Megyn One Month

This is a relatively quick post...we have quite a few summertime fun photos to organize, but we'll get the business taken care of first.
Megyn had her official 1-month checkup this past week.



 Here is our girl dressed up for the occasion -
her outfit is complete thanks Anika's hand-me-down socks. 
(Sorry, girls - these socks are just too cute *not* to share!)

Megyn's official stats: Weight: 10 pounds, 15 ounces
Length: 22.5 inches

She's been sleeping very well, too - between 5 and 6 hour stints for the first part of the night and then about 2 - 3 hours for the second half.  Not that I've been taking advantage of this little gift - she's sleeping next to me as I type this...sigh...

Megyn has also been a champ with her "tummy time" and is lifting her head up to check things out. 

Helllooooooo!!!!

Take the picture, mom - this thing is heavy - 98th percentile!

Never far away, Sgt. Bismarck takes any opportunity to inch his way onto something soft, cuddly and totally NOT for him:

"Maybe they won't notice my neck and ear..."

Another tummy picture...her eyes are so bright!

Okay - I tried to make this post short and sweet - and I am now off to bed...I know to take advantage of her sweet gift of snoozing!

Good night!

Somewhere Under a Rainbow...

Rainbows are pretty amazing things - people have marveled over them throughout history - from Noah to the Lucky Charms Leprechaun, on down to our little Miss Anika, who loves to look for "bows".  I remember being so excited to see them as a kid - totally convinced that I would find a pot of gold (or at least a jackpot of Lucky Charms marshmallows!) until I was informed of their optical tricks and one could never really find the "end" of a rainbow.  Even though that adventure in gold hunting was dashed, the little tiny hope of finding my gold somehow, somewhere, has always been there - the thought of maybe, just maybe, one day I'd be stumbling along and something magical would happen.

Well, on Sunday, June 19th, 2011, (Father's Day!), a little bundle of gold came into our family under a rainbow in Montrose.  (I didn't see it, but evidently you could see the rainbow from the delivery room window - and our doctor said she drove up to the hospital and was amazed at the "huge" rainbow that was over the hospital.  I think that makes the commute to work pretty cool!)

Megyn Anne Linstid was born at 8:15 pm and weighed 8 pounds, 14 ounces, and was 20 inches long at Montrose Memorial Hospital (here is her "web nursery" announcement). 

In the event you want the gory details (from an extremely non-gory girl), just know that pre-labor lasted for a week and a half, we went to the hospital under false pretenses the week before, and when Megyn decided to really get the party started, we rocked it so quickly the epidural didn't have time to catch up with us! 

So, without any further ado (did you actually read this far?) - we know you really just want to see photos, anyway...here ya go!

Official Finisher Photo!

First photo of Mommy and Megyn...what a team!

What a Father's Day gift!

Big Sister Anika meeting Little Sister Megyn for the first time...

Ben's Beauties!

Check out that face - is that a wink?

Then, there was the trip home (yes, we only stayed 1 night at the hospital - everything was going great and I figured if we weren't going to sleep anyway, I'd rather not sleep in my own bed than at the hospital).

Check out what I can do!

Sgt. Bismarck inspecting his newest charge.

Anika showing one of her most prized loves to her baby sister - Ephalump!
(Also known as "Booof" - the official elephant noise)

Anika helping out.

Rough job being a big sis...time to relax in the baby seat!

Anika holding Megyn for the 1st time

Hmmm...this plug is a good idea!

Proud papa! (In the new Lazy Boy - the original Father's Day gift)

Remember my Mother's Day picture?  This is the Father's Day edition! 
Little did we know that in just about 7 more hours, there would be another bundle for Ben to hold!
(Okay, so *I* had an inkling...)

