Underwear!

It isn't what you think - honest.

I have snagged my wife's keyboard to bring you the multi-syllable word of the day.

Underwear.

Actually, Grace brings the word of the day to us.  We were all in the living room, after having watched Pixar's 'Cars'.  We've seen it before, and it still was a good movie.  It leaves you with a happy feeling at the end.  Afterwards, Grace, Lana and I were giggling and talking and having silly fun with an empty Kleenex box.  Grace wanted down, so she could fetch her box.  Although, being just a box, she quickly lost interest in it.  And wanted back up again.

Grace walked over to Lana, and held her arms out.  Lana didn't want to pick her up.  Grace, apparently feeling snubbed, walked over to me - arms out.  I picked her up, and she giggled.  She promptly pointed the spoon that she had in her other hand at Lana, and very clearly proclaimed:  "Underwear!"  Lana and I were both surprised, but we all started laughing.  Grace laughed too - she even covered her mouth when she did so - just like her mother.

Kids are funny, ya know?

For the best sleep...

Get a good mattress.

 

 And according to Grace, Papaws and Grandpas make the best mattresses ever!

 

 How can you not have a great sleep when you are snuggled up with a Papaw or a Grandpa.

Dad and Steve, thank you so much for being so willing to help my daughter get some good sleep.

I Can Do It!

Beautiful, Beautiful Saturday

What a great day to have a picnic with a wonderful neighbor!

Generous To A Fault

Dear Grace,

I know that you love to share.  You share your toys, you share your food, you did not have to share this sickness.

It saddens me to see you not feel well, but if only I could feel well too I might be able to take better care of you.   You are trying to take care of me though.  This morning I was laying on the floor and you would walk up to me, hug me, wipe my nose with a tissue, hug me again, try to stick the pacifier in my mouth, hug me once more then go off to play.  I believe that you went through that routine about three times.

However, as things go, you got sick on Monday.  I got sick on Tuesday.  Your dad should be very worried because if trends continue, his turn is tonight.  But, if that does happen...who will be around to take care of us as he has done today?

Grace I love you, please get well soon (and I plan to do the same).  This is one "not fun" time that I am having with you.

Much love,
Mom

March 14

March 14th is a memorable day.  It is my nephew's birthday (happy birthday Shannon).  It is 12 days after my sister's birthday (happy birthday Amy).  It is one day before the Ides of March (Sorry Julius Ceasar).  It is pi day.  And I could go on and on and on, but none of those reasons are the reason that I will remember this day.

This is the first day that Grace got sick...and I mean really sick.

Yes Grace has had colds.  Yes Grace has not felt well after shots.  And yes Grace has spit up or "thrown up" before (but those were tiny streams that I could just easily wipe away without thinking twice about it).

Yesterday Grace was not feeling well so we spent most of the day cuddling and watching VeggieTales.  Last night about five minutes before Matt got home Grace got sick.  I am talking about...grab a bucket, oh I wish there were a towel under us, undress Grace in the bathtub because she is that messy, smelly, yucky sick.

She is still not well.  We will have another cuddle day.  All I can say is that this is an adventure that I will not soon forget.

Recently

Life has been normal (or as normal as it can be with a one year old).

Grace has had a cold for the past two days so she has been a little off, but that is not stopping her at all.  She has many new tricks up her sleeve recently.

Here is a quick list of some of the new things that she is doing.
She has discovered how to do and undo zippers.  This means that she will not keep any of her coats zipped up, she can unzip all of the bags that I have her toys in...so the hallway is covered with toys that she now has access to, and she can now open up Matt's office bag!

She waves hello and bye bye almost all the time.  Also, it is not just a normal wave, she puts her hand in the shape of a sign language "E" and moves it back and forth much like you would to turn a door knob.  It is very cute.

Last night she was eating banana and I decided to try something new.  So I placed a plastic fork on her tray.  Without much ado she picked up the fork and began stabbing the pieces of banana.  And yes, then the banana made it's way to her mouth.  She ate with a fork!  Now granted she also used her hands, and every once in a while she would pick the banana off the fork with her hands and eat it like that, but for the first time eating with a fork by herself it was not too bad.

If I can remember them all I will try to make a list of her words here.
uh-oh, da da, ma ma, gin (again), hi, bye.  I am sure that there are more, but this is a good start.

She loves to dance and will dance whether she is standing or sitting.

Oh, and everything that she can get her hands on is a "phone."  She will put it up to her ear and babble. However, when someone tries to talk to her on the phone she will say nothing.  Strange, but true.

She is a sweet little girl who is always on the go, and always wants to know what you are doing.  And she is starting to copy just about everything we are doing....

New Stuffed Animal

Back in January, Grace and I went to the library (granted this is not an uncommon thing for us to do).

This time while we were there the librarian showed us a poster for the Winter Reading Program.  I thought, we read about 4 books a day anyway...why not just write them down and join this program.

We kept reading as much as we normally do, but it was harder than I thought to write down all of the titles.  Or to keep up with "I read this title 5 times, but this one only 3."  But I did my best to keep all my records accurate.

On Thursday Grace and I went back to that particular library and handed in our forms to get...

 

this hedgehog!

 She seems to like him

He is a cute little finger puppet.  I think that Grace will love playing with him.

Valentine's Dinner

I know that I am a bit behind on my holidays...for goodness sake I have not even blogged about Christmas!  But here is Valentines at least.

Matt and I made a menu of Boeuf en Croute, festive salad, corn (mainly for Grace), and Tiramisu.  As usual we had cheese, grapes, sausage, and strawberries to eat with crackers as the day progressed till dinner (we usually do not get a lunch due to all of the cooking).

After looking at the menu we realized that we had two challenging items (the Boeuf and the Tiramisu) and two simple items (the corn and the salad) which ended up being the best for us.  We still got the challenge of cooking something new.  We still needed to work together to make the dinner.  But we only had to focus on two items so we could spend more time playing and dancing around with Grace, who was always trying to help!

Well, Grace seemed to have a great time that day (the header picture is from Valentine's dinner). The dinner was wonderful (we have made the salad many times since).  The roses that I got from Matt and Grace made a nice centerpiece to the table.  It was just a very special day for all three of us. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day also.