Yesterday was Addie's first birthday.I can't believe how the time has flown by. Time seems to move a little differently when you have a kid. Growing up, time is marked by school semesters, summer breaks, sports seasons, end of term exams etc. Time at home with Adelaide has been marked by smiling at us for the first time, holding her head up by herself, sitting up, eating solid foods, crawling, walking, talking, signing, and all these things seems to begin to compound indefinitely as she gets older. She has started to learn new things each day now and big ticket items are becoming a thing of the past as she is working now at a year of age to refine her motor skills, pick up on vocabulary in words and sign language, begin to imitate people and things around her and the list goes on. The other day I commented to Mitch how much time I squandered during her early months just lounging around the house, watching movies I had rented from the library and dabbling in little projects. When she was little she slept most of the day away and now every moment is filled with some new adventure that she is getting into, whether it be pulling all the kitchen towels out of the drawer, climbing the stairs, playing with her toys, or playing outside in the mud, how time is spent now certainly has changed for the both of us.
She had two such adventures yesterday that weren't so welcome, especially it being her birthday. Yesterday morning as I was removing the sheets on the bed to be washed and putting the new ones on, I had piled the comforter at the foot of the bed to get it out of the way and Addie, being comparatively new at the whole walking bit, tripped on the curled up blankies and fell onto the edge of the metal bed frame, causing a red and black line to form right above her left eye, which has now turned a dark purple. The second "birthday bonk", happened as I was taking her to be tended at Meghan Schows home, so I could help at the dental school putting together dental screening packets for the head start program. We arrived a little early so I parked and decided to let Addie walk up the side walk from the car to the front door. She meanders a little bit as she walks, looking at new things and occasionally stopping to pick things up, so I thought it would eat up some time by letting walk. After going a little ways she stooped over to pick up a small stick she had spotted and after standing up and taking only a few steps, down she went, tripping on some unseen object and because her hands were full of sticks, she didn't catch herself on her hands, but let her forehead take the blunt force of the sidewalk. So now she has a matching bruise and abrasion on the right side of little head. Birthday bonks are no fun, I'm just glad she didn't land on the sticks she had just picked up.
At first Mitch and I weren't going to have a little party for her because she is only turning one and it's not like she knows what a birthday is or is going to remember it, but we decided to celebrate after all with some cake and a few presents.
She received presents from both sets of grandparents, her Uncle Matt and Aunt Christy and the boys, her Uncle BJ and Aunt Heather and Tristan, and Mitch and I. She now has some new warm winter clothes including boots, sweaters, pj's, socks, snowpants, and frog galoshes, and also a cute double sided bib, and a baby Einstein book that makes sounds and has pictures that are hidden under flaps on the pages. She got two new toys from Mitch and I, a stackable wooden toy and a shapes toy. She loved all her new presents and especially loved putting the wooden toys in to the new green galoshes, then taking them out again, then putting it back in again. Silly kid. Grandma Cheryl Christiansen joined us over Skype for the cake ceremony and happy birthday song. We put the whole cake in front of Addie and at first she wasn't quite sure that she wanted to touch it, but then she started to dig in her little fingers and fling the cake towards Mitch. Mitch was pretending to lick it up off of her high chair tray and she, being our little imitator, started to do the same thing, which was adorable of course. We tried to have her blow the candle out at exactly 6:48pm the time she was born, but we were a little slow in finding something to light the candle with, Mitch could only find his little propane torch, so that's what he used to light her little candle and she blew it out a little after the 6:48 mark.
I can't imagine what this next year will hold, I'm sure more amazing times with little Adelaide Anne are on the way, and the time will be pleasantly marked by her life's goals and achievements.

This morning I participated in my first ever 5k run. One of the ladies from the Milwaukee 1st Ward, Meghan Schow, put on the first annual Relief Society 5K run, walk and stroll for us sisters that needed a little motivation to get up and go. 14 ladies showed up on this cold morning to run, walk or stroll the 3.1 mile loop that started at Hart Park, went down Menomonee River Parkway, turned onto Historic Church Street, then left onto Rogers Ave,right onto 81st, then left onto Jackson Park Boulevard, a little loop around to 94th, then back onto Swan Boulevard and into Hart Park again. When I first started out it was a little chilly and I was glad I remembered to take a pair of gloves, but after the blood started pumping it turned out to be the perfect morning for the run, because you got hot running, but you weren't sweltering from the temperature outside. Mitch counseled me to keep a steady pace so in following with his wisdom I did just that and ended up running the course in 30 minutes and 32 seconds coming in second. Not that the race was a competition against each other. I was just happy to have run the whole course and to have done a 10 minute mile which I didn't expect. I was thinking I would do it in about 40 minutes, so I exceeded my expectations, which is always satisfying. I'm looking forward to the next one!

For a family outing we decided to take Addie to "Apple Holler" an apple orchard and pumpkin patch about a half an hour away from our home. We didn't have much time but we spent a little bit picking out two pumpkins and letting Addie explore the Pumpkin Patch. She patted the pumpkins and felt the scratchy stems and had a wonderful time. It was a little rainy, cold and muddy, but well worth it to get some pumpkins!

