Baby Girl

We found out last Friday we are having a girl! I just knew we were having a girl so it wasn't a surprise at all. This was our first time getting 3D pictures so it was so exciting seeing her sweet face. We are so excited for Mia to have a sister. Mia really has no clue what is going on and how her life will be changing in March. The joke is on us though. Mia definitely likes all the attention and it will be interesting to see how she adjusts to a sibling. It will be another adventure for the Rasmussen household. As for names, we have NO IDEA! Mia's name was easy because we loved it for a very long time before we were even pregnant with her. Sometimes I stare at her picture trying to figure out what her name should be and I am at a loss. We have time though so we will keep you all posted! It is truly a miracle you can love someone so much that makes you sooo sick.

New Family Pictures

Stay Tuned...

I'm dusting the old blog off and ready to post some pics! Stay tuned for lots of pics and exciting news. Ok you probably know the exciting news but it's exciting all the same!!

Hot, Hot, HOT

It's been blazing hot in NC the past few weeks. We have had multiple days of 100 degrees. So hot the pool water is warm and not refreshing. We stay indoors and try to keep cool. My plants are burning up and the grass is basically straw. I love summer anyway.

Mia with her cousin, Annika. They are hilarious. I don't know what is going on here but Annika is a ham.

At our ward Fourth of July party Mia had her face painted and loved it. She was so still while her sweet nursery leader painted it. She had a complete hissy when I had to wipe it off later in the day. She wouldn't talk to me for a while she was so mad at me.

Practicing her serious face.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all those dads out there. Even though I am sure men don't read my blog. I have to coax Dave to check it out every now and then to see what is going on in his life. Anyway, I am so blessed to have a husband that is 100% crazy about his daughter. The feeling is mutual. She adores him and if he is home she wants NOTHING to do with me and she wants her daddy to do everything for her. Which, lets be honest, is kind of nice!

Funk

I am in a funk. Seriously. I feel like the summer is passing me by and that's not good because I dream of summer all of the other seasons. Part of the reason is because Dave's work schedule and part is because we just moved but mostly it's just me needing to get my act together as usual. UGH! Leave me funk, be gone with you! It's been a crazy year thanks mostly to Oral Surgery! I guess it's up to me to get over it and move on.

Wish I were here (Bahamas) doing this (smoochin my man)!!

Farmer Mia

Mia was so excited to plant parsley, cilantro, and lemon basil. She helped fill the pots with dirt and poured the seeds in and now she watches them very closely to see if they will grow. She wants to dump all the dirt out and do it over and over again so I have to keep them out of her reach. I hope once she sees the plants growing she will be more excited about the plant and a little less excited about the dirt. Hopefully they survive. It's hard to survive with a 2 year old around. Trust me, I know.

Strawberry Days

We picked the most delicious strawberries this year at Jean's Strawberry Patch. Mia ate a ton of them and had a blast picking the super ripe, huge berries. Lately she has been putting her sunglasses on and telling everyone she is a rockstar. It cracks people up because it is so unexpected. She does her own thing and it is hilarious to watch.

Mia and her beau, Eli. He humors her by letting her hold his hand. She loves this boy and I don't blame her!

Big Girl Now

Mia can put her shoes on all by herself. She even gets them on the right feet sometimes.

Mia is 2!!

She has been 2 for awhile actually. It came and went with much fanfare just not on the blog. So here is the post dedicated to my 2 year old wild woman.

Mia
-is a daddy's girl, much to my dismay. Daddy can do no wrong.
-throws tantrums.
-loves candy, chocolate and basically anything with too much sugar.
-gives the best "juicy kisses".
-is my bff. We do everything together!
-favorite sentence "I do it by myself Mama!".
-favorite color is pink.
-calls every meal dinner.
-LOVES nursery.
-loves her friends. Everyday she asks if she can see them and asks for them individually by name.
-has a doctor's kit that she loves and gives everyone shots all the time.
-likes to wear dresses.
-loves to play with any ball.
-is almost in the 50% for weight and 75% for height.
-loves to kiss boo-boos all better for everyone. Even strangers. Ick.
-counts to 10 in spanish (Thanks Dora!) and 15 in english and is working on her ABC's.
-loves to say prayers.
-is really starting to pretend a lot.
-my favorite thing she is doing right now is eating her pb sammies crust first. It is too cute!

