Changing Every Day

Good thing February has an extra day this year so I can get an entry in before the end of the month :)  I have got to get better about writing here more often - I know there's a ton of things that Grace has done since I last posted but I know I'm forgetting at least half of them!!
It amazes me how much Grace's vocabulary grows, almost on a daily basis.  Some words are really easy to understand, and other words we're still trying to figure out what they actually are!  My favorite is "naka" (naked).  Jeff usually is the one who gives her a bath and recently she has started to run out of the bathroom naked after she's done and comes to find me.  I started saying "Here comes my naked girl" and a few weeks ago when she would run down the hallway she would say "naka, naka!"  It took us a couple of days to realize that she was saying naked.  It's so cute!  She also recognizes when other people don't have clothes on - on her YoBaby yogurt there was a picture of a baby with just a diaper on it and she pointed to it and said "naka" and just tonight when Jeff took off his shirt to change she pointed to him and said "naka".  That kid just cracks me up!!

The dog cage was very fascinating - I like
how Grace looks like she's really in jail!

First time in the sled!

Another good Grace story (that I actually remembered!) happened at church a while ago - we have been working on getting Grace to fold her hands while praying and of course that doesn't go over well, so Jeff had picked her up to get her to at least be quiet during the prayers.  He still had his head bowed and his eyes closed while he was holding her so she tried to open his eyelids so he would pay attention to her!  It was all I could do to not bust out laughing myself!!

I took her to the library's reading hour and they had a special
Valentine's tea party - she actually had fun, even though this doesn't
look like it!  Right after I took this pic she did a complete somersault
off the back of the chair - I felt so bad!

One of her favorite things to do - make a
mess with books!

Grace has been watching some Sprout, which usually equals about 5 minutes at a time since that's how long her attention span is :)  Her absolute favorite is Chica, who does the birthdays every day.  All day she will say "Chica" and then say "happy, happy" to imitate the happy birthday song they sing.  I'm not sure why Chica holds all the appeal, but I sure am sick of having the happy birthday song and the theme song to Calliou in my head all day!!  That's one of the things no one ever told you before you became a parent :)
Grace's other all-time favorite thing to do is "help".  It doesn't matter what it is, she wants to help.  She's actually become quite a good helper - she helps me load the washer and dryer, she will throw things in the trash if you ask her, and today I had spilled some water on the floor and she helped me clean it up.  Now I can only hope that this lasts all through the teenage years!!  We baked Valentines cookies together and tonight she helped me bake some strawberry-banana bread.  This was one of the things I dreamed about getting to do with my kids and I always prayed that I would have a little girl that I could do these things with.  As frustrating as parenting a toddler can be, it's things like baking together that make it totally worth it. 
Grace has started to understand that there's a baby in my tummy, but I'm sure she doesn't comprehend what that really means for her life!  She has recently started to kiss my tummy and go up to it and say "Hi!" and give it hugs.  It's so cute, I just wish I could prepare her a little more for what life is going to be like after the baby is born.  I'm hoping it won't be too painful of a transition for her. 

This is what her hair looked like one morning
after she woke up.  I'm not sure if this signifies
a good night or a bad night's sleep!

As far as the pregnancy goes, everything is going smooth so far, thank God, although this baby is already quite the trouble-maker!  At around 12 weeks I had an ultrasound done to screen for certain birth defects and the tech needed to get a profile shot of the baby.  When she first started the exam, the baby was looking straight up so she did some of the other measurements and then waited for the baby to turn.  After going to the bathroom, lying on my side and moving around for 20 minutes the baby finally turned its head for about 3 seconds for her to get the shot!  I think I was in the room for almost 45 minutes.  Last Monday we had our big 20 week ultrasound and the tech wasn't able to get the heart shots she needed because this little stinker refused to move - it was laying with its back and butt facing out and everything else was facing in towards my inside.  We tried the same thing - I ate a granola bar, went to the bathroom, went for a walk, but the baby had decided it was naptime and wasn't going to move!  The good thing is that I get to go in next Monday to hopefully get the heart views she needed - I think I'm going to bring some caffeine with me this time :)  We also decided not to find out what we are having - Grace was a surprise and we wanted this one to be too, although for some reason it's a lot harder for me to not find out this time around.  I was secretly hoping that it would be blatantly obvious when we went in, but I didn't see anything that looked like one or the other :)  At least I'm over half-way there, only 19 weeks to go!!  I started feeling the baby move about 3 weeks ago and it's so nice because it gives me the reassurance that everything is going okay.  I'm really starting to think it's a boy just because of how much more movement there already has been compared to Grace.  But if you believe the old wives' tale about the heartbeat rate then it's a girl because both this baby and Grace had heartbeats in the 160's.  I guess we'll see!

