Big Milestone!

This week Grace accomplished yet another milestone. She has been sleeping in her big girl bed for two nights now and I'm happy to report that she's done very well!! YAY!! We got her all tucked in on the first, big night and I left the room in tears (surprise I know!). I know every parent says this, but how in the world is Grace ALREADY big enough to be in her very own big girl bed when it feels like she was born yesterday!!??!?!?!? I started getting all sentimental (again, big surprise) and starting thinking back to the day she was born and watching her sleep in the bassinet next to my hospital bed. Then I remember watching her sleep in the cradle next to our bed (where she flashed her first, big smile). And then came the day (8 weeks old) when we put her in her crib for the very first time. She looked SO teeny, tiny in that big ol' crib and Matt had to tell me she would be ok at least 5 zillion times. Then came the first time we lowered her mattress and then the second. And here we are and Grace is already 28 months old and she is OUT of her crib and into a twin-size bed like a big ol' kid!

We wondered how long it would take before she would be out of her bed and playing with who knows what on the floor or trying to escape her room altogether. We didn't hear much in the monitor and we didn't know whether that was good or bad! Now would've been a GREAT time to have one of those video monitors! I checked on her after a while and she was all curled up under her covers sleeping like a baby! She didn't get out of her bed once! When she woke up in the morning, she just started talking like usual and I went into get her.......and she was still in her bed! The same routine happened during her nap the next day. I didn't hear much going on over the monitor and this is what I found when I went into check on her! How cute!!

This morning was a little different than the last. I usually wake up to Grace talking or "reading" whatever book she has in her bed. This morning I just heard her door slowly open and then she said, "Oh no! Mommy still sleeping!" HAHAHA! I started cracking up and she jumped into bed with me for a few minutes while we (meaning I) woke up. Grace took me into her room and showed me how she "escaped" without me even asking. She said, "See Mommy." Sort of like.....ummmm did you think these bed rails would keep me in this bed for long?!? I don't think so!!

I put her in bed for her nap this afternoon and it was about 10 minutes later that I heard a crash on the monitor. GREAT! I slowly opened her door and Grace was standing right there with a BUSTED look on her face!! I tried not to laugh and put her back in bed. 5 minutes later I heard another crash. And once again she was out of bed BUT trying to quickly get back in when she heard me coming. I have yet to figure out what the crash is that I'm hearing. It's not Grace because she can slip in and out of that bed with ease now! Hopefully, the threat of going back to the "baby bed" will keep her IN bed this time! Now would be a great time to set up our video camera in her room and just press record! You all might see a good video VERY soon!!

Splash Pad!

Grace and I headed to the Splash Pad this morning along with our neighbors Erica and Jackson. This was our second visit this year, and Grace seemed to enjoy it much more this time around. She was still a little intimidated at first, but quickly warmed up as long as she was armed with Jackson's red cup! At one point, she even started chasing some older boys with her cup full of water......but they had squirt guns so that didn't last long! :) I don't even think they knew Grace was following them, but she had fun anyway!

Grace has this facial expression that she has done for as long as I can remember. She does it when she's squeezing something or trying really hard to get whatever done she is focusing on. I used to call it her "strong girl face," but now she just does it randomly. She holds her mouth open and shakes her arms for a few seconds......and it's pretty darn hilarious! For those of you who know what I'm talking about, take a look at the second picture. I snapped the picture at the perfect moment!! HAHA!!

A Little Babies "R" Us Humor.....

