Wordless Wednesday (Cake Smash Edition)

Grace's Birthday Buddy

Grace loves spending time with her birthday buddy, her Great Aunt Mary-Anne.

Last year, I went into the hospital around supper time on December 12, but Grace wasn't born until the following morning. Mary-Anne was at home, waiting for the call. When she didn't hear from anyone by midnight, she was excited knowing that she and Grace would share the same birthday! Grace must have known that she would share her birthday with someone special if she was born on December 13 - her due date was December 3.

We love spending time with Mary-Anne. I really feel that she and Grace have a special connection. It was apparent even when Grace was very small. I mentioned it here, when Grace was just 5 months old. She always has a smile and her eyes light up for Mary-Anne.

Mary-Anne is also my god-mother, so she has always held a special place in my heart as well. We always have a lot of fun. Whether we're going out for lunch, going to the duck pond, or going shopping, she makes every outing a lot of fun for Grace. Today at Costco she was running with Grace in the cart, while Grace laughed her head off! The three of us always have such a great time together.

Friday Night Leftovers

• Almost every day this week Grace has boycotted her afternoon nap. She will babble happily for about half an hour after I put her in her crib, then she gets mad and wants to come back out and play. She hasn't been cranky, so I guess she's telling me she doesn't need the extra sleep?
• I can't wait to take Grace out on her sled! It's at Zilla's, so maybe we will get to try it out this weekend. 
• I love how easy it is to make Grace laugh these days. 
• Grace is not much of a meat eater. We always offer it to her, but she usually spits it out. Last night I cooked some chicken in a marinade that we had gotten at the Farmer's Market (from the same guy that makes our favorite strawberry jam!) and I was surprised that she actually liked it! I gave her some of the leftovers today for lunch and she wouldn't touch it. Sigh. 
• She's recently started liking hummus. It's funny when a baby has garlic breath. 
• We finally got one of those hard plastic things for the floor to go under her high chair (the kind you put under an office chair so the wheels don't scratch the floor). We have carpet in our dining room and we've been meaning to get one for a while. Grace's new found love for blackberries made this even more necessary. 
• It's still hard to believe that my baby will be one soon!
• Find more leftovers over here!

Snow

We had quite the snowstorm yesterday! The snow was already starting to fall when we went out for breakfast with Papa. We stayed put at home for the rest of the day, and B worked from home so he didn't have to be out on the roads.

When B took a break from work to do some shoveling, we bundled Grace up and took her outside. It wasn't her first snowfall, of course, but it was her first time out playing in the snow! (Okay, so there wasn't much playing going on. Sitting in the snow would be more accurate. It's hard to move in that bulky snowsuit!)

She didn't know what to think at first, and had a very serious look on her face as she studied the snow. Then she started licking snowflakes off of her snowsuit. We didn't stay out long because the wind was cold, but I'm looking forward to taking her out on her sled!

Wordless Wednesday (Ponytail Edition)

At the Dinner Table with Gracie

Grace has recently started doing a fake laugh. If B and I are laughing about something, she will do this fake laugh along with us as if she gets the joke. It's quite funny, actually, and doesn't sound anything like her real laugh.
I took this video the other night when we had supper at Zilla and Grampers' house. Grace was being such a ham!

11 Months!

Seriously? Almost a year already?

We are absolutely loving watch Grace's personality shine lately! She's social, funny, and loves to be a part of everything. She has developed a fake laugh that she busts out when the grown-ups in the room are laughing and she wants to be a part of it. It's hilarious! 

She is cruising around furniture and can stand without holding on for a few seconds. 

She has four teeth! The first one poked through on her 10 month birthday, and the other 3 weren't far behind! She's a tough cookie, and the teeth didn't bother her very much. She had one rough night, and a couple days where she didn't want to eat much unless it was cold fruit, yogurt or applesauce, but overall she took it like a champ!

Her hair is getting long and her bangs are in her eyes, but I don't want to cut her hair yet! She looks adorable with a little clip holding her bangs to the side, but she's started trying to take the clips out. I haven't been able to get her to keep a headband on for months, but I thought we were doing good with the clips! 

Grace still loves fruit of any kind, and is starting to like green vegetables. She hated pureed peas with a passion, but she likes whole peas. Green beans are hit or miss - one day she'll gobble them up, another day she'll refuse to even put them in her mouth. She loves pasta, carrots, sweet potatoe, and berries. 

