Gracie's First Halloween

Happy Halloween to you all, and Happy Birthday David!

We waited until the last minute to decide what Gracie should be for Halloween, so we ended up dressing her as a Carolina Hurricanes hockey player! Yep, she looked like a boy, but that's ok. She's still cute. In fact, we went as a team:

We carved 3 pumpkins, but none of the pics turned out very well of the other one- we got tired of carving, so I got the drill and drilled a bunch of holes in it- turned out pretty cool, actually! We took G trick-or-treating at 2 neighbor's houses. We had about 20 kids come to our house. Here are some pics of Gracie playing with the pumpkin last night:

So it was a great Halloween! Hope everyone's was just as good!

Funny video

This is awesome!
The Great Office War

The State Fair

We took Gracie to her first state fair on Tuesday night. It was Randy's birthday, and we celebrated with some fine fried stuff. I am happy to report I did not do nearly as much damage as last year. I had a yummy fried bologna sammich, a couple fried pickle spears (I like the chips better) and an orangeade. Those are the things I look forward to eating at the fair. Randy had a corndog, an Italian sausage (it wasn't that good), and a fried Twinkie. Gracie took in all the sights, and quite enjoyed all the people watching. I tried to get some good pics, but no such luck. Here's a pic, anyway.

Yesterday Gracie and I met Kelly and Ella in Burlington for lunch. Ella is getting so big! And she is just adorable- very smiley. It is so weird to me that several of my friends and I are carting around younguns at the same point in our lives. I never would have thunk it, and it is neat. I love that our kids will grow up with each other, kinda like cousins, I guess (I wouldn't know, as I don't have any cousins). Then Grace and I went to the Carter's outlet and got a couple cute outfits for winter. I also got a package today from my Grandma Amos with three super cute outfits- so she is stocked for a while.

Gracie is a super-speed demon crawler now. She gets around so well, and pulls up on anything that will stand still (and some things that won't!). She let go of the chair yesterday and actually tried to take a step toward me, but fell immediately. At least she tried!

Tomorrow is my last weekday of track-out. But it won't be too long until I track out again for Thanksgiving. They already have the Christmas decorations up at the mall!! Are they kidding me?? TOO SOON, people! One holiday at a time, please.

Duck, duck, GOOSE!

Poor Gracie! She has a purple goose egg on her forehead. She was trying to pull up on her dresser as I was trying to put socks on her, and her hand slipped and she bonked into one of the drawer pulls. She didn't fall far (she was only on her knees) but fell hard, and the purple bruise (and the howl) that came up immediately scared me enough to call the doctor. The nurse told me just to keep an eye on her and make sure she was acting ok, and that is was a good thing there was a swollen spot (as opposed to an indentation). So now she has this lovely bump, but it doesn't seem to bother her. I'm sure this is only one of many bumps to come as she gets more and more mobile, but it's still scary.

See video below

That was the best video I could get of Gracie standing. She's been working on it all weekend in her pack-n-play. She holds on to the sides, then lets go and just, well, stands there! We've seen her go for at least 10 seconds. Whenever we put her on the floor, though, she just wants to get down and crawl for things to get into. We're taking bets on when she'll be walking. The kid won't wave, won't say "mama," but her gross motor skills are coming right along.
We've been working hard on the mama thing, too. Even Randy goes around saying it all the time to her- he knows how much I want to hear it. But the only thing she does when you say it to her is say "dada". Hmph.
We're moving up in the world of food, too. Gracie eats mostly baby food still- 3rd foods, which have the chunks of pasta and veggies as main meal, with some fruit, too (usually a 2nd food fruit- they're about the same consistency as the 3rd fruits). Most of the 3rd foods are pretty good- especially one variety that is like, Pasta Parmesan I think. She eats the Graduates puffs, 'Lil Crunchies (basically cheesypoofs) and diced carrots and apples. I bought some unsweetened organic applesauce today because it is cheaper than the baby food, and some diced pears to see if she'll eat those. She gets little bites of bread, pancakes, broccoli, mashed potatoes and had chunks of the innards of potato wedges at Buffalo Wild Wings today. Just about anything I think she can chew I'll let her try. There's not much she won't eat.
We'll be taking Gracie to her first NC State Fair later this week. It's going to be perfect fair weather, too. We had to buy her a little coat today. I had a hard time finding one, because I have a thing against hoodies. I can't stand to sit with a hood bunched up against my back, and I can't imagine how that would feel all strapped into a carseat with a big wad of hoodie behind you. Maybe it wouldn't bother her, but it bothers ME, and that's enough. I finally found one at Target with a detachable hood. It is size 12 months, which is what she wears, but sorta swallows her. At least she can wear it all winter.
I am tracked out this week- woohoo! Randy's birthday is Tuesday, and G has a Dr. appt. on Wed., so it will be a kinda busy week. Looking forward to spending some time with Grace.

