Playtime

Last night Callie had some serious playtime.  In the kitchen.  With cups.  In an apron.

It was so stinkin' cute I had to take some videos.

Here is one where she names most of her favorite foods.  The only one missing is "cheese" (mac & cheese).


And then she needed to use some problem solving skills when her cups started rolling all over the place.



Finally, we made a fort.  She wasn't as excited about it as I was, and opted for playing with her cups and her imagination. Like when she starts "eating" a food she won't touch in real life, hence my sound of surprise when she tells me what it is.



Hanging out with an almost-2-year-old is ridiculously fun.

Tonight we went to visit Aunt Cat.  She has been having some blood sugar issues so they are doing some tests in the hospital.  Callie loved pushing the buttons on her bed and running out of the room into the hallway whenever she could.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Weekend Wrap-Up: The Thanksgiving Edition

I'm a little overwhelmed thinking about writing this blog post.

How can I sum up the past 5 days?

As I alluded to in my Thanksgiving Post, we had a Henschwekebosselin weekend, which means my mom's whole side of the family came to town from out east and Colorado.  The last time we were all together was more than 6 years ago at our wedding.  Amazing.


The East Coasters (my Uncle Joe, Cousin Karl, and his girlfriend Erica) and Auntie Yoda (Laura's new name) arrived by Wednesday afternoon.  We enjoyed sight-seeing by the condo.

Happy with her Henderson Aunties

Cousins!

All the Colorado people (Grammy, my Uncle John, Aunt Jen, and Aunt Margie) arrived Wednesday night in time for the Turkey Day 5K on Thursday morning (also mentioned in the Thanksgiving Post).

Ekeberg Siblings

After the race, a day full of family, football, and food began.  And a little continuation of the Stomach Bug.  But I'll touch on that later.


Along with all of the Henschwekebosselins mentioned above, Chris' side of the family (Bob, Mary, Cathleen and Dan), Jen's mom (Marti), and my other Grandma all came for Thanksgiving dinner.  Again, Amazing.  There were 20 of us, so we needed three tables!

The Kids Table

The Not-So-Kids Table

The Big Table

The food was delicious.  Callie even contributed to the meal by lending a "helping hand" with the place setting cards.

Gobble Gobble!

The fact that we were all celebrating this holiday together was...you guessed it...amazing.  

The rest of the weekend was filled with more fun, chaos, comings and goings, and people getting sick.  

Yep, The Stomach Bug continued its rampage and hit Auntie Wadi (Mari's new name), Uncle Joe, Karl, Pa, Aunt Margie, and Cathleen all at some time throughout the weekend.  At this point I'm just waiting to hear from the others that they got it.  It isn't seeming to let up!

Despite that, we managed to have some good ole family fun.

Mill City Museum

Double 4 Generation Picture

Occupy Condo

Fun with Legos

Reading with Great Margie

Heart and Soul

Duets Trios

Henschwekebosselin Clan

So thanks to everyone who traveled to Minnesota so we could all be together.  And thanks to my mom for orchestrating a wonderful weekend!


That brings us to today.  We went to church and brunch with my parents and sisters, and then spent the rest of the day relaxing, watching football, and hanging out with Dave, Cherilyn and Sydney.

Little Buddies

As usual, I have put a bunch more pictures on our Shutterfly Site.  Enjoy!

Now that it is almost December, I'm looking forward to putting our Christmas tree and decorations up.  Now to find a spot in our house for our little tree where certain little hands won't get to it...

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Henschwekebosselin Weekend has commenced.  We are all very very very thankful.

 Some of us started the day burning off future calories by running the Turkey Day 5K

And, later, while the rest of us were eating three times the calories we just burned off, a certain toddler was NOT eating much Thanksgiving dinner...

But, later still, was seriously eyeing up the Thanksgiving "cake!"

Hope everyone had a safe, happy and healthy Turkey Day!

23-Months-Old!!

Here we are. One month until the terrible TERRIFIC twos!

