Under Construction

Mission Accomplished- NEW BLOG, PEOPLE!!

2010-01-02T00:40:00.002-05:00

THIS BLOG HAS BEEN MOVED!

To my very few readers: Please update your links to include my NEW blogging address at Wordpress: http://sararoberson.wordpress.com/

I'm looking for a new title- any ideas?

An indoor waterpark!

2010-01-02T00:04:00.003-05:00

This is your bathroom as two little girls are taking a bath:

These are the 2 little girls.

This is a mommy after supervising aforemetioned bath:

Yesterday Sherry and Olivia came over to do laundry (long story) and hang out. Poor Olivia had a bad cough, and evidently WAY too many cheerios. A bad coughing jag led to an unfortunate gag, and she ended up covered in regurgitated cheerios, as did my couch and even Gracie a bit. Sherry thought Olivia could use a bath, so I said throw 'er in the tub. Well, ain't no WAY Gracie was going to let Olivia "take bath" alone (better not to swim along, right?), so we threw her in there, too. Sherry got bath duty, and I got couch-cleaning duty. A pretty fair trade, believe it or not! Olivia taught Gracie the lovely art of splashing, and my bathroom was seriously FLOODED from the 2 of them. They had the best time! It's actually really nice that G has a little friend that she can do things like that with (since she'll probably never have a sibling) and that Randy and I have such good friends as Grant and Sherry to supervise each other's kid in the tub (and clean up their regurgitated cheerios) and not even bat an eye.

I know I'm really behind in blogging. I need to do the Christmas stuff and more, but Blogger is really driving me nuts. I'm thinking about moving over to Typepad, but I don't really want to pay for pro (of course I want the pro features!) and I'd like to be able to just move the whole blog over. Any ideas, suggestions for a new place to blog??

Christmas Pics

2009-12-15T22:53:00.003-05:00

Weekend before last we had our Christmas portraits taken by Crystal Pace http://www.pacephotography.jhpace.com/. We had planned to have Gracie's 2 year pics taken the same day, but it was really cold outside and Grace was REALLY uncooperative. We got a lot of "action" shots. But they turned out really good! Below is a sampling:

LOVE the color in this one!

This is my favorite!

Christmas ball

She had a mouthful of marshmallow in this one!

A nice family shot

The fun family shot

This past weekend we attended "A Night with Elves" at Marbles Kids Museum. I was SO excited about this event, which is a fundraiser for the museum. There was dinner, drinks, live music, crafts, free-play at the museum and real snow to play in! Unfortunately, the place was WAY overcrowded, and it kind of ruined it for us. G had a good time, but dinner wasn't that great, they ran out of cupcakes/cookies and it was just hard to maneuver around and keep a good eye on the kiddo while letting her explore. I don't know that we'll go again unless they sell half as many tickets.

We're looking quite forward to Christmas- most presents are bought and wrapped and Gracie is starting to understand some of the typical Christmas stuff. She knows and says:

-Christmas Tree (kis-kas tree)

-jingle bells

-snowflake (snowpake)

-snow

-fa-la-la-la-la

-sings O Christmas Tree

-lights (and house lights)

-Santa Claus

-presents

So, she's got all her bases covered. We've watched The Polar Express, Charlie Brown Christmas, Mickey's Christmas (several different ones), Handy Manny's Christmas, and of course, Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas. Good times.

Not much else to report. I am tracked out for 3 whole weeks! Then back at work for a week, then out again for another week for G's birthday and Grandmama's visit.

Also, I don't think I've blogged about becoming and Aunt! Our nephew Wyatt Michael was born on Nov. 30th. He's adorable, and tiny! Everyone is doing well. Congrats again to Kevin and Caitie!

First Haircut!

2009-11-28T23:31:00.004-05:00

In the craziness of Gracie being sick, I totally forgot to blog about her first haircut! We had it done on Nov. 15, because she had these wispy little hairs around her forehead that kept getting in her eyes. We figured it couldn't hurt to shape up all the curls, either. We went to Snip-Its, and had a really good experience with them, despite a rather long wait. They don't take appointments, which I'm not crazy about, but the salon was really cute, with little kid-sized chairs and fun characters. Gracie did fantastic for her haircut. They had some bubbles for her to play with and that was all she needed to keep her distracted. Her hair doesn't look much different, but it curls up more on top of her head now (which is cute but frustrating when it won't lay down).
Here's a few pics of the experience:

Unfamiliar territory

2009-11-22T23:15:00.003-05:00

Poor Gracie is sick! She started with mild coughing/stuffiness on Thursday, then by the time we put her in bed on Friday night she had a temp. of 102.4. By Saturday morning, my dear toddler had been replaced with a fireball- 104.3!!!! It was uncomfortable to touch her she was so hot! I called the doc and we took her in that morning. Her flu test was negative, and they drew blood to check her white cell count which was great. So they think she just has a nasty virus and there's not much we can do. I started cycling Tylenol and Motrin today which has helped keep her temp from spiking back up. I'm so hoping she wakes up tomorrow perfectly fine. She really hasn't been in a crappy mood or anything- a little more impatient and clingy, and not eating much, and she has her moments of whiny breakdown, but not too bad. Randy wasn't feeling so hot last night but seems to be ok today, and earlier today I was feeling crummy, but maybe I'm just worn out from worrying about Grace. I sure hope I don't get this crap. At least I'm tracked out this week to take care of her.
Also tonight we were shampooing our carpet in the living room (there were small colonies of nasties living in it!!) and we have a spot where the carpet meets the hardwood where the cats have clawed down to the carpet spikes (we usually keep the spot covered with a rug). Well, I came across the threshold and my feet were wet, and my right foot slipped back onto the carpet and RIGHT into a damn carpet spike! I didn't realize how bad it was cut until I saw I was leaving blood spots on the tile in the kitchen. It probably could've used a stitch or two, but it closed itself up pretty well and didn't bleed too much. It hurt like crazy!!
So, not doing too good around here. At least I got the kitchen cleaned up and the carpet done today. And I'm tracked out so I can't complain too much.

Sorry

2009-11-10T21:36:00.002-05:00

I apologize to my few readers that I haven't been posting very often. My computer drives me crazy with its insanely slooooooowww upload times for my large pics, and I'm too lazy to resize them on the OTHER computer that has my resizing program because it takes forever to start up. And I COULD just post a bunch of text, but I know nobody cares what I have to say- you want cute pics, right??
But, I do like to document the goings-on of dear Gracie's life, for posterity's sake. So here goes.
-Singing. This is her newest "thing". She sings the Hot Dog Dance song (hot dog, hot dog, hot diggy dog, and the last 3 words: mouse, club, house!), she sings this funny thing I think she made up, which is more of a rhythm (boopy boopy bap-bap-bap), and today she made up a song about mama-dada. Those were the only words, over and over, but she was definitely singing them. lol!
-I sorry. She likes to apologize to things. If she falls over a toy, she apologizes to the toy (I sorry blocks). If she runs into one of the cats, or the sofa, or the potty, etc., she apologizes to it. Sometimes she apologizes when SHE gets hurt, and sometimes to us. She also says I sorry when one of us sneezes.
-Please. She won't say please. Won't. Makes me mad.
-Eating. She still doesn't eat much half the time. I've just given up. I offer her some food, and she either eats it or doesn't. She never turns down fruit or juice, so she's getting nutrients that way at least.
-ID. She can identify TONS of items in her books. You can ask her to find things, or ask her what something is and have her tell you. Just about any word she knows she can identify.
-Speaking of words... she must know well over a hundred words. At least. She talks NONSTOP, and is staring to link things together. You can see the little schemas in her head expanding as she assimilates and accomodates (thank you, Piaget!). Yesterday she was telling me, in multiple sentences, that she was going to play hockey, with dada, at Jojo's house (our house- she thinks Jonah owns it evidently) on the TV. Too bad there wasn't any hockey on that night.

In other news, I am excited about 2 upcoming events. Marbles Kids Museum is having "A Night with the Elves" in December, and it is dinner, drinks, dessert, REAL SNOW to play in!!!, cookie decorating, pics, and tons of other things for families. It's a fund raiser, and I'm really hoping we can get tickets. A shout-out to Sherry for the info! Also coming in December is Raleigh Winterfest, featuring a natural ice outdoor skating rink on Fayetteville St in downtown Raleigh. So cool! The smallest size skates they have are 9's, but just watch me try to get G into a pair of skates to try out the ice... =)
I have several events to blog and post pics of, Halloween included. I'll do it soon, I promise.

Zoo

2009-10-14T22:17:00.006-04:00

I have been slack in uploading pics here in the past couple weeks. We went to the NC Zoo several weekends ago and here are some pics:

Willy the Polar Bear

Riding the carousel

Oh CRAP! There's a mountain lion chasing me!!

Heh.

Who's the monkey on whose back??

Just looking.

This may have been her favorite part: riding the big bus back to our parking lot!!

Adios, Wubbies!

