10 Months

I am behind. So behind. And while 10 days does not seem that behind, it is. Because it feels like every day that I wake up and go in to get Matilda, she has a new skill. New sound. New little bit of babydom that I want to capture forever.

The biggest thing that happened in the past month was the arrival of teeth! We have two of them to be exact. They arrived around 9.5 months, with less fanfare that I anticipated.  She really did so well through the first two, so I have high hopes for the rest. Although would prefer the rest stay away until I am done nursing. :)

Matilda also has been working on waving hi and bye quite a bit. She is really good at it, just not so good at the timing. Without fail, after the person walks away the hand comes up and she gives a little wave.

Peek-a-boo has also changed in our house. Over the last month, we have transitioned from us covering ourselves or Tillie up for the big reveal, to TILLIE hiding herself (or should I say trying to hide herself) and egging us on to play. So super cute.

The frustration of being unable to move has started to set in, but each day that goes by there is more fire in Tillie's eyes..willing those toys to get closer to her.  She is really trying to pull herself from sitting to standing too but just can't quite do it yet. Usually ends up in a full side-split.

The 10th month also brought her first plane ride, first family vacation, a great week spent with Grandma and Grandpa, and her first time holding up her dolly when I asked "Where's Punky?" (which you would have sworn she was just nominated President of the USA the way I reacted).

She enjoyed her first taste of watermelon. Not so much on the blackberries.

But asparagus and Broccoli were the foods of the month for sure. 

The thighs continue to get juicier. More squeezable. More Huggable.

Oh, and the verdict is in. As Official Slap Bet Commissioner, I hereby deem Matilda's eye color to be blue and grant my Mom ONE slap to be delivered to Nate's face. Said slap does not need to be announced, and can be a total and complete surprise (although I would love a heads up so I can get the video camera set up).

NOW, who wants to have a SIDE slap bet with me that my Mom never actually goes through with it? :)

The time has come....

A few years ago I did a 365 day candy-ban. As in, no candy of any-kind.

Why? Because I am a certified candy FREAK. I could eat candy all day every day for every day of the year.  And also because I am an all or nothing person. I only know extreme will power or no will power.

My candy obsession reach all-time highs last summer when I gave up pretty much all food to test out what Matilda was allergic to. Lo and behold most of the candy I love had no allergens in it. Which makes sense since it is pretty much 100% sugar.

Think Dots. Sour Patch Kids. Mike and Ikes. Yum.

But it is time to reinstate the candy ban. Here were the key signs it was time:

1) I bought and at a 5 pound bag of jelly beans after Easter. And even I didn't think they were that good.
2) I have an intense craving for candy before 9AM every morning.
3) I finish every meal or snack with a candy chaser.
4) I have a toothache.
5) I actually purchased something from the vending machine at work today because I couldn't find any candy dishes with good candy in them on my floor.

Yes, I have stooped to candy scavenging.

And so, I must reinstate the candy ban. And I must make it public or I will cheat. Startiong May 1st, no candy. The only exception allowed e is for travel days. This includes long drives to Viroqua, flights, or the Hayward vacation in August (because their candy store is  pretty a-mah-zing).

I am quite certain I will go into some sort of sugar-shock come Tuesday so if you see me wandering the halls of General Mills looking rabid, just don't mention the C word to me....

Things I Learned...

The last week of traveling as a family opened my eyes to a number of lessons worth remembering...

1) A vacation with a baby is more like a field trip than a vacation per se. My good friend Marie warned me of this phenomenon, but you have to live it to believe it. While you get to vacation from the daily routine back home, there are certain things that you still have to do...like feed, sleep and bathe the baby, you just get to do fun things like go to the ocean and watch birds in between those things.

2) If you put a baby in the sand, it will try to eat the sand.

3) You get over your fear of creepy strangers interacting with your child really fast, if said stranger is making your baby giggle by playing peekaboo over the seat while on the plane.

4) The ability to rent baby equipment is an amazing thing. We used http://www.beachbabyrentals.com/. It was amazing. For less than $100 we got a jogger stroller, high chair, bucket of age appropriate toys, exer-saucer, and boppy pillow for the whole week. It made the whole week just a bit more comfortable for everyone.

