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!

Nice to Have Family Around!

We've had lots of help from family getting our house ready for the market! It's hard doing projects with a toddler around, so keeping little Ro occupied has been priority number one!

Rowan, Grandma Michelle, Grandpa Rob and Uncle Jason poolside (Rowan threw Grandma's sandals in the pool!).

Grandma Connie with Rowan after his bath.

Grandpa Kevin and Uncle Scott were also a huge help to us, but we were so busy working we didn't snap any more pics! Thankfully, our house is now sold and our work here is done. Oh wait...now we have to pack and move!

Whew! I Needed That!

Rowan was long over due for a haircut this month. He was starting to look a little rough!

So we visited Great Auntie "Nette" for a trim. Rowan sat very nicely in the chair and didn't make a fuss. He actually looked like he was going to fall asleep from all of the combing and primping.
In the end, he had a cute little summer 'do and no more bangs in his eyes!

Slimey Comes to Town

Rowan found an inch worm the other day and became absolutely ecstatic, pointing and shouting, "Slimey! Slimey!" Slimey is the little worm on Sesame Street. Rowan had a blast watching "Slimey" crawl around on his arm. Then we finally convinced him that it was time for Slimey to go back home, so we put the little worm out on the deck. Priceless!

Pool Fun!

Rowan has been enjoying his little pool this summer. He loves to splash and say, "Raining! Raining!"


Any time he's outside and hears a plane, he immediately points to the sky and says "Airplane! Airplane! Up in da sky!"

It's oh so fun to watch little ones play and have a good time! I'll add a video to this post once it finishes uploading. Check back for that soon!

20 Month Snapshot

Rowan is 20 months old! I can hardly believe he's not a baby teenager anymore! Here's a little update on what Rowan is doing lately.

On the Language Front:
Rowan is talking like CRAZY. Heidi marvels at his new words every time she sees him (which is nearly every day!). He'll try to say almost anything he hears, including short phrases/sentences. When he gets excited about something, he exclaims, "Happy! Happy! Happy!" It's soooooooooo cute.

He says his favorite song is "ABCD" or "Hello Everybody" (from our Music Together class). If I sing the ABC's and stop at various points in the song, he can fill in the blanks. He also loves to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" with me.

On the motor front:
Not much big news here. Rowan is still walking and running around (and occasionally tackling us and his cousin Maddox). His fine motor skills are getting better all the time. He likes using a fork and spoon at mealtimes, but he's still a pretty messy eater. He loves going to the playground and going down the slide all by himself.

Other learning:
Rowan says "please" (peas) and "thank you" (anchoo) now, which is really cute! When he wants something he repeats, "Mama peas, mama peas, mama peas?" I'll post some videos soon so you can hear his little voice.

He's getting pretty good at colors. He consistently recognizes blue, red, pink and orange really well. He especially likes to point out red cars ("Red car! Mama, red car!")

I'm amazed every day at the new things he's accomplishing! I'll post more when I can think of more stuff. Things come so fast and furious now it's hard to remember everything!

Editing to Add: I almost forgot! Rowan can count to five! He's made it to ten once, but he can go to five more consistently. Thank you Sesame Street!

Rowan loves to make it "rain" in our yard ("Mama, raining!").

Mama's sweetie!

Daddy's fisesherboy (up north)

On the boat (he didn't even mind his life jacket!)

Fishing with "Bumpa"

Rowan Tackles Maddox

No babies were harmed in the filming of this video!

Buddies!

Rowan loves that Maddox can actually play a little now! Maddox loves watching Rowan run around and be crazy and Rowan loves tackling his "little" (ha ha) cousin. Now Rowan just has to learn how to hug Maddox without choking him!

Post-Bath Cuteness

Rowan loves loves LOVES to take baths! He also loves to get all wrapped up in a nice cozy towel after his baths. The part he hates? Putting on his pajamas! He loves running around the house bare-bummed and dancing (and singing dooooo dee dooooo dee dooooo)!



