One Year Old!

My, how time flies when you have children!  Not only is Grace a year old, but I'm already almost two weeks late in posting about it :)  May has been a crazy month. 

Grace's birthday was surprisingly emotional for me.  I kept thinking back on the 12th about what we had been doing the year before - when we went to the hospital, when my water broke, etc.  What was interesting was how both Jeff and I woke up right around 6:04 am on her birthday, which is when she was born.  It's just so hard to believe that it has already been a year ago.  The other day I found the notebook I had used to write down when I nursed her and when we changed her diapers, and I was exhausted just reading it!!  Newborn babies are so precious, but they are a LOT of work!!  I'm so glad I don't have to change Grace's diaper 10 times a day anymore!

We had a track invitational on Grace's birthday so we weren't able to actually celebrate her birthday that day (not that she had any idea anyways!) so we had her party on the 15th, which is my dad's birthday.  The whole week prior to her party had been beautiful with sunny skies and temps in the 70's and even 80's, but the day before her party things totally changed.  We had been planning on having the party outside with games for the kids that were coming, but since it was only 50 degrees and pouring rain the whole day we had to have it in our garage with heaters going!  I was really disappointed in the weather, but we made it work and everyone was really understanding about it.  We had about 50 people come, even in the nasty weather, and Grace was blessed with so many cool toys and CLOTHES!!  That girl now has more clothes than I do!  Even her cake turned out really well, which I had been totally stressing out about for the last month or so.  It was the first time I ever attempted to make a cake of this size and difficulty.  After I got done making it I felt like I never wanted to see cake again :)

My sister and her family were able to come up to MI for Grace's party, and it was so cute to see Grace and Eliana play together.  This was the first time that Eliana wasn't on a completely different developmental level than Grace so they really interacted well.  Every time they would see eachother they would squeal and get so excited.  At one point they were both playing in the living room and Ellie gave Grace a hug and Grace kissed her - completely on their own.  I wish they could spend more time together because it's so cute to watch and they really enjoy eachother.

The latest development around here is that Grace is now sporting a one year old attitude.  It's like she heard she wasn't a baby anymore so now she refuses to do anything unless she wants to.  That includes eating or drinking - it has been SO frustrating.  I just cut back to only nursing her before bed, so we've been trying to get her to drink anything out of a cup, sippy cup, straw cup, etc and it is not going well.  I think she only drank about 2 ozs of fluids yesterday.  I am trying not to stress out about it too much and just make sure that she always has something to drink while she's eating, but it is hard not to obsess.  She is SO stubborn. 
She also discovered balloons, and LOVES them.  She even tries to say balloon - it comes out more like "boon", but she points to it and says it so you know what she means.  Unfortunately we had a little meltdown in Meijer when we walked past the floral dept with all the balloons and she couldn't have one.  That was fun :)
She points at everything now - especially lights.  It's hard to keep up with her pointing - she's already pointing to something else before you can name the first thing!  She is also extremely active.  I am exhausted just watching her, and she's not even walking yet.  I read somewhere that overly-active babies score higher on IQ tests and have better problem-solving skills - I hope so!  Sometimes I wonder if they say those things just so us parents don't go crazy chasing after our kids!  It's like she has a radar and knows exactly where you don't want her to go and what you don't want her to get into.  It's a race these days to get into the fridge or the freezer before she tries to crawl in. 

Her other favorite activity is taking things out of things and putting them back in.  She LOVES laundry baskets and will whip the clothes out of them as fast as she can and then fling them all over the room (I think in my last post I mentioned how having a puppy prepares you for kids? :) ).  She loves to get into my magazines and turn (and rip) the pages.  We've had a hard time reading books to her because all she wants to do is turn the pages and gets mad if you hold them down while you try to read the story.  She is starting to get good at stacking things and can put the rings on the pole of her stacking toy. 
I'm sure I'm forgetting some of her latest things, but it's so hard to keep up with her these days.  Even though she can be a real stinker at times, I still can't believe how blessed we really are.  All it takes is an open-mouth kiss from her to make me forget the hard parts :)

