Autumn's Tummy

As most of you know, Autumn has had a long battle with constipation. We currently have her on a stool softener but are working to get her off of that. We have started a regime of pro-biotics with her and it seems to be working. I buy them on-line as that is where I've found them for the least amount of money. I use a site called www.iherb.com where they have probiotics specifically developed for an infant's and toddler's tummy (I didn't find many places I could get this stuff for babies) as well as older children and adults. I received a coupon code from them to share with friend and family so here it is BAC992. This is for $5 off your 1st purchase from them. I used one I got from a friend for Autumn's first bottle of probiotics and now I got a code to share with you. So feel free to check out the site and get $5 off. It is good for a year from now. They have all kinds of vitamins and other good for you things on this site as well, Kurt and I will probably be getting all our vitamins from them from now on, the shipping is even cheap. Anyway, thought I'd share that information with you.

MN Winter

I was going to save this for later in the winter but this week works too. It is -11 out right now, yesterday it was -15 with windchills down around -35 to -40!!!!!! This poem was published annonymously in our campus newspaper my freshman year, I clipped it out and still have it. :) The comic was with in but no copyright so I'm putting that in here too.

When it’s winter in Minnesota and the gentle breezes blow
About 70 miles an hour and it’s 52 below,
You can tell you’re in Minnesota, ‘cause the snow’s up to your butt,
And you take a breath of winter air and your nose holes both freeze shut,.
The weather here is wonderful, so I guess I’ll hang around.
I could never leave Minnesota, ‘cause I’m frozen to the ground

Ok, my smartalec husband wrote a response to this poem, here it is:

When it’s winter in Arizona and the sun shine never fades
You wish you’d get a break from all the heat and find some shade
You can tell you’re in Arizona, ‘cause there’s no snow to be found
And the only air you breathe comes with an air conditioned sound
The weather there is wonderful, but to me it would seem strange
I would never leave Minnesota; I like to see the seasons change

Artist's Palette

Autumn loves to draw "pichurs" and since our dishwasher front is nice and smooth and white it's a perfect place for dry erase markers. Every so often we clean it off and she start over again. This time she was trying a different technique. Always the drawing involves humming/singing and dancing.

1st Sled Ride

We took Autumn to a local park with a hill to do some sledding. We picked a good one, the hill is a bit on the smallish side so not a popular place. All the better, no one to run into or to run into her. She could run around at the bottom of the hill to her heart's content. Which she did. She ran around, ate snow, tried to make snow angels, tried to throw snow balls (not very good snow for that). She really liked to stand still, give a little giggle and then fall straight backwards into the snow. She did it over and over again. We had lots of fun and good naps after lunch.

To the Zoo

We went to the zoo while my family was here. Here is Autumn and her cousin sitting on a turtle.

More Presents

Autumn has had birthday presents straggling in and she's enjoying the ability to spread this out as long as she can. She loves to rip the paper off of something and see what's inside it. Guess we'll not be putting all the presents under the tree until the last minute. I had to re-wrap a secret santa gift this morning before work because Autumn thought it was a present for her. And why wouldn't she think that, she sure got a lot of them lately, makes sense to a 2yr old brain. :) So she spent about an hour drawing on her new Aqua Doodle mat last night, having both mommy and daddy "sit pichuur" so we could watch her draw. And she loves to feed her baby monkey a bottle and then kiss it. This monkey makes little baby monkey noises and Autumn tries to imitate them. It's very cute. She has the baby monkey and all her baby dolls crammed into a little baby bed that my dad made. At least they'll all stay warm smushed together like that. :)

Birthday Pizza

Autumn's friend came over on Saturday evening for birthday pizza. They both dove right in and gobbled it down. Then came the cake. Autumn is a very deliberate frosting eater and her friend just smushes the whole thing in his mouth. They laughed at each other a lot. Autumn was better about sharing her toys and Kurt played the guitar with them and they played and danced until her friend had to go home.

Holidazzle

We went with my parents, my brother and his wife, and her family to the Holidazzle parade. This is the first time we've been. Yes, I've lived in MN for 12 years now (holy cow! REALLY?!?!?) and have never been. I'm a wimp in the cold. Friday evening was not too bad, I could still feel my toes at the end. We had a good time, Autumn was enthralled. She waved at everything that went past and got mad when there was a long wait between floats. We traded off holding her as she was very wiggly and bouncy and that's hard on arms and shoulders and backs. It was fun, guess we'll do it again next year. :)

Playing with Isaac

Autumn's cousin was here for a little while over Thanksgiving and they had a pretty good time playing together. Autumn is definately in the mode of "it's mine at all times no matter if I'm in the same room with it or not" but she shared fairly well considering. :)

No, mommy, I'm not tired!

Why is he touching my new chair?!

Birthday Pictures

Autumn got some new dress up clothes and a rocking chair. She loves to sit in that and rock her new baby. She also got some play food and lots of family to help her celebrate. She was fascinated by the candles and of course wanted to touch the flames. She did a pretty good job blowing the candles out with a little help from Daddy. It was a good day all around and now, we officially have a 2 year old!

Thanksgiving Dinner

We had 14 people in our small living room for Thanksgiving Dinner. It was lots of fun. Autumn helped make the sweet potatoes in the crock pot. She really likes to 'help' cook. She had so much fun having 4 grandparents here and didn't really know where to turn first. My parents stayed with us and Kurt's parents drove down for teh day with his sister. His brother and fiance came along with our niece. My brother and his wife and son were also here! Later Autumn's birth mom came over and we had presents and cake. Autumn took all her presents to Amanda and openend them with her, it was so cute. She got lots of fun things and had a VERY HARD time sharing her new toys with her cousins. :) We would say "you need to share" and sign it as well. She would sign and say 'share' while tears were running down her face. I felt a little bad for her, they were her new toys after all. But she did a good job.

Random

Here are a few random pictures that I found on my phone. I forgot I had taken them.
We went to a praise team gathering at a friends house. They grow blackberries and raspberries in their back yard. Autumn and the girls were picking and eating these berries. They were coverd from head to toe in berry juice but had such a good time. And the juice came out with a great tip from grandma!



Autumn was tickling the tree's toes. She thought that was so funny.

The girls were trying to hide in the sand. That took forever to get out of hair!

Having fun at the Children's Museum.

One of my favorite pictures!