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!

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"