Come on spring...

It has been ridiculously cold here lately. Like, highs of 5 degrees or less. Yesterday some schools were closed because the temperatures with wind chill were close to -20 degrees! Last Thursday it was -8 degrees when Ellie and I had to take the bus that morning. Luckily it's supposed to be more like 5 degrees this morning.

Jason is a week or so into classes, and liking them so far. He thinks that this semester will be easier than the last. Because of that, I was looking into a part-time job outside of the house that I could do in the mornings. I found the PERFECT job for me, but unfortunately they filled it before I was able to interview :( I'm being pretty picky about what job I take, so we'll see if I start working this semester or not.

Ellie goes through weeks where she picks the same movie to watch every day. Let's see if you can figure out what last week's movie was. She now enjoys drinking up all her milk, holding the cup up in the air, peering into it, and saying, "Oh bother. Empty again." If that didn't give it away, she also often asks for "just a smackeral" of something to eat.

Rowan has learned his first baby sign! I was floored when I saw him doing it, but I am not surprised at all by what sign it is, "milk." I put him on the floor one day to change his diaper before a nap, and he was not happy to be put down. His little fist went up in the air, slowly opening and closing, until I realized that he was trying to sign "milk!" I've been practicing that sign with him since he was 3 months old, but not expecting him to get it until more like 10 months old.

Ok, that was just a quick update, because the kids should wake up any minute now!

It's official...

Rowan is a big boy! He's in the 90th percentile for both weight and length: 21 1/2 lbs and 28 in. long. Everything went well at his check-up; he's perfectly healthy and on track with his development. And even though he received 4 shots and went without a nap, he was still charming everyone at the grocery store after his appointment :) He's not really interested in baby food, but he does enjoy eating food he can hold in his hand, like banana in a mesh feeder. Here's a picture of him "feeding" himself rice cereal.

Ooh, guess what I saw today as I was driving around Madison...Texas Roadhouse! Although, after looking at their website today, I'm not too surprised because they have hundreds of locations in 44 states. There's even one in Yuma! We'll be going soon (well, sometime this semester...maybe) to have some of their delicious rolls and a loaded baked sweet potato!

Back in chilly Wisconsin!

Well, I was so excited to be able to see parts of grass when we returned; I guess a lot of the snow melted while we were gone. I seriously thought we wouldn't see the ground until spring. Most importantly, our parking space was completely clear, and I expected that to be completely buried! Well, now it's covered again :( At least this time there wasn't a huge ice storm immediately following the snow, so we can shovel out our spot easily.

We had a lot of fun visiting family, but it's good to be back (especially after our loooong ordeal at the airport and an unexpected overnight stay in Vegas). If only we could bring our family with us! It's so nice for all of us to have our own rooms, 4 people all on different sleep schedules sharing one room is not fun! It's nice to get some sleep again. Rowan is sleeping through the night again, oh, and I forgot to mention on here, Ellie has been binkie-free for about a month now! Jason (and myself as well) is very glad that her teeth will be able to form unimpaired. She did pretty well getting rid of them, but we did have a few rough nights.

Rowan has his 6 month check-up on Tuesday, so I'll be sure to update after that with his stats. I unofficially weighed him in Iowa and he was 20 lbs, but we'll see what the official weight is. He still isn't real interested in eating food (at least baby food), but he's been willing to try the baby rice cereal the last couple of days. And, he's getting up on his hands and knees and rocking. Yikes, here comes crawling! He can get into anything already by rolling and scooting, but crawling will just make him that much faster.

My first niece!

I haven't had much internet access or time to update this blog, but I just have to announce that my new niece, Ashlyn Makylee, was born on New Years Eve. She's so beautiful! Congrats to Zane, Tara, and big brother Bryson!