I Love My Pool!

 Welcome to my pool everyone!

 Would you care for anything to eat?  We have plastic pool toys on special today!

...and a few close-ups just because I'm cute!

Zorbas and Drinks

I totally forgot to mention zome exciting newz! For thoze of you who grew up with Zorbaz you'll appreciate thiz!  They are coming to town! Well, actually to the next town over, but cloze enough! Dan and I alwayz go to thiz place called Melvin's in Spicer, MN and I've alwayz zaid it looks like it would make a great Zorbaz....lo and behold lazt time we went we found out it was their farewell zeason and the big Z is moving in thiz fall.  I cannot wait....frezh homemade salza and mexican food!  Yum!  I wonder if they give any discountz to former employeez?  Probably not:) 

Something else kind of funny.....I noticed these two items on top of our fridge today. Take a look at this combo:)  I'll have a pedialyte grey goose please! 

Svea after our venture in her little swimming pool yesterday afternoon. Her butt is so cute.  She'll be mad at me for saying that one day:)I'll have pool pictures to post tomorrow!  She loved it and is no longer scared of the little mushroom shade protector thing on top.  She had a blast splashing in the water!

8 Months Old!

Ok, Mr. Bear....here we go.  Just sit right here by me and Mom and Dad will get our 8 month pictures really fast.

Svea!  You are 8 months old today and we are loving this stage with you.  You are quickly becoming more mobile and it's only a matter of days or weeks that you'll be tearing around the house.  You've become much more vocal this month and you babble the sounds ba, ya, da, and ga. You're not as smiley for you 8 month pictures as you've just been overall a little subdued this last week because we think your teeth are coming in.  We thought for sure you had an ear infection because you woke up screaming for two hours one night and we couldn't console you.  The grabbing at your ears threw us off, but nope, you're just fine.  A little numbing medicine on your gums is usually all you need to send those crabbies away.

 

 -You are wearing some size 3-6 month clothes and some 6-9 months.
-When we brought you in for your ears you weight 16 lbs. and 15 ounces, but I'm not sure what percentile that is
-You have milk five times a day at 8, 11, 2, 5, and at 8 right before bed.  In between you eat solids twice a day of rice cereal, veggies and fruit.  You love the yellow and orange veggies and are ok with the green ones.  Pears, apples, and bananas would be your favorite fruits.  You drink from your sippy cup really well, but only if you are propped up on a pillow on the floor.  Otherwise you haven't mastered tipping your head back to get the water out.
-You take about 2 naps a day with one being short (half hour) and a longer one (hour to two hours a day).  You like to switch things up though and we never know if the morning or the afternoon nap will be the long one or not.
-You are wearning size 3 diapers and we change them often....you make the funniest face when you are filling up those diapers.
-Your favorite toys would be "Sophie" the giraffe, your toy car that lets you drive, your rings, and you love the book "Ten in the Bed".  We read it every night before bed and no matter how tired you are you give a little smile and sit and listen intently to it.
-For naps and bedtime you sleep with a paci and your "bunny"  Yes, your Mom and Dad are very clever when it comes to naming your favorite things.  "Bunny" took a lot of thinking as to what to name her!

-You wake up happy every morning and Mom and Dad listen to you talk to yourself for about 20 minutes before we finally wake up to come and greet you.  You always have a huge smile on your face.
-We started putting you in your stroller facing forward and you LOVE this.  Riker is always right there by you so you can see him better and every once in awhile you let out this cute little laugh.  You are so observant and most people notice this about you. 
-You continue to be so good around people.  You can be hours overdue for a nap and hungry and you are still pretty content if there are enough people around to watch.
-You biggest milestones this month would be learning how to sit all by yourself and being able to get up on all fours and rocking back and forth. 
-We love watching you think.  You'll see a toy across the way and we can see your wheels turn before you take off rolling to get it. 
-You still love your baths and like to play with your duckies in the water. You pooped in the bathtub the other morning....ew, Mommy had to clean it up!
-You are such a good baby.....you are so happy, love to play, smile, and laugh and we couldn't be anymore proud to be your parents.  We still talk about you after you go to bed at night remembering all of the fun things you did over the day.  We thank God everyday!  We love you so very much!

Sunday Best

Thanks for my dress Grandma Kathy.....we're working on the smiles, but little girl hasn't been as smiley.  Those teeth coming in are not fun!

