Archive for March, 2010

Guess That Picture

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

Let’s play a little game of "Guess That Picture".  I will show you a picture and you see if you can figure out what it is.  Got it?  Ok, here we go:

2010-03-30 Spring has sprung 005

 

Have you figured it out yet?  No, well try this picture:

2010-03-30 Spring has sprung 003

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, our very first asparagus stalks have started to peek through the ground.  That must mean two of my favorite things are near:  Fresh garden produce from our backyard and the Farmer’s Market!  Can I get a "Hip, Hip, Hooray"?  Not excited?  Well, Mikayla seems to be…

2010-03-30 Spring has sprung 009

…or maybe she is just enjoying her time playing out in the fresh air.  Either way, we are both excited!

2010-03-30 Spring has sprung 015

This kid was also pretty excited about her unfilled Easter eggs and picking the grass.

2010-03-30 Spring has sprung 029

 2010-03-30 Spring has sprung 020

 2010-03-30 Spring has sprung 026 

2010-03-30 Spring has sprung 027

1
Tags: ,
Posted in Life |

Family Bike Ride

Friday, March 26th, 2010

We have had several beautiful spring days here lately.  The warm weather and bright sun seem to draw us outside, even if nothing more than to sit on the front porch and let Mikayla crawl around on the ground.  We recently got a bike trailer stroller from some good friends and decided to break it in.  Please ignore the fact that none of us are wearing helmets, it was a quick ride around the block.  It was a great way to spend the sunny afternoon with my family.

2010-03-25 Bike, food, walker 036Mikayla all strapped in and ready to go.  She was so excited!

2010-03-25 Bike, food, walker 044Cruising in style!

 2010-03-25 Bike, food, walker 051Ben pulling Mikayla

  2010-03-25 Bike, food, walker 038 Me pulling Mikayla

2
Tags: ,
Posted in Life |

Little Miss Independent

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

As Mikayla gets older, she wants to be more and more independent.  She enjoys playing by herself and wants to walk/crawl everywhere.  She has been feeding herself some finger food for quite some time now and has a tendency to push away the spoon when we try to feed her.  So, I decided to try a little experiment tonight.  I made a bowl of cereal (on the thick side) and let Mikayla go to town.  Besides the mess she made, I would say she did a pretty good job!  Check out Little Miss Independent herself:

Forget the spoon, she goes in with her hands.  Is this a preview to her first birthday??

1

Spring Fever

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

**I meant to post this yesterday and never did…unfortunately the sun has gone away and now we have some rain.**

I don’t know about you, but here in the Kickert household we have Spring Fever!  The sun is shining, birds are chirping and the air is slowly warming up.

We tilled the garden for the first time.

We broke out our Chacos and disc golf discs.

We took Mikayla swinging, she was a fan.

2010-03-02 Chef, spaghetti 157 

2010-03-02 Chef, spaghetti 164

Bring on summer vacation for more outside fun!

0

In Case You Haven’t Heard…

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

This child

2010-03-02 Chef, spaghetti 150

Is WALKING!

2010-03-02 Chef, spaghetti 151

Check her out on Ben’s blog here.

By far the coolest milestone she has met thus far.  I am not sure why it was so exciting, but it was!  In case you can’t tell by the video, Ben and I are more excited than Mikayla about the fact that she is walking.  She still prefers to crawl, but is gaining more confidence each day with her walking.

**FYI – Her diaper is so large because it is a night time diaper.  Daytime diapers are not this "fluffy"!

1
Tags: , ,
Posted in Parenting |

The best toys…

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

The best toys are not ones that you buy at the store and make a lot of noise.  The best toys are not ones that cost a lot of money.  The best toys are not the ones you (as the parent) choose as your favorite. 

No, the best toys are what you would least likely expect them to be.  They are items that you already have on hand or items that cost little.  Some of Mikayla’s favorite toys have been things like pots and spoons or magazines or containers of Puff’s.  This weekend we spent time with some dear friends in Tallahassee (see this post for more information) and Mikayla found a new toy…a laundry basket.  Who knew laundry baskets could be so much fun!  She liked to put things in it and then promptly take them out.  She enjoyed being dragged around their apartment while sitting in the laundry basket. 