Reflections

So, yes, I am now in my next decade of life.  On one hand I don't really feel any different, but on the other it makes me feel so old to know that I'm no longer in my twenties.  I did have a good birthday, though.  Jeff cooked breakfast (blueberry pancakes, smoky links and cinnamon rolls) and then the three of us went shopping.  Grace didn't do too well with the shopping but I'm not sure why.  I few weeks ago we took her to a track meet and she spent over three hours in her stroller without a problem but she didn't even last an hour while we were shopping.  After we came home and all took a nap we went out to dinner at Mac's and then enjoyed a Blizzard ice cream cake for dessert.

What a difference a year makes - my birthday 2010

My birthday 2011

Was I really this skinny?!

I've been in a reflective mood the last week or so, so I thought I would post a blog that looked back at the last ten years of my life.  They have definitely been interesting - some of the best moments and some of the worst moments of my life have happened over the past decade.

In 2001, Jeff proposed to me eight days before my 20th birthday, so I started my twenties as a newly-engaged woman.  It's funny - at the time I didn't think anything of being too young to be engaged but I think I would flip out if Grace got engaged when she was 19!!  I guess if it was to a man like Jeff it wouldn't be too bad :)  That summer I had my internship at CSC Plastics in Grass Lake, MI (which has since gone bankrupt).  I think I learned the most I've ever learned at the job - mainly what NOT to do when running a business!  I was originally hired to create an inventory system for them, but things got so bad that I ended up driving thousand pound molds to mold shops in the company Blazer because no trucking companies would come to pick them up since they weren't being paid.  The manufacturing manager would freak me out before I left and tell me stories of people who drove those molds and then would get in accidents and the molds would slide forward and crush them.  I didn't really enjoy driving those molds from Grass Lake to Detroit!!  A bunch of the machine operators walked out because we didn't have enough money to pay them one week so I also ended up running molds and hand-trimming the excess plastic off them as they came out of the machines.  I still laugh when I think of everything that happened at that place.  It was probably one of the best places I could have had an internship though!

Graduation day!

2002 was a big year - at the end of April I graduated with a BBA in Operations Management from Grand Valley State University, a week later I turned 21, two weeks after that I started my first "real" job in the Business Planning dept at Michigan Automotive Compressor and then a month after that Jeff and I were married.  I still don't know how I did all of that at the same time.  The first few months after we were married I really struggled with all the new things that happened in my life.  It didn't help that I totally hated my job and the boss I had at the time was very difficult.  I think I came home crying almost every day for two months - Jeff probably wondered what he had gotten himself into!

2003 started off better on the job-front.  I was able to switch departments and started working in Planning Control, which was more of what I went to school for.  I met a really good friend in that department and we are still close today - she taught me a lot about standing up for yourself and not letting people walk all over you.  We also welcomed our first "child" in 2003 - our yellow lab, Toby (see previous post for his story).  I have to say, now that I've had both a dog and a child, dogs are actually pretty good practice for being a parent, especially if you get them as puppies!  Jeff and I also celebrated our one year anniversary by taking a trip to Hawaii.  It was the first time Jeff had been and we spent time on both Oahu and Maui.  It was a great trip. 

2004 must have been a pretty quiet year - the only thing note-worthy I can remember is that I started a new job in November at Visteon Corp. in Saline as a scheduler in the materials, planning and logistics department.   This is also where Jeff works (he helped get me the job).  It was a significant pay raise for me and it was great that Jeff and I could carpool.



At Sturgeon River Gorge in 2005



In February of 2005 Jeff and I took another trip to Hawaii - I had never been there in the winter, and we had enough miles for a free ticket, so we decided to go for it.  We were able to go whale watching and saw a lot of whales - it was an amazing thing to see!  We also ran the Clark Lake Triathlon that summer for the first time.

