Get out of jail free card...

I got one just the other day. Mary and I were discussing what we were going to do for our 2nd wedding anniversary when she said our anniversary date was the 27th. Hmmm, that's interesting because our wedding certificate claims it was the 29th.

Catching up

Once the holiday season kicked in the bloggin slowed down. So I am catching up with a bunch of photos of Anika.

Here Anika is in her car seat with her paparazzi proof cover.


Sleeping beauty...
Anika in one of her Christmas outfits


Here she is playing with her cousin Theo. When Theo was getting ready to go to Grandma and Grandpa's his dad asked him if he was bringing any toys and he replied "I don't need to, Anika is my toy".


Happy baby just hanging out...

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Anika got a lot of fun gifts from the relatives (most of them very noisy :) Unfortunately she started getting another gift...a tooth. Which made her quite unhappy on Christmas Eve during the day.

Later that night she calmed down and enjoyed the festivities.

This year Mary got a family membership to the MN Zoo, so Anika will be getting to spend some time with monkeys other than her cousins.

Having a garage is great

I am so glad we have the garage. This morning my car wouldn't start, my battery was dead. It was so nice swapping out my battery in a dry lighted garage versus out on the street in the wind and the snow.

Busy weekend

It was a busy weekend. Mary and Anika finished putting up the Christmas tree. Anika was a big help with the ornaments.

Here she is making sure mom puts the star in the right place.

Saturday was also the first time she had babysitters. Grandma and Grandpa Zilge came to watch her. Mary and I went to The New Standards annual holiday show at the Fitzgerald theater in St. Paul. Sara and Tom joined us and we went for dinner at La Grolla before hand. Dinner was great and so was the show. The New Standards always put on a good show. They are a jazz trio that take some of your favorite popular music and arrange into a jazz style. Using a piano, upright bass and a vibraphone. This year some of the songs they played were The Replacements "Androgynous", Elvis Costello "Watching the Detectives" and Britney Spears "Toxic".

When we got home at about 11:30, everthing was as it should be, baby was sleeping and Grandparents were awake.

Sunday we went to the Como Zoo Conservatory. Their annual Holiday flower show had started on Saturday. I never thought I would feel under dressed at the zoo, but it seemed like every family there had on their Sunday bests. That was because they were taking their Christmas card photos. Some of them ran into problems with security, since you had to have a permit to take "posed photos", candid shots were fine.

Here is a "non-posed" photo

It was much nicer inside than outside

We went through the new Tropical Encounters exhibit, it was really nice. Unlike the rest of the conservatory they also have some animals in the mix.
Let's just say the humidity level in the exhibit is quite a bit different than in our house


That's one tall fern
If you are looking for something to do and want to get out of the cold we suggest heading here. They also have a cafeteria, while we didn't eat there, the food smelled good.

2 Months old

Saturday Anika turned two months old. Friday was her 2 month doctor appointment. This appointment included vaccination shots. There was much crying...from both child and mom. Hearing that first scream of pain, and not really being able to comfort her was hard, but she was a trooper and after a few minutes the crying subsided and she fell asleep, Anika that is.

Here are the 2 month vitals:
Weight: 11lbs 10oz 73rd percentile
Height: 23.5 inches 89th percentile

Here is her 2 month photo with lamb

Camera fun

Where's Mary? She is in the photo, trust me.

I pulled out the camera and tri-pod and decided to play around a little bit. I set the shutter speed to 15 seconds per shot. So during the photo Mary was walking around the tree in a circle, and she was "ghosted" out of the picture.

Here is another one with a 15 second exposure but she was pretty much stationary. It looks as if you can see right through her. Click on the picture and notice the blinds.