Ah-mi!

While we were at a friend's this week, Grace started clasping her hands together and emphatically saying, "ah-mi!". I was at a total loss as to what this meant until yesterday - I was talking on the phone with Caleb, and at the end of the call we prayed together. Right after I said "amen", Grace clasped her hands together and affirmed "ah-mi!"

Our first tree!

Since we've never been home for Christmas, Caleb and I haven't bought a tree since we've been married. But now that Grace is getting older, decorating sounded much more exciting this year. So on Black Friday, I picked up a "collapsible" tree from Fred Meyer for half price. We don't have much storage space, so we liked the small box, but it is a kinda funny looking tree. The entire thing is a big spiral, so when Grace tocuhes the bottom of the tree, the entire tree wiggles. We thought it made an appropriate young married's Christmas tree though, and with the lights and a smattering of ornaments, it looks just about perfect.

I also found Grace a little Christmas dress, and couldn't resist trying it on her a bit early. :-D

Thanksgiving

Last week was a bit of a rough week - we all three got sick the weekend before Thanksgiving, but Caleb was so busy at work, he couldn't take much time off and put in some really late nights. Grace was waking up coughing several times a night, and we were all running pretty short on sleep for awhile. But it's past now, and we're all happy and healthy again! Well, Grace is still waking up several times a night with the remnants of her cough, but usually a long hug and a drink of water does the trick. Ok, and 20 minutes of rocking.Thanksgiving was a lot of fun though - we had several friends over for a potluck again, and it was just a really good time. Our dining table is kind of on the small side, so we made do in the living room floor, but it worked. :-) We did have some fun ventures with a turkey that leaked juice all over the fridge and my first attempt at pumpkin pie - (who knew you had to add sugar!?!), but it all worked out. We've developed a wonderful tradition (in my mind, at least!) of Caleb taking care of the turkey Thanksgiving morning, and he was wonderful about getting that huge bird in the oven, and cleaning up my messes. He's gotten pretty good at carving it, too! I do think I have the best husband in the world. :-D

Grace and the Laundry Basket

So Caleb and I were working around the house one day last week, and Grace must have gotten bored and decided to stick the laundry basket over her head. I poked my head out of the kitchen to see what she was up to, and she was toddling about like this. She had a stuffed bunny in there with her, and it was pretty funny watching her try to pick up various objects around the room. So of course we had to run get our cameras before helping her out.

More of Grace's Favorite things!

• Sitting in Daddy's computer chair and playing with the keyboard and mouse
• Stacking things - especially her giant blocks we made and Mama's Rice a Roni boxes.
• Hiding things - we play peek-a-boo with anything and everything! Most often while Mama's folding laundry.
• Putting things in containers, and out again - One day this week, I found she had taken the lid off a big tin box, and filled it with Caleb's tea packets. Very neatly done too!
• Dancing to music - her little CD player and airplane from Pappy & Mimi are particularl favorites for this one! Last night, Caleb started singing the song from the airplane, and she went and got it from her room.
• Helping Mama - she loves to help me sweep, and if I give her a rag while she's in her highchair, she'll wipe her tray. Yesterday, she even wiped out her little bowl!
• Pushing strollers - she calls them "di", though I have no idea why.
  

Grace's Favorite Things

Caleb thought it'd be fun to start a list of Grace's favorite things. So here we go, in no particular order...

• Bananas
• Dogs
• Grapes (she knows the sign for this one now too! Unforunately, they were 4.99 a pound last time I checked... :-( She still asks for them almost every day though.)
• Bubbles! Often while Caleb changes her diaper at night I'll blow bubbles for her, and now she can sign (and say!) "more", so she'll keep asking for them, then throw her arms in the air with a little squeal when I blow a bunch for her. It's pretty darling.
  
• Soap suds - She calls these bubbles too ("bah", that is), and sometimes after her lunch while I'm washing dishes, she'll see the bubbles in the sink and ask for them, so I'll scoop her up a handful and put on her highchair tray. Her hands and tray get cleaned (and her mouth!), and she has a blast trying to eat them! (I tasted them once to see why she finds them so appealing, and the suds feel like eating pop rocks, so I can't really blame her. I figure she doesn't get much of them in at least.)
• Jumping on our bed - closely monitored, of course!
• Walks - she'll go over to our back door and "hug" it, asking for a "wa".
  
• Water - Another "wa"! She loves to stick her hands in Mama's glass.
• Her doll, Lily. She loves to stick Lily in her exersaucer, or stroller, or sit her on her little box-seat. And she also loves to try to wear Lily's shoes.
• Shoes - "sho", and she tries to wear everybody's! Especially Daddy's giant A&M house shoes or Mama's crocs.
  
• Books - I've started putting a few in her crib when I put her down for a nap, and she'll sit and look at them till she falls asleep. She's gotten really good about not tearing our books now, so I've started reading her some of my old Little Golden books my Grandma gave me when I was her age.

Ok, I'm sure I'll think of more later, but our little one is just waking up and Mama has some laundry to go grab first.

My First Cheese

So I made my first ever attempt at homemade cheese today. Paneer, actually, though it sounds like you can make mozzarella in a very similar manner. It sounded so easy, I've been curioius to try it for awhile, and as we had a bunch of whole milk (bought for Grace, who doesn't like it) that was about to go bad, I figured I'd go for it.

