Today

My promises for today...

Today I will not yell "Grace, please quit screaming!"

Today I will not get upset when you grab the phone from me and scream, "mamamama!" into the ear of a very important vendor and then proceed to hang up on them. I will remember how long I waited to hear those words and laugh at your funny personality.

Today when I do the "Gracie dance" and bounce in front of the mirror with you, I will not think about how badly said mirror needs to be cleaned.

Today when someone tells me how beautiful you are, I will say "thank you," and not "I know, right?"

Today I will watch you as you soak in God's world and follow your example to be amazed by the little things.

Today when I nurse you, I will not think about all the other things I have to do. I will revel in this special but very short season we get to spend together.

Today I will spend more time praying for you instead of worrying about you catching the swine flu.

Today I will not cry when I put away your 9 month clothes because you are too long for them. I will be comforted in knowing that God created you to grow and you are growing heathily and beautifully.

Today I am going to tickle you and listen to you laugh, because your laughter reminds me of God's goodness.

Today I will sit on the floor and watch baby einstein with you, because I know you enjoy it. And I will not check my email while it is on. Scout's honor.

Today I will not forget to buckle the second harness on your car seat. yikes.

Today I will run, because I want to model a healthy lifestyle for you.

Today I will give you a reprieve from a huge minnie mouse bow atop your head. But I won't like it.

Today I will soak in every moment with you and feel blessed beyond all comprehension that God made me your mommmy.

Today I will enjoy today, because it will be gone tomorrow.

Dear Daddy

I sure do miss you. Life just isn't the same without you here. Please come home. Mom is great and all, but she is driving me a bit crazy.

In case you forgot how cute I was, here is a reminder:

I took a bath...
I put on my glasses so I could see you coming...

now get here, before I die of complete boredom.

I love you and can't wait to see you tomorrow!

ps. mom says hi.

The pits

I cannot think of much worse than your baby being sick. I used to have little sympathy for people who casually threw around the phrase, "my baby is sick." not so anymore. for the first time in ten months, "my baby was sick," and I threw around the phase expecting everyone to understand exactly how worried and concerned and preoccupied I was.
Grace ran high fever all weekend, getting up over 103, and was the most pathetic, lethargic, sad little baby I have seen. she didn't even feel good enough to grab for the remotes or my cell phone. she had a flu test which was negative, and the dr. determined she had a virus. we are back in the land of the living now and life is continuing as normal, which is wonderful news for this worried mama.

sick and tired of being sick.
well, maybe a little smile wouldn't hurt. it's not like I'm eating or anything...

we took a little walk on Sunday, at the advice of friends who told us to get her out in some fresh air. even in sickness, we must be fabulous.

thank you for the calls and texts and messages to check on her. I will always remember how hard it is to have a sick baby and respond to "my baby is sick" with much more empathy in the future! (on a completely unrelated side note, one should only wear white t-shirts when one's teeth are white and not a shade slightly darker than mother-of-pearl. once upon a time, one had the time and energy to put forth the effort to use crest whitestrips).

mama and the bumblebee

She did it! She said mama on Saturday! We have now moved to babbling the "m" consonant, which is a nice change from the "d" I have been hearing for the last two months!
Her new babylegs make me smile. Here she is channeling her inner bumblebee. Excuse the poor mobile phone quality, my dirty couch, and her diaper that appears to have not been changed all day and is sagging to her knees. That's just how we roll.

Traveling...

Editors note: this post is mostly for family. It has a lot of pictures and not much else. You've been warned.
Whew... we are finally home from what seems like a whole months worth of traveling. We spent a week and a half in Dallas for market and my sister's wedding at the end of August, and last week we were in Cleveland visiting Dan's family for Labor Day. Grace has been such a trooper; between airplanes, 6 hour car rides, being completely off schedule and passed around like a hot potato day after day, I am surprised by her ability to stave off a meltdown.
I will start the everlong group of pictures with Amber and Brandon's wedding.

