casa numero dos

We closed on our second house this afternoon. A real single family house.
Two houses in two years.
So if my math is correct in ten years we will own ten homes. (: I'll thank my grumpy math teacher Mr. Nelson for those mad skills!
The truth is I'm a little sad to leave the duplex it was our first home and the home we brought little Brynny home to after all. The funny thing is we almost didn't even go inside the duplex when we first pulled up to the open house but our realtor was already inside so we obliged. You know when they say "you'll get a feeling"? Well we had a feeling about the duplex. Yes the outside was a sore thumb but inside the orginal wood floors were in great shape and the vintage bathrooms were in decent 60 year old shape. We always knew it was going to be an investment property and we are ready for some more space.  Besides I have a not so secret dream that someday Brynn will want to live here someday with a friend. It will be crazy to think what this area will be like in 20+ years based on all the new building/stores/restaurants that are currently in the works!

We've looked a lot of houses over the past year, multi and single family homes, only to keep looking. The duplexes we saw were either disasters (aka money pits) or really overpriced (which only made us more confident that we got a great deal on our current house!). The single family houses were a combination of houses that were already updated (and not in our style), lacked enough bedrooms or space in general, or were too expensive. Then this one came along and we made it ours. The nice thing about this house is that if we had to live here for a long time we could, but I have a feeling we'll be ready to remodel again in a few years once we have this house complete. As a bonus we've already rented the other side of the duplex..it actually took two showings instead of one this time because the first showing really wanted a dishwasher. The couple we found are two teachers with advanced degress who are getting married in a month. One actually teaches at the elementary school that Brynn will probably go to!

We have lots to look forward to in our new house (don't laugh as I know these are things most of you are used to!)
-2 car garage
-3 bedrooms on the same level
-a YARD
-new windows (I am over the "charm" of original windows that have been painted 20 times!)
-a fireplace (actually 2!)
-an open concept kitchen (after living in the condo for 3 years I really missed the ability to see the action while making dinner)
-a king sized bed!!

Magnus choice of "spots" in our homes:
1. Condo deck..preferably in the sunshine!

2. Chair by the window...again a sunny spot!

we like spring

We walked around the block this evening per Magnus' request even though I knew he had only been walked an hour earlier by our nanny. Five houses up the street our neighbor has an in-home daycare where our little neighbors, twin four year old boys, go to daycare. We walked by and they rode their bikes up to the fence to greet Magnus and Brynn. I asked them if they were having fun and the one little dude responded "we like spring". I laughed and thought how perfectly he summarized how every Minnesotan was feeling today. I sat in my office today just itching to go outside... it was terribly unproductive. There is a really nice trail system connected to our campus so I took a quick 30 minute walk and felt much better to finish the afternoon. When I got home I learned Brynn and Allie had walked to the park on the lake where she met a little girl on the swings. Of course all I could think about was how I wanted to bring her to the park instead of sitting in that silly office. Apparently being a working mother is harder in the summertime :( so please send me all the school nurse jobs you can find! We finished our walk and did a few yard chores. I have a few tulips coming through and even though our grass was really brown during last summer's drought it's coming up  nice and green albeit a little patchy. The city planted a new tree in our front yard  and even though I tried my best to water it (I did have a newborn after all!)  There are very few buds on it but I'll keep watching it.

This past weekend we spent up north with at our friends at their cabin. Brynn hung out with her bud Crosby. It's hard to believe that only 6 months ago Brynn was Crosby's age! Brynn enjoyed some quality outdoors time, probably ate dirt for the first time, and stayed up late (see the picture of her standing on my pillow after crawling away from a diaper change!)

a beautiful baptism

Last Sunday Brynn was baptized at our church. We were so blessed to have so many family members available for the occasion and it was just a wonderful time to spend with people that love her. Truth be told we thought baptism was AFTER church and only found out three days prior that it was actually during service. While I don't judge other parents when their babies cry during church...I didn't want MY baby to cry during church let alone during baptism :) Luckily Brynn was a rockstar even when her dad tipped her back and Pastor Eric and gently baptized her. Brynn wore the same baptism gown that's been in my dad's family for 108 years. We slipped it on right before the baptism and took it off right after getting back to our pew. We were not going to risk a 108 year old dress with a 10 month old :) Despite no nap Brynn played with all her "guests" until she had enough and we headed home for a nap. Brynn received some wonderful gifts that she will cherish for years.

