Dreams Do Come True!

Amazing

2010-11-09T21:10:00.002-05:00

Kids are truly amazing. Gracie's finger is healing beautifully and she has only complained twice about it. And both times, it was past time for her medicine! (Bad mommy!) In my defense, she was/is doing so well, that I forget she needs the medicine! This is the toddler who hates bandaids or anything else sticking to her (unless, of course, it's a sticker that she has put there herself.) She hates when she gets anything stringy or sticky on her hands. Yet, a row of stitches down the inside of her finger doesn't seem to bother her at all. She doesn't even look at it. She will still pull up her pant leg to show anyone who will look that she has a small scar from skinning her knee before Halloween. She calls that her "boo-boo." LOL... I'm thinking maybe it's just denial. If she pretends the wound isn't there... it isn't. She goes back on the 15th to have the plastic surgeon look at it. They had to work us in for a 2:00 appointment... and it's on my birthday... I think that guarantees we will be sitting in the waiting room all afternoon!

Surgery--Take 2

2010-11-04T22:48:00.002-04:00

Today was the second surgery to remove the birthmark/mole on Gracie's finger.

Taken last night (11/3/10)... what they are going to be removing

We had to be at the hospital at 6:00am. We got signed in, they got Gracie's weight and height and then we were taken back to a room. All the usual stuff was done... arm bands were put on, a million questions were asked, blood pressure and pulse taken. The nurse anesthetist came in, asked a bunch of questions and ordered the medicine that would make Gracie drowsy before they took her back to the OR.

Waiting for surgery to begin... before being given the drowsy medicine

Another nurse came in and gave her the medicine. Then we met with a doctor from the plastic surgeon's office and she marked the area that was to be removed. A little after 7:30, a nurse from the OR team came and wheeled the bed to the OR while I carried her. At the OR door, the OR team came out to meet us and then we said our goodbyes to Gracie and gave her kisses. It was so hard to walk away from her, but luckily, she was drugged up enough not to know what was going on. We were shown to the OR waiting room. About an hour later, the plastic surgeon came and told us that they were able to remove the rest of the birthmark/mole, which means no more surgeries!! Sooo happy about that! He said they had to pull her skin very tight to get the incision area closed so she will probably swell and bruise pretty badly. But he was happy with the results. Like last time, the tissue will be sent for testing, but I'm sure it will come back fine.

We then had to wait for us to be called to go back to the recovery room. When we finally got back there, she was propped up in bed, looking very out of it. I sat in the rocking chair and held her as the anesthesia wore off. When she finally realized she had an IV in, I handed her over to Nick so they could take out the IV. They gave her apple juice to drink (she ended up drinking 2 cupfuls before we got home!)

Sitting with Daddy in the recovery room with her apple juice

Hearing some of the other kids in the recovery room cry really upset her, so we got her dressed and got out of there as quickly as we could. Gracie fussed a few times, but overall, did very, very well. We got her settled on the couch and turned on Dora for her when we got home. She stayed like this for about an hour. Then she ate some lunch and went down for a 4 hour nap.

Watching Dora and drinking Gatorade

After her nap, she rotated watching TV with playing for a little bit. Even though she is more sleepy than usual, she seems like her normal self. She has looked at it a few times and said "ow" but Tylenol and Motrin seem to be keeping her comfortable, pain-wise. I'm hoping it holds true for tomorrow as well!

Here we go again...

2010-10-29T20:07:00.002-04:00

Gracie is having her second finger surgery next Thursday, so we had to take her to her pediatrician this evening for her pre-op appointment. We had to take her in last Monday because she was running a fever and had a horrible cough and she was diagnosed with a sinus infection. The dr. we saw checked her ears and said they were clear. She just finished her antibiotic for that. Well, somehow, even on an antibiotic, she has managed to get an ear infection in both ears! The doctor wrote that they looked red and "bulging" on her pre-op form. So she is on a stronger dose of anitbiotics. Let's pray round 2 works!

Trick or treat!

2010-10-29T08:12:00.005-04:00

Aeden and Gracie at Great-Grandpa's house all dressed up and ready to go Trick-or-Treating
Minnie Mouse

Dad and Todd sitting on Grandpa's porch in their masks. Gracie was terrified.

Only in Camden would someone walk a painted goat.

Aeden is such a good big-cousin. I wish I could have snapped a picture a seconds before this one was taken... Gracie was being shy, so Aeden held her hand all the way up the sidewalk and here, he has his hand on her back so she could hold out her pumpkin.

All done!

Pictures of the "Spooky Smoothie"

2010-10-29T07:55:00.002-04:00

Proof that she drank it!

Proof that she lived to tell about it (LOL) Just kidding.. she really did like it!

The reason it was in a plastic cup so she couldn't see it. When I got it out of the refrigerator, she said, "Yuck." I didn't tell her it was what she was drinking. :-)

Potty!!!!

2010-10-25T20:05:00.003-04:00

I'm going to start off by saying that Gracie is NO WHERE near ready to potty train. She doesn't go for extended amounts of time being dry. She couldn't care less if she is wet or dirty. She won't tell you even after she has gone (the answer is always no.) There have been a few times that she has been dry when I remove her diaper in order to take a bath. I've tried holding her on the toilet, but I think she still feels like she is falling in. And of course, she immediately pees as soon as she hits the water, which then requires me to drain the tub and start over. So we went ahead and bought a potty seat. (Our bathroom isn't big enough for a potty chair, so we're just using the seat that fits on the toilet.)

She loves sitting on it, but has yet to go... until tonight!! She was sitting on while the tub was filling with water and when I turned the tub off, I heard her going. Nick and I were excited, but she was just looking at us like, "What's the big deal?!" LOL She did like flushing the toilet though!

Success!

2010-10-25T20:01:00.002-04:00

I made the smoothie during Gracie's nap so she couldn't see the color of it. I put it in a plastic cup with a lid. She loved it! She took a sip and said "bana" (banana) and then took another drink. I even convinced Nick to take a drink and he was shocked that it did indeed only taste like banana.

Here's the recipe:
1 c rice milk
2 c raw spinach
1/2 T honey
1 large banana

I used our Magic Bullet and it was very smooth.

I took pictures...I'll try to post them soon.

Imaginative play and etc

2010-10-25T13:08:00.003-04:00

I am so impressed with how much Gracie's imaginative play as seemed to explode the last few months. She is also starting to sit and play with something for longer periods of time. Mind you, it's not LONG periods of time, just LONGER. This morning, we played with her play kitchen and all the items that go with it for about an hour. She made and poured us both drinks. She made it by filling up the coffee pot with "water" from the faucet, putting it on the burner that makes sizzling noises and then pouring it into 2 cups. She then handed me one and pretended to drink the other. She found a skillet, added a play hamburger patty, used a spatula turner to remove it from the pan and put it on a hamburger bun. She was babbling the whole time and I really look forward to the day when I can understand everything she is saying. I would love to know what's running through her little mind!

I saw her do her pretend fishing at Mom and Dad's this weekend. Dad has told me she has done it in the past, but I finally got to witness it! She was holding a stick, pretended to throw it out (like a fishing line), then used her little hand to pretend to reel it in! She has never been fishing, so I'm guessing that either 1-Grandpa showed her how to do it or 2-she saw it on a cartoon.

I think our Gracie is going to be one sentimental/emotional little girl! She LOVES Curious George and has watched the Curious George movie (the first one) a dozen times. She has recently started to get very emotional when Curious George is taken away from the man in the yellow hat. Her bottom lip comes out and the tears start flowing. It's kinda pathetic to watch! I'm not sure if we should avoid letting her see scenes like them (I don't want her to feel as if someone could come take her away at any moment) or if we should let her watch them and just constantly reassure her that it's okay.

Gracie has also become an extremely picky eater! She loves almost all breakfast foods and lunch isn't too much of a problem because I make her lunch by itself (I usually just eat while she is napping.) But dinner is becoming more and more of a problem. If we are having something spicy, I will either fix hers without the spicy or fix her something I know she will eat. But other days, I'm really trying hard to get her to eat whatever we are having for dinner. (She used to eat EVERYTHING so this wasn't a problem in the past.) She has gone on a vegetable strike, so while looking for some ideas, I can across a smoothie recipe that has spinach it in. Guess who is getting her own personal smoothie after naptime today?!? I'll let you know how it goes!

Preschool pictures

2010-10-22T00:55:00.002-04:00

While writing the last post, I realized I needed to put her first day of school and picture day pictures on here.

First day of school with a backpack as big as her!

But she insisted on holding it.

Could my little girl be any cuter?!? Love her so much!

Okay, off to bed.. this time for real!

Finally caught up!

2010-10-22T00:37:00.003-04:00

While I love posting pictures on here for everyone to see, I get really behind because I hate how long it takes blogger to upload the pictures from my computer! So while I will still try to post pictures, I'm going to start posting more things about Gracie that I want to remember. She is growing up so fast and changing so much every day and I don't want to ever forget these days.

Gracie is one busy little lady right now. She goes to speech therapy on Tuesdays, preschool on Wednesdays and Mommy&Me tumbling on Thursdays. At her two year appointment, we were referred to Cincinnati Children's for a hearing test and speech evaluation. She passed the hearing test with flying colors, but the speech evaluator gave us a speech therapy referral. She started speech on Aug 17. When she started she had somewhere around 30-40 words and wasn't putting two words together. I'd say we have closer to 75 words now and she is starting to put words together. This morning, she told Nick "bye-bye, dada" when he was leaving for the airport. At one point, the speech therapist suggested we back off on the therapy, but she hasn't mentioned that since. Gracie likes going (they sit and play for an hour), so I'll continue it as long as they let me.

After a terrible storytime at the library, I thought Gracie would benefit from being around other kids in a more "structured" environment once a week, so I enrolled her in preschool. (This was before we started speech.) Now I am so glad we did! I think she is learning a lot from preschool, including new words. (I am pretty sure she learned the word "bus" at school.) As hard as it was for me to leave her the first day, she has NO problem being left. This week when I dropped her off, I was talking to the classroom aide and Gracie made it a point to wave at me and say "bye bye." As in... it's time to go, Mom... you're taking too long to leave! I try not to take it personally :-) ... I read that it means that she feels secure enough to know I will return.

