the project found a home elsewhere). However, my brother-in-law and his wife recently made a fabulous corkboard out of their old wine corks and I loved how it turned out! So, I stole their idea and made one of my own. We aren't however, using it as a corkboard at the moment - for now it's just a great piece of wall art for our dining room. For those of you interested in making your own, here are a few tips I learned along the way.
1) Cutting the wine corks in half requires less corks, plus allows you to see most of the cork, which is cool since most corks have designs that go all around the cork.
2) Cutting the corks, although it may sound relatively simple in theory, was actually quite difficult. I found that a sharp serrated knife was good to make a long cut lengthwise down the cork, and then a sharp X-acto knife worked to cut the remainder of the way through the cork. I would also suggest wearing gloves, if you have them. I did not, so my hands ended up with a few cuts and one bad stabbing in the middle of my palm (it bled, badly, for awhile, and then made it difficult to maneuver tubes open single-handedly in the lab the following week - what a travesty!).
3) The corks don't have to be cut perfectly - as long as they're cut relatively evenly down the middle.
4) If you situate the corks by alternating one cork horizontally and the next one vertically, it allows for a bit more wiggle-room, which works well if you're simply filling in a frame that you found.
5) Hot glue was perfect to glue them all down - quick and easy, and relatively mess-free. I glued the corks directly onto the back board of the picture frame, saving the glass for another project.
6) Although this looks like it took a lot of corks, it did not make a dent (not even a small one!) in our collection. Up next? I think I may try to make a smaller corkboard out of the synthetic corks that we've saved - they're supposed to hold pushpins even better than the real corks. (Although I suspect this will also mean that they'll be harder to cut!) Another cute idea I saw was to make a pin holder out of corks standing vertically - perfect for my sewing table! And then, maybe I'll get around to actually making that tray. I also have an idea that I'm toying with for some of our champagne corks...

Mia loves the doggy and kitty!

2011-03-10T10:55:00.003-06:00

Amelia has started antagonizing our cat, Syd, on a regular basis. Evidently it doesn't bother him too much, because most days he just lays there and lets her pat him (or in some cases, attempt to crawl on top of him!). Other days, he decides that it's time to fight back and starts swatting at her. Lucky for us, we had his front claws removed a long time ago, so he can safely play with her. It's pretty entertaining.

Meanwhile, one of her new favorite things to do is to give our dog, Jonas, a treat! This has worked out well for him, because every time our pantry door is open she decides that it's time to give him another treat. I'm amazed that our big, rambunctious dog can actually gently take the treat from her hand without biting it off!

Big Eater

2011-03-07T15:30:00.006-06:00

Our little girl is a good eater. She LOVES pasta, sandwiches, and any kind of fruit. She also managed to get into a bag of butterscotch chips and a bag of marshmallows and she likes both of those quite a bit, too (and now tries to help herself to some whenever she likes!). We've been trying to encourage her to start using utensils to feed herself, and it's been pretty interesting (and messy!). She's starting to get the hang of using a spoon, but still prefers using her hands.

Inspired

2011-03-03T11:41:00.003-06:00

It's March, which should mean spring is on its way here in Minnesota, but unfortunately it was only 17 degrees yesterday! We're on our way to 30 today, woo-hoo! I need spring.

So, what's keeping me going through this long winter - besides being too busy with work and family to really have much else to think about? One, I've been cooking more and more with my fabulous Le Crueset French oven that my hubby surprised me with for Christmas. So far I've made a handful of items in it, and everything has turned out wonderfully - I don't know if it's possible to make bad food in such a pretty pot! This weekend, I made something as simple as this spicy tomato soup in it, and it was perfection! Especially when we added sourdough grilled cheese sandwiches to the menu. (Note: since we didn't have basil around, I used a handful of fresh rosemary - a good alternative, but rosemary is pretty intense so use LESS!)

Two, I've been plotting out projects for the summer. We're thinking about replacing our kitchen cupboards, countertop, and sink, which would be a big undertaking and requires a lot of measuring that we can't seem to remember to do, so that planning process is on hold for the time being. This morning, however, my cousin Missy shared this DIY project from Funky Junk Interiors - wooden crate-inspired steps! Since I already decorate and organize with various wooden crates in my kitchen, I loved it! It doesn't, however, go with our living room - which is where our main staircase is. (We are actually planning on ripping the carpet off of those steps and staining the wood underneath, but we can discuss that another time!) Then it dawned on me - the hubby and I were just talking about doing something about the stairs that lead down to our basement. This would be be PERFECT for that space! Looks like I have another project for this summer!

Now if spring would just get here...

Wordless Wednesday

2011-03-02T15:01:00.001-06:00

Happy Friday!

2011-02-25T14:03:00.003-06:00

Basement: Done.

2011-02-21T20:22:00.008-06:00

Ha. I just realized that I'm posting this after my good friend, Sara, just posted about finishing their basement- but they actually finished off the entire basement, whereas we just redid the finished basement that was already in place. And took almost 6 years to do so. So, the hubby's dad was up for the weekend (and then got snowed in for an extra night!), and in addition to doing a variety of small projects around the house, he and David managed to finish the remaining basement projects - including mounting our flat screen TV to the entertainment center (to prevent Mia from destroying it since she likes to bang on it!), replacing the ceiling light fixtures, and FINALLY putting new trim up! When we bought the house, there was wood paneling "wainscoting" half-way up the living room walls in the basement, hideous sconces, and old blue carpet.