16 weeks

20 weeks

The other big milestone that happened is that Jeff and I spent the night away from Grace for the first time.  We went to Savannah, GA for 3 days and 2 nights.  Our 10 year anniversary is coming up at the end of June, but since I will be pretty much 9 months pregnant then we knew we wouldn't be going then, or after this baby is born!  I also didn't want the first time I was away from Grace to be when I went to the hospital to have the baby so we figured this would be a good thing for all of us.  I was super-nervous before we left and didn't know how I would survive that long without her, but I did a lot better than I thought I would.  It was definitely nice for Jeff and I to have some alone time together and for me to be someone other than Grace's mom.  Jeff laughed at me when I told him that I felt like an adult while we were down there, but it's amazing how different it is to reconnect with yourself as a non-mom.  It was so nice to eat a meal and only worry about feeding myself!!  We had a great time - the weather was in the 80's when we got there but some storms moved through and the next 2 days were only in the low 60's/high 50's.  I was a little disappointed because I had been hoping for warmer weather but we still had fun.  Savannah is absolutely beautiful and is a great city to walk around and explore even if you've never been there before.  We ate at Paula Deen's restaurant and drove to Tybee Island and saw the ocean.  I highly recommend going to Savannah for a getaway weekend!  My dad stayed at our house and watched Grace - as far as I can tell she didn't really miss us, which was a good and bad thing for me!!

The fountain in Forsyth Park, where part of
Forrest Gump was filmed.

And last but not least, here are pictures of some sweaters I made for Christmas - I made one for Eliana, Grace and Caden, the son of Grace's godparents.  It was the first time I had crocheted anything other than blankets, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be!

Modeling the hat - she won't wear one
outside, but she wore this one around
the house for almost an hour!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Birthdays

It's been a busy month around here.  Grace celebrated her second Christmas and was definitely more into it than last year.  She wasn't as excited about opening presents as I thought she would be - every time she would rip a piece of paper off she had to go throw it away right away before she would try to take any more paper off (guess she got some of that anal-retentiveness from me :) )  but there were definitely certain presents that got her excited.  Her current favorites are the Dirt Devil cleaning supplies (broom, dustpan, duster) and the doctor kit for her baby dolls.  She likes to take the lotion bottle from the doctor kit and put "lotion" on everyone's hands and cheeks!  She has also started getting diapers from her room and trying to put them on her dolls, although her technique needs a little work - she usually lays the diaper on the floor, sets the baby on top of it and calls it good! 

Ringing the bell ornament

Going night-night on the pillow!

Grace was able to see her cousin Eliana (who celebrated her 2nd birthday on the 24th with uncle Jeff) and they had a lot of fun playing together.  It was probably the first time they've been together that they actually interacted really well with each other and played with toys together.  At one point they were both in the kitchen while all the adults were in the living room and we could hear them giggling together and it was so cute!  Of course that meant we had to go in there right away to see what they were getting into!!

BFF's!

With the Weidmayer cousins - Sarah, Megan and Michael

 Right before Christmas we think Grace came down with norovirus, or something similar, which was not fun.  She had taken a nap and when I went in to get her there was poop all over the crib mattress and her clothes, and her - it was disgusting.  I put her right in the bathtub (thankfully Jeff got home from work about 5 minutes after I discovered it) and put all her bedding in the wash and scrubbed down the crib - it was not fun for a nauseous pregnant woman!!  About an hour or so later Grace was playing in the living room and I was making dinner in the kitchen and I went to peek at her and as I was walking to the living room this really strong sulphur-like smell hit me and I made Jeff come up from working in the basement to help me figure out what it was (I was worried that a toilet was leaking gas or something) and he jokingly asked, "Are you sure it's not your daughter?" and well, it was!!!  This diaper had just started leaking and it's a good thing we caught it when we did because it was pure liquid.  SO GROSS!!  We didn't have anymore diaper issues after that, thank goodness, but it probably took her a good week or so to start wanting to eat much food again.  The unfortunate part was that she ended up giving it to me, so I spent the week after Christmas feeling like crap and laying on the couch hoping it wouldn't affect the pregnancy.  I'm so glad that Jeff had that week off because I don't know how I would have taken care of Grace by myself. 