Just in case you're curious, you basically bring the whole milk until a very foamy boil (you better catch it fast though or it'll be over the pan in a matter of seconds!), remove from heat, and add a couple tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice. Stir a couple minutes until it starts to curdle, then let it sit for 10 minutes or so. Then you basically strain the liquid out from the curds. The directions I was following said to use cheesecloth to strain it, but I didn't have any and used paper towels instead. Then press it between two plates stacked with cans for, um, I forget how long, but I left it several hours, before cutting into squares.

And apparently you can make ricotta from the leftover whey, but I'll save that for another day.

More Adventures of Gracie

Grace has discovered where Mama keeps her cereal!

She does love her books! And Mama and Daddy's books too.

Unexpected Joys of Motherhood

Fun times from today:

• Grace brought me her diaper to put back on her. At least she recognizes that it's not supposed to be off now!
• We're transitioning to one nap a day, so I put her down around 10:30, but when I peeked in to check on her around 11:15, she was just lying in her crib, singing to herself. I'd never heard her do that before, but she was asleep before I could get the baby monitor and camera ready to record her. :-p
• We had a blast playing on the big bed - rather, Gracie playing while Mama folded clothes. And then we played hide and seek in the pillows, and jumped on the bed until somebody was pooped.
  
• We had a slight temper tantrum as Grace wanted to go play outside, but it was raining. I would have taken her actually, but once she fights me for it, I can't. I wonder if this is how we appear to God sometimes when He's waiting for us to stop fighting so He can give us something good?
  
• Grace is finally grasping the sign for "more" - I was washing dishes while she was eating her lunch in the kitchen, and once she saw the soap bubbles, she started asking for some ("bah, bah!"). After they'd dissolved (ok, she might have eated them...), she signed for more "bah bah's".

After all this, she was getting tired again, so I just put her back in her crib with a book and had to come post this before I forget. :-)

Mama's Little Helper

Grace loves helping Mama now - today she helped me pick up all her (clean!) diapers, one-by-one, and put them back in the laundry basket. And when we were done, she gave me a big hug! It doesn't get much better than this. :-)

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. :-)

Grace's First Joke

 

It's a car seat; get it? :-D

September Review

We just reformatted our laptop and got everything set back up again, so I've been going through the photos from last month, and thought I'd post a few.
 
Our playgroup kind of fell apart for the summer, but several weeks ago we had Anna and Adeline over, and the girls had a fun time climbing all over Aslan.

 
One of Grace's favorite pasttimes for last month was emptying my diaper bag every chance she got. She seems to be losing interest in it now, but I still have to make sure it stays zipped if I want to be certain of it's contents!


 
While Mom was visiting, we took Grace for a lengthy drive (it started out as a trip to the zoo, but she fell asleep in the car) up to the outlet malls. We didn't buy anything, but had a fun time watching the fountain and playing peek-a-boo.


 
The afternoon after my mom left, I took Grace to Kelsey Creek Park. It's totally my favorite park at the moment - Grace loved the toddler-sized playhouse, though she wasn't quite big enough to crawl through this maze.

Belated Photos at the Bells

These got missed in my first upload...
 
 

Belated Photos at the Bells

Caleb finally dumped his camera this morning, and I thought these were too cute not to post. :-)
 
 
 
 

Grace's First Drawing (Attempt)

 

Actually, Mama and Daddy did most of the scribbling, but Gracie helped. A little. And yes, that is black crayon remnants stuck to her mouth.

Shoe Attempts

Grace has really been trying to figure out this shoe thing lately; just yesterday I caught her in the hall trying to put her doll's shoes on her own feet. She got her toes just barely in one of the shoes, and tried to walk, but it didn't stay for very far.

Grace's First Happy Meal

My mom came up for several days last week to stay with me and Grace while Caleb was at the Mars Hill Men's Advance (that's their name for the men's retreat), and she bought Grace her very first happy meal. Mama split the chicken nuggets with her, and Grace had her first sip of Coca Cola out of a straw. (My mom slipped her a drink while I was in the restroom. :-) ) She enjoyed a couple french fries too, but bananas still reign as her favorite food. You really have to search for them, but McDonald's even has toys for babies, and Grace had fun opening and closing the doors on the little farmhouse long enough for Mom and I to finish our own lunches. It was great fun! :-)

And for comparison's sake, here's Grace's very first McDonald's run, with Pappy and Mimi just a week after she was born while Mama and Daddy were at Scott & Helen's wedding reception. :)

A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

 
At least, I'm pretty sure when this was taken. Most Sundays we go to the 11am service at church now; Grace wakes up from her first nap right around the time we need to be heading out the door, so we do a quick diaper change, throw some clothes on her (gently, of course!) and buckle her in her carseat. This last Sunday, Caleb and I were volunteering in the nursery, so we spent a couple hours playing with Gracie and her other young friends, then back in the carseat for the trip home.

We've developed a tradition of Taco Bell for lunch on Sunday, because as soon as we get home it's naptime for Grace again, and it's nice not to spend her nap making lunch. Some days she naps a good two hours, but frequently just an hour or so, during which Caleb and I crash on the couches with our books or the laptop. Afterwards, we have fun reading books, lounging on the floor, and often walk her down to the park. (It's sweet, there's a small park with baby swings just a 5 minute walk from our condo). By 6:30, she's ready for dinner and bed, and then we pull out the pizza, ice cream and a movie. Ah, it's a good life! :-D

New Shoes!

 
Trying out our new shoes.