She WALKS she WALKS!

We'll not completely, but walking moreso than she ever has before!!!! Check it out. I sound totally crazed in the video's (I was a little excited) so don't mind the screeching hyena. The first video gets better at the end (around 25 seconds.)

Daddy Blogging: Cooking with Daddy

Mommy came home for a bit today between work assignments that she had to do. While Mommy was getting things ready for her open house tonight at the center, Daddy kept me occupied by baking. Here is a video of me helping Daddy bake cookies.

Daddy Blogging: When Mom is away...

Mommy is at work today, so her duty to record my thoughts and put them on the blog falls onto Daddy today. Hopefully he will do a decent job, or I will have to fire him.

We can't go outside and play today like we wanted to because it is raining outside. I really like to look at the rain and listen to it fall on the house, but I don't like to play in it. Daddy wouldn't let me do that anyway. So I've been spending the last 30 minutes looking out of the patio window and the rain on the deck and trying to figure out how to open the screen door.

The crappy car is back in the shop again today. Mommy tried to drive it to work, but one of the tires was low on air. She filled the tire, but air started flowing out of the valve stem. Daddy packed me up and we went out to help her. Unfortunately, when Daddy was trying to put the spare tire on, one of the lug nuts rounded off and couldn't be removed. Daddy also cut his hand open while trying to change it. So we had to call a tow truck to take the car somewhere. They are going to remove the bad lug nut and replace both back tires.

Daddy says that it is time for my nap now. I have to go. Maybe I'll have more to say if anything interesting happens in the afternoon.

Teddy Bear Band

Tonight we went to see the teddy bear band at the ECFE open house (at the center that Mommy doesn't work at, her open house is tomorrow night.) It was a lot of fun. I really liked the music and all that practice dancing that Mommy and I did today really paid off. Check out this video of me dancing/swaying and singing along.

13 months!

I'm officially 13 months old now. Mommy stopped taking the weekly pictures after 52 weeks, but she didn't say anything about stopping the monthly pictures. Daddy also thought Mommy was done with the professional photography until I turned 2 (silly Daddy, I'm going to change so much in the next months too!) Mommy and I are super excited to have her friend Jessica from JM Photography scheduled to *fianlly* take our pictures. Mommy has wanted her to photograph us for a long time, so she's excited for October to get here. Now it's time to go shopping for outfits!!!

"Tooth Tooth" and other tales

Mommy says I'm getting my two front teeth (finally!) and that explains why I was up all night screaming and not sleeping. She got so desperate for me to sleep that she broke down and let me come and snuggle with her and daddy for an hour in their bed. Unfortunately, after I calmed back down, I was deported back to my own room and crib.

Mommy is very tired today and isn't feeling the greatest. I didn't feel very good today either. My nose is kinda runny and I've been sneezing a bit. Mommy said the pollen forecast was very high this weekend and I could have some allergies.

Here's a picture from bathtime tonight. It had to be a warm full bath to wash the ice cream off of me. Mommy and Daddy rode their bikes (and me in my trailer) to Culvers for a treat tonight. I wore most of my treat. :)

Mommy may be crazy!

Mommy has a friend who has a friend who used to work at Gymboree (our favorite store for my clothes, incase you didn't know.)  To make a long story short, I recently came into a bunch of super cute gymbo clothes ranging in my almost current size (12-18 mos) all the way up to 3T.  Mommy was pretty darn excited about the good deals she got (considering a full price sweater there can sometimes be up to $40 and Mommy got me about 15 new outfits and a few random pieces for about that price.)

So anyway, we were in my room today and Mommy was organizing it into my drawers by size and season when she decided she needed to try a few things on me to make sure they're true to size.  In that process, she decided to try on the great snowsuit I got from Aunt Heather.  They live where it's pretty warm all year long so they only needed it when they were traveling.  What a sweet treat for me.  It's super cute marshmellowy pink from The Children's Place.  Here I am....in it.  It's still pretty big on me so Mom squished up the arms and legs so I could climb around.

"I've escaped!"

