Rock Concert

Every time Grace goes to sleep, she listens to her Roger Day CD. She usually turns it on herself as she walks in her room. So, when we heard that Roger Day was coming to the library, we knew we had to go. This is actually the third time she has seen him, but really the first time she knew what was going on. We told her we were going to see him and she turned that into "I see Roger Day and help him sing." Unfortunately the outdoor concert was rained out and it was very crowded in the library conference room but we made the best of it. Grace's friends Anna, Little Tad and Liam joined us for a little while before it got too crowded. Grace had a great time dancing to the music and singing along.

The highlight of the evening was when Roger came out into the crowd and Grace got to dance with him. It was her first encounter with a star ;o)

Anybody want to play "Honk Shoe?"

The other night, Grace said "let's play Honk Shoo." We weren't quite sure what that was until she laid down, pretended to sleep and then starting snoring.... "honk shoe, honk shoe..."

Very Sweet...

Grace is still sleeping in her crib until we get her new "big girl" room ready. We had left the mobile on the crib because it wasn't really in the way. The other day, we caught her pulling off the little hanging animals. We immediately took it down so it would be still intact for the new baby. I told Grace we would put it back for the new baby. She said "Oh, new baby sleep here? I sleep in big girl bed?" I was so proud she put it together but then she went one step further- she said "Baby sleep here in my crib with my dollys." I said "Well, Grace you can take your dollys with you to your big girl bed." She said "No- I leave dollys here- for baby. Baby needs them."

Princess Dress, etc.

Here are a few cute pictures of Grace in her "Princess dress," ie, her flower girl dress. No more sippy cup for Grace!

Playgroup/Co-op

This summer my friend Cyndi came up with a great idea to have a playgroup on Thursday where we each take turns watching our each other's kids. Grace is very excited to have her friends Lily and Miriam in the group because she gets to play with them at least once a week. So, every third week, I watch the three girls. Our turn was two weeks ago and unfortuntely Miriam was out of town- so it was just Lily and Grace. We had a great time playing- especially outside. We invited Ella, who lives next door, to join in the fun too. I thought the girls would have fun with the riding toys- I had no idea what the main attraction would be.....The Kitties! Monster and Mitch had a blast running around on the driveway and the girls had the best time as detectives trying to find them.

Both the Matheson and the Hodges blog have pictures of their weeks... it's always an adventure

Grace Dresses Herself

Maybe we aren't ready for the runway....

4th of July

We did take a break from the potty training bonanza to celebrate the 4th of July. The Newtons had us over for a great BBQ and fun for the kids. (I tried to take their picture but no one sat still). Grace loved the glow in the dark bracelets we had brought.

After the party, we came home because it was getting too late for Grace to watch the fireworks. I don't think it's the 4th without fireworks so we compromised and watched them on tv. It was actually better- no bugs!

Potty Training Attempt #1

If I had kept up with this blog and posted this when this happened, I would have been more positive....

The goal is to potty train Grace before the new baby. We decided that since we didn't have many plans for the long 4th of July weekend- that would be the magic time. Actually- not "we"- Jack decided. So- you know how this went- I got the books, I read the books, did the internet research, etc ;o) We decided to do the go straight to underpants method and see how it worked. We spent a painful two days sitting in the kitchen and taking her to the bathroom every 10 minutes. I say painful because there is only so much you can do in the kitchen and she showed absolutely no interest. She would have an accident and just point at it and say "clean that up." We practiced with her doll, gave her rewards, everything it said but she just didn't care.

On the third day, we had all but given up. She really showed no interest. She could care less if she went in her special Dora underpants. Then, things started to turn around. We put the diapers back on and she started telling us when she had to go. Finally the skickles (skittles) started to excite her. We were on our way... It worked for about 5 days. Then, for no reason, she decided she didn't care anymore and hasn't gone since. We haven't pushed her, just keep asking but she always tells us no and gets upset when we suggest she just try. She does tell us exactly when she goes in her diaper so she knows but again, just could care less about the toilet- oh well. Look for attempt #2 soon...

New Favorite Sayings...

Lately the words coming out of Grace's mouth have been making us laugh. Her two new favorite sayings- "Let's talk about it"- usually said after we tell her to do something she doesn't want to do. And "Listen to me"- actually, this is also said after we tell her to do something she doesn't want to do. The funniest thing is she doesn't follow either of these with anything- no argument, no further reasoning, nothing. I guess it won't be long before there is a follow up so we'll just be happy with what we have now ;o)

Grace's Vacation

When we were on our cruise, Grace had a fun time with her Nana. They read lots of books- so many that Grace completed all the spots on her reading log for the library and she got some great prizes when she got home. They read over 1,500 pages!