I enrolled her again for the tumbling class we took last year. It's amazing how much she has grown over the past 9 months... she is learning how to do a front roll, she will swing from the bar on her own, she loves the balance beam and tumble track.

I must get off of here and go to bed... Nick is in Baton Rouge for a few days and morning is going to come way too quick! But I have to tell a funny story... which requires some background info so bear with me...

Grandpa has introduced Gracie to Spongebob. Apparently, in one episode, the girl (squirrel?) is at a rodeo (I think) and she takes her cowboy hat off and says, "Howdy, cowboy." Gracie will run her hand along the side of her head (to take her pretend hat off??) and say the Gracie equivalent of "Howdy, cowboy" which is really just a mumbling sound, but it sounds the same every time she does it.

Fast forward to speech therapy this week.... The therapist and Gracie are playing with the Little People farm and all the animals. Her therapist is trying to get her to say names of animals and their sounds. Every time she said, "horse", Gracie would run her hand along side of her head and do her version of "howdy, cowboy." EVERY.TIME. I was cracking up on the insides, but way too embarrassed to tell the therapist that my child, does indeed, like Spongebob. Grandma and Grandpa LOVED it when I told them... I'm sure Grandpa is very proud of both Gracie and himself. LOL

HallZOOween

2010-10-21T15:39:00.005-04:00

We invited Dad and Mom to the zoo for HallZOOween. Gracie is Minnie Mouse this year.

Look quick! It's the only picture with her ears on!

This picture melts my heart.

Grandpa gave her candy corn while we waited in line for the train. She is saying "mmmm."

"Enough with the camera, Mom!"

The always-favorite carousel

Grandpa getting her look in the alligator's mouth

Walking up to a trick-or-treat station

Enjoying a cookie from a station

Finger Painting

2010-10-21T15:33:00.003-04:00

This day was very rainy and cold so we stayed indoors and finger painted. I got Gracie to say "red" once, but the rest of the colors were always "bwue." :-)

Fall/Pumpkin Patches

2010-10-21T15:04:00.010-04:00

Throughout the month of October, we have been taking Gracie to a lot of pumpkin patches/farms. She loves being outside and we love being able to use the experiences to help her with her speech. In order to save time and get a few more posts up tonight so that I am finally caught up with pictures, I'll leave out my commentary :-)

Barn 'N Bunk

Shaw's Farm (2 trips in case you are wondering why she has on two different outfits!)

Parky's Farm--they advertise that it's non-scary... it was a little scarier than I had anticipated and Gracie was terrified on the hayride with the screaming lady... but she loved the pony ride!

Making Pumpkin Muffins

2010-10-21T13:24:00.009-04:00

The stores around us finally starting carrying canned pumpkin, so of course, Gracie and I had to make pumpkin muffins. She was an awesome helper!

All ready to go! (Notice the shorts in late September... summer did not want to give up this year! It's now nearing the end of October and it's finally in the 60s)

She loved sprinkling the sugar/cinnamon mixture on the muffins... Here she is signing "more" because I had said we were "all done."

First Bite

Mmmmm!!!

EnterTRAINment Junction

2010-10-21T08:06:00.007-04:00

Nick, Mom, Dad, Gracie and I went to see the Thomas the Train display at EnterTRAINment Junction. Grace LOVED it. The first part was a little boring for her (although I would love to go back and walk through it again), but there were a few things that caught her attention.

"Choo-Choo" (Although it sounds like "Boo-Boo" when she says it!)

She couldn't quite peddle this car around so the very grumpy "conductor" helped by pushing her.

Playing with the train table with Grandma

Riding the train merry-g0-round

Riding the outdoor Thomas Train with Grandpa

Signing "more" after getting off the train. Grandma was going to ride it with her, but she changed her mind. (For now, she rode it again before we left.)

Coloring (This place has a little bit of everything!)

Grandma trying to teach Gracie how to make it move on her own.

Crash!

Finally decided she was ready to ride again with Grandma!

Kings Island

2010-09-14T13:04:00.003-04:00

We have been wanting to take Gracie to Kings Island, but didn't want to pay full price for the tickets since we weren't sure if she would be able to or want to ride the rides. I found out that they were offering cheaper tickets if you went after 4:00, so we decided to go. I really think she would have been happy riding around in her stroller because there was so much to see. But she lit up when we went into the kids' area. It is a Snoopy themed area (which I think is the real reason Nick wanted to go..haha.) Here they are waiting in line to ride Woodstock's Whirlybirds.

Waving high from the Whirlybird

Always a favorite of Gracie's.. the carousel
While I was watching another ride to see if I thought it would be okay for Gracie to ride, Nick walked with Gracie over to Linus' Beetle Bugs. He put her on it without watching to see what it did. This was her first ride all by herself. She doesn't look to sure right now.
The ride started off slowly, but then "whipped" around the corners. Gracie was quite shocked at first and wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or cry. But she ended up giggling and having a blast!
She loved riding in the car.

She was about to ride about 9 things and missed the height requirement for a few more of the rides by about an inch. Maybe next year!

Zoo

2010-09-14T00:33:00.003-04:00

My brother, Todd, and nephew, Aeden, came down and went to the zoo with us before Aeden started school. I was too busy chasing Gracie around to get many pictures, but here are two of my favorites.

Watching the cats run around the cage

"Cheese!"

Birthday Party

2010-09-14T00:17:00.004-04:00

Nick and I decided to give Gracie her Dora car the night before her birthday since the day of her birthday was going to be so busy. I was sooo excited to give her this. I thought she'd jump on it and we'd never be able to get her off. She loved it when we first brought it out!She even got on it and let Nick show her how to press the button to make it go.

And that is the last she has been on it. :-( She refuses to sit on it, but likes to push the button and WALK beside it. I think I'm going to hide it and try again at Christmas!

The day of her birthday party was HOT, HOT, HOT! We were expecting a lot of people so we knew we'd have to have it outside. Dad even set tents up but the sun was a killer! We left the cake inside until we were ready to sing.

Between the heat and all the people, Gracie did not have the best of days. She did not want to be center of attention, which meant that I had to sit and open all her presents. Most of the pictures I have are of her crying. Here is a rare moment where she looked like she was enjoying herself (most likely because there was cake involved!) :-) You can tell how hot she is... her hair is a sweaty mess!

She was too impatient to wait for her own slice of cake, so she took matters into her own hands.

Even though she wouldn't look at her presents on her birthday, she loved everything she got! Nick and I put all of the presents in our room when we got home and every day for the next week or so, we'd bring one out at a time and let her play with them. It truly was a birthday that kept on giving (for at least a week or so.) :-)

Another year older...

2010-07-24T07:23:00.001-04:00

Dear Gracie,

I cannot believe that tomorrow, you will be 2 years old! Where has the time gone?!? I just got finished reading our blog from the past year. I cannot believe how much you have grown. This time last year, you were mostly crawling. You had taken a few steps, but nothing consistant. You were still drinking formula from a bottle and had not even attempted to use a spoon on your own. You were taking two, two-hour naps a day.

Now look at my little girl!! You never stop moving. You love to run and are so close to being able to jump. (You will bend your knees, throw your arms in the air and do a little skip.) You love to dance. You can put together an animal/farm puzzle and fit the shapes into your cookie jar shape sorter. You love to throw and kick balls. You have a little of your Uncle Todd in you because you love to color and draw. You still like to be read to, although it's a lot harder for you to sit still now! One of your favorite things to do is to CLIMB! We call you our little monkey because you love bananas and climb on EVERYTHING! We are used to it by now, but you used to make us very nervous!

You are such a good eater and most of the time, aren't too picky! You can use a spoon and fork pretty well! Your favorite foods are KETCUP, bananas, berries, watermelon, cantaloupe, lima beans, pancakes, waffles, cinnamon toast, oatmeal, eggs, yougurt, chicken, peanut butter sandwiches, grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, Goldfish crackers and of course, all sweets!. Your least favorites are most vegetables and potatoes (unless it's a potato chip or french fry!)

You love watching cartoons.. your favorites are Dora, Curious George, Backyardigans and Barney. Grandpa Rod has also turned you onto SpongeBob. (Thanks, Grandpa..LOL) We took you to see Dora and Curious George and instead of crying like a lot of the other children, you gave them hugs.

You are so loving and sweet. You play hard, yet always have time to give us hugs and kisses. You love being around other kids, especially babies. We are taking a Gymboree class right now and you will gently pat the younger kids in your class on the back or give them hugs.

I thank God every day that He chose me to be your mommy and I know Daddy feels the same way. I don't know how we got so lucky. You are our world. I pray that you continue to grow strong and healthy. And I promise to be there every step of the way!

Happy Birthday, baby girl!

Curious George Train Ride

2010-07-22T07:40:00.008-04:00

We took Gracie on the LM&M Curious George train in Lebanon last Sunday. It was a 30 minute ride out to the junction, 45 minutes of meeting George and the Man in the Yellow Hat, story time and playing and then a 30 minute ride back to the station. Gracie had a great time although it was HOT!

Waiting to board the train

Still waiting...

Distracted by something in the tree (we never saw anything, but she kept pointing)

Waiting for the train to start... and trying to keep cool! It was hot on the train!

Trying to figure out how to get her head back inside without hitting it on the window

The Man in the Yellow Hat walked by

On the very hot train ride

Poor thing was miserable! But she never complained!

Seeing Curious George for the first time

Amusing herself with Daddy's sunglasses while waiting in line to see George

Little Miss Hollywood

Trying to help Daddy put them back on

She loved looking at George until it was her turn to go up. Then she got shy and made Daddy go with her.

Gracie and George

The Man in the Yellow Hat made her a balloon dog while she waited in line.

Playing with a kickball at the junction, waiting for the ride back.

Indianapolis Vacation June 27-July 1

2010-07-21T14:32:00.014-04:00

Since we bought a home last year and because of Gracie's age (and her hatred of riding in the car long distances!), we decided to stick closer to home this year for vacation. So we went to Indianapolis for a few days. It has been a ridiculously hot summer, but we could not have asked for better weather while we were there! (Thank you, cold front!) Vacationing with a one year old is interesting and some days, it almost seems easier just to stay home! :-) We had a really great time and with the exception of one morning, Gracie did really good! We arrived at the hotel on Sunday evening and had planned on going swimming. The weather had other ideas and it stormed really bad! (This was the only time it rained!) So Nick and Gracie had to go "swimming" in the bathtub! Gracie thought it was very cool to get to play in the bathtub in her bathing suit and have Daddy join her! The next morning, we went to the famous Indianapolis Children's Museum. It is incredible! We headed to the toddler play area first so Gracie could wear herself out.

