W(h)ine Please

Fiona's day care provider, A, sends a journal home every night that tells us important things like when the girl ate (and how much), slept, and had diaper changes. But A also writes a little paragraph about their day, which we love. Last Tuesday, I got home from work to read this in Fiona's journal: "Today Fiona expressed her desire to be a diva, and I gave her feedback about the beauty of a patient heart."

It was a kind way of saying what Mike and I had discovered two days earlier. Fiona is pretty sure she should be center of the universe, and if she's not, she'll whine about it. That's right, faithful readers, she's learned to whine. It's a little bit cute and a little bit grating on the nerves. In fact, Fiona's whine makes mommy and daddy want wine!

The whine is probably here to stay - as Mike points out, I still whine to my parents to get what I want so the behavior modeling is probably not ideal ... but we are working at home and at day care to let her know that she is loved and important, but maybe not quite the center of the universe. Perhaps just slightly left of center ;-)

She continues to grow so quickly. Here are a few new pictures for you to enjoy:

Kicking back during naptime

The cold is hardly "bear"able

Mom - the stupid seahorse is on my head again

Pool Party

At the end of January, Fiona, Mike, and I attended our first MN State Pool Tournament to watch Grandpa J play. Grandpa and team played great (other than a couple scowls from Grandpa when the ball just didn't go where he wanted it to), and we had a fun time cheering them on. Fiona was especially interested in the team of biker dudes playing nearby and I swear I saw Mike's hair turn a little gray as he noticed his daughter's interest in them.

Last weekend, we met Grandpa and Grandma J at their hotel to hang out and to use them for their pool area. Fiona rocked her new swimsuit and thought Dad was hilarious when he would go underwater and jump back up with a splash. She's definitely a water baby. I see swimming lessons in our near future.

Solid, Man!

There's big stuff happening around dinner time in our house! Runny, mushy bowls of big stuff! That's right - Fiona is eating solid food.

As expected, she loves it. She was so ready to start and is quite proud to sit at the dinner table in her booster chair with us every night during dinner. She also sits at the lunch table with the big kids at day care and basically thinks that rocks.

We have tried rice cereal, which was good until other stuff enter her world. Now she is boycotting it unless I mix other food in with it. Can't really blame her! And sweet potatoes (yum!), apples (more please!), and green beans (tolerable). Squash and bananas may be coming next.

Here are some photos and videos of the Fiona food extravaganzas that happen nightly at our house.

Yummy! This stuff is good.

Messy girl

I'm not sure about this!

Rice cereal take 2 (take 1 did not go so well -

we'll spare you the crying video!)

Sweet potatoes

Apples

Happy Valentine's Day from the Bug and the Bud

Sorry faithful blog readers. Last week was crazy and I didn't get any blogging done. Fiona woke up last Sunday with a cold and by Thursday, we were in the ER with dehydration, RSV, and a touch of pneumonia. She was on oxygen Thursday night, and by Friday evening, was much more herself. We escaped the hospital on Saturday and she is home with Grandma J this week on the road to recovery. Her cough frustrates her and her appetite is still not back to normal - but we are getting there.

Thanks to Grandma, Mike and I feel more in control of life again and are chipping away at righting our world.

While Mike feeds Fiona, I thought I would share Valentine's Day greetings from our kids. Love to you all!

With our Valentine's Day presents

Wearing our cool glasses from day care

Playing tag with Dad

Laughing Fit

I have a whole list of things to post, but the video we took tonight trumped everything. In the last few days, Fiona has decided that Yogi is HYSTERICAL! Our day care was closed today and Daddy day care (hooray Mike for staying home so I could go to work) said that Yogi and Fiona were playing like crazy.

This laughing fit started with Yogi and me running around the basement and lasted for almost 10 minutes. The whole family got in on the action and Mike and I both had stomachaches from laughing so hard!