Two Months and in the Twin Ports

We had a good time in Grand Forks, saw lots of people and then we spent the weekend at Potato Lake near Park Rapids. Sara went swimming for the first (and second) times in the campground's pool with her mom and dad.... the pool was a good thing because the heat wave up here has been more than a little oppressive.

Now we are in Duluth with my parents and it is actually a little cooler now, though they are calling for record heat today, and then cooling off later in the week, which will be great.

More pics later... 

hello from North Dakota

well... we made it to North Dakota last night after stopping in Chicago Saturday night and the Twin Cities on Sunday night. Sara did well and slept in the car most of the way. We were fortunate to stay with and see many friends along the way too. I'll post more pictures and tales of our adventures later... but it has been a fun trip... and Sara weathered it well and is enjoying a day out of the car seat and playing with Mom, Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa D. and just chilling out.

Grand Forks tidbit of the day: It turns out that two of the TV stations are owned by the same parent company now... i think cbs and nbc affiliates, but don't quote me on that... the result, the same local anchor and weather person do the morning show an one station and the noon broadcast on the other. I think this exemplifies why there was some fuss a few years ago when the govt decided to allow big companies to own more local stations

Skywatchin'

This photo is from last weekend... I like to take Sara in the backyard and look at all the plants (not that I know the names to many of them), their different colors, textures, etc. Then we laid down in the grass for a while and looked at the sky and the trees. I don't think Sara was too sure what to think about laying in the grass by herself... probably too scratchy... but she didn't complain, it was too new for that. She liked this way of looking at the sky better... then Danette came out and snapped this photo. Sara loves to look at the trees... unfortunately there weren't too many airplanes for Dad to point out... but she will have to endure that the rest of her life, so that's probably okay....

It has been a busy week of outings and meeting new people for Sara... She is even staying awake for some of these meetings! Monday night our Lamaze instructor asked people from our class if we would come back to her current class and answer questions, etc... so we and two other couples were able to do it that night... which was kind of fun to see them and their babies, etc. Tuesday we had a meeting with the daycare people... not the most necessary of visits, mind you (now on this page where it says parents names... you put your names... yada yada yada.) And Danette got to go weigh Sara again... 13 lbs 6 oz!!! at 7 weeks! Wednesday we had dinner with the family of one of Danette's friends from work (who also recommended both the day care and pediatrician that we eventually chose). They have three kids, two girls and a boy that is 6 months older than Sara. Yesterday we did some yardwork (mainly Danette and Sara, plus a little from me when I got home).... and today is going to be some work plus finishing getting ready for our big trip that starts tomorrow. Right now Sara and Danette are off on another outing with Julie and her kids Jack and Maggie (3 months older than Sara, and the same daycare)...

We leave tomorrow... hopefully we'll get the chance to throw up a post or two while we are gone... and I am sure there will be tons of new pics after we get home.

par-tay!

This picture is prior to heading out to Sara's first party, over at my friend Iwan's house. Saturday was a big day, and the relatively quick visit to the party was the cap. Several of the people there were hadn't seen their own grandchildren in a while, so Sara was very popular. In fact, we let one couple hold her a little while we ate some... and at one point she started giggle-laughing! That was the first time she did that.. at first I thought she might be crying or working up to it, but no - she was happy. Hopefully we will see more of it soon, it was very fun and funny to watch.

Earlier in the day we took her to her first art fair in Cain Park. This is a pretty decent, juried art fair with ~150 artists. We ran into one of Danette's friends from work and we basically walked around for an hour or so... Sara sleeping for most of it. We saw some artists that we have seen at other art fairs around the country, especially in St. Louis and Ann Arbor... no new pieces, though... as most of our material accumulation is centered on a certain little girl these days.... anyway, we were checking out a booth for a couple of potters and noticed they were from Duluth... so I struck up a chat... Turns out the woman is the mother of a guy that I played basketball with in junior high. Crazy small world.