Grace and her Nana spent a few days with Uncle Jeff, Aunt Sarah and Isabella too. Grace had a great time helping everyone and really got a good chance to practice being a big sister.

Grace's contribution to our Cruise

When we told Grace we were going on a cruise, we explained we were going on a boat. She thought about it a minute, walked over to her Nana's Fisher Price Little Peoples set, and pulled this off the boat. She said "here- for your trip on the boat."
Of course she had no idea that it was a life preserver, she only knew it was from the boat. It was very sweet.....

Cruise

Jack and I had a great and relaxing cruise. Our boat traveled to Key West, Cozumel and Belize. We actually decided to relax and didn't even get off the boat in Cozumel. It was great being one of the few people on the boat that day- we had our pick of the lawn chairs and no lines for food!

The most interesting/funny things about our cruise was our table mates. For those of you that have cruised before, you know you get to decide before you go how big your table will be, ie how many strangers you will sit with. This is actually one of my favorite parts of a cruise- getting to sit with people you would never normally meet or spend time with from across the country. We asked to be at a table of 6 or 8 people so we were surprised when they sat us at a four person table. And usually they put you with people of like ages, so we were very surprised to learn our table mates were a 91 year old woman celebrating her birthday that week and her caregiver who we guess was about 65. We weren't really sure what to think when we sat down- this wasn't what we were imagining our new friends would look like. After about two minutes, Marilyn, the caregiver said "well, look at that woman, I hope she's part of the show." As I glanced at the inappropriately scantly clad woman passing by, I knew we were all going to get along fine. Our table mates proved to be constant entertainment with their non-stop chatter, the 91 year old's storytelling of the same stories every night with at least one crucial fact changing every night, their dancing at every opportunity and the drinking/shots they were doing. The only little problem was they wanted us to try all their food. Literally, all of it- even the soups. And it didn't matter if we had ordered the exact same thing, they wanted us to try theirs anyway. Most of you know Jack has many allergies but suddenly he was allergic to everything they had so he didn't have to try it. They didn't seem to notice he would eat the same thing he was "allergic" to the night before on the next day. I did take some for the team on that one because they weren't going to stop until one of us tried it all. Other than the food, it really was a good time and I've included their pictures, even the one of Ms. Ellie dancing at the 70s party on her 91st birthday. We asked them to take our picture but since Marilyn was insistent that our feet be included in the picture....the top of Jack's head didn't quite make the pictures (for the record, when I saw their only photography experience was with a CVS disposable camera I didn't think it was a good idea- Jack as usual had faith- misplaced this time).

Playing with Isabella

On the way to our cruise, we dropped Grace off at her Nana's house and spent the night at Sarah and Jeff's house. We have never gotten a chance to play with our neice and Godchild, Isabella, without Grace also demanding our attention. We had a good time playing with her. She and Jack really had a good time playing peek-a-boo.

Strawberry Dackees again...

Every time we mention Grace's Nana and Papa's house, she asks about going to the "Square" and Strawberry Daiquiris. We got up early on the day we left for Florida so we could make it to The Villages in time for dancing at the square. When we got to Nana and Papa's house, Papa was already making the Strawberry Daiquiris for us to take. As soon as we sat down to listen to the music, Grace said "Strawberry Dackee peez." As soon as the drink was finished, two minutes later, the dancing started. She would choose her partner to take to the patio to dance, but you weren't allowed to dance. Just stand there for her to dance around. She quickly yelled at whoever dared to try and dance, only standing still was allowed when you were her partner.A lady at the square had brought her pet bird. Grace was less than thrilled when she got to meet it up close.....These two looked like a Lambeau Field ad...

More Dance Class

Here are a few pictures from a dance class before we went on vacation. Grace and Lily had matching dance leotards from our friend Ms. Ellen. The funniest thing about it was Jack got Grace dressed that morning and didn't know what to do with the extra thin satin straps (all the ladies reading this know those are used to hang up garments). Jack thought they were extra straps and poor Grace couldn't lift her arms ;o)The rest of the class was in the corner at the point Grace decided she needed a nap....

I really like this video Amy took of the solo dance portion of class. All the girls took turns "dancing" around the room and most had to be told when to sit down because they were just so excited and having a good time. This video is of Lily who dances around like the other girls in the class and Grace, our cool customer.

Catching up...

Sorry we've been on a blogging hiatus. Jack and I went on a great vacation last week and when we got home Sunday night, we had no internet connection. After many, many calls to AT&T it was finally fixed Thursday at lunch. There is nothing worse for two people that work from home to come back after a week on a cruise with piles of work to do to have no internet... We made several trips to local free internet hot spots around town all week and I'm happy to be posting this from the couch. So, I'll do my best to catch up in the blog this weekend.