Monday, February 24, 2014

Weekend Recap

We had a wonderful weekend over here! The weather was beautiful both days(in the 50's) so we made sure to get out and enjoy the nice weather.

On our walk along the canal on Sunday

The park by our house. Seriously, flowers blooming in February!!

When I went in to get Elliot on Saturday morning, this is how I found him.
I guess his left arm got warm in his sleep :) 


Eliot had his first music class on Saturday and we both had a lot of fun. He loves banging the egg maracas and the dancing around with his mama. It obviously wore him out because with 5 minutes of walking out of the class he was asleep in the stroller. He has NEVER fallen asleep in the stroller before! Brent and I took advantage of it and went on a nice walk around the park. 

On Sunday Brent and Elliot got creative with some new games. Apparently E's toy bin makes for a great ride :) I need to figure out how to post videos so you all can hear his giggles. That is all I heard while I was making dinner and it was the greatest sound. 
Clearly he loved it

Happy Boy
It looks like the nice weather in supposed to stick around this week so Elliot and I will be out enjoying it everyday! 

Have a great Monday!

Friday, February 21, 2014

Favorites 2-21

Hope everyone had a nice week. Brent is home and we are all pretty happy about that over here! Here are some favorite moments/pictures from the week.

1. Elliot was so excited when Brent walked in the door this morning it was great. Someone missed his Papa!
Papa's home!

2. We had some pretty decent weather here this week so Elliot and I were able to get out for a lot of walks. 

Ignore the pale, tired mama and just look at the cute, happy baby

Baby and mama drinks along the canal. Brent got Elliot to fake starbucks sippy for Christmas. Just like Mama!
3. We went to a 1st birthday party on Sunday for Elliot's friend Holly. Since Brent was gone we did the train to get to there house and E did awesome. We had so much fun spending time with our friends!
He is such a happy baby!
4. Elliot started sleeping with his butt in the air so I had to take a creepy picture of the video monitor
So funny 

Have a good weekend!




Friday, February 14, 2014

Favorites 2-14

Happy Valentines Day!! Here are some favorites moments from the week!

1. Brent left for MN yesterday(not a favorite) so we celebrated Valentines Day on Wednesday night with dinner after Elliot went to bed. He also left me a present that will help me get through my week of single parenting.
Wine, Chocolate and coffee he knows me so well!

2. Elliot and I went with my friend Daina to a new to us tea house on Tuesday. It was such a nice place and really accommodating to us with babies. It is one of the few places I have been to in the Netherlands where finding room for the stroller was no problem.
Elliot and Bente


3. Watching these 2 play together is so awesome. Seeing Brent as a dad is just amazing and these two are always making me smile. 

4. 2 things about this picture. 1st one, I am going to be so sad when Elliot outgrows this hat. It is so cute on him! 2nd one, I am going to be so sad when he outgrows the Ergo carrier. I love when he falls asleep in it and we can just walk around snuggling. 

5. Elliot has been moving all over the place! Everyday he gets stronger with crawling and gets more adventurous. Last night he crawled himself into his little toy cubby and just laid there and played. It was hilarious!


Have a great weekend!

Mindy








Monday, February 10, 2014

Elliot 7 Months

Another month older, another month that has just flown by!

Such a big boy!

Elliot's eating this month has increased a ton! He is loving having grains with his fruits and veggies. He has either oatmeal or mashed up rice(cooked in chicken broth) and he loves both. I am looking forward to adding some quinoa into the rotation this month. A new food he loves is chickpeas. I mash them into his food or just give him little bites and he goes crazy. He loves having little chunks of mango and whenever I have a banana for myself I let him take some "bites" out of it. This past week we have started giving chicken and so far it is going great! Keeping our fingers crossed he keeps eating so well. We go in next week to check his weight so we'll see what all of this increased eating has done for him.
Loves mama's banana
Elliot is moving all over the place! He uses a combination of log rolling and scooting on his stomach/side. Watching him and his determination is just awesome. He gets something in his line of vision and he doesn't give up until he gets it. I can't turn around for even a second any more as evidenced by the picture below.
I think we have some baby proofing to do!

He has learned how to screech the past few weeks whenever he wants something. We call him a pterodactyl because man he can get loud! Usually it means he is hungry or tired so as long a we stay ahead of those things we can avoid it :) 

In addition to getting his first cold this month it looks like his 2 front bottom teeth are going to be making an appearance soon. His gums are pretty white and he is biting down on anything and everything he can. Hoping they pop through soon and it is an easy process on him!

and an outtake, this was just as he was starting to reach for me. One of my favorite new developments :)  









Friday, February 7, 2014

Favorites 2-6

Some of my favorite things from this week.

1. One of the best moments this week was celebrating our anniversary. Of course we celebrated in Bruges last weekend, but we wanted to do something on the actual day as well.  I came downstairs to a bouquet of flowers on Tuesday morning and once Elliot was asleep that night Brent cooked us dinner- lucky lady! I took care of dessert and we had cheesecake(the dessert we had at our wedding). Such a nice night and so much fun to have some us time!

2. One of the Starbucks near us has a Burger Kind attached to it(there are 3 businesses connected and 2 of them are American!) so when we were getting coffee we had to get a picture of E in his first Burger King crown. He didn't even try to take it off, just gave us a big smile. Such an easy going kid!


3. Every time I put the hat in the picture below on Elliot he starts giggling(thanks Pat and Kristin for the hat!). He has been sick with his 1st cold this week so we needed some giggles so in came the hat!
Ignore the snot running down his nose, I can't keep up with it!
With E being sick we've had a pretty low key week. Hoping he is over this cold soon so we can enjoy the weekend!




Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Weekend in Brugge


This past weekend we went to Brugge(Bruges) Belgium to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. Thankfully, it is just a 2.5 hour drive from us which made it an easy trip. We left Friday around noon hoping that by leaving then we could get Elliot to sleep his normal afternoon nap. It worked! He slept the entire car ride there which was a great start to the trip! We didn't have anything specific we wanted to do while we were there, just walk around and take in a new city. On to the pictures!
First night, Mama and E

Market Square



Family Selfie

Lounging after E's afternoon nap

Belgium and their delicious sweets, I couldn't get enough! Not pictured are the expensive macaroons we demolished!!

You know it's good chocolate when the line is out the door(there are chocolates shops everywhere so this says a lot!)

My favorites


Such a pretty square all lit up

So we never let E watch tv. On Sunday while we were getting things packed Brent had soccer on. The sound wasn't on so I didn't notice and I set E on the bed surrounded by pillows while I got stuff together. I looked up and he was locked in on the soccer game. I think it is Brent's proudest moment thus far as a father :) 
And thankfully Elliot slept the entire trip home!