Soccer

We signed Dax up for soccer through Burnsville's YMCA and his first practice was today. It turns out there's nothing more delightful than three-year-old soccer. Dax listened to his coach, worked hard, and, most importantly, had fun.

Proud of his new jersey

Warming up with toe touches on the ball

Green light!

Red light!

Goooooaaall!

Water break :)

We can't wait to spend our future Saturdays watching our little star!

One Dog Canoe

Dax and I had a special date this weekend. I get updates regularly from Stages Theatre since I have planned many kindergarten field trips there. When I saw that they were doing a play with songs inspired by the Okee Dokee Brothers it seemed like the perfect play for Dax.

A little over a year ago we brought him to a middle school play to introduce him to the idea of drama, but his toddler attention span barely made it to intermission. I was fairly certain this would be a better experience and was excited to spend a little time with my sweet boy. Dax wasn't sure what to expect and said multiple times leading up to it that he did not want to go. As we headed out the door, though, he seemed excited.

My sweet little boy ready to see The Little Mermaid last spring

We were running a bit late (parenthood can put a major damper on punctuality!), but arrived just in time. Dax was on an aisle so he had a great view and it was so fun to see him immediately enthralled with the set. His eyes never left the stage. He got excited each time a new animal entered the scene and sat perfectly through the show. Though they changed most of the words, it was fun to recognize a lot of familiar Okee Dokee Brothers songs. It was a really great performance!

Ready for the play to start

After the play was over, the actors were all available outside the theatre. Dax wanted to have them sign his program like he saw them doing for other people so we got in line. He stared intently at each performer, but refused to answer any of their questions and after only seeing a few of them asked if we could leave. I think he was overwhelmed with the experience. (Ignore the bad pictures, my phone doesn't do the best job and I had forgotten our camera)

We ended our date with dinner at a restaurant. He requested his favorite restaurant, Jensens Cafe, but since it was closed, we settled for breakfast for dinner from Perkins. Dax was entertaining, sweet, and the perfect date. I was so thankful to have a fun night out with my favorite boy.

7 Months

We have a seven month old in our house! As always, I am shocked to already be writing another update as it does not seem possible that another month has passed. Ads is as happy as ever and she's changing right before our eyes.

For one thing, her hair seems to have a life of it's own. It combs down pretty well after baths, but gets more unruly each day between. If it weren't for barrettes and ponytails, it would pretty much always be in her eyes. She rocks it any style, though, and I'm still not ready to give her a trim.

Turns out the center part is not her best look

After a day with a ponytail.

Addy's first tooth finally popped through! She seems to be working on another one, but it's a slow process. She's a champ, though, and rarely complains about it.

Look closely and you can spot the cute little pearly white!

She's also a champ at sitting. While this was a new trick last month, now it's old hat. She loves to have some more control and range to play and only falls over when she's tackled by her big brother.

"Helping" with laundry

Adelaide continues to LOVE food. She happily eats anything we serve her and has added banana, apple, pear, and yam to the regular rotation. She also tried and enjoyed cottage cheese (technically a day after 7 months) and did awesome "chewing" the pieces before swallowing. We tried giving her a sippy cup so she has something to do during meals and she is thrilled with it. She looks like such a big girl drinking from it!

She also seems like a big girl when she talks to us. Addy babbles all day long and regularly says both Mama and Dada. So far it doesn't seem intentional, but we encourage it anyway and love it every time we hear it. The other day she was babbling during lunch and Dax said, "Addy almost said velociraptor! Did you hear her? She said, /v/ /v/. I think she was trying to say velociraptor." It was so funny! And a tiny glimpse into their future interactions.

Adelaide's last big new thing this month was introducing her to the walker. Dax LOVED the walker so much at this age so we decided to let Ads try it out as well. She has not taken to it quite as much as him and hasn't yet figured out how to walk around in it, but likes having another place to play and thinks the bear toys attached are fun to chew.

Firsts this month include Easter, a road trip, and her first concert - the Okee Dokee Brothers with the MN Orchestra. It was amazing and, while she didn't last through the whole thing, Addy seemed to enjoy listening to all the instruments.

This month's photo shoot was a little trickier, but she's still as sweet as ever.

And the monthly comparison photos:

Road Trip

After lots of debate about where to go for a spring trip, we settled on a road trip to visit Jake's sister Anna in Madison. We had not yet gone to visit her and as she's ending her junior year, we didn't want to miss the opportunity.

Jake took the day off Friday so we could make it a long weekend. We left our house mid-morning hoping to stop part-way in Winona for lunch with Uncle Sam. As we were driving toward the freeway Addy started making her patented grunting noises so we stopped a few minutes into the drive for an emergency diaper change. Shortly after that, the light rain we were driving in turned to golf-ball sized snowflakes. It was not the start we were hoping for, but we survived both surprises and arrived in Winona safe, happy, and ready for the stop.

After a tour of his house and some yummy sandwiches, we were back on the road in time for naps and hopeful we'd make it all the way to Madison without incident. Unfortunately we encountered a pretty bad accident, which slowed us down, and neither kid slept as long as we hoped so we ended up making an unplanned stop at a rest area to feed Addy, take a bathroom break and stretch our legs a bit.

Eventually we made it to Madison, got settled at our hotel, and met up with Anna. She and her sweet roommates showed us their apartment and then we walked to get some dinner.

Saturday was reserved for a trip to the Henry Vilas zoo. We were thrilled to wake up to gorgeous weather. Anna and her boyfriend PJ joined us to check out all the animals, enjoy the sunshine, and eat lunch at the nearby park. It was a great morning!

After naps we took advantage of hotel living and tested out the pool. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed relaxing and playing with Auntie Anna. (In the video, Dax is acting like the otters he saw bouncing off the walls at the zoo.)

We decided to do dinner in so we picked up some Papa Murphy's pizzas and headed back to Anna's apartment. We got to meet another of her roommates (she seems to live with some great girls!) and Dax was happy to have some more down time playing. I think his favorite part was the Bucky Badger mural in the entryway - and acting like all the different Buckys.

Sunday was going to be another travel day, but we planned to leave so Dax and Addy would nap on the first chunk of the drive. We spent the morning packing up and lounging at the hotel. Then we met Anna again to walk around and get some lunch on our way out. My friend Sarah also met us near campus and it was awesome to see her (we almost missed each other when she got a flat tire on her way to meeting us - thank goodness for AAA!).

Though Dax only slept for about a half hour, he was an amazing car traveler. We had a full bag of stuff to entertain him, which he used, but he also spent a lot of time just looking out the window and listening to music. Addy slept most of the drive and happily played with toys when she was awake. We arrived in Eau Claire (our planned stop for this leg of the trip) a bit later than we hoped due to some serious road construction, which stopped traffic completely for several miles, but enjoyed walking around Jake's old campus. It has changed quite a bit and was fun to check it out, especially on another beautiful day.

The final leg of our road trip was uneventful. We are so thankful to have been able to spend the time with both Sam and Anna (and PJ!), feel incredibly blessed to have such amazing kids who traveled well, and feel lucky to have had such a fun weekend away.