She's Walking!

My little lady is walking. She loves walking around everywhere, except of course when she gets impatient and finishes the trip up with her insanely fast crawl. :) Gracie is growing up so fast, it scares me. The other day I was boxing up some of her old clothes wondering how she could've been so little. She's not little anymore. Aaah! Anyhow, take a look at my new little walking baby!

Cornbread...Mmm Mmm!

The other night we were having tortilla soup and cornbread for dinner (thank you ourbestbites.com) and looked over to see Grace in her high chair, head buried in her bib, to sup up any remaining cornbread crumbs. So hilarious, I had to share!

Happy First Birthday Gracie!

This Tuesday, January 10th, we celebrated Gracie's first birthday. In some ways, this year has absolutely flown by. But in other ways, Boyce and I can't remember what it was like not to have our Gracie. She is a tremendous blessing to us and teaching us so much. She now stands up without depending on anything for support, and takes a precarious step or two before deciding crawling is easier. She now has 7 teeth with two molars coming in (poor thing). She babbles incessantly and has three definitive words, "Mama," "Dad-dah," and "Hi."

She'll give kisses if and when she's in the mood and will wave goodbye and "Buh" means "Bye." She knows how to make herself go limp when we pick her up to try to take her away from something she wanted and is all about testing Mommy and Daddy to see if they really mean "no" (such as, "Do they really mean no when I touch the fireplace, the stereo, the outlets, the candles...etc.?"). She has mastered self-soothing during naptime, much to relief of Mommy especially.

Back to the birthday though. We had so much fun celebrating for her birthday! Boyce graciously hung the decorations, I attempted to make a pink ruffle cake (which actually turned out!), and we invited some friends over to celebrate with us by having pizza and cake. Gracie LOVED eating her cake. Once she finished off the piece of cake, she moved on to licking her fingers for any leftover frosting.

The Baileys' and Maughans' children are both Gracie's age, and the three of them had a lot of fun opening the gifts together. :) All in all, it was a wonderful first birthday. Happy birthday Gracie Lou Lou!

Christmas

I can't believe the holidays have come and gone. Where does the time go? I LOVE Christmastime so, so much. Our little family had a wonderful Christmas.

To start things off, Boyce got a full 2 weeks off from work, and we decided to take full advantage. The first week, we drove down to Bakersfield, stayed a couple of days with Boyce's parents, and then left Gracie with Grandma and Grandpa while Boyce and I took a little mini-vaca. We went to Disneyland and had so much fun! How is it that Peter Pan is still my favorite ride (from the time I was 4)? We got there before the park opened and were one of the first ones in, and so many Disney workers greeted us as we went in. Seriously, you feel so special. :)

Us at the Blue Bayou Restaurant Inside the Pirates Ride

Suzanne's Dream Disney Job - Rollerskating Snowflake Girl

It's a Small World All Decked Out for Christmas

The next day, we took a ferry to Catalina Island and spent 2 nights there. We'd never been there and had a great time. It was the off season, so the island was very quiet, and lots of local shops were closed. But we took advantage of the quietness and just relaxed. We did manage to do the island's eco-zipline, which was amazing! The island has a place called The Casino that was built by William Wrigley during the island's heyday, and now the Casino is just a huge movie theater. So we went and saw Tin Tin (it only shows one movie a week, and to our dismay, we missed The Muppets by a night).

We also had a chance to walk around the island a little, where we stumbled across an actual pet cemetery. Wow. Who knew?

Actual Pet Cemetery

Pelican with The Casino in the Distance

We ended our excursion with a semi-submarine tour where we got to see lots of the local fish and marine life.

After Catalina, we went back to Doug and Rinez's and enjoyed a couple more nights with them before heading back on Christmas Eve.

My dad and sister then came the day after Christmas and stayed the week. We had a great time just being together as a family. Since they came a couple days after Christmas, we waited until they were here to open presents and have Christmas dinner. As expected, Gracie didn't really know what to do as far as unwrapping presents, so we helped her out a little. :) But she sure enjoyed her gifts - a little piano and teacup set, both that play lots of songs. She is quite a lover of all things music, so they were a hit.

