April 2, 2012

It's been three weeks since our last post and we've certainly kept ourselves busy in the interim.  Every weekend has involved some kind of event or activity to assist in our attempts to wear Charlotte out and perhaps make bedtime less of an ordeal. It hasn't worked.

First up was St Patrick's Day at the Minnesota Children's Museum and the Irish parade through downtown St Paul with Aunt Kelly and Uncle Tim.

A troupe of Irish dancers at the MCM.

Hard at work.

About half the time spent in the water area was spent activating the hand dryer.

St Patrick Day parade in short sleeves and the that's all she wrote for winter.

The Minnesota road racing scene traditionally kicks of with The Human Race along Summit Avenue. Last year Charlotte was bundled for maximum warmth. This year not so much. Although fine weather for spectators cost Dad 30 seconds versus last year.

"Look! I'm at one of Dad's races and I'm not freezing!"

"Go Runners!"

This year Grandma and Grandpa Russell gave us a membership to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum for Christmas. We took Grandma and Grandpa Distad out there with us to celebrate the early Spring.

This past weekend we traveled to Madison so I could run a race and we could visit with family and friends living in the area.

Learning the do's and don'ts with regards to geese.

We were able to catch the Hoenisch's for dinner Friday night before they left town the next day. Calvin and Charlotte

March 2012

March 2010

Saturday was race day and cold again! The race was at Vilas Park in Madison where, fortunately for Charlotte, there was a free zoo! As I was running laps through the UW Arboretum, Katie and Charlotte ducked in and out to visit the different animals and activities.

After the race we returned for a full visit of the zoo with my cousin Matt and his family. Matt and his wife Anne came visit us while we were stationed at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. After the zoo we all went out for dinner. Charlotte enjoyed meeting their son Owen, but she may have had nefarious intentions depending on her understanding on the different parts of speech, namely the preposition "with." "I want to eat Owen" she told us as we drove to the restaurant.

"Which jungle beast could we take in fight?"

Our hotel on Friday night was a little sketchy; not bad, but there were some definite red flags. We switched hotels for Saturday night so we Charlotte could get some "pool-time." She enjoyed the much more subdued atmosphere of the hotel pool over the chaos of the Shoreview waterpark we went to last time. It was hard to get her to leave in fact.

"Splashing allows me to use up my destructive energy without actually breaking anything."

Sunday we got breakfast at the Original Pancake House and then used our reciprocal museum membership to visit the Madison Children's Museum.

Water is universal.

The Paint Wall.

Madison landmark from the roof of the Children's Museum.

While Charlotte's eating has progressed by leaps and bounds, her weight gain has trickled off. We're not sure why, but we don't seem to worry about it too much. I don't know if we'll ever get over the excitement of watching her eat a full plate of Kung Pao noodles with tofu. It's still such a foreign concept to us that she is eating. We just keep plugging away at increasing the volume and consistency of her meals and hope for the best. A tube-free birthday in August remains our goal.