We've Moved!

I decided to start fresh on a NEW blog. Some extra motivation to keep me going, I guess! We'll keep this one around so we can look back.

Change your links and check us out:

Fumbling Toward Family

Us, Online.

I started a Facebook page. I know, not exactly cutting edge, but I’m a girl who only recently got a cell phone and still watches the television she got for her thirteenth birthday. It’s kind of a big deal.

In the process of building my page and recruiting friends (ugh), I’ve been thinking about our “online persona.” I’ve kept this family blog since Rowan was born. It’s a baby book of sorts that I’ve used to share information about Rowan’s development with family and friends. Looking back on it, though, I have to laugh a little. The blog projects an idealized portrait of our life. Brilliant kid. Organic food. Days filled with brain-stimulating activities for mother and child.

Where’s the super-puking (Rowan’s), chocolate binging (mine) and boredom-induced crying (ours)? Gone. Edited out of our online lives. This fact became clear to me when a friend asked if it was OK that he didn’t have anything organic for Rowan to eat. Confused, I thought, "My kid ate an M&M cookie for lunch. Conventional hamburger buns should be fine." But having related to us for months through our blog, he had come to see us as nutrition zealots.

Oh.

So here’s to a new start on our old blog. We plan to be a little more real and a lot more present -- time permitting, of course (famous last words).

-Angie

Memorial Day Fun

We had a Memorial Day picnic at Courtney and Joel's house this year. Rowan had a fabulous time playing with Avery, although he wishes she could stand up to rough wrestling. All in good time. Soon, Avery will be giving Rowan a run for his money!

After lunch, we walked to the park and the duck ponds. Rowan walked almost the whole way, only needing a lift when we hit some big hills on the way home. "OK, I want to ride now, Mommy," he said. I thought, 'I want to ride now, kid!"





Some recent cute stories:

Rowan was a bit of a pill one day last week. Kyle, who had had enough, said to him, "Rowan, why are you acting like this?!" Rowan replied, "I'm not trying to be bad, Daddy. I'm just curious." What can you say to that?

Then yesterday, Rowan was following me around while I cleaned the house, getting into stuff and making messes behind me. I said to him, "Don't you want to go play in your room so I can get this stuff done?" He replied, "But I love you and I want to be close to you when you do your work." Of course, my heart melted.

This kid knows just what to say to keep us wrapped around his little finger!

I'm not much of a blogger, but I figured I'd give it try.

I recently made my first trip to New York, and I really enjoyed how clean, safe, and alive the city is. The people in NY are very warm and friendly, and really caused me to question a lot of the stereotypes about Midwesterners vs. East Coasters. I spent nearly all of my free time just wandering around Manhattan, so I can’t comment a lot on the outlying boroughs, but Manhattan is very nice.


The one big thing that I was able to do was attend a game at Yankee Stadium, and it’s funny what a few days in New York can do to a lifelong Yankee hater.

I took the ‘D’ train from downtown out to the Bronx and got a good ticket from a scalper. Being the last season for “Old Yankee Stadium” (“The House that Ruth Built”), it was great to have the chance to see a game in such a historic park.

It was a beautiful night, and I can’t imagine a better way to see a ball game. Yankee fans are probably some of the greatest fans there are. The stadium was packed, everyone was really into the game, and only a few people got up and left early. Basically, it was a big contrast to other MLB games I’ve attended.

Unfortunately we lost 3-5 to the Indians, but it’s a long season and we can still turn things around. GO YANKS!!

To close, here is a picture of Rowan wearing his new Yankee blue t-shirt. (Sorry for the red eye. Angie’s better at this computer stuff than I am.)

Our 2.5-Year Old

Rowan is now 2.5, and we're amazed daily by the things he's doing and saying. It's so much fun to see the person he's becoming. We've reached this wonderful place where he's not just our little boy, but also really cool person to talk to and hang out with. I love him so much!

Here's just a little peek at what he's up to.

Rowan's Favorites

Color: RED!

Food: Who knows...he's a bit of a picky eater. The usual standbys are organic chicken/beef hot dogs, scrambled eggs, homemade French toast, grilled cheese (and whatever other combination of grain/cheese goodness I can come up with). I'm trying, I really am! He also loves fruits like strawberries (especially with cream), apples, grapes and oranges.

Restaurant: Chipotle! He loves spicy chicken and bean burritos or quesadillas.

TV Show: Curious George, followed fairly closely by Word World.