Barley Cove - Ireland

In 2006 we celebrated our four year anniversary by traveling to Ireland.  I had always wanted to go there so we went through a tour guide company that planned out various sights for you and booked your hotels, but you drove yourself and as long as you were where you needed to stay each night you had control over what you saw and did.  It was a great experience, but it was a LOT of driving.  Jeff learned how to drive a stick shift on the wrong side of the road (and wrong side of the car!) and we were professionals at round-a-bouts by the time we left!

Meeting Mark Martin at MIS - 2006



Last day in our old house



2007...there's so much to say about this year.  We started the year by selling our house in Grass Lake at the end of January and moving in with my mom while we figured out whether we would build or buy our next house.  I was so sad to move - even though the house was SO small, it was where Jeff and I had begun our relationship.  I met him at his house before we went on our first date, he told me he loved me for the first time in the living room of that house, and it was where we started our married life together.  It was also hard because we weren't moving into our next house; we were kind of in limbo so there wasn't anything exciting to overcome the sadness. 

Tahiti

That summer we celebrated our five year anniversary by going on a cruise in Tahiti.  That was definitely an amazing trip!  The only bad part was that the seas were so rough that we were pretty sick the first three days.  The boat was rocking so hard that the water in the swimming pool would fly out on either side as the boat swayed.  I think we were the only people who actually lost weight on a cruise :)  It was on this trip that I decided I was ready to start a family. 

We had the triathlon coming up a few weeks after the cruise so I wanted to wait until we were done with that (as mentioned in my first post, I had told Jeff that if I finished the triathlon under 2 hours we could start a family, and I finished in 1 hour, 57 mins!).  Sometimes I feel like that trip was the last truly happy time for me, at least until I was finally able to become a mom. 

In August, we purchased our current home (but not in its current state!) and started working on remodeling the entire house.

Starting demolition - Aug 2007

My first post has more details, but we found out we were pregnant in September, but ten days later I had emergency surgery because the pregnancy was ectopic.  When I look at pictures from 2007, I think you can see a difference in my smile from before September and after, especially as the years went on and we lost more babies.

My sister's wedding

2008 was not much better of a year.  At the end of January I miscarried our second baby at 8 1/2 weeks and decided I needed a break from trying to get pregnant.  We were incredibly busy working on our house (we were still living with my mom) and we had a lot of legal issues with our contractor.  We also started training for the 25K race in the Keweenaw.  I still don't know how we did everything we did that spring!

We finally moved into our house on July 6th and left the next day to run the race in the UP.  In August my sister got married and that's also when we decided to start trying to have a baby again.  I found out I was pregnant on Election Day in November, but miscarried 4 days later. 

2009 started almost the exact same way as 2008 did.  In January I ended up having surgery again for another ectopic pregnancy and they also removed my left fallopian tube due to damage from removing the baby.  I don't really remember much else about that spring, except that in April we found out my sister was pregnant.  I did find out in May that I had gotten the job as the cross country coach at Manchester schools, and spent a lot of time that summer getting ready for it. 

In September we found out we were pregnant again and I just remember I felt like I was holding my breath for 12 weeks hoping and praying that nothing would go wrong.  We made it through 12 weeks and were finally able to tell everyone that we were going to have a baby. 

In December (on Jeff's birthday!) my sister welcomed her beautiful little girl, Eliana Suzanne.

2010 started the best (and hardest!) year of my life so far, with the highlight being the birth of our beautiful daughter, Grace Luella, on May 13th.  Everything else after that is pretty much a blur of nursing, pooping, screaming (by Grace), and sleep exhaustion :)

So far 2011 has been another great year of watching my beautiful daughter grow and change before my eyes.  If I have to be 30, at least I can do it while experiencing the most amazing thing I can think of - being a mom!

Eleven Months

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!

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. 

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!