2009-10-04T20:40:00.002-04:00

Last Thursday I noticed that Gracie had bitten a hole into the paci part of her dog wubby. Lately she's taken the chewing on them, and the doggie had suffered the consequences. So, I figured, it was time to break our child's heart and put an end to the wubby addiction. When Randy got home, we cut the broken part off the dog, and cut the tip off the duck wubby. We wanted her to still have the animal part as her lovies. We left the frog wubby intact, in case of emergency. We put her to bed with just the "broken" wubby that night, and she fell asleep without incident. However... she woke up around 1:00 whimpering, then whining, the full-out broken heart crying. I was going to let her cry and see how long it took, but Randy went upstairs and after a while ended up giving her the intact wubby. Of course she went right back to sleep.
Friday night, same story, except she woke up shortly after midnight and merely whimpered for a few minutes before falling back asleep withOUT the real wubby! Yeah! Last night she spent with Grandma, so I'm not sure how it went. And tonight, she's gone to sleep just fine, so we just have to hope that she makes it through the night and we'll be well on our way to wubby-freedom!
I also recently started rewarding her for going potty with a piece of candy corn. She's finally to the point that she understands rewards, and now all I have to to is ask if she needs to go potty and remind her of the candy and she runs right for it! Twice on Saturday she pottied on public toilets and I didn't even have candy with me. So, improving there, too!
We've been working on manners, too- getting her to say "please". She'll do it sometimes. Still needs some work.
We had our second Little Gym class yesterday- what fun! I really enjoy it and I think she does too.
Not much else going on. We had Caitie's baby shower for soon-to-arrive cousin Wyatt- I made the cake and diaper cake, which both turned out pretty well! I don't feel like I've had a weekend, so I am hating that I have to go back to work tomorrow. =(

The Little Gym

2009-09-26T22:44:00.003-04:00

Before we committed to the little soccer class with Gracie, we wanted to give another structured activity a try. Sherry and Olivia had been encouraging us to try the Little Gym, as a little girl at Olivia's daycare has been going and loves it. They offer a free trial class, so that's what we did this morning. Gracie is technically supposed to be in the "beasts" class (over 19 months), but because we wanted her and Olivia together, because G has never done a class of any kind before, and because the Saturday class combines the "beasts" with the "super beasts (up to 3 years old)", we asked if we could do the "birds" class, and they said that was fine. So, Gracie was the little oddball this morning, but we really enjoyed the class and are probably going to commit to this semester (it goes until mid-January).
The instructor told us that it is normal for the kids to want to explore the gym, and that it is fine for them to do so, as it encourages their independence, and that we should let them wander off (with supervision) if they desired. Which, of course, is EXACTLY what G had in mind for much of the class. But, a big part of the class was free exploration, so it was cool. She also told us that kids at Gracie's age are the big ones for wandering, and it is fine. The class focuses on following directions, exploration, music, play and basic tumbling skills. This morning was "backward day", so many the skills we were shown involved going backward (back handsprings on the octagon and backward rolls on the wedge).
Below are some of the pics from today:

Gracie didn't NEED to hold on to the support bars, but it sure was fun!

Olivia practicing her backward roll (with spot).

Gracie's turn

Check out Olivia on the big balance beam!

Little G

On the air track

Air track (inflated)

Waiting for the air track to inflate

Both girls (and us adults) had a good time- I think this will be a good activity to get Gracie exposed to more kids and have a semi-structured activity to do each weekend!

Teacher

2009-09-22T21:53:00.002-04:00

I am thrilled to report that I have FINALLY officially obtained the position of TEACHER for Wake County Schools! It's about time, I know. I get to stay in the science lab, so this is pretty much my dream job. The only downside is that I am being booted out of the main building into a "modular unit" (trailer)- they need my room for a new PreK or something. I'm not thrilled about it, but at least I get control over my own heat/AC, so I won't be freezing anymore. I've been working this week to get my room packed up, and I guess I get to go through to process of re-setting up a new room, which is always fun. I will miss all of my shelves and especially my sink/countertop area. I will have my own bathroom, which is nice, but the sink is lacking in function. I'll have to post some pics when I get all set up. Just wanted to share my good news!

Great Wolf Lodge

2009-09-09T21:07:00.005-04:00

At the last minute last week we decided to try to go out of town for the weekend. We weren't sure where to go, but the Outer Banks and Great Wolf Lodge were possibilities. We didn't figure we could get a decent place at the beach, so we looked into the Lodge, talked Grant, Sherry and Olivia into going with us, and made the reservations. We didn't get much of a deal, because of the holiday and it being last minute, but we think it was definitely worth the money! We had a great time. We got a room with 2 queen beds and a small sitting area that had a wall to separate the 2 areas. Sherry made a little fort to separate the pack-n-plays so the kids couldn't see each other:

Here's Olivia playing Peek-a-boo in the curtains (a favorite activity):

The girls hanging out (Gracie is helping Olivia with her shoe):

Hiding behind the curtain was another favorite activity:

Whoa.

We arrived around dinnertime on Saturday, and just kind of hung around in the room then went to eat at the buffet. It was pricey, but the food was good. The service sucked, however. By the end of dinner we had 2 nap-deprived kiddos, and I headed upstairs to put G to be first. The others were soon to follow and Gracie was already asleep. She sleeps like a log, so we got Olivia to bed pretty easily, too. The rest of us stayed up to play Spades until all hours. We only had once incident where G woke up hollering and I thought for SURE she'd never go back to sleep, but she did pretty quickly. She must've been worn out.

The next day we got breakfast at the buffet (we had pre-paid for it, and they ended up giving us 2 days of breakfast accidentally- score!), and Olivia took her morning nap while Randy, G and I hit the arcade. They had a great little arcade and even Gracie enjoyed the little ride-on cars and hitting buttons on some of the games to win tickets.

Once Olivia was up it was time to hit the waterpark. We got the girls suited up with life jackets and they totally enjoyed the water! They had a little toddler area with a couple of slides and sprayers in about a foot or 2 of water. Olivia LOVED the waterslides, and Gracie did at first, then got a little spooked about sitting down at the top. I have a video, but the computer is taking forever to upload, so I'll try again soon. Sherry and I took turns switching off with the Dads to go ride the big rides. The Howling Tornado was great! We also took the girls into the Lazy River and on the big fort.

We ended up with hungry girls about mid-afternoon, so we changed and did a late lunch at a little place next to the Lodge called "Jungle Jim's". The girls took a nice nap then we suited back up for the waterpark again. This time we took the girls on one of the big rides! A family raft ride down a huge tube. We didn't realize that they turned the lights off at night, so it was pretty dark in there. I think they liked it, though.

We finally headed back to the room, stopping for pizza on the way (which took FOREVER!!). We had a nice junk-food dinner and put both girls down to sleep at the same time- and they actually went right to sleep!!! Another evening of Spades (the guys are now even with us girls) ensued.

Monday morning Sherry and I had appointments for a pedicure at the spa, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The guys took the girls for breakfast and then we packed and hit the arcade one more time. Gracie won 25 tickets herself! We ended up with a bunch of tickets and got G a little GWL stuffed wolf as a souveneir, then we finally headed home.

It was a great trip- I would highly recommend the place for families with kids of all ages, and I'm sure we'll go back in a couple years when the girls can do more stuff. They had a great time together, too (you can't beat running up and down the halls, riding on luggage trolleys and the elevator!). Keep an eye for an update to Sherry's blog for more pics.

Kickin' It!

2009-09-09T20:45:00.003-04:00

On Saturday, we took Gracie to The Factory to do a trial lesson of the Turf Tikes soccer program. The program is an 8 week session for kids 18-24 months and focuses on following directions (yeah, right!), and basic soccer stuff. It is for parents and kids. Gracie loves to kick a ball around, so we thought she might enjoy it.
She was the only little girl there, and it was evidently the last class of the previous session. Most of the other kids were older (closer to 2) and they seemed to kind of have an idea about what to do. Gracie? Not so much. She was having no part of sitting in the circle, following directions, playing redlight, greenlight or anything else that involved her being told what to do. Now, she wasn't the ONLY kid not doing what everyone else was, but it was obvious that she wanted to do her own thing. She loved kicking around all the soccers balls, and playing in the goal. We did an activity where we built a tower of cones and the ball and she had to kick the ball to knock down the tower- she LOVED that! And was good at it! She also liked the parachute.
We're not sure we're going to enroll her in the class at this point- she's just not ready. But it was fun to see her around other kids and doing something new!

Giggles

2009-08-24T21:51:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to share this video of Gracie being attacked by the Tickle Monster. Talk about torture!

Mommy-daughter weekend

2009-08-23T20:10:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I was out of town with my girls, having a relaxing weekend of scrapbooking, tubing and gem mining in the mountains. Randy was on his own with G, and I think they had a pretty good weekend.
This weekend it was MY turn to stay home, as Randy had his Fantasy Football draft in the mountains with his buddies. Gracie and I had a lovely time! We went to eat at Chick-fil-A on Friday for dinner, and G got to play in their playground. She had a blast, and had no fear climbing up all the tubes to find the slide. Saturday we did some shopping, and ate at Panera (which was a bit of a fiasco, but we lived), took a long nap, and ate dinner at Champa. She was SO good at Champa, and ate some Tom Kha soup, some cucumber from my Kanisu roll and some crab rangoon. Today we chilled out at home this morning, took a nap (see the pattern?), ate lunch at Applebee's and did some Target shopping. Randy got home late this afternoon, and we're glad he's home. All in all a nice weekend!
I'm happy to report that G is eating even better now. She'll eat some of the Gerber toddler meals, peas, tomatoes (sometimes), corn, and now even loves broccoli! We call them "baby trees" and she gobbles them right up! Weird.
I am SO ready for this heat to be gone. Fall- hurry up! That's all I have for now.