Its been a full month and we are all settling in - both grandmothers have visited and Uncle Billy and Cousin Briana have made the trip over to visit.  Megyn and Anika even have a new cousin on Ben's side of the family - born just 2 days before Megyn!  There was a baby boom of nieces and nephews for me between high school and college, and it seems like we're experiencing another one now - I have a feeling that there will be boxes of clothing flying around the country soon enough.  One day we'll be visiting and see PJ's on some kid that will bring back memories :-) 

I don't have Megyn's current stats, but she's growing like crazy - 9 lbs, 8 oz. 2 weeks after she was born.  Right now, we think she's in the 10+ pound range - she seems to be taking on more Wimsatt baby traits than Anika did...arriving fashionably late, a bit on the "above average" size, and with a bang!

Back to the rainbow - the other evening we had quite a show - Anika got so excited and pointed outside...we grabbed the camera...

Bow! Bow! Bow!

And Ben took this shot of his Golden Girls.  There may not be marshmallows, but we are lucky to be so charmed ;-)

Who needs a pot to put the gold in?

On another note:

Don't mind if we do!

A Jill of All Trades: Custodian, Comedian, and Contractor

I've been saving up some photos of Anika that seem pretty well "themed" - you'll be able to see some, ahem, age differences in a couple of them.  However, since we have 8 gazillion digital photos of her, why not go back through some of them and track her progress?  So, here we go!

I remember "waaaay back when" helping my mom with the laundry.  Handing her clothes pins, eventually taking the high part of the hill that our clothes line was on so I could hang some by myself, matching the dried socks up, and learning my numbers when sorting things out by size when everything was dry.  So, I figured, why not start Anika out on this task?  Putting laundry away has never been a strong point with me, but maybe if I try to teach my daughter, maybe I'll finally pick up and finish the laundry job!

9 months old and sitting pretty in the laundry room with me.

Cloth diapers = plenty of laundry!

I figured having Anika push the laundry basket around the house would help out with her walking skills - it worked pretty well (except when she first started and took a couple of headers into the basket...I figured that would just toughen her up for Mountain Biking later in life, though).  Most of the time when I got out the camera, Anika abandoned pushing the basket for attacking Mommy...which isn't a bad thing either!

Anika has also become comfortable with being in the kitchen.  For example - she helped with the inventory of our fake-tupperware drawer.

What's this?

Almost done!!!

She also likes to help out when I cook.  This day I was making banana bread and Anika was making mixed cereal.  But a good cook always cleans up, right?  (Some days I'm not the best of cooks....)

Mmmm...tasty!

Cheeeeeeese!

Check out those motor skills!

Anika has also developed quite the sense of humor through the years [oops! she hasn't been around long enough for that!] months. 

Our 7 month old ham in the tub.

9 months -
"I've got my helmet on!  Nothing can do me wrong!"

Bunny impersonation.

Swimming goggles and silly Shrek face.

Sitting on her pregnant mother's belly (8 months along, by the way in this one)
...Kiddo #2 is in for it!

Spending some time in her Father's shoes.

Another Shrek face with boots on.

She actually made forward progress with the boots on
while driving the Dora car!

We've also been doing quite a bit of improvements on the house...okay, not a new concept for us as we've been consistently working on improving the Homestid.  However, Anika has ventured into being a General Contractor as you can see on this next video.  She's explaining to Ben how to finish out the flooring job.

We're looking forward to Anika's advice on picking out the area rugs (we know that it has to be crawl-worthy in the family room) as well as landscaping the front yard.  Some people put pressure on their kids to be prodigies related to the arts and smarts ... we're coaching ours to be a prodigy of home improvement projects.  Tim Taylor would be proud (Home Improvment t.v. show reference, just in case you didn't get that one!).

In other news, kiddo #2 is still cooking away!  We will let you know when the grand entrance occurs! 

"When you're up, you're up and when you're down, you're down" - Noble Duke of York

May was quite the interesting month for us. 