I had to post a little something about my trip to Babies "R" Us over the weekend because I can't stop laughing about it. On Saturday morning, we had a garage sale over at a friend's house (thanks again Amy for letting us take over your house). I had a whole list of items I wanted to purchase with the "earnings" and I was silently cheering "Big Bucks, Big Bucks" starting Friday night. After the sale, I came home for a quick lunch and then headed out to do my shopping while Matt and Grace napped (yes I said Matt too! Poor thing is still working ohhhhhh around 175hrs a week).
One of the items at the top of my list to purchase was a water table for Grace. You see, I've been trying to accumulate several outside toys over the last couple of months since we won't be constantly on the go (like we are now) once the baby arrives. I was so excited when I spotted one at Babies "R" Us last week that was on sale AND I had a 20% off coupon for any one baby item!! That would make it $10 cheaper than the retail price! (It may only be $10, but when it's something I really want AND I can get a deal on it I get EXTREMELY excited!) I made Babies "R" Us one of my first stops, went right in, grabbed the water table, and headed for the cash registers. The cashier asks, "Do you have any coupons?" To which I replied a VERY excited, "YES!" She scanned the coupon and says, "Oh the water table isn't considered a "baby item." It's considered a toy in the computer system and I can't allow you to use the coupon." Say, what?!?!? Talk about a let down! I still ended up buying it since it was on sale for $5 off the normal retail price. AND Grace loves it so I'm glad I went ahead and bought it.
Let me rewind a bit to the original point of my post. Babies "R" Us is always an interesting place to go if you're a people watcher. I usually end up laughing the whole way to my car because I'm thinking.....been there, done that! You will always find newly pregnant women who still feel good and are so excited to be there registering for their little bundle of joy. You can hear them talking about items that are "must-haves" but what you really want to tell them is, trust me, you'll never use that dumb thing! You'll find women who are completely lost, looking through a friend's baby registry, and walking around the store VERY slowly. You'll find women who are VERY pregnant and picking up those last few items they need before their baby arrives all while trying to keep their pants pulled up, trying not to burp (or worse!) and taking long, deep breaths with every item they place in their cart. You'll see new dads who have been sent on a mission to get essentials such as diapers, wipes, and formula while his wife sits at home with the baby crying because she hasn't left the house in DAYS! You'll see the new moms with their teeny, tiny babies who can barely keep their eyes open and look completely exhausted all while calculating the number of minutes they have left in their 2-hour window before the next feeding. And then you'll see moms like me who are filled with anticipation because 1) I am by myself so I can take as long as I want. 2) I am so excited because the item I want is on sale AND I have a coupon (if I only knew!) 3) Can look around and see those women at different stages of life while laughing to myself because we've all been there. 4) Leaving the parking lot and realizing, CRAP that's about to happen all over again!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!! The next time you're at Babies "R" Us, take a minute to look around and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about!
On a completely other topic, Matt got Grace's "new" bed all painted over the weekend! He and Blake (bless his heart and thank you again!!) brought all the furniture upstairs and her room is finally starting to come together!! YAY! We still need to get her chair rail and accessories on the walls. Her new bedding is in the wash as I type and tonight (hopefully) will be her first night in her big girl bed! I'll take pictures and will update you all on how this transition goes.........fingers are crossed!!!

Sleeping Beauty

Apparently, Grace takes after me in more ways than one. She likes to go to bed after reading a good book......just like her mother! The other day I went in to check on Grace during her nap and found her conked out smack dab in the middle of reading Snow White. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, you just can't get that last chapter in before finally giving in!

Grace and I have been on the go non-stop lately. I wanted to pick a morning to go to the park, have a picnic, and just let her have fun without making a million stops and running 5 thousand errands! Here is a picture of Grace during our picnic. We even got to see a train go by while we were eating AND the conductor waved to all the kids. Pretty "coolol" (cool) as Grace would say!!

Happy

Friday

Everyone!!

WHOA Baby!!

I had my first two-week check-up today and wanted to give you all an update on the progress of our little kung foo fighter. The results from my glucose test came back fine and I don't even need to take an iron supplement with this pregnancy! YAY! My weight and blood pressure are still in check which was nice to hear. Don't get me wrong........I still wear the most light-weight, maternity clothing I have and take out every kleenex, hair pin, etc. that I have in my pocket before stepping on those scales! Anyway, back to my appointment today. During my initial sit-down discussion with my doctor, I told her that I was anxious to see what my belly was measuring because I felt that it had grown SIGNIFICANTLY over the last couple of weeks. I got up on the table and heard the heartbeat (ahhhh always a wonderful sound!) and then she measured my belly. Dr. B said, "Well you're already measuring at 31 weeks!" Say what?!?!? You see I won't even be 30 weeks pregnant until Wednesday! Oh and does this mean I'm going to have a huge, honker of a baby!?!? Hang on a second while I vomit over the side of the table. She asked how big Grace was because she couldn't remember........7lbs, 0.5oz! While this didn't seem to phase her, it has obviously struck a cord with me! She said we'll "keep an eye on it" and if I'm still measuring ahead of schedule at my next appointment, I'll have an ultrasound to get some measurements and see if I'm having a litter (just kidding about the second part)!

Some of you are thinking so you measured a week and a half ahead of schedule. What's the big deal? Ummmm what you don't understand is that my Papa John weighed in at a whopping 12lbs!!!! SWEET!! And quite frankly, getting a 7-pounder into this world was enough for me to handle! Am I overreacting.......maybe. OR MAYBE NOT!!! We'll see what happens on June 1st!!

