Isabel, Vivianne and Jayden
The girls were holding hands and running around in circles today…it was pretty funny. At what age did that stuff stop being fun?
Weekend Fun
Vivianne’s cousins from Minnesota came to visit this weekend. The girls had so much fun together from chasing each other around the kitchen island to jumping on the air mattress, the fun never stopped. When it was time to go, Vivianne was adamant about going to, “Sidney’s house.” She packed her little backpack with underwear and her kitty and said goodbye to Mom and Dad, she was ready to go with her cousin back to Minnesota. When they left, Vivianne cried, “My Sidney, my Sidney!” Thank goodness we’ll be seeing them for Easter! Here are a couple pictures of the girls.
Vivianne's Birthday Party
We had a birthday party for her on Saturday. She spent quite a bit of time opening her presents. It was fun to see her open most of them by herself…we think she understands the concept of what a “present” is now. Thank you to everyone for all the gifts, she was one spoiled little girl! I posted a few pictures on the photo page. Here is a video of everyone singing her, “Happy Birthday.”
It’s official, she’s two!
Vivianne had her two-year well baby checkup this morning. Vivianne got along real well with the doctor until it was time for the doctor to check her ears, throat and nose, at which time I had to use most of my force to hold her still. There were no more smiles given to the doctor after that, only a really loud, perfectly enunciated “BYE!” from Vivianne when the doctor stood up to leave the room. Once the door was closed Vivianne looks at me and she said, “Go, home!” Too bad for her that the worst was yet to come as the nurse comes back in to give her a shot followed by a pretty solid prick on the finger for a blood draw. I keep waiting for the whole ‘watching someone give your child a shot’ thing to get easier, but so far it is still stinks. The good news is she is one helluva vaccinated kiddo.
They weighed and measured her and we now have proof that she is definitely growing. She is no longer in the 5th percentile for height, but the 10th! Yippee! She is 32.25 inches tall. She weighs 25.5 pounds (25th percentile) and her noggin’ continues to exceed the rest of the growth of her body falling into the 80th percentile.
We started potty training her about two weeks ago, and to our surprise she has taken to it very well. She hasn’t had an accident in twelve days. She still wears a diaper at bed time and a pull up during her nap, but when she is awake she goes on the potty!
She’s getting to be such a big girl. It really hit home last night when Thomas says to me, “Well, babe, this is the last night that we’ll be parents of a one year old.”
Vivianne's First Easter Egg Hunt!
We spent the Easter holiday with family in MN this year. Thomas’ aunt, Heide, and her husband planned this awesome Easter Egg Hunt for the kids on Easter Sunday. Heide and her family hid little colored plastic eggs filled with candy all over Mary’s yard. Heide’s husband, Joe, made sure the younger kids were given a five minute head start before the older kids jumped in the fun. The weather couldn’t have been any better. Thank you, Moss Family for giving us such great memories!
Easter Weekend with the Kerstens!
We had such a great Easter. John and Kris took us all to Edinborough Park, which is this amazing indoor park for kids. There were tons of slides and obstacle type things that you had to climb through or over, I was exhausted chasing after Vivianne. I wish there was something like this in Lake Forest…what a work out I could get!
The girls had fun playing outside and John took them for a little ride on the 4-Wheeler. I think Vivianne is saying, “Vrooom, vrooom” and Sidney is saying, “Weeee!”
Here’s a picture of Vivianne with her cousins, Kaitlyn and Sidney, in their Easter dresses. They were all so good in church!
The Easter Bunny was very good to Vivianne, all-in-all she got 5 Easter baskets! She really liked the necklaces. She would put them ALL on and say, " I Princess, I princess!"
Trip back home to ND
After Easter, Vivianne and I caught a ride with Dean and JoAnne from MN to ND. My mom had recently had knee surgery, so we helped her out a bit and Vivianne provided nightly entertainment. Here’s a short video of her and Pappy goofing around.
We had purchased tickets to ride the Amtrak back to Chicago, but ended up grabbing a flight out of Minot instead due to the Amtrak being temporarily shut down because of the recent flooding in ND. We spent the night in Minot at the International Inn and Vivianne and my Dad went swimming. I had a great visit with Laura while Mom and Dad watched Vivianne. It was a great trip, but we were both anxious to get home to see Papa!!!
Going home for Easter...
Transportation to the airport: $7.00
Airplane tickets: $205.80
Ride from MN to ND with Grandpa Dean: Free
Seeing the reactions on our friends and families faces when we tell
them that there are more than three of us in this picture: PRICELESS!!!
Baby Kersten #2 Due October 22nd