Events at Sherlake

Today our playgroup went to Events at Sherlake. It was our first time trying this place so I was excited to see how Grace would do. Essentially this warehouse was made into a gigantic bounce house for kids. Grace usually isn't intimidated by anything of this nature, but she wasn't too sure when we walked in. It was loud due to all of the machines pumping air into each bouncy thing. I don't know if that scared her a bit, but it took her a while to get warmed up. She wasn't interested in the little kids area so we took a walk around to survey the goods. We ended up in an enclosed bounce house where Grace just sat and watched the other kids jump around. She got up a couple times, but quickly came back and sat on my lap.

And then Grace found the slide..........................

I'm not quite sure why this felt different to her, but she LOVED it!! She went right up the steps and sat on my lap for the first trip down. And as you can tell from the picture above, she quickly started mastering her olympic downhill belly slide!! I sat at the bottom taking pictures while Lauren and Amy helped all the kids up and down the slide, and I was busting a gut watching their faces as they came down!!!! They each had a look of absolute terror as they came down, but started laughing as soon as they landed......HILARIOUS!! We had a good time, and highly recommend this place. Two hours of play time usually = LONG nap time, right!?!?! haha

Thanks again to Lauren and Amy for helping Grace up the steps so I could get some shots!!

Take 3....

This week we decided to give potty training another shot. I'll be the first to admit that I am COMPLETELY dreading this!! However, with baby #2 due this summer I feel the need to just get it done! Grace is showing (and has been showing) us all the signs that she's ready. She talks about the potty, watches me go to the potty and even says "Good job, Mommy," wipes herself with toilet paper, loves to wear her "big girl panties," but we have yet to get a success on the actual potty (other than that one time last summer). Today I've put her on the potty and I tried reading her a book, singing songs, talked about trying to push a little toot out (during the time I knew a #2 was looming), etc. If she would just go once, I feel that she'd finally get it. Someone send some patience while we get started on this task!! Or even better if you could just send the "potty fairy" over to our house, I would love you FOREVER! I have gotten a few cute pictures I thought you all would enjoy. There's nothing like seeing that cute little toosh running around the house! I'll keep you all posted on how this is going. Hopefully, the third time is the charm!!

On another note, I wanted to share some other exciting news. Last night, I felt the baby's little kicks for the first time! Apparently, this little booger likes cherry pie as much as I do! :)

Grace's 2 year check-up

Yesterday, Grace had her 2 year check-up with Dr. McColl. Our visit started off well with Grace saying "HI" to the entire office staff as well as the 2 people in the waiting room. I swear this child never meets a stranger. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing!! :0 This kiddo is now 27lbs and measures 34.5 inches long! Dr. McColl always shows me her weight and height curve on his computer to see how she's coming along. She falls right into the 50 - 55% for both her weight and height......and then there's her big ol' noggin! As you know from a previous post, Dr. McColl and I have a bit of an inside joke with Grace's head size. After he showed me her weight/height curve, he said, "And now for your noggin!" I said she's probably off the charts isn't she. And his response was, "Well you may have to wear a helmet for a while, but I think you'll make it!" HAHAHAHAHAHA!! Some of you may not think that's too funny, but we both went into hysterics while Grace giggled with us! Don't worry punkin', I'm only laughing with you since I had the same problem! Dr. McColl said she is doing great developmentally and didn't even do his usual CHAT test he said he gives kids during this check-up! Proud mommy, YEP!! Grace did great until nurse Carol came back with the dreaded shots. She had to get 3 this visit, and it was her worst reaction so far. She just looked at me as if thinking why in the world are you letting her do this to me mommy!!!!! The good news is she only cried for a second and then calmed down once she got to pick out 3 stickers. SHEW!!!! Grace even said bye-bye and thank you to Carol!
So you might be wondering what's new with this little rascal. She is Miss Independent these days, and is learning to do more and more on her own. She now likes for me to wait at the landing of our stairs before she comes down. She is also trying to put her shoes on and get herself dressed/undressed from time to time.
Grace will eat any fruit I put in front of her, but her favorite food is still grilled cheese or macaroni and cheese. She will eat just about anything I put on her plate if she knows a "prize" (dessert) is quick to follow! Sometimes she'll get in her highchair and instantly say, "prize?" I know punkin', if I could eat my prize first I would too! A big thing for her right now is to have a "big piece" of something during meals. She doesn't want her apples cut into slices, she wants a "big piece." She doesn't want a piece of cheese torn into little pieces, she wants a "big piece!" I guess I'm fine with that if it makes her eat something and she doesn't choke. She gets quite the kick out of it.....big girl nowadays!! She has also taken up a new habit.....chip hoarding! Grace will get into the corner of the pantry (when she thinks I'm cooking dinner and not looking at her) and start eating whatever kind of chips she can find. I get the same mischievous grin every time I open up the door! You'll see a video at the end of this post showing exactly what she does. It's a little dark, but you'll get the idea. Let's keep our fingers crossed that we can nip this habit in the bud so you won't tune into a future episode of "Hoarders" and see Grace with a house FULL of chips!!
Potty training will be high on our priority list in the next couple of weeks. Dr. McColl gave me some more tips during our visit and hopefully they'll work with ease! :) SHouldn't be a problem, right?!?!?
Grace is talking up a storm, and now spits out full sentences pretty frequently. She babbles all day every day from the moment she wakes up until her eyes shut at night. If we don't acknowledge something Grace is saying, she will keep saying it louder and louder until she gets our attention. She is also our little parrot. She repeats EVERYTHING we say!! Hopefully she had on her earmuffs last night during the IU/Purdue game....right daddy!!!!
Grace is quite the little lover. If she hears a baby crying, she looks at me with a concerned look and says, "ohhhhhhhh!" When Pete gets in trouble, Grace usually walks over and pets him on the head. However, she still scolds him herself from time to time as well! She loves to be cuddled after her naps and most nights before bedtime, and can still go from a completely normal temperament to FULL OF SASS in the split of a second!!
That should about cover our update for now. I had a couple videos I wanted to share. Grace is getting pretty good at saying her ABC's. Of course, as soon as I start to video her, she freezes. This is her best attempt I can get on video. The other video is her chip hoarding.

