V is 7 months!

 

Yes, yes, I know I say this every month, but this has been one heck of a month for our little girl.  She is growing way too fast.  She got her first tooth 1 week before she turned 7 months.  She is talking up a storm.  She has been able to say "Dada", but she can now say "Mama"!  She babbles constantly and reaches for everything.  Vallery is on the verge of crawling, getting so close.  Josh keeps encouraging her, but I would rather she stay this size forever!  She started eating some baby foods and seems to like them.  She has tried green beans, squash, and mango.  She is still a big eater (takes after her Mama).  We also FINALLY moved her into her crib this month.  I was a little worried about the adjustment, but she did perfect.  She sleeps without a peep!

Her typical day is waking up between 645-730.  She eats every 4 hours and has about 8 oz at a time.  At night she has cereal and/or baby food around 730.  She takes 3-4 naps a day; one in the morning, a long one in the afternoon, sometimes a cat nap (on the way home from school), and then one right before she eats at nighttime for 30-45 minutes around 645-7. 

She loves clapping and rocking back and forth on her hands and knees.  Loves playing with all of Bo's toys and anything to do with him.  She is a very happy baby.  She is still a mommy's girl...she does just fine with anyone until I walk into the room and then she immediately wants me, which I do have to say I do not mind at all:). 

Vallery still loves bath time.  She now takes a bath like big brother, Bo, so she loves playing in the tub with all the toys.  She is a very content baby and rarely fussy.  Josh tells her constantly that she is such a "sweetheart".  And she truly is, sweet as pie:).  Her nicknames are V, little lady, baby girl, cutie pie, and daddy likes to call her honey, sweetie, babe, sweetheart.  Bo calls her whatever Daddy calls her because he does EVERYTHING Daddy does.  I'm still not a fan of "Val", but will probably have to get used to it.

Happy 7 months Vallery.  We love you to the moon and back!

bath time!

got her first tooth!

fell asleep at school

future ball player like Mommy

cutie pie even when she's hungry...

soooooo close!

my sweet baby boy....

Mom and Dad's night out.

Saturday night, February 1st, Josh and I went out for what we thought was just a couple's date night with the Nicolino's at Sakari.  We asked our sitter to come until about 930 or so (and when we left we mentioned we would probably be home before that), but it turns out that Chad had asked the patrol squad out to see Josh off as he takes on his new journey as a detective.  We are very lucky to have such nice friends to be so thoughtful.  It was such a good time while Josh and I got to spend some adult time together.  And luckily our sitter was able to stay later with the kiddos:).  So proud of my husband for all of his hard work at the Police Department.  He is a man of honor and I couldn't be happier to call him mine.  I love you, Joshua Lane.

Sick Day

We have had quite a few sick days the end of January and most of February.  Both kiddos ended up getting bronchitis, and, of course, it was only a matter of time before both Josh and I were walking around the house hacking.  But, I would take the sickness anyday over my poor babes having it.

Bo had the occassional fever with a stuffy nose along with his terrible cough.  Vallery was extremely rattly and we had to suck her nose out once every five minutes and had a dry cough as well.  They were both put on anitbiotics and breathing treatments.  Poor kiddos.  I will have to say that they are troopers.  Vallery really didn't get too fussy and Bo seemed to be his bubbly self. 

I think Dad knows the trick to curing anything.....ICE CREAM!

The ladies take on Minneapolis!

This past week a few of us girls went to Minneapolis to visit Ashley, who moved up there about a year ago.  Her sister, Sara, and I have become extremely close and we were waiting for a good time to go when one of us wasn't pregnant! 

I couldn't of asked for a better girls weekend.  It was perfect.  We left late Friday afternoon and as soon as we got there we freshened up and went to dinner at Mozza Mia.  It was delicious!  I am sucker for good Italian food.  After sharing pizza, pasta, and wine we went to a beer garden called Butcher and the Boar.  They have a tent set up during winter they kept us nice and toasty.  They had a variety of different craft beers, and the one I drank was called Sweet Child of Vine. It was a little hoppy for my liking, but I would definitely go back there again. 



Mozza Mia



Butcher and the Boar

my pretty friend, ashley

Kendra with her Bud Light

 The next day we woke up and went to Ikea.  This was my first experience.  I honestly thought we would be there all day, but the way they have it set up it was pretty easy to navigate through.  We were in there for probably an hour and half.  I could've browsed for a couple more hours, but I thought I would just have to go up there again when we move to our new home.  I did find some good buys...stemless wine glasses, curtains, shelf for the bathroom, play table for the kids, and dishes for the kids.  After Ikea we went to the Mall of America to get a coat for Kendra (she left a few items at home:)) and had a little lunch (and a couple margs!). 

Once we got back to Ashley's it was time to get ready for the BEER DABBLER.  Let me tell you this was quite the experience. It is an outside event at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds that has a ton of different craft beer vendors from Minnesota.  And one word to describe our experience of the event....ROOKIES.  We show up in our winter coats, gloves, hats, two layers of clothing and we thought we were good.  First off, this was the coldest Beer Dabbler in years (or possibly ever).  We start to look around at the crowd and notice everyone else is wearing ski suits, carharts, ski masks, and have the neccessary pretzel necklace for obvious reasons.  Once we got our tasting glasses it was off to "dabble" into some beers.  There were lines at basically every tent, so we did our best to find the shortest one.  Oh, I forgot to mention that the event description said there would be fire pits for warmth.  Well, it's not what you are picturing (like 20 of them that isn't an actual campfire), but what we found were two (that's right, 2), very small fires with a few logs burning.  We arrived at about 3:50pm and decided after about 15 minutes of being there we would stay until 6.  It was 445 and all of us said (casually), let's just check to see how long it is going to take a cab to pick us up?  Needless to say we left 2 seconds later.  Holy coldness.  But it was a very fun experience and glad I am now able to say that I went to the Beer Dabbler.  Maybe next time we will wear our carharts?

 

love this girl!

 

After the Beer Dabbler we had some time to kill before our 815 dinner reservations.  This was probably the best part of the whole weekend.  We all had our comfy clothes out, busted out some wine, snacked on cheese and crackers, and chatted.  It was so relaxing and nice catching up.

 

We met up with Cyndi and Marci (they were in town for a volleyball tournament) and went to eat at Crave.  I had sushi and wine (which was amazing) and then we hit up a couple bars downtown before heading back to Ashley's.  I will say that Saturday night there were quite a few funny convos and maybe a couple trips in the snow??  All in all such a fun night and very successful trip with the ladies.  Great company is hard to come by these day:).

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