Friday Firsts

Friday night had a bit of a green theme, and not just because of St. Patrick's day.

Linden had her very first bite of food -- avocado. She was a bit uncertain at first, as you can see, but was happily gumming it down in no time. This was just an exploratory mission to see how she'd react and it seemed to go quite well.

Friday evening, the Illinois Wesleyan Titans (colors: green/white) played Calvin College in the Sweet Sixteen. I had told Head Coach Ron Rose that if his team played well enough during the regular season to be able to host some playoff games, Linden might be able to make it to a Titan game this season. He held up his end of the bargain, so we held up ours.

It was a gorgeous night, so we packed Linden up and walked over to the Shirk Center to watch the Titans beat Calvin and advance to the Elite Eight. She slept through part of the game but enjoyed meeting new people and being part of the action.

Saturday was equally busy with Linden attending her first non-family birthday party. Our friends' youngest daughter was turning one and though they had not yet met one another, Linden somehow made the invite list.

She met our friends Chip and Val Saturday evening and stayed home with Laine while me and our friends ran to Illinois Wesleyan to catch the second half of the Illinois Wesleyan v. Dickinson game. IWU pulled out the win to secure a spot in the NCAA Division III Final Four in Salem, VA. We'll have to cheer on the Titans from home next weekend. :-)

"Rawr" is "I love you" in dinosaur

Linden's oldest and wisest cousin Chapin turned 5 on Sunday. Chapin's birthday just happens to coincide with Linden's half birthday. I'm sure there's some term for that. Maybe (Half) Birthday Buddies. I don't know. But it's a convenient way to remember your daughter's half birthday and nephew's birthday for sure.

Family dino-tees.

So Chapin turned 5 and had an amazing dino-themed party and enough kids and parents that I'm pretty sure they had to enforce a 1-in1-out policy at some point. Laine and I took in the chaos that is a 5-year-old's birthday and (at least I) became nervous. But Linden missed it all. She cashed out 10 minutes after the first guests arrived and woke up 10 minutes after the last guests left.

While she missed some serious hide-and-seek and an A+ dino-earthquake-cake, she took full advantage of the well-deserved attention from all of her aunts / uncles / cousins.

Gibson saying, "Hold It! Hold It!"

It's only now that we're realizing how much we've missed sharing our Little Bean with family and friends. She's such a social gal and loves being around groups of people, so it's just been a blast to introduce her to everyone.

Her cousins Chapin and Gibson love "Baby Linden" and are both so gentle and excited to see her. We're looking forward to the days to come when she'll learn to play, race, and sing with them.

p.s. Chapin's birthday was dinosaur-themed (as you can tell by looking at the kids' shirts). What wasn't pictured was Jesse's shirt that read "Rawr is 'I love you' in dinosaur," which is clearly ridiculous and the inspiration for this post's title.

One Tough Cookie

When Linden was cleared to start meeting other people and kids outside our quarantined house, she was basically being cleared to get sick. Well, that didn't take long.

After a couple days at daycare and some fun visits to meet family and friends who had waited patiently for nearly 6 months to meet our little girl, Linden awoke Monday morning sounding raspy and congested with a low grade fever.

She is one tough cookie though. Despite looking quite uncomfortable, she can still manage the occasional smile. She certainly does not get that trait from me. I handle pain better than discomfort and am a total wuss when I'm sick. Must get her toughness from her mom.