Happy 5 month Birthday, Leah!





She's growing so freakin' fast!!

A month full of change...

We had a great holiday weekend at the Cabin with family.  Lots of food, fun, and water sports, not to mention Cabin Olympics - and yes, my team won the overall championship, winning the 'Over the Bar' competition to send everyone to a tie breaker game of bags (aka cornhole) and my 4 points and Kate's 5 points put us securely ahead of everyone else!  It was a great weekend :)  Art and Leah had some fun too...

The annual Family picture time...

Playing and drooling in the house...

Giggling with Grandma and Auntie Kate...

And of course, a couple weeks ago, we started on 'solid' food at the Dr's advice.  Leah doesn't really like the rice cereal, but it's getting better.  Loves carrots, sweet potatoes and bananas so far.  And whew, those diapers are gross!

She's changing so much, even after one weekend, we notice a difference.  She's giggling, laughing once, and very close to sitting on her own, not to mention rolling over.  I can't believe it's been 4 months.  Every single day she does something new...I wonder where she learned to blow spit bubbles...

Playing on the Floor

Leah has reached the stage where she's no longer safe to leave alone on the floor to play.  She's started rolling and of course, talking up a storm!  It's not really anything we can understand, although I swear she repeated 'Good Morning' to me the other morning. 

Here's her latest position of choice when we're playing on the floor.

What a stinker...

Cedar Key with the Pfallers

The P is silent...

We met Joe and Rebecca down in Cedar Key, FL for our 3rd (and final) trip in a row.  The weather was fantastic - hot and humid (YESSSS!) and the location was idyllic.  With Joe and Rebecca, I quickly learned that they are the adventurous types - going out and looking for nature!  I didn't really realize how much of a wuss I am when it comes to 'nature', but I really don't like looking for it, much less touching it, or getting up close and personal.  When Joe almost stopped the car to pick up a snake, I thought he was joking around.  Then he said 'oh, it's just a black racer.  If it was a diamond back, we would've stopped'... And done what with it exactly? 

Needless to say, the soon-to-be Mr and Mrs Pfaller (or FrickenPfaller as they've coined themselves) are doing amazing work for our earth and it's creatures.  Joe is a turtle lover and has named one of his 'girls' after our very own Leah Mae.  Apparently this turtle visits his beach every year and he's been lucky enough to witness her eggs hatch for the past few years now.

Leah Mae, the turtle

And our Leah Mae on the deck at the beach house

And sweet Bubba in the background.



This may be the only time you see this... (yes, that's a Florida Gator's football t-shirt)  Very open minded of me, don't you think?  Thanks, Joe.

We visited Manatee Springs and Leah wasn't so sure about this one...I think the water might have been a little too cold.  And yes, 72 degree water is a little too cold for Mom too.

She loved the warm ocean water when we visited Snake Island, Seahorse Island, and North Island all in the same boat trip! 

And this is exactly what I needed too.

All in all, a great month of vacations...now I just need a vacation to recover from my vacation!

Charlotte with the Grandparents!

Our first flight with Leah was to Charlotte NC to visit Grandma and Grandpa Swander (Leah's grandparents...not mine...).  She was awesome on the flight.  We scheduled it seriously early in the morning with the hopes that she could sleep most of the flight.  She didn't exactly sleep, but didn't cry or squirm hardly at all!  It was awesome for me and Art - no one gave us the 'look' and all we got were 'she's so cute!' 

We landed in 90 degrees and sunny - immediately ran out to the pool.  What else do you do in 90 degrees?  So...Leah's first swim lesson:

Floating on her back...

And kicking her feet...

And attempting to blow bubbles, but really just swallowing water...

First Road trip to Chicago

We have started on our summer filled with travel and the first road trip to Chicago was a huge success!  We visited Uncle Walt, Aunt Kate, Uncle Brad and Emily for the first time and got to spend some great quality time roaming the streets of Lincoln Park with them.  There were a ton of firsts - first car ride over 30 min, first time in the big city, first time at the Zoo, first party (although she slept through most of it), first time to wear sunscreen...

We met the family for lunch in downtown Chicago and enjoyed the beautiful Chicago weather!  AND got to open presents...Thanks for the fantastic hat!

We look forward to our next visit to Chi-town!

Oakdale Duathlon

Oh, Minnesota in the Spring time; 42 and rainy...

Art's 2nd annual running in the Oakdale Duathlon was this past weekend; in what I like to think was 'unusual' weather for Minneapolis this time of year.  I'm quickly learning that a cold day in Minneapolis is not 'unusual' no matter what time of year...and I just need to learn to accept that.

Needless to say, we had a great time and found a tent to use as shelter.  Thanks, Gear West!  Luckily there weren't any major bike crashes, so we were allowed to hang out under cover.  I started to feel more at home when I saw a few triathletes (I only know they're triathletes because they carried TYR backpacks) wearing Speedo gear and TYR sweats and bags.  Since it was only a run/bike/run, I had no interest in participating so my main role was playing Mom with the other moms and kids.  Probably my favorite role to play...

 Art's relay team finished 3rd overall, behind 2 Elite (aka Pro) teams.  I'd say that's pretty darn good for an amateur!

Post-race was recovering and reheating!  We had a few hours before our next activity of the day (happy bachelor/bachellorette party!) and many thanks to Grandma Vicki for coming to babysit visit!

 

Our new Toy!

The Fedex man will now be affectionately known as 'Santa Claus', which I'm not sure why I haven't felt this way about him before now...but it's official.  Yesterday, he brought us our fantastic new stroller, Maclaren Triumph, details here, and are now ready for all our airplane trips and all the running around we'll do this summer! 

Good thing Leah is just as excited as Mom is...

It's the youngest, lightest (11.5lbs!) umbrella stroller we could buy, for 3mos and up, so from now until Memorial Day, we'll be working on neck strengthening exercises and abs.  She'll be ready for it in no time!

Since online shopping is now my favorite way to shop (no schleping required), my heart now skips a beat whenever Mr Fedex, aka Santa, bangs on the front door!  So, maybe I don't get out of the house much, but the satisfaction is still there and I'm saving the environment (not to mention my sanity), one tank of gas at a time.

Hard at work...or hardly working?

Leah had fun playing in Mom's office chair...she sees Mom sit in this chair all day and wanted a little part of the action.

Our little Pisces

As I was reading through an adorable little catalog that I somehow managed to get on the mailing list for, I came across a page with all the zodiac signs as wall art (and pillows, of course) and thought I would read Leah's...

"Pisces, February 19-March 20
Pisces, the fish, is a sensitive water sign with lots of soul.  Generous and gentle, they are always there to listen and lend a hand.  The most creative and talented of signs, Pisceans make great artists, musicians, and writers."

I thought this was very fitting - with all the creativity and talent in both of our families, I have no choice now but to foster that right side of Leah's brain.