Catching up to 2005

So I'm trying to remember what happened over all these months and nothing big comes to mind...lots of eating, dancing, singing, running,climbing... We did take a music class in January and Grace wasn't that into the class but she loved the music. Everyone else politely sat on their moms laps and sat, sang and played instruments. Grace doesn't like to sit on her mom's lap...she likes to run. I almost think she doesn't like loud noises because it seemed to bother her during the instrument songs. She was curious about the instruments but not really into playing. We took a Valentine's trip to Maui in Feb. with Nanny Glee. It was beautiful and relaxing and Grace did great on the flight. She was excited about airplanes and liked the pool but she wouldn't let me hold her and swim. She liked to stand on the steps and walk down a few at a time. Her favorite part of the trip was visiting a friend's flower farm and seeing the cows. The beach was another story. She fell apart the instant we stepped foot on the beach crying until we left. Luckily the pool was close to the ocean so I could at least watch the whales go by from a distance.

The biggest change for us was our basement remodel which we have slowly been finishing. Now Grace has a big playroom and we built her a little playhouse. Dad built a little fireplace and I'm painting a little window scene. Grandma and Granddad visited in April for Grace's second birthday. I baked her a caterpillar cake with 2 candles for antennae. She loved the party and "cake cake."
Here's some cute words she says now: Klie Klie=blankie; way cie=gracie; shu shu=shoes, fly fly=butterfly, daddy home=the studio. At bedtime now she jumps up and down and screams "baby wok." Which means she wants me to rock her and hold her like a baby and sing a little song I made up called "Husha my Gracie." I let her fill in the blanks about what we did and saw that day. Lately we just go outside a lot and stalk the neighbor cats and bat at leaves. Today she is practicing her jumping like a frog.

Oops I forgot to write for 7 months

So I realize that I missed writing down so much as my baby rapidly turned toddler on us. So a brief synopsis of August to May is as follows: 1) We took a family trip to Cape Hatteras NC in September. Grace's first trip to Grandparents beachhouse and a sunny warm beach. She loved the trip but hated the beach and sand specifically. My Dad got her a little tent that she sat in and she would stick her little arm out and scoop of sand but none could touch her. Lots of crying and a general scowl. After a few trips we got her to walk around and she got a little interested in the birds on the beach. She just seems to freak out if sand touches her. But overall it was a blast. A powerwheels jeep washed up at my parents house in the last hurricane and my Dad put a tractor battery in it. So we had a lot of fun holding down the accelerator and steering for her. Dave had a blast fishing and sailing with my Dad and was thrilled when they almost died in a freak mimi-tsunami event in the boat. 2)Aunt Sharon and Eileen visited us as well and we went hiking and Eileen taught me to knit. 3) November we went to Texas for a family visit to see Mema, Nanny, Poppy, Eileen and Sharon. Grace saw her big cousins: Hunter, Montana, Noah and Savannah and only broke one crystal vase. 4) December Grace and I took a trip to NC and saw Great-Granny and my folks. We had a funny adventure coming back when we had a mechanical on our plane and got stuck overnight in Detroit. This was all fine and dandy except for my back having gone out earlier that week and having no diapers. Luckily I was resourceful enough to check into the Westin in the terminal and only had to make 4 trips down to the baggage claim area with Grace. The final straw was when Grace disappeared behind the Christmas tree in the NWA baggage office and took a big dump. We finally got the bag and the night ended with Grace and I eating $20 chicken strips in the middle of our king size bed and watching Sex and the City. Luckily we got back home the next afternoon and we were able to celebrate our Christmas at home. 5) Christmas was happily spent at home with Aunt April and Dave and we had Fiona, Alex and Gemma over for Christmas Eve. Santa brought Grace a train set and lots of cars and books.