Mondays

I love my job but I hate Mondays. After getting to spend quality time with my toddler each weekend, Mondays seem SOOOO long.

After making it through the long day, I drive home, the 12 minutes seeming to take FOREVER.

And every time I walk in the door she amazes me with how big she is, how adorable she is. I feel so dang lucky.

And what makes me feel even more lucky?  Knowing I get to share her with this goofy guy.

I wasn't going to put this picture up, but if you purposely make this face, all bets are off!

Weekend Wrap-Up: The Bug

Be prepared for the lamest Weekend Wrap-Up in Babygoose history.

As I mentioned on Thursday, Callie managed to pick up The Stomach Bug.  On Wednesday night it was all about the puke, but then she was okay throughout the day on Thursday.  She seemed to be her normal self.  On Friday, when she woke up, she seemed pretty sleepy.  Despite my better judgement, Chris dropped her off with my mom and I went to a training I had to go to for work.  By about noon I learned that Callie had had multiple poop explosions.  All over my mom...and their couch.  So I left the training early and got back before she woke up from her nap.  We had to cancel going to the Koch's for a pizza night, and stayed in and watched a family movie. 

Then, later that night, Chris got The Stomach Bug.  

On the plus side, my friend Casey and her husband Travis had their baby on Friday night!  They had a baby boy, who is yet to be named.  He is 8 pounds 7 ounces.  All are doing well.  Congrats Casey!

On Saturday morning, while Chris was recovering from The Stomach Bug, I took Callie to Southdale for a "Princess" day at Herberger's.  I just wanted to go to be one of the first 100 people and get a free pair of kid Crocs.  The event was pretty lame, but we got the Crocs and Callie met Cinderella.

Not so sure about the princess

We stopped for a muffin and coffee, but the lethal toddler gas started up again, so we hurried home before a public blowout happened.  The rest of Saturday was spent with Chris and Callie in their jammies on the couch, feeling miserable.  I, of course, got a cold (the cold that I've been fighting for MONTHS), but was trying to get stuff done (mainly TONS of laundry).  Then it snowed.  And I shoveled.  Grrr.

I woke up on Sunday morning and, GUESS WHAT?, I got The Stomach Bug!  And I texted my parents and, GUESS WHAT?, my mom got The Stomach Bug too!  This Stomach Bug is so not cool.

I spent the day in bed.  Miserable.  My mom did the same.

By early this evening I was at least able to move from my bed to the basement.  Callie and Chris were better, so they hung out at home for most of the day with Uncle Dan.  Then they all went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a little change of scenery. 

I guess if The Stomach Bug had to happen, I'm glad it happened this weekend.   I am looking forward to a short work week and a fun Thanksgiving holiday filled with family!

Let's just hope The Bug stops here.

Sick

We got to deal with our first toddler puke experience last night.  Well, really, very early this morning.  Poor little toddler.  She was a trooper. 

But it wasn't fun...there was:

*a lot of puking episodes between midnight and 3am.

*good reason for a 12:30am bath.

*a load of laundry done around 1am.

*3 different jammy changes.

*many sheet changes followed by just burp clothes laid down on the mattress.

*a lot of cuddle times after puking episodes...my favorite part.


I'm just glad that I didn't take the nighttime cold medicine I thought about taking when I went to bed.  A drowsy mommy would not have been a productive mommy at 1am.

She seems to be better today.  Chris stayed home this morning and I am home this afternoon.

Anyway, I hope it is just a little bug, because all of us need sleep tonight.

This Blog Post:

Brought to you by the letter W!



I don't know where she comes up with this stuff, but it is HI-LARIOUS.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Another busy weekend is coming to a close.

Fall is definitely in the air.

Winter is definitely around the corner.

Which means so is the big 2-Year-Old Birthday.

I found myself answering the "How old is she?" question a lot this weekend.  And the fact that every time I said, "She's almost 2" or "She'll be 2 in December" makes me a little crazy. 

Once again, I ask, HOW DID THAT HAPPEN???

Anyway, we had a really fun weekend. 