Fascinating, and a rant

2009-08-12T22:00:00.003-04:00

I watched Gracie this evening as she was playing. I was simply AMAZED at how I could see her learning right in front of me. She was opening the sliding door on our bookshelf (she's really not supposed to be in there, but it was the one I don't have a lock on yet that only has stuff in it that she can't destroy) and putting different toys in there, then shutting the door to see if it fit. She started with her big Tigger, and she had to rearrange him several times before she could shut the door. She then tried Wubby- no problem. Then the fluffy poodle- she shut his foot in the door a couple times and wasn't satisfied until she could shut the door completely. Then a football (don't ask)- she had to slide the door all the way back so it would fit into the deepest space. Then I could just see the wheels turning in her little head as she looked around the room for more. She found her spinning top toy, and she sure had to heave that thing up there (the shelf is above her head), but it fit after several tries. I ended up distracting her from the task because she was running out of reasonable things to try. I just kept saying to Randy "Look at this! This is education! She's learning!". Not that I didn't know kids learned best by experimentation (I'm a science teacher for crying out loud), but I'd never seen her concentrate so incredibly hard on one task and figure it out as she went along. It was such a weird task, too. I mean, what in the world inspired her to try stuffing items into the bookshelf?! Anyway, just a cool little activity I wanted to remember.
On another note, I had to take her for her first "sick" doctor visit today. I know, right? First sick visit in 19 months. It must be all the dirt we let her eat that has built up her immunity (kidding- kind of). She had a rash behind her ear that I couldn't figure out. Evidently she is having a reaction to something (one of 7000 things, the doc said). I'm thinking it might have been some ear-drying drops I put in her ears a couple days ago after playing in the fountains. They're mostly alcohol, but the only thing I could think of. She's on Benadryl which seems to be shrinking the rash already.
Speaking of doctors and germs- I usually don't post controversial stuff on here, mostly because I don't think I have many readers, so really what's the point? But, I do have to say that I am so SICK of the germophobia in this country, and am actually worried that all the antibacterial stuff is going to end up hurting us all as a society more than it helps. I mean, we didn't HAVE Purell and antibacterial cleaning EVERYTHING when I was a kid. Hell, I rarely washed my HANDS as a kid. I ate dirt. I probably licked shopping carts. I faithfully practiced the 10 second (or 15, or hey, just blow the dirt off it) rule. These days, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting somebody who is obsessed with the idea that their child shall NEVER encounter a germ. Bullhockey. The only reason our immune system works to fend off germs is by exposure to said germs. When you are constantly protected from minor germs, your body doesn't learn to defend itself, and when one FINALLY sneaks by, BAM, you're sick.
I mean, I work with snotty kids, so I really can't be germophobic. I know G isn't in daycare, but I'm sure I bring all kinds of stuff home to her. We keep her clean, and wipe hands, but I've only ever sanitized her hands once (by requirement). She eats stuff that falls on the floor (not in public) and pets the cats and surely eats catfur, among other germy sins that we commit in this house. I never boiled her bottles, she ate *GASP* formula. Yet somehow, she thrives.
What brought on this rant, you ask? Well, we've been working hard at the potty training, and I googled the other day about public bathrooms. Well, let me tell you, that moms across the country exist that have NO intention of ever letting their child PEE in a public bathroom. Or insist that their child "hover", or cover the toilet seat with 3 inches thick of TP. Really? REALLY?! Some people were saying that they hated even taking their child IN to a public bathroom. How do these people function in the real world?
OK, end of rant. BTW, we had a breakthrough this week in the potty world. She had been on strike with using public toilets. A couple months ago when we started, she would more readily pee on a public toilet than the potty. Then she wouldn't go at all. I kept trying, using the seat inserts and not, sitting behind her, balancing her on my knees... but nothing. She would sit there for a few seconds, then freak out. And it isn't the noise of the bathroom or the flush, and many internet moms suggest, because she LOVES to flush. But finally, on Monday, she went with me sitting behind her at a restaurant bathroom. Then again yesterday, and today at the doctor's office. So, whew. Back on track. Now, if I can just get her to use her ever increasing communication skills to TELL me before she has to go, we'll be doing great.
(boy this is a long post- this is what happens when I have time off work)
Speaking of communication, she was so cute last night. At about midnight, I heard her whimpering and rustling around in her bed, and I flipped on the monitor and realized she must be looking for her Wubby. She never started crying, but sat up in the corner of the bed, surveying the situation. I went upstairs to help her out, and when I walked in the room she quietly asked, "Where'd it go?". Squee! So sweet. I found Wubby, and she was so relieved, then she looked at her bed where she had destroyed her pillow and covers in her frantic search, looked at me and said, "Help." This communication thing is a miracle, I tell you! Except that she now knows how to ask for "Manny" (Handy Manny) and "George" (Curious George). She of course loves the TV shows, and I have the Handy Manny theme song on my phone, and let me tell you that there is for sure a threshold for how many times a parent can listen to that song before totally losing it... "More Manny! More Manny! More Manny!"

Fountains

2009-08-09T21:25:00.003-04:00

We took Gracie by the mall today to play in the jumping fountain. We were excited that it was actually working for once, and we weren't really prepared, so we stopped by Sears to buy a towel for her. She had a BLAST! As you can see in the video, the other kids were more interested in AVOIDING the water- Gracie had no intentions of staying dry. Even when she'd get caught off guard by a spray of water, it didn't faze her at all.

Growing up

2009-08-08T21:30:00.004-04:00

Gracie is growing up WAY too fast! Below is a video of her eating ice cream (sherbert, actually) this evening. She sat in a regular chair and managed to eat most of it all by herself. She's getting so tall, too, and picking up new words and phrases at an alarming pace. I'm also thrilled to report that she is eating somewhat better. Tonight at dinner she enjoyed some miso soup, soba noodles, cucumber w/soy sauce and some chicken. At lunch today she even ate some lamb! (we went to a little Greek/middle eastern place), and drank a strawberry-banana smoothie so fast (out of a big girl cup/straw) that I'm surprised she didn't get a brain freeze! A big part of the eating is letting her do it by herself, and letting her use a real fork is best. She does ok spearing bites of food. So I'm feeling better about her appetite.
BTW- that is NOT her squealing- it was the kid behind us.

18 months

2009-08-04T19:18:00.001-04:00

A sentence??

2009-07-21T22:14:00.002-04:00

I think I may have heard Gracie intentionally use a sentence today. I *think* she said "I want more cherries". The cherries were actually Craisins (she calls them cherries) that she was eating in the car, and she had started whining. I asked her what she wanted, and that was what she told me! This is a breakthrough in several ways. First, she actually STOPPED whining to answer my question, and second, she strung several words together to make a coherent sentence! Unfortunately for her, I didn't HAVE any more cherries. =(
She's at the age where she picks up new words almost daily. Her new favorite is "bus" and we have to look really hard when we're driving to spot buses. Of course, the UPS truck, tractor-trailers and SUVs are all "buses", so it isn't too hard. I cut out a picture of a bus from a magazine for her today, and she toted that picture throughout the Target with her. lol
She also surprised me today in pitching a fit when I dropped her off at Grandma's. She usually pays me no attention when I leave, and her Papa was even there this morning, but she still clung to me and cried "Mama! Mama!" over and over as I walked out the door. BROKE my heart.

Sprinkler

2009-07-16T21:56:00.007-04:00

Tonight, Randy had put the sprinkler in the yard and I have been wanting to let Gracie play it in, so I thought it would be a good night to try. It has been hotter than Hades around here, and the water that comes out of the faucets is actually WARM.

Anyhoo, she LOVED it! The first time the water hit her she flinched only momentarily, and then it was on! She would run right up to it and wait for the water to hit her, then squeal with delight. She ended up covered in grass and dirt, and I stripped her down and hosed her off before we came inside. Here's a few pics of the fun:

It's about damn time

2009-07-09T21:35:00.002-04:00

I am thrilled to report that after almost 18 months, Gracie is FINALLY saying Mama. Oh, it is music to my ears! She will even call after me now if I leave the room. She said it today when I got home (even though she didn't run to me like she does her daddy). I'm loving it.
She also continues to do well in her bed. She's fallen out (or gotten out) and gone back to sleep on the floor a couple times, but that hasn't fazed her.
She has a busy calendar this weekend- 2 birthday parties to attend! And Mama is making her first paid cake! So, it will be an interesting weekend.

2009-07-05

2009-07-05T23:22:00.001-04:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

Big Girl Bed

2009-07-02T21:31:00.003-04:00

Last weekend we finally got a toybox for our living room. This enabled us to get all 8 zillion of Gracie's toys out of the pack-n-play and into a proper container. We hadn't used the PNP for its intended use for a while, and I was dying to get it out of the living room. I had been talking about converting Gracie's crib into the toddler bed because I want to get her to the point of getting out of bed and using the potty (in her room), and because I thought she would be fine with the switch. Randy agreed to give it a go, and we decided to put the PNP in her room in case she totally refused to sleep in the bed- at least we could contain her. So Sunday we converted. It was an easy switch, and the bed looks really good (it has a little half-rail). She loved climbing in and out of it. The first night she climbed in and out several times when first laid her down, and I left the room after putting her back in bed several times. We watched her on the monitor, and she got back up and disappeared off the screen, so I waited a few minutes then went to check on her. When I walked in the room she was sitting in her glider- she looked so pitiful to me! So I rocked her a bit, then laid down in the bed with her and gradually moved further from her. I ended up blocking her from getting out (she kept trying!) until I thought she was tired enough to conk out, and when I left she was asleep and stayed asleep all night! We put a gate outside her door so we could crack it and let in some light from her nightlight (which is too bright to put IN her room). Since then, she's been a big girl bed champ! Each night I lay her down, cover her up, and leave the room. She follows me to the door (which I close) and we watch her on the monitor. She goes back to the bed, climbs in and lies down. Then, she realizes that she doesn't have her blanket, so she gets out of the bed, gets the blanket, lies back down and GOES TO SLEEP! I have been so impressed!! So far, most mornings she has still been asleep when Randy has gone to get her, but this morning she was standing at the gate when he went up there. So far, she hasn't fallen out, although the other night Randy woke her up when he went to check on her and she tried to follow him to the door but didn't quite make it- she laid down halfway to the door, face first, and crashed out on the floor! lol
We've had a little bump in the potty training road. She hasn't been quite as good lately about going whenever we put her on the potty. She will still GO in the potty, just on her own schedule, and she has been having accidents some at Grandma's. We figured we kinda stopped making a big deal out of it when she did go, so we've picked that up again. She also hasn't wanted to go on public toilets lately. Not sure about that one. We're definitely getting there, though!
Clopening continues. Actually, I guess we're at opening now. I have been SO busy. I have so many tasks to complete, because I can't say no when someone asks me for help, and I have a hard time ASKING for help. I'm getting it done, though. Somehow. My room looks great (even though the cleaning crew will destroy it when they clean the carpets and floors!) and I'm gathering ideas and materials. People are donating frogs, crabs and a millipede (ew) to me, too.
I guess I need to post some Gracie pics-but I have to do that with the other computer. Maybe later...

Clopening

2009-06-28T11:43:00.002-04:00

I have been really busy lately, and haven't updated the blog in quite a while. It is clopening time at school- when we have one week to close this year and open next year. And with me, it has been a bit overwhelming. I'm trying to do too many things at once: plan for my science lab, wrap up some computer projects, gather materials, organize carpool, work on schedules for the scheduling committee... as well as dealing with life at home. Luckily, not a lot has been going on at home.
We finally got a toybox for the living room. Most of the toys actually fit in it, too! We've put the pack-n-play in Gracie's room for now (since it no longer must function as a toybox). We want to convert her bed to the toddler bed here soon, and in case she freaks out, we can just put her to sleep in the pack-n-play temporarily. I have a feeling that she will do just fine with the transition. She's a good sleeper, and I'm hoping that she won't realize that she can get out of the toddler bed and play in her room all night. We'll see, though.
We have 2 more days of school. Then 2 workdays, a day off, a weekend (July 4th), a workday, and then the first day of school. I will have 3 workdays to get moved into my new room, set up, meet with all the grade levels and start planning. I also have schedules to finish, a cafeteria to rearrange, and carpool stuff to finish. Ugh. Wish me luck!

17 months

2009-06-16T21:47:00.002-04:00

No.

