cirque du soleil

We met some friends at the Mall of America today to go to Toddler Tuesday and see the Cirque Du Soleil Ovo cast. They had a small demonstration along with face painting and cast pictures. I'm surprised Greta didn't have a meltdown when I put her in the arms of these strange creatures. We spent the rest of the afternoon having lunch and walking around the mall. Greta had a great time and took a long nap when she got home.

15 months



Greta had her 15 month wellness visit. Her baby needed a checkup too.

Greta turned 15 months last Wednesday and we had a wellness checkup that day as well. We were happy to see Greta had gained almost 2 lbs in the last 3 months. At her 12 month visit she had only gained 1.5 oz from 9 months to 12 months and weighed 17 # 10 oz and was 28.5 ". 

At 15 months:

weight- 19 # 14 oz ~ 10th percentile

height- 30.5" ~25-50th percentile

head

What are you up to at 15 months?

- You have added several words to your vocabulary. You can say mom, daddy, puppy, milk, cheese, woof-woof, baby, ball, uh-oh, gentle, brrr, ... hmmm I know there are more?

- You wear a variety of sizes. We have you in mostly 12-18 month clothes but some of the smaller sizes still fit too.

- You are in size 4 diapers for nighttime and during the day you wear cloth diapers. You still fit in your medium BG AIOs so those are usually are first pick.

- You go to bed around 7:30pm and usually wake up once between 3-4am and then sleep until 8am.

- You still take 2 naps per day. Your first nap is around 10am and your afternoon nap is around 2pm. You are usually pretty flexible about what times we put you down depending on how busy our day is.

- You've been eating a lot better the last 3 months but still don't mind if we feed you. You still enjoy your pureed foods and we add some finger food in as well although often it gets tossed on the floor to Sofie.

- You drink usually  3- 7 oz bottles per day. One morning, noon, and bedtime bottle. You just dropped your mid-afternoon bottle last week. Since your weight increased at this last vist we'll probably soon drop the noon bottle too. I'm still pumping twice per day and getting about 10 oz and you drink the rest in whole milk. We transitioned to whole milk about 1.5 months ago and you seem to really like it. You have a straw sippy cup that you like to drink water from or try drinking water from our cups at restaurants.

- Your favorite toy by far is your baby. You are constantly carrying your baby tucked under your left arm. You usually also carry a washcloth (to use as a blanket for your baby), a little monkey purse, a crunch play dollar bill, and a couple rings you pretend are bracelets. I laugh when I'm getting ready for us to go out for the day and am packing your little hodge podge of random things you play with. You also like to put your baby in your Little People car and push her around or put her in a bucket and push her. You make a vroom noise.

- You continue to cruise around furniture and can push your walker with one hand. I know you could walk if you wanted to put it seems like you really are not in any hurry. You have your way of getting around with either crusing on furniture or scooting with your knee up so you can carry things in your left hand and this seems to suit you just fine. I'm not really in any rush for you to walk as I know it will bring a lot of new challenges:)

Your mommy and daddy love you so much!

Show Us Your Life- Main Dish Recipes

Kelly's Korner is having a recipe swap over on her blog. One of my favorites is Zucchini Enchiladas. I just made a double batch of these enchiladas last week for dinner and brought over the other half to my friend, Christin, and her family. She just had a beautiful baby girl, Lila, on May 11th.

                                                           Zucchini Enchiladas

Zucchini Enchiladas

8-10 small corn tortillas

8 oz shredded cheddar cheese

8 oz shredded pepper jack cheese

3-4 zucchini

1 small onion

2 cloves of garlic- finely chopped

1/2 bunch chopped cilantro

olive oil

3-8 oz cans of tomato sauce

Heat olive oil in pan, fry each tortilla for about 5 seconds on each side. They should be a little greasy. Put finely chopped zucchini and onion in each tortilla along with cheddar and pepperjack cheese. Roll tortilla and put in slightly greased 9x13 baking pan. Once you have all tortillas in pan, put sauce (see below) over top. Then put remaining pepperjack and cheddar cheese over top. Bake 30-35 minutes (covered) at 350 degrees.