Waseca Waterpark part deux

That title isn't exactly correct. This is my second blog posting about the Waseca Waterpark, however I've been there 4 times now including today. However, today was my first time there with daddy. We had such a good time. It was a little bit different than the Friday mornings we usually go because they only allow Adults and Children under 7 then. Today was a regular admission day. They had the big water slides on too. I think Mommy was more excited about going down the water slides and the diving boards than the rest of it. Mommy loves the water. Here are some pictures of us today.

My first Etsy purchase

My very first Etsy purchase came today. For those of you not in the know, etsy is a website similar to a craft or flea market. All the stuff is handmade (by different sellers around the world) and pretty cool. I purchased these towel bibs and was happy to discover their arrival in our mailbox today. I was super impressed with the presentation. I buy a ton of stuff on ebay where if just comes thrown in an envelope or box, so I was pleasantly surprised to see them wrapped so nicely (she even included a coupon for a future purchase..score!)

"Mmmmm, tastes like chicken."

So far, we're very pleased with the bibs. The best part is that Lauren can't get these off by just yanking on them (a common problem with the beanitude.) They're in the wash right now for the first time, so hopefully that wash up as well as they wear. Check out Diana's Darnings on Etsy.com.

Bathtime with beanitude

I got a new bathtub today. Mommy says she's not ready for me to be in the big tub all by myself yet. I like the new tub. It's much bigger than my last one and has fun things for me to look at printed on it. My favorite thing to do in the bathtub is SPLASH of course!


Tonight we went out for dinner with The Good's to the OG. It was delicious. I like pasta!

Help me here?

I saw this today while driving. What is wrong with these poor piggies? We're they in need of suckling from their young, or were those tumors? Eeek, I'm thinking I'm done with bacon for awhile.

PS Enjoy my very first Photoshop project, it's very Perez Hilton (love him!!)

Update: I have been told this is like a piggy hernia and although they're probably uncomfortable, all is good in the hood. EEEk, I'm still thinking of skipping the sausage. LOL!

Quack!

I don't have much to tell you. It was a busy day today. Mommy is crazy busy with back to school stuff and is wishing she didn't have to be so busy. I got to go with to the new center today and play while Mommy had a meeting. Tomorrow I get to spend the morning with Daddy while she goes to another one. Then, next Wednesday she's going to be gone all day and night for school. I miss her when she's gone, but Daddy's fun too.

Here are some pictures from today. We tried to go feed the geese tonight, but couldn't find them, they must have flew to the other pond.

I'm gonna wash that bean right outta my hair

BTW: Name that Rodgers and Hammerstein musical

Here's a couple of funny pictures of Lauren.  It's a funny story as to how she ended up in the bathroom sink, but I'm going to keep it to myself.  For now, enjoy the humor of "Babeh in the sink."

Tastes like Babeh!

The horsey liked me. I am kind of nervous around animals at first, I take awhile to warm up to them. Mommy & Daddy took me to see the horses a couple of times before one of them liked me enough to give me a taste. Hmm, maybe someone didn't wash my hands well enough after dinner. HAHAHAH! Oh, and don't worry, Mommy cleaned and thouroughly antibacterialized me after the mini bath.

Saturday

Saturday was another fun day in Windom. We started the day playing and that's pretty much what we did all day long. I love to play with Grammy and Grandpa. I'm usually on my best behavior around them. Here's a picture of Grandpa playing around with me. Grammy told him he had to put socks on so he put them on me. It was fun and kept my legs warm for awhile.

Here I am at lunch time with my I love Grandma & Grandpa bib. Mommy always packs a ton of stuff for me when we leave home and bibs are no exception. She keeps forgetting that Grandma & Grandpa have this bib at their house. There's a neat-o story that goes with this bib, but I'll save it for another less eventful day.

Here I am standing on the dining room table all by myself. I can do that, you know? I can stand all by myself. I can also take a few steps whenever I feel like it. I just don't always feel like walking, you know? So I tend to crawl more that walk. It's quicker for me to get around now. I'll keep practicing though, maybe one of these days I'll make the switch...then you'll be the first to know. :)

We also spent a little time at the fair in the afternoon and then went to the lake for awhile. This is the park right across from the place Mommy & Daddy had their wedding reception. Mommy really wanted pictures taken on the swings there, but that too is a story for another day (perhaps I should let mommy tell that one, she get's kinda crabby and whispers words under her breath when talking about their wedding pictures.) Here I am at the park riding a fun toy. I rode it all by myself for the very first time ever. It was a great time.

