playing at the park

About a week ago we headed up to Cedar Rapids to check out their farmer's market on Saturday morning.  It is certainly quite large.  They had lots of awesome things for sale, good live music, and it wasn't too hot which we were grateful for.  Tatum even got her first balloon and spent the morning waving it around while we pushed her in the stroller.  There were a lot, and I mean A LOT, of people there pushing their pets in strollers. I have never seen so many people doing this in one place. Some of them were in strollers specifically made for pets and others were just in baby strollers.  One was even in a shopping cart! I really wish I would have gotten pictures of some them, it was the strangest thing.

 

 Anywho, it was a good time and I'm glad we went. The rest of our Saturday was fun too! Whitney and Eric stopped by for a quick visit! We haven't seen them since a few days after Tatum was born so it was good to catch up a little.  After that we headed to the park. Tatum and I go to this park nearly every day but let's face it, we all know Brennan is way more fun than I am, so this was a special treat. Tatum got to really explore the park.  And since we are typical parents who happen think our child is adorable we took a lot of pictures. And now I'm going to share them with you. :)

Swinging.

 Playing in the tunnel.

 Going down the slide "by herself".

 Help!

Brennan looks excited, Tatum not so much.

Then Brennan coerced me into taking Tatum down some slides. I love both of our faces in this one. We are weirdos.

This slide had a bump that camp out of nowhere and totally surprised me. Hence the absolute crazy face.

Were we really doing all this for Tatum's enjoyment or for our own? I'll let you be the judge. :)

apples and bananas

Tatum loves fruit! Obviously this a good thing, but the little stinker isn't very good at sharing. I have an apple pretty much every afternoon and as soon as she sees that I have it she will book it over to me and insist on having more than her fair share.  It's hard for me to even take a bite without her complaining.  The same goes for bananas.  Except that they are so soft that it didn't take long before she was breaking off huge chunks in her mouth and then spitting them out.  Can't a woman just eat a piece of fruit in peace?! ;) Haha, just kidding, I actually find it quite adorable, surprise surprise.

Check out that concentration.

After a few days she started the two handed death grip on my hand to try to make it harder for me to take it away to get a bite myself.

 Frequently I just cut a piece off for her to gnaw on.  It keeps her busy and leaves the rest of the apple for me. We tried a little fruit muncher thing but she wouldn't use it, so eventually the apple gets real slippery and hard for her to hold onto.

After completely destroying a banana in her eagerness to get some of it, now I just give her little pieces she can pick up and eat.  See, I may be a little slow but I'm figuring it out!

And now a little video for your enjoyment.  That is, if you get enjoyment out of watching a little baby gnaw on an apple. I thought it was cute, but parenthood does weird things to you. :)

I'm having serious issues getting a video to load to the blog so here's a link! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGKHsTSHM7M&feature=youtu.be

carousel

Last Friday was family free night at the mall so we took Tatum for her first carousel experience. It was not her favorite thing.  I made the mistake of encouraging Brennan to take her, thinking she wouldn't mind not being with me. But once she could see me outside the little gate she was not happy that she couldn't get to me.  She clung to Brennan the whole time and eventually he just got her off the horse and held her. She looked pretty cute though!

You can tell by the blur that she was on a fast-moving steed! :)

 At then end I thought I would try to get a decent, non-blurry shot, but she was literally climbing up Brennan and would not turn for a picture.

After going to a couple of stores we decided to try it again but with me taking her this time. I guess you could say it went a little better, but really not much.  She stayed on her horse, I mean rabbit the whole time. Yeah, she definitely didn't get as cool of a creature with me.  A rabbit?! But she did enjoy her second ride a teensy bit more. Perhaps in a few more months she will start to like the carousel.  Her parents enjoyed it! :)

Labor Day

Well Labor Day kind of came out of nowhere this year. :) I guess it's really not that big of a holiday so it's not too much of a surprise that it caught me off guard.  But in our boring lives we have to use every excuse we can to have some fun.  We actually spent the morning doing housework and I was feeling quite accomplished while Brennan was going stir crazy and hoping I had some great adventure planned for us. I had no great plans really, but we did venture up to Cedar Rapids to do some mini golf and watch a water ski show. It was painfully muggy and eventually rained on us a little but we still managed to have fun.

