Wordless Wednesday

-Bethany

Nine Months with Grace

Three months til this little gal is ONE?!?  Say, what?
Nine-month stats:
Length: 27 inches
Weight: 18 lb
Teeth: 2

Grace had a big month in terms of milestones.  She took her time to get the hang of crawling, but Grace has quickly moved to standing up and cruising around furniture or with walkers.

NEW SKILLS:

*Crawling

*Pulling Up and Standing: Grace has no interest in playing with toys or doing much except pulling up on something and standing.

*Waving

LIKES:

*Eating: We are letting Grace eat solids at a faster pace than Palmer thanks to the methods behind baby-led weaning.  I am a huge fan of the philosophy, which allows babies to hand-feed their own food on their own terms.  Grace revolted against spoon-feeding and has been much happier on her own pace.  A typical meal for Grace? Grilled chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, green peppers, or carrots cut into spears, and steamed apple slices.

*Getting Into Everything: I know, I know.  It comes with the territory.  But whew, we gotta watch this girl.  She is helping herself to anything these days.

*Her Mama:  I would say Palmer is a daddy's boy, but Grace has been pretty clingy to me lately.  Her cuddling may have something to do with all of the fluid in her ears (she is on her 5th consecutive infection and gets tubes in her ears tomorrow), but I would like to think she just loves her mama a lot.

However, if you ask Grace, she might tell you otherwise:

Happy Nine Months, Grace.  You make everyone smile each day.

-Bethany

Wordless Wednesday

-Bethany

Peas and Shadows

Kids do the darndest things and my kids are no different.  I have two funny stories I want to make sure and remember.

PEAS: 
The other night, we were all sitting at dinner and Rick made an off-hand (and random) joke that he had already eaten all of his peas thru his nose.

Little ears hear and interpret EVERYTHING.

A few minutes pass and Palmer mentions, "I can't get that pea out of my nose!"

Wait??!!!??  What??!!??  Sure enough, Mr. Palmer had stuck a pea up his nose and couldn't get it out.  He kept trying to sniff it up to get it out.  Rick and I quickly stopped him from sniffing and were able to convince Palmer to blow the pea out into a tissue.

Wow.  Rick, please consider each and every word that comes out of your mouth.  Lesson learned.

SHADOWS:
Another Palmer story from the same night: Palmer was quietly crying up in his room at bedtime.

This is quite unusual for Palmer.  Palmer said he was scared of shadows made from his night light.

Rick and I kept explaining that the night light allows Palmer to see everything in his room so he shouldn't be scared.  The shadows are just from the night light, which makes his room not scary.

Finally after going back and forth, I said, "Palmer, do you want to see what the room is like without shadows?" I figured turning his night light OFF would convince him that he does indeed want the shadows created from the night light as opposed to darkness.

Nope.  I turned the night light off and Palmer immediately perked up in the dark.  "Yes!! Now there aren't any shadows and it's not scary.  Good night!"

Hmm.  So, our kid is scared with his night light ON.  Gotcha.

-Bethany

Upright

While Palmer was away in DC last week, he wanted to know if Grace had learned how to walk or talk yet...

Not quite, BUT we've got a little lady who is very fixated on standing right now.

Grace's nanny told me the other day, "She didn't want to play with any of her toys today.  She only wanted to stand."

Ha.  That about sums it up.

Grace only wants to practice standing- even when she is supposed to be napping.  It's always a tough dilemma when you get caught standing in your crib and don't know how to get back down:

The struggle is real in little Grace's life...

-Bethany

Wordless Wednesday

-Bethany

Just The Gals...

Grace and I are enjoying a mini-vacation right here at home.  Both of the boys are gone for five days- Rick is in Whistler, Canada skiing and Palmer is visiting Aunt Samantha with Gram and PawPaw in DC.

I'm not sure why I didn't realize it when Palmer was a baby, but wowow- having just one baby at home is such a nice little break.

Grace is such a doll and a joy to be around.  But, she's only semi-mobile and doesn't talk all.day.long.  She just smiles and makes noises or talks to me about "dada dada".

Today was a cold and rainy day and we had such a quiet time at home.

A little laundry...

And lots of play time...

We know that our favorite guys are having a blast.  Palmer didn't bat a single eye when I dropped him off at the airport yesterday.  "I get out here, mom.  Bye."

We've received many photos of Palmer's trip to the Smithsonian today:

And last I spoke to Rick, he was about to get in a hot tub.  So, I think he's just fine.

Meanwhile, Grace and I are going to enjoy our little slice of peace.  (And then, of course, welcome the guys back next week.)

-Bethany

Wordless Wednesday

-Bethany