Monday, November 30, 2009

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving this year was amazing.  We drove the six hours to Milwaukee and had a great weekend!  Dinner with the family, Ingrid slept the whole night through, all THREE nights!  And we got to see friends we haven't seen in months.  Made me homesick (see here) but we only have a few months left in Michigan and then we'll be off to the next adventure.
We had Christmas with Brendan's family since we'll be celebrating with my family this year.  Ingrid loved to help open presents.  She got some cute wooden toys and some money for her college account.  Or her traveling account, whichever she decides to use the money for :)

Ingrid had so much fun playing with the dogs.  Brendan's parents have three, two really old ones that didn't really care for Ingrid (that's Oreo down there, unable to get up and run away from Ingrid...) and an 8 month old 100 lb puppy, Bear.  He loved Ingrid, they played together very well. 

We also went to Fuel to see our preggo friend Katie!  I can't wait for April to meet baby girl Johnson.
And we went to Madison to FINALLY meet Camryn, who is about two weeks younger than Ingrid.  They had a blast playing together!

















Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thank You, Switzerland!

















Fiona over at Living in the Land of Chocolate and her two girls sent us this adorable cow.  It is the cutest thing, both Ingrid and I oohed and aahhed over it when we opened the envelope!  I love the little wooden udder, and of course the bell around the neck, which Fiona says is very truly Swiss.  Ingrid has played with this little "moo cow" nonstop and even had to hold onto it during dinner.  Funny kid.















Thank you so much Fiona, Sofie, and Emily!  We also really enjoyed the homemade thank you cards with sparkly stickers :) 

And on another thankful note, it's Thanksgiving today and we are off for a six hour drive to see friends and family in Milwaukee.  Yay! 

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Our Busy Weekend

Last Thursday Ingrid's friend Allie came over.  They have matching stripey outfits, so of course the mamas had to put them together and take silly pictures of them...
Ingrid had fun dancing.


My mom came over this weekend, allowing Brendan and I to have some date nights.  It was awesome to have help!!  We got to go out to dinner and for drinks TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW!  Yay.  Ingrid loves when Gramma comes over.  They made brownies and when Ingrid was given the empty bowl, she used it as a hat.  Then she smelled like brownies all day until bathtime.  Yum.

We went on a nice autumnal walk and played in the leaves.  It was HILARIOUS when we were sitting near a log that had a grasshopper on it.  We pointed it out to Ingrid, who went to grab it.  She touched it as it was hopping away, which caused her to make the most horrified face and shudder.  It was so funny! 


That sucker was huge!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Kids are Funny

Just some silly stuff Ingrid's been saying/doing lately. 

1. Yesterday I was putting her clothes away when she comes into the room holding out something, saying "pooh pooh."  Sure enough, it was poop...

2. The other day she had two sippy cups.  One dropped and broke, spilling milk all over me.  I (stupidly) yelled "Jesus!"  Ingrid then threw the other sippy and also yelled "Jesus!"

3. This morning we had egg nog.  Ingrid called it ning nong.

4. Ingrid loves mud puddles.  She gets on her tip toes and splashes in one tiny little puddle for ages.  And when it's a huge puddle, she doesn't seem to mind.  Even when it's freezing and she's covered in mud up to her knees.

5. When it's naptime or bedtime, we usually say good night to the dog, the cats, and daddy (when he's home.)  Now Ingrid has taken to saying good night to the kitchen set, her books, her teddy bears, the couch, her blankets, the bathroom, whatever is in her line of sight.  It takes awhile to say good night to a whole house.  I suppose that's what I get for reading Goodnight Moon to her a million times.

6. If I lay on the floor, Ingrid immediately drops whatever she's doing to run over and sit on my head. 

She is 18 months old today, I can't believe how fast time goes!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Hands On Museum

Today Ingrid and I met our friends at the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum.  Brendan and I always wanted to take Ingrid there but never managed to make it on a weekend, so I was excited when Jami wanted to go.  We packed a lunch and set off into the windy cold day.  It was a good day to be inside exploring!

They have a huge Bob the Builder section, but everything made noise and scared Ingrid.  She cried and wanted to be held the first ten minutes or so, until we took the kids to the preschool area.  There she had a blast!  There are things to climb on:



















A water table where they get to splash as much as they want:



























A firetruck with dress up fireman clothes:















After lunch we checked out some other areas, but a school was there, making it crazy, and Ingrid was ready for her nap.  She had fun, though, as long as she was in the preschool area.  Problem is, it's so expensive, I don't know that I want to pay that much for her to only want to see one tiny area...

Monday, November 16, 2009

Visiting the Fam

Ingrid has been super clingy and whiny, have I mentioned??  Yesterday early in the morning she had already driven me up a wall, so I decided to make an impromptu visit to my sister's house.  She lives 2 1/2 hours away and I feel that is not too far for a day trip.  Brendan thinks I'm crazy but who cares.  Ingrid does relatively well on that car trip, so I packed some bags and the dvd player and off we went.  My sister was having a family gathering for my neice's and her birthdays, and we hadn't thought we would make it, but I'm so glad we did!

Ingrid was asleep when we got there, thus waking her up to a strange place and two eager cousins in her face was a bit much to take.  She cried huge alligator tears for twenty minutes before finally warming up.  But warm up she did.  Her cousins just love her!

















