The baby is a ....

BOY!! He was cooperating very much during the ultrasound yesterday and made it obvious numerous times that he is a boy. Now for names...that is going to be a tough one since Michael and I don't quite agree on many boys names...time to hash it out. We have so much to get done. Time to move all of our hobby/craft stuff to another location then paint and decorate his room.

Puddles, Bugs and Kansas

Here is a condensed picture update. We took a trip to Kansas the end of July to surprise Michael's mom and tell them all another little Dearden is on the way. This time our good buddy Shawn joined us because he is a HUGE John Deere fan and has wanted to go to Kansas for a while since they make 'em bigger out in Kansas. He finally made it and he is welcome back with us anytime. Did you ever see a more contagious smile! That's our happy Shawn, its the squeaky little John Deere horn on this big tractor that has him so excited. We found this butterfly at the farm when we were letting Shawn climb on the equipment. As usual, Danae was very interested in it, she didn't touch this one though.

Danae watched the Leoti parade, which is one of the few parades I've been to that remembers what a parade is supposed to be with passing out candy, etc. Danae collected several suckers, or "sticks" as she decided to call them. She is pictured above with her cousin Eden who is one year older than her.

Danae has sat on the horses a few times, once with mommy in uniform, then when mommy or daddy held her up there and this time she actually rode around a little with Daddy on T-Bone. She of course loved it!

This water hound was so excited when we introduced her to puddles. Now I'm not sure that she gets excited over the rain because she likes the rain or because it makes puddles. She gets so upset when mommy or daddy go out into the heavy rain, I think it scares her. Thanks to Lizard, these cute pink sandals make the best little puddle jumpers!

Of course with rain comes snails. This was Danae's first introduction to snails and she was intrigued at first and soon lost interest, but she of course wanted to hold it.

My Little Dipper

Danae LOVES dip! It doesn't matter if its ketchup, ranch, applesauce, peanut butter, apricot sauce, guacamole, etc... if it looks like she can dip something in it...she does. Everything tastes better with dip and if you can't get her to eat something, give her something to dip it in. :)

Some things that come to mind are corn chips in ranch, chicken in apple sauce...oh and mashed potatoes because that counts as dip too. She dipped her peanut butter and jelly sandwich in her yogurt (or "yogie" as she calls it). Then yesterday when she dipped her peanut butter and jelly sandwich in some ranch dressing because she pulled it out of the fridge when I was getting the jelly and pleaded for some "dip". The gross thing is...she ate it!

P.S. I'll post some pictures soon

Baby Spice

No, not one of the spice girls, rather its a seasoning for babies. Michael started calling baby powder Baby Spice several months ago when he would sprinkle powder on Danae, I thought it was cute and joined in when I would sprinkle it on her. Well, Danae is picking up phrases and words every day. We were at a restaurant the other day when Danae says "BB Spice", we realized she was reaching and asking for the pepper on the table. So, we gave it to her and she sprinkled some on her food while saying "BB Spice". Cute.

Then, yesterday we were eating breakfast at a restaurant in Santa Fe and Danae asked for the Baby Spice. Since the food was taking forever to get there, we gave it to her for entertainment and simply to occupy her. She lifted her shirt and sprinkled the pepper on her lap while saying "BB Spice". Well.... it was cute and better than the night before at Red Lobster when she informed us loudly that she had poop in her diaper as she grabbed her rear end. ...and so it starts...