Halloween Party...

Rowan got to play with her friends at a Monster themed Halloween Party yesterday! All the kids were in costume (long enough for pictures anyway), and had halloween themed food for lunch as well. Lisa also had a couple Halloween games, and books, and coloring, it was like a regular preschool halloween party! Not that we know what that is like, but it could have been! Rowan had a great time playing with the kids. They even danced to some Monster Mash music!
Thanks again for hosting Lisa!

Dinner with G&G K...

Amanda and Mitch too...

Last night we had dinner over by Grandma and Grandpa Knutson's house. Rowan got spoiled as usual, and thoroughly enjoyed it. She got to play with Uncle Mitch's old vtech computer game, Grandpa bought her some M's, she rode Aunt Amanda like a ride, and even got to share Grandma's soda. Somehow Uncle Mitch managed to not get into any pictures! Probably because him and Ed were too busy talking about Fantasy football and whatever other sports they talk about constantly. Mitch is like a walking Sports Center show!

Which Flu is it?

Let's start with the fact that Ed never gets sick! So when my phone rang at 8am friday morning, and Ed said he was on his way home because he was sick, I knew it wasn't going to be good. And quite honestly, he didn't seem that bad when he got home, no fever yet, just hot and cold with body aches! But by the late afternoon he had a low grade fever and was writhing around on the couch! Saturday morning, his fever was up to 102 degrees, and he had vomitted twice. So I guess we were dealing with some form of the flu. So I called the doctor and got a prescription for Tamiflu for him. Not that it cures all things, but it would shorten the illness by a day or two, according to the MD. Surprisingly, Ed is feeling better today! Good thing, because I had to work last night and he was the sole caregiver for the day. I am sure if he was still very sick, Nana and Papa would have helped watch Rowan, but he did fine. I guess a day full of football can make any man feel better!
This picture was from Friday afternoon before he started to really feel like junk, everyone wanted to cuddle with germ fested daddy!

Oreo Cookie Monster...

Rowan will frequently have an Oreo for dessert after dinner, which is usually a messy affair. But this week, Nana decided that she should learn to dip her cookie pieces in milk so that she eats them. Because generally she pulls the cookie apart and only eats the frosting in the middle. It doesn't help that the Oreo's are Halloween, so they are even more messy to clean up! The whole highchair ended up getting washed after this excursion! She had fun though!

Sunny and Warm, finally...

Rowan and her friends (Tulah and Gizmo) enjoyed the warm weather yesterday. Nana had raked a pile of leaves for her to play in during the day, so when I was awake in the afternoon, we made the pile a little bigger and got a few pictures. She wasn't too sure of the semi-wet pile of leaves. But I did manage to get a few smiling photos!

Last year, we didn't have any pretty leaves to take pictures in, so this is a nice new addition to our fall photos!

Cold but Sunny...

Rowan and I went outside for a brief while today, it was a bit chilly, borderline hat and mitten weather. We swang on the swing a bit, and took a few laps in the wagon and then back inside! Rowan enjoyed being outside again, the nice days are few and far between now.

Halloween at the Desai's...

Last night, Ed and I attended a Halloween party at Bob and Lisa Desai's house. Wow! Talk about a decked out halloween festivity! Lisa has been decorating her home for the past 2 weeks getting ready for this blow-out!

Of course a costume was greatly appreciated if worn, and 99% of people had one on! People are rather creative when it comes to Halloween!

We spent the first part of the party out on a scavenger hunt around Sussex. That took nearly 1 1/2 hours. Teams were randomly drawn, and we ended up with Cora and Jason, and Tim and Tina. Needless to say, we took 1st place. It did help to have a Sussex native on our team (Jason). But there were a few tough tasks even with GPS! But we did succeed, good thing because we wouldn't have wanted to see Cora take 2nd place! Competitive or what!

I didn't really take as many photos as I generally do, so deal with what I have! Good times had by all! Thanks to Bob and Lisa for hosting a lovely party!

15 Month check-up...

Yesterday, Rowan and I were at the Pediatrician's office for her 15 month well check-up. She looks great and did great as well.

Weight: 21 pounds 10 1/2 ounces (30th percentile)
Height: 31 3/4 inches (80th percentile)

Things we discussed: My only issue with her right now is the fact that she refuses to drink milk out of a sippy cup, therefore we are still using bottles. I had a feeling that he was going to tell me to ditch the bottles asap, but he didn't. He said to deal with the bottles for 3 more months, because her milk intake is still too important to not have her drink it. So I am stuck washing bottles for 3 more months, unless she decides to learn to drink it from a cup.

She got 3 shots (chickenpox vaccine, influenza vaccine, and the DTP booster) She surprisingly didn't scream like usual, although she did cry of course, but who wouldn't. She has quite the bruise from one of them too.

We discussed her feet as well. Her daddy is a bit worried about her being pigeon toed. But the pediatrician says they don't worry until almost 3 years old now. He thinks the reason she turns them in so much is because she still has a newborn reflex (can't think of the medical term right now) where they curl their toes around your finger when you push on the bottom of their foot, so therefore she walks like a monkey sort of. When she puts pressure on her foot, her toes curl, which pulls her feet inward. He just said try to keep her in shoes with a hard sole to prevent her toes from curling, and if I really wanted to, I could put her shoes on the wrong feet to pull her feet more straight. Not sure I am that worried to put the girl through that.

