September

I figured I'd better try to sneak in a post before the month was over - I guess you can tell when cross country starts to get busy by the lack of posts!
The month started with a visit from my sister and her family.  Grace and Ellie shared some cousin time and were able to play in the baby pool together for a few minutes before the mosquitoes tried to eat us alive.  I was hoping we would get to see my sister a little more while she was here, but there's a chance they may be moving back here as early as November.  Now that both girls are walking really well I'm sure they'll be able to get into a lot more trouble together!

One of my friends from high school held a Labor Day/2nd birthday party and I was able to catch up with some friends and Grace was able to flirt with some little boys :)  It's seems like only yesterday that we were all sitting around the table in the cafeteria together and now here we are with kids!  I can't believe how old I am starting to feel.  Yesterday I found out that the flower girl from our wedding is getting ready to go to her first homecoming dance.  YIKES!

This feather doesn't taste too good!

The weekend after Labor Day we went camping at Holland State Park.  Grace had gotten a cold a few days before we left and did not sleep well at all the whole trip.  We didn't get there on Friday night until 10 pm so that didn't help matters, but she didn't end up falling asleep that night until after midnight.  We took our bikes and the bike trailer and rode to the beach everyday and then after dinner we would ride down the road a few miles and get ice cream.   We had perfect weather the entire time, and of course Grace had a blast at the beach.  On Saturday morning I was watching the people around us and realized that the people about 100 feet down from us looked very familiar - it was Jeff's cousin Jill and her family!  They live about a 1/2 hour away from us and we hadn't seen them since Easter and we ran into them 3 hours from home!  It's funny how small the world is.  We were also able to meet up with my roommate from college who I haven't seen since sometime between 2004 and 2006 (neither of us could remember!).  She now has three kids so it was great to have the kids meet each other and catch up a little bit. 

Last Sunday we went to the Toledo Zoo - we had gone a year ago when Grace was only 4 months old and it's amazing the difference a year can make.  She seemed to be interested in the animals but was mainly interested in the playgrounds and threw a fit when we passed one as we were leaving and she couldn't play on it. 

Toledo Zoo 2011

Toledo Zoo 2010

Wearing mommy's shoes!

It's so funny to watch her personality develop - in general she's a very happy and easygoing kid, but when she decides to get mad, look out!  She is still a little goofball and loves making people laugh.  She has a pink bucket that she got for Easter and loves to walk around putting things into it, but the other day she decided to put it on her head and try to walk around that way.  It was pretty funny!  She started throwing a ball and can even kick it as she walks.  We have a bedtime book that we read pretty often and most of the pages have a moon on them and she can now point out the moon on every page.  Some days I am just so amazed at how many things she knows and what a special little girl she is.  I think this age is definitely my favorite so far - she still little and cuddly but is more interactive and really becoming her own person.  She has started to love on Toby a lot and will randomly go up to him and hug and kiss him.  He tolerates her a little more now, especially since she sometimes carries around food :)

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!

Finally Updated

When I created this blog, I really thought that I would post more than once a month - I guess I didn't realize how busy it would get!  I need to start posting more often - it's getting hard for me to remember what has happened since the last time I posted. 

On Father's Day we went to Jeff's aunt and uncles's house - they have everyone over every year to swim in their pool and celebrate together.  This was the first year that Grace was old enough to swim in the pool, and she had a blast.  I think she would have stayed in there all day if we had let her.  The weather cooperated and was warm enough to swim, but not unbearably hot like it has been in years past.



Loving it when Daddy throws her in the air!

The next weekend Jeff and I enjoyed a date night out together to the Tiger's game.  On Friday and Saturday nights they shoot off fireworks from the field after the game, so it was really cool.  We were in a suite so we enjoyed good food and my favorite - the dessert cart :)

The last weekend in June we celebrated my nephew's 2nd birthday and he and Grace had so much fun playing together with his bubble machine.  It was the first time Grace had seen bubbles and she loved them.  It is so cute to see the world through her eyes. 

On June 29th we celebrated our nine year anniversary by buying a camper!  Well, we didn't plan on that being our anniversary present but it happened to work out that we picked it up that day so we decided that it counted :)  It wasn't the most romantic anniversary but it was still good.  We went to Noodles and Co. for dinner and then Cold Stone for dessert and then went to pick up the camper.  I'm not sure if it counted as a date since Grace went with us - maybe she was our chaperone? :)

On July 1st we headed down to North Carolina to visit my sister.  The first night we stayed in Lewisburg, WV, which was a really cute little town with some good restaurants and shops.  We got to my sister's house in Jacksonville on Saturday evening (a lot later than we had planned - the route we took was not the fastest way to get there!) and Grace and Eliana were so excited to see each other!  Every time they get to be together gets better and better.  On Sunday we headed to the beach - after a three hour drive to try and find a beach that wasn't insanely busy we finally got there, only to spend about an hour there before storms started moving in.  Grace absolutely loved the beach - she acted like she had been going there her whole life.  I was nervous about if the saltwater would bother her but she didn't care at all.  She loved "riding the waves" and started crying when we left.  She even picked up a seashell and started digging with it like a professional.  She's never dug in sand or dirt before - it was so cute!