Loves the water table!

Want to play to?

Look, I caught a fish! (Or in Gracie's terms: "Boof!!")

Another favorite: the sand table

Trying hard to get the sand off her wet hands (from the water table)

Stacking and throwing blocks

Choo! Choo!

Very cute flower garden... she sat and played for awhile (which is a miracle for her!) LOL

Catch me, Mommy!

"Feeding" the baby birds

Climbing on a race car. Grandpa would be so proud!

Horrible picture quality... Gracie enjoying the merry-go-round

Having tea and porridge with the three bears (the lighting in this part was terrible.. sorry for the poor quality!)

Successfully wore her out! She napped while Mommy and Daddy checked out the rest of the museum.

After the museum, we had lunch and then went back to the hotel. The weather was nice so we threw on our swimsuits and went swimming. (The water was a little cold, but Gracie played until her lips started turning blue and she couldn't stop her chattering teeth...so her mean mommy made her get out!)

Our little "boof"

We ate dinner at the hotel that night and went to Circle Mall and walked around for awhile. Then it was time to head back to the hotel so Gracie The next morning, we went to the Indianapolis Zoo. All the excitement was getting to Gracie and she was CRANKY! Don't let the cuteness fool you :-)

Checking out the fish

Watching the sharks

Stealing Daddy's sunglasses...

... putting on her own

Mommy and Daddy's attempt to pacify an over-tired baby who did not want to sit and wait for the dolphin show to start. (She's watching a video on my ipod.) A few seconds after this picture was taken, she screamed and threw the ipod... good times.

She actually enjoyed the dolphin show (once it got started) and was in a good mood for about an hour afterwards. She loved the little petting zoo.

We scratched the plans we had for the afternoon and took a long drive/explored and let Gracie nap in the van. Then we ate lunch and went swimming again.
The next day, we went to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and it just so happened to be a day when they give tours of the track. We really enjoyed it and Gracie thought it was awesome to be in a bus and not have to be in her car seat!

Checking out the fountain and monuments while we waited for the tour

We then went to the White River State Park and walked a part of the canal walk. We highly recommend it if anyone is visiting there! We did a little shopping and bought Gracie a little Magna Doodle. She drew on that thing the rest of the night!

We went to Connor's Prairie on Thursday morning before heading home. When we pulled in, we see a hot air balloon floating above the property (tethered). There were signs saying you could go up in the hot air balloon and Nick said he wanted us to do it. So we bought tickets and got onboard. It was then that I remembered Nick's fear of heights! He had a death grip on the ropes, but he got through it! :-) He said he wasn't going up in another balloon again..LOL. I thought it was awesome and would love to go up in one that wasn't tethered!

The basket of the balloon.

The group that went before us getting ready to go up.

Looking towards Indianapolis (we are about 25 miles away)

Looking straight down (Don't worry, I was taking the picture.. I told Nick not to look!)

Taken outside Connor's Prairie (the balloon was on the way back down)

Connor's Prairie was really neat, although Gracie wasn't all that interested for most of it. (She loved the play area we visited at the end though!)

We got this shot by asking her what was in the hole. LOL

She kept asking "What's that?" LOL (I swear, there was nothing in there!)

Gracie and Daddy clapping along with the music and watching the dancers

Using a stick to point to the horses riding by
Hugging a chicken in the Discovery area (Gracie LOVED playing in here.)

"Eating" some biscuits

Gracie's bonnet picture for Grandma

Helping Grandpa with the fence

2010-06-08T14:48:00.004-04:00

Dad (who is the best dad in the whole, wide world!!) is helping us (and by helping, I mean doing most of it! LOL) put a fence up in our backyard. He came over yesterday to set the posts with Nick. Gracie decided she needed to help.

Wearing a tool apron just like Grandpa's

Deciding which tool would be best for the job

Like this, Grandpa?

Learning from the expert

Don't worry, Grandpa, I'll hammer this in for you!

All done. Time to pull the stakes out of the ground.

Break time!! Chilling with a popsicle after a hard day's work.

Surgery

2010-06-08T14:28:00.002-04:00

I haven't really talked about it on here, but I wanted to record the details so I wouldn't forget them. When Gracie was born, she had a birthmark on her middle finger on her left hand. It really didn't look like anything to worry about until about January. Suddenly, it started to grow larger, raise up and change colors. We mentioned it at her 18 month appointment in early February and her pediatrician said that although she was sure it was nothing, she would feel better if we saw a dermatologist. She said it would take a while to get in to see the dermatologist and that it was okay, no rush. I made an appointment with Dr. Lucky, a pediatric dermatologist for May 5. Since it was a Friday morning, Nick couldn't go so Mom went with me. The dermatologist looked at it and said that it would need to be removed. It didn't look cancerous, but would continue to grow (and it was growing fast!!) and would increase Gracie's risk of melanoma as she got older. Because of the size, Dr. Lucky suggested we see a plastic surgeon at Children's Hospital and said that a skin graft would most likely have to be done. I called Children's as soon as I got home and they were able to get us in the following Tuesday. We saw Dr. Gordan and we really liked him. He agreed it needed to be removed sooner than later, but suggested we avoid a skin graft by having it removed in two separate surgeries. We thought that sounded much better than a skin graft and Gracie's first surgery was on May 20.
We had to have her at Children's Hospital at 6:45am. They took us back right away and had us change Gracie into a hospital gown and asked us a million questions. They had originally told me that I would be able to hold her while they put the gas mask on her to knock her out. However, the OR they had her scheduled in did not have an induction room so I wouldn't be able to hold her for that. They gave her a medicine that made her very loopy and after talking with the doctor, we walked her to the OR doors. Gracie was getting so tired that she couldn't hold her pacifier in her mouth and it kept falling out. Everytime it fell out, she would start giggling. It was the cutest (and saddest!) thing in the world. We met the surgery team and Gracie immediately took a liking to the male nurse... LOL.... already a flirt. She didn't even notice that when it was time to walk away. We were only in the waiting room for about 30 minutes before the dr came to talk to us. He was able to remove about 3/4 of the birthmark and said that everything went as expected. (They sent the tissue to be tested and it came back fine.) We had to wait another 15 minutes or so before they called us back to the recovery room. Gracie was already awake and a nurse was rocking her and giving her a sippy cup of apple juice. She still had the IV in and was still pretty out of it. I took her and rocked her and she slowly started waking up more. And that's when she got MAD! She started throwing her sippy cup and threw a fit when the nurse offered her a popsicle but wouldn't let her hold it herself (she tried to grab the popsicle with her left hand and the nurse didn't want melted popsicle on her wound.) Then she started pulling at her IV and at that point, I had to give her to Nick (because I was getting light-headed... I hate IVs). The nurse went ahead and removed the IV and said we could leave when we thought she was ready. Gracie was crying/screaming and couldn't be comforted so we changed her clothes and left as quickly as we could. She cried all the way home. Nick had to leave to get some motrin (thanks to the tylenlol recall, I had thrown all of ours out) and Gracie couldn't/wouldn't calm down. She walked around the living room and threw anything she could. Then she would throw herself on the couch and cry/scream. I turned on some cartoons and that seemed to help a little. Nick came home with medicine and food and that really helped. She ate a few chicken nuggets and fries and then took a nice long nap. When she woke up, she was back to her old self and that was the end of it! The dr. explained that her finger wouldn't be wrapped (just stitches and glue) because the bandage would only cause her to be more upset. The glue started flaking off the next day and over the next two weeks, her finger started healing. Now, all the scabs have come off and it looks more like normal skin every day. We have to have the second surgery at the end of summer. While I'm not looking forward to it, I'm not nearly as anxious about it as the first!

Curious George

2010-06-08T14:08:00.004-04:00

Gracie loves the Curious George cartoon, so we took her to see him at the zoo. The first performance was cancelled so they did a meet and greet instead. We stayed around until the afternoon performance and I'm so glad we did!

Gracie reading the zoo map while waiting to meet George.

If you look closely, you can see she is looking at a Dora movie advertisement on the map.

She *loves* George!!
Daddy, Gracie and George
Gracie watching and clapping along with the Curious George Storytime Show. She couldn't take her eyes off George.

Meeting Dora at the zoo

2010-05-08T14:44:00.005-04:00

Gracie loves Dora the Explorer, so when we found out that Dora and Diego were going to be at the zoo, we knew we wanted to take her. We figured it would be crowded so we got there early. We stopped by the Cat House and Insect World to see the cats before going to see Dora.

Gracie looking at the cat exhibit outside

Waving to the baby cat inside the Cat House

Petting an iguana inside Insect World (I'm not sure why the iguana is in Insect World!)

After leaving Insect World, we noticed a line forming for Dora and Diego so we decided to go ahead and get in line. Gracie immediately wanted Nick to pick her up when she saw Dora and Diego (I'm sure the size intimidated her!) When it was their turn, Nick and Gracie walked up to Diego and Diego held out his hand for a high-five. Gracie either though Diego was holding out his hand to hold her or she just decided she wanted to be held by Diego because she lunged at him. Diego wasn't expecting it and was knocked off balance and his costume head almost came off. Leave it to my baby to almost terrorize an entire zoo full of children!! The lady standing next to Diego kept him on his feet and straightened his head and never left his side until Gracie was out of arm's length..LOL. Gracie must have liked the feel of the material because she kept stroking his cheek. :-)

Nick, Gracie, Diego and his protector :-)

Then it was onto Dora. Nick was holding Gracie a little tighter (since Gracie wouldn't let him put her down) so she wouldn't attack Dora. But Gracie still wanted Dora to know how much she loves her.Gracie trying to get a look at Backpack

After Dora and Diego, we went to ride the carousel since the line was short.

Gracie watching the merry-go-round through the fence while waiting for her turn

Hang on! Gracie is ready for the ride to start.

I have no idea why she is looking at me like this, but I thought it was funny so I'm posting it :-)

Finally, the ride starts!