We're SO excited for the Superbowl this weekend!!! GO COLTS!!!

Snow Days!!

Knoxville actually got some accumulation of snow over the weekend, and we were SO excited to go outside and play in it! The winter storm was supposed to hit our area Friday afternoon, and schools were already closing on Thursday night! It is so funny to us to see schools close with just the threat of a little snow! Ahhhh such is life in the mountains I guess. They were predicting we would get between 4-8 inches of snow and we ended up with only a couple inches and a good layer of ice in between. We woke up to no power on Saturday morning. It came back on around 9:30am only to have it go right back off after about 30 minutes. At least the house got warmed up a tad!

It rained for most of the day on Saturday so we didn't get to go outside and play in the snow until Sunday. That worked out good because Sunday was a sunny day and actually felt a little warm compared to the previous few days. Once outside, Grace was content to just stand around and eat the snow. We warned her about the yellow snow and even got to show her an example of what NOT to eat (see pic above)! She didn't move around a whole lot (that could be because she couldn't move due to the 5 layers of clothes she had on)! She just watched Pete, Matt, and me try to build a snowman and have a snowball fight. Her snowsuit is a size too big, and looks absolutely hysterical on her!

Once Grace had her fill of playing in the snow, we headed inside for her first taste of hot chocolate. She grabbed her cup and instantly looked at me saying, "Blow, hot!" "Blow, hot!" If something she is eating or drinking is barely warm, that is usually the first reaction we get. She drank most of it, and much to my surprise, wasn't up half of the afternoon on a sugar/chocolate high!!



We rarely get enough snow down here to go out and play in so when we do, we take full advantage of it! I'm secretly hoping for one more chance to play in the snow before spring. And it sounds like we just might get that chance this weekend! WHO HOO!!

Here is a little video of Grace cracking up at Pete! He was gagging on who knows what, and Grace just about busted a gut! Enjoy!!

Grace's 2nd Birthday Party!

Two weekends ago, we headed to IN to celebrate Grace's 2nd birthday! I know every mother says this, but I can't believe Grace is 2 already!! On her birthday, I spent the day reminiscing about her actual birth day. At 7am the pitocin started, at 8am the doc broke my water, by 10am the epidural couldn't arrive fast enough!! :) And before I knew it, the little, bald boy I was SO SURE I was having was born to the doctor saying........IT'S A GIRL!!!!!! WHAT!! I could not have been any more surprised! And she had a FULL head of jet-black hair to cap it off! Don't get me wrong, I didn't prefer a boy versus a girl. I was just 99.9% sure she was a boy! Oh someone up above was laughing at 4:27pm that day! Anyway, back to the birthday party.

I decided a Minnie Mouse theme was fitting this year given Grace's slight obsession with "Mick." I bought everything hot pink that I could find.........plates, napkins, forks, spoons, balloons, etc. And the decorations weren't complete without a GIGANTIC Minnie Mouse balloon! Somehow we didn't end up getting a picture of that. Maggie, once again, outdid herself with the cake. She had a Mickey cake pan so she free-handed Minnie's bow and eyelashes. Didn't it look great! A big THANK YOU to Aunt Maggie for doing that for Grace!!! She LOVED it as you can see from the pictures!!

Grace is spoiled rotten, and got every toy imaginable under the sun!! She had to take breaks from the present opening every now and then to eat some "prizes" (chocolate) that was attached to one present! Yep, she's definitely my child! Not only does she like to eat her "prizes," but she also like to savor the gift opening. That's my girl, Gracie!

We had a great weekend!! Thank you to everyone who came for the big party!! Thank you to Nana and Papa for letting us have the party at your house, and for picking up the slack where my pregnant brain failed me!!

Hope to see you all soon!!