A Busy Girl!

I can't believe my blog is official a year old!  It's funny, I still remember the day I started it.  Grace was sleeping in her swing and I decided I would try to do as much as I could while she was sleeping, thinking I might get about half an hour's worth of work in, and she ended up sleeping for 2 hours!  It's amazing to think of the difference between now and then. 

We have been busy the last few weeks, but that's nothing new.  We got to try out our new camper for the first time 3 weeks ago, and we love it!  We camped near Ludington at a church family's "campground".  The have a bunch of land and set up various camper hookups on it and they also built a cabin there.  We go every year and it's always a lot of fun.  This year Grace had 2 playmates, along with her cousins.  Unfortunately, the trip started out a little rough for Grace.  On the way there we stopped for lunch and when Jeff was buckling her back into her seat he somehow got the chest clip for her seat pinched in her cheek.  She cried and cried and it left a big red mark that later turned into a bruise.  Once we got to the campground it only took about an hour for Grace to have her next big accident.  There is a pavilion with a cement pad under it where everyone kind of hangs out together and Grace had found a little chair just right for her and was lounging back in it and enjoying herself (it was actually really funny how she was sitting in it just like an

It was a rough weekend!

 adult relaxing!).  She decided to get out of the chair and kind of lurched forward and fell face-first onto the concrete.  She had a scrape under one nostril, another under her lip, and another big one at the bottom of her chin.  There was blood everywhere, but she recovered faster than I thought she would since this was really her first major fall.  I was afraid to take her anywhere for awhile since it looked like she had been beaten!  Poor little girl!

We went to Lake Michigan while we there and Grace loved it.  The water was FREEZING but she didn't care.  She would be shivering and shaking but would get so mad when we would bring her out of the water to warm her up.  I wish we had more opportunities to go to the beach since she loves it so much.

Lake Michigan 2011

Lake Michigan 2010

We were able to use our camper again two weeks ago when we held the First Annual Cross Country Camp.  We went to Sleepy Hollow State Park, just north of Lansing, and we had 34 people total who attended.  It was an awesome time and I think the kids had a lot of fun too.  Grace was the life of the party with some of the girls and there was even another Grace there who fell in love with her.  It's so neat to watch her interact with the runners and hopefully this will help encourage her to take up running when she's old enough. 

Cheering mom and dad on
while they play putt-putt golf
in Ludington.

Speaking of running, Grace is walking pretty well now.  She still crawls about half the time, but she really took off on her uninitiated walking in the last week.  The other night I was doing dishes and I looked behind me and saw her walking to me from the dining room table.  It took my brain a few minutes to register what I was seeing since we usually have to put her in a standing position and encourage her to walk to us.  She gets so excited when she's walking that she sometimes throws herself off-balance and drops to the ground :)  She has also started babbling a lot lately, but unfortunately it is at full volume all day long.  It's pretty hard to teach a 15 month old volume control.  Yesterday she was in her high chair and I took a phone call and when I got off the phone she was sitting there with her hand to her ear talking into the "phone".  I laughed so hard because of how she was imitating me and even making hand gestures.  She still hasn't said many understandable words, but she understands a lot of them.  She knows where her diaper is and can also point out chickens and sheep in one of her books.  Jeff gives her a big bear hug at night before bed and now she has started hugging back and going "grrr" like he does.  It's so cute! 

At her 15 month checkup she weighed 22 lbs, 6 ozs and was 30 1/4" long, both in the 40th percentile so she's starting to get up to average!  It's funny to watch her facial expressions when she gets her shots - she had to get three at this appt and after the first one she kind of made a pouty face and looked at the nurse like, "why would you hurt me like that?" but then when the nurse gave her the next one she just lost it and it was like she was saying, "OK, one was tolerable but any more than that is MEAN!" 

Last Saturday we visited my friend Jamie and her new addition, baby Kate.  She had triplets in 2007 that were born at 27 weeks and was blessed to have another baby girl.  We grew up next door to each other and have been friends since we were 4.  It was so cute to see all the kids together and Grace was fascinated with the older ones!

Four little miracles!

I think that gets us caught up on the last few weeks.  My sister is coming up from NC this week to stay for about a week.  Thankfully they were very lucky and even though they were only 30 miles from where Hurricane Irene made landfall they didn't sustain much damage and really didn't lose power for too long.  It will be so great to see the girls together, especially since they are both walking now.  I'm sure they will get into trouble!!