2009-06-16T21:32:00.002-04:00

Gracie has a new word: no. Lovely. Almost anything you ask her, the answer, as she shakes her head, is no. Do you want to go to bed? No. Do you want to stay up? No. Can I have your wubby? No. Do you need to go bathroom? No. Tonight we did actually get an affirmative out of her when I asked if she wanted to take a bath. She promptly said "bath!" and made a beeline for our bedroom door. So maybe she does know what she wants... She has the sweetest little voice when she says no, however. She's not loud or forceful. Just very matter-of-fact. I'll have to get it on video.
We went to Olivia's 1st birthday party on Sunday- Gracie had a blast! There were several other kids her age there, and she got to play with all of Olivia's toys, some balloons, bubbles and the water tables. She was SOAKED from the water table! Check out Sherry's Blog for some pics and video.
We're still going strong with the potty training. We had voluntary poop in the potty for the first time this weekend. I couldn't believe it. We're to the point that as long as we remind her to go (or lead her to the potty or toilet) fairly regularly, we're good to go. I got a new travel potty seat that is padded and fits much better on differently shaped toilets, so I'm excited about that.
Not much else going on. I don't know if I've posted about this, but it looks like I'm going to be teaching science next year, which I am very excited about. I got to do some shopping for my lab last week, and today they gave me a laptop and LCD projector to use. But things change at the drop of a hat anymore, so nothing is set in stone quite yet.

Ba-room

2009-06-06T20:33:00.002-04:00

I have been hesitant to write this blog in fear of jinxing ourselves, but I have to brag on my little potty-girl. The past week or so we've really started working on potty training. I know it's early, but I just know that Gracie is smart enough to do this, and she is proving me right! We're doing a loose version of the bare-butt training method, whereby she wears no diaper when we're at home. At grandma's she wears undies, and at home I just let it all hang out (only because it is easier for me to catch her in the act without something to catch the pee). Grandma has reported that each day this week has resulted in more hits and fewer misses. We try to put her on her little potty at regular intervals, and now she's to the point where usually when you put her on there, she'll pee! We still put a diaper on her when we go out (I ain't takin' that carseat apart to wash it again!), but today we were gone from about 1:00-7:30 and she only went ONCE in her pull-up, and that was because we got busy running around at the museum and neglected to take her to the bathroom. But I took her at lunch, set her on the big toilet at the restaurant, and she immediately peed, then later at BJs, same thing, and just before dinner. We went to Babies R Us and got one of those foldable kid-sized toilet seats because she's so little, and it works ok, I guess. It isn't too sturdy on some toilets.

Now, the big news is that this evening, for the FIRST time that I've witnessed, she was wandering around bare butt and she actually went to the potty herself, sat down and PEED! ON HER OWN! This is huge. We actually thought she was just sitting there for fun, but then she said "YAY!" (which is was we all do when she goes) and I went over and about FELL OUT to see the pee in there. We had gotten a new, smaller little portable potty to keep upstairs, and she sure knew how to break it in! I'm so proud of her. I'm hoping she doesn't regress. She can hold it for almost 12 hours overnight (she typically wakes up dry), so I'm hopeful that we're well on our way. Our main problem is that she doesn't know how to pull pants down yet. But the method we're using doesn't worry about that too much until they get good at going to the potty on their own, anyway.

In other news, I also got my first kisses tonight from her- fabulous, wet kisses (kissy noise included) right on both of my cheeks. I about cried. She also adds several new words to her vocabulary each day. Recent acquisitions have been car, Buh-wies (which is evidently Wubby, but backwards somehow), cracker, ear, nose, see ya, water (wawa) and reliably making noises for a duck, bird and cow (she's been doing dog and cat for a while). She can point to her belly button, foot and ear, and other people's belly buttons, ears, nose and eyes. She also claps and says yay when other people are clapping and uses uh-oh appropriately. She can now climb up on the couch by herself (which is scary because she's not very stable when ON the couch) and go down the stairs in a combination of scooting and going backward.

It just blows my mind how quickly she is picking things up these days. They say that they just kind of take off around 18 months, and is it ever true. So much fun, but sad in a way, too- my baby's all growed up!

Busch Gardens!

2009-05-26T10:03:00.004-04:00

We took Gracie on her first (of many, for sure) amusement park trips this weekend- to Busch Gardens! We left early on Sunday morning and arrived around 11:00. The place was packed. Usually, Sunday mornings are a good time to go, but evidently this is not the case on Memorial Day weekend. Still, we had a great time, even though all we rode was kiddie rides. Poor Trish went with us and I'm not sure she realized what she was getting herself into.

Randy, Trish and Gracie rode Oscar's Squirmy Worms (or something like that) in the new Sesame Street area:

Gracie played in the forest playground:

Here's Elmo!

Gracie and I rode this:

Gracie and I also rode the Dinosaur Egg ride:

And here's a gratuitous cute pic:

She also had a great time in this little water playground and watching the Pet Shenanigans show. We're sure she's destined to be a coaster freak, too- as soon as we drove up she was fascinated with Apollo's Chariot. She said "Wow" over and over again as we watched it go.

We were so tired when we got home and are still getting caught up on rest. But it was worth it!

Cute video

2009-05-12T21:04:00.002-04:00

Head on over to Sherry's Blog to see an adorable video of Gracie and Olivia, being BFF (near the bottom of the 5/11 post). I would post it here, but it will take forever for me to download, then upload it on this computer.

I haven't done a monthly update in a while, and G turns 16 (SIXTEEN!!!) months tomorrow, so here goes:

16 months, about 25 lbs, almost 32 inches

*We're working on using a spoon. I got a set of bendy spoons by Boon that seem to work pretty well. She gets that she needs to touch the spoon to the food then put it in her mouth, but there are 3 problems: 1-she barely touches the spoon to the food so not much gets on it (I have to help), 2-she turns the spoon upside down in her mouth, and typically BEFORE it reaches her mouth, so the stuff falls off, 3-hands work as well as a spoon, so why eat Spaghettios with a spoon? What a mess. At least today I remembered to change my shirt before our dinner attempt.

*Gracie is SUCH a daredevil! She loves to climb onto the seat of her little Pooh-mobile and stand up, withOUT holding on! She'll even pull it over to the pack and play, stand on the seat, then stand on the little steering wheel to try to reach in to get her toys. Now, we don't encourage this, but we try to stand nearby and let her have some climbing time.

*She can kick a ball quite well.

*She has a balloon obsession.

*Still sleeping and eating like a champ. She'll try any food at least once- she was eating green olives today.

*She is more interested in books now. She likes to be read to and will come sit on my lap for a story sometimes.

*She is much more lovey. She gives hugs (see the aforementioned video), kisses (without touching, just makes a smacking noise) and will almost blow kisses.

*She loves to dance. We were breaking it down in the car today at a stoplight and the driver of a schoolbus next to us was cracking up at her (and probably me).

*Words she can say: dog, wow, bye, hey, aw cool, juice, dada, mama (FINALLY!!), car, beach, keys, Trish, papa, fish, Noah, Jojo (Jonah), hi dada (she never says hi to me!), dance, balloon, bubble, bathroom (sometimes), shoe, uh-oh.

*Many of these words can only be understood by us.

*She still loves the kitties, and both Noah AND Jonah are really patient with her. Poor Jojo got Spaghettios dumped on his head today.

*She has 12 teeth. And a fierce bite! Keep fingers out of her mouth!

*She points to things and says "dis" which I think is asking "What's this?". I could be wrong about that.

I'm sure there's other things I'm forgetting. Hmmmm.

Not much else going on. I'll try to get some pics to post soon.

Mama's Day!

2009-05-10T21:08:00.005-04:00

I had a very nice Mother's Day today! I hope all the other Mamas out there did, too. Gracie got me 2 balloons, flowers, an Old Navy gift card (though I couldn't find anything in there today that I couldn't live without), brunch at Posta at the Marriott downtown, and I did some shopping at NY & Co. We all spent the day together, enjoyed some outside time and shopping, and are worn out.

Here's a couple pics of my balloons and flowers. Gracie and I have been drooling over the dragonfly since we saw it a couple weeks ago. Gracie (and Grandma) picked out the other one on Friday- so sweet!

DONE!

2009-05-03T21:57:00.003-04:00

No more pencils, no more books, no more dealing with stupid NCCU! Wait. That doesn't rhyme. Oh, well.

I had my exit interview for my teacher education program on Friday. It went ok. I passed it, anyway. So now all I have left is some paperwork and I SHOULD be eligible to get my license! I'm waiting for my grades to come in, but with any luck I will have made it through NCCU with a 4.0. I may not have a teaching job next year, but, hey- at least I'm done.

In other news, we had a decent weekend. Randy went to Beer Fest yesterday with Grant, leaving Sherry and I to hang out with the kiddos. Gracie was actually pretty sweet to Olivia- Grant got a cute video of G pushing O on her little ride-on toy, then hugging her- I'll link it when Sherry posts it on her blog. It is so nice that they're closer in ability now- they can kind of interact now.

We went to pick strawberries today. Gracie really enjoyed it! She followed us down the rows. We gave her a couple of strawberries to tote around- she refused to put them in the bucket, and ended up kind of squishing them, so she had juice running down her arm and her hands were all stained. Then she figured out what they were and that she could eat them- her whole face was red! That girl LOVES some strawberries. It was the perfect summer photo op (we got a pic on Randy's phone, but I gotta figure out how to send it).

Another thing she really likes is veggie burgers. We've given her the black bean ones and today we tried a savory mushroom one, and she ate it all! Without ketchup! (that's her newest thing- she likes ketchup on everything) We also give her the veggie corndogs and those are good. She's a pretty good eater, most days. Of course, at brunch this morning she didn't eat that well, but she made up for it with breakfast and dinner, so I guess it all balances out.

That's about it for now. Go Canes!

ETD: Here's the pics from today:

Vegas Animoto

2009-05-01T23:24:00.001-04:00

More for sure

2009-04-27T22:43:00.002-04:00

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!

2009-04-26T21:12:00.009-04:00

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

2009-04-26T20:52:00.006-04:00

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

2009-04-09T20:39:00.002-04:00

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! =(

Monkey Joe's Animoto

2009-03-28T23:09:00.001-04:00

This is an awesome slideshow/video site!

