State Fair

Paul and Summer in the pig barn

We took Summer to the State Fair today!  We had so much fun and she did really well.  We left home after her nap, around 2:00, and got home a little past 8:00, which was the perfect amount of time to be at the fair with a baby!  Summer enjoyed trying our giant turkey leg, pizza slice, mini donuts, and oreo shake!  We also brought along one of her new favorite foods, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich :) and some grapes and carrots and puffs for her to munch while we strolled.  Her favorite parts of the fair by far, however, were the animal attractions.  She loved the puppy area, and Paul took her to each puppy to pet it.  When she saw it, she would point and exclaim, PUPPY!  However, she had the same response when petting the sheep, seeing the duckies, looking at the baby pigs, and watching the cows!  She finally was able to repeat "cow" when we were looking at those, but everything else was a PUPPY or DOGGIE!  It is so cute to watch her get so excited about animals.  Here are a few pictures and videos:

Dancing to the Kid's Kangaroo Band

Summer and Mommy

People Watching :)

This is fun!

Hi!

What is on my head?

 

 

Date Night

Paul and I went to a Twins game last night, just the two of us, and Grandma and Grandpa Kirkwood stayed with Summer!

The Line-Up

Down by the field

 We had a fun date night, complete with my favorite polish sausage and lemon ice :),

What happens when you leave Grandma and Grandpa alone for a few hours with their grandchild and a video camera????  FORTY THREE VIDEOS! :-)   HAHA!  Needless to say, Summer had fun with Grandma and Grandpa and we sure had fun re-living their evening through the videos!  I won't post all 43 ;), but I will choose a few so that you can see Summer's fun time with Grandma and Grandpa!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around Here

This is just a random post full of random things :)   I like writing out all this stuff, because I know I will never remember it if I don't write it down!  So here is what Summer is up to at about one year of age.

WALKING
*Summer took her first steps at Grandma and Grandpa Tommerdahl's trailer last weekend.  She walked from mommy to Grandpa T and took 3 steps.  She walked several other times last weeked, 2-3 steps in between people.  This past Thursday, August 18th, after having a birthday lunch downtown with Auntie Kristin, Summer walked by herself quite a bit.  She took 12 steps in a row all by herself!  Later that day, I was working in the kitchen and she came walking toward me from the living room.  She fell before she got to me, but it was quite surprising!

Here are a few pictures from our birthday lunch with Auntie Kristin and playing at the park.

August birthday buddies!

Celebrating Auntie Kristin's birthday (we met her for lunch in downtown Minneapolis where she works)

Going down the slide

Climbing

At the top of the slide!

TALKING
*Summer is saying quite a few "words" now.  Let me see if I can recap some of them:
1) Ca-Ca (Tucker)
2) Coo-Coo (Coo-Coo Clock)
3) Ga-Ca-Ca (Graham Crackers)
4) Ba (Means both "water bottle" and "book" depending on context)
5) Uh-oh (Started out as ooooh, and then went to uh-oh, usually when she drops something)
6) Amen (means "let's eat!" we pray before each meal, so she associates amen with eating!)
7) Da-Da (Daddy)
8) Ba-Ba (Bubbles)
9) A-Tis-Ah (What is that?)
10) Hi!
11) All Done
**She mimics other words when we say them too.
**We are still working on Mommy :)  She says it sometimes, but not enough where I would guarantee that she knows it!

This little video shows two of her words.  She knows that Daddy always comes home through the garage door, so around dinner time, she will go over to the door and say da-da.  On this particular day, she was VERY excited to see her daddy and started to cry she wanted to see him so bad!  It was really cute!   At the end of the video she sees her water bottle on the table, and you will hear her say "ba-ba".  That distracts her for a little bit on her wish for daddy to come home!

 

Don't want to leave you on a sad note!  Daddy came home, like he always does, and Summer grinned from ear to ear, I wish I had the video camera running!  Here is a little clip of her with daddy later than evening after bath time.

 

Here is one more clip of her being excited to see Daddy.  Summer and I were out mowing the lawn and daddy was replacing the shower door in the bathroom.  He came out to say hi, and she got so excited!

EATING
*Summer loves all fruits and pasta and cheese.  She is not super keen on meat, but will eat it if I mix it with lots of cheese!  Her all-time favorite food is graham crackers and she won't turn them down, and requests them at most meals!  Even if I just go near the cabinet where we keep the graham crackers and point to it, she will get all excited and say "Ga-Ca-Ca, Ga-Ca-Ca!!!"  She loves drinking whole milk, so that transition was easy, which was nice for mommy!