A Dog's Life

Last Tuesday (3/22) marked 8 years since we welcomed our first baby into our family - our yellow lab, Toby.  It's amazing how much has changed in those 8 years.  When we first got him, Jeff and I hadn't even been married a year and we still lived in our old house in Grass Lake.  I thought I would celebrate Toby by sharing his story on the blog since he really has been a major part of our family.
We bought Toby from a pet shop that used to operate in Jackson Crossings Mall.  I first saw him on a Friday night - Jeff and I were going to a Tim McGraw concert that night and I had to stop at the Secretary of State office in the mall.  I remember I was in a big hurry because I had to make sure I got from Jackson to Ann Arbor to meet Jeff in time so we weren't late for the concert.  I couldn't remember which end the Secretary of State's office was, so I guessed, and when I walked in the mall I realized that I had guessed wrong and would have to walk all the way to the other end of the mall.  I was SO mad! 

Whenever we went to the mall I would always make Jeff go by the pet store so we could see if they had any cute puppies.  Since I was in such a hurry I hadn't planned on walking by that night, but because I had to go through the whole mall I ended up walking right past it and saw they had the most adorable little yellow lab puppies right in the window.  I wanted to stop really bad, but I knew that I didn't have time.  I noticed that there were 3 of them in there and I tried to see if they were boys or girls but couldn't tell. 
When I met up with Jeff, the first words out of my mouth were, "We have to go to the mall as soon as they open tomorrow morning - there are the CUTEST puppies there!"  I wanted to make sure we got there right away so that they wouldn't all be bought before we had a chance to see them.  We had been thinking about getting a dog for awhile and I was positive that I wanted a girl dog, so I was really worried that if any of them were girls they would already be sold.  I couldn't stop thinking about the puppies that night!
We got to the mall right at 10 am and went straight to the pet store.  The puppies were still there!  There was a yellow male, a yellow female, and a black male.  One of the yellow ones was cuter than the other, but I was disappointed to see that he was the male.  We had the worker get out the female puppy and she was pretty cute but didn't do anything while we were holding her.  I wasn't really sure at this point, so on a whim I decided to ask if we could hold the yellow male (the black male was barking his head off the whole time we were in there, so I knew I didn't want to hold him!!).  As soon as they brought the puppy out and set him on the floor, he rolled right over and showed us his belly and I was in love!  I knew we had to have this puppy and there was no way I was leaving without him, even if he wasn't a female!  He had even won Jeff over - Jeff wasn't as crazy about getting a dog as I was.
The first night home was pretty interesting.  We borrowed my mom's dog cage and put him in it in the foyer of our house and tried to go to bed.  As soon as we left the room, he started barking.  I guess we did the dog version of cry-it-out, but after 2 hours of barking we gave in and somehow squeezed the cage into our tiny bedroom and let him sleep in our room with us.  As soon as we brought the cage into our room he stopped barking and went right to sleep.  The next day we went to church and while we were gone he shredded all the newspaper in the cage and pooped all over so he got his first bath that day!  When we took him to the vet a few days after we got him they told us that he most likely had separation anxiety - when we would leave for work we could hear him barking in the house as we got into the car, and when we got home from work the first thing we heard when we got out of the car was barking.  He also licked spots raw on his paws while we were gone.  Thankfully after a month or so he got over it and learned to like going in his cage when we left since it meant he got a treat!!

It took us a few days to decide on a name.  At first we tried to do a name that was Tim McGraw-related since we had gone to the concert the night before we got him, but nothing seemed to fit.  I don't remember exactly how Toby came about, but I think it was just a name that came to me and it seemed to fit. 
They estimated that Toby was about 12 weeks old when we got him so we made up his birthday and decided on 1-11-03.  He was probably one of the best puppies that we could have gotten, especially since he didn't come from a breeder that had worked with him before we got him.  The biggest issue we had was potty training him.  It seemed like it took forever before he wouldn't pee in the house.  A lot of times we would let him out, he would pee, and then as soon as he came back in he would pee again, and it was always on the carpet.  I think it took 4 months or so before this finally stopped happening.  Other than that, the only other times he did something bad was if we tried to leave him out of his cage while we went out.  He never chewed up furniture or destroyed anything of major value. 
Toby has always loved on going walks and when he was a puppy he would always pick something up in his mouth and carry it while he was walking, usually a pine cone or stick.  It was so cute!!  We truly could not have picked a better dog for our family and I never knew how loving a dog could be until Toby came into our lives.  When I had my surgeries/miscarriages he would lay by my side in bed and never let me out of his sight.  We always joke that he should have been a chihuahua since he tries to climb in your lap and lay there.  He is the gentlest soul and just wants to love and be loved. 

