Playing with Tucker

Here is a little clip of Summer playing with Tucker this morning (Tucker looks a lot more subdued than usual because he and I went for a run not too long before this video!!!).  Summer individually took several of Tucker's toys and brought them to him, putting them in his bed for him.  Unfortunately, I didn't catch it on video until the last toy, but hopefully you get the idea.  It was pretty cute!

Just for fun

Mommy finally got a ponytail to stay....for a little while anyway!

YAY!

Daddy decided that Summer was having all the fun eating her spaghetti and he wanted to join in the fun!

Summer isn't sure what to think!

"Mom, do you see what he is doing?!?!"

That is pretty cool!

Silly Dad!

Let me try!

sweet :)

 

Summer fed her self with a spoon for the first time today!

 

 

It is still fun to use her fingers though!

 

Family Vacation

As I mentioned in the last post, we took a family vacation to my parents cabin in Shell Lake, WI.  We had so much fun being together for a whole week, swimming, playing in the sand, boating, fishing, playing board games and lawn games, and playing with Summer and Tucker.  Here are a few pictures.

Paul spotted a juvenile bald eagle on the yard.  It was MASSIVE!

This is a small tree next to him for size comparison.

Summer enjoyed playing with Grandma's toys.

Mommy thought she might be able to put Summer's first ponytail in her hair....

After trying and trying....

the combination of a wiggly baby and very fine baby hair made the task a little too challenging!  (In the next post, however, you will see a successful ponytail!)

Tucker enjoyed being with the family and relaxing

The life!

 While Summer plays, she has many interesting faces she makes!  Paul was able to document a few of the many in the following pictures....

The "deer in the headlights" face

The "I'm not so sure about this" face

The "I am so interested in that right now" face

The "zoning" face

The "my tongue is so cool" face

The "determined" face

The "oh really" face

The "snuggle" face

The "what is that?" face

The "wow that is so incredibly awesome" face

The "I'm just happy to be alive" face

The "curious" face

The "pondering" face

The "I'm not sure" face

The "I'm on top of the world" face

The "I'm getting tired" face

The "smile at the camera" face

 

 

 

 

The "go-get-em" face

 While at the cabin, daddy gave Summer her first Oreo.  She loved it!

Fishing

My parents came up the last few days we were at the cabin. It was fun to see them, and that also meant that we could go waterskiing.  (Need a boat driver and a spotter before you can ski, and we only had the two of us)  Here are a few pictures.

Ready to waterski

Up on two skis

Dropped one ski

The lake was like glass....so fun for waterskiing!

Paul skiing

Paul wizzing outside the wake

Me trying to get up on one ski....despite many attempts, I never did it, soo...

I got up on two again, and dropped one. :)

Some videos

Hi everyone!  Sorry it has been a while since our last post.  We have been having a great week so far.  Last weekend started with a visit from our favorite Fergus Falls relatives: Grandma and Grandpa Tommerdahl, Great-Grandma Sandy, and Uncle Jordan and Uncle Javonte.  Auntie Sarah and Uncle Ty came over for a bit too!  We went to a Twins game and hung out at our place and got caught up.  Here is a video Uncle Jordan took of Summer at dinner one night.  Summer had the whole table laughing with her silly faces.  In the video, you will see a few Summer trademarks: She loves to shout "dig, dig, dig, dig", she blows bubbles, she animatedly claps her hands, she waves hello by opening and closing her fist, she puts her hand to her ear to "talk on the phone" (she uses a real phone if she has one in her hand), and she says MMMMmmm when she is eating.

 

Right now we are on vacation for a week!  YAHOO!  We left on Saturday and will come home next Saturday.  We are staying at my parents' cabin for the week and loving it!  We love playing in the sand, in the water, playing board games, and being together as a family of four (yes, of course Tucker is part of our family!) and getting away from the business of real life for a week.  I haven't been very good about taking pictures so far, and I forgot to bring the video camera, but we do have a few videos from Paul's phone (sorry if the quality isn't that great!) to show you some things Summer has been up to.

She is starting to learn how to feed herself with a fork and a spoon.  She doesn't have the "picking up the food" part down yet but she is starting to get the hang of the "put the food in your mouth" part!  Here is a little video:

She has a new little "dance" she does when she hears music.  She tips her head from side to side touching each shoulder with her head and does a little twist with her tummy.  At first we weren't sure what she was doing, because it is a little funny looking, but now we know it is her way of dancing because she does it when she hears music.  She loves Grandma's little rolling musical toy turtle and will repeatedly press the button that plays the music and "dance" while she plays with her other toys.  When the music runs out, she will press the button again so she can dance and play with her other toys with music in the background!  Paul and I were just sitting and laughing as we watched her yesterday, and Paul took this little video on his phone. You'll notice she is just in her diaper to help her keep cool (Heat index was 110 yesterday with no air conditioning but she doesn't seem to mind!) 

This little video shows a few more "Summer-ism's"!  It is so cute, when she sees me, she will get a big grin and come crawling over.  In this video I was in the kitchen doing dishes and I peeked over the counter at her.  She saw me and came crawling over.  She loves to point at things now and ask what their names are.  Sometimes it is hard to tell what she is pointing at, so we just tell her the names of everything we see.  She is so curious and it is so fun to watch/help her learn.  Each month she gets more and more fun!  Another current Summer-ism you will see in this video is that she will say "oooh" for "uh-oh" if she drops something.

Our little monkey loves to climb the stairs.  She is getting pretty fast, too.  We are still working on how to come down the stairs!  Because I am always spotting her when she is on the stairs, she thinks she can just lean toward me when coming down the stairs and I will catch her.  She doesn't yet understand that she needs to go down the stairs while facing up the stairs!

Kirkwood Family Reunion

This past weekend we had a blast getting to see everyone on my dad's side.  Every summer, my parents and my dad's siblings plan a "DU", or "Destination Unknown" for my grandparents.  They hop in my aunt and uncle's car, and they don't know where the family reunion will be until they arrive.  This year, DU was at my parents cabin.  Here are a few pictures thanks to my family members (I didn't take any, so I stole from them!)

The first dinner (Thursday night) we had 8 and a baby...but by the next day we had all 18 of us together!

Great-Grandma and Summer

Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Kirkwood

Summer is ready for a boat ride!

The best part of the weekend was all the great chats...getting caught up with everyone...love it!

Great-Grandma, Grandma, and Summer on the tube

Waving to mommy on the boat

Food--always a great part of weekends like this!

Auntie Kristin always has a soft spot for our lil' Tuckeroo!

Auntie Kristin cuddled with Summer while mommy went water skiing

I love my cousins!  We have so many memories together.

While there, we celebrated my Grandpa's time in the service during WWII.  We all had been "bugging" him to write down stories from his service to our country, and he finally did :).  He brought them along and my uncles read his memoir out loud to the family.  It was REALLY cool.

My cousin Nate...the ONLY boy cousin!  Grandpa wrote his memoir addressed to Nate as he carries on the family name.

The uncles reading my Grandpa's memoir.

My grandparents....such a cute picture!

Beautiful sunrise picture taken by my mom

The last night, we all went out to dinner.....

We were quite the group!

Family picture

Tucker had fun too....he loved swimming and rolling in the sand!