Weekly Update: A Roller-coaster Ride Week and a Cheese Slicer Incident!

Wow has this been a week (or a couple of weeks) of LOTS of ups and downs!  (Heads up that this post will pretty much just be me rambling about all the stuff we did for the last few days)

Lets go back to the Friday before last (about 12 days ago) when the hubby started up his second round of classes to become a Krav Maga instructor.  With him gone basically all day every day for 10 days, I decided to try and become super mom and do lots of fun things with Little L (all while keeping the house clean, doing laundry, making yummy foods, and crafting!)  High ambitions but not a lot of follow through!

Here's a breakdown of our week of highs and lows (Seriously a roller-coaster week!)

• Friday:  Daddy's first day of class and Little L and Mommy's trip to Como Zoo (read about it here)
• Highs: Lots of fun at the zoo!  Including seeing the baby giraffe!
• Lows: Not being able to meet up with family and rain
• Saturday: Checked out the Caribou Coffee Warehouse Sale and went to church
• Highs: Got some really great deals!
• Lows: Wish I had gotten some more deals!  :)
• Sunday: Mostly just hung out at home
• Monday: Hung out with a girlfriend and her little ones for the morning
• Highs: So nice to get out of the house and have other little ones for Little L to interact with
• Tuesday: Had an appointment for Little L and she had to get her finger pricked for hemoglobin check and then we went to the Wading pool
• Highs: Wading pool is always fun with Little L since she loves it so much!
• Lows: finger pricks and toddlers don't mix!  Also, it was kinda chilly at the wading pool so we didn't stay too long.
• Wednesday: Rainbow grocery shopping and a trip to the park (pictures to come soon!)
• Thursday: I had to work so Little L went to spend the day at my girlfriends (the same one we hung out with on Monday)
• Highs: Little L did great at my friends and I actually got some really nice compliments from my boss at work (totally the favor of God people!)
• Lows: I had to work and missed my baby!
• Friday: Went to the Crocs warehouse sale and Roseville Mall
• Highs: Got a couple of good deals at the Crocs sale and then got even better deals at Herberger's at the mall!  (Dress shirts for the hubby for $7.50!)  Little L had some fun playing in the kiddie area too!
• Lows: Driving home from the mall I was thinking about stopping and grabbing lunch for us somewhere when Little L proceeded to throw up three times in a row!  She was absolutely covered!  Thankfully she dealt with it really well.  She was upset but for the most part didn't fuss at all!  I just drove home quick and had to completely remove the car seat, give Little L a bath, hose off the car seat and scrub out the back seat! Not a good time!  I'm still not quite sure why she threw up but she took a great nap and was fine for the rest of the day.
• Saturday: Ran errands with Little L (had to check out our Herberger's to see if there were good sales there too), went to church and picked up my dad from the airport
• Highs: Our Herberger's did have some great sales!  Church was amazing!  My dad flew in!
• Lows: I forgot I was helping put together a grocery deal list for my friends blog so I had to work on it after I picked my dad up and since his flight was delayed I didn't get started on it until 10 which meant I was up until midnight working on it!  (Which is uber late for me since I am a 9:30 pm bedtime type girl!)
• Sunday: The hubby's last day of class and fun day with Grandpa (at least that was what was supposed to happen!)
• Highs: The biggest high of this day is that my hubby passed his class and he is now an official Krav Maga instructor for IKMF!  WooHoo!  
• Lows: And here is where it gets messy...I was tired from staying up late and was quickly trying to make my hubby a sandwich for his lunch.  While I was slicing the cheese (with a cheese slicer mind you...not a knife) it slipped and I sliced the tip of my thumb off and broke my thumb nail in half.  I started yelling to the hubby that I had cut my finger really badly so he quick got my dad up and grabbed Little L.  We gave her a thing of milk while my dad was getting dressed and I grabbed a bag of goldfish so she would have something to eat.  We went to the ER where I checked in and my dad had to try and entertain Little L for 3 hours!  They figured stuff out with my thumb (I had sliced off just enough that they didn't think they could really sew it back on) so they numbed me up and cleaned up my thumb than bandaged me and sent me on my way.  (I wish it had actually gone that quickly but there was lots of waiting around time in between). They sent me home with a cocoon around my thumb, a prescription for vicadin and some stuff to re-wrap my thumb.  I decided to try and take one vicadin that afternoon which was so not a good idea!  I ended up getting super nauseous and with Little L I wasn't able to lay down so I ended up throwing up a couple times.  Fun fun!  Now I only take it at night when I go to sleep since it does help with that. At least it doesn't hurt too bad!  It is already healing really well and I am believing for super natural restoration and regrowth of my thumb!  I know that Jesus' healing power is at work in my life!

