A spoonful of ceral makes the Mommy so proud!

It was definitely cool when Grace started feeding herself and drinking from a cup, but there was something about watching her get her spoonful of cereal to her mouth that made me so proud. She's been able to scoop up the food for a while, but didn't have the brain arm connections for getting it her mouth. I guess something clicked this week. I think that is one of the most interesting things about babies for me, one day they can't do something and then the next day they can. It's like something magical happens in their brains while they sleep.

For some strange reason it made her seem like much more of a kid then walking does.

Feet Were Made For Walking

Thursday when I picked Grace up from day care her note said that they thought she'd start walking this weekend. Both of her teachers commented again on our way out that they thought she'd walk this weekend. This seemed a little odd. Why this weekend? She's been talking the odd step here and there for a couple of weeks, why did everybody seem so sure she'd start walking this weekend? Sure enough, that night, Daddy came up the stairs Grace, put her down in front of me and she took 3 steps over to me. Now, either the people at day care have ESP or Grace was doing that all day and they didn't want to ruin the surprise for us. I suspect its the latter and I much appreciate it. :-)

So we spent the weekend trying to get Grace walking on tape. We were at a party Friday afternoon and I got her to walk about 10 feet. I was sure after that it would be a breeze to get her walking on tape. It wasn't. Below is the best I got.

Summer Vacation

We spent a great week at Lake Sunapee. The weather was a little hit and miss, but Grace had plenty of time to play in the sand and the water.

The week started out with Jen, Russ and Ian coming to stay for the night. We had a great day on Sunday, but the weather on Monday was rainy. I was disappointed to not have another day for the babies to play in the sand and I know they were too. We were excited for Grandma, Grandpa and cousin Ian arrived on Wednesday. By Saturday Grace and Ian had become great buddies. She hopes that we see him soon again! He's definitely Grace's favorite teen aged boy cousin. ;-)

Mommy's favorite moments of the week were watching Grace play in the water. On Sunday she showed no interest in crawling in the sand. By the end of the week not only would she crawl in the sand, but she would crawl right into the lake up to her head. Mind you that the crawl into the lake including crossing rocks.

Mommy and Daddy both enjoyed watching all the ways Grace changed in just a week. She really started freely standing and getting up without holding on. She started taking a step at a time. She started pointing at things she wanted, like Grandpa's french fries. At the very end of the week Grace started saying Hi. It's very cute.

Here are the pictures that Mommy and Daddy took on vacation in movie form. This time Mommy figured out how to put music in the background. Enjoy!

Who Cut The Cheese?

If you can't teach your pets and small children to do funny tricks to amuse you, what good are they? We taught Grace to raise her hands when we say, "Who's the big cheese?". We recently discovered that it's the word Cheese that makes Grace raise her hands. Some how I don't think you'll find this nearly as funny as Mommy and Daddy do.

First Hair Cut.

Grace's first official hair cut took place on Aug. 8 around 12:15pm in New London, New Hampshire. Mommy had been tiring all methods to keep Grace's bangs out of her eyes, but I think even Daddy finally became annoyed. So we did it. Don't worry, we didn't touch her crazy curls, just the bangs. Grace sat like a very good girl in Mommy's lap while the lady explained just how to cut baby bangs. It was very good information, but I vowed before Grace was born to never cut her hair.

I might be hard to tell from the pictures but, I think just cutting her bangs really changed her face from baby to little kid.

Before.


After.

It hurts to be a big cheese.

Grace had her 1 year checkup this morning. She is 23 lbs 10 oz, 30.5 inches and her head is 18.5 inches around. For those of you who keep asking they said she's between the 75th and 90th percentile for weight and height and 90th percentile for head size. She had to get 3 shots this morning and have blood drawn. Mommy didn't realize that she had to get blood drawn this morning and was a little unprepared. They took it from her arm and she cried as much about being held and having the band around her arm as she did about the needle.

Grace is almost walking. She has started taking a step at a time and can stand up without support. In the past week she's started crusing a lot more. She looks to go from one thing to the next instead of just crawling. Grandma, Grandpa and Ian believe they saw her take 3 steps when we were on vacation, but as Mommy and Daddy didn't see it we decided it doesn't count. :-) She loves to walk holding your hand. If we're not careful, in crowds, she'll take any hand she can find.

Grace can clearly say da, ma, cat and hi. Sometimes she'll say "Hi da" to Daddy. I think she's also saying dat meaning I think "What's tha?t". At the very least that's what we're going with. She's definatly started to repeat words (time to start watching our language), Sunday we were able to get her to say "Matt" and "Hi ggie". Next time we'll have to teach what "Matt" and "Maggie" mean.

Grace loves to play in water. She had great fun playing in the lake on vacation last week. If we sat her just on the edge of the lake with a bucket and shovel she was happy as long as you occasionally refilled the bucket for her. By the end of the week Grace was happy to crawl right into the lake up to her head. I think she would have kept going if we didn't stop her. She loves to swim too. Doesn't like to be in a float. We've caught her trying to pull herself out of the float in the pool a few times. She waves her arms and kicks so much you'd think if you let go she'd swim away. It's very tiring for whom ever is holding her.

We just finished our last can of formula on Monday so she drinks mostly milk and water. She doesn't seem to excited about juice so we don't bother. She happily drinks from a sippy cup except for her bed time bottle. She put baby food behind her months ago and will pretty much eat anything we do. Her favorites seem to be chicken nuggets, broccoli, watermelon and peas. She only has her 8 front teeth so we don't give her anything that really needs to be mashed with molars. She definitely doesn't like anything that is really sugary.

Next month Grace switches from the infant to the toddler class at day care. If anyone is interested in Grace's art let me know. We are starting to get a little preview of the amount of art work she'll generate in the toddler class and its a lot. A real lot. And she only goes 3 days a week!

Grace is definitely not an baby any more, she's becoming a toddler with her own opinions, likes, dislikes and personality. This year has gone by very quick. It is amazing to she how much she has changed in such a short time. Sometimes I wish that she would just stop changing and say as she is forever, but then I close my eyes and try to imagine what she'll be like next month or next year or ten years from now and time can't move fast enough.

Simpsonize Me

You have to admit Fox has done a bang up job of promoting the new Simpson's movie. I would think you'd have to be living under a rock not to know it was out. Below is what Grace would look like if she was a character on the Simpson's and the picture it was based on.