You can really see some of his new teeth in this one. He fianlly got his molars at around 18 months, along with a bunch of other new teeth! I'll post a 19-month update soon with more info about what our little buddy has been up to! It's been tooooo long!!

We Have Puppies!

Foxes, actually! A family of foxes took up residence under our shed again this year. They're very cute, but they leave some pretty disgusting food leftovers around the yard (Kyle found a partially buried rabbit in the mulch around one of our trees yesterday -- yuck!). We think they'll move out by early summer once this "den" is too small for them. In the meantime, we're enjoying watching the little ones grow up!

Pictures of Rowan are on the way later today!

Sand Shark

We brought Rowan to see the farm babies at the zoo last weekend. It was a glorious day! I'm so loving the spring weather!

Hmmm...what can I get into first?

I know! I'll free the baby chicks!

Then I'll feed and pet the mama and baby goats!

Next, I'll see a little hairy piglet up close!

And before we go, I'll say hi to the pretty white horse!

Meet Avery Elizabeth!

Avery Elizabeth was born today (Tuesday) at 9 a.m., weighing a healthy 8 lbs, 2 oz and measuring 20.5 inches. Avery is cute as can be with a full head of dark hair. Courtney looked great and is recovering well from the delivery.

It was so fun to go shopping for Avery today before our visit to the hospital. I finally had a reason to buy frilly girly baby clothes! During our visit, I had the honor of being the first person Avery spit up on! Boy did that bring back memories of Rowan's super pukes.

Rowan can already say Avery (Avie or Avwie). He wasn't sure what to think of her at the hospital. He was a little overwhelmed by all of the people and attention. He said "baby" and "Avie" frequently after we left, though. Now he has two buddy cousins!

Here's sweet little Avery with her eyes open.

And here's the new family of three!

Congratulations Courtney and Joel! Avery is absolutely beautiful and so lucky to have you two for parents.

Waiting for Daddy

Life's a Zoo!

Wow, three new posts in one day! Can you believe it?!

************************************************

We've been using our zoo membership like crazy over the past couple of weeks. The weather has been so beautiful! Kyle, Rowan and I were at the zoo on Saturday and it was crazy -- parents, kids, babies and strollers everywhere! We tried to stay outside where we had a bit more breathing room.

We did, however, go inside long enough for Rowan to visit Discovery Bay! He loved seeing (and touching!) the fish in the low pond. Kyle had to keep him from jumping right in!

************************************************

Heidi, Maddox, Rowan and I went to the zoo AGAIN Today! It was even warmer and more beautiful outside! We lucked out because all of the outside animals were pretty close to the viewing areas.

Rowan enjoyed admiring the tiger from afar...

But he REALLY liked it when the tiger came up close to the glass!

We've had a great time enjoying this spring-like weather! The fresh air and sunshine have been the perfect cure for our cabin fever!!

Grandpa's Silly Face

Every time we visit my mom and dad's house, my dad reads Rowan a story in which a grandpa makes a goofy face for his granddaughter. Now Rowan makes that same goofy face all the time and says "Bumpa!" So cute!

Waking Up is Hard to Do

It can take Rowan a little while to fully wake up from his naps. Sometimes he needs to rest on the couch for a bit until he feels ready to play. Here's a photo progression to illustrate:

Ugh...I'm still a little groggy mama!

Maybe I'll just cuddle with my baby for a little bit.

I'm feeling much better now! Let's play!

Me and My Little Buddy

I've realized lately that because I'm always the one behind the camera, I have very few recent pictures of me with Rowan. We'll have to get better about that. I don't want Rowan thinking I was never around when he was growing up!


Here's a picture of the two of us that Kyle took during our trip to the zoo over the weekend.

Snow Baby

Rowan has been a little under the weather, but that hasn't stopped him from getting out on a few different occasions to enjoy the snow. On Saturday, Kyle was outside shoveling. When Rowan noticed him on the deck, he said, "Bood, bood! Mama! Bood!" Translation? "Get my boots on me, Mama!"