And the winner is......

The best sound in the whole world: your baby's laugh.

The Eye of the Tiger

Our friend recently put her favorite Sesame Street clip up on her blog, which prompted me to see if my all time favorite TV scene (from the Cosby Show) was available online. It was - along with my 2nd favorite. TV just isn't quite what it used to be.
Here's my favorite.
And here's another.
Enjoy!

(Thanks for the idea, Joy!)

She did it!

Elena finally started to crawl a couple of days ago. Well - it's more like a slither, but she manages to get around. Seth says she looks like a salamander. Apparently he's seen some much cuter salamanders than I have. She mostly just crawls when she sees something small to put in her mouth; otherwise, she's still pretty content to roll around.

Kickball

Elena loves to kick. She kicks so much, it is difficult to keep socks on her for more than a few minutes. I learned yesterday, that if I don't put tight enough pants on her, she will also kick those off. Needless to say, I have great expectations for her future kicking career. Someday, she'll be a star in danceline or soccer....or kickboxing. At the very least, she has a chance at being better than her Mom in kickball. I know it may come as a shock to some of you who have seen my outstanding athletic ability, but I was the kid who was always picked last for the team in school (not just for kickball, but any sport involving a ball of some sort). The only thing I could consistently do well was dodge the ball. Yup, she's got the kicking thing down. Not the crawling, however....although she's making progress. She scoots herself around backwards; unfortunately, that's usually not the direction she wants to go.

She claps at the end....

Clap Happy

I'm happy to announce that Elena is finally starting to feel better and has been making great strides ever since. She can now clap and wave. She accomplished both within a span of about 30 seconds. She waved to Seth as I was bringing her up to bed, and when we said "Yay! you're waving!" she started to clap. Now she claps whenever we stop paying attention to her because she knows it will get a reaction.

She is very close to crawling; she often gets herself onto all fours, but from there she either gets bored and rolls over or does a graceful faceplant.

Last week Seth went on a business trip up to Warroad, MN, so I went to stay with a friend from high school. Mandy has a great dane and a cat, much to the delight of Elena. The giant dog (Onyx) was very curious about the tiny newcomer, and Elena just couldn't get enough of Onyx. I think she was fascinated by the fact that she could probably fit her entire body in Onyx's mouth. (For all of you worry warts reading this, we kept a very close watch on Elena and the dog any time they were in the same room). Of course, any time I tried to get a video of Elena laughing with the dog, they both suddenly seemed to lose interest, so you'll have to be content with a picture of the two.

Merry Christmas

Sometimes I can't believe how good-tempered our daughter is. Elena went to her first movie with us last week. We were leaving a reconciliation service, and one of the priests told us that the last showing of Bella was starting in Marshall in 20 minutes. I had been wanting to see that for months, and we didn't have time to get a baby sitter - so we just hopped in the car and went, hoping she would sleep through the movie. She sat through the first half of the movie, playing quietly, and then noiselessly drifted off to sleep for the second half. And that was right after 2 hours of patiently sitting with us in church, content to watch and smile at the people sitting around us. Of all the movies to bring our baby girl to, that was the by far the best. Given the content of the movie, it was twice as touching holding my daughter as I watched. The movie was inspired by a true story - it's very simple, but Seth and I were both very moved. I highly recommend it to anyone with a heart.

The next day, Elena had a fever. She got sick for the very first time just before Christmas. I had a few friends over for a mini baby shower on Christmas Eve, and the lucky guests got to spend their morning watching me suck the snot out of a screaming baby's nose. She had a very sore throat and lost her voice almost completely - it was pretty sad. I ended up bringing her into the doctor later that day. Although she was exhausted and weak that evening, she perked up for the gift opening and played with her new toys. Christmas day she was better - she had fun watching her cousins run all over the place (after sleeping in until 11:30). She is now feeling much better and her voice is coming back. Yay!


Christmas Kisses




Elena with Great-Grandma Marso



Christmas on Seth's side (I couldn't get the whole group - this is just a glimpse)

Yummy!

Elena is now 8 months old, rolling all over the place and has finally started to like a few foods. She especially likes yogurt and rice. Not much else is new here - I'm just putting up a few new pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had our first major holiday since we've moved home, and we loved it! Seth went pheasant hunting with my uncle and cousin in the morning. Then we were able to eat with both sides of the family; and at the end of the day, we only had a 20 minute drive home. We certainly don't miss the 3 hour drive from Hastings! We do, however, miss all of our friends from the cities - so now that we're settled in, feel free to come and visit.

Four Generations
My sister, Maria and her fiance, Eliud

Elena & Cousin Frank

I've got a few more pictures of the house. My brother-in-law's mother-in-law (sorry I don't know how to state that simply) came over to help us hang pictures and arrange our furniture. The place is really coming together. Below are a few more before and after photos.

The Laundry Room

The dining room

Master Bedroom (we added a bathroom)

More living room pictures

We're Home!

Well, we finally moved into our home on November 1st, and we've spent the last few weeks settling in. The house is not completely finished, but we've been tying loose ends and adding minor luxuries gradually. We only had to go a week or so without a bathroom door (and we should be getting bedroom doors this weekend!).

The basement is also in need of cleaning. Just as we were ready to move in, the electrician was checking out the furnace and tried to clean all the soot out of it using our shop vac (which didn't have a filter). He ended up blowing soot all over the basement - every square inch of the place is covered in soot. Luckily, we didn't have anything down there other than a dehumidifier (which he replaced). I never realized how difficult soot is to clean up, but it's almost impossible to remove. My guess is it will take a good 4 to 5 days of cleaning to get it all up. He also tracked soot around the house when he went upstairs. We did our best to clean it off, but we ended up having to repaint a few walls and railings. We ended up having to buy a new furnace because there was a chance that if we turned it on, soot would be blown through the entire (freshly painted and newly carpeted) house.


The whole thing has been quite the project. I'm pretty proud of all the great work Seth did on the house. I didn't realize just how much of a handy man he is. For example, we needed a new staircase. Seth says, "No problem. I'll build one."
"Have you ever built a staircase before?" I ask.
"No, but I'll figure it out."
And within a few days, we have a new staircase. We also needed railings for the stairways. So in one day, he designed, built and installed four railings. And they looked great. Maybe that's not a huge deal to someone more skilled in carpentry, but to someone who took an entire 9 weeks of shop class to build a crooked CD rack, that's pretty impressive.

So without further ado, here are a few before and after photos. I will post more later. I've also included a Halloween picture (Elena is the pea pod on the right) and a video of Elena doing her Ray Charles impression.

The Living Room

The Bathroom

The Kitchen

Elena's Room


Halloween