Minnesota Children's Museum

Jade and I got a chance to visit the children's museum with some good friends of ours, the Smith's. Jade and Sammi are good buddies and only a week apart, in age. On our way to the museum I looked back and they were holding hands. So sweet!

The museum was a lot of fun, they had a small "town" area with a restaurant, a doctors office, a post office, a park, and a few other things. This is the restaurant.
Jade is perfecting her stir-fry techniques.
I know my dad and step-mom will get a kick out of this picture as they're both mail carriers. I couldn't resist. She looks so adorable. :)
Sammi is taking a turn listening to Jade's heart.
Jade listening to her own heart. She has her hospital gown on, too.
We probably spent the most time in the water area. There were two low tables with water that Jade had a blast playing in. There was also a low table with bubbles in it and bubble wands. Then (and unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of this one) there was a water ramp with stoppers up at the top, you put a boat behind the stopper and lifted it up, and the boats would go down the ramp. Jade and Sammi had a lot of fun with that one.

The dinosaur exhibit made Jade a little nervous at first because some of the dinosaurs moved slightly, but she had fun once I carried her in. A lot of my pictures are like this one. Jade was running from one thing to the next, there was a lot for her to do.
In a dinosaur nest.

We had a lot of fun and it was great to have a playmate for Jade. Thanks Charisse for letting us tag along.

Happy Mother's Day!

I feel so lucky to be a mom!! Jade has been such a blessing in my life and I'm thrilled to be her mom. I can't wait to see what kind of relationship we'll have as she gets older. Happy Mother's Day to all the mommas out there, especially my mamacita!

Spring Vacation!

Dan had an end of semester break so we decided to make the most of it! His break just happened to coincide with his half brother, Alex's birthday party. We were so excited to be able to see his Dad and Venus, and Alex, since they're living in Hong Kong right now and it's been over a year since we've seen them. So immediately after Dan's clinical at the hospital (well, not immediately, I guess. We did have dim sum with Brandon and Emilyn first), we hopped on a plane to Chicago.

Alex had his birthday party at Pump it Up, a fun place with lots of inflatable jumpy things. At first jade was more interested in the drinking fountain

and the arcade games.
I was nervous that she would fall down the steps up to the slide, or get up there and not want to slide down, but she had the most fun on the slides and kept going over and over again.
Dan helped her through an obstacle course.
Here's a group shot. That's Venus and Alex on the left. :) Thanks for the cool party, guys.
We had to visit our favorite crab house in Chicago, Bob Chinn's Crab Shack. Dan enjoyed the crab and I enjoyed some pasta, and a melt in your mouth steak. Thanks Dan and Venus for taking us. It was so nice to see you both.
After our weekend in Chicago we went to visit Stef and Kevin in Denver. We had a lot of fun, although, Jade got sick while we were in Chicago and had a tough plane ride. The night we got to Denver, we went with Stef and Kevin to a Rockies game. It was Jade's first major league game and really fun!


Jade sort of passed on her sickness to everyone else in the house or we all just picked up something gross. We ended up being sick for the last half of our trip there.

Here are the girls, watching Dora, of course.
We played a lot of Wii while we were there. It was a lot of fun, especially when I schooled everyone in Mario Party.
Cousins!!





We went bowling. The girls spent their down time watching Dora.

We took a tour of a candy factory.
Here we are, just killing time, waiting for our tour.
Ring a round the rosie!
All you can eat sushi! Or in my case, all you can eat teriyaki chicken.

Playing at the mall.

We had a really great time, and it was so nice to go on vacation! Sorry for bring sickness upon your house, Stef and Kevin. We had a blast!!

Brrrr!

Yesterday Jade wandered into the living room rubbing her hands together saying "brrrr" (as in, cold). I asked her if she felt something cold, and she said "Yeah!", so I asked her to show me. She lead me back into our bathroom and put her hands into the toilet water and said "brrrr"! Such a cute/funny/gross 2 year old!

A weeks worth of a visit crammed into a few pictures I took at the Olive Garden

The title sort of explains it all. Dan's family came to visit last week and we had so much fun. Enough fun, apparently, to not pull out the camera. So here are a few pictures I took while we were having dinner at Olive Garden.

Stefanie, Me and Mike (Stef is holding Sophie and Mike is holding Jade)

Our cutie pie neice Sophie. She is the sweetest thing ever.
Jade and Rylee coloring.
Jade, Grandma Lou, and Rylee. Thanks for coming to visit everyone! We had a blast!

I suck at commitment

So I dropped the ball on the whole, picture a day for the month, thing. Sorry :( But I got some really cute pictures out of the process. It has inspired me to whip out the camera more frequently, even for the day to day stuff.

Here we have Jade, enjoying a delicious spaghetti dinner with her hands. You'll notice the fork is there, but no, she prefers her hands.

This is a sad one. Time out. I don't remember what this particular one was for, but she's breaking my heart here.
I just had one of those days where I thought I looked pretty good so I snapped a picture. Who knows how much longer I'll be having days where I think I look good. Better record them now.
Spending Sunday evening playing the Wii. Jade is still at that great age where she thinks that she is playing, even when she's not. That's why I can take her to the mall arcade and let her "drive" one of the racing games without wasting my change.
Jade walked in here and said "cheese". That's how she'll tell me she wants her picture taken. The other day she walked up to the door at Target, which had an Easter bunny picture on it, and said "cheese".
This past Tuesday we went to Mall of America for Toddler Tuesday because they were going to have a Yo Gabba Gabba day. DJ Lance Rock and Brobee were supposed to be there. When I pulled up to the mall I noticed there were a lot more cars than there usually are, but I thought, 'No, this can't be for Toddler Tuesday', boy was I wrong.

Here we are on the second level of the mall, looking down into the rotunda. There was a long line down the hall, just to get into the rotunda. It's probably a good thing we didn't wait in that line because as soon as we saw DJ Lance Rock, Jade started crying and covering her eyes. She was so scared!

Busy Bee Tuesday

I knew this morning was going to be a wild one because we had an early morning doctors appointment. So Jade got to eat her breakfast in the living room, while watching cartoons. (Ok, it happens semi-frequently).

Three weeks ago Jade started walking like a drunken sailor so we took her to after hours care. She had a double ear infection so her equilibrium was off and hence the unsteadiness on her feet. She had a check up today and everything looks good!

A Picture a Day

I thought I'd take a picture every day this month. Jade will be two and a half this month. I can't believe how fast the time has past. She is really an awesome girl.

Jade is, for the most part, a really good sleeper. We moved her into a toddler bed soon after her second birthday. She snores and occasionally talks in her sleep. She's not particularly attached to any of her blankets or stuffed animals. We try to get her to love her snuggle bunny that Dan and I picked out for her before she was born, but she just ends up chewing on it's ears.

Jade loves robots!

Jade is into robots right now. When Dan brought home an ear piece for his stethoscope and placed it in his ear she pointed to him and said "robot". She loves it when we pretend to be robots and

she'll even pretend to be one herself. Here's a video of me making a fool of myself, and Jade being adorable.