— my little corner of randomness —
We bought Maddie a balance bike. The first while that she had it, she wouldn’t go near the thing. Then one day, she decided she wanted to ride it and took off! She has gotten so good with it. She can go pretty fast. She likes to ride her bike to the park or up and down the block. She also knows that she has to wear her helmet to ride it. I let her pick out the helmet and she picked a very lovely pink one!
We really like going to the Farmer’s Market. We have gone to all sorts of them around town. I really like the St. Paul Farmer’s Market because there’s a stand that sells this yummy Black Bean and Chipotle Hummus. I love it!
A favorite thing to do at any of the Farmer’s Markets is to get Maddie to point out fruits and veggies. I keep hoping she will be adventurous and try some new foods, but that will come eventually. 
Another small Farmer’s Market we have gone to a couple times is the Mill City Farmer’s Market. It’s not very big, but we like to take a walk over to the Stone Arch Bridge. We look at the waterfall and let Maddie meander and look at stuff. It’s a fun morning activity.
We invited Chuck’s sister, Paige, her husband, Brian, and their daughter, Amira, to come with us one day. We got some really cute pictures of the girls.
Chuck took one of our all time favorite pictures of Maddie this day.
For July, my book club read The Maze Runner. It is a young adult book, similar to The Hunger Games.
Here’s a description of the book:
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.
Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every thirty days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.
Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.
Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.
The writing was a little choppy. This was the author’s first book. But it wasn’t too bad. You just needed to remember that it was a young adult book and it wasn’t so bothersome. I liked the story and idea. I love Sci-Fi and loved The Hunger Games, so I was sure I would like this book as well.
I finished this book a while back and I am currently reading the sequel. Something about reading book one, means I have to read the subsequent books. I’ll be writing about the sequel when I finish.
So if you liked The Hunger Games, I highly recommend you give this book a try. It’s a fun and creative read.
Happy reading.
Our baby girl is 9 months old already. I can’t believe how quickly these last 9 months have gone. We’ve been busy getting ready for a trip, so I didn’t have time to blog on her 9 month birthday a couple days ago. So I wrote some of this on the car ride and the rest here on vacation.
Dannie popped her first little tooth through! You can see it in the picture below. It on the bottom. Maddie stuck her finger in Dannie’s mouth the other day to touch her tooth and exclaimed, “Dannie’s toof is sharp!” She’s right. 
Dannie is on the move. She crawls everywhere and is trying so hard to stand and climb on everything. She loves chasing her sister around the house. She has been very curious about everything in the house and wants to play with doors, drawers, the dishwasher, chairs, etc.
And she is speedy! If I set her down in one end of the room, she is hot on my trail while I walk away. She is at the age where you can’t let her out of your sight for a second because she will get into everything. She finds the tiniest objects to put in her mouth, food that has fallen on the floor and power cords. The girl loves power cords!
Just in the last couple days, she has really taken to standing up on things and pulling herself to her feet. If you are sitting on the floor with her, she will climb right up you and get in your face.
Dannie likes to feed herself a bottle. I usually prop her on the boppy and hand her the bottle. She is pretty happy. The other day she even fell asleep while she was eating. It is also convenient that she will feed herself because the girls are usually hungry at the same time. This way I can get Dannie fed then tend to Maddie.
Dannie didn’t really like pureed baby food, so we started giving her solid foods. She feeds herself and can’t get enough. She loves it. She will sit and eat for the longest time. Her favorite foods are fruits, cheerios and puffs! And she likes to bang on the table, or really anything these days.
She also drinks out of a straw. It is so nice that she can do that. She doesn’t have the hang of tipping sippy cups upward to drink. This makes it easier. She’s not very good at holding the cup herself…she usually tips it upside down on herself.
Dannie loves clapping, so we have taken that love and taught her to sign “more.” she will say more when she is out of food. It’s really cute. It’s not incredibly consistent yet, but she does it. And all I need to so is start singing “If You’re Happy And You Know It” and Dannie will start clapping. She just can’t help herself.