It was pretty hard on him when Grace came into the picture - he was so used to being our baby and getting all the attention.  A month after she was born we went on a walk and he started acting really weird and we had to coax him to walk back home.  As soon as we got to our house he laid down in the lawn and wouldn't get back up.  We half-dragged him into the house thinking maybe he was too hot and as soon as we stepped inside he threw up and it was all blood.  I thought for sure he was going to die (it was a lot of blood) and we rushed him to the vet ER and they did all kinds of tests on him and kept him overnight.  After all the tests the weren't able to find anything and we still don't know what happened.  He may have had an ulcer, but I have always wondered if it was his food.  We had started a new bag of dog food a few weeks before and he had seemed to have issues after that.  With all the stuff in the news lately about poisoned dog food it has really made me wonder.  Thankfully it hasn't happened again and he seems to be his usually goofy self. 
So that's Toby's story - he really is our baby bear and when I am with him I can totally see why dog is God spelled backwards.  I can't imagine not having Toby in our family and I always pray that he can live a long life.  I can't wait to see him and Grace playing together!  We love you Toby!!

Teething and Ten Months



This pretty much says it all....



I can't believe it's been a month since I last wrote in the blog.  I guess time flies when you're having fun (or you have no time to do anything else when you have a mobile, teething baby!).  Grace turned 10 months old yesterday.  In just two short months we'll be having her first birthday - I realized the other day that I need to get on the ball and start planning it.

These days Grace is all about moving and pulling herself up to stand.  Last night she pulled herself up on both couches, both chairs, the coffee table, the ottoman, the entertainment center, the piano, and the "sofa table" that we have in our living room.  The only thing she didn't pull herself up on was the fireplace, and that was only because we didn't let her!  She's getting really good at balancing herself and can hang on to most things with one hand.  She's also pretty good at getting herself down by sticking out her butt and letting go so she lands on it.  We've only had one semi-serious accident - she had pulled herself up to the coffee table but her legs weren't close enough so when she let go she fell forward and smacked her head on the shelf underneath.  She had a nice big bump and a bruise on her forehead, but thankfully it wasn't too serious.  She didn't go near the coffee table the rest of the day!  She can also clap, wave bye-bye, and has even started dancing when she hears music.  It's a pretty funny-looking dance - it cracks me up whenever I see her do it!

I don't remember if I mentioned in the last blog that we started going to a swimming class last month.  It's not designed to teach her how to swim, it's more about becoming comfortable with the water.  Grace totally loves it.  Part of the time in the class we put the kids up on the side of the pool and they jump into our arms.  Grace is the youngest one in the class by at least 4-6 months so she can't stand up at the edge but I set her right on the lip of the pool and she launches herself into my arms giggling the whole time.  Sometimes she's so excited to launch herself that I can hardly let go of her before she's trying to jump in!  She also handles going under the water really well, but I feel bad that I can't really warn her about it before we do it.  The only thing I don't like about the class is that chlorine seems to be a baby stimulant (at least for Grace) and it's pretty much impossible to get her to take a nap after we get back.  The class is from 10:50-11:20 so it makes for a long, sleepless day!

