Before and After

Here are a few before and after pictures of our kitchen. Now, I'm not talking about one time Daniel did this to our kitchen. I'm talking about our kitchen goes from the before to the after approximately three to five times every day! I clean up a mess like this during morning nap, afternoon nap, and after bed. I could do it with every meal, too, if I really wanted to. I only let Daniel play in two cabinets and two drawers and he manages to create a mess like this all the time. Good thing I read that book that recommended giving your kid access to as many cabinets as possible, huh? On one hand, cleaning all this up over and over again gets a little monotonous and seeing all the dust and drool that gets caked on my pots and pans is a little gross, but on the other hand, I would hate to think of the cost and time associated with replacing all these 'toys' and hours of enjoyment. For now, I'll live with putting the stuff away and washing the dishes before and after cooking just to have a baby who gets to explore and entertain himself.

New Pictures

Let's go grocery shopping!
What a big boy outfit.

Daniel wanted to help with dinner.

Yum, snow!

More snow!

And Then He Walked

We were enjoying our Valentine's Day morning when Daniel decided to take off. Well, take off for a ten and a half month old. I had been asking him to wait until he was one year old, but he wasn't going to wait.

Matt and I have an extremely romantic day planned (ha, ha). We started out with a few outdoor chores (Christmas light removal and snow shoveling) during Daniel's morning nap. It is a lovely day outside and there is just enough snow to cover all the ugly brown yuck. Today we are painting the basement, and I'm getting a haircut (yipee!). Tonight we are going over to the Lee's for dinner and then to the UW basketball game with Non and Dan.

Morning Shopping

Daniel took a little shopping trip this morning. He was very excited to be pushing the cart around. He is showing a little more interest in trying to walk rather than just plopping down and crawling.

Almost There

Daniel has been working on three new teeth for about a week now. Two have finally poked through, and the third is almost there. Once these are in, he'll be up to eight teeth. He is also trying really hard to learn how to walk. I'm still not ready for that phase, but I know it will come no matter what. Daniel did two steps in a row for the first time last night. I don't see him taking off anytime soon, but what do I know, really?

He has tons of new sounds and is doing new things all the time. Like today, he's decided that pulling over things is a great activity. Very scary if you are the mother.

Alright, I must get back to the little guy!

Suprise Visit and a Random Thought

Ok, I'll do the random thought first. I just noticed that Daniel has enough hair that I might have to start brushing it soon. He was bald for so long that hair brushing was never a thought. Hopefully this has not led to some sort of resistance to brushing my kids hair in the future.

Yesterday my good friend from Notre Dame, Erin, emailed to see if she could come visit today. Then she emailed and asked if she could just come that night. My answer was, "Yes!," of course. I let Matt know about this development at which point I remembered that we are down a bathroom and the guest room was full of tools, loose doors and toilet tank tops, and baseboards (with nails poking out). Thankfully Erin is an extremely low maintenance guest, but I still did not tell her about the living conditions until she was in Rockford ;)

We had a great visit. Last night was just chatted over wine, and today we hung around the house in the morning. We went on a little sledding outing (ie, pull Daniel around the house one time ~3 minutes) before heading to State Street to do some shopping and meet Matt for lunch. The temperature is above freezing, so strolling with Daniel on State Street is a must. You see, in Wisconsin 10 month olds have more frost proof skin the closer you get to March. Anyway, no big purchases outside of lunch, but it was so nice to get out and see the sun! The big discovery was the lululemon lemonade stand (mini-lululemon). I'm thinking that I might get a pair of new workout pants for Valentine's day :)

New developments on the Daniel front include clicking his tounge on the roof of his mouth - pretty cute, and chipmunking his food - not so cute. It looks like we are going to have to implement a mouth check routine before giving him more food.