Can you guess who?

Originally this was a picture of Daddy. In subsequent asking I have been told that it is Grandpa and tonight it was Grandma.

Don't tell me for one moment that this picture is just scribble. If you look it is a very complete face with 5 eyes, 2 eye brows, 2 ears, nose, mouth and side swept hair. The cool thing to me is that all the parts are in just about the right place. This the first piece of Grace's art that I really want to keep forever.

Clan Gathering

Sunday the Nichols Clan Gathered at my cousin Linda's house. Everybody came and it was tons of fun. All the great-grand kids were gathered for a picture and I think Grace won the prize for least cooperative.



A few more pictures here:

Clan Gathering

Getting a Little Girly

Since we didn't know whether Grace would be a boy or a girl I decorated her room with a yellow and green barn yard theme. I've been waiting for 2 years to add something to make the room a little more girly. After Daddy removed Grace's crib and added her new big girl bed, we both realized that we had a big empty wall and my opportunity to add something girly arrived.

I wanted to do something that would go along with the butterfly kinetic sculpture (or as the rest of us would say, "mobile") we bought in Key West.



I found these wall stickers in Target and I think it came out pretty neat.



Grace did many of the butterflies herself and would cry, "I do it! I do it!" if I tried to add one. I'm hoping that she won't pull them off or try to stick other non-wall stickers to the wall.

Project Sleep in Big Girl bed is going well. Grace continues to stay in her bed at night until she falls asleep, but still giving me a hard time with napping in her bed. On Sunday and Monday I seemed to be able to keep her in her bed for her nap if I glared at her every once in a while.

Grace had her 2 year check-up on Tuesday. She is now 2' 11" tall and weighs 29 pounds. The scale actually said she weighed 29 lbs 8oz, but I contest that the 8oz was the cup of juice she had on the way to the doctors office.

Summer Vacation!

This year we decided to rent the house in New Hampshire for two weeks instead of one. Which meant we did get to see see about one whole week of good weather.

The first week it was just Grace, Daddy, Grandma Gail and me. I don't think I have ever had such a laid back, quiet week up in Sunapee. We spent most of the week making sure we were on the sand and in the water when the sun was shining. Grace learned that Daddy is very good at building sand castles and Daddy learned that Grace is very good at crushing them. Unfortunately we lost a day of sun because Grace was sick. Luckily it was early in the week and her fever only lasted one day.

Grace sick, but ready to go for a stroller ride. In the afternoon we tried going down to the beach to play, but Grace was really just phoning it in.



Nothing like sitting in the sun by the water!



The new park was a welcome addition for cloudy days. It has all kinds of things to climb on and I was amazed at Grace's upper body strength. Maybe Uncle Neddie needs to take her rock climbing?


These ducks were too cute! There was a mama and five ducklings that would come and sleep on the sand while we played. Mama didn't take her eyes off of us for a minute.



The second week Grandpa joined us along with Amy, Ned, Gray and Nolan for part of the week. Needless to say, things were a little louder the second week, but it was well worth it to watch Gray and Nolan playing with Grace. Nolan, the big seven year old, is such a big kid and good cousin that he read lots of stories to Grace. He even took care of reading bedtime stories to her one night. It was pretty awesome to watch. It was great to get to spend some extended time with Gray. It gave him a chance to get used to us and especially Grace. I don't think he entirely knows what to make of her yet. A couple of the nights after dinner I don't know what got into them (not entirely true, one night it was choclate and marshmallows) but Grace and Gray were all over the place. Lots of fun to watch! There appeared to be a game going on that only Grace knew the rules to, but Gray followed anyway. Poor guy kept trying to close one of the bedroom doors, but Grace just kept busting it open.

We struggled all week with the weather. One second the sun was out, the next it was cloudy and windy.



Ned and Nolan went off camping Sunday and when they returned on Monday the first thing Nolan wanted to do was go fishing. Grace and I went to watch the fishermen and arrived to Ned throwing a fish back in. Being the good uncle he is he decided to "cheat" and try to quickly catch a fish right off the edge of the dock. Grace decided she needed to lay next time him and watch. According to Grace she saw a pink fish.



Pirate Nolan liked taking Grace for rides.



I don't know that Grace knew what to make of Nolan buried in the sand.



Get the babies in the boat and take a picture. It was all fun and games until Grace put water on Gray, he started to cry and Grace laughed at him.



Pictures from our last sunny-ish day.



It was a pretty good vacation. Grace still asks if we can go to the lake and if we can go to Grandma's house. I think she might be disappointed to find out this weekend that Grandma's house is not a little brown house next to the lake.

Here's a link to the rest of the pictures I posted.

Sunapee 08

Big Girl Bed!

Daddy and I had decided that by the end of summer we would move Grace to a toddler bed. The plan was that we would take Grace to Ikea and let her pick out a bed. Once we realized she could climb out of her crib the project took on a new urgency, made only worse on vacation when Grace proved to be able to climb out of the pack-n-play too. Last Sunday we headed off to Ikea to buy a bed. Early on Grace made it clear that the one with the attached tent was her favorite. Unfortunately the tent was dark blue and therefore ruled out, but we did get the bed that the tent was attached to. Tuesday night Daddy assembled the new bed and after a little over tired crying, Grace slept the night away. Wednesday I only had to help her back to bed once before she finally fell asleep. Last night she went to sleep without a problem.

Now napping is a different story. Wednesday she napped in her chair (Daddy stayed home with pink-eyed Grace) And based on how things went today, I would like to get the crib back down from the attic. :-)

Here are some pictures of the assembly and sleeping beauty.

Birthday Time!

My Big Cheese turned two. What a difference a year makes! In the past year, Grace has gone from a baby to a little kid.

This year, because of the timing of Grace's birthday along with our summer vacation, we decided to have several smaller birthday parties instead of one big party at my house. As it turned out this was probably for the best since I wasn't feeling well leading up to the weekend before Grace's birthday. This is also why there aren't as many pictures as I would like.

We started with a party at Grandma Gail's house with my side of the family. Grandma and Amy did a great job putting the little party together and we thank them very much. The only really damper on the day was the weather which was 100 degrees, overcast and very, very humid. Grace didn't notice as she spent most of the day in the kiddie pool that Amy brought over. Her cousin Gray joined in the fun too.



After swimming Grace got ready for the party.



Aunty Amy made a great cake for Grace!



We finally got to break in Grandma's new picnic table. Do you think Gray was wondering why Grace got cake and he just got fruit?



The next day Grace's friends Ian and Allison came over for a pool party. Still not great weather, but good enough to play in the pool. Ian wasn't so sure about the big pool so we moved onto Grace's kiddie pool which we broke soon after we finished filling it, then finished the day with the sprinkler.



Ian's mommy Jen made yummy cupcakes in honor of the birthday girl!!



Time for our final round. Grace spent her actual birthday, July 26th, packing to go on vacation and swimming at a picnic for our dance studio (Mommy and Daddy ballroom dance). The next day, Neil's family joined us in New Hampshire for what I thought was going to be a great day of sun and swimming in the lake. Once again, the weather was not really in our favor. It was cloudy and rainy. I was very, very bummed that Neil's family drove all the way up to New Hampshire and didn't get to enjoy the lake.

Bubbles with Uncle Matt.



After a good nap it was time for cake. This cake was huge and tasty!!



The day wasn't a total wash. Grace had great fun playing with Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Kevin and her aunt and uncles. She recieved some wonderful presents which she played with all vacation long. And I think we have once and for all cleared up the recent issue of the difference between Grandma Gail and Grandma Nancy.

More pictures:

Grace's 2nd Birthday

Even more in my Album on Kodak Gallery