Speaking of sleeping, Grace doesn't like to anymore.  A few weeks ago she was sleeping about 12 hours at night and then taking at least one nap of 2 hours (sometimes 2 naps) every day.  Now she is sleeping between 10-11 hours at night (which is still good, I know) but only about 1 hour during the day, if at all.  I'm really hoping that this is just a phase and she will go back to taking more/longer naps during the day.  She's also been having a really hard time going to sleep at night too.  Usually she'll fall right to sleep after I nurse her but then wake up within a half-hour to hour screaming her head off.  If we go in and hold her, she stops crying right away, but as soon as we put her back in her crib she starts screaming again.  Last night it took between 30 and 45 minutes of screaming before she went to sleep.  The worst part is that her cry is SO heartbreaking.  It's that wailing/screaming that is desperate and makes you want to just hold her so she'll stop (although sometimes it makes me want to get in my car and drive away!).  I read somewhere that babies go through a fussy period around this time because of all the things they are learning, so hopefully it doesn't last too long.  I also think that part of the problem is her teeth - she's getting four in on top right now and I'm sure it's got to hurt.

I have to admit, I have been struggling these last few weeks to deal with all the changes.  Sometimes I get so tired of not having any time to myself, especially when she doesn't take naps.  For me this is a hard phase because she's not immobile anymore so I can just set her in her swing or bouncy seat to play while I get things done around the house, but she's not really interactive yet to actually "play" with her, so the time sometimes seems to drag on while I follow her around the living room as she pulls herself up on things.  I've tried putting her in the pack&play but she only lasts about 15 minutes before she gets sick of being contained.  I feel so guilty when I get frustrated and wish that I was still at work - it makes me feel like a terrible person when I prayed so long and went through so much to have her.  It's hard going through the day when you feel like a big jerk and a sub-par mom.  Some days it feels like no matter how hard I try, I fail at something.  I start coaching track today, so I'm hoping that a little time apart will help me put things back in perspective.  Please pray for me to remember that this too shall pass and that I am strong enough to get through these emotions.

I was able to take the Wilton Flowers & Cake Design class this month - it was great!  I learned a lot of cool things and I think I have Grace's birthday cake all planned out.  Now I just am praying that it will turn out!  Ironically, the thing I am worst at is icing the cake.  I can make flowers all day long, but trying to get the icing smooth without crumbs is almost impossible for me.  I think I will be practicing on some styrofoam blocks between now and Grace's birthday.  If anyone needs a cake for a special occasion, let me know - I wouldn't mind making some extra money and getting in some extra practice!!

Our Funny Little Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone, and happy 9 month birthday to my little peanut!!  She's gotta be the best Valentine ever!  She has changed so much in the last 2-3 weeks that I feel like I'm writing about a different baby.  I'm not even sure I can call her a baby anymore :(  At least she's still little like a baby - we went in for her 9 month checkup yesterday and she weighs 18 lbs exactly and was 27 1/4" long - both in the 30th percentile.  Her head's still the biggest part - up to the 52nd percentile!

Here comes trouble!!

On Feb 6th we noticed her first tooth starting to pop through - the bottom right one.  It's been SLOWLY making it's way up, but is still now just barely clearing the top of her gum.  On Monday I noticed she's getting one on top, but it's not the very first front teeth - it's the next one over on the left, and when we went to the doctor yesterday, she noticed that the same one on the opposite side is coming in too.  I'm a little concerned that her very front teeth aren't coming in, but I'm hoping they make they're appearance soon.  She might start to look a little funny!!  The doctor didn't seem concerned, so I guess I will try not to be either.  It's funny how there were no teeth for so long and now there are three all coming in at the same time.
I think having her cousin Eliana around has been very good for Grace and is part of the reason she has changed so much in the last few weeks.  My sister stayed with us for almost a week and it was so great to watch the girls play together.  It was so funny to watch them fight over the same toys!  My sister went back to NC last week but we are looking forward to when they come back up for Grace's first birthday.  Poor Eliana was really missing her daddy!

I heard her crying and found her like this -
she couldn't figure how to get off the rungs!

Grace isn't crawling on her hands and knees yet, but is a professional army-crawler.  She can really move!  I'm almost wondering if she won't go straight from army-crawl to walking and not do the "normal" crawl.  She loves going up and down the step from the living room to the rest of the house and can now pull herself up to stand at the coffee table.  I guess our days of being able to put anything on the coffee table are coming to an end! 

