Happy Valentine's Day!

The week leading up to Valentine's Day was typical from Allison's perspective. She's still taking two naps a day, going to bed around 8:30 pm and filling the other hours with play and reading books. Her current favorites are Brown Bear Brown Bear, Good Night Gorilla, Go Dogs Go, Chicka Chicka ABC, Mr Brown Can Moo, and Moo Baa La La La. She was previously very into Dinosaur's Binkit but has vehemently cast it aside (literally - I heard Steve start to read it to her last night and then start laughing when the book was torn from his hands and dropped over the side of the chair). Hhhmmm, my daughter is opinionated. I'm opinionated. Steve's opinionated. Uh Oh.

We were visited by my long-time friend Julia Werner and her daughter Ainsley (age 2) who brought us two bags full of gently used clothing as well as a great toy her kids no longer use (that miraculously does not require batteries). I was not on my game with the camera so unfortunately I have no photographic proof of their visit. We'll be sure to snap some shots next time. Allison was a typical 11 month old in that whatever toy Ainsley picked up, she immediately wanted (despite having no interest in that toy EVER).

We received some terrible news Thursday morning that Art Baumert, the father of Steve's very close friend, Chris Baumert, had passed away the night before. Steve had known Art practically his entire life so he caught a flight to Nebraska Thursday evening to attend the services and return on Saturday evening. I am glad that Steve could attend and I wish I could have too. We have many wonderful memories of Art and Sharon and always looked forward to seeing them when we were in Dodge. He will be greatly missed. This was my first solo flight taking care of Allison without Steve coming home in the evening and it all went smoothly. I was happy to do it.

On Valentine's Day we were visited by The Herron's - Tim, Margaret, Jack, Kate and Matthew (link to photographic evidence below)! Allison enthusiastically watched the kids play and loved all of the attention, but did not stray from my lap for long. After everyone left, the look on her face said, "Hey where'd all the kids go?" Not to worry, there were more kids in the wings for Sunday as Jim, Bridget, Matthew and Maggie Baumstark paid a visit (sorry, again, no photographic evidence). We all enjoyed our visits and I'm thankful to everyone for their willingness to come to us.

Here is a link to a few pictures from Valentine's Day.

Playdates and Parks!

Another week has zoomed by and Allison is finally filling out some of her clothes. She is right around 17 lbs and just over 28 inches.

We had 3 sets of playdates last week. Susan and Abby Potts came by Tuesday as well as Monica and Evan Navagamuwa and Cathy Elstad on Wednesday. Then Saturday afternoon Kathy, Mike, Charlie and Marguerite Downing visited. Allison thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone and especially liked watching Evan (who is only 4 weeks old).

On Friday, Allison had her appointment at Highland Park Hospital for her lab work (routine blood tests and vaccination titers) and renal ultrasound. Her pediatrician wants to rule out any melamine exposure. She started screaming as soon as I put her on the table for the blood draw, but I did apply numbing cream to both arms to help make it less painful. The technician found a vein in the first arm but sadly it slipped away from her so we had to draw from her other arm. Thankfully that one was successful. The renal ultrasound was not painful at all, but you wouldn't know it by Allison's reaction. She screamed throughout it and we were both soaked in sweat (and ultrasound gel) by the time it was over. We will know the results in a week or two but we don't expect to find anything wrong.

Here are some pictures from the week.

--Darcie

You know the old saying ...

If you want your kid to eat a meatball, just toss it in Hoisin sauce. Ok, maybe that's not an old saying. But I think it may become one in the Rueschhoff house. Meatballs were previously barely tolerated until the hoisin lightbulb illuminated.

Allison is great - there's just no other way to put it. We're having a wonderful time in our role as parents and enjoying every minute.

Here are a few recent pictures.