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Asleep in the car for the first time ever!

AZ vs MN

I decided to make a list of the pros and cons of moving to Minnesota. I figure that eventually Audia might ask why we moved and I figure it would be nice to be able to give her a past perspective on it.

Things I’ll miss about AZ

- Friends and Family
- Day after day after day of blue skies and sunshine
- Being able to see the horizon from pretty much anywhere in the valley
- Being able to drive 2 hours to see snow, then drive 2 hours back to the warm weather
- The mountains
- Sakana Sushi!!!!
- Durant’s
- Wide, many-laned freeways
- Being able to get anywhere from anywhere in the valley; “the grid” makes driving soooo easy!
- Lost Coast Great White Beer
- Road construction getting done in a timely fashion

Things I’m glad to leave in AZ

- 100+ degree weather
- West coast “aloofness” (aka unfriendly strangers)
- Scorpions, poisonous spiders and snakes
- Dust, dirt, and rocks EVERYWHERE
- Brown brown brown everywhere
- Overall congestion of the city. Too many people!!
- Hearing about shootings and violence on the local news 99% of the time
- AZ schools

Things I’m excited about in MN

- Friends and Family!!
- Green! Green grass, green bushes, green trees, green EVERYWHERE!!!
- LAKES! And “real” fishing!
- Being 2 hours from the cottage
- Minnesota Nice (aka friendly strangers)
- THE STATE FAIR!!!
- MN Schools
- Real thunderstorms
- Seasons!
- Caribou Coffee!
- CULTURE!! Being up to our noses in Museums, theaters, and cultural centers.
- Being walking distance from 6 ponds, one creek, and 2 lakes. WATER! (did I mention lakes??!!)
- Easy gardening
- Leinenkugels and Grain Belt!
- Linden Hills!
- Sebastian Joe’s
- The Mall of America
- Minnehaha creek
- Snuggling by a fire in the wintertime
- The chain of lakes (in the city)
- Creative Kidstuff!
- The St. Paul Winter Festival!

Things I’m not looking forward to about MN

- Rainy, cloudy, drizzly days more than 2 at a time
- Re-figuring out the freeway system
- Shoveling
- Negative degree weather
- Left lane campers
- Mosquitoes
- Needing two sets of tires for our car
- Road construction taking forever to get done
- Feeling claustrophobic cause of all the trees

Crawling

Well, it's official! Our sweet little Audia is crawling. Chris makes fun of me because according to him, she was crawling a week and a half ago, when she started to crawl two or three steps at a time. But I didn't feel like I could really say that she was crawling until she'd stopped army crawling. And, as of Friday or Saturday, she's officially done army crawling and has mastered crawling. Not only is she crawling, but she is also pulling herself up into a kneeling and standing positions pretty regularly now too. It has been so much fun to watch her explore with her new found freedom....she is constantly pulling herself up to look over the edge of the coffee table, look inside the moving boxes we have everywhere, and to see her exersaucer from a new perspective. She loves to kneel over her toy box and pull everything out of it.

Only 9 more days and she and I will be off to Minnesota! It is supposed to be in the 90s all week, and while I would prefer it to be in the 70's or 80's, it certainly makes it easier to say goodbye to AZ! Plus, now I can officially mail all of Audia's warmer clothes to MN without worrying about whether or not we might need them before we go. Additionally, now I can have Audia wear some of the 9 month sized summer clothes we have for her before she grows out of them (like, tomorrow....)

I've posted a video of her crawling at www.ericacarlson.com/videos (as well as a few other videos) enjoy!

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Helping us pack

Growing up

I read a few weeks ago that babies start to cry when you take toys away from them at around 6 months of age. Up until today, Audia really didn't care much if you took her toys away from her; she is very easily entertained (just like her mom) and if you take one toy from her, she moves on to the closest substitute. If you take all her toys from her, she happily pulls off her sock and plays with that.

Well, today that changed. At least in a certain way. I was playing on the floor with her, as per usual, and had my cell phone in my lap while we were playing. After a while, she caught a glimpse of my phone and grabbed it. I took it out of her hand, placed it on the coffee table and in a split second, she was bawling her eyes out like you wouldn't believe! I actually thought she had hurt herself because she rarely cries like that unless she is hurt or incredibly tired. Being the worried mom I am, I quickly picked her up and looked her all over to see if any red marks were appearing. Nothing. Then it occurred to me....so I gave her my cell phone. Just as quickly as the tears started, they stopped, and she smiled at me with a huge grin. Just to make sure, I took the phone from her to see what would happen and, sure enough, the tears came again. In that moment, my little girl went from helpless baby (well, not entirely helpless...) to a tot who consciously knows how to use tears to get what she wants.

Of course, she still couldn't care less if I take her toys. So far it's dog bones, remote controls and cell phones that start the waterworks. Go figure!

Happy Easter!

Hope that you all had a great Easter!

Free offer to my blogger buddies

If anyone wants me to create a custom background for their blog (like the one I have now, and the ones I've had previously), let me know! I have a ton of fun making them, and it gives me something to do while Audia naps :-) Just thought I'd throw it out there!

Miniature Barbie Dolls *GAG!*

*Warning: This post is a bit of venting.

Once you become a parent, I think it is natural to pay more attention to other children that are in the same general age group as your child. At least, that's the way it is for me. When I go out now, I can't help but notice all of the babies that are also out and about; it feels like there are way more babies now than there were before I had Audia, but I know that it's just that I notice them more. It's like I have baby radar.