She played outside a lot, they have a swingset set in a huge pile of sand.  And I loved it because I could sit inside on the couch and watch from the back porch instead of having to be cold and sit out there with her.  Lazy much? 














































When Gramma got there, Ingrid was beside herself, along with all the other cousins, too.  She is a big hit!!














After a few hours of much socializing and sugary foods, Ingrid started to get upset again, waving bye bye to everyone and begging to be held.  She slept most of the way home and then we sang songs and recited books we know by heart the rest of the way.  It was a great day.

Added bonus:  Corie has a ton of kid's toys her kids have outgrown, so Ingrid gets to use them now!  We took home a kitchen set and a bin full of toy dishes and food.  It was going to be a Christmas present, but she was so excited about it, and I was so tired from lack of sleep the past few weeks, that I just let her go to town this morning while I drank coffee.  She loves it!


Friday, November 13, 2009

A Trip to the Thrift Store

And we got so much fun stuff!  I found a couple long sleeve shirts to get me through the winter, a pair of pants and skirt for Ingrid, and the greatest Christmas gift ever.














She had to try it out before her nap.  She seems to like it, right?





















This will look so cute under the tree on Christmas morning :)

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

This Morning's Walk

Another trip to the lake today with Cody.  It was way colder than I thought it was going to be!  I can definitely tell it's getting that cold nip in the air of November.  Still hard to believe it's November already!!  Only one tree is still holding on, the others have lost all their leaves.














Ingrid wore her pixie hat and looked adorable.  She is really into rocks at the moment, so she took her time browsing through all the stones in the gravel road.

















It has been another wonderful day with my girl!



Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Ahhh, This is the Life!

I am so thankful for being able to be a stay at home mom. This is what my day is like:
Wake up to a babbling, happy child. Drink coffee and eat breakfast.
Color with Ingrid.

Take the dog to the park.
Naptime. Get some sewing done if I'm lucky.


Lunch time.

Bake some things. Eat some things.

Play with stuffed animals.

Walk by the lake. Make dinner. Bath and bedtime. Enjoy quiet time with husband (when he's not sick.)

Monday, November 9, 2009

Good Things.

Good things around here:

A happy girl with her "cool dude" sunglasses. She thinks she is hot stuff with these on!


More birthday crowns done, with fabric covering the elastic. Looks cute and uses up those scraps.



A grown up bed again! Kind of. We lost a wheel to our bed frame in the move and have been sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Yesterday Ingrid and I saw someone was throwing their frame away so I grabbed a wheel and took it home. It wouldn't stay in, though, so I was crafty and used some of Ingrid's play dough to make it stick. So, adult bed in that is has real bedding and an actual frame, not so adult because it's stuffed with play dough...


An etsy sale from someone I DON'T EVEN KNOW!! It's always exciting to sell something, but this is my first sale to someone random! How cool that they liked something I made that they would even pay money for it. Yay.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Go Away, Sickness!!

Not much going on this weekend. Brendan's still sick so we've just hung out. He watches football, I read books to Ingrid. It's gorgeous out and no one feels like getting outside. I did get some sewing done this morning, a dress for the daughter of an old friend. They live in Florida, so she'll be able to wear it without tights and a turtleneck!! Although it's been so warm here, Ingrid got to wear it that way, too. I baked some pumpkin bread last night and it's already almost gone. Lethargy reigns. I gotta get outside...



Thursday, November 5, 2009

A Better Day


Yep, today was way better! Ingrid woke up happy and even let Brendan play with her for an hour while I slept in. The past couple days she cried when he looked at her, so that's an improvement.

After her nap we ventured out and had the best afternoon. We went and got lunch, which she devoured. Another good sign that her appetite is back. Then we wandered around Walgreens and got new sunglasses and toy keys. Of course we forgot the one thing I needed to get there--soap! And then we went to the bookstore and looked at books and played with the train set. It was relaxing and just felt so good to get out of the house!!



When we got home she was tired again, so she took another little nap, woke up hungry, ate her food, and by 6pm was begging to rock. We didn't have any hot water for some reason, so bathtime was nixed and we just put on pjs and read about 14 books. I was trying so hard to keep her up but the poor thing was just rubbing her eyes and yawning so she was in bed and asleep by 6:30. Another good sign she's on the mend, catching up on her sleep.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

A Hard Day to Be a Mom...

Today Ingrid was finally over her fever. However, she was still not feeling well and was SO WHINY and SO CLINGY!! It was driving me nuts. This was her face most of the day:


She would hand me a book and I'd ask her if she wanted to read it. She'd say yes, I'd sit down to read it and then she'd burst into tears because I didn't sit in the chair/on the couch/on the floor. She wanted her crayons but when I went to open the box she burst into tears. She wanted something to drink but not orange juice. Not milk. Not water. No wait, maybe milk. No, not milk.


AAAAHHHHH!!! What a frustrating day! She wouldn't take a nap all day long, but at 5pm begged to be put in her bed. For real, kid, you're killing me.

But she looked super cute today, even with the tears and tantrums. There is a giveaway over at Take Time to Smell the Rose and when I went to the website of Happy Green Bee I fell in love. Organic clothes that are cute and stripey and the best shade of green! I got her tights and a couple shirts and I'm so in love with them!