Monkey Joe's

2009-03-28T20:57:00.005-04:00

I was inspired by Becca's blog to take Gracie to our local Monkey Joe's- she said Drew had a good time, so I figured we would enjoy it, too! Monkey Joe's is a kids' playgym full of inflatable playground-thingies. Bounce houses and slides and obstacle courses, etc. It was all rainy today, so the place was VERY crowded, unfortunately, but we tried it anyway. Kids under 3 get in for $5, and parents are free. They have an area just for toddlers, but I took her in some of the other things, and on the slide, too! Randy was very nervous about the other kids being too rough, but I made sure to stay with her and protect her from them. She really has NO fear. She kept trying to walk and bounce around, but didn't have much luck if other kids were near. She loved the big slide, and we even let her go down by herself! Once we'd been in a couple things we let her walk around and she headed straight for the toddler area- climbed on in and was off! I got a couple cute pics of her in there, and a short video. We had a great time, but boy is it hard to haul her around in all that stuff! I was worn OUT. Here's a couple videos and pics from today. I highly recommend the place, but try to go when it's less crowded- a rainy Saturday is NOT a good time!

Gracie in the toddler area:

Gracie and Daddy on the slide

Gracie goes solo!

In other recent news, I am going into my third week of first grade student teaching. It has been stressful, but going well. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to write lesson plan after lesson plan- all long ones, too, with all the steps. Emily is great at helping me sort out what we want to do, but then I have to get busy writing all the needless plans. It's just very time consuming. The kids are pretty good for the most part, and I've already been observed by my university supervisor once, and she was very complimentary. I will be glad to get back to my computer lab, though!

I'm still very nervous about finding a job for next year. This economy crap has GOT to start improving.

3 weeks til Vegas, baby!!

A miserable night

2009-03-17T21:48:00.003-04:00

I know some people won't want to read about this, but we had the first really miserable night with Gracie on Sunday. She NEVER wakes up in the middle of the night. Once she's out, she's OUT. I haven't gotten up with her in the wee hours since she was about 3 months old. However, for some reason on Sunday night, Gracie woke up at 1:00am hollering. I waited a minute to see if she'd just lost her wubby, but a check on the monitor showed her standing there, holding the wubby, so I knew that wasn't it. I ended up going up there and she was just bawling and fell into my arms, calming down almost immediately. I sat with her in the chair and she settled down and fell asleep in about 10 minutes. But as soon as I tried to lay her down in the crib she woke up and started crying again. At this point, Randy came upstairs and I decided to change her diaper, as she WAS wet and had had a bit of a rash earlier in the evening- maybe that's what was bothering her. Randy didn't think so- he still thinks she had a bad dream, as we had scared her a bit with the vacuum cleaner that night. After a fresh diaper, Randy volunteered to rock her, and she fell asleep. After 30 minutes or so he tried to lay her down, but guess what? Yep, hollering again. He came on downstairs and we thought we'd let her cry it out, but more than 10 minutes later she had thrown the wubby overboard, so I had to go up there and retrieve it. I ended up bringing her downstairs to let her sleep with us, but since she's never slept with us before, she had no idea that she was supposed to sleep! She did finally fall lightly asleep in Randy's arms, but as soon as he moved, she was awake, ready to play. At this point, it is 3:00 in the morning. None of us were getting any sleep, so I took her BACK upstairs, rocked her for a minute, put her down, and just let her fuss. I stayed in her room so she could see me, but I didn't move or talk to her- it took probably 30 minutes of whimpering and fussing and whining, but she did eventually wear out and slept the rest of the night. We were zombies in the morning. And now we go to bed afraid of a repeat performance. Keep your fingers crossed for us that we avoid any more miserable nights!

Video at the beach

2009-03-14T16:21:00.003-04:00

First Trip to the Beach!

2009-03-13T22:03:00.006-04:00

Randy took off from work on Wednesday, the last nice day we're supposed to have for a while. He thought it would be fun to drive down to Wilmington for little g's first beach visit! We decided to go to the NC Aquarium at Ft. Fisher- Gracie loved it! Then we walked out onto the beach, and it was pretty windy, but she seemed to be quite intrigued by it. She poked around in the sand, enjoying the freedom to run around. Neither Randy or I are big on the beach- I freakin' HATE sand. Somehow Gracie even got sand in her diaper! She didn't even sit down in the stuff! But at least she got to experience it. We got some cute pics, too.

At the aquarium:

At the beach:

I also have to share our accomplishment this evening. We went to eat with Grant, Sherry and Olivia kind of late, and Gracie fell asleep in the car on the way home (a whopping 10 minute drive). We somehow managed to get her out of the car, jacket off, diaper changed and new jommie pants on without waking her up! It was awesome. She was so tired.

Gorgeous weekend

2009-03-09T08:53:00.002-04:00

We had SUCH a beautiful weekend! I had to work Saturday morning, but it wasn't that bad- then we had a fun weekend! Yesterday we took Gracie up to the school and let her run around. We have discovered that the child has NO fear. She would go quite the distance away from us without even caring that we were so far away. Little Miss Independent.

She now has several new teeth- 4 total on top, and 4 on the bottom. The newest on the bottom are just barely poking through. It seems like she got all the new ones at the same time, which explains the crankiness recently. Poor thing.

I am tracked out this week- hallelujah! Gracie and I have some shopping to do. We're going to visit Grandmama and Boompa in April, and G has very few summer clothes, which she will need in Vegas. We're looking forward to our trip!

Not much else going on. I start student teaching next Monday- wish me luck with that!

In the kitchen with Sara

2009-02-24T20:55:00.004-05:00

Now that we're eating at home more often, I've been branching out in my selection of dinner food. My gallbladder issue is requiring that I eat low-fat, so I went on a search for some dinner ideas that were easy and low-fat. We've made several really good things, and some- not so much.

This is what I made last night- it was called Coconut Shrimp though there weren't any coconut flakes involved- just the milk. Randy loved it, I just thought it was ok. I liked the spinach, cilantro and ginger (I'd never used fresh ginger before!), but it was too creamy for me.

I thought it was so pretty right after I added the green stuff.

This is where it went downhill for me.

The finished product, served with jasmine rice.

Now, tonight, we had a yummy meal. Jerk chicken salad with Carribbean Vinaigrette. I made the marinade last night, so the chicken had overnight to soak. I've never worked with a habanero pepper before, and a lot of the reviews suggested using only a half of one- I'm glad I followed that advice. I actually got to use my little food processor, too! I cut the chicken into strips and put them on skewers, and we grilled them. I was going to serve the chicken with a side salad and sweet potatoes (from the box, of course), but I forgot we didn't HAVE any sweet potatoes, so I suggested we just put the chicken ON a salad. Randy suggested using the leftover marinade as a dressing, so I boiled it and turned it into a vinaigrette with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was EXCELLENT. We will definitely be making it often.

My salad

Randy (and eventually me) topped his with shredded cheese

Toddler Fashions

2009-02-21T22:12:00.003-05:00

A couple weeks ago, when the weather was so nice, I found the most adorable pair of sandals at Target. And they actually fit on Gracie's fat little feet, so of course I bought them. Now, the girl already has a shoe fetish- shoe is one of her favorite words, and she loves to tote anyone's shoes around the house with her. So imagine her delight at a brand new pair of her very own shoes!

She's only gotten to wear them once or twice, but she just loves them- she'll walk around then stop to admire the little butterflies!

She also got the cutest jean skirt from her Grandmama for Valentine's day. I've been wanting her to wear it, but I didn't have any tights for her (she's not much of a dressy kid). Well, I finally got some tights the other day in the dollar section at Target- I figured for a dollar, if they shredded, no big deal. I also wasn't sure if she would tolerate them- I can't STAND to wear tights or pantyhose. But she didn't seem to mind them, and is absolutely precious in the skirt! She's also wearing a shirt my friend Michelle got her from babyGap for her birthday. It says "Life's so sweet and happy". Indeed!

I also posted this pic so you can see the color of her eyes. They are a very weird color- grayish/goldish/greenish. In the sun they look more green (Randy's and my eyes are green). I don't even know how to classify them if I had to write down somewhere what color they are- I always think of hazel as green/brown. They're very unique!

Talky, talky

2009-02-20T22:55:00.002-05:00

Gracie has become SO vocal these days. She just babbles and carries on little conversations with herself. I can't understand a word when she does it, but it is so cute! She says "Hey!" to everything in this precious singsong voice, and she'll get stuck on a word and say it over and over. Like this afternoon she got ahold of one of my shoes and carried it around saying "shoe" constantly. She also says "uh-oh" now, but not usually at the appropriate time (she'll copy us on it though). She was saying "go" repeatedly earlier, because I kept saying it trying to encourage her to climb up the stairs a bit faster.
Of course, she still won't say mama. She'll make the sound, but only when she's upset, and it's more of a ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma. I'll say "mama" to her, and she usually replies "dada!". Uh, no.
She's also taken to hugging things recently. She'll hug things on command "Can you give Wubby a hug?" and spontaneously (especially the cats). She'll even hug ME sometimes! The other night at dinner she grabbed ahold of my arm and kept hugging it to her- she holds whatever object up by her shoulder and bends her head over- and even sways back and forth sometimes! It is so cute- I gotta get it on tape. She has also figured out how to carry more than 2 things at once by gathering them up in her arms, and plays peekaboo by herself (putting a blanket over her face).
She is very into books right now, too. She loves to flip through the pages of her board books, and I can sometimes get her to sit with me voluntarily and read an entire book! She "reads" to herself, too.
That's about it for now. No more bragging on the baby for tonight. =)

An Awesome Valentine's Day

2009-02-15T21:36:00.003-05:00

Prepare to be very jealous. I have the best husband EVER! Randy managed to completely (well, almost completely) surprise me with a fantastic V day. He made me an appointment to get a pedicure (this was the non-surprise- they called me to confirm the appointment a couple days before. Oops) on Saturday morning which was awesome. He made boarding reservations for Shelby, so I knew we were going somewhere and Gracie stayed with Grandma. We had dinner reservations at 5:30 and they ended up being at a Tuscan grill called Posta at the new Marriott hotel in downtown Raleigh. We spend the night at the hotel, too, and went to see STOMP! at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium across the street. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed STOMP! It was a fantastic show, and I highly recommend you go see it if you ever get the chance. I didn't realize it had a comedy aspect to it, but it surely did, and this was heightened by the fact that there was a precious little kid near the front who had the most adorable giggle- the audience was laughing just because we could hear HER laugh! And the performers really responded to the audience, too. Randy also had arranged to have flowers delivered and they were in our room when we got there, and there was champagne chilling in a bucket, too! We ordered breakfast to our room this morning and spend today hanging with Gracie at the mall. It has been a fantastic weekend, but I am worn out! I need another weekend to recuperate!