5) A baby in a swim cap will draw an embarrassing amount of attention.

6) Gone are the days of laying by the pool, drifting in and out of sleep while reading 5 books in a week.

7) You can make a heck of a lot of food on a stove-top and microwave. We cooked in our room most nights...spaghetti, flat-top burgers, stir-fry, and chicken burritos. Yum.

8) The airport people are rooting for you to get through security as fast as possible. I had a bottle of water that went through security and the guy asked me if the water was for formula. ANd I said no, it was for me and Tillie because she is so constipated. The guy runs some tests and gives me the water back and says: "Next time, just say its' for formula", winked and walked away.

9) Trying to keep the babe on Minnesota time will not always be successful.

10) Time together with no work pressure, school pressure, or guilt about doing household chores is a priceless thing.

Beach Fun

It was a vacation within a vacation yesterday as Randy and Marna made the trip over to visit us. It was so much fun getting to catch-up with them. Matilda was loving the snuggles from Marna, and was a little confused about whether or not Randy was in fact her Grandpa.

We all took Tillie to the beach and let her get the feel of sand for the first time.

Oooh...This feels pretty good...

I wonder if it tastes good...

As you can see, Matilda has taken to sticking out her tongue. I'm fairly certain it is to feel her little teeth that are coming through, but either way it is pretty cute.

We went to a fun dinner at the resort, and Tillie may have just eaten more than we adults did. The girl can pack some serious food back.

This is how most meals start, nice and orderly.

And by the end, just disaster. Food everywhere. 

We do our honest to goodness best to pick up after the Food Monster is done, but there is a wake of destruction.

And the best part of the evening was learning a game that Randy and Marna used to play with my parents when they were our age, and hearing some stories too!!

Thanks for coming to visit us!!

The Slap Bet

Rewind to July 4th weekend, 2011.

Nate and I, fresh off a How I Met Your Mother marathon, are making slap bets left and right (although never actually cashing in on them). This pretty much sums it up for those of you who aren't hip on it...



This is an important precursor to the BIG EVENT of today. Matilda's 10 month birthday.

Also known as the date of which we would determine Matilda's eye color. This eye color is very important because depending on what her little peepers showed us, either Nate or my Mom will be slapped...by the other one.

So take a look....cast your votes....

Because either Nate is slapping my Mom, or my Mom is slapping Nate....and I will have a front row seat.

Here is some evidence at a closer angle...

Tell me what color you think they are...I'll tally the votes and we will claim a slapper and a slappee...and I promise to post the footage of this event should it every actually happen!!

The Early Bird

Goes to the Beach??

I'm fairly certain that is not how that old expression goes, but that is how it went in our world this morning, as Matilda decided to wake up at 6:15 (5:15 Minnesota time) and was NOT going back to sleep. And it wasn't the 'oh happy baby that just slept 11 hours' baby. No, it was the kind of baby that needed another hour, but refused to go back to sleep.

And so we went to the beach.

It seemed to do the trick. Well that and a 2.5 hour morning nap which led to a very fun time at the pool and a baby ready for the adventures of an afternoon walk.

We discovered flowers with Daddy.....

Learned how fun it is to get piggy-back rides especially when you get to scam sunglasses off of someone's head....

Practiced our crawling skills.....
(*Side note...notice Tillie's ridiculously cute skirt...made by my dear friend Summer...)

Our smiling skills......

Our standing skills.....

And our 'in general being cute' skills....

Nate and I were also schooled by this very very old german security guard. The long story short is that we went to the wrong entrance, and had already taken Matilda out of her car seat. It was literally a 3 block car ride (but we had all of our stuff) and Matilda was NOT wanting to go back in her car seat. And so we set her on my lap. The guard, after coochie cooing how cute Matilda was says: "You do know that it is unsafe for baby to be in front seat, yes?"....in a very thick german accent.

Yes. Yes we know. Chalk it up to probably not the first, and certainly not the last, poor parenting choices I am sure we will make.

