Spring Fever

Spring has been a bit wishy-washy for us this year. I have been joking that Mother Nature has developed a sudden case of bi-polarism, and we need to find a way to get her to take some lithium to curb it. It'll be in the 60's and sunny for a couple of days and then we'll get SNOW. Seriously, Mom N. It's almost May. As much as I love the snow in the winter, and roll my eyes at people who complain about it then, I have jumped on the complaining bandwagon now. April showers are supposed to bring May flowers. When those showers involve SNOW, I am pretty sure that they are killing the flowers that we are supposed to be seeing in May. Not cool. So, we've been trying to take advantage of every warmer, sunny day we get by planning things outside. Since my last post, we've gone to the Zoo with N and A,

 

And took a trip to the playground with Grandma

Tried out Audia's new trike and played in the back yard with Grandma and Grandpa,

 And spent a good part of Easter playing in my parents back yard.

(among a few other un-photographed outings.) And while we have been having a lot of fun, it does feel like a bit of a tease. Especially for my poor Audia, who doesn't understand why we were outside playing in the warm sun on Monday and then yesterday and today we have to stay inside to play and put on our winter jackets when we go outside. Although I suppose it is a good lesson in flexibility.

Pre-Christmas Celebrations

Christmas has been a total blast this year. We've made sure to do a lot of Christmasy activities to prepare Audia and get in the spirit, and boy did it work! She had so much fun and is still talking about all the things we did (and, of course, asking if we can do them again!)

Decorating an apartment is a bit different than decorating a house....especially since our complex doesn't allow real trees (Bah Humbug!), but limitations aside, I had a lot of fun with it, and Audia loves the Christmas tree even though it's fake.

About a month before Christmas, we kicked things off with our annual trip to the mall with N and A to get the girls' photo taken with Santa. Neither of the girls wanted to sit on Santa's lap this year, so us Mommy's had to get in the photo too.

The majority of our Christmas activities started two weeks before Christmas. We started with a trip downtown with my parents for dinner and to see Macy's 'A Day in the Life of an Elf.' When I was a kid, Macy's was Dayton's (and then Marshall Field's) and every year they had a different story set up. The past few years (since Macy's bought Marshall Field's, I think) have been the same show, but Audia's never seen it and she sure seemed to enjoy it!

After the floor show, we went outside and waited in the bitter cold (ok, maybe not bitter, but it was pretty darn cold!) to see the Holidazzle light parade. Audia was in heaven! She loves seeing all the Christmas lights when we go driving at night, and to have thousands of them rolling by her on floats was like a dream come true.

A couple of days later, we joined my parents again for 'Snack with Santa' at the Zoo. Audia loved watching Santa from afar, but once he came around to our table she became shy, and yet again we were forced to join her on Santa's lap. She asked Santa for "Books, teeth, and babies!" and he gave her an adorable stuffed monkey.

Later that day we had our Annual Snow Bocce Tournament. Audia loved seeing all her friends, and of course Chris and I did too. Now that we're parents, it's a lot harder to make plans and get out to see our friends, so our Bocce parties are a good way to catch up with friends we don't get to see as often as we'd like.

A few days later, my dear friend E, who I've known for 24 years, was in town visiting and stopped by for a playdate with me and Audia. Audia certainly loves her Auntie Em!

Our big present from our parents this year was a new mattress (it was desperately needed!), and the place that we got our mattress from had a raffle for an amish doll bed. Well, lucky us! We won the bed! So the day before Christmas Eve, we went over to the store and picked it up as an early Christmas present for the munchkin. Fievel, however, seems to have claimed ownership. He is even sleeping on it now as I write this entry!

Where, oh where did July go?!

We've certainly been keeping busy this summer! Let's see, what've we done since I last wrote??

Well, we had a bocce ball party a couple of weekends ago. Audia really loved all the company (and attention!), and kept things interesting by moving people's bocce balls around.

The following weekend, we went up to the cottage for a long weekend. Chris took Friday off of work, and when we got there, decided to call in and take Monday off too :-) It was the perfect weekend to do it; the weather was absolutely gorgeous during the days and stormy at night.

Our friends N, D, and A came up on Saturday and stayed over Saturday night. It was so much fun! The girls seemed to have a blast together, and of course we adults enjoyed ourselves as well :-)

N, D, and A left midday Sunday, and Chris' mom came up with Cooper on Sunday afternoon. Audia loved seeing them both! Nana helped to teach Audia some of Coopy's hand signals, and I think she did a pretty good job of telling him what to do!

The skies that night were absolutely gorgeous! We were all sad to leave Monday afternoon. Hopefully we'll get up there again a few times before it starts to get chilly!

Last week, Audia was introduced to her new favorite toy. Out with stickers (last month's obsession) and in with

Play Doh!

She literally asks to play with it Every. Single. Day. She loves the stuff! And, as a bonus, she hasn't put it in her mouth once! (I was a notorious eater of play doh)

This week has been busy as well! We had a play date with N, A, and baby M on Monday morning, and yesterday we joined the three of them at the zoo! It was a blast.

The girls were so cute! Audia walked up to Autumn at one point and said "Hold Autumn's hand?" and they walked around for a while holding hands.

Baby M is such a little champ! He is only 2 months old, and he slept pretty much the entire time we were at the zoo! He only woke up for a little while when we were riding the tram. Get a load of this handsome dude!

I sure hope my second child is as easy as he seems to be (at least in comparison to other babies I've known...ahem....AUDIA!)

Today was shopping with Grandma, and tomorrow will be an afternoon outing with our friend Kit....we are keeping busy, that's for sure!

The Zoo

Audia took her first trip to the Minnesota Zoo last week. Actually, her first two trips. It was a great time, and I definitely think she enjoyed herself.

On Tuesday, Chris and I took her. We saw all kinds of cool animals, like.....

a Tapir,

a Bear,

a Puma,

Sharks and Fish (among many other things.)

Audia loved watching all of the animals, and delegating which ones we watched next.

Because we got there in the afternoon, we only had an hour and a half to explore, so we didn't get to see everything that the Zoo has to offer. Lucky for us, N and A came up later in the week and invited us to join them there on Friday! The girls had such a blast together, especially on the monorail. They ran back and forth between the doors to look out at all the different animals, and it gave N and me a nice break from carrying/chasing/pushing the girls around the zoo :-) Whoever decided to build that monorail is my hero!

On the monorail

Watching the Camels