HONK HONK. You're killing me, lady...

So, it was bound to happen, wasn't it?

I was playing at the local playground, and I grabbed ahold of a steering wheel on the play structure and the title of this post is what came out of my mouth. The parents are now on notice that I'll pick up just about anything and repeat it.
Yeah.

So, since last time, I've been down to Houston, to visit my other cousins Kayla, Brayden and Chloe. Oh, and that's also aunt Teresa and aunt Erin in the picture. Grandma Babe is taking the picture, so we can't see her, but she now has a webcam, so I get to talk to her on the computer all the time.

This fall, I am going to go to playschool twice a week for a half-day. I got to go to the open house for that last week, and I'm really excited to finally start. I'm in a class called "young three's", and I'm the youngest one there, but not by much. My teachers, Ms. Pat, Sandy and Sue all seem nice. I think there are 4 other boys and 7 girls. More on this in a future post, I'm sure.

After getting back from Houston, we started potty-training around here. It has been a mixed success so far. I've gone a few times, made a few messes and have not-quite-gotten the idea that I need to use the potty every time. I do love the reward system though and may be too smart for it. It currently stands at "every time I go in the potty, I get a matchbox car" (from the stash of 100s of cars we found when we moved in). So, often, I go, get a car, then want to go again immediately to get another one. I guess the old adage "you get what you measure" is true.

In other news, I took a trip back to my foot doctor to follow-up. They are very happy with my walking and running, and say it's completely normal. We're good.

I'm still a fireman sometimes, and I went back to the firefighter's museum yesterday, but most of the time I want to be a garbageman. On wednesdays, I help move the garbage to the curb, and if I'm lucky, I'm home when the truck shows up. I told the real garbage man of my ambition to be like him, and he really liked that.

And that's about it for now.
Love, D.

7 months old...

Friends!

You simply wouldn't believe how much I've changed in the last month. In the last month, I've gained over 2 pounds, which has bounced me back to the 25th percentile weight-wise. I've started babbling continuously, and also playing with toys. There's nothing more fun than playing with my brother's toys, but he doesn't like that so much. Actually, there's no-one that is quite as much fun and can make me laugh as hard as he can.

I almost titled this posting "Back to the future", because I've been scootching myself backwards for the last couple of days. Oh, I want to go forward, but I end up pushing myself back, and you wouldn't believe how frustrating it is that I get further and further away from my goal. I'm experimenting with pulling my legs under me, so it's just a question of time before I crawl.

I like standing up. I can't get there myself yet, but with a little help, I can pull up to standing, and that's where the fun starts, I can tell. I want to be like Daniel.

I do have my first battle scar. During this particular photo session, I dove forward and bumped my noggin and scratched my nose. Nothing to ruin my modelling career, just a little bruise and scratch.


Still no teeth. Still amazing amounts of drool. I frequently have to change outfits during the day because I'm soaked. Still, I'm expanding my food repertoire, and today I had animal crackers (which I gummed up) and pasta for dinner. So I'm getting there, but a couple of teeth would be handy.

Oh, I might have forgotten that I roll both ways now, and I may be sleeping through the night again. It's too early to call definitely, but last night I gave Mama a solid 8 hours, which was much appreciated.

My most striking feature? Well, thanks for asking - it would have to be my eyes. They are big, blue and beautiful.

That's about it for now.

Love, R.

Back again...

Friends

Do I have stories to tell, or what? This is me at a random beach in Iceland.

After 2 weeks of touring Norway, Sweden and Iceland, I'm back home, and all is well. Not too much jetlag - though it's taken the editors a few days to catch up enough to make this posting. Between all of the shutterbugs, there's probably about 1000 pictures of the vacation, so that needs to be trimmed down, and I'll probably add a link to an online album -> stay tuned for that.

I had such a good time with the family - the whole gang, but possible my cousins more than anyone. It's very confusing when they're not here anymore. I've been asking for them and farmor almost every day.



So we flew to Norway via Iceland, and that was pretty uneventful - a delay in Minneapolis caused us to be about 4 hours late, but no big deal. After a few days of hanging out in Oslo, we went down to Stugan.



The weather wasn't all that great this year, so swimming was pretty limited, but Grandpa took us out on the boat and he even let me drive for a little while. That was fun. I got to play with crabs and shells again this year, and we went for a hike too. Last year when I was there, I wasn't walking yet, so this was a pretty different experience.



Lest I forget - we went with the Pasta family too, and they were much better about posting the play-by-play on their blog, so check that out if you're curious. After 4-5 days at Stugan, we moved on to Stockholm via train, which I thought was pretty exciting. In Stockholm, I got to see a "real pirate ship" at the Vasa museum, and got to ride a boat through the archipelago and see a moose.



From Stockholm, we flew to Iceland and stayed in an apartment in Reykjavik. We had a car so we got to see parts of the southwest of the country. What a beautiful place. Very dramatic landscape - geysirs and waterfalls, and that black beach that you see above - we just randomly stopped along the side of the road.



I was a great little traveller - even when the days got long, I was a trooper. I was a pro on the planes, and just in general about the easiest 2-year-old you could want to bring to Europe.

I've had a bit of a vocabulary explosion again. I've said a lot of funny things on this trip, not all of which anyone remembers, but I was a hoot.
More pictures coming, and probably more stories, but the editors now have to move on to get Rachel's blog updated too.

Love, D.

Sitting Pretty!

Folks



I've learned this new skill called "sitting". It's fun, and I'm really good at it. I can sit for as long as I want to. I actually taught Sean how to sit on our vacation. He knows a lot of tricks that I don't, but he didn't really teach me anything back.

I have been drooling like you wouldn't believe for weeks now, but no teeth yet. Can't really explain that one, but I have to wear bibs at all times or I soak my clothes.

So I've been travelling too, and I got to be part of all of the same adventures that my brother did - but it was all new for me. My favorite part might have been going to the blue lagoon in Iceland - basically an outdoors pool with bright blue water that they keep at body temperature. I loved it.

I did well on all of the travels - slept for large chunks of the long flights, and at no point did I behave in a way that made the other passengers wish they were sitting elsewhere on the plane. That's pretty good for a 6-and-a-little month old.

On the trip, I got to spend lots of time with my new buddy Sean. Sure I'd seen pictures, but it was fun to just hang out together.

I got to hang out with the cousins and their neighbors - the only girl in a house of 4 boys. Give me a little while and I'll get them eating out of my hand. For this trip, it was more a case of being held a lot - though Jacob took his turns feeding me too.

I ate a lot of new things on this trip - almost to the point now where keeping track makes less sense. Apples, pears, raspberries are all good. So is the Norwegian porridge I got, but I'm less fond of apricots and pasta with broccoli.

I'm now old enough that Mama could take me to the daycare at the gym, but I was having none of that. Pretty much as soon as I couldn't see her anymore, I let the staff know of my unhappiness. So no workout for mama.

That's about it for now. I have lots of pictures, and I'll try to get those posted soon. Also, I actually turned 6 months old, and there are official "me" pictures that look frighteningly like Papa did at the same age (please, let me not get his hair).

The editors are considering merging the two family blogs - it sometimes seems that this one gets the short end of the stick, because stories are already told in the other one. Feedback? Is there anyone who reads this blog that doesn't also read the other one?

That's the family, by the way. You too could look like this.

Love, R.