I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that Grace will be a year old in less than a month. Oh yeah, and that I will be the big 3-0 in less than three weeks - AGH! As I sat down to write this blog I was having a hard time remembering what has even happened in the last month, so I had to get the camera out and look at the pictures I took to jog my memory. 
Grace is into EVERYTHING lately. She started crawling on her hands and knees on March 18th - her godfather stopped by to talk to Jeff and when she saw him she just got up on her hands and knees and crawled to him like she had been doing it her whole life. Prior to that she would maybe do it for 2 or 3 "steps" and then go back to army-crawling. It's funny how something like that will just suddenly happen after weeks of almost happening. And let me tell you, ever since she's been crawling like that she is a machine! I can't believe how fast she can get somewhere when you turn your back for a second. She is also really good at cruising along the furniture now too. She doesn't even always need furniture either - the other day she was standing at our sliding glass door and walked along the wall to the window that is about three feet down. I'm not sure if she will be walking by her first birthday or not, but she will probably be close. She definitely has the leg strength and determination to make it happen!
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| It was really windy when she made this face! |
She can say "daddy" and "baby", but I think "baby" might actually be "Toby", I'm not sure. And "daddy" applies to everyone. When I come home and she sees me she squeals out "daddy!" and when Jeff comes home she does the same thing. I'm glad she's happy to see me, but why can't she call everyone mommy? :) She's also started making "v" sounds. The last few days she'll go "vvvvaa, vvvva", it's pretty funny. She can now do "so big" and puts her arms in the air when you say it, and the other day she did a really good job playing peekaboo with her burpcloth. She would put it over her face and I would ask, "Where's Grace?" and she would pull it off her face and I would say, "peekaboo!". She thought it was pretty funny. She's really into music and dancing too. One of these days I have to get her dancing on video although I'm worried that as soon as I get the camera out she won't do it.
She is already really good at testing limits and does NOT like the word no. We have two fireplaces in our house and of course she always wants to pull herself up on them, but we don't want her to since we use one of them all the time in the winter and we don't want her to get used to being able to play by it. Whenever she goes by either of them we tell her "no fireplace" and then move her somewhere else. The first few times we did it she didn't really care but now she throws a fit when we pick her up and move her. If she's even remotely tired it's even worse. When we set her down she'll just start sobbing like we are the meanest people in the world. Sometimes when we see her crawling toward the fireplace we'll tell her no and she'll stop and turn around and give us this little grin and then keep going but look back to see if we're going to do anything. I'm a little scared for what the future holds if she's already testing us!
She finally got her second tooth in on the bottom so now she has 4 teeth on top and two on the bottom. I don't think anymore are going to come in before she turns one. She also went through a yelling phase a couple of weeks ago that was quite irritating, especially since her favorite places to do it were in church or in the car. I'm glad that it was short-lived!
On April 12th my mom turned 60 and my sister turned 25. My sister was in NC so we weren't able to celebrate with her, but I planned a surprise dinner for my mom and invited her siblings and parents and other family members and friends. We all met at Old Country Buffet and I told my mom it was only going to be us and her parents and she was surprised when she saw everyone else there. I finally took the final Wilton cake decorating course that taught how to do fondant and made my mom's cake with some of the things I learned - what do you think? I was pretty proud of how it turned out but I was a little pressed for time making it so I think it would have looked even better if I would have had more time.
Track has started up full time now and we have three meets coming up next week. So far we haven't had the best weather but hopefully spring will decided to show up soon. I enjoy coaching but I can't believe how much more whining there is in track than in cross country!
Last week I took Grace to the doctor because we thought it seemed like her eyes weren't tracking equally - it seemed like the left one would cross easier than the right or else wasn't looking in quite the same direction. The pediatrician referred us to the Kellogg Eye Center at U of M but our appointment isn't until June 7th, so hopefully it's not serious! I'm really hoping it gets better on it's own or isn't that serious because I don't really want to deal with her wearing glasses or having to wear patches. I can just see how long either of those would last on her face!
We have been working on our training for the Dexter-Ann Arbor half-marathon. I can't believe how much I am still struggling with it. The longest I've been able to run so far has been about 5 miles but I had to stop at least once. I guess I didn't realize how out of shape I've become. Sometimes I get really frustrated with myself and I can't understand how I could give birth without any pain meds but yet I can't run 5 miles without stopping. Please pray for me that I will be able to do this and that it will get easier than it has been.
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| Four generations |
I've been busy planning Grace's first birthday party - we are having it on my dad's birthday so it will be neat to honor him, especially with everything he's been through so far this year. We sure have a busy few weeks ahead of us!