Mia's bday party was so fun and I was so lucky to have my mom, brother, sis in law, and cousin in town to help out. Mia had a joint party with her dad and her Aunt Cheryl at our neighborhood clubhouse. We were so excited to have the Gardners come down from VA and celebrate with us. Mia had a Dora Adventure party. First the kids decorated backpacks, then Swiper stole the goody bags so we had to go on an adventure to find them. I played songs from the Dora soundtrack that went with each stop in our adventure. First the kids went to the star room and had to gather as many Explorer stars as they could and put them in their backpack. Next they went to the Fairy Kingdom and had to pop all the bubbles that were taking over! My amazing sis in law, Lindsay dressed up as the Fairy Queen for me. Finally the kids had to go down to the playground and the Grumpy Old Troll (played by my amazing lil brother!) was there and did a lovely song and dance and told the kids if they wanted their goody bags they had to give him all their Explorer stars. So the kids had to cross the bridge and get their goody bags. The looks on their faces was hilarious because my brother had these furry eyebrows and mustache on his face. Then we ate BBQ and had cake and ice cream! It was a great party and Mia and her friends had a blast.

Decorating backpacks

Getting ready for catching Explorer stars.

Mia and her cousins!

Fairy Queen and bubbles!

The Grumpy Old Troll who lives under the bridge.

Priceless!

So much fun to have a big party with family and friends!

Cake!

Crazyville

Our new city of residence. We've been living in the outer suburbs for a while until this month we just up and moved right downtown. Toddler tantrums, birthday parties, colds, Dave studying for boards, among other insanity. We have Step I of medical boards next week and moving into a new home (hopefully). Is it June yet?!?!

Mia's birthday party with two of her cousins, Cole and Annika.

Thank You Pioneer Woman

I have many reasons to love you Pioneer Woman. I would LOVE to see you at your cookbook signing in Charlotte. I recently got the actions from Pioneer Woman for Photoshop Elements (Thank you too Karen). I have to say this brought tears to my eyes. The picture looks way better in the HUGE format from my camera but this still gets me right in the heart. Go ahead and click on it. LOVE IT!

St Patty's Day Revisited

We started the day with green shamrock pancakes. They looked pitiful but Mia thought they were awesome. We spent St Patty's Day at the park with some buddies. Mia is a daredevil which is proving very scary for me. She climbs up high and goes down huge slides. She hasn't learned to put her feet down at the end of the slide so she just flips over onto the ground, usually face first. It's horrible and she has 2 fat lips right now. She doesn't care though (even if she screams and cries) and just says "try again".

Rasmussen/Maxfield Reunion

Heidi (bff from dental school days) and I finally got our schedules together! It only took us 9 months. Sad. Mia and I drove the shortish (under 3 hours) trip to Richmond, VA. Mia was great and just watched Caillou and Dora and was amazingly content in the car. We stayed from Monday to Wednesday and it was short but really fun.

Owen and Mia really hit it off. I was shocked at how well they got along. I think mainly it's because Owen has the best temperament of any toddler I've ever met. Mia always wants to play with kids her age but they are more into playing alone so the fact that Owen is older and more social really appealed to Mia. They played and played and played. It was so nice not to have to police them the whole time. The weather was great so we stayed outside a lot and went to the Children's Museum which was awesome. We went for walks and the highlight of the trip for me was going to Penn Station. I have really missed that place! It was so fun to just hang out with Heidi again. I miss all my Louisville ladies.

I of course forgot my camera so all the pictures you see below are from my cell phone. The ride home was a sad one and Mia kept crying and saying "Miss Owen". She still says Owen all the time. Thanks Maxfields for an awesome trip! I can't wait for the next one! Now I am ready for some more reunions. You know who you are! Bueller? Bueller?

The first night and already best buddies.

See Owen's patience with Mia? Yes, she likes to be close to the TV.

They would play this game where they would dig up dirt under the deck and then dump it by the house. They played this game for an amazingly long time.

At the Children's Museum playing in the water.

They slid down the slide 100 times together.

I could eat these kids UP!!

The hit of the museum. We found those blue foamie pellets in their diapers afterwards.

Too funny.

Sadie and Mia ready for a walk.

Oooooh heaven is a place on earth. A place called Penn Station.