Bye, bye bottles!

2009-02-09T22:44:00.002-05:00

I need to be in the bed as I have to get up early and take G to Grandma's then get to work for an early staff meeting... yet here I am. I thought I'd share our latest accomplishment- no more bottles!
Maybe 6 weeks or so ago we did away with all of G's bottles except for the before bed one. We probably could have given it up sooner, but *I* just wasn't ready. About the only time the kid will hold still and sit in my lap is with a bottle, so I wanted to enjoy that a bit longer. However, I ran out of drop-ins yesterday and decided, enough. So last night I gave her a sippy of warm milk (she still doesn't like it freezing cold) as I held her and rocked, as we always did with the bottle- no problemo. Then I started reading up on the subject, and everything recommended to give the milk a little before bed, and to brush teeth afterward (and of course the threat of rotted teeth will promptly change a mom's mind). So tonight I made her a sippy and let her have it as she was getting her last bit of playing done. When she finished it, we went upstairs, brushed teeth, struggled into jommies (the kid HATES to get dressed for bed!), read a couple books, then out went the light and baby into bed. And she went to sleep. (insert Hallelujah chorus here) Actually, I didn't think it would really be difficult, as she was rarely asleep when I would lay her down even after a bottle. And she still has her Wubby- we'll save THAT battle for a couple months down the road. But I'm happy that she was never really that attached to her bottles (we never let her carry one around with her or have it in bed, or gave her anything but milk in it, so I think that worked to our advantage). I hope she doesn't start protesting, but I really think it was easy for her to let go. The wubby, however, will probably require surgical removal, I'm afraid to say.
Next I think I'm going to try to get her to use a spoon and drink from a cup without a sippy lid- maybe we should start in the bathtub? =)

Curls and cats

2009-02-05T20:24:00.003-05:00

In these photos you can actually tell that Gracie IS the daughter of two curly-headed parents! This is what she looks like right after a bath. Too bad I can't get them to stay!

This is another one of Grace's new favorite pasttimes- hugging the poor cats. She tackles them, then oh, so sweetly lays her head on them. It is so cute! Look- she even got ahold of Jonah!

Meh

2009-02-01T21:50:00.004-05:00

I haven't blogged in a week, and I'm really having to force myself to do so tonight. I should probably share that my "student teaching" seems to be on track for now- no majors snafus *yet*. I will be getting observed a couple times this week by my supervisor at HC and one of the assistant principals. I want to make sure I get a bunch of evaluations done, since I have a feeling NCCU won't do many. CYA, you know?

G is well. We think she's working on some big-time teeth. I ended up giving her some Tylenol tonight, which seemed to help. She gets smarter everyday. She has now added "juice" to her list of words- she also signs it reliably. As of last count, she says dada, shoe, doggie, juice (shoosh), fish (ish) and she tries to say Shelby (shelshy) and Domo. STILL no mama. Sigh.

We bought her some rubber blocks today- at lunch I was stacking her little cheesy poofs and she was trying to do it, too, so we figured she might enjoy some blocks. She can stack 2, but prefers to knock them down, of course.

Not much else going on.

Here's a cute pic, anyway

Firsts

2009-01-24T19:56:00.003-05:00

Tagged by Shelly for this:

My First
1. Who was your FIRST prom date? Mike Peters. Whoa.
2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love? well, there was this guy in Kindergarten... so no.
3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink? vodka and sunny D. Can't drink Sunny D to this day.
4. What was your FIRST job? Kennel girl at GJVH
5. What was your FIRST car? The Stang- 1982 Mustang
6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today? I didn't get a text today.
7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning? Gracie because I heard her on the monitor.
8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher? Mrs. Allen
9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane? West Virginia to see my grandparents
10. Who was your FIRST best friend and are you still friends with them? Courtney, and I recently reconnected with her on Facebook!
11. What was your FIRST sport played? speed skating
12. Where was your FIRST sleep over? probably at my Nan and Pop's house
13. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today? Gracie
14. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time? my own? besides mine, I think Kelly's is the only other one I've been in
15. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning? Honestly? What do we all do first thing in the morning!
16. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to? Guns N Roses
17. FIRST tattoo or piercing? ears pierced.
18. FIRST foreign country you went to? Haven't been to one!
19. What was your FIRST run in with the law? I had to testify in a custody case once...
20. When was your FIRST detention? never had detention
21. What was the FIRST state you lived in? NC
22. Who was the FIRST person to break your heart? probably the kid from kindergarten!
23. Who was your FIRST roommate? Pam
24. Where did you go on your FIRST limo ride? Prom
25.Who will be the FIRST to repost this? Kelly, because Shelly and I have already done it!

Tagging: Kelly, Sherry, Shana, and anyone else who wants to participate

Sledding

2009-01-20T10:42:00.003-05:00

Bundled up

2009-01-20T10:20:00.002-05:00

We got our snow! It is still coming down nicely out there, and we already have about 3 inches on the ground. Randy just left to *try* to get to work. Yesterday I bought the trappings for pancakes (and some real maple syrup!) and we all had a nice snowday breakfast! Then we bundled up Gracie for her first real snow. Poor kid was pretty cold, but she seemed to like being pulled around on the sled. I have a video but I need to edit it down. But here are the pics:

Free Cosmetics!

2009-01-19T15:00:00.001-05:00

See Snopes.com article: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/nothing/cosmetics.asp

I might try to get in on this- my favorite perfume's shower gel, Ralph Lauren Romance, is on the list as a freebie- I'm all about that!

SNOW SNOW SNOW!

2009-01-19T09:18:00.002-05:00

We might get some snow around here! I get so freaking excited about the possibility of the white stuff- like a little kid! Of course, snow means no work for me (because you KNOW at the first flake they cancel school, especially since the ground has been so cold lately) and I would love to be home tomorrow to watch the inauguration stuff. We'd have to make up the day on a Saturday, but 3 hours on Saturday is better than 7 hours on a weekday. Right now they're calling for several inches, but the amount is, as usual, dependent on the way the systems track. The NWS forecast mentions that if it tracks a certain way, we might be looking at a storm similar to the one almost exactly 9 years ago (remember THAT?). I do hafta go to the grocery store today and make sure I get some milk for Gracie (if there's any left!), but I promise not to buy bread. Oh, I need cat fud, too.
So, keep you fingers and piggies crossed!

Random Survey

2009-01-18T21:54:00.002-05:00

Shelly tagged me the other day for this, and I forgot about it! So here goes, and I'm tagging Shana and Sherry.

LASTS:
Last beverage → clear cherry KoolAid
Last phone call → probably Randy, but it was probably a couple days ago
Last instant message → text message from Trish
Last person that you hit→ Randy and I were kicking each other in the butt a little while ago
Last song you listened to → The theme song to "Smallville" and it is stuck in my head!
Last time you cried→ I don't remember. Probably post-partum. I'm not a big crier.
Last person you talked to→ Randy

HAVE YOU EVER:
Dated someone twice→ does it count if you break up then get back together a couple days later?
Been cheated on → YES, I do believe so
Kissed someone & regreted it → yes
Lost someone special→ yes

LIST THREE FAVORITE COLORS: pink, Carolina blue, sage green

IN THE PAST MONTH HAVE YOU:
Fallen in love → everyday
Laughed until you cried→ often
Met someone who changed your life → not that I know of
Found out who your true friends were → I'm pretty sure I already know
Found out someone was talking about you → no, but I am sure some do
How many kids do you want to have → one, unless I change my mind in a couple years.
Do you have any pets → 3 kitties, a goggie and an ish. Yep- ish.
What did you do for your last birthday → ate at the Melting Pot- yum!
What time did you wake up today? → 8:00am
What were you doing at midnight last night? → sleeping
Last time you saw your father → biological- over the summer. Stepdad- a couple days ago.
What's one thing you wish you could change → nothing, because I wouldn't be where I am today!
Have you ever talked to a person named Tom → yes
Whats getting on your nerves right now → my foot is asleep
What's your real name → Sara, as far as I know!
Zodiac sign → Capricorn
Hair color → brown
Long or short → medium
Are you health freak → nope
What do you like about yourself → I am organized and able to multi-task
Tattoos → none
Righty or lefty → i'm right handed.

FIRSTS :
First surgery → wisdom teeth
First piercing → my ears.
First best friend → Courtney who lived down the road from my grandparents
First pet → cat, Whiskers
First vacation → probably Carowinds or Myrtle Beach

CURRENTLY :
Eating → nothing.
Drinking → clear cherry KoolAid

YOUR FUTURE :
Want kids? → Already have the best daughter EVER!
Want to get married? → not again!!
Careers in mind? → yes, but who knows what I'll decided to stick with.

HAVE YOU EVER :
Kissed a stranger → no
Lost glasses/contacts → I don't think I have!
Ran away from home → when I was a kid- I took a big stack of paper and a marker to draw with and camped out on the storm drain down the block from my grandparents. When I went back I got the worse spanking of my life! I don't know if they really thought I was going to go very far or what.
Broken someones heart → Don't think so
Been arrested → no.
Turned someone down → yes.
Cried when someone died → of course

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:
Yourself → most of the time.
Miracles → I ususally find the rational explanation for things
Love at first sight → I don't know about that
Heaven → I'll let you know if I get there
Santa Claus → no
Angels → not in the "people with wings flying around in they sky" way

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY :
Is there one person you want to be with right now? → I'd actually like some time alone now that Randy has gone to bed.
Had more than one boyfriend/girlfriend at one time → no

Grandmama and Boompa's visit

2009-01-14T13:12:00.004-05:00

My parents came to visit for Gracie's birthday! It was SO nice to have them here to spend some time with all of us. We had a great time- they just left a couple hours ago, and we already miss them! I wanted to share a couple photos I took just before they left.

Happy Birthday, Gracie!

