Carter's 6 month Well Check

Carter Dean is 6 months. Can you believe it? Today Carter weighed in at 18lbs 10oz and was 27 1/2 inches long. That keeps him at about 90% on the growth charts. His well child check kind of turned into a sick visit when we discovered that he has double ear infection. Maybe that is why he isn't sleeping through the night?
These days Carter is getting really good at sitting up whenever there is a spotter over the age of two around. (no Taylor!) He also will roll over if he is enticed with something of interest. I'm thinking that it is time to move him out of our room, but I think that I am the one that needs to be trained not him. I just can't get over my baby getting so big!

Preschool Graduation

Last week Hailey Joy completed her last day of preschool. It seems like just yesterday I was driving away from Roseville Nursery Group with a knot in my stomach after leaving her with complete strangers. We were so blessed with this opportunity to have Hailey attend there! Hailey is really going to miss her friends that she got to play and learn with every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon as well as her awesome teachers: Mrs. Janie & Mrs. Bonnie. They did a final spring program for family and friends where they showed off all of the praise songs, silly songs, poems, and prayers that they learned throughout the year. The teachers also put together a slide show of the pictures taken throughout the year--there is nothing like pictures put to music that can make a mom tear up!

Taylor versus the Sidewalk

We have been questioning Taylor's short term memory so far this spring as she insists on sprinting down every sidewalk she's on and she often puts on her sister's 2-sizes-too-big flip-flops just to add to the danger. Needless to say, she is on her 8th layer of skin over her knees. The pictures don't do justice to the damage but we do have to acknowledge that she is quite tough.

The Top of the Fifth

Hello, this is Mike. Allison asked me to write this post. As evident from the pictures, the Miedema family attempted to take in a Twins game this evening. Attempted is an appropriate word as we were back in the van by the middle of the 5th inning. Though the evening was cut short, we packed a lot of activity into 5 innings of baseball. I'm afraid Hailey's vocabulary probably expanded tonight as Wednesday night is student ID night - the U of MN students get upper deck tickets for $4 - so we were surrounded by hundreds of University students who apparently were quite dehydrated as they each required a beer an inning. Before the game even started, a fist fight nearly broke out 4 rows above us and the across the isle there was a coed group that were very friendly with each other and not opposed to physical displays of affection. Needless to say, we are now considering home-schooling our children for college.
As expected, Hailey and Carter were not the problem when it came to managing our children. Taylor stayed in her seat for the first 2 batters (not that she was watching). She then proceeded to amp herself up by eating cotton candy by the fistful and drinking half of a 32 oz Coke. She started to test the waters by walking up and down the steps. The low point came when she crawled under the legs of a drunk college student sitting in front of us. Allison went to retrieve her but not before she proceeded to eat a few treats off of the dome floor. She cried when she was forced to sit with her family because she wanted "mo snyacks", referring to the beer-soaked Mike&Ike's she'd just consumed. We were forced to make a second run for concessions in order to get more ammo for Taylor. While our pre-game plan had included a second trip for concessions I don't think we were planning on it happening in the second inning. Our second round of treats were gone before the third inning started at which point Taylor stated "wanna go home".
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Hailey actually crawled on the floor to her seat due to fear of heights and "falling into the twins game". I think the odds of making it through a complete game would be higher with 4 Hailey's, 2 Carters, 1 parent, and a pet monkey versus 1 Taylor, 2 parents, and a nanny.
Tomorrow will be our 9th wedding anniversary. I think if we could have looked into the crystal ball 9 years ago and saw tonight's events we would have thought: wow, those are some cute kids and wow, this is going to be a wild ride.

Congratulations Brittany!

After our eventful stay in Rock Valley we went on to Sioux Falls to celebrate Mike's niece Brittany's highschool graduation. Brittany has come a long way since trying to jump out of a moving car to go back to Pamida to get the "pink shoes" when she was two. We are very proud of her and her future seems quite bright.
We started the party at Empire Bowl. The girls had a blast. Check out how both of the girls stick out their tongue when they are focused. We then ditched the little girls by bringing them to Auntie Ginnie (thanks!) and when out for dinner. A good time was had by all.

Carter gets lots of love from the Miedema women. He'd better just get used to it.

Field Trips

Following the Como Zoo field trip we all headed to Iowa. (We arrived in Rock Valley around 4pm and at 7pm we were all in the basement at Brad & Pam while a tornado passed by the edge of town!) On Friday Hailey was invited to go with Madison on her preschool field trip to the local green house. What a lucky girl. They got to plant their own flower and learn about all of the different types of flowers. Hailey simply said "I'm just the field trip girl."

Hailey had her big field trip day to the Como Zoo on Thursday! Mike was on vacation and was able to go along; there were not any other dads there so Hailey thought it was pretty special. One of the best things about the trip was riding the bus; Mike said that they all giggled and screamed when the bus turned corners. They had an educational speach about reptiles/amphibians then were assigned to a mom (a dad in Hailey's case). Hailey and her friend Aischa held hands around the entire zoo because they were scared of all of the animals. Mike forgot the snack at the school, so Hailey and Aischa were treated to prezels and pink milk at the zoo (another highlight).

Biker Babes

The girls are loving some of the warmer temps and learning some new biking skills. Hailey's bike no longer has training wheels and she is doing awesome. There are some issues with stopping so she mainly is just finding some grass and falling over. We have some practicing to do; it looks like the bike is in control of Hailey instead of Hailey controlling the bike.

Taylor also loves her bike. She is so strong and determined! The trike has a handle, but don't touch it because you will get yelled at: "I do it myself!"

Spa Day

Mike surprised me the other day with a spa day with Laura. WOW! We enjoyed a back/shoulder massage, a 50 minute facial, and the steam room. I must say I could get used to that, but if I did on a more regular basis I don't think that I would enjoy it to the extent that I did. Chalk one up for Mike.