Roman's 9 month well child visit

 At the beginning of June I took Roman in for his 9 month well child visit. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous, we loved our previous pediatrician in Madison so much and I am very used to her style of care so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. Good news - it turns out that we had a great visit! Roman is now a patient of Dr. Henry. He weighed in at 21 lbs 3 oz and was 2 feet 5.13 inches tall. He is hovering around the 50th percentile for weight and is almost at the 75th percentile for height. He is growing just like we would expect!

Dr. Henry and I talked about 2 main topics during the visit - first of all, at 9 months, Roman was not really crawling or attempting to pull himself up on things. I wasn't overly concerned about this (Mama is still not quite ready for 2 mobile children - Haha!) but his daycare providers brought it up a couple of times so I wanted to make sure that we talked about it. Dr. Henry said that his trunk muscles were strong and that his movements were completely within the bell curve for a typical 9 month old baby. She noticed that he did favor one of his legs when he moved around and did his army crawls; she called his right leg his rudder leg which I thought was pretty funny and totally true. We also talked a lot about what to be feeding Roman at this point. I told her about Lucy's eating issues as a baby and said that I was still suffering a little post traumatic stress over her difficult journey to solid foods. By default, I don't expose Roman to very much table food just because Lucy didn't eat it until she was 18 or 20 months old. So Dr. Henry kindly provided me with lots of sample menus, food ideas, and assured me that Roman is good to go with textured foods!

There are no immunizations during the 9 month visit - yay! We will go back at the end of August / early September for Roman's 1 year appointment and flu shot.

Here is our sweet 9 month old baby boy! We are so blessed to have a healthy little guy.

Grandma Sharon visits the Northwoods

Grandma Sharon came for a week of 'Grandma Camp' at the end of May. The kiddos were so happy to spend time with her!

We went shopping for lots of plants and flowers.

We visited the June Blooms craft market in Minocqua. They had some good stuff! You can't attend a craft/art fair in Wisconsin without seeing a Packers bib!

Mom checked out pottery while Lucy was a total stinker and demanded to be in the stroller. That meant that Roman (who, as noted in the 9 month blog post, weighs 22+ lbs) was carried by yours truly. 

We ate lunch at the Minocqua Brewing Company - always a favorite! :)

Here is a selfie of Roman and Mama at the restaurant. 

We had just a few left overs from lunch so we fed the sunnies that live under the dock. Lucy enjoyed feeding the fishies. :)

Here is the whole crew on the dock. What fun!

On Sunday we spotted turtles in the road on the way to church. Dan provided a close up view for Lucy.

Checking out his belly!

Thanks for visiting us Grandma Sharon!! We had a wonderful time!

A quick trip to Madison!

At the end of May I needed to take a quick work trip to Madison. My mom and the kids decided to join me. :)

It always feels like home to be back in Madtown! Here is a pic of the Capitol from our hotel room. 

Lucy and Roman had an awesome day with Grandma, they visited the Wednesday downtown Farmers Market and they went to the zoo while I spent the day at my Meaningful Use Conference. It was a beautiful day and I have to admit that I was jealous - I wish that I could have spent the day playing in Madison instead of working! Haha! Madison was in all of her summertime glory on this day - sparkling lakes, farmers markets, full of green plants, shops, bicyclists, and pedestrians. It was hard not to feel a little homesick!

As is customary on our trips to the big city, we had to make a Costco run! :) As you can see the kids were excited to go shopping too. Can I just say that I am thrilled that my kids are both big enough to sit in the cart now! Yay! It is so nice not to haul Roman's car seat around. Thanks for joining us on our Madison adventure, Mom!

Roman @ 9 months

 Look at this big guy! Here is our handsome little Roman at 9 months - he is already over 21 pounds! He is captivated by his big sisters and his dogs and he loves bananas and avocados. Roman enjoys swinging at the park and playing on his baby piano. At 9 months he is still not crawling or pulling himself up on things. He can definitely get what he needs though by rolling or by yelling until his mama/dad/big sister give him what he wants! Haha! Roman is very vocal; he is always babbling and making noises. He says Dada and Daddy all of the time, we are still waiting for a 'mama'! :) We love our baby boy so much!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a fantastic Memorial Day Weekend this year! 

Daniel was able to enjoy some time with his buddies on a charter fishing adventure on Lake Michigan! 

They had a great time. 

Back at the ranch - the kids and I went to our last playgroup of the season. We are on a hiatus until September. We miss our Friday morning friends but we have had lots of summer activities to keep us busy! 

On this Friday Roman played in the sand. He loved it but Mama wasn't a fan of his constant attempts to eat sand.

Whoa! It is hard work to sit in sand! :)

 We had beautiful weather over the holiday weekend so the kids and I enjoyed a few picnic lunches. These pictures are from a wayside rest about a mile from our house.

 On Saturday we picnicked at Pioneer Park. These kids love eating outside.

After we ate, we went to play in the park. Roman thinks that the swings are awesome and Lucy is a very helpful big sister who always wants to push him.

On Sunday Grandma Sharon came to visit! What fun! Lucy and Roman were so excited to see their grandma. This is one of the last pictures that we have of us comfortably relaxing in the yard -- after a l-o-n-g winter and a few warm and beautiful weeks the mosquitoes hatched and were out with a vengeance!

Just in time for Memorial Day - Here is Roman sucking on his patriotic pacifier! Proud to be an American! :)

Lucy was able to take a quick dip her little pool, unfortunately - as noted earlier - the mosquitoes started to invade toward the end of the weekend so we needed to put the pool away for a while! Overall though, it was a nice weekend and a great kickoff to summer!

Mid-May Happenings

We spent most of May getting ready for summer activities. Lucy absolutely loves popsicles and she sometimes gets them for treats if she does an especially good job of listening. Here she is enjoying her delicious snack! You can see why we have her eat them without a shirt. Haha!

Daniel spent time getting his fishing tackle ready to go. Here he is schooling Lucy on his lures.

Big news from the Storm household - we got a nice grill! When we first decided to move to Rhinelander and commented that we would miss the restaurants in Madison, Dan's supervisor replied, "If you want to eat well in Rhinelander, invest in a good kitchen!" :) Well, I suppose a nice grill is an extension of the good kitchen, right? We are excited to have an awesome grill - I am also adding this shameless plug, We are all set for visitors up North! You can come visit us and have delicious grilled food.

Here are Lucy and Roman, excited to play outside.

We recently got Lucy a little Radio Flyer tricycle off of Craigslist. Her Dad surprised her with a sweet helmet to wear as she wheels around our driveway. She loves this Minnie helmet and sometimes just wears it around the house. :)

Here is our little tricycle rider! She looks like such a big girl with her wheels!

The Pelican River runs right through our backyard so sometimes in the evenings, after the kids are in bed, Daniel will go down for some quick fishing before dark. One night he caught this guy!

Our proud fisherman. :)

Happy Spring!