Noticing all these babies, I have also noticed the vast majority of baby girls dressed like barbie dolls. Now, I would like to give other moms the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe this is the day that they decided to dress their child in the one outfit they own that makes said child look like a doll. Unfortunately, though, I don't think this is realistically the case. I cannot help but feel extremely sad for these children! These moms who dress their little girls up to be the girliest girly girls, complete with low cut, halter style tops that say "treat me like the princess I am", hot pink mini skirts and infant high heels DISGUSTS ME! Either these kids are going to rebel 100% hard core and become goth teenagers or they are going to become strippers. Why can't a baby just be a BABY?! Why do these parents feel that girls have to wear pink and boys have to wear blue? Are these the same parents who will refuse to buy their son a my little pony, should he want one, or their daughter a transformer? It drives me nuts. I can't help but feel like these kids are being set up to have low self-esteem issues later in life. I suppose, however, that these parents probaby feel bad for my child, who is frequently dressed in blue, will not own a lace headband until she herself asks for one, and, in their opinion, will be "confused" about her gender as a result. Or maybe they just don't think that much about it. Maybe that's the problem? I don't know. Don't get me wrong; I dress Audia in "girly" clothes, but there is a threshhold of pink, bows, and fluffy flowers that I refuse to pass. I make an effort to switch things up, I want her to know, once she's old enough to understand, that it's ok for her to be whoever she wants to be. I just feel like the parents who only dress their child in "gender appropriate" (whatever the hell that means) colors and styles are also potentially instilling, at a very young age, self-image issues that are rampant thanks to the media. "Every girl should have a pair of overalls and a blue hat" my surrogate mom once said. Amen to that.

Puffs!

Audia tried Gerber's "Puffs" for the first time today! For those of you without children, Puffs are small, cheerio-sized, cheerio-like nibblits for babies and toddlers. They come in all kinds of different flavors, and are supposed to be better for babies than cheerios because A) they are made from fruits and/or vegetables and B) they melt in baby's mouth thus reducing the chance of choking. A is a load of BS because sugar is like the 3rd ingredient, but B is a big plus.



Anyways, Audia did GREAT with her first finger food! She immediately picked one up and tried to put it in her mouth (the things get sticky fast because they are "melt-able" so they tend to stick to lips and fingers, making them difficult to get all the way INTO her mouth) but she sure seemed to like them, and certainly embraces this new-found freedom of feeding herself!

You can see a video of the experience here: http://www.ericacarlson.com/videos.htm

Enjoy!

7 months!

Our little girl is 7 months old today! It is crazy to think that when we met our friend Jan's daughter, Abby, 7 months ago, she was 7 months old. I remember thinking how big she was compared to our tiny newborn daughter, and how much more interactive she was. It really is so easy to lose sight of how quickly they grow when you're busy chasing that baby around all day long. I mean, sure, I realize that she is growing like a weed, but it is easy to forget how incredibly small she once was. It is so funny to remember how stressed out we were by her hatred of her car seat; at the time it seemed like she would never get over it, but now she is perfectly content in the car. Just when you think she's locked into a specific behavior, she switches it up on us. I'm sure it's a foreshadowing of how things will be the rest of our lives!

We measured and weighed her today and she is now 18 lbs and 28 inches! She's been scooting all over the place and is moving herself into a sitting position regularly. The past couple of days she's actually gotten up on her knees a couple of times, but never for longer than a couple of seconds. Although I'm sure that won't last! I am still holding out hope that she'll hold off on the crawling until we've moved and baby proofed at my parents though.

Audia is still fascinated with Cooper; she loves watching him run around, and laughs when he races around the back yard. She is constantly going up to him when he's on his dog bed in the living room and focuses in on his paws, pincer-grasping them and driving him nuts! But he is such a good pup; very patient and gentle. I am sure they are going to be life-long friends :-)

In other news, I think Audia's teething again. I can see two white spots on her upper gum where I am guessing her two front teeth are trying to emerge. She's not quite as fussy this time around, but she does still have her moments.

I made a quick slideshow of pics from the past 7 months to show how much she's changed and grown already. Enjoy!

Smilebox Album

Smilebox is a pretty cool site; check out the album I made in about 2 minutes (no joke!)

Make a Smilebox photobook

Busy Week!

Well, my parents were in town the past week, and boy did we have fun!Audia had all kinds of new experiences this week, and I must say that while she was definitely a bit overstimulated by the end of the week, she did a lot better than I guessed she would. Apparently I don't give her enough credit :-)

Not only did she have her first ever restaurant experience, but she had three restaurant experiences! She met her second cousin once removed, Brenton, for the second time, which was fun. They are pretty close in age, and Audia had fun stealing all of his toys while he watched. LOL.

We also went to the Botanical Gardens to take in some butterflies and Chihuly. She, of course, wanted to put the glass and butterflies in her mouth.

To add to the hecticness of the week, Coopy came home this week too. He's been staying with Chris' mom since January to keep her company, but she is heading back to Illinois this weekend so he's back with us for good now. It was really fun to see Cooper and Audia get reacquainted, and probably quite a shock for Cooper since Audia is so much more mobile now than she was the last time he saw her!!

My parents were amazed at how far she's come since they saw her in December. She really is growing like a weed, and she is more and more vocal by the day. She has also started reaching for me if I come up to her when someone else is holding her, which just melts my heart!!

We were sad to see my parents leave this morning, but we've locked into moving out to MN the first week of May, so it will be less than a month until we're all together again - the way it should be!

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Everyone says i never post any pics of her crying....