Onto another subject....please help keep me distracted here people. We made some more progress after our second weekend in the nesting phase. A whole lot of stripping took place in our house over the weekend. I'm referring to Matt stripping the 8 thousand layers of paint off of Mom's old bed.....not the other kind of stripping. Keep your minds out of the gutter people! He was finally able to finish stripping the old paint but couldn't get the right set-up arranged to spray on the new paint. It was too humid and raining the entire weekend so he couldn't do it in the yard. That's ok though because it gave me a chance to get Grace's new room painted! YAY! I was initially going for a cute-sophisticated-little princess-like room with soft pinks or purples. I wanted it to be a kid's room, yet still adult-friendly. Well it has turned out to be anything but that! I chose a bedding that has Grace written all over it. You see she is a social, extremely talkative, very bubbly and animated child (no idea where she gets that)! The soft, pastel bedding choices just didn't do it. The LOUD bedding with BRIGHT colors kept calling to me. Her bedding has 3 different patterns in it all with BRIGHT colors! It sounds awful, but it's pretty darn cute. Then came time to choose the paint color for the walls. I took her pillowcase to Lowe's and went with the same green in her bedding. When I say green, I don't mean a sage, celery, or any other soft green. I'm talking about a "you've just been slimed on Nickelodeon" green!! I thought I was going to hate it initially, but it started growing on me after a couple coats. The white bedroom furniture will soften it and we also bought a white chair rail that we'll put 2/3 up the wall (I went with your suggestion, Mom). To say it's bright would be a bit of an understatement! Grace might need to wear one of those sleeping masks just to go to sleep I'm not sure. Although when she first walked in and saw the color she said, "Mommy the green stuff is blootiful!" Awwww ok, ok we'll keep it! The way I look at it is I can always repaint it if I decide it's TOO bright. But for now, we're going with it!

And finally, I didn't want to write something and NOT post a picture of Miss Thang! We had our first visit to the Splash Pad last week and Grace is modeling her new swim suit and shades! Her pose is hysterical and it almost looks like she's trying to suck in her gut! HAHAHA! The other picture is Grace wearing a random hat I found in our coat closet as I was getting it organized last week (I bought some more totes and was SO excited to get some more things organized!!!). She has fallen in love with it and it joined her other dress-up clothes in her new dress-up tote!! YAY for totes!!

And now is Espanol.....

People always say that kids are like sponges because they are constantly soaking up and taking in the world around them. I am a true believer in that theory......especially after last weekend. On Saturday while I was giving Grace her bath, she randomly started counting from 5-8 in Spanish. WHAT! I just stared at her and asked Matt if he heard the same thing. She looked at me with a great, big smile and dig it again! Interestingly enough I took French in high school so I knew it wasn't me teaching her this. Moving on to Sunday during dinner. Matt and I were talking about who knows what and Grace did it again. Only this time, she counted from 1-8 in Spanish! Matt and I looked at each other with our mouths wide open and just about busted a gut from laughing!! Well now Grace thought it was funny so she kept it up. We immediately tried to get it on video, but could only get her to say 1-7 on the video. All I can say is......Thank you, Dora!! We usually watch an episode of Dora after Grace wakes up from her nap and it's apparently paying off in some respects! HAHAHAHA!! Here is the short video we captured last weekend.........

Happy Mother's Day!!

I now have 3 Mother's Days under my belt, and this one just might have topped the charts!

We didn't go anywhere elaborate or go to any fancy restaurants, but that is EXACTLY what I wanted to do! We have officially decided to stay put in our house for now, and my "nesting to-do list" keeps getting longer and longer. Yep, it's the phase of my pregnancy that I'm sure Matt dreads from the moment we see two lines on the pregnancy test! :) I requested that we start on a few things so I can start marking things off the list. Poor Matt, bless his heart, has been working VERY LONG hours these days (yes even longer than normal) and he worked ALL weekend trying to get Grace's new bedroom furniture sanded, painted, and ready to go so we can move her into her big girl room. Oh wait did I mention that before he could start that, he had to move ALL of our guest bedroom furniture and some (or a truckload) of other things from the garage to storage?!? Yeah needless to say, he was ready to take a nap when Grace went down......but he didn't. By Sunday night, he had all the furniture sanded, painted, attached the new hardware, completely cleaned out the garage and various closets by loading up ALL OF OUR STUFF, grilled a nice supper, and still listened while I talked about what else I have on our to-do list! Now THAT makes this pregnant woman's Mother's Day any year!!