Enchilada sauce:

Put 1/3 of onion in olive oil and saute. Add 2-3 tablespoons garlic. Add 1/2 bunch of chopped cilantro. Add tomato sauce and heat through. Add dash of cayenne pepper and salt.

I also made this delicious Mexican Cream Cheese Rice to go along with the enchiladas.

                                                        Mexican Cream Cheese Rice

http://goodthymesandgoodfood.blogspot.com/2011/02/mexican-cream-cheese-rice.html
Mexican Cream Cheese Rice
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup uncooked long grain white rice
3 ounces cream cheese, cubed
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chile peppers
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup corn
1 (15 ounce) can petite diced tomatoes, drained & liquid reserved
2 green onions, thinly sliced
Kosher salt
ground black pepper

1. In a large pot, bring the chicken stock to a boil and add the rice. Stir, cover, reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a small casserole dish.
3. Once the rice is cooked, stir in the cream cheese to melt. Then add the chilies, cheddar, corn, and drained tomatoes. Add tomato juice as needed for moisture. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Transfer rice mixture to prepared casserole dish and bake for 20-25 minutes, until cheese in bubbling and lightly browned.
5. Top with sliced green onions before serving.

Enjoy!

we're not raising grass

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard.

Mother would come out and say, “You’re tearing up the grass.”

“We’re not raising grass,” Dad would reply.

“We’re raising boys.”

~Harmon Killebrew

Swinging at the park after our walk with Rachel and Elle.

She put her baby in the backseat of her Little People car and was pushing it around.

One little cute moment from today that I want to jot down. I was sitting on the floor in the family room and Greta was standing beside me and she put her arms around me and kept patting me and saying "momma". It was really sweet. I think she was trying to give me hugs. Lately, she's started patting me on the back every once in awhile when I am holding her or rubbing my back. I love her so much. 

happy anniversary

Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary. Last year and the year before we celebrated by eating at The Lexington and visiting Irvine park where we got married. Today was a little more low key. Chad worked today and we were planning on going out to dinner but Greta didn't nap very well this afternoon so we thought it might be safer to just celebrate this weekend. Instead, we had grilled cheese and watched Dancing With The Stars and The Voice. It was a nice, relaxing night.

A little walk down memory lane on this day 3 years ago...

Here are a few pictures of Greta today...

Lots of love to my wonderful husband on this special day!

sunny monday

What a beautiful day today! Our morning started out with this little missy getting into the one cabinet that doesn't have a lock. She made this little mess while I was scrambling some eggs for us for breakfast. I guess she wanted some tea with her eggs.

Her baby doll (tucked under her arm) was in on the conspiracy.

After Greta's morning nap her friend, Harper, and Harper's mom, Emma, came over for a playdate.

Having a little snack.

After Greta's afternoon nap, we went for a little walk around the neighborhood. Greta had a great time but wouldn't keep her sun hat on (you can see it's laying beside the stroller).

Greta and Sofie hanging out. Greta said "puppy" this weekend for Chad and I to hear. Chad was petting Sofie and saying "nice puppy" and Greta said "puppy" clear as day.

Channeling Jane Fonda.

Greta is still scooting up a storm. No signs of walking yet.

We had a great day!

emails from the past

About 3 months ago, I setup my Blackberry so my emails would get sent to my phone. I get my emails on a timely basis to my Blackberry but something odd has started happening since I setup my emails to go to my phone. I will randomly get emails sent to my phone that are from years ago. Many of them are from 2007 and they will just randomly show up on my phone, usually about 2-3 per day. I usually don't clear out my inbox so all of the emails that are sent are still in my inbox but it's just odd the ones that are forwarded. Anyway, today I received another one of these emails from the past and it was an email reply to a pet rescue contest I had submitted a photo and bio of our dog, Bijou, to about 4 years ago. I had forgotten about this photo of Bijou and this contest and it warmed my heart to see this picture and read the bio again. I thought it would be fun to include it on the blog.

