Big Thanks!!

Monogrammed anything holds a big place in a southern girls heart.  Keith will claim that I tried to put our monogram on everything at our wedding.  And yes I even have a pair of shoes with my monogram.

Monogramming, embroidery and smocking become even more important when you have a baby. There is nothing cuter than a smocked dress and monogramed bloomers on a little gril.  Grace is very fortunate to have family that can make these items and more like burb clothes and bibs.  Monogramming/Embroidery isn't cheap at all.  I am scared to figure up how much I've saved so far.  So we want to send out a very big thanks to 

Aunt Patti the Great!!!  

She has an embroidery machine and has been very gracious to monogram all sorts of items for Grace. Here are a few things that she has made for Grace in the past - She can knit too!

Grace can never have to many burb clothes and we can clean her up in style now.  This is just a few of the many super cute burb clothes that we have.

Adorable hat!

Bunny Ears Hat!  She was the hit of easter.

We also have lots of bibs, but I guess I don't take many pictures of Grace in a bib - Drool or spit up doesn't really photo well.

Cute Bum shot from the 6 month photo session.

The latest creation from Aunt Patti the Great is so adorable.   Halloween Bloomers and Bib!

Mimi made her cute socks

Look at me standing.  

All Smiles in her bib!!  She can't wait for the next holidays to show her bum off again.  

Thanks again.  We love everything that you've made for Grace.  

Another fun day at the Pumpkin Patch

Today was the PTA (yes I said PTA - early childhood PTA) Pumpkin Patch outing.  This was Grace's second pumpkin patch, but the hayride was new to her.  She loved it.  They had a lot of photo op set-ups.  Check this out ( though again technically her second pumpkin patch)    She has always liked standing, but now as long as she is holding on she can stand by herself.

She loved the hayride, well at least the hay.  She wouldn't look at me and was only interested in playing with the hay. This isn't a great picture, but I forgot the memory card for my camera and these are taken with my cell phone.    Our playgroup friends took some but we don't have them yet.

We stopped along the hayride and got to pick out a baby pumpkin.  That is the one that Grace picked.  Just like the last pumpkin patch eating/kissing the pumpkin was a favorite thing to do again.

She was great but was worn out after the morning so we came home to take a nap.  After Keith got home, we decided to try a new to us local place for dinner:  Yucatan Taco Stand.    It was pretty good.  We had a restaurant.com gift certificate and ordered way too much as result.  We do know now that it is a great place for a cheap dinner.  Grace got to experience her first dinner out in a high chair.  As long as there was a steady stream of puffs on her mat she was happy.

Unfortunately the table was at about eye level.  I don't know if this is normal, but she was still able to shovel puffs in.  

A high chair is going to be a requirement from now on at dinner.  We've gone from a baby that would sleep through our dinner to a baby that wants to be in the middle of the action.  As long as she has food she is happy and therefore we are happy. 

Isn't she so stinking cute sitting there like a big girl??  

She's a Star!!

Waiting for her Debut!

Ok, well not quite a star yet, but Grace was in her first movie today.  Our neighborhood is filming a movie.  Don't ask me why.  I think it is just a marketing ploy with a plot.

Either way we were extras in a movie.  All we had to do was walk back and forth at the village shops and they filmed us while the kids (stars) rode their bikes through the scene.  Pretty easy work.  I figured it was something good to do for the day rather than stay at home inside.  The weather was perfect especially since we were told to wear casual summer clothes.  We might go back tomorrow or next week if it is convenient.  They are needing a ton of volunteers.   I just want to make sure that it works with Grace's nap schedule.

This was the big crane that filmed todays scene.

Playgroup

Grace and I hosted playgroup today at our house.  There were about 6 other moms and babies.  It was a great group and it wore Grace out.  She just loves watching the other babies and touching them if they get close enough to her.  

I made a light breakfast/snack for the mothers.  I decided to try a new recipe.  Southern Living this month had a Cinnamon-Pecan Twirl recipe that sounded delicious and let me tell you it was.  Super easy too.   I paired it with a fruit salad and voila!  I wanted to keep it simple and I wasn't expecting a ton of people. Too much food just ends up with more leftovers that I don't really need to be eating.  This was perfect.    

