Surprise

What a character! Dani's favorite thing to do lately has been to play on our bed. Today there happened to be a clothes basket on the bed and she took full advantage. Now of course I can't move it off the bed or we have a total meltdown! She gets her blankie, some books and some toys in there with her and just has a ball.

ready for harvard

Our little genius just said her first 5 word sentence! We brought her downstairs to finally play with her workbench and handyman (handywoman) tools. There is, of course, a hard hat that goes with it. She picked it up, and in her highest pitch voice said, "oh, yook at da hat!" I'm exploding with pride!!!!!

Baby BMW

License to crash

Well, Danica got her first car today. We had to finance it of course, but she's worth it. She's quite a good driver... exept she can only go backwards. But she's very safe. She says, "vroom vroom vroom!" so people know she's coming. My boss actually picked this up for her at a garage sale yesterday - hurray for garage sale season!!!! I brought it home today and disinfected it, and since then it's the only thing she wants to play with! She also got a little work bench with a saw, hard hat, tool belt, and the whole works. She hasn't gotten to see that yet, but I'll be sure to have the camera ready when she does. I'm sure Grandpa John would be really pleased with that!

We found out some great news today. Danica's going to have another little cousin soon!! Adam and Jaycie are preggo, and we couldn't be happier!! We can't wait for Christmas this year. It will definitely be a bustling time at the Klabunde place!! Congrats Adam and Jaycie!!! :)

Office mascot

Danica's been coming to the office with me this week. We're doing interviews together. I interview people and she screams in the background... we make a great team.

She's been getting some new dance moves lately. The most recent is something we like to call the shimmy-shake. It's a little scandelous, but cute as can be. She shakes her shoulders back and forth like she's doing a little sexy dance. Cute now... but I'm hoping she stops it before her teens. It'd probably be a little less cute to us then - more terrifying than cute. I'll try to get a video of it soon.

Sha-la-la-la

I happened to catch Daddy and Dani having some cute little quality time together. They really enjoy singing - there are a couple songs that are regularly requested. Here's one of the recent ones.

Raking

Spring time!!

We love spring outfits!!

LOOK AT THAT FACE!!!!

This was right before Dani picked up a dead hornet and tried to eat it.

Taking it easy in the shade.

Just chillin'

She was very proud of her big girl chair!!

Who knew garbage bags were so much fun??

Busy with yard work!

Reading together!

We finally started doing some yard work this weekend. The fun part was getting Danica's slides and swing out and washed off. She had lots of fun being able to climb up by herself and slide all day long! But of course the garbage bag was much more fun. We tried to get her to pick up some trash while she was at it, but no luck. I've realized how difficult it's going to be to get her to come inside after playing outside... I've been having to promise some Elmo movies to get her in. It's going to be REALLY tough after we get her pool set up!

Bullies and Teasing

Dani loves to take any kind of food and tease Emma with it. Today Emma had just about enough and decided to take matters into her own paws.

Singing and Dancing

Danica's latest obsession is "Elmocize." Since she's figured out how to put in dvd's and play them now, it's been a bit challenging to keep the tv off. She really likes to sing and dance along. Here's just a bit of it.

Big foot

Sibling rivalry

Big Girl!

Couldn't be cuter!

Emma had to have a time out today. She snapped and bit Danica pretty hard. Although Dani was doing a bit of provoking, we put Emma in the bathroom for a little punishment. She's always so cute when she gets to come out. She hangs her head and wags her tail. I ask her to say sorry and she gives me some kisses and Dani some kisses. What a sweet puppy! I don't completely blame her... sometimes I want to bite Danica too.

We went out to Target today to get Dani a big girl chair. She LOVES it! She's been sitting in it all day reading her stories. When I come in the room she rolls around in the chair and says, "OH CUTE!" what a ham!

She's been giving quite a few kisses now that she's feeling a bit better, and after the kiss she always says, "Kank you!" I think she may have picked that one up from grammy. Whenever she gets lifted up into her booster seat at the table she says "up-a-do"... another grammy-ism. And of course Daddy (who's eternally stuck in the 80-90's) is trying to get her to say OH SNAP! And I have to admit, it's pretty cute.

We're loving the warm weather. We all went out for a family walk last night and then played in the backyard for a bit. Dani's favorite is the slide - WEEEEEEEE!, she says. Too cute!

My girls

Danica's become a little mother hen to Emma for some reason. Yesterday Emma was coughing a bit and I asked her if she was okay. That sent Danica into obsessive mode, and for the next 15 minutes she followed Emma around the house saying (screaming), "YOU OKAY! YOU OKAY!"

