just a swingin | party time

marianne and i took a stroll around the park this afternoon. it was a little chilly but i decided to let marianne take a swing for the first time. i'm not sure but she seemed to enjoy herself.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, DES

last weekend marianne's friend, desmond, turned 1 and had a rad birthday party to celebrate. it was a lot of fun and as desmond's only same-age friend attending, we were really honored to share the day with him. we wore party hats, ate cupcake, played with balloons, visited with other guests and (oh my!) got kisses from the birthday boy. i think he wants to be more than just friends. it was such a riot - desmond was pulling marianne close, hugging her and planting some serious kisses. at one point, marianne was pushing him off of her but he was undeterred. we all had a really good laugh.

P.S. new january post

pitter patter

marianne has officially taken her first steps.

it's taken me a week to come to terms with the fact that her first steps (without holding on) were to someone other than momma or daddy and that neither of us were there to see her. naturally, she took them at daycare. when i first went back to work, i had a hard time with missing her "firsts" but i had made peace with it since she spends her weekdays at a place full of love for her. that said, first steps are a big one and i was trying to prepare myself for it but apparently i wasn't ready. mostly, i wasn't ready for her to walk yet. even though she's been steady on her feet and toddling behind anything that rolls or scoots and along anything stationary since christmas, we just weren't in a rush for her to be off and walking all by her big-girl self. so we hadn't been coaching, encouraging, pushing, or working with her...i just wanted her to get there in her own time. and she did.

by the time she got home in the evenings last week, she was too pooped to take much more than one wobbly step. over the weekend, she took SIX steps to her very proud momma and she hasn't slowed down. it's so cute to see how proud of herself she is.

we captured some footage tonight. enjoy.

p.s. new posting under january

some catching up to do

i'm obviously WAY behind on updates to the blog. the holidays were busy as usual and january was just a rough one. we were in and out of the pediatrician's office at least once a week all month. first it was a mild case of rsv, then an ear infection, then a couple of visits for a virus that i'm pretty sure turned out to be roseola, then a sore but-luckily-not-infected ear because that was only a few days until we were flying to see aunt kimmie for a long weekend. she started the month at 16lbs 2oz+ and ended it at 15lbs 12oz. but she's back to full health and seems to have gained several ounces over the last couple of weeks. however jerry and i are now taking our turn. some kind of stomach bug kept me up all night on sunday and home from work on monday and jer's currently sleeping off a fever as i type.

marianne is walking with support. she started doing so just days before christmas and i'm relieved she hasn't started walking unaided yet. she is standing for longer and longer without holding on so i assume it won't be long til she puts it all together.

her one year birthday is coming up faster than i can believe. we're not planning a blowout party but both sets of grandparents will be visiting before/after the big day so we'll be sure to do plenty of celebrating.

jerry is starting his 7-days-a-week work schedule. neither marianne nor i are thrilled but it's busy season so our grumbling doesn't make much of a difference. i've been ramping up my running routine - going over lunch breaks with a colleague who's shaping up for her april nuptials. we signed up for a 10-mile race in march. i'm praying for nice weather and to cross the finish line running.

i'm going to post some back-entries from the last couple of months, so keep an eye on december and january for the next several days. i'll try not to get so far behind again. i know i have so many avid followers ;)

a visit to the north

momma had been promising a visit to aunt kimberly for over a year now, so marianne said it was good and time we made good. aunt kimmy hosted us for a long weekend and showed us her terf.

we flew into Salt Lake City on friday morning and spent the day in the city doing some shopping. on our way home to kimberly's apartment, we stopped in Park City to check out the main street shopping and the sundance film festival festivities. adorable little ski town.

we were pooped when we got home that night. aunt kimberly read marianne her bedtime stories.

on saturday we explored evanston, saw kimberly's office and grocery shopped for cooking her birthday dinner. we ate lunch at don pedro's. yummy. marianne got a balloon.

after church on sunday, we went to a little coffee shop downtown for breakfast. quaint and cozy and a delicious sticky bun. then we took it easy for the day before making indian for aunt kimberly's birthday dinner.

kimberly took us to a great italian market for lunch in slc before we caught our flight home. indulged in a cannoli - marianne had her fair share too.

thanks for having us aunt kimmy. see you in april.

rub a dub dub

marianne had buckets of fun in her washpod...

...but for the last several nights she has been refusing to sit down it the water. so we have retired the pod and moved on to the tub.

she had a ball. she splished and splashed and slipped and slid. she found it especially thrilling to crawl to the shallow end and slide back down to the deep end. marvelous fun.

yes, my little rubber friends, i think we're going to like it here.

even daddy had fun and managed not to get completely soaked.

the holidays

thanksgiving.

we spent marianne's first thanksgiving in monument, co with the rokkes and mcgees. we drove down the night before so that i would be there early enough the next day to participate in the rokke/mcgee family tradition of running the local 5k turkey trot. that was the first night, of what became many over the next month, that marianne woke repeatedly. and that night it was every hour, on the hour, all night long. i was exhausted come daybreak and questioning the 5k. but i did it. hills and all. at least i earned my stuffing and gravy.

we spent the rest of the day at the rokke home enjoying the company and not doing any cooking. which was a first for me in several years. and the food was delicious. eric roasts a mean turkey and john can bake a loaf of bread, i'm telling you what. the kids were like vultures waiting for it to come out of the oven.

i didn't take many pictures that day but i did snap a few of marianne with her cousins. she was a hit and they were great with her. they let her pull their hair and use their cell phones as teethers.

we had a lot to be thankful for.

christmas.

we made the annual trek home to mo and, per usual, it was a whirlwind of engagements. chapmans and laflens, marlows and beatties, mitchells and mardii, OH MY.

even for it being marianne's first christmas, she did get into pulling at bows and ripping some paper. it was adorable. she was showered with love and gifts and we really enjoyed our time at home with family...even if we slept in a different bed each night. and our drive home was undeterred by weather, which is always a blessing that time of year.

my nana

opening gifts with stella

entertaining aunt nati

is this what santa's beard feels like?

some of my loyal blog fans

laflen girls



sledgie ride

do what?

oh, okay!

au revoir. happy anniversary beatties.

christmas morning in their finest.

thanks for the bling, aunt julie.

christmas again.

technically, it was new years day but it was the day we opened gifts at home with marianne. so for us, it was christmas no. 2.

after all of that.
i needed some rest. marianne was teething from thanksgiving to new years and, as i mentioned earlier, she was waking often throughout the night, every night. upon our return to colo, we implemented some sleep training to break her of the new habits she had formed - and some old habits that we had formed - so that she could learn to soothe herself to sleep AND just as, if not more, importantly so that momma could get back to logging some serious sleep hours again as well. it's worked out amazingly. marianne took to the new routine with ease and is now a champ at falling asleep unaided and sleeping COMPLETELY through the night. and i am a brand new woman. hallelujah!