Future Pilot

We have arrived in Florida, and I couldn't be more impressed with our little one. It was with great skepticism that I boarded the plane this morning. Two things were going for me:

1) It was a crazy week/weekend so I didn't have all that much time to even worry about how it would go. I knew we had to get on, and evenutally the plane would land.

2)  It was literally "grandparents express' given the destination so that put me at ease vs. the crabby business traveler. (I can say this because if I was on a business trip and saw an infant board, I would be saying the prayer of "please not me, please not me" the whole boarding process).

Tillie did awesome. A+ flight buddy. She slept for about an hour and 10 minutes in Nate's arms, and nursed and ate lunch when she woke up. And viola! In Jacksonville. It was pretty amazing. She was a trooper for how much she was in her car seat or being held today.

And for now, she is getting the feel of this Florida grass, and warm weather.

Tomorrow, we tackle the pool!

The 4th Decade

Yes, it is true. From today forward, I am living it up in my 4th decade of life. I turned 30 yesterday, and so far so good. While, my 20's were amazing, I hear that it only continues to get better from here on out. And if this weekend was any indicator, that is entirely true.

I was so lucky to be surrounded by friends and family all weekend. The fam was up on Friday and we got to spend all day together on Saturday, which included Matilda's 1st swim class. We were definitely the annoying parents with the full-on entourage, but a cutie like this deserves an entourage:

 Nate planned a very nice party for the occasion at a local restaurant. We had our first attempt in a LLOOONNNGGG time keeping Tillie up past her bedtime.And minus the 5:30AM wake-up on Sunday it was a success. She did so well staying up late. Her little birthday gift to me.

As you can see, she was VERY excited about the party.

It was so nice of so many people to come out and help me celebrate. I know I have said it hundred of times before on this blog, and I will probably continue to say it one thousand more times: I am SO lucky to have such amazing friends. They are THE best of the best.

(see even Tillie thinks so)....

And it appears we have a new "Aunt Candy" in the house to take over my reins. Emily knows me best and make this awesome candy bouquet...of which Tillie was VERY interested.

 Here I am....on the eve of 30, with my darling little Matilda Mae.It was a fabulous weekend. Thank you to Nate, and my family and friends for helping me bring in the 30's!! I know they will prove to be some of the best.

Happy 30th Greta

This my (nate) annual hijacking of the blog to tell the world how much I love Greta and wish her a Happy Birthday!  We had a wonderful dinner last night with lots of friends, good food and yes, some beer.  I did behave, but just in case things got out of hand I took out a little insurance plan by putting all my speech into a PowerPoint presentation.

If you really know me, you'd know that I have to complicate things a bit more than that, so the end result is below.  (sorry, I couldn't get the sound to work, so put on some sappy love music and enjoy the show)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY! I Love you!

Nate




Helpful Hints:
1) Press the Play Button then be patient for it to load (30-60seconds), it should be ready when you see "Happy Birthday Greta" again.
2) Click "More" > Autoplay
3) Or Single click the right arrow to move through at your own pace.

First Easter!

Uff-da.

I am so behind in blogging, but that is because we have jammed everything we can think of in this week of 'no-baby (as Matilda is spending lots of quality time with my Mom and Dad this week). More to come on that later.

Easter.
It was fabulous. Very laid back. And filled with lots of Tillie time. and new delicious food.

This girl did great in church again (seriously, I think she may become a pastor some day because she is always so well behaved there...)

And then we came home for some Easter basket fun. She is getting very interested in trying to move, but hasn't quite figured it out yet so we did our best to tempt her with eggs, baskets and easter grass. :)

We attempted to do a family photo. But between the wind and the sun, this was the best we got. Yikes.

 Tillie is also  working on bringing up her first (two!) teeth. It makes for some interesting moments. Needless to say the finger-sucking, and toy-munching is at an all-time high.

We tried lots of good new food. From a new brunch must (Denver Omelets) to a few new side dishes that will be clinch during the grilling season. Nate cried a few tears over there being no. ham. even though it was Easter.

But then Dad brought in the plate of succulent steaks off of the grill and all was right in the world. After a dinner of grilled steaks, Dad and I totally dominated Mom and Nate in a game of euchre, which of course I didn't enjoy at all. ;)