Here is the basement before we actually purchased the house (with the previous owner's furniture, and my brother).

Here is what it looked like when we first moved in.

Here is a view of the wet bar/second kitchen.

After a flooding issue the first summer we lived there, I finally got a wild hair and removed the wood paneling one night while David was working a 24 hr shift in West St. Paul. Underneath the paneling I found mildew and no taping or mudding - just bare, damaged, drywall. We ended up bleaching, taping, mudding, priming, and painting everything, but the trim (which also got thrown out with the mildewy wood paneling) never got replaced. So, after two trips to Menards through the snow, and a few mis-cuttings, the trim is finally installed and the basement is officially done! Woo-hoo!

TGIF!

2011-02-18T10:24:00.002-06:00

We've been BUSY playing catch up over here! I've been trying my hardest to finish up my part of this review article that I've been writing - I was able to get a rough draft of the writing to my old boss yesterday, along with half of the figures. Today and early next week will be spent making the final two figures (they take a lot of time because they're dealing with protein crystal structures and such). David is playing catch up, too, and when he got back to work, he found out that one of his full time fire fighters is taking another job outside of Chicago and is gone at the end of next week already! Mia bounced back nicely from her stomach bug last week- she's been sleeping extra well and eating a ton. She's also enjoyed getting outside this past week to enjoy the nice weather - we were able to pop her in the ergo carrier and walk the dog just about every day this week! This weekend we have our good friend, Liz, babysitting Saturday evening so we can attend the FD recognition banquet, and then David's dad is coming to town to visit. It should be a busy weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-16T15:30:00.002-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day from our little Valentine!

2011-02-14T19:33:00.002-06:00

Mia's first illness!

2011-02-14T11:47:00.002-06:00

Mia got a stomach bug last Sunday night and then managed to take out the rest of the family throughout the week! She threw up in her crib overnight without waking either David or I up, so I stayed home with her Monday. She was fine all day, maybe a bit more tired than normal, but she didn't get sick again, and then at the end of supper she threw up everything! She threw up later that night, too, but this time she made sure we knew it. This went on for the next few days - she'd be fine all day (while I stayed home with her) and then she'd either throw up at supper or in her crib overnight. Tuesday night, after we put her to bed and she woke up vomiting a couple of hours later, we put her back to sleep and I ended up sick. David stayed home from work Wednesday to take care of both of us (Mia mostly wanted to know why mommy hadn't left the couch all morning long!). Unfortunately, David then got sick Wednesday night. The end result was that I stayed home from work Monday-Thursday, David went in late to work Tuesday, and stayed home Wednesday and Thursday, and we finally sent Mia back to daycare for a half-day Friday so that I could go into work and David could catch up on some work things from home while he finished recuperating. Needless to say, it was not a phenomenal week for us! Thankfully, we're all back to normal now. I'm extremely thankful that this is the first time she's been sick (besides a minor cold this fall), but WOW - what a way to spend a week!

No, Mia is not dressed like this today!

2011-02-06T17:04:00.004-06:00

Instead, she looks like this!

Does the baby like red wine as much as we do?

2011-02-03T12:29:00.003-06:00

As a follow-up to Amelia's 13 month update, at one point this week, on the same night that she figured out how to get through our stairs blockade, she and I were hanging out in the living room together and I was folding laundry and obviously not paying enough attention to her. All of a sudden, I turned around to see her 1) halfway up the stairs (again) and 2) holding my glass of red wine between her two little hands! I had placed the glass on the steps, thinking it would be safe from her, and she figured out a way to get it! After a semi-panic, I grabbed her and the wine before a huge catastrophe struck! Red wine splashed all over my white carpeted stairs would NOT be fun to clean up (in fact, I would have probably said "screw it" and left the stain as an incentive to rip the carpet off entirely!)! There is never a dull moment in our house these days (unless you count RIGHT NOW, in which Mia and David are gone and I'm surrounded by stacks of papers trying to write a review article at my dining room table!).

13 months!

2011-02-02T09:01:00.002-06:00

I won't be continuing the monthly photo shoots for Amelia any longer, but I can give you a quick update: lots of standing, more walking, climbing the stairs WAY too often (she even figured out how to get through our blockade!), giving Jonas rawhide treats (he manages to grab them from her without biting her hand off!), more talking, screaming, another molar, getting into EVERYTHING!

A Day (or two) in the Life of Amelia

2011-01-27T11:30:00.005-06:00

Climb the stairs.
Check out this cool pink thing I like to hang around my neck. (Don't worry, mommy and daddy don't let me play with it unattended!)

Steal mommy's camera lens cap.
Here mommy, let me put this back on for you!
Hang out in a box! Why not?

First Oreo

2011-01-25T09:35:00.003-06:00

She only got a few bits and pieces from mommy's Oreo, but she liked it, as is evidenced by her face.

Video update

2011-01-23T10:17:00.002-06:00

Mia is climbing the stairs - and not just one or two at a time - she's half-way up our stairs before we notice! Since the bottom half of our stairs are open, we can't just put a baby gate up to block them off, so we've had to prop the pack 'n play across the bottom steps to keep her off of them.

Playing peek-a-boo with daddy - she likes to "scare" daddy.

Walking! Although she took a few steps at the end of December, in the past few days she's finally started truly walking. She'll take 5-7 steps and sit down, but then she gets right back up and tries again! She's also much more steady all of a sudden - it's pretty crazy to watch the process. I don't have a good video of her walking on her own yet, but here is a video of her walking behind her new walker.