Cha-cha-cha-changes

Fun at the Children's Museum

How is it almost fall?!? Seriously, I felt like we were just rejoicing about the weather being nice, and now it's already started its slow descent. Guess that's life in the midwest. 

10 months

10 months old (too busy to hold still!)

8 months

We are experiencing the eve before preschool! Olivia starts her 3's preschool tomorrow! She will attend a Tuesday/Thursday program from 9:15-2:15. She is super excited about the different toys and play areas and keeps talking about being able to use the small potty and bringing her backpack and lunch box :) She is our little chatterbox and happily tells Phil and I the details of her day (even if we were with her during those activities). Her vocabulary continues to grow every day and her comments about how or why we are doing things make me stop sometimes and just laugh. She continues to impress us with her random memory of things (recently, it was bringing up the circus she went to with her aunt and uncle about 2 years ago, her trip to Urgent Care last year, the garden at the old house in Aurora and visiting Ethan at the hospital after he was born). I'm really hoping she continues to have a rock star memory and does not venture down the path of her mommy's memory. Now what was I talking about...? Her facial expressions are amazing and you feel her joy when she gets excited. We have entered the phase of picky toddler eating ('I just don't like that... what is is?'), so some meals are much better than others. She loves being with her friends (or anyone who will play with her), getting special treats (she wishes she could have them every day), giving and getting hugs, playing dress up, playing in the forts that daddy builds for her, being the leader, going to 'the mall the merica' (Mall of America) to play at the Children's Museum or the Crayola Experience (thank you memberships!) and helping mommy bake.

4th of July festivities

Woodbury Days (Olivia LOVED the parade, Ethan loved the snacks)

Ethan is almost a year old- yikes! He is such a little bundle of energy (I guess he needs to keep up with his sister!) and he is growing up so quickly. At 10 months old, he has 8 teeth, has started eating real people food, is close to walking (can walk if he's holding on to his walker or one of our hands), takes one(ish) naps a day, sleeps about 4 hour spurts at night, and can say mama and dada. He loves drinking milk and eating, playing in his ball pit, using his walker toy, crawling super fast to try and 'help' when Phil or I are loading the dishwasher, pulling up on anything, putting everything in his mouth, bath time, swimming lessons, and trying to get the toilet paper unrolled. He does not like sleeping through the night, not being fed at that exact moment, diaper changes, getting dressed, when his sister takes a toy, and not being able to hold/eat electronics (our remote controls, phones and ipad). He and I will enter new territory tomorrow when it's just the two of us for a few hours each week. But, I'm looking forward to being able to focus on him, and letting him play with things, without the constant 'let's share, play nice, what can you trade with him, he was playing with that...' He and I will actually attend an ECFE program on Wednesday mornings, so I'm excited to have another ECFE family! I had an amazing time with Olivia's class, and I'm crossing my fingers that the teacher is as amazing as Mrs. Laura and that the parents are as supportive and caring as the ones from Olivia's class. 
While summer has gone by too quickly, we did have a lot of great adventures. Highlights include moving into our new house, going to Cass Lake with the Tiedeman clan, having college friends visit us, a trip to Colorado for Tom and Brooke's wedding, lots of play time at different parks, going to different splash pads and pools, lots of zoo trips, picnic lunches, walks around the neighborhood, Woodbury Days, Renaissance Festival, a trip to Nelson's for ice cream, and just enjoying this wonderful land of 10,000 lakes!

Love for the lake

Dr. Olivia loves helping babies