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"

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.