Standing

Got my laptop back

Yay! And it is all shiny because they had to replace a good portion of the plastic casing.
Now I can post some more pics, and maybe a video if I can get it to upload in a reasonable amount of time...
My mom always told me that her favorite period of my childhood was about 4-9 months, and now I know why. Gracie has been so adorable and agreeable up to this point. Now, however, she is developing a strong will- or should I say, a "won't". As in, she won't lie still to have her diaper changed, she won't play contently in her pack-n-play, she won't let me put jommies on her, she won't let me have whatever item she has that is contraband... She wears us out. It used to be so easy to entertain her, but now all her toys are old news- she wants a little danger in her day, apparently.
I have 3 more days of work until a week of track out. Thank goodness. Then 4 weeks on, 1 off, 2 weeks on, 3 off, 1 on, 1 off. Woohoo! I can't believe it is almost the holidays.
Here's a video of Gracie trying to stand on her own- this was a couple weeks ago- she's much better now:

<40> I can't get any other stupid videos to upload. Sigh. I'll try again tomorrow

Cats vs. Roomba

http://tomatonation.com/?p=844 <--clicky

This is the funniest story I've read in a while. Tears rolling down my face funny. Whew.

Tagged!

Kelly tagged me for this little activity. Here's how to play:

-Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
-Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
-Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
-Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I have a secret crush on Joe from Blue's Clues. (guess it's not a secret anymore, huh?)
2. I have a LOT of weird things that I do, including not walking on sidewalk grates, only eating tomatoes with certain other foods (I refuse to eat them on salads, but like them plain with salt), and not writing tomorrow's date on my whiteboard until it is actually tomorrow.
3. I am absolutely terrified of grasshoppers and praying mantises (and other bugs of the like).
4. I have the song "Take On Me" by A-ha as my ringtone on my phone.
5. I have never been out of the United States, and don't plan to go abroad anytime soon- there's too many places in the US that I'd like to visit (but I seem to keep going back to the same ones!).
6. I used to play piano and the violin. I wish I still did.
7. I don't like to follow recipes when I cook. I'd rather play around with the ingredients until it tastes ok.


Everyone I would tag has already been taken by Kelly! I guess I can tag Sherry and Becca.
Edited to add some tags: MaoMao and Case I may think of more later.

Hill Ridge Farms

We just got back from a trip to the farm and pumpkin patch! We decided not to go to Busch Gardens- we just didn't feel like driving/riding all the way up there, and we knew it would be crowded, so we all spent some time together in town. I had wanted to dress Gracie in a cute fall outfit, take her to a pumpkin patch, plunk her down in the middle of the pumpkins and get some cute pics. And so we did.



Hill Ridge Farms is a local attaction with a bunch of kids' stuff, including some animals, gem mining, a teepee, a fort, play areas, a grill and food stands, a giant tube slide, hayrides and a big pit of dried corn to play in. We got lunch and checked out the animals, went on a hayride and picked out some pumpkins. It was fun! It was SO busy for a Sunday morning. I've only been there before on field trips with school, and had no idea how popular the place was. Here's a couple more pics:







I need to edit them, and I have some videos, too, but the laptop is at Geek Squad getting fixed, and I don't know if the old desktop can handle the video. Maybe I can edit the pics on here, I'll try.