Visit to Madison

I recently got the chance to visit B-mo in Minneapolis, so Dane, Ari and Mark spent a weekend with the Andersons in Madison. They had a great time, visiting the zoo, playing outside and just hanging out with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Steven. Captions courtesy of dad :)

Aria exploring and getting close to the camera, now that she is standing :)

Dane took this picture...one of about 7 pictures of his hands, eye, the carpet, and the ceiling.

I took this of Dane to show him how to point the camera correctly...

Uncle Steven, Dad, and Dane as monkeys at the Vilas Zoo.

Dane feeding the goats at the zoo! They loved him and his handful of goat food.

Riding the train at the zoo. It even goes through a tunnel :)

More feeding the goats. I think the goat even smiled for this photo.

Uncle Steven and Dane climbing the bridge...You can't tell, but it was raining and EVERYTHING was wet and slippery. Be careful Stevie! :)

Uncle Steve helping with the goat feeding...

More feeding the goats. Can you tell this was a highlight of the zoo trip?

Dane riding the huge turtle at the zoo entrance.

Growing!

Both our little redheads have been growing in leaps and bounds over the last couple months and weeks. Dane has gotten the courage to swim "alone" with swimmies on his arms or a life jacket, he's finally pulling of constantly referring to himself in the third person and his legs and arms seem to be growing an inch a week. He's a little boy, toddler no longer. His speech shocks us daily, showing us how his mind is constantly working, and he's developing his own sense of humor. Ari is only 5 inches shorter than Dane and went from doing the worm to surfing along any furniture by herself in a matter of a couple weeks. She's also eating like a champion, trying out country ribs, green beans and crescent rolls for dinner tonight. She's a happy, friendly girl who is working on some new teeth in addition to the 4 she already sprouted. We also love seeing the relationship developing between them, completely separate from us. Ari laughs every time she sees the photo of Dane on my phone and Dane's first request most mornings is, "Dane give Ari kiss". We are lucky!

Ari is 10 mo old!

Our long and lean 10 month old!

Green Lake!

For the first time in a year, we made it back to Green Lake with the Andersons for some 4th of July weekend fun. So many great memories of Mark's are wrapped up there, and he instantly sheds some of the heavy stress of life when we arrive. The lake was slightly cool as usual, but felt perfect with the high air temps. Ari gave the lake a try and Dane "swam" alone for the first time ever. Mark and I also got the opportunity to head to our good friends', the Divines, parents' house in Chilton for some excellent time of catching up and getting beat up on the lake. It was so refreshing to be with our good friends! We also got to spend a lot of time with Mark's folks and Grandma Karin, which was a huge blessing and made us look forward to being much closer next year. We left feeling refreshed and looking forward to another trip in August.

Such a big girl in her little chair:)

Dane helping carry the paddleboat down to the lake.

Just for comparison, this is Dane at the exact same time last year. He was 15 mo, Ari is 9.5

A miracle picture: we're all smiling and looking at the same camera.

Snuggling with the newly lean and mean grandpa Mike.

Hiding from Dad.

Not very well.

Hanging out with Grandma and Grandma Cupcake.

Mark and I got a wonderful respite from the kids and some awesome fellowship with our friends the Divines, in town from San Jose.

My first jump in the lake of the summer. Ah:)

Strangest weeds this year, like wading through long, thick hair.

Taking a picture of Grandma Cupcake taking a picture of us:)

And he's in, thanks to a family of ducklings!

Ari wearing a classic of Grandma's.

Family picture, including Steven, who had to leave early. We missed you Stevie!

The end.

Dane, the Puzzler

Dane is really starting to seem like a two year old now, possibly more like a three year old, or 14 year old based on the day. His language is amazing; he puts together complete paragraphs, not just sentences, and has started to understand more nuanced language such as when to use "also" and "maybe". He still speaks in the third person most of the time and loves saying funny things that Grandpa Anderson teaches him, such as the song about Granny's bit of matter in the batter.  He can now fully jump on his own and just learned how to "swim" on his own using arm floaties. It's such a difficult and fun age, tiring us to the bone and then melting our hearts almost simultaneously. He loves snuggling, and at night, requests that Dad hold him like "baby Dane" while we sing. His favorite foods are many and varied, and while he's not a picky eater, he is definitely figuring out how to be independent at mealtimes, which is a bit of a struggle for me as I remember how little he was in the beginning. He loves all kinds of grilled meat and vegetables, snap peas ("crunchy!") and anything salty. Including licking spilled salt off the table. One of the good things that he's started to enjoy is doing puzzles. We had a number of the Melissa and Doug puzzles at my folks' house, but just got a couple of our own. Dane started to love them right away. Watch the pride at completion:)

Ari's speed-development

Ari has recently hit some major speed in her development. All within a few weeks, she's gotten her top two teeth, learned to crawl, started to pull up and walk, has started saying mama/dada regularly, and also responds when we ask her to clap, wave, high-five, etc. I can't believe how quickly everything is happening, but it's so fun to see all her new skills coming so easily! She had her 9 month appointment at about 9.5 months, and was still in the 97th % for both height and head circumference, but has dropped to 50th % for weight, presumably because of the growth spurt. She's now 29 1/2 inches long, only about 5 less than Dane! Here are a few pictures and videos to document all that action.