We signed up for a swim class and Monday was the first one.  It's for 6 month to 2 1/2 year olds and it's not designed to teach them to swim but to get them comfortable in the water.  Grace had a blast!  She's the youngest one in the class but probably had the most fun.  The teacher had us dunk them under the water and I was a little nervous at first but toward the end I did it twice and Grace handled it fine.  The hardest part of the class is trying to get us both washed off and changed back into regular clothes - I think I'm going to have to work on my technique/logistics before the next class!

I also found out that I will be the assistant track coach for the high school boy and girl teams at Manchester, so I am excited for that to start up in March.  It will be great to work with the kids that are also on my cross country team and hopefully I can get to know other kids that might be interested in running cross country in the fall. 

Standing up!

I've been trying to get back into shape, but it's been a lot harder than I thought it would be.  Jeff and I are planning on doing the Dexter-Ann Arbor half marathon at the end of May so I've started running again.  Right now (since it's been SO cold) I've only been running on the treadmill at the rec center, and I'm doing more of a run/walk.  I've gotten up to being able to run for 5 minutes at a time, but it's a LONG way from where I need to be in just three months!  It's frustrating to think of how I used to be able to run a 5K in 21 minutes but now I can barely run for 5 minutes without stopping.  I'm trying not to get discouraged and take it one day at a time but it's hard!  It's also hard to find the time to do it.  I have to go when Jeff gets off work so that he can watch Grace and by the time I get done it's close to dinner and it eats into the few hours of the day that I get to spend with Jeff.  I'm also nervous about how much exercise I can do without it affecting my ability to nurse Grace.  I really want to nurse her until she's one, but not sure if too much running will affect it.  I really hope not!

My dad is still staying with us and recovering from his surgery.  He is doing remarkably well and seems to get a little better every day.  His first follow-up appt with the surgeon is next week, so hopefully he'll be cleared to do more. 

Well, I guess that's about it for now.  I still can't believe how fast my daughter is growing and changing before my eyes!

Update

Can I please have that camera?

Mommy's little helper

Well, I figured I would try to squeeze in one more post before the end of the month.  Let's just say I am glad this month is about over.  My dad had his open-heart surgery on the 25th and is still recovering in the hospital.  Thankfully, everything seems to be looking good and now he just has the long road to recovery in front of him.  He was in surgery for about 5 1/2 hours - even though they told us it would take 4-6 hours I wasn't really expecting it to take that long since my mom's only took a little under 3.  They had told us it would take 4-6 hrs with my mom and I will never forget that feeling of terror when they called us back so soon to talk to the surgeon.  I figured it had to be bad news if they were already done.  So when my dad's took so long I started really worrying that something had gone wrong.  Right now he may be coming home as early as Mon or Tues of next week.  It will be interesting taking care of both a parent and a child at the same time :)

Grace is so close to crawling on her hands and knees.  Right now she gets up on her knees and rocks back and forth - it looks pretty funny.  We call her our "Humpty Dumpty" :)  It's really funny when we put her in her crib to sleep and we can watch her doing it on the monitor.  Cracks us up every time!!  The other day Jeff was sitting on the floor of the living room trying to read the paper and, of course, Grace wanted the paper SO BAD!  He put it up one step on the hardwood and she actually almost crawled completely up the step to try to get it.  She couldn't quite figure out how to get her knees above the step.  We have learned that if we want her to do something new, all we have to do is let her think she can get something forbidden!

Going for it....

What?  I'm not doing anything!!

 My sister is still here from NC so I have been watching Eliana sometimes while she goes to the hospital to see my dad.  Watching the girls play together is so much fun!  Eliana has a little snuggle toy that she is really attached to, and Grace tried to play with it one day, and Eliana whipped it out of her hand and gave her THE LOOK.  It was hilarious!  It's so funny how even though they are still so young they already want the toy that the other one is playing with.  I wonder when the true fighting will actually start?