Pike!

Who knows? She may turn out to be quite the gymnast.

Princess

Linden wore her first princess dress this week at daycare. Apparently, all the girls wanted to wear princess dresses and Dee had just enough for everyone. 

Judging by her expression, we may not need to rush out and buy one for home. 

Somersault

Linden has been working on her somersault. No one knows why. Dee says that kids at daycare aren't showing off their tumbling skills and lord knows Laine and I aren't at home. But here she is, practicing away.

She's also been working on Legos this weekend. I'm already amazed at her ability to stack and balance seemingly impossible structures. 

Visit from Cousin Van

Baby Van made his first Midwest tour with Alison and Eric this past week. We were so pleased to be able to spend three days and two nights with the family.

Baby Van with his Uncle Van (me) and my Uncle Van

My namesake nephew always giggles when he sees me -- probably because it's rare for him to see someone who's as pale as he is.

Linden loved showing Van toys and was willing to share...unless he was interested in something that she suddenly decided that she wanted to play with. Van couldn't take his eyes off of his older cousin and she loved to make him giggle.

My mom and aunts threw a book shower for Alison and Van since it was the baby's first trip to the Midwest. All of our aunts and cousins were very excited to meet the fourth Van in the Miller family.

Linden has been learning something new every day for the past month, so it's been a fun and exciting time. She spent time this trip gardening with Grandma Miller and playing with sidewalk chalk and bubbles with all of her cousins. No doubt that there will be plenty more fun days for her and her cousins in the future.

Dance Marathon 2015

Illinois Wesleyan University began holding a Dance Marathon fundraiser last year. The idea is that student groups will form dance teams and raise money to join the event with proceeds benefiting a cause. In this case, the cause is the Children's Hospital of Illinois (CHOI). Every few hours the students take a break and listen to a story from a family who's been impacted by CHOI. We spoke last year when Linden was still itty bitty and agreed to tell our story this year as well.

We assumed that the crowd of boisterous college co-eds would make her a bit clingy, but it was just the opposite. As soon as we entered the student center and Linden heard the music, she just wanted to be set down so that she could run to the dance floor and move.

I still assumed she'd calm down when we were on stage with everyone looking at us, but again she surprised me. She wanted to climb off the stage toward the students, then climb back up, then grab the microphone -- she was so excited and busy. She clearly loves having all the attention directed at her.

Afterward, a student came over and asked if Linden would come to her while Laine was holding her. Linden never goes to strangers when she could instead be held by Laine. But, for whatever reason, Linden reached forward and grabbed onto this random college girl. They danced together for a bit and then the group was called to the stage to take a group picture. And Linden joined in, sitting front and center on this student's lap.

Puppies!

A friend of ours is fostering a litter of six puppies until they're old enough to be adopted. Most are still seeking a good home, so let me know if you're interested and I'll pass along more information.

Since Linden loves puppies, we thought it would be fun for her to visit them all. She's never been around so many puppies at once and, as you can see, she thought it was pretty great.

To answer the obvious follow-up question in advance: no, we did not adopt a puppy. :-)

Spring is here!

We finally have some nice weather and Linden has had so much fun walking around and exploring outside. Since she began walking at the very end of October/early November, this week has been her first opportunity to walk around outside without there being snow on the ground.

We took her to the Illinois Wesleyan quad on Sunday and she thought it was amazing! She screamed and giggled virtually the entire time. And she wasn't interested in walking when she realized she could run in any distance, seemingly forever. Laine and I had fun chasing her around and pointing out things like squirrels, birds, various textures on the ground, etc. 

Here's my favorite picture from her first big walk on the quad.