Applebee's

On Sunday we went out for a family lunch at Applebee's. Allie hadn't napped yet despite being in the crib for one hour. And she was a little cranky before we left, so we were afraid this lunch would be a complete disaster. But it was so much fun! She was so cute talking to people around us and "reading" the menus. She tried chicken fingers for the first time and loved them, though we did take most of them home and finished them for dinner.

We wanted to go to the play place at the mall after, but Allie's lack of a nap caught up with her. We took her home where she took a two-hour nap and Mama and Dada got a nice afternoon break. Maybe we'll go to the mall next weekend.

Allie is definitely getting to the age where she has a lot of energy and gets bored when we stay home all weekend. I'm eagerly awaiting spring when it will be much easier to get out of the house!

Shopping adventure with Mama

Dada is sick this weekend, so Mama and Allie went on a grocery shopping adventure so Dada wouldn't have to.

Allie loved the sights and sounds and all the groceries she got to play with.

She was very well behaved as long as she had something to occupy her attention. Since we were buying all the stuff, I saw no harm in letting her play with it. That was better than her putting her mouth on the cart!

And when we were done we walked (well, she rode) out to the car in the fluffy snow flakes. This picture doesn't do justice to her delight! She loved having the snow flakes fall on her face.

It was a fun, but exhausting adventure! We've been getting better at eating family dinners, but Allie was tired and cranky from her adventure. So we fed her early and she was in bed before 7! She even fell asleep a bit faster than she normally does. I can't wait for the weather to get nicer so we can go out on more adventures on the weekends.

Dancing with Elmo

Allie was in rare form tonight when we decided to bring Elmo out for a spin.

Packer backers

Well, obviously this is late, but I need to say it. We were THRILLED when the Packers won the Super Bowl. We still can rouse Allie into a chant of "Go Pack Go!" and "touchdown!" Its lots of fun.

Here we are all dressed up in our Packers gear on Super Bowl Sunday. Allie even got a cool sweatshirt! We still haven't gotten our Super Bowl champion shirts yet, but we will.

I heard not long ago that this blog has some young fans in Missouri. My nephews Carson and Cole are faithful readers! Or at least I hope you still are since I didn't post much for awhile. Carson and Cole are also Packers fans as well (well I know Carson is, are you too Cole?) and they love Wisconsin. So I just wanted to send a big "HI" to you boys and send a virtual hug! I hope you're having a good week and I hope to see you soon!

Fun with spoons

Allie is more and more interested in eating with a spoon. Its not always very pretty, but she gets the idea.

Sometimes she can even put the spoon in the bowl and get her oatmeal herself. But most of the time we put the cereal on the spoon and Allie plays with it a bit before she actually eats it. So we usually do this just with oatmeal or yogurt, something thick enough to not fall off and make an even bigger mess.

She also likes to be silly with the spoon.

Now if only we could get her to use eat off the plate instead of just dumping the food onto the table!

Adventures in climbing

Whenever we bring Allie into the living room, its a race to see who can make it to the off-limits places or things first. On Saturday, Allie made it to the stairs before Dada could close the gate.

He decided to experiment and see how far she would climb. Previously, she'd only climbed up to about the third step before looking around wondering how she'd gotten there and, more importantly, how to get down.

Saturday, however, she ended up climbing all the way to the top! Don't worry, thats Dada behind her to make sure she wouldn't fall. Now we just need to make sure we don't encourage that kind of behavior again.

Where'd all that skin come from?

Allie tends to make quite a mess when she's eating dinner. She takes bibs off, so we don't even bother putting them on anymore. Depending on what she's having, if she's feeding herself and how messy it is, she gives us a lot to cleam up. Most nights I'll taker her shirt or pants off so she doesn't get everything around her messy too.

It was funny on Friday because she got so messy, we stripped her all the way down to the onesie. Aside from looking reeeally cute, it was funny to watch her. She seemed kind of surprised to see all that skin!

Gotta run

She wanted me to have my running shoes. Perhaps she wanted to run too? She's a girl after my own heart! Notice her Valentine's outfit. Even though she was sick all week, she still dressed up for the holiday on Thursday. She definitely loves hugs, both giving and receiving.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Look at the pretty flowers Dada sent Mama at work this morning! It was quite a surprise. I didn't really get to appreciate their true beauty until I got home and was able to get them out of their wrapping and arranged. The vase came with them! They have very explicit instructions for how to take care of them and maximize their blooms.

Of course, we always agree not to do presents for Valentine's Day and the Doug has to go and do that. I love him!

Last week Grandma and Grandpa Durso sent us Valentine's cards. Allie really enjoyed hers. Too bad I wasn't able to get a better picture. The problem is her hair is so shaggy that she looks like a slob in every picture. We need to get her hair cut.

Unfortunately in what's become a startling tradition, Allie is sick for this holiday. She slept a long time Saturday night into Sunday and when we woke her up we discovered Allie with a fever and runny nose. Dada stayed home with her today. She seemed to be getting better but then the fever went up again and she tossed her cottage cheese all over herself and her high chair. It looks like Mama will be staying home with Allie tomorrow.

So its a low-key V-Day here. We weren't really planning anything anyway. We might go out this weekend. Otherwise, its just taking care of our sick baby.

Blizzard of '11

It was a week ago, but here are promised pictures of our latest blizzard. I have a million pictures of snow in front of and behind our house in the four years we've lived here. But this is the most intense load of snow I remember having fall all at the same time! Perhaps more importantly, this post is the result of my first time uploading pictures on the new computer.

Taken through our front window. Look at the impressive drift where our porch used to be!

Snow drifts against garages. We didn't get plowed until the evening and I didn't see any tire tracks in these drifts! No one went anywhere that day!

The drift on our garage wasn't quite as impressive.

That used to be a bench.

Frost on the door.

Allie was fascinated by the mound of snow. I shoveled enough of the porch to allow Monk to do her business. I only spent 15 minutes shoveling. It was hard work!

The tunnel we were left with once the real shovelers cleared us out. It was like driving and walking through tunnels or a snow fort!

It has been plenty cold and we've had a few more inches of snow since the blizzard. I know I'm not the only one voicing my desire for winter to go away! This winter has been exhausting. But tomorrow and going into next week its starting to warm up a bit. I can't wait.

New computer!

Tonight Doug and I bought new laptops. They're so pretty! I'm still setting mine up but I plan on finally uploading some photos as soon as possible! This blog has been so empty lately. That will change soon enough.

Snow day!

With the blizzard this week the Durso pack had a snow day yesterday. I'm still in are of how much snow there is on the ground now. I shoveled the porch yesterday so Monk could go out, and I moved a lot of snow and barely made a dent. Going to the gym last night and work this morning, its like driving through a tunnel or a snow fort with drifts on the side of the road almost as high as the car.

I took plenty of pictures. Unfortunately I can't upload them right now. We got new cable, phone and internet service a couple days ago but my computer for whatever reason can't connect to the wireless network. I think we're going to resolve that situation by buying new laptops. Both Doug's and my computers are dinosaurs by current technology standards.

So we were all home yesterday and had quite the productive day. Allie had plenty of play time and we watched a movie together, Monsters Inc. My mom said she sat really still and watched that movie when she stayed with them while we were in San Francisco. She was right! It was so weird to see her sit still and watch for more than a few minutes!

Now we're back at work, but its not so bad because the weekend comes the day after tomorrow.