Speaking of communicating, Dannie is a jabber jaws! She says “mama,” “dada,” “baba” and “nana.” She also yells an babbles and makes this silly gurgling noise. Her favorite thing to do is climb up me, grab my hair or cheeks and say “dadadadada.” She’s a stinker! This is face she makes when she says “dada.” Cracks me up!
Dannie is always smiling! She smiles with her whole face and it is so infectious! I just want to kiss her to pieces!
Her favorite toy is her glow worm. She loves to kiss it and gets so excited when the music comes on and the face lights up. Maddie has been teaching her how to press the button to turn it on. When she accidentally does it herself, her face lights up and she is so proud of herself!
We just took our first little vacation with the girls (which I will blog more about later). This was Dannie’s first time sleeping somewhere other than her bed and she did really well. We also just crossed into Iowa, so this is Dannie’s first time out of the state. And overall, Dannie is such a great sleeper and so very easy going!
And here are some other random pictures from this month.
Here are Dannie’s previous monthly posts:
We have been doing a lot of fishing. Maddie really likes it and we have fun bringing her. We have been trying out a bunch of lakes in the area to see what we like best. And before this outing, we got her a fishing pole. We let her pick out the one she wanted. It’s a Barbie one and there’s a little rubber fish you can tie on the end of it to help them learn to cast. She would drop it in the water over and over and over, each time proclaiming “I got one!”
This was on the 4th of July. It was really hot this day! We tried out one lake first. we weren’t having much luck catching anything, but Maddie was having fun!
Here’s a video of Maddie.
After not having much luck at this lake, we went to another lake by our house. Chuck caught a few little fish, but Maddie really liked being able to stand (and sit)
in the water and fish.
Maddie was really starting to get the hang of casting.
After all this fishing fun, we went to Wendy’s for lunch. Then it was home for the girls to nap so Chuck and I could clean before his mom and step dad came over to grill and hang out.
We took some pictures of the girls in their festive attire, ate some watermelon, played on the porch, ate dinner on the porch, rode bikes, played with fireworks, ate popsicles and played some hockey.
It was a very busy and extremely fun day.
We really wanted to take Maddie out for fireworks. My dad was going to come and sit at our house while Dannie slept, but Maddie wasn’t feeling well a couple days before the 4th, so we decided we would try next year. Plus, they were really late and Maddie isn’t used to staying up past her bedtime. Oh well. Next year! 
I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July with your family!
I came across this recipe in an email and thought I would give it a try for the 4th of July. They were very easy and really yummy! I think I am going to make more of these in different colors/flavors for other events. Here’s a picture of mine, still in the small cup I froze them in.
They pop right out of the cup when you warm them with your hand. Maddie loved them!
And Maddie calls popsicles the cutest thing….”huckables.” Here’s a video.
A couple weekends ago we took the girls to Lebanon Hills Park and went on a StoryWalk (a walk around a trail with pages of a book set up to read as you walk).
Maddie also needed to stop and look at bugs. And she was very curteous to her doll she was carrying. She would turn so the baby could see the pages of the book. How very considerate of her. 
We also took Maddie fishing for the first time. Maddie touched some of the fish Chuck caught. Most of the time was spent collecting rocks to throw into the water, but she was happy either way. Chuck caught a couple sunfish, some bullheads and a turtle! Now Maddie is going to expect a turtle every time we go fishing!
For June, my book club read Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer. I’m a bit behind writing about the books I have read. Anyway, it was a very interesting book. Here’s a summary:
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter….
I think the most interesting part of the book was that it was written about a dead person by someone else. Jon Krakauer did a bunch of research and interviews to write this book and try to get a good picture of what happened to Chris McCandless. It was fascinating how it was written. There was even a section about the author’s similar experience and how his story could have ended the same way McCandless’s did.
It was a good read. I found it a little slow because there was a lot of information, but when I looked back at the book as a whole, I was very glad I read it all. I think everyone that I have talked to that read it, loved it.
Happy reading!
First, it’s been a REALLY long time since I’ve written on here. I have tons of things to write about, but I haven’t been finding the time. So I will have to catch up soon.
Dannie is another month closer to 1! I just realized that before too long I am going to have to start planning her birthday party. It seems like she was just born yesterday. Time is going WAY faster than I expected!
