Last Week's Wrap-Up

Last week was mix of fun, adventure, and little fear.  The weather is getting wormer for the most part and we have been able to spend more time outside.  Parker started looking through our fence last year and is continuing the fun.  I think he originally pushed the picnic table over there in an effort to climb over, but it just gave him a higher vantage point to peak through.

We've take a couple family walks and went to the park a few times as well.

We finally saw some success with Esme self-feeding and she started crawling on her knees.  She's gotten more adventurous as well and discovered the cavern behind the couch.

The scary part of the week was getting an early morning text from Jimmy on Thursday.  He has severe abdominal pain and checked himself in to the ER.  I was so scared and worried that it was something bad.  It turned out to be his very first kidney stone!  His dad has dealt with them since his early 20s, so we thought this may come about eventually.  He was given some pain meds and sent home to pass it.  It took a few bought of serious pain before it was over on Friday afternoon.  Not an event he wants to repeat soon, but at least he knows what it feels like now!

Friday was date night.  We didn't plan anything since we weren't sure if Jimmy would be up for it.  We decided last minute to check out a fish fry dinner with my parents at the American Legion on Wayzata.  It was just $10, all you can eat, and delicious!

Here are Esme's weekly pictures.  It's hard to see, but there is a little bird on her shirt that is so adorable.  I am excited to break out the spring and summer wear!  Have a great week!

Party at the Irish Pub

My work had their employee appreciation party last Saturday.  It was an Irish Pub theme and costumes are encouraged!  Jimmy and I were the flag of Ireland.  I just took green, white, and orange shirts and sewed the white over the colors.  I even make a flag pole!

We were at a new venue this year with a served dinner.  The green beans were very undercooked for my liking, but the steak was super tender and the Jimmy said the chicken was really good too.

There was a bunch of dessert options and a late night snack of pizza and boneless wings.

Duelly Noted Duelling Pianos was the dinner entertainment.  I requested "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar and got roped in to coming on stage.  Here is a clip of my cow bell solo.  I will let you decide if it is amazing or incredible.

The after dinner activities included karaoke, dancing, casino games and a campfire.

We ended the night with raffle prizes and I won a gift card the the Radisson Blu at the Mall of America.  We can use it for anything the hotel offers, but will probably stay a night and have a nice meal at some point.

It was a great night with a great group of co-workers.  I feel like we are a pretty unique that we can have this much fun together and still stay professional (most of the time!)

Beauties and Beasts

I may have spoke slightly too soon about Esme's sleep getting better.  We had two nights last week that were rough.  This beauty turned in to a sleep fighting beast!  She was up for 90 minutes on Thursday night and 2 hours on Friday night.  This picture is from Thursday.  After and hour of trying to get her to sleep I decided to turn on the lights and let her play.  Friday night she was just chatting and giggling to herself.  Fun for her, not for me!

It didn't help that I was out pretty late Friday evening.  I went to dinner with a few friends, then 3 of us went to see the new live action Beauty and Beast!  Being my second favorite Disney princess (sorry Belle, Ariel is my girl), I was super excited!  It was so good, but definitely a bit scary for the little ones.  Esm e probably won't be watching this one until she's 10.

Sunday was a fun day too.  We got to meet Esme's newish second cousin, Hunter, and went for a family walk since it was warmed up a bit.

Here are Esme's weekly pictures, hope you have a wonderful week!

Esme June - Eleven Months Old

Esme is eleven months old today.  She continues to move mostly by army crawling and hasn't started crawling on her knees, but does like kneel against furniture and toys.  We have a small wooden mail box that she kneels at for 15-20 minutes at a time.  She just bounces and talks, it is so cute.  She has taken a couple of tumbles, which I think scare her more than hurt.  She is really close to pulling herself up to standing, but isn't quite there yet.  Sleep is going well other than a minor anomaly last week.  We dropped her mattress down since she was getting more mobile.  We had 3 nights with no issues then we had 2 nights where she was waking at 10:30 and not wanting to sleep anywhere but on me or in bed next to me.  On the third night was rocking her in the living room about 11:30 and it hit me!  Maybe she's cold?  What a ridiculous thought, right?  We haven't ever used a blanket and haven't had any issues.  Then I realized the temps dropped a few nights earlier and she's inches from the ground now.  She is mobile enough to have a blanket so I gave it a go.  She slept the rest of the night and hasn't had an issue still.  I felt like a really dummy, but I am glad we figured it out sooner rather than later.