Alisa, (yes that Alisa) took Amber's pictures. How many different ways can I say amazing?)

My stunning sister.



Grace was one of the flower girls- too cute! She smiled at everyone walking down the aisle and sat quietly in Dan's lap for most of the wedding. Then she danced and mingled until almost 10:30! Such a sweetie.

Grace with her papa.


Last Thursday we flew into Cleveland and stayed thru Tuesday. What a great trip! Dan's family hasn't seen Grace since they flew in last November.
She did amazing on the plane ride there. She was a squirmy worm and we all crammed in one row like sardines, but she did great. The plane ride home, however, was a bit of a different story.


Father daughter moment in the Houston airport. Love the belly hanging over the leggings.

Aunt Cheri holding Grace for the first time since she was born.



Just hanging in front of our favorite store in Ohio. It's like a Dollar General meets United meets Goodwill. Trust me, sounds gross, but you would LOVE it! Grace had a blast on the golf cart. She would squeal and squirm and laugh the whole time.
Hanging with the cousins. Dominic and Aidan had were so sweet with her and Grace LOVED them. She let them hold her and basically followed them around the entire weekend.




On Saturday we went to the Geagua county fair. Grace had a blast there and especially loved squealing at the rabbits.


As fun as all of the traveling was, I must say I am more than happy to be home and back on schedule. I was so stressed about Grace being off schedule and in new places, but she did amazing! She really surprised me with what she could handle, and seeing her have a good time made me relax and realize that it's okay for her to be out of her element. She even slept thru the night three of the five nights we were in Cleveland! (I joked about leaving her there. But I was kind of serious. But I'm just kidding. But kind of serious.) I'm getting this worried mommy thing figured out, slowly but surely.

first day of pdo and some updates

Well Grace and I both survived her first day of parents day out at Calvary. If I do say so myself, I did swimmingly. Grace on the other hand, had a bit of a rough time. When I picked her up and asked how she did, the teacher said, "ummmm, well..." Not a good sign. She did not nap (but can you really blame the gal? A well lit, baby-stocked room in a new pack-n-play? Not exactly prime napping conditions) and did not take any of her bottle. So the poor girl ate at 9:15 and not again until 3 when I got her home. She ate her fruit well, but they kept having to distract her and sneak the spoon in her mouth. Clearly, they are not readers of this blog, or they would know that G doesn't eat baby food unless baby einstein is on. Apparrently, another teacher had to walk around with her so she didn't get the other babies upset.
Great.
Now I'm going to be that mom, with that baby, who the teachers see coming and inwardly groan. I don't know why I am so bothered by this news. I have a wonderful baby, a happy baby, cheerful even, so it bothers me they didn't see that side of her. Isn't it interesting how I am already feeling that pressure. I'm sure you've felt it too. The weird, feeling that your children's (babies) actions are a reflection of how you are raising them. And she is only nine months old! Lord teach me to shake off this feeling. It is far too early to be worried about such things!

On to more exciting news:
Grace cut her second bottom tooth yesterday morning! Good thing, because we were up from 3:45-6, and I would hate it to be all for naught. And Sunday, she officially clapped for the first time. (We may be a bit behind in this milestone, but humor me). She has done her own cute "clapping thing" for awhile now, but Sunday evening she put her hands together and copied Dan and I while we clapped. It was too cute.
She has also figured out how to pick up little pieces of food and feed herself. I didn't think about it until we went to her checkup but the Dr. said something about Grace picking up her food and I realized she doesn't do that! I really only feed her baby food with a spoon; she doesn't eat a lot of other snacks or foods and if she does, I have been bad about feeding her. But no more! I was informed she needed to develop those fine motor skills and I was not doing anything to help it. Needless to say, we worked on said motor skills all weekend and by Sunday morning, she was picking up her banana puffs and stuffing them in her mouth. She hits the mark about 6 out of 10 times, and a 60% average is okay by me right now.