Brennan offered to carry Tatum in the carrier during mini golf, but I insisted that he let me so I could use it as an excuse when I lost.  I did lose, but I also didn't carry her the whole time. That girl is getting heavy! I had to hand her over to Brennan halfway through.  I also hoped it would mess with his game but I guess he is just THAT good.

See, it was hard to golf while holding her. I had to try to peer around that big noggin of hers!

I didn't realize how unpleasant it looked for Tatum until I saw Brennan golfing while holding her. She was a trooper and didn't complain the whole time. But I laughed every time I saw her just hanging there while Brennan golfed.

After mini golf we headed to the water ski show.  Since it was raining we weren't in a huge hurry to make it to the show so we stopped at Walmart for a few things and by the time we got there we had missed the first half.  Not really a huge deal, but we also missed all the decent seats.  It was still fun to watch but it would have been more fun if we could have heard what the announcer was saying and explaining.  And been able to see better. And if we hadn't been near half a dozen smokers.  And if the humidity wasn't at 100%.  But really, it was enjoyable!

I wish this picture wasn't blurry, I love the face she is making!

 Wow, they were certainly cut from the same mold.

We ended the day by picking up a Little Caesar's pizza.  Not exactly the typical Labor Day grilling, and not exactly gourmet.  But hey, we do things our own way around here! Hope you all had a great Labor Day!

Iowa soccer

A week or so ago we went to an Iowa girls soccer game. It was a fun little family outing for us and we couldn't have chosen a more beautiful night for it. It even got a bit chilly by the time we left! It was funny to watch Tatum in the grass. Because of the hot and dry summer we have had our lawn is not real pretty. Or fun to sit on.  They obviously take the time and spend the money to keep the grass around the soccer field looking really good.  It was like Tatum had never felt real grass before.  She didn't know what to think when she would feel it under her feet. It is always fun to watch her reaction to new things.

Watching the game with dad.  And her trusty cow.  

 Trying on mom's shades since the sun was right in our faces!

 She decided chewing on them would be much more productive than trying to wear them.

 

Where's Tatum?

Oh, there she is! She was just hiding behind her huge feet!

A funny story from the night: At one point during the game Brennan did raspberry's on Tatum's tummy.  The only problem was that he did it a lot louder than he intended.  Just about everyone else that was sitting the grass turned to look at us.  But then one lady sort of chuckled to herself and said, "somebody's gassy".  It was pretty funny....maybe you had to be there. :)

making mischief

I'm always surprised by how natural it is for Tatum to find trouble.  She really seems to enjoy it. It can certainly get tiresome, but mostly she looks so dang cute while causing trouble that it is hard to really get upset with her....And I suppose that maybe, sometimes, I might help her cause mischief.  Like a couple weeks ago when I made sure she noticed her dad was trying to take a Sunday afternoon nap...:)

bubbles

I was just looking through our pictures and discovered that there is a quite a lot I haven't blogged about.  Nothing really very exciting but there are some cute pictures of Tatum of course. :) I do have a good excuse for my blogging hiatus.  I have been working on our 2011 family photo book.  I have been working on it pretty much since the first of the year (very slowly, obviously). I really wanted to just get it done so I could check it off my list so the last couple of weeks I promised myself that any opportunity I had to be on the computer (so whenever Tatum is asleep and I am awake and don't have something more important to do) I would work on the book.  That left no room for blogging.  So sad, I know.  I'm sure it was missed by so many! ;) But I finished the book, so now I can blog!

We have been playing with bubbles a lot lately.  In the tub, in the kitchen, outside, everywhere! I'm always looking for something new to do with Tatum. I find that I get bored with her toys and books much more quickly than she does.  So bubbles it is.  Like I said, nothing too exciting but there are some cute pictures if I must say so myself.

It is always amazing to me how much my love for Tatum can always outweigh everything else. There have been some rough days in the last few weeks where lots of tears were shed by both of us. And yet no matter how frustrated I am with her by the time she goes to bed at night, I am only overcome by my love for her when I see her adorable face again.  I mean, can you really stay mad at that face?! I am also grateful that the reverse is true as well.  She gets pretty mad at me when I let her cry at bed time.  But by morning all is forgiven! Thank goodness she doesn't hold a grudge.

 We love each other, even if both of our smiles seem a little forced.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!