Rainy and Cold Week

We stayed inside almost all week. It was cold and rainy. The sun finally came out for a few hours on Friday and we raced outside to enjoy a few rays. Svea has a few new firsts this week. She is completely sitting on her own now. I feel comfortable walking away and letting her play. I'll usually put a soft pillow behind her for those random times when she decides to fall backwards. It took awhile, but she's finally got it down. She is also still getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth. I suppose by the end of summer she'll be crawling for sure. Here are a few pictures from this week:)

 We think she may be really working on some teeth...she was pretty mellow and a little fussy this week.

 Her hair is really starting to grow in!

 By Thursday I couldn't stand being inside anymore so we bundled up and headed to the park.  Svea loved the swing.  I pushed her only inches, but she got a huge smile on her face.

 Svea has a new photo book with pictures of family in it.  The best part=she can eat it without ruining the pictures!

Finally, I captured a smile:)

My Fav Commercial

This commercial just makes me laugh out loud every time I see it.  I hope it makes you laugh too.  I think this girl plus Dan dancing would make this commercial even better!  How about it honey?  hee hee.....! Sun Drop Commercial

Practicing for Crawling

Oh boy!  I don't know if I'm ready for this!  We have outlet covers in and the blind chords out of reach, but nothing else.  Our baby is about to become mobile and I can't believe I'm writing that.  It almost makes me tear up...she's getting so big!  She has started to pull up on all fours and just very recently she can also push her body weight up on her hands as well.  She'll do this a few times today, but today all of the sudden she's doing it constantly.  It won't be long!  Here's a video and picture from yesterday when we were practicing:)

Happy Birthday/Happy First Father's Day!

Happy Birthday and Father's Day to my wonderful husband.  I couldn't have asked for a better partner in parenting than you.  You are all hands on, loving, and nurturing to our little girl.  She is absolutely in love with you!  Happy Birthday and Happy First Father's Day!

 Daddy and Svea after church today! 

 Just hanging out with my sippy cup.......but, I can't get any water........

oh, thank you Daddy!

I Love My Cousins!

Here are a few videos and pictures of Svea playing with her cousins!  They sure know how to make her laugh:)  Svea and Shay and Svea and Ashlyn

 Elizabeth and Svea

 Hannah and Svea
p.s. a birthday post for Dan coming tomorrow...Happy Birthday today Daddy!

First Trip to Wisconsin

Ok, so I lied....we surprised Dan's Dad for his birthday and headed out to Wisconsin two months earlier than he expected:) It was Svea's first time in the big cheese state and we had a wonderful visit. We actually even ended up staying an extra day since it was just too hard to leave:) We have a few pictures of all of the grandkids, and a few with Dan's Mom and Grandma, but none with the birthday Grandpa....or birthday Auntie either....next time though!

 I think almost the one time she was fussy all weekend.  Grandma Janet loved meeting Svea. We met Grandpa Howard too, but geez...we all forgot cameras.  I usually don't forget my camera!

 The girl cousins:) Svea, Ashlyn, Elizabeth, and Hannah

plus Shay!

Svea's First Swim in Wisconsin

We are out in Wisconsin for a few days.  It was warm enough yesterday to try out the pool at Grandma and Grandpa's house! (Video here) We think she liked it:) Svea has also met her Great-Grandpa Howard and Great-Grandma Janet.  She's been playing with he cousins in the park and spending as much time in Grandma's and Grandpa's arms as possible.

Streets of Paynesville, Lookout!

Switching gears, listening to tunes, thinking about the day, ignoring Mom and Dad in the back....this girl takes her driving skills seriously:)

Mountain Dew

Someone else enjoys Mountain Dew as much as her father.....ahhhh!  She either really enjoys the neon green taste, or just chilling her sore gums, I'm not sure which? See a new video of her babbling here:)

Fun Weekend

 Between graduation parties, relaxing in the yard, and eating ice cream we relished in the fact that it is now officially summer.  I read quite a few blogs of Mom's from down south.  It's so funny because we are just coming out of hibernation and some of their posts talk about it being so hot that they can't go outside at all on some days.  Althought Monday and Tuesday of this week were in the 90's!  We're close to being locked in to air conditioning.  I'm thinking about getting Svea's little pool out soon! 