10 months!

Dear Brynn,

Every month is our new favorite. So much happened this month I hope I remember it all! You've officially become a fast little mover. We can't take our eyes off you for one second because you will be off in the other direction. Mom went to a baby proofing brunch and it was very helpful to know all that should be done. We're going to wait until we move into our new house to install things like cabinet locks so in the meantime we are just going to be very watchful. You learned to dance this month! I know the nanny plays music most of the day so you are used to listening to lots of different sounds. I found a indie kids station on Pandora that both you and I like to listen to...win win. You'll dance by grooving back and forth and your face will just light up. You also learned to hug!!! There is nothing in world that is better than when your little arms hold onto us so tight. Hugs are almost guaranteed when we get home from work. You also are drinking out of a sippy cup like a champ. At your 9 month appt I learned you should be essentially weaned off the bottle by 12 months so we thought we better get on the sippy cup learning curve but it didn't take you long at all. I think you actually prefer the cup over the bottle. You are most entertained by taking things out of baskets. You've also learned to throw toys/food...this activity goes hand in hand with the baskets. We can't wait for you to learn how to put the toys back :)

Love Mommy and Daddy

what baby eats

 Brynn is such a good little eater! I think she really looks forward to food time. This might looks like a lot of food but half (if not more) ends up on the floor or in the bib. Recently she's learned the art of throwing toys and food so we've learned to take that as a sign that dinner time is done :) My fav go-to baby food stops are Lunds and Trader Joe's (TJs). Both sell a good selection of organic produce (I follow the dirty dozen pretty religiously EWG Dirty Dozen sometimes to the dismay of my wallet) and Lunds sells 1lb of mango already cut up which saves me time. The butternut squash ravioli comes from from TJs and is really good with a simple brown butter sauce :: recipe here (I skip the sage) Brown Butter Sauce ::

Wordless Wednesday

My running buddy

Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful first Easter as a family. On Saturday baby and I  took advantage of the warm weather and walked around the lake to my friend Katie's new house. We had a nice visit and Brynn enjoyed exploring the new house with her new found fast freedom. It's so comical to see the number of people walking around the lake when all winter we've essentially had the path to our self or shared it with a few other winter walker/runners. Saturday night was the offical start to the grilling season with some turkey burgers and beers. Oh how I love warm weather. When we got home we had a quick photo session to grab some Easter picks. Now that Brynn is so mobile it's getting to be more challenging but I just got a new camera remote the other day which should make things a little easier (and less of a workout!)
On Sunday morning we got baby dressed in her Sunday finest while I changed 5 times trying to find something that was A. not black (doesn't seem right to wear on Easter!) B. nursing friendly and C. warm enough :) We ventured out to church and arrived ON-TIME, quite the accomplishment really. But despite our arrival time we didn't get seats in the main church and were sent to watch the service on a large screen in "fellowship hall" aka the basement right next to the nursery. In the end it worked out as Brynn was able to crawl around in the back on the carpet while the 5 children in the last row turned around the whole time and watched her. I'm sure their parents we're really pleased that my baby was such a distraction to their kiddos but what do you do?? 40 minutes later we were on the road to my parents for Easter Bruch #1. Brynn was the center of attention and got some sweet Easter presents. She sat at the table with us and ate eggs, watermelon and grapes like a big girl. With a quick stop home to pick up the dog we were on the way to Easter #2. Brynn and Magnus burned off some more energy crawling and running respectively :) Brynn got another easter basket full of goodies and then we had another delicious ham meal.

Happy Birthday Kyle!

Happy birthday to my husband, Brynn's da-da, and magnus's preferred dog walker :) Thanks for being the best at all three!

What happened next...Brynn loves her puppy fur!