I walked into the living room this morning to find Danica laying with (on) Emma saying, "Oh, nice." The look on Emma's face was priceless. She's been very patient with her sister though, letting her do all kinds of irritating things to her... unless there's a ball involved. Then it's every man (kid, dog, whatever) for himself.

Danica's cold is getting a bit better. We're practicing blowing our noses today... what fun! In fact, it's time for us to get going to the doctor. She's got her 18 month check-up today... let the screaming begin!!!!

Sick

I knew I shouldn't have let Hannah lick all of Dani's toys!!!! :)
We are very tired this morning... no sleep for parents of a sick baby. But I find myself repeating some good advice I got from my piano teacher... this too shall pass. Maybe we're not ready for another baby??? The sleepless nights are no picnic.
Danica is trying to be a trooper today considering she feels like poopy and hardly slept. What a difference a day makes!

Her first lesson

We're home!

a family dinner

grandpa's girls

sitting at grandma's "old" table

just her size!

alison's old dollhouse that grandpa john made

doing grammy's crossword puzzle

a sweet kiss from nicki

Well, it's great to be back home again. We had a wonderful time in Bottineau and Garrison (aside from the few tantrums). Danica spent all last night running (REALLY running) around the house just giggling! She was either drunk as a skunk or pretty darn glad to be home.

I'm afraid the two's have struck us a bit early. I was pretty hopeful that the vacation tantrums were just because she was away from home. But we had a giant on today... in public. I will no longer ignore a struggling mom in the grocery store. I'll pat her on the back and tell her it's okay.

Here are a few pictures and videos from our trip. Hopefully I can figure out how to get them all on here.

Movie madness

Well, we've been having a jolly good time here in ND! Danica's been pretty good. She's still cutting a couple teeth and has been a bit plugged up, but aside from that she's doing well.
Grammy and Papa got to experience full on tantrum the other night. When I didn't put on her beloved "watch" (dvd) she got a bit upset. First we heard, "Ba-nay, ba-nay, ba-nay" over and over and over for a good 10 minutes. When she realized I wasn't putting in Barney, she let the neighbors know about it. But all was fine and she didn't die after all.
We're having fun watching movie after movie in Garrison right now. She's getting a bit spoiled because she's been feeling so rotten. Grandma actually has 2 different movies going! We went to get her some prune juice to get things moving, and it seems to be working. She's quite a bit happier.
I don't have my cord to attach the camera to the computer, so you'll all have to wait until we get home to see any pictures.
Say a few prayers for our flight(s) home!!!

Bottineau Babes

We're here and having a ball! Danica and I are up at the school today to show off to Grammy's friends. An update on our travels are to come soon.

Future stunt-girl

Well, we've found out what Danica will do when she grows up... stunt woman.
Last night she started a new trick. She put pillows in front of the big chair, got up on it, and walked off it! She just took off walking and fell flat on her face on the floor... it's a pretty big fall! Then she'd get up on the chair and do it all over again, laughing the whole time of course! What a maniac. We'll try to get some video of it if she does it again... which we're hoping she doesn't.

spitting

Here's a little video of how Danica's decided to drink her water now. It's lots of fun to walk into the kitchen and fall flat on my butt because of the unknown puddle of water.

Her latest thing is yelling, "See you!" and "Bye!" when we put her down for a nap or bedtime. After her door is closed and I'm walking down the hall, she's still yelling, "See you, bye!" It's so funny!

Monkey

Hi to my one reader (Jill)!
We're flying to Bottineau on Saturday... yikes! I'm considering heavy sedatives. For myself and for Danica. ??
I walked into the living room this morning to find my little monkey on top of the coffee table. There goes heart attack number one for the day! Thank goodness she has good balance... and a very hard head.
Erica

Getting ready

Happy hump day everyone!

Danica and I are starting to get ready for our big trip! Laundry, last minute shopping, deep breathing and prayer...

We're just about to go out to run some errands. She's quite the little lady today in a pretty blue dress... a very loud and cranky lady, but a lady.

I'm hoping to get some pictures up later in the day so everyone can see her pretty Easter pictures. Here's one picture from Easter. Enjoy!

i'm a blogger!!!!

Hi all!
Inspired by my fabulous sister-in-love, here is the all new Klabunde blog! I thought it was a great idea to keep you all posted on what kind of trouble our little monkey gets into daily. And since I can no longer make videos to send the grandparents, this will make me feel a little bit less guilty. So keep logging on to see daily (hopefully) updates and pictures (not daily)!