We went back to the fair around dinner time for some food and some fun with Uncle Michael. Of course he's not my actual uncle (I only have a couple.) Since Mommy's an only child she's decided to give me honorary Aunties and Uncles in addition to the real ones I already have. I have Auntie Kate (my Godmother) and Auntie Jeslil (Mommy's oldest friend, not in age, but longevity) I also have Uncle Michael (Mommy's dear dear friend) So anyway we met Michael at the fair and Mommy wanted to mess around with him, so she convinced him he just had to take me for a ride on the merry-go-round (thinking that I would throw a big fit like I did yesterday.) Silly Mommy just hasn't figured it out yet. I'm always on my best behavior for people I don't see that often. So anyway, I went for a ride with Uncle Michael and you can check it our for yourself.

The CC Fair

WOW! I had such a blast this weekend. I think this blog post may be a really really long one as Mommy took lots of pictures and videos this weekend.

So on Friday, Daddy took the afternoon off and we headed to Windom for the highly anticipated Cottonwood County Fair. Mommy says it's kind of lame, but she feels like she has to go because it's a tradition and she wants me to have small town traditions too, even though we live in a bigger town.

Grandma and Grandpa bought me some ride tickets and crossed their fingers that the midway would have a merry-go-round. Luckily it did. I rode it with Grandma and when the ride stopped I got kind of upset. I may have even thrown one of those famous fits Mommy and Daddy tell others about (but they never believe it.) I screamed and cried so hard that Grandma turned around and brought me back on the horsies. Mommy and Daddy just rolled their eyes at each other and said something about spoiling me. Here's a picture of Grammy and me on the horsies.

Here I am checking out a goat. If you look at the bottom right corner you can see it's little baby goat under the sawhorse. I loved the baby goat and I even convinced it to come over and see me a bit closer.

My new computer...

It's finally here and holy buckets it's GORGEOUS! I'm using it right now and must say, so far so good. I'm definitely going to have to buy a book for my new Photoshop program because I opened it up and said, "HUH?" Vista is a bit of a change, but I've used so many different OS' over the course of my technological life that I'm sure it won't be long before I love it more than the last (cross your fingers!)

The fingerprint reader is super cool and I have so many neat features I haven't even checked out yet (video chat, a backlit keyboard, supposedly awesome sound, etc. etc. I'm currently writing this blog entry with Windows Live writer instead of the cumbersome blogger editor. We'll see how it goes. So far...so good!

Here she is.... I haven't named her yet. LOL!

PS I didn't completely plan it to match my house, but it was a thought in the back of my head when I ordered my favorite color! The wireless mouse is the same shade and is just so cute!

Kevin was in an accident

However, he's fine *sigh of relief.*

I heard my cell phone ringing Tuesday morning at about 7:30 (not too long after Kev left for work on the scooter.) For some reason I got up (probably because the person left a message and I wanted to know who it was.) Well, I saw it was Kevin and called him back without listening to the message, which turned out to be a good thing.

Apparently, it had been raining (therefore he SHOULDN'T have rode the scooter at all, but that's another post all together.) There are these weird rain grates at the bottom of Lee blvd hill for the rainwater to go into and I guess they were very slippery. As Kevin was about to turn, he went over the slippery grates and the wheels came out from under him. He scraped up his wrists and a bit of his ankle but otherwise is fine. His wrist hurt him for awhile but he's predicting a full recovery by the weekend. The scooter, however, not as good. :( Luckily it's nothing major, just some scratches and stuff. Check it out for yourself:

Playgroup and such

Today Mommy and I traveled all the way to Maple Grove to play with some of my friends. I had such a good time and I finally got to meet Katie who is only 12 days older than I am. It's hard to take a group picture when we all get together but they always turn out so nice. Mommy has pictures with most of this group of my friends going all the way back to when I was 3 months old and I didn't do much playing. We're sure growing up fast. In fact, most of the mommies of these friends are pregnant with their little brothers or sisters. Mommy doesn't talk about me getting a brother or sister, so I'm thinking it may be awhile before I get one (if ever.)