Playing on the playground in the Children's Petting Zoo

Next weekend, they are having Story time with Curious George and the week after that is Dancing with Barney. It's a good thing we have zoo memberships!

two more easter pictures

2010-05-05T19:07:00.004-04:00

Forgot to post these with the Easter pics. I took Gracie to the mall and spent way too much for this picture! :-) They gave Gracie that little stuffed bear that she is hugging to keep her from crying.
Mom and Dad took her to get her picture taken in her Easter dress. Here is the one they ended up buying:

Little Daredevil

2010-05-05T18:48:00.003-04:00

I am used to Gracie climbing on anything and everything. She loves climbing on the ottoman and putting her hands against the window and looking out. (We live on a street with a lot of dog walkers and she LOVES it.) Her newest trick is to climb on the window sill from the ottoman and walk the width of the window. I think it's very funny, but it still makes Nick a little nervous!

Butterflies @ Krohn Conservatory

2010-05-05T18:35:00.002-04:00

Krohn Conservatory is having their annual butterfly exhibit. Gracie loves her "buttas" (her word for butterfly). She points them out to us whenever she sees one outside and loves the butterfly exhibit at the zoo. So we thought she'd love this exhibit. We really should know better by now! lol

We got there right after they opened (it was on a Saturday) and still had a 20 minute wait. The line started in the cactus room so we couldn't let her get down in fear that she would touch a cactus! Once we got into the exhibit room, it was very hot and humid (you can see how it steamed up my camera lens in the first picture.) That mixed with the VERY crowded room made Gracie very nervous/shy. She wouldn't let Nick put her down.
We had to walk through a little park to get to the conservatory so we stopped at the pond on the way back. Gracie made a new friend.

Easter 2010

2010-05-05T14:09:00.008-04:00

Gracie had her first "official" egg hunt at our church the day before Easter. She had a great time, although she was scared to death of the Easter bunny and clowns that were walking around.

Playing peek-a-boo with her Easter basket, while waiting for the egg hunt to start (The water on her shirt is from trying to drink from a regular cup thanks to Grandma LOL)
The hunt has started! Gracie is looking around for an egg. She stepped over a lot of them before finally spotting one to put in her basket!
As you can see from the picture above, she has just spotted the Easter bunny who was walking around to greet everyone.
Daddy is trying to convince her to continue on with the hunt.
The Easter bunny has moved on so she can focus on finding eggs again.

"I'm keeping my eye on you, Mr. Bunny!"

Gracie enjoying a hotdog after the egg hunt

And her first peanut butter egg.... she loved it!!

I forgot my camera at Mom and Dad's so we had to use the disposable one from the circus to take pictures Easter morning at our house. If I ever find those pictures, I'll try to post them. Ironically, she had on her Christmas pajamas while hunting for her Easter eggs! :-)

Here is our attempt to take a picture of her Easter dress with the digital camera after church. She was sleepy and therefore a little cranky. You can get an idea of what her dress looked like.

Here are some of the pictures taken during our family's Easter picnic. Gracie was napping during the egg hunt, so no pictures of that. I think she was egg-hunted out anyway!

Her Easter basket from Grandpa Rod and Grandma Kendra

Over a month?!?

2010-05-05T13:59:00.003-04:00

Holy crap, I didn't realize it had been over a month since I last posted on here! Time must be flying by!! I had been waiting on some pictures to come back of Gracie's first circus on March 9. I earned mom of the year award that day by forgetting not only the camera, but her DIAPER BAG at home! Luckily, she didn't need a diaper change until after we got home, but I felt horrible. I had no snacks, no cup/drink, NOTHING for her. :-( Daddy bought her a bottle of water and a soft pretzel and we ended up getting a disposable camera to capture the day. Here's the thing about disposable cameras, you can't see what pictures you just took..LOL. Gracie hates getting her picture taken so she wasn't even looking at the camera in most of them. Then the quality of the pictures themselves were horrible! And now, I have misplaced the stupid packet of terrible pictures. After going to the circus, we decided we'd take Gracie back when she is 5 or 6! She had very little interest in most of the acts. The only ones that caught her eye were the dogs and tigers. Other than that, she couldn't have cared less. It will save us a lot of money over the next few years since going to the circus is expensive!!

I have Easter pictures coming up next. If they aren't up in the next few minutes, that means Gracie woke up from her nap and I will try to get them posted tonight! :-)

Tumbling Class

2010-03-25T20:39:00.006-04:00

Gracie and I have been taking a "mommy and me" tumbling class since February. Since Nick is on Spring Break this week, he came with us. He did all the activities with Gracie so I could take some pictures.

Doing her stretches with Daddy and Ms. Sherry

Doing "donkey kicks" with Daddy's help
Gracie climbing on the mats

Gracie running across the floor to her favorite thing: the tumble track

Gracie running down the tumble track

on the tumble track

Sliding off the tumble track
Trying to jump on the trampoline
When we started, she had no idea what it meant to jump. Now, she will bend her legs, throw her arms in the air and extend her legs up. But so far, she has not managed to get her feet off the ground. The instructor thinks it's the cutest thing ever and I have to agree. It's amazing to watch her learn!

I don't know what she's doing, but I thought it was a cute picture!

Walking on the balance beam with Daddy's help

Learning to do a front flip with Ms. Sherry and Daddy

Crawling through the tunnels

Gracie loves hanging from the bar. When she first started, she would let go of the bar as soon as she felt any weight on her arms. Now she is almost to the point of allowing us to let her go and having her hang there by herself.

Aquarium

2010-03-25T15:11:00.004-04:00

Gracie loves looking at fish... at the zoo, in the fish aisle at Meijer, in the P&G lobby where I pick up our diaper studies, etc. So we thought the aquarium would be a great place to take her. Here she at the first exhibit. So far, so good...
Still loving the little fish....She even loves climbing on the big frogs!
Then we get to the sharks...
LOL! They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Gracie did not like the larger fish nor the dark rooms. Add in that it was getting close to nap time and you have the recipe for a disaster. Luckily, she loved the penguins (the last exhibit before exiting to the gift shop) so we ended on a good note!

Zoo--March 20, 2010

2010-03-25T14:47:00.005-04:00

Saturday was such a beautiful day that we decided to go to the zoo to renew our passes. Gracie and I had both recovered from the stomach virus we had, but we were both still weak! However, Gracie loved being outdoors and seeing all the animals. She also loved being on the carousel (which she wasn't too crazy about last year.)

She was very excited about the fish, so we decided to take her to the Newport Aquarium this week since Nick is on Spring Break. That's my next post! ;-)

Climbing out of her crib!

2010-03-25T14:29:00.004-04:00

On March 3rd, Gracie discovered that she no longer had to take a nap if she didn't want to... she could simply climb out of her crib! I was in our bedroom and heard a funny sound over the monitor. I opened her door to check on her and found this:
She was standing on the nightstand by her crib, swinging the monitor by the cord. (You can see it in her hand.) And being the terrific mom I am, instead of panicking and running to rescue her from the nightstand, I grabbed my camera :-) I then put her back in her crib and told her to show mommy how she did that. Here is what she did:

The nightstand was then moved!

She had not climbed out anymore until yesterday. Nick is on Spring Break and we were sitting in the living room while Gracie was "napping." We heard a few noises coming from her room and then we heard what sounded like someone trying to open a door. We ran down the hallway (why we ran is a mystery... obviously she was fine since she wasn't crying!) Nick turned the doorknob only to find it locked! We unlocked the door and found her standing on the other side of it, smiling. It's a good thing she is so darn cute! :-)

1st hospital visit

2010-03-15T12:21:00.003-04:00

When Gracie got up from a very short nap yesterday, she just didn't seem like herself. She had a stuffy nose and was pulling at her ear and after getting a temperature reading of 102.7, I figured she had another ear infection. No big deal, we could wait until this morning (Monday) to call the pediatrician. The rest of the day, she would have spurts of acting like herself but spent a lot of time wanting to be held (which is not like her AT ALL). She didn't eat much (a piece of cinnamon toast and a pudding cup) and she didn't want anything to drink. On our drive home, she threw up. Luckily, we were almost home! Nick changed her into her pajamas while I wrestled the car seat out of the van and threw the cover in the washer. We no more had everything back under control when she threw up all over Nick. Another set of pajamas. We got that cleaned up and I took her temperature again. Even after Tylenol, it was still 102.7. I called the pediatrician just to make sure there wasn't something more I could do. She said to just keep an eye on her and to call back if anything changed or if Gracie started having any breathing trouble. Gracie sat and watched cartoons with Daddy and sipped some pedialyte while I started another load of pukey laundry (yuck!!) She seemed to be feeling a little better for awhile, but started to get very sleepy. It was only 7:15 (but since we had just changed the clocks an hour forward the night before), it was only 6:15 Gracie time. I was holding her on my lap when she threw up again. Another change of pajamas. We let her sit up awhile longer and then decided to try to lay her down. We brought the baby monitor out into the living room so we could hear her and about 15 minutes after we laid her down, we heard her coughing. I ran into her room and she had thrown up again. It was all over her crib, her and her hair! We ran a lukewarm bath for her and got her cleaned up and her hair washed. We got her out, put her in clean pajamas (her last pair of clean pajamas!) and I took her temp again... 103.9. We gave her some more motrin (thanks, Scharlene!) and I called the pediatrician back and she told us to take her to Children's Hospital. Nick got Gracie ready to go while I got the car seat back together and in the van. ER was interesting. Lots of fine parenting going on.. LOL. We sat in the waiting room about 75 minutes before they called us back. By then, Gracie's fever was down (of course) and she had not thrown up since before we left the house (again, of course). We got through triage, only to sit in another waiting room. After another 10 minutes, they pulled us back into an exam room, where we waited another 20 minutes to see a nurse practitioner. She confirmed that Gracie did have an ear infection and most likely, a stomach virus as well. She left to get an antibiotic and Gracie threw up all over the exam room. After getting everything cleaned up, they gave her the antibiotic and we were on our way. Gracie slept most of the way home and threw up again as Nick was carrying her in the house. Luckily, she managed not to get it on her pajamas! We laid her down and she went right to sleep. I made a pot of coffee for us (Nick still had work he had to get done and I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep!) Gracie threw up again at 2:30 and 3:30. She slept from 3:30 until 8:00. She seemed to be better when she got up (although I'm certain it was a stomach virus after her diaper this morning!) She has kept down a piece of toast and pedialyte. She isn't very active, but is talkative. (She was "talking" to Barney and clapping from the couch.) She went back down at 10:15 and it's almost 1:00 and she is still sleeping.