One tired little baby

10-10-10 7 months old!!

Here it is 10-10-10 and Grace is 7 months old.  Time is flying by.  Unfortunately, I have been a bit under the weather.  Yesterday, I finally decided it was time to see a doctor when my 101+ fever still wasn't gone.  Who would have thought that I'd be the first to get an ear infection diagnosis.  I thought only babies got ear infections.  Thankfully, Grace and Keith have stayed healthy.  But since I haven't been feeling good, we had a super low key weekend.   We did go to the swings so that Keith could see how much Grace loves them.

Here are a couple of pictures from today!

In the last month:

• Grace started solids - so far she has had peaches, carrots, pears, apples, sweet potatoes, squash, peas, green beans, etc.  Most of those I made homemade, but we've also had some store bought organic blends.  Another favorite is Yo Baby yogurt.  She loves this and whines if I don't shovel it in fast enough.  
• We also introduced some finger foods: baby puffs, melts and my personal favorite butter beans.  These work great as distractions for her while we are eating.  She gets about 1 in 7 in her mouth since she hasn't quite mastered the pick up and release skills.  The butter beans she wouldn't touch but would let me feed them to her.  She would chew(gum) them and it was hysterical. 
• We took a family photo ( still need to blog those pictures)
• Nanie, Papa and Heather came to Dallas to visit.
• Grace and I flew to Atlanta to visit with Mimi, Grandpa, and Holly.  We all went to the zoo, playground, and pumpkin patch.
• Grace has just started to scoot. She just will push with her feet to get a toy.  She gets on her hands and knees but then lays down and pushes with her feet. 

I can't wait to see what this month brings.

A Swinging Good Time

About a month or so ago, Keith and I drove around our neighborhood checking out the playgrounds trying to find swings for Grace.  It seemed that all of the swings were gone.  The rest of the playground equipment wasn't really geared towards babies so we were quite bummed.  We just knew that she would love the swings.

Today though, Grace finally got to go to a playground with swings in my parents neighborhood.  Even more importantly, there was a baby swing.  We brought along a Ikea highchair pad and it worked great to keep her safely wedged into the swing.

Grace absolutely loved it.  At first we got a bit of nervous laughter.  Who knew a baby had nervous laughter?  But she really got into it and had a blast, giggling with each push.  We all got tickled by her laughing and the more we laughed and "Weeeee'd" the more she laughed.  She checked out a bit of the rest of the playground equipment and then we brought her home, where she proceeded to pass out for her nap.  I guess swinging is exhausting work.

Lions, Tigers, Bears... Oh My!!

Grace had a great time at the zoo yesterday.  She didn't get fussy until the very end.  I do think that the people watching was a little more exciting than the animals at this point though.  If the animals weren't moving, she wasn't interested in them at all.  Meerkats, gorillas and flamingos were probably her favorite since they were the most "exciting" in her eyes.  By that I mean they walked around.

"Poo Happens" - That is Grace's belief as well.  

Grace as a Lion cub.  

We were all more interested in the Gorillas than Grace. 

What Pandas??  I am more interested in kids being monkeys.

Oh look, Giraffe!  I have a giraffe on my t-shirt and bib.

She got her first tattoo yesterday as well.  It was of a panda.  She chose the super cool location of her foot for the tattoo.  Now before you go thinking she is going to turn all "LA Ink" on us, it was just temporary and will wash off.  

We stopped by the petting zoo and she was fearless reaching out to pet the goats.  Her version of petting is to grab the hair, but the goats seemed pretty used to that and didn't even move.

Grace finished the day off with a little lunch, naps and then went to watch Grandpa play tennis in the evening before bed.  She wasn't a very good luck charm though since he didn't get the win, but both Mimi and Grandpa won their matches this morning.   She did enjoy watching.  She just sat there and watched the ball go back and forth.  I think she likes tennis.  - Sorry Keith the French Open was the first thing to interest her on the tv and now she will sit and watch tennis.  If you want her to like other sports you better start taking her to see some live!!

Today we are taking it easy before the ladies head to a wedding in Rome.  Grandpa volunteered to keep Grace tonight.  I bet they will have a great time!

-Kristi