A Fun-Filled Weekend

Our Memorial Day Weekend in Pictures...

We met my cousin David and his wife Sarah in Bloomington for Elsa's First trip to Miller Park Zoo...

We played at home, worked in the yard, and ran errands...

We celebrated Cousin Ryan's 4th Birthday...

We made a few impulse purchases at Ikea (another first for Elsa) and had a pre-Mad Men season finale Happy Hour...

We hiked out at Fugate Woods, a couple miles from our house...

And then Elsa took the longest nap she has ever taken! Summer, we are ready!

Happy Retirement!

Last week, my mom closed a major chapter of her life.  Maybe not a chapter - more like an epilogue to her teaching career. She officially retired from teaching full-time a few years ago, but has continued to teach one class of psychology.  To celebrate we had a small get-together with close friends and family.  It's been a lot of fun hearing stories about when she first started teaching in 1970 and hearing all the comments from past students about the impact she had on their lives.  Happy Retirement, Mom - We are excited for you to have more time with all your grand-babies (and us)!

My First Mother's Day

Elsa sleeps until 6:30 on most weekdays.  On Mother's Day weekend, she woke up around 5am both on Saturday and Sunday.  My first thought was how all I wanted was to sleep in, just for one day and I attempted to mentally will Elsa back to sleep.  As I opened my eyes though, I was greeted with the cutest smile and bright-eyed look from the sweetest six month old I could have dreamed of.  An extra hour of sleep might have been nice, but nothing compares to the joy this little bug has brought to our lives.  

Motherhood is just the best.  

Little Girls, Big Entertainment

Elsa loves to watch and play with her "big" cousins at Grandma and Bapa's house...

Frozen puppets while watching Frozen

Greta showing off her dance moves

Elsa's turn!

Selfies with Clara

Keeping her grandparents entertained

Puppet show with Greta

6 Months!

Look who's half a year old! Little Miss Elsa is full of personality and we are loving all her little "looks" and all her "talking." She is starting to enjoy trying new foods and loves her bath time, but naps are not her thing.  Elsa is just too interested in the world around her to take more than a 30 minute nap (unless we're in the car, that's a different story)!  

Stats from Elsa's 6 Month Check-Up:

                  16 pounds, 9 ounces (55th percentile)
                  25 inches tall (27th percentile)

Naners!

Elsa has joined the world of solid-food! We opted to wait until she was almost exactly six months old to start solids and after much deliberation, we decided for her first taste of food to be of a fresh banana.  It went pretty well - she managed a few decent bites and loved smushing her hands into the bowl.  So far, bananas have been her favorite -  roasted sweet potatoes and fresh avocados were okay while rice cereal was just a big fat "NO way, Momma - you call this mush food?!" We're trying to keep it fun and light right now - just experimenting with a few tastes and trying (really trying my best here) to not worry about the mess!

Hmmm, I don't know how I feel about this...

Who needs a spoon?

Here, I'll just do it myself!

More bananas, please!