Following in my footsteps!

Chelsea and I have gone to the Maple Grove Library the past two Fridays for Baby Story Time.  I had no clue what to expect.  It is SO MUCH FUN!!  Even though the story times are free, you have to sign up for the Baby Story Time Session ahead of time.  If you are able, I highly recommend taking your baby to a hennepin county library story time...  the times / dates are posted online.  They only allow 20 babies per session and this session is 3 weeks long so this Friday is, unfortunately, our last week this session.  This Friday will be very special because Grandma and Grandpa Loveland are going to join us during story time.  They are very excited to take Chelsea to the library!  My parents both love to read as well... they are the ones who instilled the love of books within me.

When we walk into the story time room there are 20 stacks of books and "letter mats" in a big circle.  Each parent / child sits behind one stack.  The first 15 minutes consist of songs and reading three books.  The next 15 minutes the librarians put out tons of baby toys and it's time to let your baby go mingle and play with the other babies.  That gives the moms / dads a chance to meet and chat with each other (while keeping an eye on your little one of course!).  We have had a blast both times that we've attended.  Chelsea LOVES being read to and grabs at the book, tries to turn the pages and usually has a huge smile on her face.  When we sing the songs she bops up and down and does a cute little clumsy dance.  There isn't a whole lot better than seeing my baby having so much fun... especially when the fun doesn't cost a dime!

I am going to try and sign her up for as many baby reading sessions as possible through out the year.  It's such a wonderful bonding experience.  This session is done Friday, but next week we start a 5 week session on Tuesdays at the Plymouth Library.  I've also signed up for another Friday session at the Maple Grove Library starting mid October. 

Chelsea now has her own library card and she has checked out a few books herself :-)  Well, I picked out the books, but Chelsea handed the librarian her card and took it back from her!   

I took a few pictures from both weeks at storytime.  The pictures were taken quickly on my cell phone so not the best of quality, but are still cute :-)  ENJOY!

Yummy!

Tonight I made oven fried chicken, grilled zucchini & squash and stuffing for dinner for Ben and I.  I couldn't finish my meal so decided to put some of the leftover chicken and stuffing in the magic bullet with a little water to puree it into "baby food."  This is the first time I've pureed our dinner and given some to Chelsea.  She LOVED IT!!  We are going to make an effort to do this for her a few times a week to help enhance her flavor pallet.  I'm not sure why we haven't done this sooner. 

Below are a couple pictures of how I found Chelsea during one random nap this past week.  I can't believe how flexible babies are!

And now two more pictures because I just can't seem to stop taking pictures of the most beautiful baby in the world! :-)





Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Loveland!!

What a wonderful gift!  Chelsea received a personalized chair from Pottery Barn via UPS this week.  Grandma Loveland had it sent to her, just because :-)  This is such a wonderful chair.  It's soft enough that she can crawl all over it, low enough that I don't really worry about her getting hurt by falling out of it and big enough that she will be able to use it for a couple years.  She also loves using it to pull herself up.  If I put toys on the actual chair part she will pull up to get them and then hold onto them with both hands.  I don't think that she even realizes that she is standing by herself when she does it!  I highly recommend anyone with a 6 month plus baby to get one of these and include it in your play area!

These pictures don't really capture her excitement.... Chelsea kept closing her eyes (because of the camera flash) while I was taking pictures so the smiling / excited ones ended up being deleted.  I have since moved the chair down to her playroom and will try and get more pictures one of these days.  One of the pictures shows her standing by herself as well :-)

Dora

Pretty sure someone is a little TOO in love with Dora....

The map song and "Swiper no Swiping" seem to be etched into my mind :-)

Cheerios :-)

I finally took a deep breath, put Chelsea in her high chair and fed her some cheerios!  I am such a nervous nelly when it comes to worrying about Chelsea choking on solid foods.  The only "solids" I have fed her up until this point have been puffs and prepared baby food.  DayCare fed her some Cheerios last Wednesday, took pictures, and reassured me that she did wonderfully with them.  No signs of choking.  They are right, she eats them like an old pro :)  The first two pictures are pictures of pictures (follow that?!) that daycare sent home with her last Wednesday.  The rest are of her eating Cheerios for me today.  I started her off with one and then realized that she would be fine if I put a bunch on her tray for her. 

