Good thing February has an extra day this year so I can get an entry in before the end of the month :) I have got to get better about writing here more often - I know there's a ton of things that Grace has done since I last posted but I know I'm forgetting at least half of them!!
It amazes me how much Grace's vocabulary grows, almost on a daily basis. Some words are really easy to understand, and other words we're still trying to figure out what they actually are! My favorite is "naka" (naked). Jeff usually is the one who gives her a bath and recently she has started to run out of the bathroom naked after she's done and comes to find me. I started saying "Here comes my naked girl" and a few weeks ago when she would run down the hallway she would say "naka, naka!" It took us a couple of days to realize that she was saying naked. It's so cute! She also recognizes when other people don't have clothes on - on her YoBaby yogurt there was a picture of a baby with just a diaper on it and she pointed to it and said "naka" and just tonight when Jeff took off his shirt to change she pointed to him and said "naka". That kid just cracks me up!!
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The dog cage was very fascinating - I like
how Grace looks like she's really in jail! |
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| First time in the sled! |
Another good Grace story (that I actually remembered!) happened at church a while ago - we have been working on getting Grace to fold her hands while praying and of course that doesn't go over well, so Jeff had picked her up to get her to at least be quiet during the prayers. He still had his head bowed and his eyes closed while he was holding her so she tried to open his eyelids so he would pay attention to her! It was all I could do to not bust out laughing myself!!
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I took her to the library's reading hour and they had a special
Valentine's tea party - she actually had fun, even though this doesn't
look like it! Right after I took this pic she did a complete somersault
off the back of the chair - I felt so bad!
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One of her favorite things to do - make a
mess with books! |
Grace has been watching some Sprout, which usually equals about 5 minutes at a time since that's how long her attention span is :) Her absolute favorite is Chica, who does the birthdays every day. All day she will say "Chica" and then say "happy, happy" to imitate the happy birthday song they sing. I'm not sure why Chica holds all the appeal, but I sure am sick of having the happy birthday song and the theme song to Calliou in my head all day!! That's one of the things no one ever told you before you became a parent :)
Grace's other all-time favorite thing to do is "help". It doesn't matter what it is, she wants to help. She's actually become quite a good helper - she helps me load the washer and dryer, she will throw things in the trash if you ask her, and today I had spilled some water on the floor and she helped me clean it up. Now I can only hope that this lasts all through the teenage years!! We baked Valentines cookies together and tonight she helped me bake some strawberry-banana bread. This was one of the things I dreamed about getting to do with my kids and I always prayed that I would have a little girl that I could do these things with. As frustrating as parenting a toddler can be, it's things like baking together that make it totally worth it.
Grace has started to understand that there's a baby in my tummy, but I'm sure she doesn't comprehend what that really means for her life! She has recently started to kiss my tummy and go up to it and say "Hi!" and give it hugs. It's so cute, I just wish I could prepare her a little more for what life is going to be like after the baby is born. I'm hoping it won't be too painful of a transition for her.
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This is what her hair looked like one morning
after she woke up. I'm not sure if this signifies
a good night or a bad night's sleep! |
As far as the pregnancy goes, everything is going smooth so far, thank God, although this baby is already quite the trouble-maker! At around 12 weeks I had an ultrasound done to screen for certain birth defects and the tech needed to get a profile shot of the baby. When she first started the exam, the baby was looking straight up so she did some of the other measurements and then waited for the baby to turn. After going to the bathroom, lying on my side and moving around for 20 minutes the baby finally turned its head for about 3 seconds for her to get the shot! I think I was in the room for almost 45 minutes. Last Monday we had our big 20 week ultrasound and the tech wasn't able to get the heart shots she needed because this little stinker refused to move - it was laying with its back and butt facing out and everything else was facing in towards my inside. We tried the same thing - I ate a granola bar, went to the bathroom, went for a walk, but the baby had decided it was naptime and wasn't going to move! The good thing is that I get to go in next Monday to hopefully get the heart views she needed - I think I'm going to bring some caffeine with me this time :) We also decided not to find out what we are having - Grace was a surprise and we wanted this one to be too, although for some reason it's a lot harder for me to not find out this time around. I was secretly hoping that it would be blatantly obvious when we went in, but I didn't see anything that looked like one or the other :) At least I'm over half-way there, only 19 weeks to go!! I started feeling the baby move about 3 weeks ago and it's so nice because it gives me the reassurance that everything is going okay. I'm really starting to think it's a boy just because of how much more movement there already has been compared to Grace. But if you believe the old wives' tale about the heartbeat rate then it's a girl because both this baby and Grace had heartbeats in the 160's. I guess we'll see!
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| 16 weeks |
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| 20 weeks |
The other big milestone that happened is that Jeff and I spent the night away from Grace for the first time. We went to Savannah, GA for 3 days and 2 nights. Our 10 year anniversary is coming up at the end of June, but since I will be pretty much 9 months pregnant then we knew we wouldn't be going then, or after this baby is born! I also didn't want the first time I was away from Grace to be when I went to the hospital to have the baby so we figured this would be a good thing for all of us. I was super-nervous before we left and didn't know how I would survive that long without her, but I did a lot better than I thought I would. It was definitely nice for Jeff and I to have some alone time together and for me to be someone other than Grace's mom. Jeff laughed at me when I told him that I felt like an adult while we were down there, but it's amazing how different it is to reconnect with yourself as a non-mom. It was so nice to eat a meal and only worry about feeding myself!! We had a great time - the weather was in the 80's when we got there but some storms moved through and the next 2 days were only in the low 60's/high 50's. I was a little disappointed because I had been hoping for warmer weather but we still had fun. Savannah is absolutely beautiful and is a great city to walk around and explore even if you've never been there before. We ate at Paula Deen's restaurant and drove to Tybee Island and saw the ocean. I highly recommend going to Savannah for a getaway weekend! My dad stayed at our house and watched Grace - as far as I can tell she didn't really miss us, which was a good and bad thing for me!!
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The fountain in Forsyth Park, where part of
Forrest Gump was filmed. |
And last but not least, here are pictures of some sweaters I made for Christmas - I made one for Eliana, Grace and Caden, the son of Grace's godparents. It was the first time I had crocheted anything other than blankets, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be!
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Modeling the hat - she won't wear one
outside, but she wore this one around
the house for almost an hour! |