TEETH
*Summer has 7 teeth, 4 on top, and 3 on the bottom.

PLAYING
*Summer is great at playing on her own and entertaining herself.  Her favorite things are anything little she can pick up and hold in both hands.  She almost always has something in at least one, if not both, hands, as she crawls all over.  She loves to open things, take things out, and put things in.  Right now she has been having fun with a little kitchen set we got her for her birthday, because she can open all the cabinets and put play food in them, and take them out!  She still loves cell phones and anything with buttons.  (As I am writing this Summer is typing out a text message to her friend Adry....woops!....just grabbed the phone!)  We try to read at least one book a day, but she usually likes taking the books out of the basket better than reading them!

Here is a little video of her in her kitchen unloading her grocery cart:

SLEEPING
*Summer takes one nap a day some days, and two naps a day other days.  She keeps me on my toes, as some days she needs a lot more sleep than others!  On a more typical day, she will get up between 7-7:30, nap about 10-10:30, and then potentially go down for another nap around 4.  She goes to bed at 8.

PERSONALITY
*It is fun to watch Summer and who she is growing up to be.  She is in constant motion, and loves exploring and looking at everything.  She knows what she wants, where she wants to go, and what she wants to do!  We have had a few tantrums already on things such as not wanting to eat what was in front of her or not wanting to go where we are going.  Overall, she is a very good listener, and when I tell her "no", she will often stop reaching for whatever she was reaching for and crawl the other way.  I am very proud of her!  She loves animals of all types and music too.  I think I love her more every day as I get to know more about what makes up "little Summer"!

Tommerdahl week at the trailer

We spent this last week at the Tommerdahl's trailer in Battle Lake, MN.  We had so much fun swimming, fishing, eating, and catching up with family.  Summer loved seeing all the dogs and loved to point and say their names: Tucker (caca), Roco (coco), Annie (nana), and Bode (Ba).  Summer got to meet her second cousin Kopal for the first time, as well as see second cousin Jackson (same age/same birthday as Summer) again.  Here are some videos and pictures to document the weekend

This was Summer's favorite part of the weekend....walking/exploring the campground with Grandma!  The first video is the "short version" and the second video is the"long version" if you want to see more of the campground!

Tucker!

Chillin'

Summer LOVED this little dog Roco and chased him all over saying "coco,coco".  She also had a great time playing with her great grandma Sandy!

Walking with mommy

The dogs keeping a lookout

Our fine dog ;)

Bode!

Summer and Daddy

Singing Summer's favorite song "Bouncing up and down in my little red wagon"

Look alikes :)

Annie

Walking with Daddy

My first time meeting Kopal!  So cute!  (6 months)

Kopal and Summer playing in the pool

Great Grandma, Mommy, and Summer

I love you, Summer Tenleigh!

Daddy loves you too!

Jackson

My handsome hubby!

Daddy and Summer swimming

Family picture

Grandpa and Summer

Grandma is so much fun!

 Playing by the pool with Jackson

Family Birthday Party

I'm a little behind with blogging, but I will try and catch up!  We had Summer's family birthday party on the weekend after her birthday (August 6th) and except for Uncle Jordan who was working at a camp in Colorado, all of her aunts, uncles, grandparents and even Great Grandma Sandy were able to come celebrate.  We are SO thankful for such an amazing family for Summer.  They shower her with love and prayers and we couldn't be more blessed!  Here are a few pictures and video from the day.

One half of the table

the other half of the table

i am....six?....

no, I mean I am ONE!!!!!

The cake WE ate

Summer's cake

Singing to Summer

Summer wasn't too fond of the cake, but she loves graham crackers....

so, we put graham crackers in her cake, and she loved that!

Summer and Great-Grandma Sandy

Summer and Auntie Kristin

Summer and Grandma and Grandpa Kirkwood

Summer and Grandma and Grandpa Tommerdahl, and Uncle Javonte

Summer and Auntie Sarah and Uncle Ty

Family Picture

Here are a few videos:
Summer loves dancing to music, so this first video is of her dancing while we were waiting for lunch to be ready.

This next video is of her with the cake.  She didn't exactly dive in like I had hoped :)!!!!  The best word I can use to describe her demeanor is "confused"!   She just didn't understand what was going on, but it was really cute!

 

She love graham crackers, so we stuck some in her cake, and then she enjoyed it a bit more!  I think she was still a little overwhelmed with everything though!

 

This last video is her with one of her presents, a little stroller.  It is the first time she has walked "on her own".  She has the walking part mostly down, but needs to work on her steering!

 

What a fun day!  Thanks to all our family for making the trek to Apple Valley to help us celebrate!