Activity: Painting and going for walks. This kid could walk for miles, I swear. When it's nice outside, we walk to Como Park Zoo, the playground, to the coffee shop and back home again with no problems. He generally dislikes strollers and grocery store carts. "Big boys don't need carts, mama!"

Learning Every Day

Rowan is very much a talker. It usually takes him a bit to warm up to strangers, but once he's talking, you can't stop him. I especially love listening to him play and pretend when he thinks no one is watching. He comes up with such interesting scenarios. "Watch out guys! We've got to be careful when we look for the lion! Ready...MARCH! Oh no!"

He recognizes several letters and numbers, and can sing his ABCs and count to at least twenty. He can even spell his name, which we think he learned to do at day care. His day-care providers also taught him how to count in Spanish and say some words in Spanish.

Rowan knows all of his colors (except, of course, for more obscure colors like turquoise or coral).

AND -- the coolest thing of all -- he can find several countries on our globe. Kyle and Rowan started identifying countries on the globe after Rowan saw the movie Madagascar. "Where's Madagascar, daddy? Where's Antarctica?" He can now find Madagascar, Antarctica, Russia, Kenya and Australia. He can even find the little star in Minnesota identifying St. Paul.

Becoming a Big Boy

Rowan is all about telling us he's a big boy now -- except when he's sad. Then he tells us he's still a "baby big boy," and needs us to cuddle him and hold him. So sweet!

Random Funny Story

(This scene takes place in the car after Kyle picked Rowan up from day care.)

Kyle: Do you want to hear some music.

Rowan: Yeah, I want to hear "wash your car."

Kyle: Oh, that CD isn't in the CD player. Mama must have taken that out.

Rowan: My mama always takes that CD out! What the heck? How can we stop her?

Kyle: I don't know.

Rowan: Maybe we could have a pillow fight.

Kyle: Yeah, maybe a pillow fight.

Rowan: I want to give you a high five daddy!

I'M SO OUTNUMBERED!

-Angie

Interview With a 2.5-Year-Old

Rowan, what's your favorite thing to do?
"Eat. And painting. Write down painting, Mommy."

What's your favorite color?
"Um...red. Can you write red, mommy? I want some cookies! This picture has cookies on it."

What's your favorite food?
"Cookies. They're like fruit, but a good snack."

What's your favorite place to go?
"To Tre and Melissa's [Rowan's day-care provider]. Sometimes I don't feel like going there, though. Are you taking me there now? I want to eat!"

What's your favorite animal?
"Red birds. Because they're my favorite color. And squirrels. We had a squirrel in our basement and my daddy take him to the park. He took him to the park. He doesn't belong in our basement. We don't want him to go in there. He can puke."

What makes people laugh?
"Goofy things. Like sissy tissy dong ding dong."

What's the best thing about daddy?
"He's big."

What's the best thing about mommy?
"You're cute. I'm gonna give you a hug. And a kiss."

What's the best thing about grandmas and grandpas?
"Their cake. They have cake for us. And emmy ems [M&Ms]."

What's your favorite TV show?
"Georgie [Curious George]. Because he's not my favorite color."

"No more questions!"

WHERE HAVE WE BEEN?!?!

Oh boy, our longest bloggie break ever! How to explain? Well, we moved, which of course was a big transition (one that we're still going through). Life has been just so busy!! Anyway, here are some recent pics of our sweetie boy, Rowan.

He's so much fun now and soooo smart! He asks "why" constantly! Kyle asked him why he asks why so much and Rowan said, "Because I don't always know the words, Daddy!"

Rowan likes our new house and enjoys playing in his room. We painted one wall in his room red because he said that's his favorite color (and has been since he turned 2). We bought him a little twin bed with red plaid bedding. We're still setting everything up, but we'll have pictures soon.

Oh, one cute story about our house. One day Rowan asked us what kind of house our house is. We didn't really know what he meant, so Kyle decided to explain to him it was a tudor house (you know, tudor style). Rowan replied with, "That's disgusting! And stinky!" He thought Kyle meant that our house "tooted." The mind of a two-year old!

More stories and pictures to come! Sorry it's been so long!

Merry Christmas!

Rowan Sings Jingle Bells

Merry Christmas!

Family Tradition

My Grandma and Grandpa Smith always gave us Advent calendars at Christmas time. We loved opening the doors each day and enjoying our chocolate treat! This year, my mom carried on the tradition with Rowan and Maddox. Rowan looks forward to it every day!

THANK YOU GRANDMA!