Dannie continues to be our sweet and happy baby. She is so easy going and goes with the flow while I keep the girls busy during the days with MOMS Club and playdates and any other activity I can, and on the weekends when we are out fishing, exploring and just keeping busy and active. But it has been great keeping her mostly awake in the morning. She usually takes a short nap while we are driving around and then takes a nice long nap the same time as Maddie. Then I get some time to myself while they both nap. 
Dannie is on the move. She scoots all over the place. For weeks now, I keep thinking she is going to get up and just crawl, but she hasn’t done it yet. Maddie only crawled for about a week before she started walking. I’m perfectly happy with Dannie army crawling around the house. I am in no hurry for her to start walking.
She sits up and I have seen her go from crawling to sitting. She coos and “talks” all the time. I think she sounds like a little bird!
A couple weeks ago, Maddie got a stomach bug. Then I got it and some where along the line, Dannie got it, too. She may have gotten it twice. But last week (and up until just a couple days ago) we have had a very crabby baby, that was throwing up a lot and not keeping much food down or having much of an appetite. I was worried she was going to get dehydrated. Thankfully, she is feeling better and has quite a little appetite back. I’m so glad to have my happy little peanut back!
A couple times she was just so tired she conked out in my arms and on the living room floor while I was gone for less than 5 minutes putting Maddie down for a nap. 
On top of all that, Dannie has been getting a tooth. I can feel it just under the surface. So the tooth along with being sick made for a pretty rough week.
We lowered Dannie’s crib since she can sit up. It’s so sad that she’s big enough for that!
Maddie and Dannie play together all the time. Mostly Maddie plays with Dannie. This is sometimes nice and other times not so nice. Dannie doesn’t usually care either way as long as Maddie is paying attention to her.
And these two just crack me up. Dannie is getting more of a personality every day and Maddie just does everything she can to make her laugh and keep her happy. Maddie is a little mother to her. It’s so strange to see a little human imitating EVERYTHING you do. It’s a little scary!
Maddie always helps her (or, really me) and gets her toys, encourages her (“good job, Dan Dan”) and consoles her. One day Dannie rolled herself right under the trampoline and Maddie got right next to her and tried to “shush” her. She was trying to be sweet while Dannie was crying because she was stuck, but it was so cute to watch her. (Of course she was sweet to her after I told her she couldn’t jump on the trampoline while her sister was UNDER it!)
One thing that is different with the second kid is how you have a tendency to grab the camera for funny thing that happen instead of rescuing your child first. Dannie got stuck in a blanket and instead of helping her get out, we got the camera to snap a couple pictures and take a video of her. But it is a nice feeling to be more calm and laid back with your second kid. I think it helps ease the insanity of having two kids slightly.
Happy 8 months Dannie! (or DanDan, or D, or Peanut, or Squishy) We love to bunches!
Here are Dannie’s previous monthly posts:
For May, my book club read The Boy in the Suitcase
Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is a compulsive do-gooder who can’t say no when someone asks for help—even when she knows better. When her estranged friend Karin leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous project yet. Inside the locker is a suitcase, and inside the suitcase is a three-year-old boy: naked and drugged, but alive.
Is the boy a victim of child trafficking? Can he be turned over to authorities, or will they only return him to whoever sold him? When Karin is discovered brutally murdered, Nina realizes that her life and the boy’s are in jeopardy, too. In an increasingly desperate trek across Denmark, Nina tries to figure out who the boy is, where he belongs, and who exactly is trying to hunt him down.
Now, I’ll admit, most of us were a bit skeptical to read a book about a boy in a suitcase who was drugged and naked….in a suitcase. But it was a really good book. I believe there is a sequel to it as well.
The only thing I didn’t like about the book was the ending. They didn’t leave you hanging too much, there were just some details that made me say, “but what happened to ____” or “how did they explain _____.” But maybe some of those questions are answered in the sequel. I am not sure.
I do recommend this book. It was a little confusing at first because of all the character introductions, but I think everyone in book club liked the book….even those who were very skeptical of the title.
Happy reading!