A baby, or a crab?

On Monday we were able to watch the fireworks at Camp LeJeune since my sister's husband is a Marine stationed there.  They had a concert before-hand with the Jane Dear girls and then the Marine band played before the fireworks started.  Grace was a little scared of the fireworks - I think more from the lights than the noise.  She spent most of the fireworks with her head on my chest sucking her finger.  I think it was my favorite fireworks yet!  Jeff and I have been blessed to see fireworks from so many different locations - since our anniversary is so close to the Fourth we usually are on vacation.  We've seen them from St. Ignace, MI, Copper Harbor, MI, Manchester, MI, Maui, Hawaii, and now from Camp Lejeune.

The girls in the outfits my sister made for them.

I'm not too sure about these fireworks....

We went to the beach again on Tuesday, and again we had to leave earlier than we wanted to because of storms.  On Wednesday we went to Wilmington, NC and walked around the town and did some shopping. 
We headed back for home on Thursday morning - it was really bittersweet because I'm not sure when we will see my sister again.  Her husband is being medically retired from the Marines because of injuries he suffered while serving in Afghanistan but no one knows when it will all be processed.  Hopefully he will be done before the end of the year and they will be moving back up here to MI.  It was so great to see the girls playing together and I know they miss each other. 

Beach Babes!

On Grace St. in Wilmington.  Ironically,
it came right after Princess St.

We drove to Knoxville, TN on Thursday and spent the night there.  We drove through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg area and I know that I want to go back there someday and stay longer.  It is a beautiful area with a TON of things to do.  We finally got home on Friday evening and I was SO glad to be out of the car.  I could have gone a week without driving again but my cousin got married in Toledo on Saturday night so it was deja vu driving down toward Ohio again :)
Grace did awesome on the trip.  I had been so worried that she wouldn't handle the car ride well and that trying to get her to sleep in the hotel rooms and at my sister's would be a total disaster since she is the world's lightest sleeper, but she did so good.  The first night at the hotel it took her a little while to go to sleep - she cried some but then passed out after about 10 minutes.  She slept really good at my sister's house and never woke up even when we were sneaking into the room when we went to bed.  She handled the car rides amazingly well and never really got super cranky or had a meltdown.  We did discover that traveling makes her very regular though - that was about the worst part.  We always knew when we had to stop because of the smell ;)

A bellhop this cute would get a lot of tips!

All in all it has been a great month, but very busy.  Grace came down with something on Sunday - she had a low-grade fever Sunday and Monday and then Monday night it spiked to 104.  I took her to the doctor on Tuesday and they suspected it was roseola, which has a high fever with no symptoms and then once the fever goes away after about 3 days a rash develops.  Grace started getting the rash yesterday so now we know.  The good thing is that her fever is gone and the rash doesn't itch or bother her in any way so she is on the road to recovery.  Poor little girl!

I should have known she was sick - I was
able to go in her room and take a picture without
her waking up!

Grace still isn't walking - I guess she doesn't see a need to when she can crawl so fast.  I am ready for her to start though - the wedding on Saturday was outside and she wanted to get down really bad but I didn't want her crawling around getting filthy so it was pretty frustrating. 
She loves to give kisses, blow kisses, wave hi and bye and has started mimicking us more and more.  The other day I screamed because a spider shot down from the ceiling unexpectedly and she looked at me and then screamed too.  It was pretty funny, but I hope she doesn't start screaming all the time now!  She has also suddenly developed a fear of animated toys.  I was cleaning our spare bedroom and there were some stuffed animals that dance in there that she had gotten for Christmas so I put them on the floor for her and she freaked out - sobbing and screaming and clinging to me for dear life.  Eliana has an Elmo that does the hokey-pokey and before I could tell my sister about Grace's fear she turned it on and Grace flipped out again.  By the end of the trip she was okay with it, but I haven't tried the other stuffed animals again.
Eating and drinking are still frustrating - I think I spend three hours a day getting Grace to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack.  It is so annoying!  On a good day she drinks about 15 ozs of fluid and she should be drinking closer to 24.  On a bad day (which is usually every other day) she might drink 10 ozs.  When I took her to the doctor she had only gained 6 ozs in two months, but they didn't say anything so I don't know if I should be worried or not.  I think I am going to have to start feeding her like they do baby cows and stick a syringe of milk in her mouth and squirt it in!