A little backstory- A few months before this picture was taken Bijou and Sofie were at a casting call for a animal talent agency in the area. Bijou was called a few weeks later to model a dress and dog bed for Target. I brought Bijou to the photo shoot and I thought she did a wonderful job and looked absolutely adorable. She sat perfectly in the basket and I thought the way she had her mouth open made it look like she was smiling. I purposely didn't broadcast her senior age of 14 at the photo shoot because I didn't want there to be age discrimination :) It did end up coming out though that she was 14 and while the photographer and the rest of the crew were all shocked (the casting agent knew Bijou was 14) and commented that they thought she looked like a puppy. I can't help but wonder if it was why they didn't use her pictures in the Target ad. Unforunately, the pet and their owner aren't able to take any pictures or have any of the pictures from the photo shoot so we anxiously waited each week when the Target ad came out to see if our little Bijou was a star. A few friends knew Bijou had done some modeling and were watching the ads for me. I got an excited call from a friend that they thought Bijou was in the ad. When we looked at the ad though it was the same outfit and dog bed Bijou had wore for the modeling shoot, but it wasn't Bijou in the picture. They will often try out mulitple dogs in the same outfit, etc and see which one the client wants to use. They evidently didn't go with Bijou's pictures. I was dissapointed so I went to Target and bought the dress and bed and brought my cute little dog to Proex and had her pictures taken. It was fun to get this email from the past today sent to my Blackberry and remind me of those photos we had taken years ago.

Here's the contest submission and photo:

Hello! My name is Bijou and I am a young and lively 14 year old bichon! My mom and dad adopted my from MN Bichon Rescue when I was 11 years old. I am not the only four-legged fluff in our house. I also have a 2 year old bichon sister named Sofie. Even though I am over a decade older than my sister I often get mistaken as the younger fluff. My mom thought I was so cute that she decided to get me a job as a doggie model. Well, I got picked by Target to model this silly dress and sit in a basket. Even though I was as cute as could be; my pictures still got left on the cutting room floor. Since we weren't able to get any copies of the pictures from that day my mom thought she would re-create the photo shoot by buying the same dress and basket from Target and bringing me to a professional photographer. So here I am! Other than sitting pretty and smiling for the camera my only other talent is to stand on my back legs and do the bichon wave. This is how I keep my girlish figure because I am constantly clapping to tell my mom I want something. I give my mom and dad lots of kisses every day and tell them how happy I am that they adopted me as a senior dog. They have given me the best forever home and I am so thankful that I am able to spend my senior years having so much fun!

Here are a few other pictures from the photo shoot.

We love you Bijou! I hope you are clapping away up in heaven right now!

random thoughts

Just a few things bouncing around in my head today.

Greta said her first two word phrase today. She said "hi daddy". Of course, I missed it and then she got stage fright when Chad tried to get her to repeat it in front of me. I think she goes through stages of having favorite words or sounds. Right now, she says "hi" constantly. I had her on my hip this afternoon and I was going to make a call on my cell phone and before I could say anything she chimed in "hi".

Do you love sweet tea? I think I found the perfect pre-made sweet tea tonight at Target. It's absolutely delicious and tastes like it's been sitting on my front step brewing in the sun all day. LOVE.

We had my friend, Chelsae, over today with her almost 7 mos. old daughter, Maya, for a playdate. Greta loves having friends over to play. She has started trying to say "Maya" but it sounds similar to her word for milk and mom. She gets the first syllable out. The words Greta has said thus far are dad, mom, ball, cheese, baby, hi, bye, and milk.

Greta's gag reflex has been in full force lately. Last night for dinner I made a roast with carrots and potatoes. We were giving Greta some bites of plain mashed potatoes and she was a little leary of it and on her 3rd bite she gagged up most of her meal. This has been happening frequently when we try giving her something new. She is so darn picky. On a happier note, we transitioned over to whole milk this week. I'm still pumping so she gets about 1/4 breastmilk mixed with the whole milk. We had started supplementing with formula when Greta was 11 months because my supply started to decrease a bit. We've been mixing formula, whole milk, and breastmilk for about the past 3 weeks because Greta wouldn't take the whole milk/breastmilk combo initially. It's nice to not have to buy formula anymore. Man, that stuff is expensive.