Gracie in the exam room last night, watching the Disney channel.

Camera Girl

2010-02-16T09:21:00.002-05:00

Mom was trying to take pictures of Gracie on Sunday, but Gracie would much rather play with the camera than have her picture taken. The child is all smiles until someone breaks out a camera. Mom let her hold her camera and Gracie immediately put it up to her eye like she was going to take a picture. Then her little hand came up and she looked like she was trying to snap her fingers. We always have to snap our fingers at Gracie when we try to get a picture of her so she will look at us. :-)

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-16T09:10:00.003-05:00

Gracie enjoying her Valentine's Day cookie before getting ready for church.

18 month stats

2010-02-11T18:08:00.002-05:00

Gracie went to the doctor last week for her 18 month checkup. She now weighs 27lbs 12oz and is 33 inches long. Both fall into the 75-90% category. She had to get two shots, but did really well. She will have to get one more shot at her 2 year appointment and then we are done until kindergarten! Yea! The doctor said that she is perfect (but we already knew that!) :-) We do have to take her to a dermatologist to have them look at the birthmark on her finger. It seems to be growing faster than she is and the outside of it will get light and then turn really dark. Her pedi said that she was sure it was fine, but she'd like to have a dermatologist look at it too. I have an appointment scheduled in May with a pediatric dermatologist.

Playing in the Snow

2010-02-09T17:30:00.009-05:00

We got a lot of good snowman-making snow over the weekend (about 5 inches), but by the time Gracie and Nick went out to play on Monday, it was too dry to work. Gracie thought it was fun to fill up the bucket with snow and then enjoyed sitting on it :-)
She wasn't too sure about the snow, although she loved being outside. It took her awhile to get up the courage to walk in it, but then the walking involved falling...... and falling involved getting snow on her gloves which she did NOT like!Mother Nature wasn't done with the snow yet and Tuesday brought another 4-5 inches. Again, very wet snow so Mommy, Daddy and Gracie headed out to try making a snowman one more time. Gracie LOVES being outside, although it's hard to tell that by some of her expressions in the pictures! Gracie was more interested in filling up a plastic bowl than helping build the snowman.
And that darn snow was still sticking to her gloves! She kept holding her hands up to me so I could wipe them off.She finally got into the building when it was almost complete.We are going to pretend that she helping by putting the arm in (when in actuality, she is just trying to take it out!)
Almost done.. but time for Gracie to go inside. She was getting cold despite all her layers!

Totter's Otterville

2010-02-09T16:46:00.004-05:00

There is a place not too far away called Totter's Otterville. We first went there last July for a birthday party. Gracie could only enjoy one area because she was only crawling at the time. Nick and I recently took her back so she could enjoy more of it. They have it broken into different areas by theme (such as trains, water, grocery, construction, home, dance, vet clinic).

Just because :-)

2010-02-09T16:43:00.001-05:00

Body Parts

2010-02-09T16:33:00.002-05:00

We've been working with Gracie on her different body parts. So far, we've got hair, eyes, nose, toes, fingers, mouth and ear. She points to her chest when we say "belly" but we're getting there!

She wants you to know where her eye is:

Playing in the Snow

2010-01-22T08:08:00.004-05:00

Mommy had a Girls' Night Out so Daddy decided to bundle Gracie up and let her play in the snow for a few minutes. (It was really cold out and Gracie didn't want to stay out long!)

All bundled up!

Getting a drink before going out
Daddy, what is this stuff?

Uh, it's everywhere!I'm not too sure about this.
It's hard to walk in it!
It's sticking to me!

Christmas 2009

2010-01-22T07:04:00.008-05:00

We celebrated Christmas on Dec 19 with my mom's side of the family. Gracie did pretty well. She got to see my cousins that she doesn't get to see often and she loved being center of attention.

Opening some presents

I think her favorite was the little chair that her Great-Grandpa bought her.

The next morning, Gracie and Aeden were all dressed up in their Christmas outfits for church.
That evening, she was a camel in the Christmas program. She was so funny. At our church, they have little holders in each pew and each holder has two pens. Gracie loves playing with the pens. She kept walking over to the nearest pew, but she couldn't get her hands out to grab the pens. The next thing we know, she is bent over and trying to get them with her mouth

Gracie didn't feel so hot the days leading up to Christmas and we ended up having to take her to the doctor on Christmas Eve. She was diagnosed with a double ear infection and pink eye. Poor baby! We got all her meds and headed out to Mom and Dad's to have our Christmas with them, Todd, Sarah and Aeden. It was a rough day for Gracie but she tried to hang in!

Giving Grandma hugs

Grandpa had taught Gracie how to unwrap presents in the weeks leading up to Christmas. It backfired when she wanted to open all the presents, even the ones that weren't hers. Interesting enough, she didn't really want to open her presents when it was time to do so!

Playing with Grandpa. (I think he was trying to distract her from opening the big present so she wouldn't get in trouble!)

Sitting with Uncle Todd, waiting to open presents

It took forever to get her to open her presents. And once she opened her baby doll, it got even harder! She wouldn't put her doll down. :-)

Loving her new kitchen!

Gracie in her Christmas pajamas
Grandpa and Grandma with Aeden and Gracie
This pretty much sums up Gracie's day! LOL

You will notice that there are no pictures of Gracie at our house Christmas morning. We have some video of her and it's not pretty. :-) Poor thing was so sick that morning that she didn't want anything to do with more presents. I think the only time she perked up was when she opened her Dora backpack. Here's to a more healthy 2010!! :-)

Santa

2010-01-16T17:15:00.003-05:00

After finding out that the cheapest photo package I could purchase of Gracie with Santa at the local mall was $17.00, I posted on facebook for a cheaper option. A couple of people responded that Bass Pro did Santa photos for free. The quote, "You get what you pay for" comes to mind!!
Gracie was terrified of Santa and the evil elf head next to him and was trying to slide off his lap. The photographer clapped her hands trying to get Gracie to look at her so Gracie, unsure what to do, started to clap. Uncle Todd pointed out the reindeer in the background that seems to be eating Santa's chair.

Christmas in Downtown Cincinnati

2010-01-16T15:56:00.002-05:00

We went to Downtown Cincinnati to spend the afternoon watching the ice skaters and going to the Duke Energy train display. Gracie couldn't decide what to keep her eye on... the ice skaters or the 20 people dressed as Santa who were standing behind us.

Ice Skaters

Group of SantasI don't think she trust the Santas!

Watching the ice skaters again,

but keeping her eye on the Santas!Warming up in the Duke Energy building while waiting in line to see the train. Doesn't she look thrilled to be spending the day with Mom and Dad?! :-)

Our little monkey

2010-01-16T15:46:00.002-05:00

Gracie and I were home by ourselves one evening. She was playing (in the living room, so I thought) and I was doing laundry. I had walked by her playroom and turned off the light, only to find the light back on when I came down the hall again. I thought it was odd because I would have sworn I had turned off the light. I turned it off again and a few minutes later, it was back on. So I turned it off, pretended to not be paying any attention and caught our little monkey! She thought it was funny so she did it again for me after I ran and got the camera. Needless to say, her playroom has been rearranged so that her toybox is no where near the light switch!

Trick-or-Treating

2010-01-16T15:16:00.005-05:00

All dressed up and ready to go trick-or-treating at Great-Grandpa's.
Gotta get my pumpkin.Trick-or-treat, Aunt Brenda!
I get to pick out my own sucker!
Hey everyone, did you see that I am putting a sucker in my pumpkin?!?Gracie had a lot of fun picking out suckers and putting them in her pumpkin. She didn't like it when Mommy dumped them back in the bowl. LOLAeden the fireman is ready to go!Aeden and Gracie with Grandpa.Gracie and DaddyGracie and her candy-filled pumpkin riding the rest of the way back to Great-Grandpa's after a very successful trick-or-treat!

A Day at the Park

2010-01-16T14:40:00.005-05:00

Dad, Mom, Todd, Gracie and I spent a beautiful Sunday at Fort St. Clair park in Eaton. Gracie wasn't too sure about it when we first got there,until she realized she was allowed to pick things up off the ground

She loved Uncle Todd holding her so she could go by the creek.This old tree stump was a perfect seat for her and she didn't want to get down. How come she won't sit anywhere else for that long?!?

She loved the playground.

Here favorite part was sliding with Uncle Todd.

Don't they look like they are having fun?!? LOLLove this picture!

Scarecrows

2010-01-16T10:01:00.005-05:00

Mom always sets these two scarecrows out in the fall on a bench in her livingroom. Each year, she likes to take Gracie and Aeden's picture with them. Here are "Scarecrow Pictures 2009."

Hey, where are you going?

Here are some after the pictures above were taken. She decided she liked sitting on the bench and watching TV.Still taking pictures, huh?Where did you come from!?!?

Climber

2009-11-17T23:11:00.002-05:00

I was putting some of Gracie clothes away and she climbed up in her chair and pulled a book off the shelf and started "reading" it. I think the pictures below speak for themselves!

Updating

2009-11-17T23:06:00.001-05:00

Sorry that I haven't updated in awhile. I love putting pictures on here but blogger has been a pain lately when trying to upload pictures. I have been trying for days to get something to upload. It seems to be a little better tonight so I'm hoping in the next few days, I can catch up!

HallZOOween

2009-10-26T10:55:00.008-04:00

Nick and I took Gracie to HallZOOween at the Cincinnati Zoo. Kids can dress up and then walk around the zoo, where they pass out candy. Here is Gracie at our house, ready to go.She's not happy about having to be bundled up, but it was chilly. She also wanted out of her stroller to run around.

She loved holding her pumpkin. No, really she did... it just doesn't look like it in this picture!Awww.. out of the stroller and allowed to walk on my own.
Gracie walking up to the first treat station with Daddy. She wasn't sure what to expect! At this point, I realized I had to do something about those wings!! We ended up pinning them.
Still not sure what to do! Making sure Mommy was still nearby.Very excited to learn that they put something in her pumpkin! I don't think she would have cared if they put rocks in there. She just thought it was a very fun game.

Looking for the next station with daddy.
She got the hang of it pretty quick. She would carry her pumpkin up to the station, daddy would lift her up, she'd hold out the pumpkin, the people at the station would tell her how cute she was and then drop something in her bucket.Checking to see what they put in there.

