The Pay-off

You know, baby hugs totally make everything all worth it.

:-)

Gracie's Costume

 

 

Can you guess who I am??

My first mobile blog test post!

Mischievous Giggles

While I was checking my email this morning, I heard a burst of giggles, followed by little feet pattering out of the kitchen and on down the hallway. My mama's instinct was telling me something was up, but I thought I'd finish what I was doing, then go find me a Gracie. But just a minute later, more giggling made me look up to see Grace coming back to show me she had my kitchen towel, stolen off the refrigerator door. Once she knew I'd seen her, she turned and, with more giggles, toddled off back towards the hallway as fast as she could go. Thank you, God, for letting me be Grace's Mommy! :-)

Peek-a-boo at the Park

New Words

Grace is really chattering these days; this morning she picked up a book and sounded like she was reading it to me, in her own little language. She loves sitting on things, and she'll pat my glider when she wants up, and she'll say "rock". Well, Mama knows that's what she's saying anyways. Most of the time she prefers the noises things make though, so a car or truck is "vroom".

Her new favorite pasttime is helping Mama sweep. When I forget to close the pantry doors, I'll frequently find she's pulled the broom out and is attempting to sweep the kitchen floor. She's a good little helper, but we're hoping to find a shorter broom very soon. She gets really upset when I'm trying to sweep up a mess and she can't help! It was funny the other day though, I'd dropped a dish rag on the floor, and she squatted down and started scrubbing the floor with it, just like she's watched me do countless times around her highchair. Children really are little mirrors!
 
 
 

An Ill-Planned Drive

Last Saturday, we thought it'd be fun to take a day trip over the Olympic Peninusla and revisit a state park Caleb and I had driven to when we were dating. It had been such a fun trip before, and the autumn leaves were beautiful, we just assumed everything would work out this time too. Unfortunately, Grace had officially outgrown her infant seat, and it was a little more complicated than we'd expected getting Grace's new carseat installed, so we were a little later getting started than we'd planned. And then she cried, loudly, until we stopped for a very late lunch at Jack in the Box. She finally slept after that, but neither of us had double-checked how to get there, so hours of driving left us hours away still when she woke up from her afternoon nap. We'd ended up on Highway 3 driving through an industrial looking area with no playgrounds in site, so we took a half hour detour to a little state park on some island. It wasn't quite what we were hoping for (our hoped-for colorful leaves were replaced by tall evergreens), but Grace had lots of space to run and play, and we had a fun time picking apples and feeding them to a friendly deer.

On the way home, we stopped at McDonald's, and had a blast on the play-structure. (Kids are a free pass to play again!) We took Grace up to the top, and I took her in my lap down the slide. We wore her out pretty well, and she slept the entire way back. We're planning a repeat in a week or two, but this time we'll check the map first. :-)