Here's Svea in her Sunday church clothes......we didn't make it though:)  Mom and I were dressed and all ready to go, but she went down for a nap at 9:35.  I thought she'd do her half hour snooze, but nope, two hours later sleeping beauty woke up!  We took our dressed off, put shorts on and relaxed in the sun outside.  We noticed that our backyard is full of birds nests!  We have a wren family in our bird house, two baby robins in one of our pine trees, and even a baby starling that tried to fly, but ended up in our yard. He was there the next day and gone now, but he was quite big and strong.  We waited a whole day to mow the lawn for that thing so hopefully he is ok:)

Svea Learns How to Spit

She figured this out on her own.  There are things that we are a bad influence, but this was not one of them:)  See video here:)

Snorting

No, no, No...she's not learning the bird...Mom hasn't taught her that one yet!  Svea has started scrunching her nose up and breathing in and out when she gets excited about something.  I think it started because Dan pretends to snort like the dog , but he's not so sure.  It's really cute and hopefully she does it for you guys when we come out to Wisconsin in August!

Enter Caption Here....

Can you guess what Svea is doing here, or what she is thinking?  Let's see how many people actually read our blog besides "The Grandmas".  Leave your quote in the comments of this post!

We Did It!

We had a celebration party this past weekend for Alicia, myself, and Deb for graduating with our Masters in Educational Leadership.  Yeah!!  It was an incredibly nice day and I just can't say enough about these two.  I will miss our Wednesday nights together having "girl talk" in the car rides there and back, talking school and life, and just being together.  Alicia is an elementary art teacher at my school and Deb is a title teacher at another school I work with.  Our husbands planned and pulled it off and I just want to say thank you to Dan for all he did for it!  It was great to feel appreciated and celebrated.  My mom came and Svea was happy too!  It was fun to show her off.

I Heart Bald Boys

aka...I Love Daddy!

I remember a few summers ago, Stuart and Megan sent us a picture of little Elizabeth in this shirt and we thought it was so perfect!  We laughed and of course bragged about the little girl in it.  We hoped and prayed we could someday have a little girl who could wear this shirt in honor of her Dad.  Thank you guys for sharing it with us! I'll have to try for one more picture in this shirt where she is smiling.  Svea isn't quite sitting by herself yet, so it was hard to balance her and try to take these.

 Hanging out with "Rikee"

Randomness

 Ahhhhhh! Can you feel the relaxed energy across the miles? That would be the energy of a woman who has just finished another school year and gets to spend three straight months with her baby girl! I was playing dress-up with Svea the other night and this is a new one from my Step-Grandma Kathy that lives in Bismarck. It's supposed to be a dress, but it's too small so I think it works as a shirt. Hopefully it'll fit in a month from now for the 4th of July....not that I'm patriotic or anything:)

Outfit from Grandma Kathy

We are so excited it's getting nicer outside so we can start wearing some of our summer clothes.  Thank you for this cute little number and also for the new little outfits you (Grandma Kathy) sent with Dan.  Now that I'm almost done with school I hope to take lots of pictures this summer...wait, when do I not take lots of pictures?

Beep Beep!

Watch out everyone....she's old enough to drive now!  Her new toy is helping her learn how to sit very quickly!  Be watching for a sitting milestone soon!

Memorial Day Weekend in North Dakota

Svea and I headed to ND for the long weekend while Dan headed out to Wisconsin for a visit with his family.  I've got a few pictures of Svea interacting with my Grandparents in Mayville and they are so precious.  My Grandma was tickled pink to just see her for the short stay we were there.  We spent the rest of the time in Jamestown and I was surprised at how well Svea slept in her pack n play in different environments and a different bed.  This baby is officially sleeping through the night......until, she decides to switch things up again of course;)

 I just love my Grandpa so much.  I think I could spend hours with him just talking and hanging out.  It was so fun seeing her with him. 

 We made my Grandma's month by coming out to visit.  She couldn't stop talking about how thankful she was and asking me questions about her day and what's going on with her these days.

 I didn't catch any of the big smiles you were giving Grandpa, but I thought I'd mention that Svea just loved him!

 Grandma was singing to her here as funny song she used to sing to her kids, her grandkids, and now her grandchild.  Pistol Packin Mama is the song, and it's about guns and drinkin beer!  ha!

 We took four different shots with Grandma and each time Svea would put her hand on Grandma's shoulder...so cute!

I love going to Grandma and Grandpa's house.....brings back wonderful memories and there are always new and wonderful ones made too!