I found a 2-pack of  play baby bottles this week when I was shopping at Toys R Us. Greta still always has her baby in hand and she usually just uses one of her empty baby bottles to "feed" her babies. She loves the new smaller baby bottles and has been very busy tending to her babies.

No signs of walking yet but Greta has started standing up a few times where her hands are on the ground and her legs are straight. Kind of like she's touching her toes. Usually she does it with one arm because she has her baby tucked under her left arm. She could stand on her own if she wanted to but she just seems perfectly happy doing her mock scoot/crawl to get around.

That's all for today. Happy Wednesday peeps!

mother's day

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."
~Elizabeth Stone

We've had a wonderful weekend. The weather has been gorgeous. I had a wonderful Mother's Day with all my loves. The day started with a wonderful night of uninterrupted sleep. Chad got up with Greta at 3am so I could have a good night's sleep. Greta woke up at 8am and was literally squealing with delight in her room. She was so happy this morning. (She's generally pretty happy when she wakes up but she was just bubbling with excitement this morning). We gathered the family and tried to decide what we should do for the day. Chad also surprised me by telling me he was going to buy me a new camera for Mother's Day. Yay! So a trip to National Camera was planned since he knows I like to pick these things out myself. We decided that Greta would probably crash on us midway through brunch if we decided to go out before she had her morning nap so we decided to go out to eat after she woke up. Chad and I were both hungry for breakfast though so we loaded up the family (this includes Sofie) in the van and went through the drive-thru at White Castle. Klassy. I don't like White Castle burgers but their breakfasts rock! I love their english muffin with a fried egg, cheese, and bacon. One of the jurors from the trial I was on last year actually turned me on to the delicious White Castle breakfasts. After our delicious breakfast and a little playtime, Greta went down for her morning nap. After Greta woke up, we headed down to Golden Valley for brunch at Good Day Cafe. It was delicious. I had their crab cake benedict and Chad had the corned beef hash. The surprise of the meal though was the pancakes. We had ordered a short stack for Greta and they ended up being our favorites of the meal. They tasted like they had a hint of beer in them. I'll definitely order those again. We didn't take many pictures today. Here's one of Greta at the restaurant.

After brunch we went to National Camera Exchange to look at cameras. I think I found the one that I want but wanted to do a little more internet research before I commit to one. Hopefully, I'll have it in my hands this week though. So excited! I think we might go to the MN Zoo this weekend and I can try out my new camera. I bought Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 last week too so I should be ready to go! After camera shopping, we made a quick trip to Target and then headed home. Greta took a long afternoon nap from 4:15-6:15pm and was up until 8pm tonight. She has been such a talker lately. She was making us laugh with her little jibber jabber trails. Chad finished putting locks on the cabinets tonight while she was eating dinner so she's going to be surprised tomorrow when she finds out she can't open the cabinets anymore. One funny thing that happened tonight- I was downstairs in the family room and Chad was upstairs getting some food. I heard my phone ring and got up to answer it. I saw it was Chad and I sat back down on the couch to find out what he needed. As I said hello, I looked down on the floor and see Greta holding Chad's phone. She made her first call and called her mommy. Too funny!

rainy weekend and lots of pictures

Ugh... This weather we've been having has been just absolutely yucky. I'm so sick of the cold but I can't complain too much because at least we don't have snow like in ND.

Last Wednesday evening, Chad and I took Greta to family storytime after dinner. The theme was cows. They sang songs about cows, read books about cows, and then even colored cows at the end.

Our little Pablo Picasso!

On Thursday we finally made it back to our infant class after a couple months hiatus. It's so hard to get out of the house for this early class, especially when Greta has been sleeping in until 8:30 or even 9am some mornings. It was Greta's friend Elle's birthday on Thursday so we had to go and wish her a "happy birthday".

Greta with the birthday girl, Elle.

A class photo!

Snack time!

We met Harry and Johanna for lunch at Noodles on Friday.

Shopping at Target with her new baby doll.

Watching the rain outside on Saturday.

Greta's modified crawl so she can hold her baby in one hand.

Showing us her baby is "so big".

Such a little mommy. She loves this baby. Best $3.39 we've spent!

I love this face. It's like "awe mom".

Hope everyone has a great week!