So Mitch had about 3 weeks off during the summer in between summer and fall semesters at Marquette. He had a lot of fun playing with Addie and spending time with us and also some visitors from home, his dad and brother. They came out for a couple of days to visit with us and while they were here we got to see some sights of Wisconsin, The Miller Brewery, which isn't the most worthwhile place we could have taken them, but it was interesting to see how the brew is made and learn the history of the brewery which was started back in the late 1800's by a Friedrich Miller. The saying of the day was "Miller Time" and we had the occasion to see the production line, packaging lines, storage facilities, boiling and fermentation, and the "Historic Caves" where they used to store the beer underground with ice from a nearby lake. We also visited the Miller Inn where all the other guests on the tour sampled some of their varieties. When we told the waitress and the tour guide that none of us four adults were having any, they gave us some weird looks, and the tour guide said that that was a first for her, someone refusing the free booze.
The second place we got to visit with the Grandpa Oliver and Mike were the Boerner Botanical Gardens. It was a pretty chilly and overcast day when we went but it was fun to walk around and see the flowers that were blooming. The rose garden I thought left a little something to be desired, but all the other flowers and plants were pretty and some were very interesting. There was a big butterfly sculpture that we put Addie on and she loved it, she grabbed right onto those antanae and went for a ride. Grandpa and Mike were a little camera shy the whole time but we were able to get a few good ones in, I especially loved Grandpa's funny faces in the rose garden, which are about all the pictures we got out of him. We loved having them visit us and hope we can have more visitors soon!!

I feel like I've been neglecting Mitch and all his accomplishments, in lieu of all the excitment this year with Addie and her milestones, so I thought I might dedicate a post to Mitch's first successful year of dental school at Marquette University.
His first semester he learned how to take radiographs (x- rays), he learned how to clean teeth, although all of his work the first semester was done on fake teeth.In all of his semesters he has had what the students nicknamed PRES/RES or preservations and restorations, of teeth such as drilling cavities, filling cavities etc. Had classes like Histology (study of tissues), Biochemistry he was lucky enough to get out of because he had taken it before, and a Fundumental Class of Dentistry that included Bio material, nutrition, radiology, developmental biology & a clinical rounds class that discusses moch clinical scenarios.Because he didn't have to take Biochemistry he feels like school wise this semester has been his easiest, but as Addie was born this semester as well, it made it a little more interesting and busy too.
His second semester he learned about some Behavioral sciences, Cariology or the study of cavities, he did some Periodontal or gum studies, and had course work in Oral biology and gross anatomy that focuses on the head and neck, but also touched on body cavities and organ systems.He also had the clinical rounds class again and continued training on cleaning teeth on manakins and taking radiographs. He also got to go into the clinic and do some assisting to the older students. He feels the second semester was harder because he had more credit hours to do, but he also thinks that his second semester was sucsessful because he really buckled down and studied hard.
The summer semester by far has been the most trying semester for him. The bane of his existence has been the Dentures course. It was only two credits but he says the work he was doing made i feel like it was 8 credits. He worked on a lot of hands on projects like making a pair of dentures for a patient, creating casts and replicas of his own mouth, and making a whitening tray for himself from the molds of his mouth. He also got to do his first Prophy(where he cleaned his first live patients teeth). He also had the opportunity to go to the AIDS clinic downtown and learned how people are managing there disease and how dentists can help. During the summer semester he spent a lot of time at home working on his dentures and other projects. He even bought a propane torch so he could melt the wax and do other things for his projects, which he says was a highlight.This is a pictures of his teeth that he shaped and made.The yellow is the mold and the white and pink is all the work that Mitch did. They even have to make the gums look exactly the same, they even give them a stippled appearance! Lots of work went into these.


So that's his first year in a nut shell.
He's had three weeks of this summer to spend with his family and we've had lots of fun while he's been home with us. He heads back to start his second year this upcoming Monday. Good luck babe, Addie and I will miss having you home during the day!

Mitch and I were invited by our friends the Sessions to go to the Dells this week for a little get away from Milwaukee. Wisconsin Dells is the water park capital of the world so they say, so Mitch and I were pretty excited to go. We stated at Chula Vista in a nice condo that we shared with Marianne and Schuyler and their two kiddos. Mitch and I hit all the rides of the indoor and outdoor water parks at the resort and Addie really like playing in the little kids areas and splashing in the water. She especially liked the lazy river. I sat in a tube and put her on top of my lap and Mitch would push us around and around, she would look at everything and she even held onto the black handles that were on the tube which was so adorable. I'm not sure if she did it for support or just something to hold onto. One of the rides was nicknamed the "toilet bowl" because you would go down the slide and end up in a circular bowl shaped whirlpool that would take you around and around then drop you down another tube to the bottom of the slide. They had a half pipe ride, a "bonzai" ride for those of you who rember Wet and Wild waterpark in Caldwell. (it's a slide that goes straight down. My favorite was called the cyclone that was a tube that went around and around in a tight circle, it was super fast. Mitch and I got to go by ourselves that first night while Marianne and Schuyler watched Addie. I hadn't been to a water park since high school and Mitch swears I was talking an octave higher and ten times faster than I normall do. I attributed it to how excited I was, I felt like I was 10 again, it was awesome.

Adelaide started to wave at people, things and pretty much any thing else she wanted to about a month ago. We were feeding the Elders and one of them waved to her from across the table and to our surprise she waved back. Well a new development to the wave is the word "HI" her first official word!! When we say hi and wave she says hi and waves back to us. I consider it her first word because I think she actually connects it with greeting people and things, instead of just putting the constanant/ vowel sounds together like "mama" or "dada". A new development also is she has started to clap, well in her own way. She can't really make the "clap" sounds yet but she brings her hands together and immitates Mitch and I when we clap with her.