Modeling daddy's coat

Other than that Grace has been doing pretty good.  She's getting her upper "canine" teeth, which always seems to give her a runny nose and has made her crabbier than usual.  The "no" phase has seemed to lessen a bit which has made my life much better and she is learning more words almost everyday.  I was trying to teach her to say microwave and I was breaking it down into micro and wave and when I said wave, she started actually waving :)  It's funny how literal everything is to a toddler and as an adult you don't really realize it. 

Check out the mohawk!

As for me and baby #2, we're officially in the second trimester now, which is supposed to be the best one, so I'm hoping to start getting more energy and motivation soon.  The nausea has gone away but I'm still exhausted all the time, but that is mainly due to having to get up 4-5 times every night to pee.  I don't remember it being this bad with Grace, especially this early.  It's so annoying because it seems like by the time I fall asleep, I'm getting up to go again over and over.  I really hope this gets better soon otherwise I'm going to be pretty useless for the next 6 months or so. 

I did have a little "scare" a few weeks ago - I had gone in for the sequential screen ultrasound (where they look at the baby to see if they see any signs of certain birth defects) and while the tech was doing the ultrasound she asked if I had a fibroid because she thought something she saw looked like one.  As far as I know I don't have any (or ever have) but once she said that I was freaking out about it, and she also said I have a "retrograded uterus" (which means it's tilted back some instead of straight up and down) and when I looked it up on the Internet multiple sites talked about how this can cause potential miscarriages, so it was not a good day for me!!  I called my OB the next day and talked to the nurse, but she said they didn't have the results yet and would call me back when they did.  She finally called me yesterday (a WEEK LATER) and told me everything looked good, but I was so ticked that I have been having to stress about this for an entire week.  I really miss the old nurse that my OB had - if I ever had any concerns she would call me back within a day and was super-understanding about why I was so nervous about everything.  I think I am going to have to mention this to my doctor when I see her next week - I went to her because she specialized in people with fertility issues, and if her nurse can't be more understanding of how people feel who have had fertility issues maybe she needs to go to a different practice.  It sucks because I absolutely love my doctor, but you have to go through the nurse to ask the doctor questions or get info. 

On 1/11 Toby celebrated his 9th birthday.  He enjoyed his annual birthday dinner of spaghetti noodles.  If you notice in the second picture, he ate them so fast that I couldn't even get the picture taken before they were gone!!  Grace thought it was hilarious that we sang to him and he got to eat "noo-noo" (noodles).  It's so hard to believe that Toby is already 9 - I can't even imagine my life without him in it.  So far he is aging really well and doesn't have any major issues and I keep praying that it continues this way and we get to have him around for a lot longer.  He is so special to our family and I love to see him and Grace together, and I want this next baby to get to know him too.

Begging for the treat!

And it's already gone!

So, that's about it around here.  Sorry this post is so late - my motivation levels just aren't where I'd like them to be these days!!

Big News!

For those of you who have not seen it on Facebook yet - I am pregnant!  I am due 7/12/12 and I will be 11 weeks pregnant this Thursday.  This is a little earlier than we told people with Grace, but we wanted to be able to do it before the holidays and I wouldn't be at 12 weeks until after Christmas.  The pregnancy came as a bit of a surprise - I had started taking Clomid again back in June, and we tried in June, July and September with no luck.  We didn't try in August because then the baby would have been due the day before Grace's birthday and I would prefer my kids to have their own special day.  I stopped taking the Clomid after September because I didn't want the baby to be born too close to the start of cross country season and figured that we would start trying again in February or March so the baby would be born after the season was over.  Well, I guess God had different plans because I found out I was pregnant on 11/8 - with no fertility help at all!  I was pretty nervous at first because the doctor had told me (when we were trying to get pregnant with Grace) that Clomid can both help you get pregnant but can also help you stay pregnant because it usually releases a stronger egg (or something to that effect) so I was scared that I might not have a good pregnancy without the help of the Clomid.  I called the doctor right away and they had me draw blood twice within a week to check my hCg values and the increased like they were supposed to but I knew I wouldn't feel good until I had an ultrasound and saw the baby's heartbeat.  When I was pregnant with Grace the doctor had me come in at 6 weeks and I was able to see that the pregnancy wasn't ectopic and then I came in again a week later and saw the heartbeat so I was really hoping that she would do the same thing this time, just for my peace of mind.  Unfortunately, she has a different nurse than when we were there for Grace, and this nurse was not nearly as understanding and kind of blew me off about needing to come in as soon as possible which was so frustrating.  Sometimes I feel like a lot of people in the medical community only see infertility and miscarriages as something clinical and don't pay attention to how emotional it is for the people who are actually going through it.  I finally got in to have an ultrasound at almost 8 weeks (which is about the time they do them for people without any history of problems!) and we were able to see the heartbeat which took a huge weight off my shoulders.  I'm still kind of holding my breath until the 12 weeks are past, and won't be totally comfortable until at least 30 weeks or so, but at least one big hurdle has been overcome.  I have another ultrasound tomorrow so please pray that everything continues to look good on this ultrasound. 

