Baby Kisses - And no more crawling

I just realized earlier this week, that Grace is no longer crawling. It's kind of sad to see the end of an era, but it's such fun seeing her toddling all over the place. This afternoon I took her outside, and for the first time she freely roamed up and down the sidewalks. Ok, not too freely. But enough for an 11 month old.

It's such a delight watching her delight in the world. At one point, a big ant scurried across her path, and she squatted down to watch him. I got a little nervous when I saw her fingers forming into that pick-up-a-cheerio shape (aka, the pincer grasp), but the fortunate little guy was moving too quickly for chubby baby fingers.

It was sweet this past Tuesday; there's an older toddler in our Community Group, and her dad was having her apologize to Grace after they'd done some tumbling over each other. She gave Grace a little hug, and made as if to kiss her, and Grace actually puckered up and gave her a little baby kiss too. She's never seemed to pay any attention to us kissing her, and we haven't quite gotten her to blow kisses even, but apparently she knows more than she lets on!

Grace's First Trampline

We had a newlywed group reunion dinner two weeks ago, and the Philips have a trampoline in the backyard; Grace loved it!

Mommy Notes

 

What New Thing Grace Did Today

I was playing with Grace this afternoon and rolled a metal mixing bowl over towards her. She handled it for a while, and then she picked up Dolly, put her into the bowl, and picked up the bowl with Dolly still inside. Whoa Gracie, look what you did! The bowl turned over as she picked it up, so Dolly fell out. She tried it again, this time trying to put Dolly in head-first, but it didn't work so well, so she picked Dolly up and kept on walking down the hall. The end! (By Daddy)

Grace's First Signs

We've been teaching Gracie some baby signs, and thought the grandparents would enjoy seeing what she's learned so far. She also knows "more" and "eat", but isn't as consistent with them as her three favorites.

Baby Duet

 Last Monday, our old newlywed community group got together for a reunion, as one of the couples was back in town for the week with their adorable almost-two-year-old daughter. All the ladies in the group either got pregnant or had a baby during the course of the year, and it was really good seeing (almost!) everybody again with our babes.

Grace and Addison had a great time playing on the piano together, and Grace shared her Cheerios (for the first time!) with Addie at dinner. For awhile she'd hold items out to us, but wouldn't let go, but she was quite delighted to give away her food. :)

Just a bit too big

 I finally decided it was time to sort thru the baskets of our scarves and hats and clean out the superflous. And of course, Grace had to help. :)

Spaghetti!

 Here's Grace as she was finishing up her first real meal of spaghetti. Notice the random flecks of sauce in her hair.

Uncle Phil in Town

 Last week, Caleb's Uncle Phil was in town for work, so he took off Friday morning and we drove down to Seatac to meet him for breakfast. And for his first time in the Seattle area, of course we had to take him to a local favorite - Denny's. Grace was a little tired and out of sorts, but did remarkably well in the highchair. I'd packed some Cheerios and toys to keep her occupied, and though most of them ended up on the floor at some point, they got the job done!

Of Buses and Blueberries

Last Saturday, our car was back in the shop so in order to give Caleb a little down time at home, Grace and I caught the bus outside our condo and headed down to the Larson Lake Blueberry Farm. It's just a 10 minute ride or so, but Grace had a great time waving at the other passengers. (She just learned out to wave this past week, and we're still working on the proper context.)

It was a pretty sunny day and Grace isn't a big fan of her sunhat, so we didn't stay too long, but we still managed to pick half a pound of blueberries. It was 58 cents well spent, in my book! Of course, that's not counting the dozens we ate - one for Gracie, two for Mommy, three for the bucket! They're really nice about folks eating while they pick though. (Ok, we didn't actually eat that many.)

We were in and out quick enough we were able to catch the next bus back half an hour later, and Grace spent the majority of the trip waving at a nice older lady in the back of the bus, who assured me Grace made a wonderful neighbor.

