One more way our dogs fail at being dogs

I think our dogs may actually be cats in disguise. They LOOK like dogs, but they sure don't act like them. They don't bark or jump or lick. They don't fetch or beg. They don't expect treats unless we call them outside. Don't get me wrong, I love that they're well behaved. Especially since all we had to teach them was to stay off the furniture. Sometimes though, I wish they would be just a little bit more...normal.

We've been trying to encourage the dogs to come over after Kalena is done eating to eat whatever she throws on the floor. Yes, we may be the ONLY people who have to encourage this. I'm glad our dogs are big enough that we don't have to worry about these little tidbits affecting their weight because this habit is definitely out of laziness. The more the dogs clean up the less I have to right? This is what happened last night though. For dinner Brian made fish and steamed broccoli. Kalena just eats what we eat, so that's what she had on her tray. And what she threw on the floor. After we took her out of the high chair Onyx* came over to see what there was to see. She ate up the fish bits Kalena had tossed her way then sniffed the broccoli and walked away.

And at that moment I realized that my dog is a pickier eater than my one year old.

*Brenna doesn't eat off the floor. With the exception of dog food, she won't eat anything you don't hand her.

Heritage

For those of you who don't know, van de Boogaard is a Dutch name. It means "of the orchard." That's why it's three separate words, by the way, despite all the credit card companies who think "van" is my middle name. Anyway, Brian's parents wanted to help the newest member of the van de Boogaards celebrate her heritage so after Kalena was born they got her these adorable "wooden shoe" slippers. They fit now so we were showing Brian's mom and sister while they were here.

How cute are those?! She just needs one of those little hats and she'll be a little dutch girl. They're actually from Holland which is pretty cool. And I'm sure when she's a little older she'll be getting some of the actual wooden ones.

P.S. Brian has a pair of wooden shoes and he does wear them. In fact, he wore his last pair entirely out. They have a hole in the bottom.

One year update

On Wednesday Kalena had her 1 year check up. She's 32 inches long (97th percentile) and weights 22 lbs 8 oz (75th percentile.) So she continues to be "tall and trim" as her doctor puts it. Where she gets the tall from I still don't know.

She's off formula which is SUPER because that stuff is insanely expensive. On the other hand, we're about to start going through milk like there's no tomorrow. Also, the pediatrician recommended that we get her off the bottle which seems like it's going to be a lot of work. Any tips on that?

Here's a couple pictures of Kalena in a birthday dress from Brian's mom. She was a little wary of Brian wiping down her high chair.

Obligatory birthday cake post

The birthday girl with her cake.


All for me?!


She went with the no hands method of cake eating.


Delicious.

She actually didn't eat a whole lot of cake before she let us know that she was done. By trying to throw the rest on the floor.

One year ago today

I can't believe my baby is one.

An explanation for why there is plastic food all over the living room

Since Kalena will be one on Monday, my parents gave her birthday present to her while they were here. As evidenced by the cookie cutter post, Kalena is very fond of putting things into containers. So we went with that theme and they got her this cute little shopping cart and a bucket of plastic food to go in it. (Or all over the floor. Either one.)


She also got this adorable birthday onesie from my mom.


One for the cart; one for the floor.


Wait, who needs a cart when I can take food from the bucket and put it directly on the floor?! YESSSSS!!

Mother's day

Kalena apparently thinks I'm such a great mom that she wanted to go all out for mother's day. Not only did she send me these lovely flowers (with maybe a little help from Brian's mom):


She also took her first unassisted steps! Okay, that was actually Saturday, but then so were the flowers so I guess she's just very punctual.

Here she is in a mother's day/birthday dress from my mom.


And now she is SO BORED of taking pictures. Can't we just be done already?

Early Mother's day

Last post I mentioned that my camera wouldn't turn on. I was hoping it was a battery issue, but as it turns out, not so much. It won't turn on. At all. The battery is charged, everything seems fine, but nothing happens when you push the power button. SOOOOO, we decided it's time for a new camera.

Normally we don't up and buy new electronics, but I can't live without a camera. Especially not now. In the next two months we have: my parents visiting, Brian's mom and sister (hopefully) visiting, Kalena turns one, Mother's day, Father's day, and my whole family visiting (my parents are making the trip twice in two months because they just love us that much:) ) Around here we usually have some sort of backup system-- we have two laptops, an extra TV in the upstairs bedroom, a playstation 2 in the closet that works if our DVD player doesn't-- we like to be well prepared. But the only other camera we have (besides cell phone cameras, those don't count) takes actual FILM. So yesterday we headed out to our favorite store, Best Buy, and got one of these:We're calling it an early Mother's Day gift. I'm sure I'll be posting lots of pictures soon.

P.S. We're pretty sure Kalena played a part in the demise of the other camera, so we bought the protection plan on this one. We really can't affort to be buying new cameras every 7 months.