By my at home measurements she is about 22.5 lbs.  She is still wearing all 12 month clothing, but can probably start wearing some 18 month stuff.  She is also still in size 4 diapers during the day and at night.  She is eating 32-40 ounces of formula per day and still gets at least one meal of food most days.  We are starting to try table foods and offering chunkier items, but she is still having a handful of gagging issues and doesn't do much self feeding.  We have also started offering a sippy cup and we get ready to transition from formula to milk.  We did a scooter photo shoot on Sunday with her cute motorcycle jacket and shades.  I was hoping she would wear them, but that wasn't happening.

 

 Happy 11 months Esme, we can't wait to celebrate your birthday next month!

Weekend Nights Out

Friday was date night!  The kiddos hung out with Grandpa and Grandma Herrmann while we went out to eat.  Jimmy was craving italian and Google led us to Biaggi's.  We'd never been there before and hadn't looked up the menu online so it was a bit of an adventure.  The wait was 45 minutes, but we were able to snag the last two seats in the bar and got served quickly.  I got butternut squash ravioli with smoked chicken and Jimmy got rigatoni bolognese.  My dish was reminiscent of Macaroni Grill's butternut squash tortellacci which was most favorite past dish ever!  They closed all of their locations 2 years ago so this was a throw back.

 Date night isn't complete without dessert.  We split a couple of cupcakes from Nadia's.

 The kids had a blast as well!

 We've been big on mall outings lately and went to Eden Prairie Center on Saturday night.  Esme got her first chance to play, but mostly just watched the other kids.

 Here are her weekly pictures pictures, just 5 more weeks until 1 year!

Hoping We Don't Blow Away

The wind is howling outside as I sit and type.  Current sustained winds are in the mid-20 MPH with gusts up to 50!  The weather over the last several weeks has been crazy!  Threat of a giant snowstorm to rain and almost 70 degrees to tornado warnings and graupel!  Go ahead and read wikipedia to see what that is.  It was falling off an on all day today and it was strange and beautiful all at the same time.

Once Esme and I were heathy again we took advantage of the weather to got outside on Sunday.

 We even charged up the Mustang battery for Parker!  He was not a big fan of it at first and even got a little scared.  He did finally take Esme for a very short ride.  She didn't see to mind just sitting and even fell asleep in it (but woke up before I could get a picture!)

 Parker still prefers the Cozy Coupe, but it is getting a little small.  It should be a fun spring and summer with Esme moving around more and eventually walking!  

Go Away Sickness

We had a bout with a stomach bus last week.  Parker has only thrown up a few times and never as a baby, so this was new territory for us.  It started early Wednesday morning when Esme woke up crying.  Jimmy couldn't calm her down so I laid her in bed with me and Jimmy went to the living room.  Within a couple minutes she threw up for the first time.  We got her cleaned up and Jimmy said he would stay up with her since he was off that day.  It was a while before she calmed down and I ended up coming back upstairs to help out.  I gave her a few ounces of formula thinking she probably had an empty stomach.  Then I pulled the crib next to the bed and that calmed her enough to fall asleep until morning.  She did really well all day with Jimmy and was taking a couple ounces at a time throughout the day.  I decided to skip ECFE as a precaution.  That was a good choice because she threw up again about 7:30 Wednesday evening.  It was at that point I decided to stay home with her on Thursday.  Once again she was had a good day.  Lots of snuggling and naps, but good spirits.  We also found out that two other kids at daycare had similar symptoms, so something was going around.

  

 Wednesday evening I started feeling nauseous and went to bed pretty early.  I woke up in the middle of the night feeling really bad and had a hard time going back to sleep.  It was at this time I heard Esme fill her diaper and told Jimmy he should stay home with us on Friday since I wasn't sure how I would be feeling.  Jimmy dropped Parker off at daycare and Esme threw up for a 3rd time shortly after he got back.  It was another day of resting and snuggling.  Jimmy took such great care of both of us.  Jimmy and Parker have escaped it so far and I hope it stays that way!

 I was feeling better by Friday evening and Esme seemed to finally be on the rebound as well.  We took her weekly pictures and some adorable ones in an elephant costume for her birthday party invitation.  My parents came over for dinner and to watch the OK State Cowgirls play in the Big 12 tournament.  They lost, but had a pretty good season.  Kaylee finished the season averaging 18.5 points and 10.6 rebounds.  

Esme has become very fond of my phone (and all electronics lately.)  I took this picture of her on Saturday night.  I felt like I was getting a glimpse at 15 years in the future.

 I will miss our weekly pictures, but it is getting ever harder to keep her laying on the floor with the blocks facing up.  Is there really only 6 more weeks until she's one?

Happy Sunday, have a great week!