Saturday, December 27, 2008

Slimiest Baby on the Block

Our trip to Minnesota was an adventure and a half. We had a great time once we got there, but boy did it take a while to get there! We flew out last Saturday, when it was snowing here (after already having snowed a good amount the day before), and it was snowing in Minnesota too. So first it took us an extra hour-and-a-half to get off the ground, then when we neared the Minneapolis airport we had to circle for about 40 minutes, during which time the airport was closed and reopened twice. Awesome. So we missed our connector to Bemidji, which was canceled anyway so missing it didn't make a difference, and we couldn't get on any other flights that night or the next day. We thought about driving the next day but the roads were still too icy so we ended up flying on Monday morning. So we had two days less in Bemidji than we planned, however we got to spend two days in the Minneapolis area, which worked out ok! Hung out with Lisa and Denise, met Denise's son Zac, and was able to see my aunt Diane and my godparents Marlene and Dale! And the other upshot was that Zac decided that he wanted to spend Christmas with my family in Bemidji after meeting us (I think Dashiell won him over) so we had a huge crew of people at my parents' house for the holidays! It was crowded and fun, like Christmas should be.

Dashiell had a great time meeting everyone. He loved all the kids (teenagers, really) and was fascinated with his grandpa Weber. And he did very well traveling, despite all of our setbacks. But I think he's pretty happy to be home. And he now has a cold, hence the title of this entry, "Slimiest Baby on the Block". He's teething so there's drool everywhere, plus the steady stream of yuck coming from his nose...bleh...still in good spirits, though! Slightly grumpy but still ready to smile and laugh if distracted. The bottom picture was taken tonight to illustrate the grossness.

I'm having issues placing the other photos so sorry if they're a bit random. One is my parents with all their grandkids (Dash, Craig and Abby), one is Dashiell getting comfy on Abby, and one is Dashiell with Zac.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Merry Christmas!

I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to get a chance to update the blog again for at least a week so I thought I'd try to get us all caught up and wish everyone a happy holiday while I'm at it!

First, here's a couple more pictures from the photo shoot with Meghan Moore (megpix.com) the other day. I couldn't help myself and had to get these, too--totally love them!

We survived last week's ice storm just fine--we were one of the few lucky people in our neighborhood who didn't lose power! Seriously, the power was out for most of our neighborhood, except for about a 2 block radius around us, for 2 days. Our grocery store looked like a war zone on Saturday evening when we tried to shop--they had been without power for almost 2 days and had nothing in the deli, butcher, dairy case, frozen and refrigerated foods sections, and the fruit and veggies had been completely picked over. I think we got the last bunch of bananas in the store! They closed about 15 minutes after we got there so they could clean up and restock, plus since they were on generator power only for that whole time it was freezing in the store. It was craziness!

So now we're just waiting for the next storm, which should be arriving in a couple of hours and should be a doozy. And since I'm currently at work with absolutely nothing to do, I will be leaving as soon as the first snowflake hits the ground. Then it's officially my Christmas vacation!! Wooooo!!! I just hope the snow doesn't mess up our travel plans for tomorrow.

I'm so excited to go home for Christmas this year! My dad and my sister Terri and her family have not met Dashiell yet, and I'm happy that they'll finally get the chance. Proud mom that I am, I can't wait for Dash to charm them with his big smiles, babbling and belly laughs. Plus he can show off all his new skills! He's on the verge of standing without my help so I'm hoping he figures that out while we're in MN (he kind of stood without me in his pack-n-play yesterday but only because I placed his hands on the edge of it to help him balance--he just hasn't figure out how to do that on his own yet!).
Merry Christmas everyone!

Monday, December 8, 2008

Crawl, baby, crawl!!

Big news: Dashiell started crawling last week! The day before his 8-month birthday he tried to take a couple of steps (is it called steps when it's a crawl?) towards me when I came home from work, then the next day he crawled a little for his grandparents. It was so exciting! He's still just doing a few steps at a time but he's so pleased with himself when he can reach something across the floor--it's so cute! At some point I'll post a video but I have to download it from our camera first...

Yesterday we went to my friend Meghan's photography studio for a "Painless Portrait"--she does these fun, easy photo sessions every so often which are a really affordable way to get a family picture taken. I'd post our family photo but it's going to be our Christmas card and I don't want to spoil the surprise. ;-) So instead you can see Dashiell's solo picture from yesterday on the sidebar (under the heading "8 months old!"). She's doing the painless portraits again this coming weekend (Dec. 13 & 14) from noon to 5 pm--visit her web site (www.megpix.com) to see more of her work and to contact her for an appointment! You'll have serious fun with her, and you'll get a great photo for very little money.

Hope you all have a great week!

-Suzi