I've been struggling with the monotony of my days lately - I think because this was the first vacation where it really wasn't a vacation because I still had to take care of Grace.  In the past, vacations meant time off of work and a break, but that is not the case when you have kids!  I feel really guilty when I get tired of dealing with Grace since I prayed so long and went through so much to have her, but it can be so tiresome.  I've been trying to find that right balance between being with her and doing things for myself.  It seems like I go from one extreme to the other - I'm either so busy with other activities that I hardly spend time with her, or I have nothing else going on to get "me" time, so I really hope I can find the right balance soon.  Please pray for me (and all the other moms out there)!

Busy Times

It is a small miracle that I am even able to find time to sit and write this post.  Things have been so crazy here the last few weeks.  It's interesting that I became a SAHM so I could spend more time with Grace, and I think I'm busier than I ever was when I was working one job full-time (as opposed to about four part-time jobs, plus one busy toddler!). 

The first thing I should talk about is my dad.  As most of you know, back in January he had open heart surgery to replace a valve.  Since then, they have decided to put in a pacemaker/defibrillator to hopefully improve his heart's function.  The surgery was scheduled for Wednesday (June 8th) and I spent the day at the hospital while he had the surgery (it started at 10:30 am and wasn't done until close to 5:30 pm).  I was able to talk to the surgeon afterwards and it seemed like everything went well, but on Thursday morning when they tried to program the device they discovered that one of the leads had already migrated and they would have to re-position it.  So this morning he had another surgery but is now safely recovering and should be able to come home tomorrow.  I'm very thankful that everything seems to be okay, but it has been rough.  The other day my dad told me that they have only given him 12-15 years to live based on the condition he has.  That's really hard to hear, especially when my dad is only 59.  The hope is that either the technology will improve enough that they can do more between now and then, or that he would potentially be able to get a heart transplant.  It's just so hard to think that he may not get to see Grace graduate high school or get married.  I'm really hoping and praying that my dad is able to beat the odds on this.

On to happier things...Grace is still Grace!  The last few days I have learned that people are extremely helpful and generous when you have a really cute baby who loves to flirt and wave to everyone around her and basically force them to love her!  We were at Wendy's the other day and a woman voluntarily took my tray to the trash can for me because she saw me struggling with holding Grace and the tray.  Of course, Grace had previously been waving and smiling and charming her while we were eating :)  When I called the hospital this morning for an update on my dad the nurse was kind of snippy until she realized I was the one who had brought the "adorable baby" yesterday and then she was super-nice and helpful and wanted to make sure I was going to bring the baby with me today.  I swear, that kid already has the "it" factor!!

Grace had received some money for her birthday so we bought her a swing set, inflatable pool and water/sand table and she has loved playing in them.  It has finally started acting like summer here so she has gotten a chance to use them a lot the last few days.  On Sunday we took her to Pleasant Lake to go swimming and she enjoyed it more than Toby did.  I think Toby is the only labrador I know who doesn't like to swim.  He swam out with us but was crying and hacking and panting the whole time so we made him sit on the shore since he was so worked up. 

Grace still isn't walking, which surprises me.  The only thing that seems to be missing is the courage/confidence to do it.  She can stand by herself for 10-20 seconds at a time and walks really well holding onto our hands but still hasn't gotten brave enough to try it alone.  Oh well, I know how much things will change around here once she does start walking!  It would be nice to not have to worry about putting her down on the floor in public places though!

Grace now says a form of Toby, doggie, birdie, and a tractor sound.  We also think some of the "dada's" are really "what's that?" but we're not sure.  Dada is still her favorite word.  She has gotten a lot better at drinking milk from her straw sippy cup and is actually fully weaned now.  It's weird that after 21 months of housing or feeding her, my body belongs to me again :)  She can now fit the circle shape into her shape sorter, but also tries to put all the other shapes into the circle hole!  The other day we discovered that she LOVES lasagna and we couldn't put it on her tray fast enough for her to shove into her mouth.  She is finally getting another tooth - the next one over from the center bottom teeth. 

The other day she threw her first official temper-tantrum.  We had stopped at Dairy Queen and my dad asked if he could give her a bite of his ice cream so I let him, and once she had one bite, she wanted the whole thing.  So when he wouldn't give her any more she pitched a HUGE fit in her carseat the whole rest of the way home.  She was forcing herself to cry and her face turned bright red and she was kicking and waving her arms around like a madwoman.  To be fair, it was right around bedtime and she hadn't napped well that day, but YIKES.  It scared me for the future.  No one can ever accuse Grace of not knowing what she wants!  I really wish I had had a video camera with me so I could have taped it and showed her later (like when she has her own kids)!

I guess that's about it for now.  Tonight we will be going to visit my dad and hopefully tomorrow we will be bringing him home.  Below are some random pics that didn't really fit into the blog anywhere.

Grace and Daddy

At my cousin Aaron's wedding with my sister
and her family

The graduation cake I made for the
valedictorian of Tecumseh High School

I had to add this picture because I LOVE her smile!

This is what she looked like a year ago.
It's amazing how much can change in a year

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!