Today Danette let me sleep in... which was amazing! Then we had lunch with a couple and their son Jacob who was born the same day as Sara. Danette took pre-natal yoga with Stephanie too. Turns out her husband teaches earth science and physics at a local high school too. So that was pretty fun.

Otherwise we are working toward getting ready for our trip up north starting next weekend... had the car in, Danette has done some packing and we are doing some planning, etc.... that and staying cool in the heat! We are hoping that the 90-100 degree heat has subsided a bit by the time we get up to Minnesota and North Dakota! 

yes... i can smile, even today

Now that is a smile! There are a few more like it from the same time. This was pretty fun, right after a bath. Otherwise Sara has been pretty busy lately... it is time for the 6 week growth spurt (yup, 6 weeks today) and she is in full swing of eating, eating, and more eating, with some sleeping to rest from all that eating... needless to say, a little crazy around here the last two days, but otherwise, mostly well. She seems to be revolting against the evening bottle... but she finished a bottle in the morning fine... this will probably pass too. Mom and Dad are tired to, but hopefully will catch up this weekend :)

Pic is from our spiffy new camera (Canon A620)... it seems to work better (and faster!) than our other one... for one thing the exposures with the flash are a lot better.... still a compact one, but it seems to work well... and hey, we got a smile recorded... even got some video of it, but can't post that here... ah well. 

I can sit and smile!

A few more pics. There are more at flickr . Sara is doing well... more smiles and ga ga's (and grunting!) all the time. Her best time of the day (from my point of view) is the morning after she finally, really and truly wakes up... she is smiley, talkative and basically happy to see you.
Things are good here... I got the gorilla... I mean proposal off my back, we are getting into more of a routine, and basically having fun.

We are also looking forward to a trip to see all the grandparents again. We will be stopping to see friends along the way and having our first big adventure as a family outside of Cleveland... I also realized it will be my longest vacation in a decade... so that will be an interesting change.... fun too. 

nyuk nyuk nyuk

Hard to believe the Fourth of July has already come and gone... ah well, amazing how time flys when you have a newborn. A little behind in downloading pics from the camera, so pics from the 4th will come later.

Things have gone well since Saturday. Sara did well meeting new friends when we headed over to Jim and Beverly's for dinner. The weekend and through the 4th was pretty wet and muggy, but it is really nice now.

On the Fourth we took advantage of free admission to Thornton Park to see what was there.... they have a pretty nice outdoor pool with a cool wading pool that Sara will surely like. We also took some walks, and almost as importantly, Sara saw her first rocket lauch of the Shuttle. Sara barely noticed the fireworks even though they had to be within a mile of the house... in fact we could lay at the foot of our bed and see the big ones rise above the trees... Sara slept through most of it... though I think the new windows we put in a few years ago made a big difference in damping the sound.

Other than that, I am trying to finish up a proposal that is due Friday and get some other things going... I realized my summer is more than half over now and I have to start thinking classes in the next month to be ready... yikes!

And the picture is from after a bath, a real one now. None of those sponge baths any more. She likes the little tub a lot better, probably because she stays warmer. 

Why do things always seem to be getting farther away?

One month old is Ms. Sara.... She has had some big adventures lately. Yesterday she came into Dad's office with Mom in the afternoon (yup, time to show-off a bit). There was a little celebration for Dad's first grad student completing his qualifying exams. Sara was very good, and even let some people like Ralph and Beverly get their "baby-fix" while holding her for a few minutes.... she also found the strange, junior high-like hallway outside Dad's office interesting... Then last evening she had a bevy of onlookers when she met the neighbors.

Today was pretty normal... got up, hit the market and did some shopping with Mom and Dad.... Was looking forward to watching her first shuttle launch... but it was scrubbed, maybe tomorrow... and speaking of tomorrow Sara gets to meet some more friends of the kid variety. Alec in the morning and then Isaac and Julia for dinner....

Who knows what her first Independence Day will bring, especially as the fireworks are pretty close to our house... She has been good with thunderstorms so far, so hopefully the fireworks won't seem so bad...