After we got home from the cities, we played outside for awhile before heading over to The Good's for dinner. I love going over there, it's always such a good time.

The fair

Mommy, Daddy and I met Grandma and Grandpa in New Ulm today for the Brown County Free Fair. I was really looking forward to it and it was a lot of fun. They had a great petting zoo full of exotic animals. I didn't love the animals, but it was good for me to check them out.

I was least afraid of the giant turtle in this picture. I think the fact that he was pretty slow moving and low to the ground (near my height) put me at ease around him. He had a hard shell and looked kind of wrinkly in the face. Mommy says it's impolite to point out people's wrinkles.

Overall it was a good time and now I'm really looking forward to the Cottonwood County Fair in Windom this weekend. Mommy entered me in the "Charming Child" photo contest. I wonder if people will vote for me?

Sleeping Bean

Lauren and I had a busy day today. This morning we went to the waterpark in Waseca with some of our friends. I thought Lauren was tolerating the car better now that she's in a forward facing car seat but I was proven wrong today. She threw a fit the whole way there and most of the way back until she finally conked out. Luckily her seatmate Elliot can sleep through an intense screaming fit, because there was nothing we could do for her.

This afternoon Kev and I went to go to Hy-Vee (after we tried to have Lauren take a nap and failed.) Turns out she just wanted to go for a car ride and fell asleep before we even got there.

My friend Elliot

I had a fun day today. My friend Elliot came over all by himself. I mean his Mommy Anna brought him over, but she didn't stay and play this time. She had to go to work and Elliot's Daddy Kyle wouldn't be home in time for Anna to make it to work, so she brought him over to our house. We had a fun time playing.

Mommy told me she couldn't wait for El to come over so I would stop being so cranky. As soon as Elliot came I was so happy to see him I forgot all about whatever it was that was upsetting me. We played together for an hour until his Daddy came to get him. I even shared my sweet pottery barn chair and favorite book with him. Check out all the fun we had.

We're back

Kev and I are back from Bismarck. We had a great time and as usual ask ourselves, "Why has it been so long since we've been there?" We always have SUCH a blast, it's sad that we can't get out there more. Unfortunately, it's a very very long drive. I didn't think it would be much worse that driving from Duluth to NoDak, but the drive from kato there was much worse!! Maybe it was the perpetual road construction, detours, or slow drivers, but I'm thinking that perhaps we're just farther away that we were in Duluth.

Anywho, we left Friday at 6am and barely arrived in time to stop and pick up a gift (we had to do everything last minute since we weren't sure if we'd be able to go due to my crazy fever and stuff.) We got dressed at a wayside rest (LOL!) and I had to put my makeup on in the car (hellllooo Tammy Faye, we'll I hope not.) It was a nice wedding with a lot of familiar touches. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and I am flattered. Summer and Steven had a few details in their day that they borrowed from us and it was nice to see. My sister (in law) Tiffany was a bridesmaid and looked ravishing (as did the bride too of course.)

On Saturday we had a fun day hanging out with the family. We hadn't seen Kev's sister Heather since our wedding and her kiddos (our nieces) have grown do much. Later in the evening the entire clan got together at a tiny hole in the wall for Karaoke and everyone is so darn good! I didn't sing (I used to sing, but was never a soloist) but almost everyone else did.

The drive back today was very very long and I was just happy to get home. It was only our second time away from Lauren and the first time we were any distance away from her. Luckily, my parents were able to take a day off from work and come up to our place to take care of her. I really think it made a big difference as she was in her element and so unbelievably happy to be around all weekend. My parents were very sad to say goodbye. They had too much fun spoiling her (they took her out to eat, bought her a new toy and took her to the FAIR!) How fun!

Ok I need to wrap it up here, I'm rambling now and have some stuff to do and my one and only tv show that I'm loyal to, to watch. Take care!