Sum-sum-summertime!

Not much new is going on around here. We're trying to find ways to beat the summer heat...well, not so much the heat, but the humidity. We celebrated my good friend Glo's son's first birthday over the weekend. Wouldn't you know that BOTH of my cameras had dead batteries! Mackenzie had so much fun playing with the other kids there, even in the midst of all her teething.

Here are a few random pictures:

Dont' you think the pipe completes the outfit? This kiddie pool is so much fun! Mack likes to lay on her tummy and kick her feet. She tries to lay on her back but it's a bit too deep for that yet.

Wheee-eee! Swinging at Grammy's! There is a gorgeous pear tree just close enough that Mackenzie can touch it's leaves when you give her a good push. She says over and over " Hi tree! Hi leaves!"

Mackenzie and Duncan eating my herbs.

Mackenzie is wearing the dress that my mom made her before she was born! We love it..


Maybe in a few more months, she can kill that bad guy on Mario Brothers for me?!

Nikki and Taylor wanted more pics of me. This is the best I can do! I'm always the photographer so there are no pictures of me actually doing anything exciting! And of course, there's my ever present cold sore in the shot, too.
My mom surprised Mackenzie and me with round trip tickets to Colorado in Mid-September ( Mike won't be able to go since he's had to use up his paid time off when the patient census was low. ) . While I'm nervous about the two and half hour flight with a one and a half year old, I'm so excited to go and catch up with all my family and friends that I miss so much!

Fast forward 12 years.....

I sometimes catch Mackenzie doing things and my mind automatically flashes forward 10 or 12 years, imagining her doing those same things as a young adult. Admittedly, it probably won't as cute in 12 years but here are a few of those moments I've managed to catch on camera:

Opps!

We didn't notice that Mackenzie was "sweeping" near the TV until we heard her knocking on the LCD TV screen with the broom handle. This is what we got when we turned it on.
We learned two things today: 1) Mackenzie has a weird obsession with the broom 2) LCD screens are not child proof.

50lbs down!

I was so excited to step on the scale a few days ago and see that I have officially lost 50 lbs! While I'm a lot closer to my goal than I was 8 months ago, I still have about 12 lbs to go before I hit my first big goal. From there, I'll re-evaluate and see how much more I need to lose after that. This weight loss has been really hard but I have learned to take the challenge head on! When the weather warmed up, I traded in my gym membership for a pair of running shoes and hit the trail! I run between 4 and 5 miles each day ( running about 40 -50 minutes at a time) with strength training every other day and I LOVE it. Here are a few pictures of my favorite jogging trail:

Who would wanna be inside on a treadmill when you've got such a scenic trail?
Here is a before picture of me 50 lbs heavier ( there aren't many- I was pretty good at dodging the camera)
And this was taken a few days ago. Still lots of work to do but I am very proud of my progress. Sorry about the cheesy " self portrait" Mike wasn't home!


I have a doctor's appointment coming up on Friday and I can't wait to see how my blood levels have changed! I'll keep you posted.

A little dirt never hurt anyone

Mackenzie's been having a blast at Grammy's house! Mary has a really pretty yard with lots of different types of grasses and flowers to smell. Mackenzie and Mary's cat Fonzie had fun exploring together. Mackenzie found a puddle and all I can say is "Thank goodness for Oxyclean!" It got all of the stains out!

Fonzie thought he was well hidden...he was not.
Here's how Mackenzie looked for the ride home:
Dirty feet! She's sitting on the washer- I stripped her down right when we walked in the door to soak her clothes.

Poor Elmo

Best friends always take the beatings....

Thanks, Hansford family!

A few weeks ago we received a package in the mail from Auntie Nikki. In it were all of Taylor and Cole's old leapster books and leap pad- a " game system" geared for young toddlers. Taylor and Coley had graciously handed them down to Mackenzie! She sure does love it and drags it around with her off and on through out the day. Here's a short video of her playing with it. My favorite part is her imitating the Zebra!

Check up time!

Today was Mackenzie's 15 month well child exam! I can hardly believe it. When I worked in the clinic , I always thought of the 15 mo exam as the end of the "baby" phase and start of the " little kid" phase. I was relieved because usually the 15 month old kids had a new awareness about strangers and sometimes try to leap off the scale or refused to be measured. Mackenzie didn't have any trouble at all and even clapped for herself when she got weighed.

It's always fun to go back to the clinic although, as time passes, I feel less and less like " an employee" and more and more like a "patient". I feel very, very blessed to have Dr. Baker as Mackenzie's pediatrician. When I started working with him, I recognized right away how fortunate his patients were to have a doctor who cared so much about them. It's very reassuring to know that he cares for Mackenzie the same way.

Here are her stats for the visit:
Height:32 ( which is in the 90th % for her age)
Weight: 23 lbs ( 52 %)
Head Circumference: 18 in ( 59%)


Notes from the doctor:
Dr. Baker was very impressed by Mackenzie's language skills. She has over 50 words that she uses on a regular basis and that other people would understand although there are more than that if you count the words that Mike and I understand just from being around her. He was also impressed that she knows and uses several phrases such as : " Where are you?" and " I see it" .

