Many faces of Mr. D

Danny boy is growing...and making faces. So here you go. It was time for Mr. D's 9 months well check up. Despite trailing at the bottom of the height and weight percentile, our Danny is doing great. This time he came in at 15,7 lb- .8 % and 27 inches-11,81 %. His growth is steady and we are pleased about that. There were no shots this time, only a poke to test his iron. He was a champ and did not even squeak during the procedure, he just watched wondering what on earth were they doing to him. His iron was perfect.

He does all he ought to be doing and more. Danny-boy is following in his big sister's footsteps and crawls with supersonic speed. He likes to frequent the pantry and inspecting our food supply within his reach. Just this weekend he figured out that kneeling down gives him more height than just seating or standing on all four. He carefully picks food items of the shelf he can reach and carefully examines them (he does not always conduct a flavour test).

Danny's romance with rice cereal continues. It is still his favorite food on par with yogurt. We are introducing textures, but they rarely impress him. I can understand that, it is not easy chewing with your four front teeth. He does his best though.

Mr. D is very friendly and enjoys good company. If you want to win his friendship than bounce him on your lap or help him stand, he'll be your best buddy for ever. Sometimes he sits surrounded by toys and is perfectly happy. After he gets bored he heads into the kitchen to see what I am up to. Danny is curious about everything. He needs to touch, poke and prod things.

Bath time is always fun. He and Erin sometimes bathe together and make sure to splash half of the bath's content out. It seems to come as a shock every time water splashes on his face.

Danny is definitely a daddy's boy. His face lites up every time Andrew enters the room. He loves sitting next to him and watch whatever papa is doing. Then he gets bored and starts looking for trouble.

I made a brilliant move this Monday. I sat Danny on the stairs and dashed into the pantry to get a jar of food to pack in his bag (Danny was off to aunt Theresa's). I was not THINKING. Next thing I heard was a slow thud! thud ! thud! I looked into the hallway and saw Danny laying at the bottom of the stairs. He was more surprised than hurt. Yeah, great going mommy! As Andrew put it at least I did not leave him at the top of the stairs. Poor kid had only three stairs to go down.

PS: While I was typing this Erin was sitting behind me in the chair styling my hair. I need to wrap up though as my child is mentioning "snipping scissors" to get my hair "short and beautiful".... and now she left to search for her cutting instruments. She is serious! I'd better run and hide.

Ta ta for now

8 years

Eight years ago Andrew and I walked out of the Salt Lake temple as husband and wife. What a wonderful day it was! I remember that it rained that entire week, but by Friday it was sunny and warm. We were married at 1:00 in the afternoon or something like that. The happiest day of my life so far!This year we celebrated by going out to eat at Magleby's. It was rather funny, how after we dropped Erin and Danny off at aunt Theresa's we sat in the car trying to decide were we wanted to go. Very unromantic (ha ha).

Sveta: So were do you want to eat?
Andrew: I don't know. Where do you want to go?
Sveta: I don't know.

Magleby's deal was sealed by the fact that we could not decide were to go and might as well go to Magleby's because we had a gift card from Erin's dentist to go there (ha ha! Erin's dentist pretty much decided for us). So we headed to Provo. I believe when we walked inside the restaurant at 4 pm we were the only people there. It was nice and quiet. It was music to my ears as just a couple hours earlier I had to battle Erin over her late lunch, that she ate for an hour, or more like complained about having to eat it. It was so nice and unusual to just be alone and have some adult conversation not interrupted by complaints, going potty 10 times, Danny bouncing on one of ours lap and requests that Beebee, Erin's imaginary pet, be ordered her own food (We actually do not go eating out as a family anymore. It is not worth the fuss. That's all right though. There is a season for everything in this life.)

Well, whoever was getting married on April 25 of this year lucked out. When we got inside the restaurant the weather was perfect and wedding worthy. By the time we emerged the sky was covered in menacing black clouds accompanied by powerful wind gust ready to knock you off your feet. As we got in the car it began to pour and the hail bombardment began. There went my hope of miniature golfing. Everything was not lost though as I had a brilliant and random idea of going to the archery range instead. Indoor fun!