Crafty Kid

Rowan loves to do art projects! He's actually pretty patient for a two-year-old. He goes to day care with a wonderful family three mornings a week, where he does all kinds of fun projects. Here he is modeling his turkey day crown. He's so proud to show me all of his creations!

Nisswa...City of Lights

After Thanksgiving, we headed up to my parents' cabin and enjoyed the Christmas festival in Nisswa. Rowan got to see Santa Claus. He was super excited! When Santa gave Rowan a candy cane, he said, "Look, Mama, I got a trick-or-treat!"

Happy Halloween

Our little monkey had a fabulous time yesterday on his THIRD Halloween! (How crazy is that?) He loved saying "Happy Halloween" to people all day. He was a little shy when trick-or-treating, but he had a great time! We did the trick-or-treat parade in downtown Cannon Falls and then stopped by our relatives' homes in the area. After our first stop, I told Rowan I'd sit in the back and help him eat some of his candy. He looked so excited and said, "That's so nice, mama!" What a sweetie!

Rowan Turns 2!

I can't believe my little baby is 2! He seems so grown up now, talking and singing and playing with big boy toys. Where did my little baby go??

We had a great party for Rowan at Grandma "Chelle" and Bumpa Bob's house.
Rowan had a blast playing with Scott until the guests arrived.

We learned our lesson last year -- no white fluffly cake for Rowan (yuck!). This kid wants nothing but chocolate! I made two flourless chocolate tortes, decorated them with powdered sugar and served them with fresh whipped cream and strawberries. My mom also made apple crisp for the non chocolate lovers. Both options were delicious (I should know, I had one of each;-).

Rowan liked to dip his fingers in the powdered sugar.

"That's good, mama!"

When we sang happy birthday, Rowan positively beamed! He was so proud to have everyone he loved around him for his special day.

After he blew out the candles on his big cake, we sang again so he could blow out the candles on his individual slice (we really just wanted another excuse to sing happy birthday and see that smile).

There's that proud little smirk!

Now...time to eat!
All hopped up on chocolate!

The first present Rowan opened was a Thomas book. He was so excited that he sat down to read it right away. When I said he had more presents to open, he jumped up and exclaimed, "MORE BOOKS!?!?" It was so fun to watch him enjoy opening his presents this year!

We bought Rowan a wooden train set. He's been playing with it every day since!

And we just had to get a picture of Rowan with his great grandparents...

...and grandparents!

It was an AWESOME DAY! Thanks to everyone for making it so special!

Where Is Daddy All Day?

Minnehaha Falls

What can I say? Long time, no blog! We've been so busy with selling and moving and settling into our apartment that we just needed a bloggie break. But now we're back!

We visited Minnehaha Falls over Labor Day weekend. Rowan had a blast running on the trails and walking down all of the steps to get to the falls. Here's a sample of a conversation between Rowan and mama:

Rowan: "Rowan splash in the waterfall, mama?"
Me: "No, Rowan, we can just look at the waterfall."
Rowan: "Rowan swim in the waterfall, mama?"
Me: "No, Rowan, we just look at the waterfall."
Rowan: "Rowan play toys in the waterfall, mama?"
Me: "No, Rowan, it's just for looking at."
Rowan: "Okay."

He tends to narrate his life in the third person. As we were crusing along the trails, Rowan started to get tired. Here's how he narrated his journey:

"Rowan running mama! Running fast! Catch up to Daddy!
Now Rowan walking. Rowan going slow. Too tired.
Rowan sit down. On the ground. On the dirt.
Rowan hold you, mama?"

He's such a funny little guy!

LOTS OF POSTS

I've been a bad blogger, but there are lots of posts below to make up for lost time. I'll try to be better about it from now on!

Rowan and Caleb

Heidi was babysitting for her coworker Nichole earlier this week. Rowan and I stopped by and Rowan had so much fun playing with Nicole's son, Caleb (2.5 years). It was fun to watch Rowan have so much fun with another little boy his size. Cute!

Celebration Dinner

We sold our house! The inspection is done and everything is signed, so we celebrated with pizza and ice cream at our favorite places in St. Paul.

Rowan loves to sprinkle extra parmesan on his pizza. He's so meticulous about it!

And he love LOVES having his own baby cone with chocolate ice cream. He was a sticky chocolatey mess in no time!

Splashing at the Beach

Rowan likes splashing at the beach even more this year than the last. His favorite thing to do is run into the water from the beach, holding mommy and daddy's hands. He also loves throwing sand, but we're not encouraging that activity!