It started out with a wonderful week of celebrations - Ben's birthday on May 5!  We had a Mexican themed dinner - Ben's tradition :-)  We had fajitas for dinner and home-made g-free sopapillas for dessert.  I was nervous about the sopapilla process, but Ben was willing to share his expert insight and we ended up with some rather warm. tasty, poofy, honey-laden fried deliciousness that I wouldn't object to repeating in the future!

Laiiid back - Anika and Ben relaxing and watching some Shrek.

Innagural sopapilla creation...in the fondue pot!!!
(Betcha didn't think of this use, Dena!)

Birthday Boy showing the world how to properly put honey in the fried deliciousness!

A few days later, it was Mother's Day.  We planned on hitting the Ouray Hot Springs, but ended up going over Red Mountain Pass to Silverton for lunch and then back home...Anika was passed out by the time we got back to the Hot Springs and Baby #2 had been actively squishing my lungs all the way back down the pass.  But, it was a beautiful drive and I was wearing flip flops with multiple feet of snow around me at the top of the pass...I am on a mission to force spring to appear!!!

The view from the top.

Anika and I at the top of the pass.

The Subie is tough...but not THAT tough! 
Driving down County Road 16 is out for the day!

When we got home, Anika was ready to PLAY!  So, we let our little Rock Star have some kid time in the sun.

Silly face!

She has such manners...sharing her rocks with Biz!

Then, it was Peli's birthday - 10 years old!  Her gift: the "Winter that Never Eeeeennnnddddssss!" (insert echoing voice for that one).  No one seemed to tell Old Man Winter to just Let. It. Go.

Check out that incredible springtime view!

Ben made a snowman and a snowboulder :-)

We *did* have hummingbirds flying around!

Peli and Biz enjoying the last winter blast (hopefully)

Her Highness :-)

This is the part that goes with this post's title of "When you're down. you're down": Peli passed away early in the morning on Friday, May 20th from heart issues.  We are slowly healing our own hearts and Anika goes to the windows and doors every once in a while and says "A-woo, a-woo" and looks for Peli, but we're all getting better.  Peli had a great retirement out here and was certainly a "Good Girl", as Anika had just learned to tell her.

(I'm currently working on a post called "The Tails Behind Linstidtails" that will go into more detail on the Pelster among other things, but that's going to take a while...)

Lest you think we didn't get more than one spring day without snow on the ground (we got at least 3 days), here is evidence to the contrary:

Sitting pretty waiting for Daddy.

Whoa - that's pretty cool!

Daddy?  Daddy? Daddy? Daddy?

My Daddy...My Hero

Not to end the month on a boring note, Ben and I celebrated our 12th Wedding Anniversary on May 29th.  We had a family celebration all day long!  Brunch at the Camp Robber, then to the pool, back home to nap, and then a tasty dinner of beef kabobs and shrimp!  Yummo!!!  Anika loved going to the pool and asking Ben to "Splash!" - meaning, "Father, please remove those random children out of the way and show them how you are REALLY supposed to go off of the diving board...and then do it again and again.  Also, I'd like to do the same thing.  It's no problem that I am a teeny tiny toddler, I can do it.  I. Want. To. Splash. Now."

Fueled up with milk and ready to take on the swimming world!

On the family side of things, we also made a decision to shift our vehicles around to accomodate 2 car seats, a Bismarck, Ben & I, and all of the equipment that we will be using for our adventures for the next many years. 

Anika was illustrating how she thought the Subaru was going to feel.
Notice the snowsuit - she wanted that on the baby!

So, the Subaru and the Jeep got together and retired from their adventures with us.  They gave us this Beast for our expanding family as a farewell gift:

2011 Suburban...it should work for us for quite some time!
Beast on the outside...Beauty on the inside :-)

Thus, our May ended - and we are now in June.  We are 6 days away from the due date for kiddo #2...good thing the new baby seat made it into the Beast yesterday!

Sunset May 31, 2011. 
Pretty much sums up the month for us.