Nostalgia and Other Happenings

Unbeknownst to me, my mom had saved an adorable dress from when I was a baby.  It was a gift from my beloved Grandma Jensen.  It had some nasty yellow stains, but I was able to get almost all of them out with a good wash.  Good thing she dug it out when she did because it was just about too small!

 I think I mentioned that Jimmy's parents are moving.  We went over there on Monday to finish hauling furniture upstairs and Esme got a good snuggle with Grandpa.

 Jimmy has fully adjusted to off days with both kids.  I am enjoying getting sweet pictures like this while at work (and the occasional crying baby video!)

She will be 4 months on Sunday so I will have to think up another fun photo shoot.

Paint Nite

I selfishly got my mom a Groupon to go to Paint Nite for her birthday.  I have been wanting to do it for a while, but had no one to go with.  I have a history of getting her crafty adventure birthday gifts (2013, 2015), so I figured this would be right up her alley.  She picked me up at my house and we headed to Bonfire in Blaine.

 Our teacher Courtney was so much fun.  She named each of the brushes. The big one was John Cena, the next was David Beckham, and the small delicate one was Justin Bieber!  She was very easy to follow and made the night great.

 We had to close the curtains to be able to hear Courtney, but that caused it to heat up pretty quickly as well.  We were all sweating!  They go through each part of the painting step by step.  Here are some pictures of the process.

 I think we did a great job, just have to decide where to hang it!  Happy Birthday Mom, thanks for coming out with me!

Olympics Weekend

I love the Olympics!  If you don't remember, you can go look here.  This is Esme's first Olympics and I am pretty sure the excitement runs in the family.  I dressed her very patriotically on Friday for the opening ceremony.

She even refused to go to sleep that night, so we brought her out to watch the parade of nations.

We managed to get out of the house a couple times despite binge watching the games.  I did my first solo trip to the children's museum with both kids.  Parker is really getting familiar with exhibits and plays very well on his own.

Esme slept through most of it, but woke up when we got to Habitot.  This is our very favorite exhibit and we will miss it so much when it closes at the end of the month for a renovation along with Earth World and World Works.  They have a great padded area for the smallest of children and Esme got to check it out.  The new toddler exhibit has a lot to live up to, but I am sure it will be great.

Only a few more weeks to play in these spaces, I hope we get back soon!

National Night Out and Hives

We'll get to the hives in a moments... National Night Out was Tuesday.  I organized it last year and was slated to again this year, but totally forgot.  Luckily, my neighbor remembered and sent the form to the city.  We just popped in at the end because we had to stop by Jimmy's parents' new townhouse to help move a few things.  We made it just in time for the fire truck, which Parker could take or leave.  He did seem to like the hat!  We chatted for a while before heading home.  It's the only time of year we get to see many of our neighbors, so it was fun to catch up.

 Now to the hives!  They started on Friday night.  We noticed Parker had some read marks on his legs and abdomen while getting him ready for bed.  Jimmy put some cortisone on it to see if it would help.  We didn't actually know what it was yet.  The first picture it from Saturday morning.  It looked much worse once out in the natural light, but it didn't seem to be bothering him.  I called the nurse line on my way to work and they said it sounded like hives and to get it checked out in 24-48 hours if it didn't clear.  We decided it would be ok to take him to my parents since no one else had them.

 They cleared up overnight Saturday, but popped up again by the time we arrived to pick them up.  It looked less splotchy and more spotted which concerned me.  There is a pediatric urgent care not too far from my parents that is open on Sunday and had no wait, so I took him in.  The doctor took a look and confirmed that it was hives.  He said it was most likely something that got on his skin and not something he ate, but we still can't figure it out.  They usually last 4-5 days, but can last a couple weeks.  I also got a note from the doctor that eased the mind of our daycare lady.  

 They progressively got better during the day this week, but kept springing up after putting him to bed.  He would be spot free, then look like this two hours later, only to be clear in the morning.  He was clear all day today and he is still clear tonight, 3 hours after bedtime.  Hopefully this means the end of them, but I am bummed we don't know what caused them.

Today also marked 16 weeks for Esme.  She is showing more personality with each day and I love waking up to her smile!  She has started to move a lot in her pack n' play.  She will spin 180 degrees and kick the button that turns the mobile on!  The past couple nights it has woken Jimmy up.  Now I just need to remember to turn it off when I go to bed so that won't happen.

C'mon mom, more pictures?

Hope you are having a great week.  Bring on Friday!

Esme's First Frolics

To make things even busier this weekend, it was also the Frolics, our city festival.  We watched the fireworks on Friday night, then woke up early for the waffle breakfast.  I had to work at 9, so we got there right at 8 when it started.  It's always a tasty affair!

2012     2013     2014     2015

Parker still hasn't totally warmed up to the fire trucks, but we are working on it.  Since it was Esme's first Frolics we had to get pictures of her with it.

Sunday was family fun day.  After picking up the kids from my parents we headed over to check things out.  We went in to the petting zoo first, where we ran in to Jimmy's sister and our niece.  We spent a couple hours hanging out with them at the carnival.

Emma wanted to go on the big upside down ride, so I offered to go with her.

This was my attempt at getting a picture of Parker eating a mini donut...

We also went on the ferris wheel.

And Jimmy took Parker on the giant slide.

He loved it and wanted to go again and kept trying to get back in.  He was so sad when we couldn't do it.  If only I wasn't so cheap, but those carnival tickets are expensive.

We had such a great time!