Dance

The Barking Lady

Ahh, the barking lady who is Ruth of Ruth Adams and the World's Most Dangerous Polka Band. A bunch of us went to Nye's last night (after dinner at Ginger Hop across the street) and saw their one-of-a-kind performance. Jill & Matt were in town from Chicago and then Trixie and Nikki were very nice to come over to babysit Ani and Dylan, so the Newmans, Hagens, and Chad came out with us too. It was a fun night with good friends!

Ani meeting Dylan. She liked his belly.

Jill & Matt

Hagens

Dancing to "I don't want her, you can have her, she's too fat for me!" Ruth's in the background playing the accordion.

Mollie, me, Monte

Sledding

Our first time sledding with An-Bon at a small hill in a park near our house.

Elmo

Ani says "Elmo" about 100 times a day. She wants to take naps with her little Elmo books. She reads her Elmo books all the time. Therefore, she was overjoyed to receive a "Tickle Me Elmo" doll from Uncle Tim this past week when he visited. He now rides with us in the car everywhere and also sits on the couch with us. Gotta love Elmo.

Three Milestones

1) We have officially retired the infant carrier seat that was in my car. Ani still fit the requirements for weight, but only had one more inch to go until she was too long for it.

2) As of tomorrow, I'm also retiring the high chair. She prefers sitting like a "big girl" in her booster chair now or using no booster at all.

3) This morning, I put Ani in a time-out in her crib... and about 30 seconds after leaving her room, we heard a little thud and a bit of a cry. I walked back in to unexpectedly find her on the floor beside her crib. She wasn't hurt, she barely even cried. But she had climbed out of her crib. She looked astonished and then later seemed proud of her new accomplishment. This is not good! The crib cannot be used a caging device for time-outs anymore. ;)

A Cafe & Books

Have you ever eaten at Common Roots Cafe? If not, we highly recommend it. We took Ani there earlier this week for dinner and it was a success all around.... meaning the food was fantastic - small portions packed with flavor that are made from scratch with local, organic ingredients - and Ani did not throw a tantrum in the restaurant. That makes for a much more pleasurable dining experience as opposed to when she wigs out on us in her high chair. She even flirted with one of the male patrons. She smiled and said "Hi" while batting her eyelashes and then acted all shy and snuggled into my shoulder.

Few people reap as many benefits of the Hennepin Country Library system as we do. I am an avid reader so I use the library for obvious purposes. If I bought and kept each and every book I've ever read, I'd a) be broke and b) have no extra space in the house. Once Monte hears a new artist on the Current, he has me log in to my account and put their CD(s) on hold. I've also been putting DVDs on hold - movies that are a couple years old that I have wanted to see, or ones like Mystic Pizza that are so old school but hold a special place in my heart because I loved it way back when it came out. I have to admit there's a bit of excitement when an email arrives from the HCL saying my book/CD/movie is ready to be picked up!

So I'm currently reading Twilight. If you haven't heard of it, you must be living under a rock? I really just wanted to see what all the hype was about. Everyone is going crazy for the book series, movies, and the actors who play the lead characters. I'm on chapter 4, and it is pretty good so far. So we'll see what happens with this crazy, teen fiction book!

Old School Skis

Monte was in his height of glory yesterday when he purchased these old school Janoy cross-country skis from Craig's List. He waxed the bottoms with 2 different kinds of wax and they are ready to take out for a peel in the snow.

Monte says....The skis are in great condition (hickory bottoms) given they are from the 70'S, The poles are bamboo, and the boots are leather!!!! Went for a quick ski today and they are terrific. The high was 4 degrees but I worked up quite a sweat in a short amount of time. They seem quicker than the non-wax skis I rented but a little more difficult to maneuver as they are 200CM skis. Tomorrow out for a longer ski...... heck temps are supposed to be in the high single digits or twice as warm as today.