We took a similar picture of Gracie and Daddy on our first zoo trip. She wasn't interested in sitting for a picture.. she wanted more treats!At the little pumpkin patch picking out her pumpkin.
I want this one!Looking at the animals with Daddy.
Peacocks roam free around the zoo. This one took one look at Gracie and headed for the train tracks! He wanted no part of Gracie!Gracie found another peacock to torture.
Daddy stopping her from actually torturing it!

Nursery

2009-10-12T22:16:00.002-04:00

For the past two weeks, I have been taking Gracie downstairs to the nursery during church. Now that she can walk, she doesn't want to sit during the sermon anymore and I hate feeling like I am keeping others from listening (and I don't get to hear much of it myself when she is upstairs with us.) The girl in charge of the nursery this week found me after church to tell me I have a climber and she had to keep her eye on her the whole time because everytime she turned around, Gracie was climbing on something. I was a little surprised because other than climbing the slide at mom and dad's or trying to climb up on the couch with me, she hasn't try to climb much. Today, I was doing my exercise dvd and Gracie was playing beside me. I looked over and found that she had somehow climbed in her baby stroller/walker and was standing in the seat trying to climb on top of her laugh and learn house! She was quite proud of herself and quite upset with me when I made her get down!

Jealous :-)

2009-10-09T14:17:00.002-04:00

Gracie and I were playing in her playroom and I wrapped her doll in a blanket and started rocking it back and forth and singing to it. Gracie immediately came over and took the baby from me and started walking around with it.

When she eventually threw the baby doll down, I picked the doll up and put her in Gracie's bouncy seat (that needs to be packed away and stored but I haven't done it yet!) I propped up a pacifier and kept telling Gracie "shhh, the baby is sleeping." At first Gracie thought this was pretty funny but I think jealousy took over a little bit with mommy paying so much attention to the doll.

So Gracie climbed into the bouncy seat...

... and sat on the doll! Doesn't she look proud of herself??

Learning to use a spoon--day two

2009-09-21T21:19:00.005-04:00

Here is this morning's breakfast adventure of trying to use a spoon on her own. She does so well at first and then decides using a spoon is too slow... what a mess (and a good laugh!)

Learning to use a spoon-day one

2009-09-21T19:56:00.002-04:00

We were having mashed potatoes for dinner and Gracie reached for her spoon (it already had potatoes on it).

Spoon upside down, but it made it in her mouth!

So proud of herself!

Messing with her ear AGAIN.. Please do not be another infection!
Posing for the camera

Yummy!

Nick and I were taking turns putting the potatoes on her spoon for her and other than bits and pieces falling on her tray and getting some on her face, she did very well! Stay tuned for day two--I give her oatmeal for breakfast and let her dip the spoon into the bowl by herself... LOL!

Napping

2009-09-20T12:24:00.002-04:00

Daddy and Gracie taking a nap in the recliner.

Luau!

2009-08-27T22:45:00.003-04:00

My cousin's daughter wanted a luau themed birthday so I thought we'd get Gracie all dressed up! She left it on most of the night!

First family vacation

2009-08-27T13:46:00.013-04:00

We decided to go to Holland, MI for our first family vacation. We wanted to go to a beach, but was afraid that Gracie would not do well traveling to the east coast, so we decided to head to Lake Michigan instead. We drove through Indiana so we could stop by Notre Dame's campus and walk around. Gracie rode around in her new wagon and loved every minute of it!
Our first day in Michigan, we went to the Dutch Village. Again, Gracie rode in her wagon and was most fascinated with the ducks. (That's what she is pointing to in this picture.)

The next day, we went to the Holland State Park beach. It was awesome! The sand is so smooth and clean and the water is clear. I won't get in water if I can't see my feet and Nick said he went out about chest-deep and he could still see the bottom! Gracie seemed to think she couldn't crawl in the sand so for the first hour, she sat right by us and played! She liked tossing the beach ball back and forth with Daddy... and really liked it when the wind caught it and sent it into the lake. She then realized she could crawl in it so Nick and I took turns walking behind/beside her as she crawled. Nick took her out in the water and she loved that as well! Gracie would crawl/sit by the water and she loved playing in the wet sand, but wasn't too sure if she liked the waves coming in at her. As soon as the water would hit her, she'd crawl back towards us. We were there about 4 hours. The last picture is Gracie passed out in the hotel after all that excitement!

Coming home, we drove through Michigan and into Ohio. We stopped in Wapakoneta because Nick wanted to visit the Neil Armstrong Museum. We went to visit my Uncle Steve, Aunt Brenda and Cousin Steven who live nearby. Gracie loved sitting in a little chair that was just her size. She figured out how to stand up from a sitting position and started taking more steps in a row! I think the most we counted that night was 10.

The next morning we went to the museum and it didn't go so well! I think it was a combination of Gracie being tired (she didn't sleep well at night in her pack-n-play) and the long car rides. We'll have to go back some time and finish walking through the museum. It was very interesting!

New Rides

2009-08-27T10:10:00.002-04:00

Gracie got two new rides for her birthday and she LOVES them!! Great-Grandma bought her a wagon (it has a removable canopy which is terrific when it's sunny and hot out!) and her Grandpa Rod and Grandma Kendra bought her the pink and purple car. It has a working horn which Gracie loves honking!

JCPenney Pics

2009-08-12T20:12:00.003-04:00

We decided to try JCPenney pictures this time. They don't give you the nice link like Sears does, but I was able to download the four pictures we liked the best. So here they are!

1st taste of milk

2009-08-09T21:44:00.003-04:00

Mom, why are you taking pictures of me drinking out of this cup? I always drink out of this cup.

Ewww... what in the world is this cold, thick stuff coming out of the straw?!?

That is just gross and I refuse to drink it again!

Seriously, Mom, what are you trying to do to me?!? Give me my water.

A few birthday pics

2009-08-09T21:23:00.006-04:00

I don't have many birthday pictures yet. I started taking pictures but soon realized that it was too hard to take pictures and enjoy the day with our little girl! However, Gracie has a terrific family who took lots of pictures. I just have to get them! :-) I'll post them as soon as I have some more.

Gracie's birthday cake

Gracie and Grandma

Gracie and Grandpa

Gracie in a birthday hat

Gracie's smash cake (made by her Aunt/

Godmother Audra)

Gracie playing in her new toybox (given to her by her Uncle Steve, Aunt Brenda, Uncle Gary and Aunt Marilyn)

Gracie blowing kisses to Mommy while enjoying her birthday meal

Dear Gracie,

2009-07-24T22:18:00.002-04:00

Dear Gracie,

It's 10:20pm on the day before your 1st birthday. Mommy and Daddy have been busy getting all of your birthday things together to take to Grandpa and Grandma's house for your party tomorrow. Everyone is so excited! They can't wait to celebrate with you!

I just wanted to take some time to reflect on this past year and to tell you how much you mean to us. First of all, Mommy and Daddy were told that it was very unlikely we'd have a baby on our own because of some of Mommy's medical problems. Imagine the surprise when we found out I was pregnant with you!! You have been our little miracle from the very beginning. We were very blessed that God sent you to us. One year ago today, I was sent to the hospital after a doctor's appointment because my blood pressure was borderline high and you weren't responding to the non-stress test well (you never did!) The doctor decided it was time for you to come out so we went to the hospital. I was so very happy going into the hospital but I had no idea how much happier I'd be when I left! I always knew I loved you, but I had no idea just how strong that love would be. I can't remember life without you.

Since the day you came into our lives, Daddy and Mommy have been head over heels in love with you. You have always been so loving, happy and healthy! You have gone from a newborn, totally depending on us for your every need to nearly a toddler, learning how to do things on your own. We've watched you learn to roll, sit, stand and you have taken your first steps. You've gone 6 steps in a row and we know it won't be long before we are chasing you everywhere! You've gone from laying on a playmat, staring at the stars above your head to playing with blocks, books, animals, balls... you think just about everything is a toy! We've went from putting you in your swing, to watching you jump in your jumperoo, strolling around the floor in your walker, to crawling and now you are nearly walking on your own. You've gone from cooing to babbling and can now say a few words (Dada, Mama, duck, dog, egg, Aeden... although Dada is your favorite!) You smile all the time, clap your hands whenever you are happy and/or hear someone else clap, and pucker your lips like you are going to give a kiss. You throw your hands above your head if someone asks you how big you are, will count up to three on your fingers (although you haven't done that in awhile!), do some of the hand motions Grandma taught you to "climb sunshine mountain" and are starting to catch on to Patty Cake and The Itsy, Bitsy Spider. You love being outdoors and we learned pretty early that you love to swing!

There are so many memories I want to keep forever of you at this age: the way you stand in your crib and smile when we open the bedroom door in the morning, the way you rub your eyes when you are tired, the way you say "ummm" when you eat something you like, the way you will cry when Mommy and Daddy go into a room and shut the door (you don't understand the concept of a bathroom yet!) :-) I love watching you sleep... everytime I come in your room, you are in a different position and like mommy, always kick your covers off. I know there are so many more and my hope is that by keeping this blog, I will write down most of those memories!

You are such a blessing in so many people's lives. Your grandparents love you so much and always want you to come and visit. Your aunts, uncles and cousins love playing with you and watching you grow as well. Everyone offers to babysit!! Although when you do stay with someone else, Mommy and Daddy say every 5 minutes, "I miss Gracie." And we do. We feel like a piece of us is missing when you aren't with us.

As much as I'm going to miss you being my "infant" (you will always be my baby no matter what stage in life you are), I am looking forward to watching you grow up into the wonderful little girl I know you will be. Mommy and Daddy will always be here to help you along the way. I look forward to the upcoming fall holidays and watching you explore pumpkins, leaves and maybe even some Halloween candy. I can't wait to see your face Christmas morning and watch you running for Easter eggs. And I can't wait for every day in between all the holidays as we just live life to our absolute fullest and never take a day for granted.

You can be sure that tonight (like every night) I will thank God for sending you to us. Happy Birthday, my sweet Gracie girl. I will get all my tears (happy and sad) out tonight and I can't wait to celebrate with you tomorrow!!

Love,
Mommy

P.S. If you are reading this and would like to leave Gracie a birthday message, please do so. I am going to print them and put them in her scrapbook! Thanks!!