Don't worry, I didn't just sit on the sidelines and watch while all this was going on and Matt was breaking his back. I held up my end of my bargain......just without any major lifting! :)

Sunday morning, Grace came into the bathroom where I was getting ready for church and said, "Happy Mother's Day, Mommy!" That's all I needed for the rest of the day! She proudly showed me a card where she wrote her own name and continues to point to it every time she notices it! She also made me a little gift while she was in the nursery at church. It included a poem that I will keep tucked away and start crying every time I read it b/c......well I'm a sap just like my mom!
I treated Grace to some ice cream (or a yogurt pop....thanks Erica for the recipe!) after her nap while I gave her her first pedicure! She keeps looking at her toes and saying, "Mommy my toenails are blootiful!!"

I also wanted to wish my mom a Happy Mother's Day! Without your guidance, support, and influence, I would not be the mom that I am today. I now fully understand the reasoning behind many of your parenting decisions and reactions to anything involving your offspring. I'm referring to your uncanny ability to cry when we stepped up to the plate at a softball game, played in a volleyball tournament, or just looked at your with crossed eyes because I'm right there with you now!! Oh my! I knew I didn't stand a chance when I started crying as Disney on Ice started!! HAHAHA!!

Thank you to Matt for giving me the chance to become a mother and for working your tail off so I can be a stay-at-home mommy! It may be challenging at times, but it is by far the most rewarding job I could every think of. And I wouldn't trade it for the world!!

Happy Mother's Day to Great Nana, Grandma, Carrie, Maggie, Laura and any other mother who reads this blog!! Now let's start a petition to get this thing on the calendar twice a year!!!! :)

Happy

Mother's

Day!!

So Sweet!!

I got these shots a couple weekends ago while we were outside grilling and Grace was taking a break from playing with the neighbor kids. I thought they were too cute not to share!! Enjoy!

A fun-filled weekend with Grandma!!

We had a fun-filled weekend in Knoxville. Grandma made the long journey down to TN to stay with us for a long weekend. On Saturday morning, we headed to the Little Ponderosa Zoo. Mom and I took Grace last year and she seemed to enjoy it. However, this year we saw a whole new level of excitement! This place is a little petting zoo and you can feed most of the animals. Grace wasn't afraid of ANYTHING and walked up to each and every animal or cage to pet and feed them. She got to see monkeys, snakes, goats, horses, turtles, possessed sheep, antelope, llama (you all know how I feel about those crazy things!), camels, etc.!! One of her favorites were the deer. She was belly laughing at them as they ate out of her "feed cup." And one kept sneezing which made her laugh even harder! Grace even got to take a pony ride.....which we determined should've been the grand finale since she REALLY wanted to go "one more time!" Mental note to self for our next visit. We let her pick out a "prize" before leaving and a snake was the winner! Grace never goes for the cute, cuddly stuffed animals.....instead the snakes, dinosaurs, or elephants usually get her vote! And here's the best part.......she made it through our whole visit WITHOUT having any accidents!!! WHO HOO!! This was only her second full day of wearing her "big girl panties" and the zoo was our first big public outing to test the waters. I'm happy to report that Grace made it through 3 whole days without having any accidents....she also pooped on the potty 2 of those days!!! HALLELUIAH!!!! Thanks for the help with that, Grandma!! She did have a small accident today, BUT she also pooped on the potty so that totally counteracts the potty accident in my book!!
Sorry, I digressed a bit....back to last weekend. Grandma entertained Grace A LOT over the weekend while I got some much needed things done: ran errands, started reorganizing our closet so we can move Grace into her big girl room, went to church, met with our preacher, went for my OB check-up, etc. It's amazing what I can get done when someone is here to entertain my little rascal.
On Sunday, we took Grandma out for an early Mother's Day dinner. We went to Mimi's Cafe and for those of you who have been, you know how good their breads are. Well Grace seems to agree since she ate almost the entire bread basket during dinner! WAHAHA! Next time we go, I'll see if they have a bread sampler on the kids menu because that would suit her just fine. She was so good the whole time, and had NO accidents again!!
We were sad to see Grandma go on Monday. But we got some good pictures for you all to enjoy! Thank you again for visiting us, Grandma! We had a great time! Here are some pictures from her visit and a short video of Grace feeding the deer.