Otherwise, she is good. She has had a runny nose for over a week, thinking that is teeth related, but haven't seen any new ones yet. She is very social, sleeps well, and is in the right range for her talking and number of words too. Her vocabulary consists of: mumma, daddy, doggie, popple (popsicle), eeze (please), ball, what, boo. I might be leaving some out, but that is what we recognize and she says frequently.

I guess that is all for now. She is growing and learning every day. Can't believe she is 15 months old!

Sorry no photos for this post. Perhaps a new video again soon of her dancing!

Bookshelf...

Rowan has had a problem keeping her paws off of Nana's cookbooks, so we decided to put her books on the bottom shelf to hopefully take her mind off of the cookbooks. Nana had already cleared the bottom shelf of her other things that were off limits, so it was empty. So far so good, as long as you don't mind books all over the kitchen. She tends to empty the shelf a few times a day!

Pumpkin Carving...

Today we carved pumpkins! Rowan was much more into it this year than last year, but we actually let her get down and dirty this year too. She truly wasn't interested in getting too involved. Nana kept putting pumpkin guts on her arm, and she would give her a disgusted look and take them off.

Papa carved one pumpkin, Ed carved another, and I carved Rowan's! We are drying out the pumpkin seeds in hopes for a delicious treat in the next few days!

Can't put the pumpkins outside for true lit pictures until closer to Halloween, we don't want them to freeze and get bad quite yet!

Chilly, Fun, Saturday...

Yesterday we had plans with Aaron, Andi, and Breyson to go to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins; and were invited to their home for dinner afterwards!

Rowan must have known that we had plans, because she refused to nap in the afternoon. So it was a risky trip, but she did great. Because it was cold out, we had the kids quite bundled up, so it was hard for them to move around. Rowan ended up face planting in the pumpkin patch and got a mini-mud bath. Well, it wasn't that bad, but she had some dirt on her mittens and face. We picked out 3 pumpkins and then were on our way. We didn't do the hay ride because it was just too cold out. So instead we headed back to the Schuett residence to play where it was warm.
Rowan and Breyson played very well together, minus the times that Breyson took her down, and sat on her head. But they shared very nicely, and had fun together. We had some dinner and lots of playing, and even some ice cream too before we left. Rowan even made it past 7pm, but she fell asleep on the way home, and was very upset when we woke her to get her out of the car and into jammies and bed.
They had lots of fun emptying the kitchen drawers, and once it was empty, they would put them back in and repeat the process. Who needs toys when you have baking ware!

Computer time with Dad...

It isn't often that Rowan is allowed to touch the laptop, because usually she pushes so many buttons, it changes things that we don't know how to fix. For example, twice now she has managed to flip the screen image to horizontal! But Dad was letting her sit and play with him, and it was a super cute photo opportunity!

Popple Please...

Weekend in the Car...

Well, we started our weekend in the car Saturday morning at 6am. We headed to Cedar Rapids, IA (technically Hiawatha, but close enough) to visit Great Grandma Carol and Great Grandpa Dick. Rowan managed to get into anything and everything at the nursing home. She was opening and closing drawers, pushing the wheelchair, sitting in the rocker, you name it, she touched or moved it. Rowan was awake the entire ride there, and had we been in the car 10 minutes longer, she would have been asleep, needless to say, she was crabby and sleepy by noon.

So we drove 3 1/2 hours to Cedar Rapids, visited for just over 2 hours, and then were back in the car.
Now we were on our way to Dubuque, IA for Caden's 4th Birthday Party! This ride was just over an hour, and Rowan slept the whole way, thank goodness!

This was the biggest 4th birthday party I have ever seen. There were 50+ people there. Tons of kids and their parents. Rowan got to play in the bounce house with Tara while it was vacant, but it was too hard for her to stand so she just sat and got bounced around a bit. But she liked it. She played with some toys too and got bullied around a bit. A girl that was almost 18 months didn't like Rowan playing with the same thing and decided to push her around a bit, of course her mother missed most of it, or just chose not to do anything about it. Honestly, Rowan didn't really care, she didn't get hurt, so she would just get back up and go back to the toy!

I was very interestd to see Rowan and Bryson together, because Bryson looked just like Ed when he was little, but Bryson has grown up so much, they didn't look as much alike as I was anticipating. He did offer Rowan a few kissed though, between his dirty looks! He was a bit crabby! Otherwise, there were some Smith Family members in attendance, so we chatted with them, the kids played, had some pizza and cake, and then back in the car we went.
Final destination for the day, Moline IL! This was another 1 hour ride, in which Rowan stayed awake for. We headed to Papa and Grandma Jan's house for some dinner and more playing. Jenna and Carter joined us, and then Kelly, Gail, Don, Jake and Maddy too. So the kids played very nicely, took a few rides on Papa's chair, ate a few popples, and finally to bed about 9pm. Rowan was well beyond tired, only 1 - 1 hour nap for the day, and lots of exercise with other kids. She passed out quickly, but didn't last long in the pack n play, so spent the night tossing and turning in bed with us. She couldn't get comfortable, and finally passed out on my chest, and slept until 730am. Grandma Jan made our favorite biscuits and gravy, Ben stopped by to visit, and back on the road home we were about noon. Rowan slept for about 2 hours on the way home, so it went pretty well.
Despite the many hours of travelling in the car, we survived and enjoyed our much overdue trip to Illinois and Iowa. Thanks to all that came to see us and housed us for the weekend!