2009-01-13T22:08:00.003-05:00

Dear Gracie~
I was going to start this by writing "I can't believe it has been a year already!", which is true enough, but I really want to start by saying how happy this past year had been for us. You have made our lives so much fun, and I really can't imagine our little family before you came along. Every day you do something new, and I look forward to each and every new milestone and change.
This past year has been incredibly exciting, and such a neat learning experience. You are simply the cutest, funniest, smartest baby there ever was! Since you were born you have been happy and agreeable 95% of the time. You have grown SO much- tripling your birth weight and you are now HALF of your Mommy's height! I look at your little preemie size clothes that we bought so you wouldn't be swallowed by the newborn clothes, and just can't imagine that you ever fit into them, or that I once could carry you around in one arm as you slept. You've been walking for about 6 weeks now, and though you have your share of tumbles, you are always ready to hop back up and go at it again. You have such a friendly attitude toward everybody, and are such a ham when a stranger begins to coo over you. We are proud everyday of the little person you are becoming.
We hope you enjoyed your party on Sunday, and all of your new toys. Your Daddy got you Brennan Bear today, and I hope you have him for a very long time- he is such a sweet teddy bear. We love you with all of our heart, and want you to be as happy as a person has ever been.

All our love,
Mommy and Daddy

B-R-R-Rthday Party!

2009-01-11T17:52:00.007-05:00

Today was Gracie's Winter One-derland birthday party! We had a great time! Here are some pics from the party.

The table-scape:

Gracie's big cake.

Munchies

Gracie's little cake.

The party princess herself.

Gracie was overloaded with gifts from our generous family and friends.

Gracie had a ball with her cake. I'm suprised she didn't get sick after all the icing she consumed. I'll try to edit down the video and post it soon. But here are the pictures:

I'll post the link to all the pics as soon as I can get them uploaded to Photobucket. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate!

Back to the grind

2009-01-05T21:47:00.003-05:00

Meh. Work sucks. Actually, it wasn't that bad going back today, as track 4 is out, so we have our bare minimum of possible kids. I have quite a few planning periods this week, which I desperately need. I start my student teaching seminar this week, and am NOT looking forward to driving out to Durham every Thursday. I probably won't get home until 7:15 or so. Yuck.
On a happier note, my parents (Grandmama and Boompa) are coming to visit on Saturday!!! We are so excited to see them. We also have Gracie's birthday party on Sunday, and we get to do Christmas all over again with my folks while they're here. So, essentially, this is going to be the longest week ever.
Not much else to report. Gracie is quite the little walker now, and likes to walk around kicking a ball. She's also taken a liking to a white stuffed bear that she got for Christmas. We call him "White Fuzzy Bear" (yeah, I know), and she already knows who he is when we ask her to go get him. She also is down to one bottle a day (before bed) and is trying some of the foods that were forbidden before a year. She still only has 2 teeth, despite several days of insane drooling and general crankiness. Maybe it's hard to concentrate on walking and growing teeth at the same time?

Swimmin'!

2008-12-29T00:03:00.003-05:00

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

2008-12-28T23:59:00.001-05:00

Photobucket Album

Christmas Eve Photos

2008-12-25T21:57:00.002-05:00

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

2008-12-17T09:04:00.004-05:00

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

2008-12-15T17:38:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-12-14T10:13:00.001-05:00

Big Girl Shoes

2008-12-07T22:15:00.003-05:00

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

2008-12-02T21:16:00.001-05:00

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'

2008-12-01T21:40:00.004-05:00

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

Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T22:33:00.004-05:00

Gracie had a great first Thanksgiving! We went to Randy's parents that morning to fry a turkey (YUM!) to take to his Grandma's, and we had lunch there. Then we went back to Randy's parents to fry another turkey to take to his Granny's, where we ate dinner. Gracie got to meet a lot of new relatives, and tasted several traditional Thanskgiving foods: cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, ham and stuffing. It was a nice day!

We are also proud to announce that we have almost finished our Christmas shopping! A lot was done last week, and I have the majority of the gifts wrapped as well. We have a 4.5 foot fake Christmas tree that we put on our coffee table in the corner of the living room- so far, Gracie has not pulled it down. We got everybody new stockings and have decked out our front porch with lights. We're all Christmased-up!

Gracie has also been practicing her walking, but still prefers to crawl. She's getting a little better about her walking attempts, though. Won't be long!

7 steps

2008-11-24T20:55:00.002-05:00

Gracie took 7 unassisted steps tonight! Randy had plunked her down on her feet in the middle of the living room, and she stood there for a while, then decided, on her own, to walk to the couch. It was at LEAST 7 steps, and she made it without falling! You go, girl!

Signage

2008-11-23T22:15:00.003-05:00

Gracie seems to be catching on to the signing thing. We now think she is doing "milk" and "more". Tonight at dinner she was going to town with the sign for milk, which she has done before, but we always just figured she was waving. But she was pretty fussy anyway, so when she kept at it, we gave her some juice in a sippy cup (which she promptly sucked down), and she never made the sign again! She was also doing "more" today. We are suprised that she's doing milk, because we haven't really done that one a lot recently, though we used to do it all the time. And we didn't give her "milk" tonight, but if she wants to use that sign for drink, fine by us! I want her to be off the bottle totally by a year- I just don't want her to get so attached to it, like some kids seem to do (Suri Cruise?!), and she still doesn't hold it by herself, so I think we'll be able to do it. She goes to town with her sippy cups, too. Getting rid of the wubbies is going to be harder.
We went to see TransSiberian Orchestra last night- it was great! The first half was a kind of "story" and some of it was a bit slow, but the second part was awesome- very theatrical with pyrotechnics and energy galore. Those are some talented people. And it actually got me in the mood for the holidays- before Thanksgiving, even!
In other news, our TV is broken. =( It's only a year and a half old, but the other night it started making this scary popping noise, and the following day it was REALLY making the noise (all this despite the volume being muted since we use our surround sound) and then it started emitting this horrible buring smell. So something is fried in there, and we have to take it to Best Buy to get fixed, and they have to send it off, so no telling how long it will take. We have our smaller TV in the living room now, but it is kinda pitiful in our TV spot. At least we have a backup.
Also, it looks like I am going to get to student teach in the spring! I have made arrangements with NCCU and Harris Creek to work with a first grade teacher for 5 weeks, and that teacher's TA will be covering the lab. Everything is go from the HC end, and so long as NCCU doesn't pull any of their typical crap, I should be good to go. Finally.
We got most of our Christmas shopping done today, and we got a fake Christmas tree. We didn't want a real one because Gracie would just eat the needles, so we got a little 4.5 foot tree (it's actually really pretty!) at Target, and we're gonna put it up on a table so hopefully little sticky-fingers can't do too much damage to it. We had a pretty successful weekend. And I'm off work next week- woohoo!!

MORE!

2008-11-20T21:29:00.002-05:00

We *think* Gracie signed at us tonight! More! She's recently started clapping (with one hand closed and one open) and will clap back if you clap at her. But tonight at dinner, she was doing a similar thing, but we think she might actually have been doing the sign for more! We started doing it back, then giving her more, and they we'd just ask if she wanted more, without doing the sign, and she did it! So maybe she's getting it. We were very excited, and hoping it wasn't just a fluke. We're going to step up the signing now- nothing like a little positive reinforcement, huh?

Madam Crankypants

2008-11-19T22:43:00.003-05:00

We had one of those rare nights of Gracie crankydom tonight. It started off on a bad foot when I picked her up from Grandma's, as she had evidently chomped down too hard on a hairbrush she was playing with and hurt her mouth. She was upset from that when I put her in the car, and thus didn't really take her drive-home nap. She fell asleep as we were pulling in the neighborhood, so I sat in the car and let her sleep about 15 minutes when I got home. Evidently, that wasn't enough. So she was fussy and agitated all evening. Nothing was good enough for her, nothing entertained her for long, and she kept trying to get into stuff she shouldn't be into, so I had to keep redirecting her. Sheesh. And getting PJs on her and ready for bed was more of a battle than it normally is. I ended up stuffing her bottle in her mouth as she was mid-cry, which is just not a good way to end the night for me. Poor kid. Oh! And we think she's full-time teething again, which doesn't help. I sure hope tomorrow is better. Most nights we barely have to look at her to get her to laugh, but we heard very few giggles tonight. Sad. =(

This pic wasn't tonight- it was a couple nights ago when Grant, Sherry and Olivia stopped by to play. Evidently in this pic Olivia had pawed at Gracie and pissed her off, and Olivia started crying because Gracie was crying. But this is indicative of how we all felt tonight...

They're even cute when they're mad, though!

10 months old

2008-11-16T21:22:00.002-05:00

Gracie just turned 10 months, and I cannot believe it. She hasn't hit any new milestones recently, with the exception of:
*pointing- we're not real sure why she points at some things (like the rafter at the RBC Center), but she does it.
*standing- she can stand indefinitely now, and "dance" in place a bit without falling over. She's taken several steps, but they're very unsteady and uneven.
*cruising- all OVER the place. She also pulls up on everything, including pant legs and the cat.
I really want to read to her, and have several board (and other) books, but I can't get her to sit still and listen to the story. She'll watch as I point to pictures, but as soon as I try to read, she's got ahold of the book and flapping it and chewing on it. I wonder when she'll start getting interested in me reading to her.
I don't have any 10 month pics yet- but she hasn't changed a whole lot since 9 months, to be honest.
We're looking forward to the holidays, but trying to take them one at a time. We're going to see Trans Siberian Orchestra this weekend- Randy got us tickets. I've never seen them before and am excited- it is supposed to be a neat show.
Not much else going on. I've got to work this week, but I'm off the whole week of Thanksgiving. Can't wait for that!

Finally!

2008-11-16T21:21:00.002-05:00

We went to the hockey game again today and guess what? They actually WON! In a shoot-out, nonetheless. It was a good game, if a bit of a nailbiter. Gracie was more wiggly today than she has been, but we survived.

A lull

2008-11-09T21:18:00.002-05:00

Not much going on around here. We went to another Hurricanes game today. A whopping loss. They have GOT to get their game together, and it would help if Staal would get his ass in gear and stop standing around. Meh.
Gracie did well at the game. We ended up getting her a gray and pink jersey (in a bigger size so it fits her much better) to help keep her from being identified as a boy.
I am getting very excited about the holidays. I want to take them ONE at a time, however. The carols on the radio already are KILLING me. And the fat man in the red suit is ALREADY taking orders at the mall. Poor Thanksgiving. A holiday that all Americans can enjoy together, regardless of race, religion, creed, etc., and it just gets totally shadowed by the 3 months of Christmas. Sad.
Gracie is working hard on her walking skills. She can stand by herself pretty much as long as she wants. She's tried taking a couple steps, but they have been less than successful. At least she's trying, though! She still doesn't wave reliably, or clap, or sign. But boy can that kid crawl! And eat! She's eating us out of house and home. I'm constantly looking for healthy meal ideas of things she can feed herself, so please send me any suggestions!