Walking!

So Grace finally took her first steps last night - just shy of 15 months old!  Jeff and I were sitting on the floor and we moved about 5 feet apart and held her between us and she finally took a few steps getting from one of us to the other.  In the past when we've tried this she would immediately drop down to her knees and crawl once we let go of her.  We used the play spoons from her toy kitchen as the incentive :) 


Grace also learned how to unlock the cabinet locks, at least on some of the cabinets in the kitchen.  We have the ones that go on the inside near the top that you push down as you open the cabinet or drawer and she was trying to open one of them and realized that's where the resistance was coming from and reached up, pulled the lever down and got the cabinet open.  Maybe I need to be more specific when I pray for her to be smart?!
We haven't done a whole lot since we got back from NC; mainly just working on getting the camper ready to go on some trips and trying to get things done around the house.  Our garden is starting to produce for us so I've been trying to keep up with taking care of what's harvested.  In the last month I've made 18 jars of jam (bumbleberry, strawberry-rhubarb and fieldberry) and about 10 loaves of zucchini and blueberry bread.  And Jeff just picked 4 more zucchini yesterday....

Going for it....

Got it!

I finally started making a list of all the things that Grace has learned or started doing so that I would remember when I actually sat down to write the blog.  She knows where her ears, hair, toes and tummy are, but not her nose or her eyes (although she did learn that she can stick her finger up her nose....she likes to breathe heavy while her finger is in her nose - not the most attractive look!)  She'll also kiss her toes if you ask her to.

Trying out the bubble mower

I've noticed that she knows things that I don't even know she knows until I accidentally stumble upon it by asking her the right questions.  The other day I asked her where her cow was (she has one of those Fischer-Price barns) and she crawled over and picked it up without any hesitation.  Totally blew me away!  I also figured out that she knows where the apple is in one of her books and she knows where her swingset is - I asked her where her swing was and she went to the door and pointed right to it.  She is also fascinated with planes and birds - whenever we're outside she always points them out to us.
She has started making a "woof-woof" noise and a "moo" noise, although not always when she's sees a dog or a cow :)  She loves to give her baby doll kisses and actually rocked her a little bit too.  Since we set up her toy kitchen she has also started feeding the baby and giving her drinks from the cups.  It's so cute!

Helping mom with laundry

The other day I was working on the computer at the dining room table and Grace was starting to get annoyed with me so she kept coming up to the chair and trying to get me to pick her up.  Toby was laying next to the chair trying to sleep and the next thing I noticed was that Grace seemed a lot taller than usual.  I looked down, and she was STANDING on poor Toby's rib cage to give her a little extra boost!  Toby was so good about - I can't believe he didn't make any noise or try to get up to get her off of him.  Grace is still on the small side, but I would think it wouldn't feel good to have about 22 pounds standing on you! 

Grace LOVES to play on the couch and the bed.  We're not really sure what the fascination is, but she will crawl around and smash her face into them and have the best time just hanging out.  At first we thought she liked looking out the window from the couch but now she just crawls back and forth from one end to the other without looking out the window at all.  She has become so goofy lately - a lot of her personality is developing now and she loves attention and getting people to laugh, but she is also very sensitive to your mood and doesn't like it if you are sad or upset. 

Messy after a dinner of lasagna
and broccoli

I haven't shared a lot of these kinds of stories with you because I feel a little guilty laughing at Grace's expense, but that girl sure knows how to pass gas!  It's actually a joke in the family that the Walter side (Jeff's mom) has a gene that always shows up in at least one of the kids that predisposes them to this problem and it appears that Grace got the gene!  The funny thing is that she tries to force them out all the time and you can tell one is coming if you're holding her because she flexes her butt and then sticks it out and lets it rip!  She will also do it in her high chair - she'll be sitting in there and then clench her butt, which makes her sit up higher.  She's always very proud of herself!  Poor Grace - someday she'll hate me for these stories but I will make sure they are shared with her boyfriends :)

Coloring with daddy

I guess that's about it for now.  Cross Country is gearing up to start every day now - it was so nice when it was only two days a week, but I'm excited to see how the kids do.  I think this year could be our most successful season yet!