Ok, so that is a rundown of the highs and lows for the last 10 days or so!  Overall, there were more highs than lows but the ups and downs have definitely worn me out!  I am looking forward to a nice relaxing, long weekend at my dad's lake cabin for Labor Day!

A Trip to Como

Last week I found out my cousins from Northern Minnesota were going to be in town and were planning a trip to Como Zoo/Como Town on Friday so Little L and I decided to join them.  Unfortunately, Little L is the only one out of all the kids that were going that needed a nap so we had to go earlier in the morning and my family didn't get there until we had to leave.  Oh well!  Little L and I had a blast at the zoo and at least we got to say a quick hi to my family.

Here are some of the pictures I took while we were there!

Saying hi to the seal

Playing in the new Polar Bear exhibit

Checking out the fish (the polar bear was sleeping so the fish were so much more exciting to watch!)

The giraffes

Check out the baby giraffe!  So cute!

The tiger (Daddy's favorite so I had to take a picture for him)

Watching the seals and hearing them bark

Looking at the fish

Giving hugs to the penguin

It ended up raining right before we left so we got a little wet but we had lots of fun with all of the animals!

Minnesota Children's Museum

Last week the hubby and I took Little L to the Minnesota Children's Museum.  Little L's aunt (the hubby's sister) had given her tickets to the museum for her first birthday.  It was such a great gift and we ended up waiting so long to use it because we really wanted to find the right day.  I must say we found it!  Going on Tuesday morning was probably the best decision we made.  They don't allow school groups on Tuesdays so that meant that the atmosphere was way more chill and there was a higher parent to child ratio.  It definitely helped make our day more fun and go more smoothly!


If you have never been to the MN Children's Museum than I highly recommend you get there when you can!  There is a reason it has been voted as one of the best indoor places to take your children in the Twin Cities.  (And with all the winter we have it is VITAL to have a fun indoor place to go!)  There is something for every age group and Little L even had a blast the last time we went when she was only 10 months old but I must say she had even more fun this time around!


Here are some pictures from our adventure!  (WARNING: LOTS of cute pictures to follow!)

Daddy and Little L in the balance room

Little L playing with spinning tops

Playing with blocks

Checking out the Tin Man at the Wizard of Oz exhibit!

Brushing the Lion's hair

Make your own Scarecrow

Not the best picture of Little L but she had fun watching the lights

Saying hi to Toto

Looking into the rest of the museum

Looking out over the city! 

This is actually a picture I took when Little L was 10 months old at the same window!

Playing in the Habitot area

Why did Little L cross the bridge?  To get to her daddy!

Little L's favorite part of the day!  Water Works!

Love the look of joy on her face!

Exploring

Bubbles!

It's kind of hard to see here but she is SOAKED!!!

In a dry outfit and ready to go home after a fun filled day!

Girls Night Out

Last night I was super blessed to be able to celebrate my girlfriend and her upcoming wedding at her bachelorette party!  Her sister and future sister-in-law planned such a great night for all of us!

We started off at her sister-in-law's and quickly hopped in the car once everyone was there to drive downtown for dinner.  They had decided they wanted it to be a surprise for my girlfriend so they made her put a blindfold on in the car before we got downtown and didn't let her take it off until we got to our table in the restaurant!  There was a Twins game last night so suffice it to say, we got LOTS of looks from all the people we passed!

For dinner they had reserved a room for us at Solera!  It's a Spanish tapas restaurant which means they pretty much just serve lots of yummy, different appetizers!  It was my first visit and I absolutely loved it!  We all picked two things we wanted to try and then shared everything.  It's amazing how full I felt even though it didn't seem like we ate that much.  My favorite dishes had to be the Braised Rabbit with Artichokes with Lemon and Egg, Ham and Cheese Croquettes, Chorizo Stuffed Dates with Smoked Bacon, and the Fried Calliflower and Lemon (I can't remember the fancy name for that one but OH.MY.GOSH!  The lemon pieces that were breaded and then fried were so amazing and refreshing!).  Seriously, pretty much everything I tried was super yummy with the exception of just a few things that I'm not totally that fond of anyway (i.e. lamb).  I was brave and tried everything that came my way though, and I'm so glad I did!  :)

One half of our party

The other half of our party (I'm on the far right)

After dinner we had a blast making my girlfriend buy stuff on a special "Wedding Night List" at Target! Then it was back to her sister-in-law's for dessert and gifts.  (Who, by the way, did an AMAZING job decorating her place, putting out cute labels for all of the food, picking fun games and just being an all around awesome hostess!)