There's a Fred Meyer on the route back, so we stopped off there and I picked up some bread and salad makings for dinner. It was a little trickier walking back to the bus stop with a lengthy loaf of French bread sticking out of my bag, and everything toppled a time or two, but people are generally most helpful to a woman carrying bags of groceries and a baby. Anyways, we made it back to the bus stop with a few minutes to spare, and were home just a couple minutes later.

I love being Grace's mommy!

Strawberry Festival

 
 
 
 
A couple of weeks ago, we took Grace to the annual Bellevue Strawberry Festival. Sarah B. had just brought us some baby clothes she'd picked up at a garage sale, and with this adorable outfit, how could we not go? :-D

It was really hot, and we forgot the sunscreen so we didn't stay too long. But we had great fun eating our foot long corn dogs and elephant ears. Did you ever notice that corn dogs taste deliciously similar to donuts? They've got that wonderful sweet fried smell. I'd never had elephant ears till coming to the northwest, but they're even better - deep fried dough sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. Caleb and I are in agreement, we love fair food! Maybe just once a year though.

Afterwards, we loaded Grace up for a "driving date" and found the elusive Snoqualmie Library. She had a great time pulling books off the shelves.

A Day in the Life of an 11 Month Old

Grace is 11 months today, and just to document how far we've come...

July 15, 2009
5:45 Woke up, had spit up during the night so I cleaned her up and nursed for awhile.
6:45 Woke up Daddy to help change the crib sheets so Mommy could put down the sleepy baby. Daddy rocked her a few minutes while I went back to sleep, and then put her down awake. She was asleep with no crying in a few minutes. Then Daddy went back to sleep too as we were both feeling pretty sick. Caleb takes a half-sick day and works from home.
9:00 Grace wakes up, Caleb brings her to me to nurse, I nap another half hour while Grace plays with her Daddy.
9:30 Breakfast time! Grace loves bananas, and eats an entire one (in small pieces) every morning, along with some Cheerios. If we'd let her, I think she'd stuff the whole thing in her mouth at once.
9:50 Nurse a few minutes, then lay in crib. She lays there quietly and is asleep in a few minutes. Mama washes dishes, does her Bible study, waters plants, puts a roast in the slow cooker and 5 lbs of chicken thighs on the stove, does a load of diapers, cleans the bathrooms and takes a break.
12:00 Awake and playing in crib.
12:40 Diaper change, nurse, and playtime!
1:00 Lunch! More Cheerios, some cutup veggies, half a jar of baby food and apple juice.
1:20 More playtime! And a bath.
2:00 Back down for a second nap, again no fussing. Mommy finishes the chicken and makes some chicken soup, cleans up the kitchen, finishes the bathrooms and reads a bit.
4:00 Playtime!
5:30 Dinner and get ready for Community Group.
9:00 Get home, get Grace ready for bed and she's out within half an hour.
10:00 Bedtime!

See-saw at the Park

 
We took Grace to the park last Sunday (actually, maybe two Sundays ago?), and she played on the see-saw for her first time!

Daddy's Tea Things

Grace LOVES playing in Caleb's baskets of tea. We figure there's nothing dangerous in there, so for the past two or three weeks now she spends a few minutes a day dedicated to taking the tea bags out of the boxes.

Fortunately, she hasn't yet been interested in pulling items of the second shelf; we've got some more child-proofing to do very soon. She's also discovered my diaper bag which I generally leave on the bench by the door; she gets so excited about pulling it down and ruffling through the big pocket.

Ooh!

This past week, Grace has started making this funny "oooh" face alot. We can't quite figure out what she's doing as she doesn't really vocalize as she does it, though a few days ago she whistled as she breathed in. She got really excited at that, and did it a few more times, but hasn't done it since. Caleb and I decided she must be practicing her "surprise" face for her birthday next month.

First Steps!

Grace took her first wobbly steps last weekend - July 4th, just to make it all the more memorable. :-)