Memorial Day - the Weekend

Alright - I left off talking about the week leading up to Memorial Day. Now on to the good stuff.

We started the holiday weekend off right with brunch with our friends Anna, Pete and their little one Jackson. We hosted and it turns out hosting brunch is the bomb. It was nice and relaxed, the food was good, the babies behaved themselves. Anna and Pete brought these breakfast margaritas (see #6) that were amazing.

Saturday was a rainy, crappy day so we hung out around the house which was fine by us.

Sunday morning we woke up nice and early and enjoyed a waffle breakfast with coffee and the newspaper.

We really enjoy weekend breakfasts around here. I don't know how we settled on waffles but we have them EVERY weekend. Yum.

Sunday was 90 degrees so after Kasper's morning nap we slapped a swimsuit on him and filled up the pool outside.





He would make a couple laps around the pool, trip and fall in then ask for "Up."









I would say it was a neutral experience. He didn't love it but didn't hate it. The water was freezing so he spent about 5 minutes in the pool then got out to tear around the yard.




Rob taught him how to take drinks from the hose. Shudder.


He can swing on a regular swing!


Sunday night Grandpa Steve and Carol brought dinner over. Kasper could not get enough of Carol. He even sat right next to her while she finished eating and just stared up at her. Ha!




Memorial Day was more of the same. Errands, naps, being outside, grilling, etc. It was fun and Kasper was such a fun kid. We went for a bike ride before dinner and made Kasper wear his helmet. He usually just looks into his lap because the helmet falls over his face but he learned that he can lift the helmet up to see so he spent most of the ride holding his helmet up. It was adorable.


We stopped at a coffee shop to stretch our legs and get a treat. Kasper got tangled in a rock pile and left with a bruised face. That's the life of a little boy.



Perfect end to the weekend - a summertime boy in his new Keens, dirty from a bike ride relaxing and watching the cars go by.

Memorial Day - the Prologue

So I've taken entirely too many photos this week and weekend so I'm going to break it up into 2 posts so as to not overextend myself. Hope you don't mind.

Since the weather has been so nice, we've enjoyed many meals out on the deck. Thankfully, Kasper has inherited his parents love for corn on the cob.




Speaking of eating... I read the popular "Bringing up Bebe" while up in St. Cloud last weekend and have been trying to implement some changes around here especially in the eating department. Kasper gets a snack at daycare around 3 pm then he used to eat from until we got home until dinner time because he would whine and whine for food. This week I've said no snacks before dinner, he hasn't been whining and he's been eating awesome full meals with veggies, meat and fruit. It's a no-brainer but I would give in to the whining and ruin his dinner.

Another thing she points out is how American parents tend to narrate their children's play or don't allow them to play independently. Recently I've made more of an effort to let Kasper play by himself when he wants but give him my full attention when he asks for it. That also seems to be helping with the whining. Sometimes the guy just wants to be alone for a minute! Actually one day I sat on the floor with him and read a whole magazine while he transferred some cars into and out of a box. I'd suggest reading the book, I thought it was pretty interesting. She is able to explain French parenting without judging American parenting or making you feel like you're doing it all wrong.

Anyway...




I think we've settled on gray eyes.



You've probably heard that a private company, SpaceX, made history by launching the first private spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. Well, Kasper has been following the story the whole week since his Great Uncle Larry works for SpaceX. Here's Kasper explaining how Dragon docked with Mir.

Get it? Great job Uncle Larry!


With Kasper so receptive to eating meals now, he's becoming pretty adept at using a fork. I just give him a normal fork because those baby ones don't stab anything. (Weird.) For the most part, he eats his meals with a fork. Unless he's too hungry then he shovels in a few bites to take the edge off.




Can you see the 4 top teeth all coming in at once? Because they are. Slooooooooooooowly.




Also notice the blond hair. It still catches me off guard to see in pictures.




I told you I had a lot of pictures! That's just from last week! I guess I made up for not having my camera out the previous week. Kasper has been a truly pleasant person to be around so I couldn't stop myself from snapping away. Oh! Here are some notable things Kasper's been saying - zapato (shoe), amarillo (yellow), 5 of his classmates names.

Weekend pics coming soon. Happy Memorial Day!

Brief...

This is going to be a very quick post! We had a busy weekend and also, I didn't really take any pictures this week! I put my camera away Monday because we were having people trimming our maples and I didn't take the it out until Friday. Oops.



One of the main thing we know we had to do when we bought the house was have the trees trimmed. We have 2 enormous silver maples in the backyard and the one closest to the house was actually touching the roof. No good. We hadn't ever gotten serious about getting it trimmed but last weekend the neighbor was having his trees trimmed so we had them come over to give an estimate. We were thinking it was going to be thousands but they came in way under $1K so we had them over Monday. It was funny - the guy said "Just watch, when we pull up in a neighborhood everyone comes out of their houses to get an estimate and we end up staying for weeks." Sure enough, their schedule was filled up with other people in the neighborhood. The trees look so much better!

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful.

Friday after dinner Steph, Kasper, Lois and I headed up to St. Cloud for the weekend to celebrate my Mom's birthday. Kasper ended up sleeping ALL night both Friday and Saturday not waking up until 6:30! He sleeps in a pack and play up there so I think it's easier for him to find his paci and go back to sleep.

He dressed up his jammies with a stylish necklace.



We had French toast for breakfast then Steph, Mom and I did a little shopping. Kasper decided to take 2 - 2 hour naps yesterday and a 2 hour morning nap this morning. So yesterday after lunch and K's first big nap, we walked down to the park where Kasper swung and swung and swung.




Fish lips!



He swung until he was almost napping! Haha!


Kasper was really in to talking about his classmates this weekend. He knows 3 names and likes to say them over and over. It was cute. He also started to say Papa! That's been fun for Rob.

Today Rob and I went for a run, Kasper took a long nap, we went over to Grandma Sandra's for lunch then headed back to the Cities for a going away party for a co-worker of mine.

Now we have to get ready for the week! I'll keep the camera out - don't want to get into the habit of not snapping photos of funny happenings around here!