She'll eat when she's hungy

Feeding Mary is a constant struggle. She never, NEVER wants to eat. I know she's maintaining a healthy weight and that her growth is consistant, but I still feel like a horrible mother when she picks at her food like a bird.

The funny thing is...she'll go for days eating hardly anything and then all of a sudden have a GREAT eating day. I love those days. She'll eat anything I put in front of her, the highchair isn't a struggle, and I don't have to FIGHT with her over food. One more time....I LOVE those days! I took pictures on one of those "good eater" days recently:

Here she is eating a piece of licorice that she got out of the cupboard all by herself (boy was I surprised to walk around the corner and see her with it in her mouth)!
And then later-on she took a stab at some spaghetti with a big-girl fork!
And to top off the day daddy let her munch on a few oreos just so mama would cringe at the thought of the mess everywhere!
What a silly girl!

the best vacation EVER

So over the labor day weekend our little family packed up the mini-van (I should use the term "packed" lightly - it was more like cramming or stuffing to the brim) and headed westward. South Dakota was our destination, Interstate 90 was our route, and the trusty Ford Freestar was our chariot.

What's that you say? South Dakota is boring? South Dakota is a snooze? South Dakota is not a vacation destination? Well...let me tell you....you are one wrong puppy if this is your response. We had a BLAST!

The whole trip was very Griswold Family Vacation - we packed our own sandwiches, slept in a tent or cheap (CHEAP) motels, and spent as little money as possible. But let me tell you, it was so darn fun!

We saw a ton - the Corn Palace in Mitchell, Mount Rushmore, Rapid City, the Badlands, the Black Hills, Custer State Park...I could go on and on. There's a ton to do and we barely scraped the surface. We had a great time watching the landscape change from the bluffs of our hometown, to the cornfields of western Minnesota, to the rolling prairie, to the desert in the badlands, to the dramatic Black Hills. We saw tons of wildlife, did lots of cheesy family activities, and just enjoyed our little family. Mary was a dream and barely fussed at all (even though we spent almost 40 hours in our vehicle in a matter of 5 days).

Kurt and I kept getting excited and talking about future family car trips...seriously, it's the way to go.

Anyway, here's some fun pics from our trip. Enjoy!

43 always was my favorite number

So on the drive back from South Dakota ( a little family vacation last week...I"ll blog about it soon). Kurt and I became bored and started to count all the words that Mary knows. Now, she can repeat just about any word you ask her....but these are words that she'll say on her own, unprompted. Basically, we've got a genius on our hands (is that Mom-bragging coming out?). :) I seriously do think that she's too smart for her own good...freaks me out some days. Anyways, if you have nothing better to do...check out all the words that Mary knows!

1. Book (she loves to read)
2. Hello (such a social butterfly)
3. Hi
4. Buh-Bye
5. Wow
6. Cow (driving through South Dakota we heard this word a LOT...."cow"....."cow"...."yes, Mary that's a cow"....."cow"....etc.)
7. Duck (mostly "duckie)
8. Puppy (loves her puppies)
9. Clayton (is it weird for her to be THAT obsessed with her cousin?)
10. Dadda
11. Mommy (melts my heart)
12. Milk (sounds like "milky")
13. Nice (this what she says when she knows she's been naughty....it's a beginners apology)
14. Mine
15. NO! (hear this a lot)
16. One ("How old is Mary?")
17. Bath
18. Copper
19. Jack
20. Cracker
21. Cookie
22. Kitty
23. Baby (We're trying to really talk a lot about babies at our house, in the event that we are chosen in the near future. Every night we have Mary put her babies to bed in a little cradle. It starts out sweet with a kiss and then she lifts them over her head and SLAMS them into the bed. It kinda scares me!)
24. Binkey (When she wants her pacifier she'll just repeat this word non-stop: Binkeybinkeybinkeybinkeybinkey! Kids are weird)
25. Potty
26. Up
27. Down
28. Night-night
29. Happy
30. Sad
31. Mary (it sounds like this: "Meme" Very cute!)
32. Owie
33. Buckle (She's obsessed with buckles lately...can't get enough of them)
34. Diaper
35. Okay (I must say this a lot because she just started picking up on it. She uses it very conversationally. "Mary let's go outside, okay?" "Okay!")
36. All-done (Comes out like this "All-dumb" cracks me up everytime I hear it)
37. Hooray (As in..."if you're happy and you know it shout Hooray!")
38. Meow
39. Beep-beep
40. Nay (is that how you spell the sound that a horse makes?)
41. Moo
42. Roar!
43. Nana (for banana AND for grandma!)

And she also does some random other animal noises but I thought I'd stop at 43 because...after all...that IS my favorite number.

Can you believe this kid!!?