I have definitely not been feeling the same as I did when I was pregnant with Grace - a LOT more nausea and extremely tired all the time.  Thankfully I haven't thrown up at all but most of the time the thought of food makes me want to vomit.  The good side of that is I have not gained any weight yet, which is amazing because of all the holiday food everywhere and this is usually not a good time of year for my weight!!  But it's really hard to be motivated to make any cookies or anything when you always feel like puking.  I love to bake and this is usually my favorite time of year but I have really struggled this year.  It's definitely the hardest time of the year to be unmotivated!!  I am taking progesterone, which is a natural sedative and is part of what makes women nauseous when they're pregnant, so I'm hoping once I stop taking it after 12 weeks I will start to feel better.  If how you feel when you're pregnant is any indication of the gender, this kid is definitely a boy!

Giving Toby a hug

On to Grace...it has been so cute to watch her discover Christmas and all the decorations.  She loves the Christmas tree and will just stare at it for a few minutes after the light are turned on.  She points to all the ornaments (thankfully she's really good about not messing with them) and loves the ones that have bells in them.  I still have a little Winnie the Pooh snow globe that I had as a kid and she loves to shake it and see the snow flying around (although she thinks Winnie is a dog and says "woof woof" whenever she looks at him!).  One of my favorite parts of the holidays is seeing it through her eyes.

I had to move her toys from one side of the living room to the other in order to put up the Christmas tree and it was so funny how all of a sudden she was extremely interested in toys that she has pretty much ignored for a few months just because they were in a different location.  I'll have to remember this at other times of the year!  Her current favorite toys are her Fischer-Price nativity set (see pic above), her beads (which she loves to dump out and put back in the bucket and repeat!) and of course, her kitchen.  She knows who Mary is (and even says Mary but I think it's more "Mewee or Memee") and according to her, baby Jesus cries ALOT because everytime she plays with him she "cries" - it's hilarious! 

Relaxing with a book

She still loves to read (all the time!) and is getting really good at making the connection between what she sees in a picture and everyday things around our house.  For example, in one of her books Santa is sitting in front of a fireplace and when she sees it she will say "hot" and then point to the fireplace in our living room and say "hot".  It's amazing to watch her develop these new skills every day and to see how quickly she learns new things.  She is a huge imitator and the other day she was looking through the Target ad and was licking her finger before turning the pages, probably because she had seen either me or Jeff do it.  It cracked me up to see this little tiny person imitating adult behaviors.  Of course, this means we have to be even more careful about the things we do and say around her!!

Mommy's little helper

A few weeks ago I wore a sweater that had flowers on it and when I went to get her up she saw them, stuck her face in them and sniffed - I couldn't stop laughing, especially because I had tried all summer to get her to sniff real flowers with no luck.  I guess she prefers the fake ones!  I also learned how things can get lost in translation to a 19 month old - we were looking through a book with a picture of an angel and Grace pointed to the halo and said "hat" and I said "halo" and she immediately held her hand up to her ear like it was a phone and said "hello"! 

Coloring with markers for the first time

I think that about catches everything up.  I did finally finish Grace's stocking - I started it at the end of February and finished it about a week ago.  It is counted cross stitch, and everything that is not a beige color is a stitch - it took FOREVER.  But, it is pretty awesome!  I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas!!