Andrew did archery while growing up and if I am not mistaken even has a couple of trophies. Also if I am not crazy he had hunted with a bow and arrow and even got a bear once. So if we get to a starvation point one day he might be able to bring home some meat. Though I am not sure which one of us will have to gut and clean it. No way Jose it will be me! I will clean fish, but I am not processing a dear or a turkey (not like I would know how anyways, ha ha).

My archery experience has been limited to using a bow of my own making. My brother and I would play cowboys and Indians back in the olden days and equipped ourselves ourselves. Hence our arrows never flew far. Did they even fly? Anyhow, for me archery was a new experience.

For Andrew it was almost like riding a bicycle . I on the other hand, even after getting coached by the range employee (an outdoorsy mountaineer kind of a man) and Andrew, continued sending my arrows high and low and occasionally into the target or close to it. I also hit Andrew's target twice or so (that off course was done on purpose [wink, wink]). We had fun!

So right now our life is like our anniversary day this year. It is loud, sometimes obnoxious, filled with impatience and just wanting some peace and quiet. At the same time it is full of happy moments and accomplishments (maybe little ones, but very valuable), smiles and laughter. I would not have it any other way. Happy anniversary to the love of my life!

Giggles

Both Danny and Erin love balloons and here is the proof! They played and giggled for the longest time. Danny is about 9 months old here.

Into infinity and beyond!

He did it! Danny is officially mobile and have been for the past week and a half. Through a combination of rolling, military and traditional crawl he gets around. He still heads for a remote, controller or his baby monitor cord (or any other cord, though the baby monitor cord is consistently his first choice).

He got stuck! Danny got his arms over his little playpen's wall (we call it an "exercise jail"), but could not figure out how to get the rest of him over. I rescued him, but that is what moms are for.
Our little toothy is sporting 4 teeth. The two top ones made him rather miserable while cutting through and hopefully the rest will be kinder to him and his gums. Don't have a picture of this new additions yet. Our Little Monkey does everything humanly possible not to show them to the camera.
The romance with rice cereal and mango continues. Squash, on the other hand, has been discarded into the reject pile and replaced by prunes. This guy is addicted to prunes, but I am not (changing four dirty stinky diapers a day is a tad bit too much for me).
Erin spends her days coloring, drawing, running around with friends, playing in mud, drawing with chalk on the garage door (and than washing it) and participating in like activities.

Erin with her currently favorite book about a brave possum, his mama, auntie, baby Gator and a GREAT.HUGE.UGLY LOUISIANA SNAPPING TURTLE. Highly recommend this read if you have a 3-year-old and gag every time she brings you another Clifford-the Big Red Dog book (no offense Clifford, I can take only that much of you). This tale is super entertaining (and educational, he he), especially if you do voices while reading. Two thumbs up!

We take strolls to the library when the weather and our plans permit. It's about a 20 minute walk from our home. I get to push the stroller, plus 50 lb worth of kids, plus about 50 lb worth of books, uphill. I suppose I ought to be taking Erin and Danny to the library more often, 'cause the swimming season is almost here.

Tonight we had a Family Home Evening where we attempted to put together a 72 hour kit for our gang. After putting it all in a box we came to the conclusion that it is not going to be easily portable, especially with water and canned food. Hence I am buying MREs. Apparently nowadays they are not only nutritious, but also palatable. We will find out.

Erin had another dental appointment and again made it onto the "No cavities wall" of Dr. Howell's office. Everything looks great. Even though she is not the best flosser and brusher, her teeth are doing all right and I attribute that to the fluoride treatments she has been receiving twice a year since her teeth accident.

I know there was something I wanted to tell about, but can't remember at the moment. So ta ta for now!

PS: Erin's eye lid is healed and you can not even see the scar unless you want to. Happy!