Then she got the bright idea to stand up behind the laundry basket and try her hand at walking up and down the hallway pushing it.  She was really moving.  Check her out:

 

How cute is she?  Let’s take a poll…will she be walking by her first birthday (April 28)?

3

Hijacked and "The Girls"

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Ben beat me to it.  This post, was one I was going to write as soon as I had time to sit down and write it.  However, he beat me too it.  That’s okay though, because what he said was so important I feel like I can repeat it in my own words.

I think it is awesome when we can get together with those we love, who might I add we don’t get to see that often, and the moment we get together we are able to pick up right where we left off as if months hadn’t gone by since our last visit.  It is amazing.  Dave and Catherine are dear friends to us and their friendship is one like I described above.  Again, amazing!  They are the type of friends that no matter what the scenario, whatever the combination of the four of us are around (or six if you count Mikayla and Molly) we can have fun and there be no awkward pauses in conversation.  It might be me, Ben and Cat or Dave, Cat and me or maybe just Ben and Cat and there is no awkwardness.  Does this make sense?   Ben may have said it more eloquently than I, but I treasure the friendship we have with the Altmaiers.   In Ben’s word, a "Pretty mundane and typical" weekend, spent with great friends was just what this girl needed!

2010-03-16 Tally 035

Dave goofing off at Cat’s birthday lunch.

 2010-03-16 Tally 013

Ben hanging with Molly.

 2010-03-16 Tally 015

Ben has this thing with picking people’s noses, just ask our friends from high school.

  2010-03-16 Tally 019

Cat and Mikayla

 2010-03-16 Tally 034

Birthday girl with her kiddo at a yummy French restaurant.

 

One of the greatest parts of this weekend was introducing Mikayla to Molly.  Catherine and I were driving around Tallahassee and she made a comment about "the girls".  How cool is it that we can refer to our kiddos as "the girls"?  Catherine has been a friend of mine since elementary school.  We were in girls scouts together, attended the same youth group in middle and high school, were college roommates, she was a bridesmaid in my wedding…the list could go on and on.  To say the least we have been friends for a really long time.  She is one of the few people in life that I can be 100% real with.  I would argue that she knows me as well as Ben.  I can call her for a laugh, cry, rant and more.  Good friends are hard to come by and so that is why I think it is so cool we can refer to our daughters as "the girls".  I just hope that "the girls" have a friendship like their moms and that Mikayla finds her Catherine one day!

2010-03-16 Tally 058 "The girls"

5
Tags: , , ,
Posted in Life |

My Little Chef

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Mikayla apparently takes after me and loves to cook.  Take a look for yourself.  Note the level of concentration on her face.

2010-03-02 Chef, spaghetti 020  2010-03-02 Chef, spaghetti 017 

2010-03-02 Chef, spaghetti 018 

2010-03-02 Chef, spaghetti 019

2010-03-02 Chef, spaghetti 016

—————————————————————————————–

We also had our first go at spaghetti this week.  I must say, she stayed cleaner than some of my kiddos at school when she ate it.

2010-03-02 Chef, spaghetti 022

 2010-03-02 Chef, spaghetti 021

—————————————————————————————–

Sunday marked Mikayla’s 10 month birthday.  Hard to believe 10 months have already passed.  Check out this, this and this post for past giraffe growth pictures.  Here she is at 10 months (note it is getting harder and harder to get her to lay still long enough to snap the photos).

2010-03-02 Chef, spaghetti 002 

She is now standing for long periods and scooting along furniture.  She has even gone from sitting to standing a couple of times.  We fear walking is in our near future!  "Talking" up a storm too.  And even dancing a little, if you could call it that!  Here are a couple more videos of my Little Munchkin!

Sorry, this post got longer than I had intended.  Hope you enjoyed!

1
Tags: , ,
Posted in Life, Parenting |

Pathetic

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Over the weekend I turned 27.  I wouldn’t consider myself old by any means, just older!  Ben so kindly made me a cake complete with 27 candles…so creative.

2010-03-02 Chef, spaghetti 004

Unfortunately, I was unable to blow out 27 candles in one fail swoop.  Pathetic.  Judge for yourself!

3
Tags:
Posted in Life |