President Obama!

2008-11-04T23:14:00.003-05:00

Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

Now- bring on the change, Super Brother Man!

Gracie's First Hurricanes game

2008-11-01T22:49:00.004-04:00

We went to a hockey game today! We've been wanting to take Gracie, but needed an afternoon game. Randy got lower level seats from someone at work, and even though the 'Canes lost, we had fun! Gracie enjoyed looking around, and only got fussy a couple times- nothing some snacks wouldn't fix. We'll definitely go again. Here's some pics:

Gracie's First Halloween

2008-10-31T20:40:00.004-04:00

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

2008-10-25T21:46:00.000-04:00

This is awesome!
The Great Office War

The State Fair

2008-10-23T20:47:00.003-04:00

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!

2008-10-20T17:03:00.002-04:00

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

2008-10-19T21:36:00.002-04:00

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

2008-10-19T16:56:00.001-04:00

Got my laptop back

2008-10-14T20:34:00.005-04:00

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

2008-10-10T21:43:00.001-04:00

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!

2008-10-07T21:38:00.004-04:00

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

2008-10-05T14:43:00.006-04:00

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.

We're not as young as we used to be

2008-09-30T20:51:00.003-04:00

We just got back from Cedar Point, and though we had a great time, we have come to the realization that youth is no longer on our side. We made the drive in 10 hours and a little over a tank of gas (woohoo!) and went to the park Fri. night for a couple hours. Lines weren't too bad, but we had to eat and thus only rode Maverick, Millenium and Dragster. Dragster was a fluke- we were leaving, a couple minutes past closing, and saw they were still letting people in line. So we hopped in the queue and walked straight to the loading area and STRAIGHT onto the ride. NO kidding. People who have been there before will appreciate the awesomeness of this. We were like, the 2nd to last train of the night.
We then got up Sat. a.m. and got some Starbucks, came back so we could get in early (we were staying at the resort) and the line to get in was all the way back to the hotel! There were SO many people there, and lines were horrible, so we didn't do a whole lot on Sat. Took a nap, even. We did ride the new Challenge Park ride, the Skyscraper. I can't describe, so see the linky . That was fun, and different. Sunday morning was our ticket- we got in early with no big line, got some rides in, had lunch, rode a couple more things and headed home. The lines were decent that day. We're SO tired and sore. And were supposed to be going to Busch Gardens this weekend. What are we thinking?!
Gracie had fun at Grandma's- I'd like to think she missed us a bit (I sure missed her!) but maybe not. She's getting really good at pulling up on her pack-n-play, and can stand holding on with only one hand. So big!

Finally- 8 month pics

2008-09-20T14:09:00.002-04:00

You can kinda see her teeth in the last one!

If you give a Grace a pancake...

2008-09-20T12:34:00.002-04:00

She will eat it. And like it. We went to IHOP for breakfast this morning and I ordered a small pancake for Gracie. I cut it into tiny pieces and gave them to her one at a time and she gobbled them up! That's about the first time I've ordered something for her at a restaurant. She is broadening her horizons!
She has also figured out how to sit up from a laying down position. Randy's mom said she had done it a couple times this week but she'd never actually seen her do it- just one minute she was down, the next minute up. Then this morning when I went to get her our of her crib she sat up (took quite a bit of effort) and has done it twice in her pack-n-play since then. A new skill- and a useful one at that!

8 months!

2008-09-16T23:02:00.002-04:00

I didn't forget about Gracie turning 8 months last weekend. I was going to wait to write this until I did pics, but I don't have the outfit I want to take the pics in yet, and may not have it for awhile, so here goes.
I now know why they say all parents think their kid is the smartest kid ever born. Because Gracie is, without a doubt, the brightest baby ever. She is so smart. And cute to boot! She's got the pincher grasp mastered and gets the puffs to her mouth almost every time. And loves them! We took her to McCormick and Schmick's, the new fancy-shmancy seafood restaurant at Crabtree, for an early dinner this weekend, and she did so well! We almost left as soon as we got there because we didn't realize that it was going to be such an upscale place, but it was early, so we stayed. As long as we had puffs to feed her she did great! (and the food was excellent. I had miso black cod, which is WAY out of my typical comfort level, and it was fantastic.) She can pull herself up on her crib from sitting, and tonight did it from laying down, but I didn't see her- I just turned around and there she was, standing up so proud of herself. She can get into a sitting position from laying down, but nobody has seen her do that, either.
She says Dada all the time, but it seems to be more of an expression of happiness than anything. She also does the ma sound, but only when she's mad about something. Figures.
She's eating the puree fruits, veggies and now meat/dinners. She gets three 9 oz. bottles a day and three solid meals. She has had a couple bites of real people food (mashed potatoes, bread and stuff) and her two bottom teeth are almost all the way in! I can't get a photo of them- she won't even let us LOOK at them.
That's all for now- I will post some videos as soon as I can get photobucket to cooperate (sorry mom!).

DaDa?

2008-09-10T20:53:00.002-04:00

So, mommy is the one who does the majority of the baby care. I change diapers, I do the baths, I wipe the butt and the snotty nose. I fix food, I play, I do the laundry. I buy cute clothes and do dishes and go shopping. And what is my reward? The kid's first word is DaDa.
Hmph.
Yeah, I know, she has no idea which of us is DaDa, or that the sound even corresponds to a person. But STILL! All evening she's been babbling about DaDa and how great he is, and how he's so funny and so much fun. That, and talking to the kitties. I swear- what does a mommy have to do to get a little recognition from the child she carried safely for 9 long months! And let's not even go into the whole birth experience. And I just can't wait until she's a teenager.
In other news, Grace has been experimenting with finger foods- the Gerber Puffs are a favorite, and she is getting quite good at getting them into her mouth with her thumb and finger. She has 2 chompers coming in and is getting faster everyday with the army crawl. She can pull up on her crib with a little help, and we installed a better baby gate downstairs to contain her in the living room. She has a walker at Grandma's and gets around really well in it. She gets mad at home in her Exersaucer when it won't go anywhere! She had her first big-girl bath in the tub by herself last night- she was so cute! It is NOT easy to bend over the tub, but at least I can do it by myself, without needing Randy to get her out and dressed.
I was talking at dinner tonight about how I can't believe how fast babies learn stuff. She went from about 3 weeks ago not even being mobile, and now she's a wiz! I look so forward to the next milestone, then it passes in a blink and I am sad. I guess that's what we do from day one- maybe it gets easier as they get older?

A kinda sad event

2008-09-02T21:53:00.002-04:00

We had to move Gracie's mattress down on her crib tonight. She is starting to pull up on things, and it wouldn't have taken much for her to topple right over with it up high. We put it down on the 2nd lowest, so that I can still reach to get her out (kinda). I am trying not to think about it, but it makes me sad. It's like, she's not in her baby crib anymore. Just looking at it, it now looks like a toddler crib, and I am thinking that the crib will never be on its highest setting again, ever. I don't know that we want another baby, so, even though that bed will convert into a full-size bed eventually, I'll never see it in "newborn" form again. And that makes me a bit sad. I didn't think about it with the carseat, I guess because I was excited about the new one. And I haven't gotten sentimental about her clothes, because I know other babies will get good use out them. But for some reason the crib hit a nerve.

Purr Motor

2008-09-02T09:41:00.001-04:00

On the Move

2008-08-31T18:48:00.001-04:00

Updates

2008-08-28T21:34:00.002-04:00

I have a horrible cold. I am SO snotty. I have found some Mucinex nose spray that works to clear my congestion (though not for 12 hours like it says!) but it makes my nose run like crazy! But at least I can breathe. I get the worst head colds. They always start with a blazing sore throat, then the congestions kicks in and I'm miserable for a week. And I'm sure Gracie is going to get it. Great.
Speaking of Grace- she has her first chomper coming in! I can even see it, as well as feel it. YAY! She hasn't been too cranky, but she sure does want a frozen teether to nom on.
She's getting more and more mobile. She army crawls/crawls pretty effectively, and she is quickly gaining speed. Won't be long before she can get her tummy off the ground and really crawl. Time to babyproof the house. Joy.
I am tracked out next week (yay!). Not much planned. We've had a rough week at school: a tornado drill for real on Wednesday, and a fire drill for real today. The TV in one of the classrooms shorted out and smoked up the classroom- the teacher had to pull the alarm, and it took the fire truck FOREVER to get there. It was hot and humid out, too- and the kids were bored. All we need now is a lockdown, heaven forbid THAT one is for real.
Let me say now that I hate the months of August through about April. Football season, basketball season and hockey season. So life ceases to exist outside of those sports for Randy, and thus for me (and Gracie). Our lives have to be rearranged to coordinate with the stupid sports. I hate it. There is nothing that comes on TV that I have to rearrange my life for. I think most women feel the same way, right ladies? Boo sports.

Need costume ideas!!

2008-08-21T22:40:00.002-04:00

I am very excited to begin thinking about Gracie's first Halloween. I really like Halloween- maybe not as much as Erika, but pretty close, especially since I now have a kid to dress up! I have been checking out all the cute Halloween clothes and will surely have quite a collection as it gets closer to time.
We want to dress Gracie up and Trick-or-Treat at least at a couple friendly neighbor's houses, just for the cute pics (and some free candy!!). We were thinking about doing some kind of theme, with Randy and I dressed up, too. We need ideas. So, PLEASE send your ideas our way. We thought about doing Batman, Batgirl and BabyBat, just because I like Batman. Or some kind of Star Wars theme (I found a cute Princess Leia baby costume!). But we'd like more ideas. HELP!

Goin' Green

2008-08-17T21:36:00.002-04:00

We got our new Prius!!! It is awesome. We love it. It came in on Friday, and we had it by 9:15 that evening. It is very neat, and drives incredibly well. We ended up with the Seaside Blue Pearl color (medium blue) with tan interior. It's very roomy and smells so good! I've had fun fiddling with all the gadgets. My favorites are the Bluetooth phone connection, mini-plug for my iPod/iPhone, voice activated GPS and the Smart key. We also got Gracie's big girl carseat and she seems to like it- fits in it much better. I'll be glad when we can turn it forward-facing so it doesn't take up so much room.
Here's some pics:

More Prius pics

2008-08-17T21:33:00.000-04:00