Friday
I took Friday off because Chris' cousin Sarah was getting married so we had another wedding (3rd wedding in a month!) to go to in Mankato.  Before we left I spent the morning keeping Callie busy and getting her tired in hopes that she would sleep the whole car ride.  We went to Southdale and rode in the Choo-Choo.  It was a hit, despite how she looks in the picture.

And it was successful because she slept the whole 1.5 hour car ride.  Whew.

The wedding was so much fun, and went MUCH smoother than the rigamaroll Callie put us through at the last wedding from a couple of weeks ago.  Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for the help so we could enjoy more of the festivities without chasing a crazy one around every second. :)

Wakelyn likes the pretty new dress!

Family

The happy couple

Dancing with Mommy

Dancing with Seamus

Dancing with Grandma and Grandpa

As you can see, Callie was a dancing machine and made it til about 8:20 (1 hour and 20 minutes later than the previous wedding) before Daddy put her to bed.  Mommy got to stay and dance with the Gosselins.

A fun time was had by all!

Saturday
Callie actually slept til a little after 7am (awesome) so after breakfast we went swimming with Grandma and Grandpa before heading home.

We had an uneventful trip home, followed by a good 2+ hour nap.  After the nap, Callie was getting pretty stinky with lots of "tooties" so I offered her the chance to sit on the potty-chair again, and she actually agreed to do it.  It has been a few weeks since she has even considered it, so I jumped at the chance to give her an opportunity for potty-chair success (plus, I'd rather have her poop in the potty than deal with an Auntie-reserved blowout!).  So...she sat.  And she sat.  And she sat.  And she sat.  And she read books.  And she played with Mommy's toiletries.  And she sat.  For 40 MINUTES.  Yes, you read that right.  Our active little almost-2-year-old sat still on the potty-chair for 40 minutes while waiting to poop.  And, after 40 minutes, poop she did.  I'll leave it at that, and say that she definitely deserved her Oreo Cookie.

Saturday night we headed to the condo for dinner with our dear friends the Suurmeyers.  Dinner was delicious (thanks Boom!), as was the chocolate cake (thanks Suurmeyers!).  I did a bad job of taking pictures, but managed to snap one during dessert.

Sunday
This morning we went to church with Andy, Jenna and Charlie, and then headed out for lunch after the service.

Those two are something else. We are excited that Charlie is going to get a little brother or sister in mid-May, so Callie will have another little Held to play with!

Tonight we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa's house for a little bit to get a change of scenery after naptime.  Callie and Auntie Cat read one of Callie's most favorite books together.  We've seen them read it a few times before, and it is so adorable so I couldn't resist getting it on film.


That's about it for the weekend wrap-up.  I've been waiting for over a week to hear baby news from my friend Casey, who was due with Ciri's little brother or sister on November 4th.  As far as I know, still no baby, but I am anxiously awaiting the news!

Cousins and Aunties

Callie may not have any first cousins, but she has a lot of second and third cousins!  She got to see a couple of those cousins today.

She hung out with her second cousin Ayla this morning at Grandma's house (Ayla's mom Hannah is Chris' first cousin).

Barbies!

Monkey faces!

Then tonight Callie got to hang out with her third cousin Donald (Donald's dad Andy is my second cousin).

Passies

Passy war!

Kona and Sasha got to play too!

Now, onto another (stinky) note: Auntie Laura beware!

I already mentioned on the last weekend wrap-up, Callie had a really good blow-out for Auntie Mari.
Today she had an enormous blow-out for Auntie Cat that required some time in the bathtub!
The only logical conclusion for this is that Auntie Laura is next to experience a blow-out of epic proportions...maybe Thanksgiving weekend? Watch out! :)

Cereola and Cinco!

I REALLY wish I could have some sort of video camera on Callie at all times because she is HILARIOUS.  And BRILLIANT.

I can't even tell you how many times she has said something and I'm like, "How do you know that???" or "How did you come up with that??"

Here are just a couple of examples of what I am talking about.

