Busch Gardens!

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

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!

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!

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

More for sure

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

Throw Gracie from the plane!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hill Ridge Farms

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

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

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

Busy Busy

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

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

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

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

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

Monkey Joe's Animoto

This is an awesome slideshow/video site!