Yay for Yummy Food!

It's been a pretty nice week here. There have been lots of projects as always, and we are continuing to work on getting Gretl trained to be the good doggie that we know she will be. No accidents in the house, and we're working on leash training while on her walks. I'll take it.

Harmony Smurf Mega Blocks - Charlie knows the way to my heart!

This last week, I got to celebrate my birthday over the course of many days. On my birthday itself, we had a nice relaxing family day of chilling and watching movies. It's not quite the exciting birthday that I would have had 15 years ago, but I couldn't have imagined a more perfect day. Friday, we continued the celebration by going out to dinner with Dad and Lynn at the Hungry Peddler and then enjoying some dandelion wine while sitting out in their back yard. Again - fantastic. (Plus, Gretl didn't even have an accident when we lost track of time and left her for way longer than we normally would.) We totally love the fact that we are close enough that Elska can have grandma and grandpa snuggle time, and when she gets a bit older, we can arrange for sleepovers at their house. 

Bananas!!!

Elska had a checkup last week, and she's doing fantastic. She's clearly been eating well because she has definitely been growing. At 14 pounds 5 ounces and 25 3/4 inches long, she is has moved to 48% and 86% on the growth chart. (From 9% and 74% at her last checkup. It's nice to know that at least she's making good use of all those nighttime feedings that she's had lately.) She's able to sit up almost unassisted now too. While it's all very exciting to see how she is growing up, it's also a bit hard for her Mama to see how fast it's happening. At the risk of getting all sappy, how can this be happening so fast? Aren't babies supposed to stay babies for a while? We even got the go-ahead from the doctor to let her start trying some solid food! Since she's been incredibly interested in everything that we have put in our mouths for weeks now, and she can sit pretty well as long as it's in a chair, we started letting her experiment with table food. So far, she's gnawed on some pickles and maybe gotten a bite of banana down. Mostly, she's been just happily playing with and studying what had always been just outside of reach. Lucky for me, a very small percentage of her food has actually ended up on the floor. It's more of accidentally dropping it than throwing it on purpose like a certain little sister of mine used to do to feed the dogs.

Charlie's first ever Kornfest!

Finally, we did actually have a family outing this last weekend. This seems like it should be a given, but sometimes it's hard to actually make the time to get out and do something new or different. Sure, there's errands, church, and occasionally a meal away from home; we just have a tendency to be rather boring homebodies unless we make a point of getting out and doing something. We met our dear friends (and Elska's godparents) at Kornfest up in Holmen and got to eat some delicious sweet corn. For those of you unfamiliar with this delicious tradition - roasted sweet corn with butter painted on it (Litterally. With paint brushes. I'm not kidding.) and sprinkled with salt from Mason jars hanging from strings. It's one of the few places where you'll see them have to put stuff on the grass to try to keep it from being so dangerously slick from all of the butter. My flip flops are still a little greasy from it. It is, in a word, amazing and totally worth the pirate prices for the corn. (Buck an ear. Get it? Ha!) When we discovered that the ice cream tent was shut down for the night, enjoyed a stop at DQ for the ice cream that we had all decided that we absolutely NEEDED. Some people might question how much we really NEEDED ice cream. #1 Nursing mama's sometimes NEED things just like preggo ones do. You shouldn't question it. #2 You try walking around a hot, dusty fairgrounds for half an hour trying to find ice cream and then be like, "oh, never mind I guess I don't want any." See? NEEDED. And you thought that I was exaggerating. 

This week, we have a lot more projects that we are hoping to accomplish. Let's just see how much I can finish getting ready in the kitchen before a certain little girl wakes up from her nap......never mind. I hear her in there now.

"This here's my little buddy Dan. I'll just rest my arm on his head.