Catching up

I swear I haven't given up on blogging.  I've come to the realization that blogging is like cleaning...the longer you put it off the more you have to do, and the more you have to do the less you want to do it, so then you keep putting it off...etc.  But I will do my best to sum up the past month or so of our lives.

 

We went on our first vacation with Claire in early July.  We drove up to Decorah and spent the night at Hotel Winneshiek (which I have blogged about before - here).  I was a little nervous about how everything would go, particularly how Claire would sleep away from home in her pack 'n' play.  I must be too much of a worrywart because she had no problems sleeping whatsoever and the whole trip was a success!  The day we got up to Decorah we went to the trout hatchery and a food coop we love.  Dinner was at Mabe's Pizza, one of my favorites.  The next morning we went out for breakfast at T-Bock's and then went to the Vesterheim Norwegian-American museum before heading home.  It was a short little vacation but it was good to get away for awhile...especially considering the last time I had spent the night away from home was when I was in the hospital!

 

 

We went to a farmers' market every Saturday in the month of July.  I can't think of many things I like better than buying and eating meat and produce from right here in Eastern Iowa.  I'm going to be really bummed when fall and winter come around and it's back to eating frozen veggies.  At one of the markets we attended there was a cooking demo presented by the nutritionist at the Marion Hy-Vee.  One of the recipes she prepared is now my new favorite recipe and I promise I will post the recipe soon but here is a peek at what it looks like:

Earlier in the month Claire and I went to my hometown to meet up with my parents; their house is still for sale and they needed to take care of some things there.  I was able to get some pictures with Claire at my childhood home.

I really loved doing this comparison photo.  The photo at the left was taken in 1988 when I was 5 (helloooo drought!).  Look at how much the same tree has grown in 23 years!

I joined a moms' meetup group a couple weeks ago and attended my first meetup last week - Claire and I went to toddler story time at the Marion library.  Claire obviously isn't toddler age yet but we read to her constantly and she loves taking in new places and faces so I decided we would give it a try.  We didn't sit very close to the librarian reading the stories (in case I needed to make a quick exit) but Claire did a good job of sitting in my lap for the duration (which was only 20 minutes) so I think we will be going back.  It's a nice way to get out of the house (that doesn't involve spending money at Target ☺) and since she loves being read to, I think it's something she will start to enjoy as she gets older.  And it is good for me to meet other moms who live closeby!

 

Larkin continues to be a good doggie, despite the fact she is a total bank account drain.  She's lucky she's so loved.  ☺  We got her blood tested for environmental allergies.  Unfortunately, she is allergic to a host of different stuff.  Fortunately, the test didn't end up being a complete waste of money because we were able to pinpoint what she's allergic to.  So now she has to go back to the vet in August to get an injection that will hopefully curb all of her itchiness.  Which will cost more money.  Again, she's lucky she is loved!  She has come up with a new tactic for getting our attention when she's outside and wants to come in:

She must have read Animal Farm while I wasn't looking:  "Four legs good, two legs better!"

I saw the photographer who did Claire's newborn photos at Hy-Vee last week.  She said, "I've been meaning to tell you to come in to the studio because we ordered, like, 500 lip balms with Claire's photo on it."  WHAT!  How fun!  So the next day I stopped in and she gave me a ton of lip balms.  We just love that photographer (Kenzi Photography).  When I was in the studio I scheduled an appointment for October to do Claire's 6-month photos and some family photos for our Christmas cards.  Did I really just say Christmas?  It will be here before we know it.  Anyway, here is Claire, the little lip balm model:

Today we took Claire to the doctor for her 4-month appointment.  She weighs 15 lbs, 8 oz (87%) and is 26 inches tall (97%).  She has grown so much in the past 4 months, I can hardly believe it!  She got more vaccines today and is now in a deep sleep.  After her 2-month vaccines she was pretty out of it for about 24 hours so I'm expecting a pretty quiet rest of the day.  Unless Larkin causes a ruckus, which I can't ever rule out!

That pretty much sums up our month.  It's weird being moderately busy for once; usually we are just big ol' homebodies.  August looks to be busy as well - more meetups with the moms group, Steve has relatives coming to visit from out of state, definitely more farmers' marketing, I'm attending an outdoor concert at Brucemore in a couple weeks, my birthday is this Friday, and we start Kindermusik on August 22nd!  Whew!

I will leave you with some more Claire pictures because I'm not dumb and know that's what everyone wants to see anyway!