#1: This morning as I was changing her diaper and talking about Cookie Monster, she all of a sudden looked at me and said, "What happened?"  I had no idea what she was talking about, but it was adorable.

#2: She is a pretty picky eater, so usually whatever she asks for to eat, she gets.  This afternoon she asked for "cereola", which is usually reserved for breakfast.  At our house, cereola refers to rice cereal (yes, the same rice cereal that people feed their 6-month-olds) mixed with whole milk and yogurt.  Sounds delicious, doesn't it?  Anyway, she usually likes to add a couple of extra syllables to cereola when she talks about it, so I had to get it on film. 



#3: Later,  when we were reading a counting book, she began spouting out Spanish numbers.  All of a sudden I heard "dos! dos!" over and over again.  So then I started counting in Spanish and she continued by saying "cinco! seis!"



I like to take credit for lots of what she says because I'm the teacher and am constantly telling her random stuff to say.  But I give Dora all the credit on this one!

Weekend Wrap-Up

This week's weekend wrap-up will be filled with cute little anecdotes, pictures and videos, because THIS weekend, a certain toddler was so unabashedly adorable.

Friday
I had the day off on Friday, so we took advantage of the free time to get some things done.  Like get Callie a flu shot.  I kept calling it a "poke" to try and make it not sound scary, and the name stuck.  She got a cookie after it was done, and kept talking about the "poke" and the cookie at random times the rest of the weekend.

We also FINALLY scheduled the hair cut that needed to happen.

That afternoon, we met Kylie and Calvin at Edinborough for some heavy duty play time.

Sitting on the ducks (well...almost...)

Jumping!

Photo-op spot...sort of...

Saturday
After a much needed check-up at Dr. Stewart's for all of us (Kona included!) we headed to the condo for some time with Boom and Bops.

They made it up the big hill!

Rolling down the big hill!

Mari and her boyfriend Josh came over on Saturday night to babysit for us.  We were invited to go to a family friends' 50th Birthday party.  After the disaster that was last weekend, we decided to go to the party toddler-free so we could actually enjoy ourselves.  We had a great time and got to hang out a little with our Goddaughter, Christine, who is now in 3rd grade!

Before we left for the party, I warned Mari that it had been a couple of days since Callie had pooped, so to beware.  At around 8:00, the following text exchange occurred between her and me.
Mari: Yes major poop explosion.  I put her clothes in plastic bag and opened her window.  Your upstairs reeks.  I washed my hands 4 times and still don't feel clean.  I just put her down.
Me: Haha oh no...but kind of hilarious. 
So kudos to Mari, for changing her first ever poopy diaper.  Lucky her, it was a blow-out the first time.

Sunday
We took it easy on Sunday.  There was a little morning cuddling:

Daddy's Girl

And a walk to the park:

During nap time I went to do some scrap-booking with my friend Amanda.  It felt SO good to get back into it, and I'm re-energized to finish Callie's baby book.  Looking back at the brand new baby pictures was fun and crazy and a little weird. It feels like a LONG time ago. :)

Tonight we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for play time and dinner.  Callie was REVVED up.  She showed off her new vocabulary words that she has been working on with Auntie Cat:


Then she was all about answering the cell phones.

(The videos were taken on my cell phone, hence the crappy quality, but you get the idea!)

We decided to take a chance and go to the 7pm church service tonight.  Boom was playing her flute, so that is always great entertainment for Callie.  She loves clapping quietly after each song or hymn.

As usual, we brought Callie up with us during communion tonight.  After giving Chris and me each a piece of the communion bread, Pastor Ben marked her forehead with a cross and said a little blessing to her.  As he and my dad (who was helping out with communion) continued on to the rest of the row, Callie held out her hand and said, "Callie chip?"  No, sorry babe, you're not quite ready for the communion "chips" yet!  But we all got a chuckle out of it at the end of the service.

It is All Saints Sunday today, so I lit a candle in memory of my grandfathers- Grampy and Grandpa.  I really wish they could have met Callie.  But I know they are loving her from heaven.

Once again the weekend went way too fast, and I am mentally preparing for another busy week.