Mini Getaway

One good thing happened in February and that was Dave had a whole week off for vacation. We dropped Mia off at my mom's house and had our first night away from her. Dave was exhausted from working a billion hours that week but we still had a great trip. Where did we go? Charleston, SC baby!! I LOVE Charleston. If you live anywhere near that city GO THERE. I thought it was a fitting trip for Valentine's Day weekend. It is incredibly fun and not like any other city. Charleston has so much history (Civil War started there at Fort Sumter) and the houses are like nothing you've ever seen before. It was surprisingly cold when we went but I was so excited to show Dave my favorite city and we had a great time. It snowed the night before we got there (it was all melted when we arrived) but the town was packed. That's how much people love this friendly city. We stayed in the historic downtown at the Vendue Inn and saw as much in 24 hours as we could. I actually had never been to Fort Sumter so we went on a tour and even though it was windy and cold it was fun. Mia had a great time with her Gramma and we had some relaxing southern fun. Seriously, if you haven't been to Charleston you haven't experienced the south.

Amazing fountain in Waterfront Park. In the summer you can wade in it because it's just that hot.

Pictures you take of yourself are just not that great.

I asked that seagull to fly right between the bridge just to get this picture.

We ate dinner at Hank's Seafood Restaurant and it was AMAZING. It's one of those places where you get up from your table and come back and your napkin has been refolded and placed on the back of your chair. Before you could ask for something it magically appeared on your table. Delicious fresh seafood that I crave right this minute.

Freezing at Fort Sumter.

Flags at Fort Sumter.

Our cute hotel.

March!!!!

Thank you March for finally getting here. February is not my favorite month at ALL. Other than my beautiful sister's birthday there is nothing I like about that month (even Valentine's Day doesn't make me like February better). March is kind of rainy and cold but spring officially starts and I feel like coming out of hibernation. I am ready to get rid of winter all together. Mia seems impervious to the cold. She wants to go outside no matter how cold it is and I HATE it so much I just stay home like a hermit if at all possible. I need some warm sunshine and flip flops. I saw workers at the blueberry patch, pruning and preparing for blueberry season. I know it's still months away but it brought a smile to my face. Hurry spring, HURRY!!

Speaking of blueberries.

Tantrums 101

Mia is coming up on her second birthday. The terrible two's. Let's just say she has arrived early. She can throw a tantrum to end all tantrums. And she whines. Oh the whining. After a particularly bad day of tantrums (at least 5 BIG ones) I got on the internet and researched tantrums. I learned so much and am so thankful for Google. My best technique I've learned is "biggies" and "smallies". Now if you heard No! No!, stop that, and we don't do that, constantly over and over you might want to throw a fit also. So when she asks for something, I think about it before I answer. If you answer no right away and then change your mind (aka GIVE IN) then they don't hear "no", they just hear "I need to fight harder to get what I want". So I think about my answer before I give it. I think, is this a biggie (something dangerous or inappropriate) or a smallie (something I can live with and may not love but really wouldn't hurt anything in the grand scheme of things). For example, Mia loves to have the door open to the deck. I used to always so no and then she would immediately throw a tantrum. Now I say yes and set a time limit letting her know a few minutes before we need to shut the door again. Does it bug me that I'm letting cold air in the warm house? Yes. Does it hurt anyone or anything to have the door open for 10 minutes? No. So it's a smallie and we move on. Her requests to have the door open are fewer and fewer now too. Since she gets to do it, it doesn't seem like a challenge to get what she wants.

At first I used a behavioral chart to see what things were setting the tantrums off. I noted the place, time, and severity of the tantrum. It helped me to see if she was throwing a tantrum because she was tired, hungry, or over stimulated. It helped me so much to figure out how to not only handle future tantrums but also how to keep the number of tantrums down.

One of the best things I have tried is hugging her during a tantrum or outburst. I read that at such a young age a tantrum can be scary for the kid not just the parent. They don't really understand why they are reacting this way and don't really know how to get control of themselves again. If you offer a hug it might amaze you how quickly they calm down. The article said not to coddle them though. Don't say "poor baby", say things like "I understand you are upset/sad/disappointed." Or just don't say anything at all, just a hug helps so much. Now more often than not when Mia looks like she is on the verge of a tantrum she runs to me before and hugs me and we talk about it. It isn't perfect but I can promise you it is so much better than before. Mia is a difficult child in a lot of ways and you may think I just need to spank her but I can promise you I have tried A LOT and these are the things that work for us!

Mia wanted to play with the snow outside. Biggie or smallie? Well I HATE the cold so....

I let her bring the snow inside in a bowl.

And I let her play with the door open for 10 minutes with a spatula to dig in the snow. She thought this was the coolest activity ever and guess what... NO TANTRUM. (At that point anyway!)