Happy Thanksgiving 2011

It's so hard to believe that Thanksgiving is already over and Christmas is less than a month away, and then it will be 2012.  Where did the year go?  I've been looking back at pictures and it's so weird to think that a year ago Grace wasn't crawling or talking or anything - it's hard to imagine her immobile :)



November has been a busy month but that is nothing new around here.  The first weekend was the state cross country meet at Michigan International Speedway - I had one girl and one guy qualify as individuals.  They both ran their best times that day, and my girl athlete placed 20th in the state for Division 3 runners - it was awesome!
The next weekend we headed up to Big Rapids to go to the annual MITCA cross country clinic for coaches.  We were there Thursday and Friday night and Grace did not do well at all in the room.  Both nights she didn't go to sleep until after midnight - it was so frustrating.  At one point I was ready to put her out in the hall!  When we went to NC over the summer she had done really well, but we had paid extra to get rooms that were a little bit bigger and had a sitting area that we put her pack & play in so she was a little separate from us, and that must be the trick because the room we had in Big Rapids was just your standard room. 

On the 18th Manchester held their annual "Christmas in the Village" and there was a parade and then Santa was available for the kids so Grace got to sit on Santa's lap for the first time.  She wasn't scared or anything but there was a long line behind us so I couldn't take a lot of time to get a really good picture. 

We went to Frankenmuth last Sunday night and stayed at Zehnder's watersplash park and Grace loved it!  When we first went to the park she was a little overwhelmed by the noise and the kids and just wanted to be held, but after about an hour she warmed up and probably would have stayed all night.  She went down some of the smaller slides and it was so cute to see her big smile!  We had an awesome chicken dinner on Sunday night at the Zehnder's restaurant.  Grace actually did pretty good in the hotel room (thank goodness!) but I think it was partly because she was so worn out from all the swimming!

We had a triple-Thanksgiving this year - on Thursday we drove to Toledo to have dinner with the Holleran side of the family, on Friday we had dinner with my mom and on Saturday we hosted the Weidmayer Thanksgiving at our house with about 25 people.  I kind of hope I don't eat turkey again for another year :)  Grace was a total ham at all the parties - she provided most of the entertainment!
In the last week or so she has really started picking up a lot of words - she says book, buh-buh (bye bye), neh-neh (nose - not sure why she doesn't just say nose!), momma (really well, and points to me when she says it), grandma, grandpa, coat and sometimes will point to herself and say something that sounds like Gracie.  She is also getting really good at pointing to things in books and either making the sound (if it's an animal) or saying what it is. 
She loves to go around blowing on candles, whether they're real or in a picture and she loves to "blow" her nose with a kleenex.  Her favorite toys are her dishes and spoons and she loves to feed all of us and her dolls.  She has gotten pretty good at feeding herself her oatmeal and yogurt with a spoon with minimal mess.  She also loves to make you laugh and has this hilarious fake laugh that she does when people around her are laughing. 

She has also started recently saying and using "no" in the correct way - I was really hoping this was a word she wouldn't learn for a LONG time!  I can already tell how fun it's going to be if she starts to go through a "no" phase.  Right now she's pretty good at only saying it when she really means it or if she points to something that we've already told her she's not supposed to touch.  I really hope she doesn't start using it for everything. 

She loves spending time outside and picking up rocks from the driveway and carrying them around the yard.  She also goes up to all the dead flowers and sniffs them!  I'm hoping the nicer weather holds out for as long as possible so we can spend time outdoors.

This Thanksgiving has really made me reflect on how thankful I am for everything in my life.  Sometimes I look at Grace and I can't believe she's really my daughter and that I am lucky enough to be her mom.  She brings so much joy to our family and to most of the people she comes in contact with-it's amazing to watch her change and learn and turn into this amazing little person.  I only hope that I can be the best mom I can be for her and that I never let her down.  She definitely has helped me become a better person!

Halloween and Seventeen Months

Here we are again at the end of the month finally posting a blog :)  Happy Halloween, everyone!  The cutest little ladybug lives at our house, although we didn't make it safely to Halloween without an incident.  On Saturday Grace was carrying a toy and tripped over another one on the floor and fell face-first onto the lip of her bucket, scraping both her eyes and leaving some road-rash on the side of her face.  I'm just glad that she didn't end up with a black eye (it was pretty puffed up Sunday morning) and that the bucket didn't crack and cut her. 