Any suggestions on what the next "safe" actual food items I should feed to her? 

She's also drinking water out of her level one sippy cup by herself (for atleast a month now) so I bought two princess sippy cups at Target for her today.  They are labeled for 9 month old babies and older, but I think Chelsea will be just fine.  We will test them out tomorrow.  Our baby girl is growing up way too fast :(



Chelsea, Ari & Alayna

a short video of one of the "cousins" first real playtimes!

http://youtu.be/38-WcD6BE7k

Como Zoo!!

In my normal fashion, this blog is a little delayed.  LAST Saturday (the 10th) was an absolutely wonderful day / night!  My brother and family (Jillian, and my three beautiful nieces) came to visit and spent the night.  During the day we visited the Como Zoo.  Visiting a zoo is definitely chaotic with four kids (3 of them being 5 & under) and very fun :-)  It's so much fun to see the smiles and excitement on all the little ones' faces.  I haven't been to the Como Zoo for years and had forgotten about the beautiful aboretum.  The building with all the flowers smelled absolutely amazing.  It really made me miss having a garden of my own.  We had a rather large garden at our old house in Plymouth in which I spent many hours tending to each week. 

After the zoo we went back to our house in Maple Grove and let the kids play for a couple hours before dinner.  Chelsea is such a social baby.  She absolutely LOVED playing with / being around her cousins.  She especially love Ari (2 years old). We sat down to dinner (chimichangas) and Chelsea decided that dinnertime was the perfect time to show us her new game.  I put a pile of toys on her highchair table (to keep her entertained while we were eating) and she would pick them up one by one and drop them to the floor.  After they were all on the floor she would cry until I'd pick them up for her.  Then she would get excited and laugh and start the process all over again!  What a little stinker :)  Joel, Jillian, Ben and I closed out the night by playing a card game called Bid.  I really enjoyed the game and need a rematch sometime soon.  I ended up in last place :-(

Warning:  Lots of pictures!   I also have a short video of the girls playing that I have not uploaded to youtube yet.  I will do so in the next couple days and post it in a blog.

Swim & Eat :-)

Ben and I have commented on how our 'typical Friday nights' have changed so much now that Chelsea has joined our family.  Our weekend nights are different, but a good different!

 For Example... When Ben got home from work this past  Friday we decided to take Chelsea to family swim at the Lifetime Fitness pool.  We got ourselves ready and Chelsea ready to go swimming and drove to the Maple Grove Lifetime Fitness location only to be told that the pool was closed and that the Plymouth location had family swim until 8PM that night. So off we went to the Plymouth Lifetime Fitness.  It takes about 20 minutes to get from one location to the other.  Once we finally got into the pool and swam for about five minutes we got kicked out :-(  We were not aware that Plymouth Location's Family Swim was cancelled that evening due to make up swim lessons.  It was pretty frusterating to say the least!  I also hated taking Chelsea out of the water so quickly when she was having so much fun.

Since we were already out and about we decided go to Ruby Tuesdays (It's not the Oceanaire, but it's pretty kid friendly!) for dinner.  When we were seated the hostess actually gave Chelsea a coloring menu and color crayons!  We let her chew on the package of crayons for a few minutes, but then replaced them with more appropriate toys.  It was pretty cute to see a glimpse of her future when she'll be able to color at restaurants.

We then headed home, gave her a bath, fed her and put her to bed.  Momma was in bed shortly afterwards :)  Oh how times have changed...

Even tho we were only in the pool for five minutes I still got a picture with her!

 At Ruby Tuesdays checking out her coloring menu

 Yum Yum Crayons!

Chelsea and Daddy