Swimmin'!

We took Gracie to the Y today for a dip in the pool. She's been in a pool once before when she was a couple months old, but I don't think she had any idea what was going on. Today she did, and seemed to enjoy it! Our Y has a huge indoor pool and an indoor kiddie playpool. We did have to get G a new swimsuit, which we were able to find at Target (yes, in December!). Luckily, the Y has a nice family locker room, so I had Randy's help in preparing her for the pool and when we got out- he went to work out while we were in the pool. I took her to the baby pool first, and there are these big buckets that fill with water and dump into the pool. Those seemed to scare her a bit. But at the other end of the pool she did fine! She shivered for a minute until her body adjusted to the water (which was a good temp), and we found a couple toys to play with and were good to go! We then moved on to the big pool, and a family from school was there, and I was able to talk to the mom, who is a riot! It was nice being able to hold Gracie without my back breaking under her weight! Randy joined us after his workout and took a couple pics that turned out great!

Christmas Photos

Photobucket Album

Christmas Eve Photos

Click the photo below to view the album- click the first photo to view larger, then you can view each photo (some have descriptions).

Photobucket Album

11 months

I didn't forget that Gracie just had her 11 month birthday. I was waiting until I had some good pics to make this post. Then I realized I could just use her Christmas photos that we had done a couple weeks ago, but I had to scan them in. So here ya go:

Now, the updates:

*She's a walker! She walks more than she crawls, and can now stand up without pulling up on anything. We sometimes let her walk when we're out in public, but boy is she slow!

*We're really looking forward to Christmas. She opened her first gift the other day (from Olivia), and it was so cute. I think she's going to enjoy it.

*She says "doggie" (dog-GEE) "Daddy" (da-DEE) "fish" (ish), "sock" and will woof like a dog. Still no mama. =(

*We are working on gradually switching her over to milk. We're getting organic milk that has DHA added, which rocks.

*Some days she refuses to be fed from a spoon, and only wants stuff she can feed herself. Which makes for interesting meal planning.

*She has taken more notice of the TV and sometimes will sit for a few minutes and watch. I'm not ENCOURAGING this, but I usually put Sesame Street on while she gets her bottle in the morning, and it is cute to see the skits she pays attention to. And I love me some Cookie Monster!

I can't believe she will be ONE year old in less than a month. Grandmama and Boompa are coming from Las Vegas for her birthday and I am SO excited! I am tracked out right now, and will be off the whole week of her birthday, which is great. This year has just flown by, and every day I think how lucky we are to have our little family.

New camera

I got my Christmas present early: A new camera! I got a Canon Powershot SX110 IS. I LOVE IT! I wanted to get it early so I could figure out how to use it before Christmas and get some good pics of that day. Here's a couple pics I've taken. I have a lot to learn, but I've really enjoyed the macro feature. I wish there were more pretty flowers to take pics of!

Gracie and Olivia checking out gifts.

Improvement!

Big Girl Shoes

We decided it was time that Gracie had some proper shoes, now that she's walking, well, toddling around. She has really fat feet, and I wanted to make sure we got good shoes that fit her well and were the right type. We went to Stride Rite, and the lady was really helpful- showed up the kind of shoes she needed and measured her foot (she wears a 4.5W), and showed us the trick to putting them on. We picked out some cute ones that will go with a lot of things, and the lady said she should be able to wear them for about 3 months. Now Gracie needs to learn to walk all over again- the shoes have kinda thrown her off a little, but she can do it. Here are some pics of her new kicks! (excuse the red-eye, I'm too lazy to fix it).

We had just gotten back from the Hurricanes game tonight. They actually won!

I'm looking forward to my holiday break- one more week of work, then I'm off for 3! Then on for 1 and off for 1 when Grandmama and Boompa come for Gracie's birthday!

Decking the blog-halls

Thanks to Kelly for the linkage to the Cutest Blog on the Block site for some holiday decorating cheer!

These piggies were made for walkin'

Here's a couple pieces of evidence of the almost walking baby Gracie!