Mackenzie was due for two vaccines which she took like a champ. Dr. Baker did urge her to " milk it" for all it's worth- something he promised not to do again! hehe. After her shots, it was snack time so the banana I stashed in my bag came in handy!

Her next appointment isn't until September! We've been very lucky that we haven't had to make many sick visit appointments so hopefully we won't have to come back before then.

Here's a picture of Mackenzie as we were heading out the door:

Little Miss Sunshine

We've been helping Grandma Mary get her yard ready for summer and Mackenzie really enjoys being outside , which makes it easier on those who are trying to do yard work. Aside from the distraction of the neighbor's dogs , she likes to hang close by collecting pine cones from Grammy's big tree or picking dandelions and wandering the yard. Since she learned how to smell flowers, she stops to smell ANY " Flowy" she passes by and then exclaims " NICE!" or " That's good!" Here are a few pictures of her hangin' around Grammy's yard.

She got a big kick out of riding in the wheelbarrow!

In this picture, she's talking to Kermit, the puppy next door.

Mackenzie is an on the go kinda girl. She's always looking for an adventure. Recently, we've been pretty busy and there have been very few full days at home, which she loves. Yesterday was the first day in a while that we didn't have any where to be. Apparently, Mackenzie wasn't as excited about a quiet day at home. Just after breakfast, she was found standing at the door just waiting for somewhere to go. When I told her that we weren't going out, she grabbed her shoes and tried to put them on herself! It's a darn good thing for those baby proofed door knobs!

Sauder Village!

Grammy was getting antsy and looking for takers on a short getaway trip. We jumped at the chance and before we knew it, she had three tickets to Sauder Village!

Sauder Village is a smaller version of Greenfield Village ( the historic village in Detroit that we frequent) . It's located in Archbold, Ohio which is just an hour and half away. While it is quite a bit smaller, it was the perfect size for Mackenzie's toddler attention span! Here are a few pictures of our adventure:


I got Mackenzie up a little bit earlier than usual so she'd be ready to nap on the drive down. Once we hit the road ( after a few " go-backs" for forgotten items and " emergencies" ) she was out and slept for most of the trip down.

Grammy thought to bring the double stroller along so we didn't have to carry all our of " stuff". It was a great idea!
Mike and Mary looking over a map of the village:
We toured a few of the exhibits ( The wood shop, the quilt shop, the blacksmith and a few others) before it was time for an ice cream break.

Ahhh the life- Ice cream cone in one hand, spoon full of someone else's ice cream in another!
Next was the train tour of the village:


Our last stop at the Village was the children's " Please touch" area. It was here that Mackenzie came face to face with her favorite animal:
This cow was so cool! When you " milked" her, real " milk" came out and she moo-ed!
Mackenzie LOVES eggs so she had a lot of fun playing with this chicken and her eggs:
Grammy carted Mackenzie back to the hotel room where we spent an hour or so "resting". Mackenzie was so beyond tired at this point that Grammy said she was " Slap happy".

We ate dinner in an old barn turned restaurant. The bargain of the day was Mackenzie's dinner buffet: 79 cents per year of age!

After dinner we changed a very tired Mackenzie into her swim suit for her first trip ever to a real swimming pool. I was so impressed with how well she did. She even learned to kick her feet and arms in the water like a frog!

After about 40 minutes in the pool, we headed up to " bed". I say " Bed" because it's a well known fact in our family that Mackenzie doesn't sleep well any where but in her crib alone. Needless to say, it was a very long night ( but well worth it!). Here's Mackenzie's bed head before we packed up to come home:
We stopped at Tony Packo's for lunch on the way home and yes, that is a banana pepper that she's eating! She's got the Rose gene that makes us crave spicy food!
And if our weekend wasn't busy enough, we got back to South Lyon and put Mackenzie's sand box together in Grammy's back yard!
Aunt Janet came to join the party! Mackenzie showed her how to sniff flowers. Here's a snap shot of her " sniffing" face:
It was a busy, busy weekend but we all came home happy and slept well that night. Mackenzie slept 14 hours- an hour and a half longer than she normally does!

Herbs!

Over the last few years, Mike and I have really enjoyed having a little herb/pepper/flower garden but our condo doesn't have it's own yard. Thankfully, Mike went to work and built us a little herb box for our balcony. After a quick trip to the Wednesday morning farmer's market, we had all we needed for our herb garden!

Mackenzie got demoted after she tried to pull out the freshly planted herbs:

Here she is with the final product:
I think everyone was satisfied with the end result. Some more than others:

Howell Nature Reserve

We are having so much fun exploring all of the local " kid places"! We discovered a VERY cool program through our library - a grant ( funded by Macy's) which gives free passes to the libraries for local museums, nature reserves and parks. On Friday, we checked out the pass for the Howell Nature Reserve. While it wasn't exactly " age appropriate" for Mackenzie ( you had to really look to find some of the animals in their " habitats" ), it was a gorgeous day so she had fun just being outside.

Who needs to drive to Howell when we've got our own "wild" animal:

There were lots of animals to see: herons, beavers, bob cats and coyotes
Possibly the rarest breed we saw that day was the great half prairie dog, half man:
Oh wait! That's just daddy being silly! What was even more fun to see was Mike trying to make his way through that tiny CHILD SIZED tunnel to reach the "prairie dog" cage. I promised I'd with hold the pictures, though.