Ew, Gross!

Yesterday, after Grace's bath, which was a pretty traumatic experience, I put some gel in Grace's hair, as always (helps cut the frizz). I styled it all crazy, hoping to make her laugh. When I put her in front of the mirror...she took one look at herself and said, "Ew, Grwoss" and started crying all over again!

Poo-Poo in the Tub

For the past two weeks, Grace has hated her bath time. She starts crying as soon as I tell her it is time for her bath. She cries the entire time the tub is running. She begs for the towel before she even gets wet. She will find something to stand on in the tub, so she doesn't have to touch the bottom of the tub. She cries and says over and over, "Poo-Poo."

There is no poop in the tub! I don't even know where that came from. She hasn't pooped in the tub in ages. I clean the tub before hand, take out every single toy, no bubbles...and she finds something that she thinks is poop. She will try to climb out on her own, screaming at the top of her lungs and sobbing.

When she got out of the tub last night, I turned her around and said where is the poo-poo. She pointed at some sand from her sand box and said, "right there." I told her that was just sand. I swished it away. Then she looks in the tub and said, "Where go poo-poo?" I laughed and said there was no poop. Did she want back in? "Nooooooo, poooo-poooo!" was her answer!

Tea Time

One of Grace's presents for her birthday was a tea set from her Great-Granny. I didn't really think that Grace would like it yet; I thought it was too old for her, I guess. Boy, was I wrong. She LOVED the tea set. She still loves it. We play with it almost daily. She enjoys pouring us tea with sugar and cream. She likes to drink milk out of her tea cup...and likes to use the spoon to sip the milk out of.

If even one piece of the set is missing, she starts yelling, "Uh-Oh, Uh-Oh!" and looking frantically for it. For some reason, she likes to put it on the ironing board that she got. I try to move it to a table, but she puts it back on the ironing board every time.

I always think of her Poppy while we play with the tea set. When we were younger, Daddy would "drink" tea with Shanna and I on a regular basis. One of the things he couldn't wait to do was play tea with our girls. I am so sad that he wasn't able to do it, but every time we drink tea, we pour a cup for Poppy and talk about him.

2 Year Old Appointment

Grace went to her 2 year old appointment on July 11th. She is very healthy. The doctor was impressed with her vocabulary and listening skills. She is right on target or a little a head of target on all her mental skills. Of course, she likes to ignore me, so she was in time out at the doctor's office. She kept trying to hit me (thought she was being funny!).

Physically, she is great. She is in the 50% for height (33.5 inches), 20% for weight (24 lbs). Her BMI is 15 (10th percentile).





She had to get 2 shots. Her last Hep. A shot and her MMR shot (I finally let her get that!). After the trauma of getting shots, I took her to Target's Dollar Spot and got her some stickers. She made herself look like Unc.

Dora and Diego

We took Grace to see Go, Diego, Go live with Dora. She had a great time. She sat spell bound through the entire performance. Jaw dropped several times and eyes wide open the entire time.



The show was interactive. They were asked to jump, dance, growl like a jaguar and so on. They handed out jaguar masks to use while growling and clawing like Baby Jaguar. Grace and Daddy had a great time growling together.

Zilker Park

On June 24th, we took off for a family day at Zilker Park. Grace had such a wonderful time chasing the pigeons, riding the train and playing. While we were waiting for the train to pick us up, Grace saw some pigeons. She was content to sit with us and just watch them...until she saw some bigger kids chasing the birds. All of the sudden, she was off. She wanted to catch one. I don't know if I had more fun watching her chase the birds or watching Jeff chasing her trying to get a good photo!


Jeff and I look back at the photos and are so amazed at what a big girl she is becoming. We look at her and are amazed at the person she is becoming. Her personality shows more and more each day. I love her humor and her sensitivity. I enjoy watching her as she tries to figure things out. I love to watch her get all excited when her daddy comes home from work. It brings me such joy when she looks at me, takes my hand and tells me to " 'mon" (come on).


Grace lives her life with such exuberance and zest. To quote her uncle, she is such a pistol. I don't think that Jeff and I ever imagined how much joy and happiness she would bring into our lives.

Open Gym

Grace loves to go to the open gym at a gymnastics center on Mondays with her best friend, Kate. The 2 of them run and jump all over the place and totally wear themselves out. They jump on trampolines and in the air tent; they swing from bars and ropes; they play on balance beams and in the foam pit. But, most importantly, they wear themselves out. And us moms.




We have been several times, and with each visit, I can see that Grace is becoming more coordinated and more fearless (and she wasn't very fearful to begin with!).

The thing that I love most about open gym, is that Grace and I get one-on-one play time. She plays with her friends, but most of the time, she is happy to play with me. We jump together; we play on the bars; we giggle in the foam pit. All in all, we have a great time.

Dora, Boots and Backpack

Grace was blessed on her birthday to receive many things that she loves. Among her long list of favorites include her new Dora and Boots couch and her Backpack.


The morning of her birthday party, she found her stash of presents, where the couch was hidden under wrapped packages. She started throwing things to the side to get to it. I caught her and got her attention on something else. Later that day, when it was time to open presents, I thought that she could sit on the couch while opening her gifts. Boy, was I wrong.

She almost wouldn't even look at any of her other gifts. She just would fold and unfold her couch. She would lay and roll all over it smiling. (I hope to get some photos soon from the grandmas!). She didn't even want other presents touching her new couch. She would push them (or throw them) off the couch. Well, except her Dora beach towel...that she decided to cover the couch with. And when she saw the backside of the towel - she started crying because "it broke" (the back was solid white!).

She even cleans her couch on a regular basis:


She got her Backpack later during the day. But, she didn't seem too interested in it, which surprised me. I think she was just overwhelmed. However, this week, she has fallen in love with that Backpack. She wears it all over the place...including in the car seat, the high chair and for her nap time. She puts her toys in it and then she can't hardly stand under the weight of it. If it isn't already on, as soon as her Dora show comes on, she starts yelling, "baa-pack, baa-pack!" and if it doesn't materialize in seconds, she falls apart!

Tickers (AKA Band-aids)

Grace got her first "bad" bo-bo last Monday (7-2-07). When Grace and I go for walks, I always try to talk her into her flat sandals or a pair of tennis shoes, but she has a favorite pair of shoes (white dress sandals with a little bit of a heel - and "fowers" on them) that she ALWAYS wants to wear.

Well, she and I went for a walk and she decided that she wanted to turn the walk into a jog. Because her shoes weren't made for jogging, she fell and skinned her knees. She cried, but wanted to continue her walk. Well, technically, she wanted me to continue the walk while carrying her.

When we got home, I had to clean the bo-bo to get the dirt out of it. Well, she wasn't happy with me at all.



Since there was a little bit of blood, I decided to put some ointment and a band-aid on it. She exclaimed, "Ticker!" (Her version of the word sticker). She was delighted to have a sticker on her knee and let me know she needed another one on her other knee (which was barely scraped).

Over the next couple of days, I would have to reapply the stickers after each bath. Here is a photo of her with her favorite shoes and her first stickers, I mean band-aids.



On Friday, I decided that I had enough of the band-aids. So, while we were playing with her friend, I pulled it off (thinking that she would be to happy and busy to care). All of the sudden, she started crying and limping and saying, "I hurt!" and "Ouch" - apparently the stickers were keeping the pain away. Kate (her friend) and I got her attention off of her life threatening bo-bo and soon she forgot all about the band-aids.

That is until we got in the car when she spotted her stickerless scraped up knee.