Why we suffer through winter

We're raising a child, but we're also raising vegetables this summer.
We've been snacking on beans and peas for a few weeks, but other stuff is ready for pickin' now, including potatoes, which we dug last night. Still to come are tomatoes and peppers.
Anyway, this little spread in the sink was part of our dinner tonight: Burgers (with basil and onion from the garden), steamed green beans and grilled potatoes with carrots and onion, all from the plot out back. Tasted fantastic.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention the fresh raspberries.
Now I remember why we suffer through winter in Minnesota.

Toys? Who needs toys?

Read the fine print

Unsatisfied customer

Unfortunately, this is not what Graco
has in mind for the face of its new ad campaign.
Elise hates being strapped into the car seat.
She's fine a few minutes later, but until then...

Sleep on it

Tonight Anni and I were talking about how Elise is nearly sleeping through the night -- going from about 8 p.m. until 3:30 or 4 a.m., when she wakes hungry.
Of course, just as we were about to break our arms trying to pat ourselves on the back, the little one piped up from her crib, cried for a bit and then fell back asleep.
The new routine (is it a routine if it changes every few weeks?) is working quite well for everyone. Elise is adjusting to a bedtime of about 8 p.m. and seems happier during the day (even though she is teething), Anni gets more much-needed sleep and I don't have to watch infomercials or local cable access shows at 4:45 a.m. in order to stay awake during a bottle feeding.
Bliss, I say, bliss.
Almost. Anni just made it clear she still hasn't had a full night's sleep in nearly five months. True, and we're both still exhausted each evening.
Maybe our routine, too, should include an 8 p.m. bedtime.

Flower girl

Baptism Sunday

Elise was baptized Sunday at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, where Anni and I were married. Everything went well, thanks to the parents' brilliant idea to feed her just before the service started. During the baptism, she was fascinated by the shiny copper font.
Thanks to everyone who attended and came over for eats afterward.

Elise was baptized by Annika, the pastor who officiated our wedding. Annika's daughter sneaked into this photo.

Elise and her "honorary" godparents, Laura and Bryan.

The Wentes and Singels.

The past few weeks, abridged.

Uh, it seems like it's been forever since I updated the blog, and I'm not sure where to start.
Let's see. There was Elise's first Fourth of July, or as she'd refer to it: Just Another Day. No brats for her this year, but we did use a bottle rocket to send her dirty diapers down the block.
Speaking of bottle rockets, we had an unusually boisterous neighborhood that night -- our neighbor joked that it was like living in Baghdad -- and the little one wasn't too thrilled with all of the commotion. Eh, she got over it.

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Continuing with the firsts, we brought Elise along to pick strawberries with Dan, Erin and Avery -- an annual tradition for the Wente-Singel gang. She did just fine, but obviously did not pick her share because her white outfit was no dirtier when we were done picking than it was when we started.
Apparently I missed the bucket hat memo:

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A few days ago we brought Elise to her 4-month check-up. We've got a healthy baby, a great doctor and, no doubt, another inaccurate, big-dollar doctor bill that I'll have to argue. (I'll leave our battle over health bills to another day.)
Anyway, she weighed a pleasant 14 lbs. 13 oz. She is 26 1/2 inches long, so still busting through the top of the length-for-age chart. Every once in a while I'll look in amazement at how long she is -- usually as I nearly bump her head or toes into the doorway as we walk through. (Imagine a dog with a stick in its mouth trying to make it through a doorway.)
She got a few shots during the check-up, but that was a largely uneventful experience: Shots, brief wail, sleep.

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We have an eventful Sunday this weekend. Elise is being baptized into Westminster Presbyterian Church, where Anni and I were married. It is possible the same pastor who married us will baptize Elise.
We already are bending church rules a bit, which identify the church congregation as a baptized child's godparents. With that in mind, we've established honorary godparents, if you will, to Elise. (It was clear during our conversation last week with one of the pastors that that type of arrangement is quite common.) Anyway, we asked my brother, Bryan, and Anni's sister Laura to be Elise's godparents. They gladly accepted. We're happy.

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Transitioning ... transitioning ... transitioning ... OK.
Expensive baby toys are overrated. We have no uber-costly toys for our tot and do not need any, especially after discovering that she is much more interested in the wooden spoon that my mom gave Anni, who, while sifting through a kitchen drawer one day while Elise was fussy, decided to give it to Elise. Got that? Thought so.
That serving spoon is now starting to lose some of its decorative paint on the handle end because Elise gnaws on it. Who knew gums could peel paint? (At least her breath isn't peeling paint.)

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Lastly, another first to document.
Elise got her first taste of something other than milk and her knuckles.
Anni tried giving her rice (looked like porridge to me) tonight after she loaded up on milk. That turned out to be no problem whatsoever as she lapped up several spoonfuls of that stuff. She tried sucking on the spoon, too, which means she has watched how I react to an empty ice cream bowl.
We will gradually introduce the rice mixture before moving on to beef kebabs and a 12-inch meatball sub.

No color, but plenty of expression

Elise and the aunts