1st birthday present!

2009-07-24T14:51:00.003-04:00

Gracie opened up her present from her Great-Aunt Marilyn yesterday. Marilyn lives in TX and was here last week but had to go home already. :-( She also bought the cute outfit Gracie is wearing in the pictures.

I don't know which she loves the most... the card, tissue paper or the book. (I put the bib in her diaper bag so I don't forget it tomorrow!) She finally tore the tissue paper to shreds so I threw it away. She carries her card all over the house and loves listening to her new book. Thanks Aunt Marilyn!!!

"helping" with the laundry

2009-07-23T22:33:00.002-04:00

I had folded Gracie's laundry during her nap and didn't want to wake her up by putting it away. Instead I made the mistake of sitting it on the floor and found her "helping" me.

(Practicing her catwalk look)

The last picture is hilarious! You can't tell but she's laughing while Daddy tells her "no, no" LOL She's such a good listener! It probably didn't help that I was laughing and snapping pictures and that Nick was smiling. :-)

First Black Eye!

2009-07-23T22:15:00.003-04:00

Gracie fell and bumped her eye on a dining room chair while Nick and I were at the closing of our house on the 10th. It didn't seem to bother her at all! It sure looked like it hurt though! This picture was taken 4 days later and you can still see it! I think it's completely gone now.

Walking!

2009-07-18T23:40:00.002-04:00

Gracie took her first steps yesterday while her Uncle Matt and Aunt Audra were here helping us move some stuff! The most she's taken is 6 before falling down. Does this mean I now have a "toddler?" Can't believe her 1st birthday is in 1 week! Just doesn't seem possible.

Home update: Thanks to wonderful family members, we are now 99% moved into our new home! We still have one more van load and to clean our townhome before turning over the keys, but it's so nice to be "home!" Still lots of unpacking to do!

Update

2009-07-09T23:46:00.002-04:00

I'm very sorry for not posting much lately. Life has been a little crazy with buying a house, getting utilities transferred and packing our townhome. We close on our house tomorrow at 12:00!! The current owner has until Monday to get out although he doesn't think it will take that long and he said we can have the keys as soon as he is finished moving his stuff out! We would love for that to be Saturday evening or Sunday, but if we have to wait until Monday, that's okay too. It will just be a very long weekend!! :-) We did our final walk though tonight and other than just needing a good cleaning, not much else needs to be done right away. There are some things I want to change and it needs a lot of repainting, but that can be done in time! Maybe when it starts to cool off so we can open the windows to let the fumes out! :-)

We won't have internet for a few days but I'll get some more pictures/stories up as soon as we are back online!

Learning how to walk

2009-06-30T07:26:00.002-04:00

She loves that toy! So far, she will only walk in a straight line with it unless someone is there to turn it for her.

She is also clapping a lot more. She loves Barney and Blue's Clues (mostly because of all the singing/music in the shows.) Whenever they start to sing, she bops to the music and claps.

New house update: Not much to report. We are scheduled to close on July 10th and will have the keys no later than Monday, July 13. The money will are using as our downpayment is finally in the account that it needs to be in, now we just have to wait for the loan check to show up. Hopefully that is very soon!!!

11 months

2009-06-27T23:01:00.004-04:00

It's two days late, but here is the picture we took on Thursday of Gracie at 11 months old!

Under Contract!

2009-06-13T20:19:00.002-04:00

Nick and I went house hunting on Thursday and fell in love with a home. It's only 12 years old and has only had one owner. It has everything we wanted and I really like the layout. We looked at 6 other homes and nothing came close. So we decided to put in an offer to see what would happen. The seller accepted our first offer!! We really expected him to come back and counter, which technically he did, but only on the dates our realtor (our lovely matchmaker Rhonda!) had put on the offer. The seller wants to move faster which is fine by us. The dates were changed and the offer was offically accepted last night! The appraisal is supposed to be done by Tuesday and we have 7 days to do the inspection. We are hoping to close in mid-July!!!

Misc pics

2009-06-08T10:48:00.002-04:00

First carousel ride... she hated it! She kept trying to grab onto Nick.

1st parade... Memorial Day 2009, Middletown Great-Grandma's new trampoline. Gracie loved being bounced on it!

Ryan Zachary 6-2-09

2009-06-08T10:42:00.002-04:00

About 10 minutes old, looking at his daddy

The next day, taking a nap

10 month pic

2009-06-08T10:23:00.004-04:00

Not the best picture, but we were in a hurry. It's harder to get her picture sitting in the recliner now because she knows how to stand up and to turn herself over and climb down! Nick was at work so he wasn't there to help me keep her still! I can't believe she is wearing the same outfit in her 9 months and that months 8,9 and 10 are all green! Those are the only green outfits she has..LOL. I'll have to make sure she's in a different color for her 11 month pictures!

Updates

2009-06-07T14:57:00.003-04:00

It's been awhile since I've updated but we've had so much going on! The biggest news *for our family anyway* is that Nick accepted a new job so we will be moving. We are finally going to be buying our first home! It's a little further away from both of our families, but at least we are still going to be in the area! If this job didn't come through, Nick would have had to apply for every job he could find next year and it's hard telling where we would have ended up!

After celebrating his new job, we got to work on finding our new home. We have been pre-approved and will be going on Thursday (also our 4th anniversary!) to look at some homes with our Realtor (who is also our matchmaker!) We love Rhonda and are so happy to have someone we love and trust walking us through this!

On to other big news.... my best friend Scharlene had her baby boy on Tuesday! She had been having some problems and the doctor finally decided it was time for his arrival. She called me on Tuesday morning and said she would be induced. She called back to say the hospital said not to come until 10:00 Tuesday night! I know she was disappointed.. and so was I! But around 3, she called and said the hospital called her back and she was on her way! I was already at Mom and Dad's so I left Gracie with Dad and headed to the hospital. I thought I was just going to keep her company through labor and that he would be born on Wednesday. I was wrong! I got to be in the room as Ryan Zachary made his entrance at 11:08pm. He is so adorable and *almost* makes me want another child. And then I spend the day chasing Gracie around and decide I'd better wait! :-)

So between all that's been going on and Nick's crazy last-week-of-the-quarter schedule, I haven't had a chance to update. I promise to get my camera upstairs soon so I can get pictures posted! Maybe even tonight after Gracie is in bed, but I can't promise that! :-)

First Parade

2009-05-25T21:43:00.002-04:00

Happy Memorial Day! Hope everyone had a good day. We had a great time enjoying the good food and company at our family picnic. Today was Gracie's first parade. She seemed to enjoy it. Gracie also turned 10 months old today. We didn't get a picture this morning and by the time we got home, Gracie was ready for bed. I'll take it first thing tomorrow morning!

And we're back....

2009-05-23T22:29:00.015-04:00

Sorry for the long delay in posting... Gracie and I went to Texas from 5/14-5/19 to visit my Uncle Gary, Aunt Marilyn and my cousins Kelly and Chad and their families. My crazy parents left Wednesday evening and drove 21 hours straight. Gracie and I flew down on Thursday. I was really nervous about flying by myself with her, but she did great. It was a smaller plane so only 2 seats on each side. The guy who was suppose to sit next to us asked if there were any available seats..LOL. He said he didn't want to "crowd" us... it's okay, buddy... I understand and I REALLY appreciate it! :-) Here's Gracie at the airport, eating chicken nuggets while we waited at our gate.

Here's Gracie exploring my aunt and uncle's home and getting used to their dogs:

The next morning, Gracie discovered Xavier and Savonnya's (my cousin Kelly's 2 year old twins) cars.

We spent Friday exploring Kemah and then headed back to my aunt and uncle's to go swimming. I have lots of pictures of Gracie in the pool, but I'm in all of them. Being the writer of this blog allows me to choose what pictures to use and I choose not to include pictures of me in a bathing suit!!! LOL

On Saturday, the rain held off long enough for us to go on a ride on my aunt and uncle's boat. Here's Gracie sitting in the front seat while Dad and I installed her car seat in the back. She's ready to go!

Here's my Aunt Marilyn with her grandsons; Caleb, Jordan and Carter. I love this pictures of them!

Gracie enjoying the ride!

After we docked, we got a few pictures without her life jacket.

After the boat ride, we went back to my aunt and uncle's and went swimming. That evening, Kelly and her husband Serg came over with the twins. One Sunday, everyone (Mom, Dad, me, Gracie, Aunt Marilyn, Uncle Gary, Chad, Caleb, Carter, Kelly, Serg, Jordan, Xavier and Savonnya) hung out together and Chad grilled out for us. Here are some pictures from Saturday evening/Sunday:

Dad taught Gracie to say, "Get, Dog" whenever the dogs got too close to her. :-)

This is Xavier's car with Savonnya in it.
Xavier is trying to figure out what to do about it.
He finally just climbs in with her and sits in her lap! LOL

Gracie sliding out of the car... she's not quite big enough for it yet! Don't worry, Dad is standing off to the side and lifted the car off of her as soon as I snapped this picture.

Carter showing off the baseball trophy he had received that day.

My attempt to get all three together. This was the best one I got! :-)

Xavier playing in the pillows.

Just got out of the pool!
Carter being silly.

Caleb not wanting his picture taken. But it turned out to be a great picture anyway!
Playing in the activity center Kelly brought over for Gracie.

Chad and Carter playing in the pool.

On Monday, Mom, Dad, Gracie and I went to Galveston to see how the town was doing after Hurricane Ike. Still lots of damage but also a lot of rebuilding going on. Then we spent the rest of the day in the pool.

Gracie and I flew back on Tuesday. It was hard to say goodbye but we were anxious to see Nick. The seat next to Gracie and I was empty again! Gracie was so tired but wasn't interested in sitting still. After about an hour into the flight, she finally fell asleep and slept the rest of the way. She didn't even wake up when we touched down. The other passengers getting their carryons finally woke her up! Here are some pics from the plane ride home:

Saying goodbye to TX

So sleepy
Finally out!

