More for sure

I have to brag on Gracie for making the most perfect sign for "more" today.  She's been signing it for a while, but has never even been close to doing it correctly.  But like the books said, we just kept doing it the right way, and low and behold, tonight at dinner she did it perfectly!  And repeatedly, even pointed to what she wanted more of!  We about fell out, then praised and praised her.  It made my day to know that she is getting it, and that her fine motor skills are improving so dramatically.  

Throw Gracie from the plane!

In more recent news, we just got back from a trip to visit my parents in fabulous Las Vegas.  Hate to tell you, Grandmama and Boompa, but we won't be coming back for a while- at least not until I've forgotten about the plane ride home, that is.

We left last Saturday, and our 5 hour flight out there wasn't TOO bad- Gracie only slept for 20 minutes the whole flight, but we were on our game and coped pretty well with her the rest of the time.  We had a great time out there- it was so good to see my parents.  They have a great apartment out there, and are only 10 minutes or so from the strip.  Gracie got to meet Cody, their Sheltie, and learned his name almost immediately (this coming from the child who STILL doesn't seem to know who *I* am!).  She followed Co-Co around mercilessly.  Poor dog.

We went to Hoover Dam on Sunday and saw the scariest construction site EVER- they're building the new bypass bridge over the river and boy is it something else.  It is a cable-stay bridge, and they are pouring the concrete supports- it is hard to believe that people have to WORK that high up every day.

Mom and I went shopping that afternoon while David and Randy went to watch the Hurricanes game at the Caesar's Palace sports book.  We also went to our favorite spot: Bellagio.  Gracie got to see a couple fountain shows and I got some great pics of the spring flower display in the hotel.

On Monday we drove through the desert to the Buffalo Bill resort near the California border to ride the Desperado roller coaster.  We were unimpressed.  It was similar in style to Magnum at Cedar Point, and just a rough if not worse.  Meh.  We also went to the outlet mall out there and had lunch.  It was neat seeing all that desert.

We also had a night out by ourselves and went to dinner at Woo (awesome Asian cuisine) and went to see Phantom at the Venetian.  It was incredible.  We splurged on really good seats, and the sets were simply unbelievable.  The chandelier falling scene was awesome, and the damn thing came about 3 feet from our heads!  That was the only night we gambled at all- I won what Randy lost playing roulette.  It was fun, though.

We spent one day on the strip by ourselves, leaving mom home to rest up, and took Gracie to the Secret Garden habitat at the Mirage.  They have dolphins and white tigers among other critters, and that was neat.

We also toured Treasure Island and had lunch at the Fashion Show Mall.  We let G have a little freedom at the food court:

Let's see- what else?  We went that night to Fremont Street and had dinner at the buffet at Golden Nugget.  We watched the Fremont St. Experience, but it was a crappy song.  Gracie seemed to enjoy the lights, though.

On Wednesday we got a tour of Zappos.com where my mom works.  What a neat place!  We ate lunch at PF Changs- more about that in a sec.  That night we met one of Randy's former co-workers for dinner at Maggiano's.  I love that place, but was unimpressed with the service- it was really crowded in there, so dinner took forever.  Poor Randy evidently had some bad food at Changs for lunch, and he wasn't feeling so hot, so he didn't get to enjoy his dinner- or the rest of our trip for that matter.

On Thursday we headed home and experienced nearly the worst 5 hours of our life.  Our plane was late getting to Vegas, and Randy was still really sick.  Gracie was already tired of traveling and she was hungry, but wouldn't really eat before we got on the plane.  We struggled onto the plane, we struggled to keep her entertained, she whined, she fussed, she squirmed and Randy was miserable.  I was miserable for having to deal with BOTH of them.  I was ready to throw someone off that plane.  Gracie FINALLY fell asleep for the last hour and a half of the trip, and we didn't get home until close to 2:30 in the morning.  Luckily G slept in the next morning, as she has since we got back- she's still on pacific time.  Here are a few more random pics:

We've been crazy busy since we got back, too.  Randy was in a wedding today,  and we had rehearsal/dinner for that last night.  Friday I had to go out to NCCU to drop a video off and meet with my supervisor, too.  And yesterday we ran over something and blew a tire on the Prius.  Lovely.  I'm ready for some normalcy- but I'm NOT looking forward to going back to work tomorrow!

Hill Ridge Farms

I have a lot of blogging to get caught up with- I'll try to go in chronological order, but no promises...

On April 11th we took Gracie to hang out at Hill Ridge Farms.  It was supposed to be a decent day, though it ended up being overcast and a bit chilly, but we went anyway.  You'll remember Hill Ridge Farms from Halloween, and this time we decided Gracie might enjoy more of the little activities.  We went into the bouncy house for just a bit, went through the maze, then visited the animal corral.  We found some corn on the ground and Gracie did a great job of putting the food down the little tube to the goats.  We then went to the corn house, which is like a ball pit filled with dried corn instead of balls.  I thought it was neat- Gracie not so much.  She seemed terrified of the stuff, even when we buried her in it and tried to get her to play with the corn- she was having none of it.  Here's the proof- look at that face!

We then went on a train ride which she seemed to enjoy- we had the caboose all to ourselves!  We ended the day with a ride or two down the big tube slide.  Here are some more pics from our day at the farm:

Busy Busy

I am so tired of being crazy busy!  I feel like I haven't had a spare minute in months.  And right now, I really should be typing up some lesson plans for next week.  I FINALLY got my portfolio finished and turned in today, so that's off my plate.  I have one more week of student teaching, but I have to write plans for the lab for while I'm tracked out (and in VEGAS!).  I getting really worried about finding a job for next year, which doesn't help my stress level at all.

Other than that, things are fine.  We're really looking forward to our trip to see Grandmama and Boompa.  Gracie is well.   She's a mess.  She's starting to have days when she doesn't eat or drink much, then the next day she's a little piggy!  Typical toddler stuff, I'm told.  She's cutting ALL 4 molars, but she's handled it quite well.  She now is getting demanding about going to bed at night.  We usually don't sit down to eat our dinner until about 7:30, and we'll get about halfway through before she starts going back and forth between the 2 of us, whining.  We ask her if she's ready for bed, or if she wants to go upstairs, and she runs for the gate.  We do our little routine and in the bed she goes, typically before it's dark out.

We recently started putting her in pull-ups, too.  They're much easier to get on and off her since she won't lay down for diaper changes very easily, and they fit nicely, too.  Randy's mom has been introducing her to the bathroom, too.  I don't have any hopes that she'll be potty-trained anytime soon, but it can't hurt for her to see what all goes on in there.

In other news, I'm going to be an auntie!  Randy's brother's wife is due in mid-December.  We're really excited for them!

Not much else going on.  I don't even have any cute pics to share!  =(