October 28, 2008

Army Crawler

We have an army crawler on our hands. We used to be able to leave Casey on her activity mat for 15-30 minutes with no worries...now, if we leave the room for a minute or 2, she will have scooted her way to the other side of the room by the time we get back.



She also started on real baby food yesterday. Stan fed her sweet potatoes for dinner. Not bad for her first time, but we're hoping she will start enjoying them a little more! She eats oatmeal in the morning and a vege in the evening. Still eats 5 6oz bottles a day.


What else is happening in the Ward World...Wednesday we got a huge snow storm...over 6 inches on our deck, which helped open another run at Abasin. We've already gotten a couple of days of snowboarding in.

We've also been continuing on our house updates. Tracy painted more this week and Stan installed more trim.

October 20, 2008

Snowboard Season Begins

Saturday was our first day of snowboarding of the 2008-09 season. The 3 of us ventured to ABasin to shrow the pow. Okay, it's actually man made snow, and it's only 1 run. I went on a couple runs while Stan and Casey hung out on the deck, then Stan went out for a few runs while I hung with Casey.

Sunday we rode our bikes to Keystone in the morning with our friend Steve. Aunt Kel showed up at lunchtime. After spending some quality time with her niece, Kel and I headed to ABasin for some snowboarding then to the outlets for some shopping. Casey stayed home with Dad and Steve to watch football.

Other news...I got the stairs oiled so the floors are finally finished! I also started painting the hallways and half the living room...practical beige. Stan put in a little bit of trim this weekend. Mainly so we could move the piano back to it's place. We'll be finishing the rest when Stan is in town next week. I'll be working on painting more of the house this week...as long as this sick bug that I woke up with this morning doesn't slow me down too much.

In Casey news...she is getting used to eating oatmeal now. She opens her mouth and actually eats it. This week we'll see if she is interested in eating more than once a day. Casey is also looking like she wants to crawl. Today she was playing on her activity mat on her stomach and actually used her arms to pull herself towards her toys. At one point, she brought her knees up under her and got into a crawling position.

hanging in her bike trailer

October 14, 2008

The Squirrel

Let's first discuss the Squirrel. Saturday night Stan and I are sitting on the couch in the living room watching TV and Stan looks up and says, "What is that?!" Apparently, Squirrel has decided to mimic us and renovate his home which is on the beam separating the living room and dining room, and juts outside of our house right above our TV. While renovating his winter hibernation haven, he broke through the drywall! Yes, there is now a small hole (with some insulation sticking out) above the TV. All I could think of was that Stan would leave on Monday and Tuesday, somehow this Squirrel would end up sitting on the couch watching TV with me!! Yikes!

We had set the trap out on Saturday morning and actually watched as the Squirrel went into the trap, grab the apple and leave without being captured. Pesky little rodent! Now that time was running short, Sunday, Stan set the trap and 30 minutes later we heard the wonderful sound of metal to metal...the Squirrel was trapped. We drove him 13 miles away to Abasin, his new home.

Monday morning we scurried off to the hardware store and bought metal plates and spray insulation to again, close up this hole. Keeping our fingers crossed that this pesky rodent does not find his way back to Dillon and try to eat his way into his cave.

More activity this weekend...our floors are complete. Our friends Jason, Gretchen and Dave came over Friday and with Stan's help, finished installing the stairs. The oil will be applied this week! Now we just need to paint the walls, stain the columns and install the new trim.

Casey has been great with all these projects. Hardware stores have become her second home. She will most likely become a famous developer/architect/builder with all this experience at such a young age!

Casey is still taking 3 naps during the day and her bedtime is 7:00 p.m. She cannot make it much past that time. She sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night (3:00 a.m.) and talks for 30-60 minutes, which isn't that fun, since we can hear her through the monitor. In the morning she has been waking up between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m., but seems content to playing and scooting around in her crib until we decide we're ready to get up and get her. She loves to kick on her crib aquarium, so Stan and I have been waking to Canon in D most mornings.

She drinks 6 oz bottles 5 times a day. She is still trying to figure out the oatmeal with bananas. She is slowly learning to open her mouth to take the oatmeal in, but then spits most of it back out. She's more interested in eating her bib or the high straps than the actual oatmeal.

She is getting so much stronger sitting and can even pull herself into a sitting position when she is leaning back. She loves to squeal, sometimes does it the entire 1 1/2 hours while she's up.

We oovooed (video calling) with Gramma Gail last night and Casey was mesmerized with the pictures of her and Gramma on the computer screen. She kept trying to grab at the faces.

Friday, Casey and I went to our first Mommy & Me yoga class at the Rec Center. There were about 10 other pairs there...kids of all ages, from 3 weeks to 15 months. Casey met a girl, Rowan, who was born the same day as her. Casey was very well behaved and seemed to enjoy the class. She watched the other kids, rolled around, sat around. Not much actual yoga going on, but it's fun getting out with other moms and babies.

As for the weather out here...we got some snow this weekend and the temperature has definitely dropped into the 30's at night and upper 30-upper 50's during the day. Arapahoe Basin Ski Resort has been making snow and they are supposedly opening on the 15th. Looking forward to taking some runs this weekend!!! Maybe we'll run into Squirrel (or run over him...)

Casey wants to send a HUGE Congratulations out to Aunt Marcy who finished a 1/2 marathon this past Saturday in Baltimore!! And a Good Luck to Aunt Kel who has her midterms this week.

Casey loves the new carpet.
and loves to eat her feet
playing with her new blocks. frisco actually relocated next to casey.
open mouth smile

new living room rug
new dining room rug. nice to have our dining room table back.

October 06, 2008

A Girl's Gotta Eat

Casey turned 5 months old on Wednesday, Oct 1. By our scale and measurements she weighs about 16 lbs and is 26 inches long.

Stan got in Thursday night after a mean game of paintball with his company. He arrived home with plenty of welts and very sore knees. The hot tub came in handy this weekend!!

Friday night we met up with Erica and Khristian for a 2 for 1 dinner at Cafe Alpine. Casey was great. She had her bottle before the apps arrived, had a tiny melt down in her car seat, then passed out for the rest of the evening!

Saturday Casey got her first meal. After eating her 6 oz bottle of formula, she got to try some banana oatmeal while sitting in her high chair for the first time. She wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but she seemed to enjoy thrusting it back out with her tongue then giving us a big smile. Sunday and Monday she did much better. She actually opened her mouth when the spoon touched her lips and looked like she swallowed a couple bites.

This was a weekend of house chores! First things first, Carpenter Stan the man, built a workbench in the heated garage. He even got to use it to stain the baseboard and window casing. We also worked on trying to find a color for the interior window trim and doors that might match our floors and trim...still working on it.

The unfortunate part of the weekend was while we were on our way to Breckenridge, to meet up with Geoff, Sarah and Kaelin for dinner, the always reliable Burb, broke down. It was towed away and after a new fuel pump, regulator and filter...it's as good as new...well almost.

It started to get cool here this week. It rained Wed-Sun with a little wet snow/sleet. Last night it snowed enough to leave a trace on our deck and yard. The peaks definitely got a lot more than Dillon. Snowboard season is right around the corner!

can you see her two teeth?
ready for the hokies game
using the autotimer with mommy

first eats
stan's workbench
casey playing with her toys in her crib after her nap
swinging at lake dillon
frisco giving casey a bath
what are you looking at?