She loves books, blocks, puzzles, and is starting to use her walking toys a bit more. She loves music and dancing. 

She is imitating us all the time and it is so fun to hear her repeat words back to us! Recently she's said cat, dog, Murr (my sister), and duck. She talks/babbles constantly. 

Grace is wearing mostly 12-18 month size clothing, and just started wearing size 4 diapers. It is almost impossible to get her to keep her shoes and socks on when we're in the house or the car, but at least she knows to keep them on when we're out for a walk!

We enjoy every minute with our happy little chubster! 

We Remember

Today we remember, honor, and pay our respects to all veterans, but especially this man:

             

Howard, aka Grampy. A great man, and a wonderful grandfather. I am very thankful to have had him in my life.

Wordless Wednesday

A Terrific Tuesday

We had such a nice day today!

It was beautiful out (15 degrees!) so Auntie Murr and I went for a walk this morning. I left Grace home with B because it was nearing her nap time and I didn't want to have to wake her up to bring her inside if she fell asleep in the stroller. She put up a bit of a fight about going down for a nap (naps have been a little off since the time change) but went to sleep a little while after we got home. 

After the morning nap, Grace and I went shopping with Great Aunt MaryAnne. I picked up a Christmas present, and MA bought me some yoga pants. We then went out for lunch. Grace had a grilled cheese and I tried to share some of my chicken shish-kabob with her, but she wasn't interested. We took Grace to the Heart Shaped Pond to feed the ducks. She loved it! They came right up to her stroller until we ran out of crackers and the crusts from Grace's grilled cheese that we took with us! 

It wasn't anything wild and exciting but it was just a lovely day! Grace loves spending time with her birthday buddy, and I think MaryAnne had a good time too!

Gracie and her Great Aunt watching the ducks.

Yay! Duckies! 

Look!

Loving the duck pond!

Fall Back

We set the clocks back an hour on the weekend. I explained the time change to Grace and let her know that she had to sleep in for an extra hour to make up for it. ;)

She tried! Her usual wake-up time is 7:00 and she woke up at 6:30 on Sunday morning, which would have been 7:30 before the time change.
I picked her up out of her crib and said "Don't you remember our conversation about the time change?" She shook her head and smiled. Little turkey!

She was up at 6:30 again this morning, but her naps seem to be back on track so I'm hopeful that everything will fall back into place over the next few days!

One Hundred

This is my 100th blog post!

I am a little surprised and pleased with myself for keeping up this blog. I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would! I've already found myself looking back at older posts if I'm trying to remember the date that Grace did something or we went somewhere. While I started the blog with the intent that it would be an online baby book for Grace (and myself) to look back on later, it is nice to know that people are reading it too!

And now, check out G's tooth!

Two bottom ones are coming in too, but I have yet to get a picture where you can see them! A second top one is close behind too. 10 months with no signs of teeth, and now she's getting four all at once!

Flu Shot

Grace and I got our flu shots today. Grace didn't even cry! She let out a yelp and buried her head in my shoulder, but then went right back to smiles for our doctor. What a brave girl!

Trick or Treat

Even though she doesn't understand what it's all about, I think Grace really enjoyed her first Halloween.

Great Aunt MaryAnne, Auntie Murr and I took Grace to the nursing home where Zilla works in the afternoon. The residents loved seeing our little duckie and Zilla had fun showing her off.

We stopped in to see Great Gramma on our way back home and hung out there until Grace started to get tired and cranky. She had a little snooze in the car on our way home, but refused to nap back at the house. She was in good spirits so after supper I decided to take her trick-or-treating in Aunt MaryAnne's neighborhood. It's a very close-knit community and we just went to a handful of houses - close friends of MaryAnne's and people that knew Nanny. They loved seeing Grace in her costume and gave her treats for her to share with Mommy and Daddy.

I'm really glad we went. Grace loved it, I had fun, and MaryAnne did too. We got home around 8:00 (Grace is usually in bed by 7:00) and Grace had her bottle and fell asleep within minutes of B laying her in her crib. She must have been tuckered out because she slept until 8:15!

Overall, a wonderful first Halloween for our little chubber!