Grace has started doing so many new things in the last month.  It's so fun to play with her and interact with her - she's already showing a great imagination and she LOVES reading books together.  She'll crawl in your lap and read book after book after book.  One of the books she likes teaches sign language so she now signs for milk and dog.  It just amazes me how quickly she can pick up on things and how much she learns when we don't even realize we're teaching her things (it definitely makes me more careful of the things I say and do around her!).  The other day she was playing with her toy kitchen and she pulled the lid off one of the pots and shook the salt shaker over the pot just like she was really cooking!  She also loves to walk around with the little bowls and spoons and "feed" everyone and her dolls.  She even does an eating sound effect!  I've also started to let her feed herself her oatmeal in the morning and she's getting pretty good at it but gets sick of it after awhile and hands me the spoon back :) 

Grace's first Red Wings game

She's also started saying more words - "uppie" for both up and down, "all done" (which she also says in church when everyone says amen!), "puh-puh" for pumpkin, "uh-oh" and she also fake-cries whenever you say baby - it's pretty hilarious. 

Let's see, what else...she has started dancing - she's really good at the twist :)  She also comes in and waves to the toilet whenever you flush it (my days of going to the bathroom with the door shut are long gone unless I want to listen to her throw a fit) and she also waves bye-bye to the water in the tub as it's draining.  She "counts" her fingers by touching each one and saying "dah" as she touches them - this was another one of those surprise things that she just started randomly doing one day.  She is also getting really good at stacking blocks and has stacked at least eight of them at one time.  It's just hard to hold her attention for that long!

I have one more week of cross country practice and then I will finally have my afternoons back!  Next Saturday is the state meet at MIS and I had one guy and one girl qualify for the state meet as individuals.  The regional meet was this past Saturday at Lake Erie Metropark pretty much where the Detroit River and Lake Erie meet and it was a total mud-fest.  The kids' backs were covered in mud from their shoulders to their feet by the time they finished the race.  It was a pretty disappointing day - we had expected the girls' team to qualify as a team and they came in 4th by three points (the top 3 teams go to state) and the boys' team had a small chance of going and they ended up coming in 8th.  I'm not really sure what went wrong - the course was slow because of the mud but that affected everyone equally.  It really makes me question what I've had the kids do the last few weeks that all these other teams did really well and we didn't.  It's so frustrating - if nothing else, I figure I will be an expert on teenagers by the time Grace is one!

Modeling daddy's alma mater

Modeling mommy's alma mater -
look how much happier she is :)

Jeff and I have been going through roof leak hell the last three weeks.  Back in May we had gotten almost 7 inches of rain in less than 2 days and a few days after this happened we noticed a water stain appear on the ceiling in our dining room.  Jeff went up to the attic and couldn't really see or find anything, so we just attributed it to the crazy amount of rain we had gotten and didn't think anything of it.  We primed and re-painted the area and kind of forgot about it.  Well, over the summer everytime we would have a heavy rain the spot would appear again and get bigger and bigger and actually started growing black mold.  Jeff would always go up in the attic afterward but could never find anything.  We finally had 2 roofers come out in September and they told us there wasn't anything wrong with the roof, but our chimney had a lot of cracks that could let water in, so we had someone come out and rebuild the chimney where it comes out at the roof.  I was a little doubtful this was the real cause because the spot in the ceiling was over 5 feet away from the ceiling but figured the roofing guys would have told us if we needed a new roof.  After we had the chimney fixed we lined up a drywall guy to come out and replace the drywall.  He came out three weeks ago and was here for three days putting up the new drywall and mudding.  He was scheduled to come out two weeks ago to do the knock-down spray (NOT popcorn!) on the ceiling but we noticed a new spot on the drywall over the weekend that looked like water.  When he showed up that day I pointed it out to him and he thought it was water and cut a hole in the brand-new drywall and a ton of water came gushing out.  I was ready to cry at that point because we still had the stupid leak and the drywall work that had been done was all ruined. Jeff went back up in the attic and finally found a spot where the water was coming through between the original roof and where we had added on 3 years ago.  So now we have a roofer who is hopefully going to come out this week and fix that area of the roof and then we can have the drywall guy back out to re-do what he already did.  I just know this all better get done before Thanksgiving because we are having 30 people over and I can't have my house looking like this!!

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!!