Grace with Aunt Kat

New Year's Eve with Dad, Kat, and Her Boyfriend Brian

Halloween

We had such a fun time this Halloween. For months I have been looking forward to dressing Gracie up and showing her off! After receiving a cute yellow and orange tutu and some bright orange fairy wings in a gift basket we got at Boyce's school carnival, we decided to dress Gracie up as a candy corn princess. I found a "Candy Corn Cutie" onesie and an orange bow to complete the outfit!

And wow did she turn out cute! :)



I got her dressed up and took her to Boyce's school Halloween parade. We walked in the parade with all of the kids, and I'm telling you, Gracie KNEW she was dressed up and cute! She had the time of her life!

We dressed her up one more time that day and took her to our friend Cami's for a Halloween dinner. What a great Halloween it was!

Nine Months

Wow, apologies to those who have given up on our blog. I'm terrible at keeping it up to date! But I would like to pay tribute to my lil' munchkin at her 9-month milestone! First off, Gracie's growth has tapered off. At 9 months, she weighs 19.4 lbs. (62%). She is 28.75" in length (87%). She was such a big girl at the doctor when he gave her her flu shot (yuck).

At 9 months, she is crawling around. Boyce describes it best and says she looks like a windup doll. It's so true! She still only has the 6 teeth, but we think we see two more poking through up top. Still just the two on bottom though. She is looking more and more like Boyce - the cheeks, the mouth, the expressions... I sometimes whine to Boyce that she somehow only got my vices, like my scowl and my impatience when it comes to eating time.

She loves, LOVES being social. Loves crowds. At storytime at the library, she could care less what we're reading or singing, but loves making friends with the other babies and adults. When we are in a restaurant, she cranes her neck to see the people at the tables all around us, not giving up until they flash her a smile.

This happened more at 9 1/2 months instead of 9, but she is a full-fledged stair climber. She LOVES stairs, much to Mama's dismay! We spend lots of time by the many stairs in our house so she can climb them (and may I mention we have a TON of stairs!). And until she learns how to climb down them, Mama and Daddy will be right beside her.

She says "Mama" crystal clear, though I don't think she necessarily knows it's me. We try to say "Daddy" but nothing yet!

She's getting great at games. We play hide-and-seek, and just last week she learned how to blink when we blink. Check out the video. So fun!

Love you little girl!

Seven Months!

Our lil' Gracie Lou Lou is seven months old. I can't believe it and truly don't know where the time has gone. It seems like just yesterday my little angel baby was inside of me and I was wondering what she would look like and what her personality would be. Now I know she is a beautiful, healthy little baby with a fiery personality to match her strawberry blond hair!


At seven months, the little lady is SOLELY focused on moving around. She is rolling and scooting herself constantly. She has officially graduated from her gym set, which would require her to be stationary. And might I mention, the purpose of every game is to get Object A into her mouth.

She is a teething maniac. At four months she got her bottom two teeth, and two weeks ago I noticed her top two were breaking through. Just yesterday, Boyce and I looked again and saw another two breaking through. Poor baby. That would explain the continuous drooling and persistent impatience.


We are moving along the "solid food spectrum" quite nicely, and so far, she's liked everything except for green beans and rice. We've tried the store bought and homemade variety, both to no avail. But despite that, she'll appease us and down a good portion before protesting. I know she's my baby because her favorites are the sweetest foods, like sweet potatoes and peaches. That's my girl!

Gracie was a complete trooper on our vacations last month! Through all the driving, she really only fussed when she was ready for a nap, and liked watching the Baby Einstein videos we took with us.

She's becoming more and more like Boyce: the ultimate social butterfly. On our trips, it was practically impossible to feed her in public because there were people to coo to and interact with. On more than one occasion, Gracie would refuse to take the bottle until the people at the table next to us noticed her. Once she was satisfied with their attention, only then would she eat. Not kidding.


I love watching my girl learn and grow and play. Through watching her, I love remembering to find beauty and happiness in the little things. I'm learning too, and it is a wonderful thing. Love you Gracie!