All in all it was such a fun night of laughter, girl talk, laughter, good food, and more laughter!  I am so honored to be able to be her personal attendant at the wedding and I just can't wait until it comes!

She is going to make such a GORGEOUS bride!

Little L's 18 Month Well Child Visit

I can't even believe that my baby is 18 months old already!  Time is just flying by but it is so fun!

Here are her stats from her check-up:
Height: 33" - 75-90%
Weight: 24 lbs and 9.5 oz - 50%  (I promise not to post her weight on the internet when she gets older!)


Little L is doing just great and she is growing up just like she supposed to!  She is able to do basically all of the skills they expect to see at this age (walking fast, siting in chair, kicking/throwing balls, stacking blocks, turning pages in books, naming some objects, pointing to body parts on request, shows affection to stuffed animals, play-acts with toys like telephones, puckers lips and kisses parents).

Some new words she has added to her vocabulary (which is growing EVERY day!): butterfly, shoe, potato, ball, more, cheese, juice, Cheetos (yes she knows what those are!), wee (which means swing!), video (yes she knows what those are too!), milk, yum, cookie (oh yeah, she knows what they are too!), please, Mommy, Daddy, and many more!

And the icing on the cake...She says "I Love You!" :)  It sounds a little more like "I Do" but I'll take it!  The best is when she says it first!  Melts my heart every time!

One other thing that she is doing all the time now is "tickling"!  It is so cute because she loves to "tickle" everything by wiggling her fingers and saying "tickle, tickle, tickle"!  She was even tickling her swing the other day!  Just pure joy!  :)

Here is her 18 month picture with the giant puppy my hubby gave me on one of our first dates!

And here are some of the older pictures of when she was just a babe with the puppy!

1month old

4 months old

6 months old

10 months old

12 months old

She just keeps getting cuter if you ask me!  :)

Redecorating Little L's Room

Well, I'm not sure that redecorating is the right word but we definitely did some reorganizing in her room a couple of weeks ago!

Before it was Little L's room it was our spare bedroom which meant we had our old full size bed in there.  Once we knew she was on the way we changed things around a little bit to decorate it for her and add a crib and dresser but we left the bed in there.  It was a great idea since I ended up sleeping in that bed for almost the entire first 6 months of Little L's life!  

Now that she is growing up *tear* we didn't really have the need for the bed and it took up a lot of play space so we moved it down into a partially finished room in the basement. (At least the room has walls!)

Here's a few pictures of the room before we moved stuff around:

And here is what it looks like after the reorganizing!  (A little messy but oh well!)

You can see one of my recent blog "winnings" in the corner!  It is technically a spaceship but we didn't really have room to put the fins on so it kind of looks like a castle instead (at least that is what we tell Little L!).  I won the spaceship from Rave and Review's blog.  She's got some other great giveaways going on right now so if you are interested you should check it out!

We are LOVING the open space in her room both for playing and for storing toys!  Even though we still end up with some stuff out in our living room, it mostly lives in her room which makes for a much cleaner house!

Annual Company Picnic

Here is another reason why I absolutely LOVE my job!  Every year the technical community holds a family picnic.  They pull out all the stops with a petting zoo, pony rides, inflatable jumping things, popcorn, cotton candy, sno cones, games, prizes, and dinner!  The best of all, every year they have a Cheerios Dig where they fill up a sandbox with Cheerios and then bury prizes in it and let the little ones go wild!  It is lots of fun and definitely a photo op!

Little L shoveling the Cheerios into her mouth even though I repeatedly told her NOT too!  :)

One of her prizes

Little L in a sea of Cheerios!

The other game Little L liked was the Duck Pond.  The only thing was she really wanted to play with the water!

Going for the Ducks!

She wanted to keep grabbing them even though she was only supposed to pick three!

Then to top off the day we always have to have the BEST treat ever!  They make Pillsbury chocolate chip cookies and fill them with Hagen-Daz ice cream!  YUMMY!  Those ice cream sandwiches are probably the one thing that everyone looks forward to each year!  

The ice cream sandwiches and the ice cold water were especially a huge hit this year since it was so HOT!  The picnic was actually supposed to be on Tuesday but there were lots of thunderstorms so they moved it to the rain date on Wednesday.  It was nice and sunny with no rain but the humidity was ridiculous and I think we were all red faced and sweating by the time we went home.  We even skipped the petting zoo this year because we were so hot and tired!  At least there is next year!