9 month dr. appointment

2009-05-05T23:04:00.002-04:00

Gracie's 9 month appointment was today. Here are her stats (along with all her previous stats to compare):

9 months: 22lbs 4oz (90-95th%), 29.75 inches (97%)
6 months: 19lbs 12oz (95%), 27 inches(90%)
4 months: 17lbs 12.5 oz, 25 inches
2 months: 14lbs 2ozs, 23 1/2 inches
1 month: 11lbs 14ozs, 22 3/4 inches
Birth: 9lbs 3ozs, 19 inches

They always ask a list of questions to make sure Gracie is on track and she had successfully completed all of them. We had to see a different doctor today (due to Nick's work schedule) so they didn't do a heel prick (to check her iron levels) as we were previously told. But she did get her final polio shot. She whimpered for a second and then she was fine. Other than that, not much else to report.

Funny Face

2009-04-29T23:00:00.002-04:00

This is one of my favorite pictures from Gracie's 9 month photo shoot:
She has a plastic tiger toy attached to her high chair. About a month ago, she found it and decided to start hitting it as hard as she could on her high chair tray while she was eating. I would open my mouth wide (like she is in the picture) and make a sound like she surprised me everytime she did it. When I first did it, she would just stop and look at me. Over the next few days, she started giggling when I acted surprised and then she started belly-laughing when I did it. Even though it was loud, it distracted her from trying to grab the spoon, bowl, etc. so the game continued. About a week of playing this game, she started hitting the tiger on her tray and then looking at me, making the face she is making in the above picture before I could react. I, of course, found this very funny and would laugh at her. So now, if you make the face at her, she'll make it back. Or if she wants to make you laugh, she'll make this face and want you to do it back to her. While we were at Sears, Gracie kept making this face at the photographer and it was cracking her up. She could never snap the picture fast enough so I told her to get the camera ready and then make the face at her first. This picture was the result. It makes me smile everytime I see it and think, "That is so Gracie." :-)

9 months.. our monthly picture

2009-04-29T22:46:00.003-04:00

9 month pictures

2009-04-28T12:50:00.002-04:00

Here are pictures that Sear's took this morning of Gracie...

http://tinyurl.com/cokdmx

Enjoy!

Sleep Issues

2009-04-24T00:29:00.002-04:00

What happened to my good sleeper??? For the past 2-3 weeks, Gracie will go to bed easily but wake up between 2-3:00am and can't seem to go back to sleep. Once I get her back to sleep, she wakes up within 10 minutes. I am hoping it's just a phase (I've read that when babies hit milestones, it can disrupt their sleep... and she's hit quite a few lately.) Or maybe it's her teething. I'm not sure what it is but it's throwing us all for a loop! Let's hope things settle down soon!

Updates

2009-04-14T23:15:00.004-04:00

Just a few updates that I want to remember!

*I noticed on Friday (4/10) that Gracie had two more bottom teeth!! That brings the total to 8 and it looks like the next two top teeth could break through any day now. I think this is why she is having some trouble sleeping... at least I hope it's the reason!

*On Easter Sunday, Gracie pulled herself up on a chair at her Grandpa and Grandma's. She had been able to pull herself up in her crib for a week or two but it was because she could sit on her bottom and pull up with her arms. She is now able to get on her knees and then pull up on just about anything. She even attempted to cruise today (4/14) by trying to move from her Leapfrog table to the couch. She had her hands on the couch but chickened out and put them back on the Leapfrog table. It won't be long!

Easter Weekend

2009-04-14T22:20:00.008-04:00

Easter weekend was very busy but we had a lot of fun and Gracie loved all the attention! Here are two pictures we took before Easter with her bunny ears ($1 @ Target.)Here is Gracie with the crazy-looking Easter Bunny on Good Friday. We went to Indiana to visit Nick's side of the family for Good Friday and some of Saturday morning. I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures! :-(

Saturday evening, we went to my mom and dad's house and celebrated Easter with Todd, Sarah, Aeden and Grandpa. Here are some pictures from the Easter egg hunt:

Uncle Todd holding me up to get my first Easter eggI'm not sure if I like the grass yet.

Gracie and Uncle Todd

I have to explain about the crazy looking outfit on Gracie. When we returned from Indiana it was nice and warm out. In fact, it was very warm in the sun and since I figured we'd be outside, I put Gracie in capris and sandals. However, the wind was blowing like crazy at Mom and Dad's so Mom went to find some long pants and socks to put on Gracie. This was what she could find! :-)
Aeden is trying to look through his eggs but Gracie wants to play too! Bless his heart, he is so patient with her!

I just wanted to post this picture so you could see her bottom teeth... I don't get too many teeth shots!

Aeden finally seeing the Spiderman punching bag mom and dad bought for him.

Look what Gracie got from Grandma and Grandpa (okay, probably just Grandma!) It's an Easter bonnet! Gracie loves it! :-) *Karen, this picture is for you!!*

Gracie's Easter dress

It was hard to get a good shot because she wouldn't sit still and wanted to crawl around. I think I'm going to have her 9 month pictures taken in it.

Gracie briefly playing with her new Cookie Jar Shape Sorter....
before moving on to play with a pack of diapers. (Why do we bother with toys?!?!) :-)
I took a lot of pictures with Mom's camera during the day on Easter. I'll try to borrow her memory stick and upload some more.

uh-oh

2009-04-03T23:58:00.003-04:00

I went to get Gracie up from her nap and this is how I found her:
Looks like someone figured out how to pull herself into a standing position in her crib. Ahhh... I remember the days when she had no choice but to lay in her crib because she couldn't roll, sit up or stand. The good ole' days.. LOL.

8 months old

2009-03-25T19:38:00.004-04:00

Gracie is 8 months old today! Can you believe it?!?!

Zoo Day and another HUGE Milestone!!

2009-03-23T23:00:00.006-04:00

Nick and I decided to take Gracie to the zoo today since Nick is on Spring Break. We got there around 9:30 and it was still chilly out. Since Gracie got up at 7:00, she was already for a nap (hence the pacifier!) Here's Gracie riding into the zoo in her new stroller... can you believe that 2 people still called her a "he"?? Seriously?!?! I don't think I could get any more pink on her!

Our first stop was at the Manitee Springs. The manitees weren't out, but Gracie loved watching all the fish! It was dark in the exhibit and flash photography wasn't allowed.... sorry for the blurriness!Here we are with the white lions. Can you tell we are looking into the bright morning sun??

Gracie and Daddy looking at the zebras.

Gracie loved watching the flamingos! Even though they aren't in the pictures, this is Gracie at the flamingo exhibit.Around 11:00 we headed back to the van for a little R&R. Gracie drank a bottle and then took a nap in the back of the van. When she woke up, she had some carrots and then we went back into the zoo. At one of the monkey exhibits, Nick was holding Gracie up to the glass so she could see inside. All of a sudden, one of the monkeys came over to the glass and stared at Gracie, pretty close to eye level. In the Cat House, one of the cats was pacing back and forth. Nick stood Gracie up on a little carpeted ledge near the glass and the cat came over, stopped and then jumped up on the glass to get a closer look at Gracie. By the time I grabbed the camera, the cat was already back on all fours.
And of course, what first day at the zoo wouldn't be complete without Mommy and Daddy making Gracie sit on all the animals to get her picture taken?!?! Here are two of my favorites:

After we got home, Gracie was playing on the floor in the living room and CRAWLED for the first time! It wasn't pretty, but she got from Point A to Point B on her hands and knees! She loses her balance pretty easily but she keeps getting back up and trying. It was so cute! I'll try to get some video of it and post it soon.

Sick again

2009-03-19T12:02:00.004-04:00

Sorry it's taken so long to get pics posted. Gracie has been sick for the past week. She's had a runny nose and a terrible cough. I took her to the doctor on Monday and they said she didn't have an ear infection and they diagnosed it as "teething." Whatever. The child has been teething since she was 5 months old and she hasn't been like this except when she had a double ear infection! On Tuesday, Nick and I both woke up sick so I guess her "teething" is contagious! :-) She seems to be getting better though. I'm only posting some of Gracie's pics from Chuck E Cheese (I don't want to post other kids without their parents' permission.)

Daddy was so excited when we arrived!

Gracie reaching for stuff she can't have at the table.

Gracie chillin' at the table.

update

2009-03-08T21:56:00.002-04:00

Gracie is officially rolling over both ways! Finally!! Most babies roll from stomach to back first but Gracie did the opposite. I was afraid she was never going to roll stomach to back, but these past two days, she has been doing just that. She is so close to crawling!! She will rock back and forth on her hands and knees. Today, when playing with Uncle Todd, she moved both legs forward, but couldn't quite get her hands to move. So close!!! I am going to put electric plugs in tomorrow!

Gracie (and Daddy) had her first experience at Chuckie Cheese today. My best friend's daughter turned 6.... she is growing up so fast! It was packed, hot and chaotic but the kids had fun and that is what truely matters! Gracie loved watching everyone and helping Daddy play the games. Daddy had never been to Chuckie Cheese and has wanted to go as long as I have known him! He has decided that he could have lived without ever going.. LOL. I'll post a few pictures tomorrow.

At the park

2009-02-25T15:16:00.006-05:00

The weather was so nice outside today (at least compared to the past few months!) so Gracie went to the park for the first time. She loved the swings, but I think she liked watching the other kids even more!

This is fun, Mommy!

Weeee!!!!!

Thanks for bringing me to the park!

Yo, Mom. I'm trying to be cool here in front of the other kids and you aren't helping when you keep taking picture after picture. Could we please put the camera away now?

Watching the other kids is a lot more fun that sliding.

Mom, what did I tell you about that camera? I'm going to start pretending I don't know you!

7 months

2009-02-25T15:00:00.004-05:00

Poor Baby!

2009-02-17T14:17:00.003-05:00

Just got back from the dr. with Gracie. Poor thing has a double ear infection! :-(

First word and more teeth!

2009-02-16T07:55:00.002-05:00

Despite almost 7 months of trying to force Gracie to say "mama", her first word is officially "dada." Nick is walking on cloud 9 and I'm trying not to be jealous (j/k)! Gracie has two more top teeth, bringing her total to 6 teeth already! I figured she was getting more teeth since she's been chewing on her hand like crazy, but she's been sick with her first cold so her other symptoms where masked by the cold! She has also started shaking her head no. It's too funny, especially when she does it when you ask her something.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T22:59:00.002-05:00

Gracie just wanted to wish everyone a happy valentine's day!

Since Gracie can't eat candy, she got a small toy and a book from Mommy and Daddy. She seemed to like them!