So Many Changes

Grace is now 16 months and we decided it was time to update our family pictures. We love the images that we captured over in bond park! J-pa who is now Boppy (not sure if that is spelled correctly) took some amazing images while him and Mimi were visiting. Yes, Grace just started calling him Boppy every time he was in the room or on the phone and now he officially has a new name. :) Thank you for the beautiful family pictures!

 

Happy 55th Birthday Mimi! We had a surprise party for Mimi the night they got into town. Mimi thought that everyone had previous plans we couldn't get out of, so she was under the impression they would get a quiet night at home... WRONG! We were there with pizza, decorations and balloons. There were 55 balloons and each of them had something we loved about her inside. It was fun to have her pop them and read all the things that are so great about our Mimi! We love you.

We started our February Marbles classes called "toddlers together". We go to marbles each Tuesday in February for structured singing, dancing, and then exploration time. So far we have been twice and Grace loves it. They have water tables and paint and cars and building blocks. It is also really fun to watch her interact with other toddlers!

 

Grace also got her first real "illness" ever! We are amazed we made it to 16 months without a cold, but wow was it sad once it was here. She had a temperature that was between 101 and 103.1 for 3 days! We kept her on meds which lowered the temp and we found out she had RSV, which is a virus that effects the nose and throat although normally children often have trouble breathing, a cough and a runny nose.... our baby only had the high fever. Being a virus there is no antibiotic that we could give her, we just had to wait it out. It was so wonderful when she woke up in the morning after 3 days and the fever was just gone and she was back to herself! Sometimes it is exhausting keeping up with her energy and cleaning up after her (even though she helps now) but when she was just so limp and sad looking I realized how much I missed her energy! I would rather clean up after her 100 times a day then have her feel so sick again.

 

More big changes this beginning of February. Daddy had his last day as a teacher and his first day with Absolute Dental. I know his last day had lots of emotions, he will miss those kids and they certainly do love him! However, after watching him for a week at his new job - I am SO glad we made the switch. He comes home excited about his day and what he has been working on. I am so thrilled for him!

 

BRAIN TIME! We have been trying each night to really work on a "brain" activity with Grace. We love it because 7 seems to come so much faster when we have something to do instead of just run around the playroom, and Grace loves it because she is working on new skills. Some of the activities we did this week: putting big buttons in a container, sticking straws in holes, dropping paper rectangles in an empty tissue box, large pompoms in an egg carton, pipe cleaners in a strainer. Here is a picture of just a couple of them.

 

Happy 28th Birthday DADDY! Yes we also celebrated Gabe's 28th. I can't believe I met your Daddy when he was 19 years old... and now he is 28. I am more in love now with the man he is today then I was with the boy he was then, and I didn't think that could happen :) I love you Gabe

 

  

 

AND it was Valentine's Day... phew, only doing the blog 2 times a month means a lot of catching up to do! For starters we put some contact paper on the wall backwards so the sticky part faces out and Grace put paper hearts on it. She loves pulling them off and on! She also woke up on Valentine's Day morning to books, flowers, stickers, chalk, bows, science experiments and cards. She loved looking at each thing and has read the books MANY times since she got them! I love how she looks through all the pages and makes the sounds for the animals she knows and points to the other things she recognizes. This girl has got quite the vocabulary! We also painted a valentine's day card for Daddy. She loved sticking her finger in the paint and smearing it across the page. Happy Valentine's Day!

 

 

 

 

Sweet Grace,
I am so in love with you. You are so patient and kind, but at the same time full of energy and spunk. You keep me on my toes big girl. You love to do what we "grown ups" are doing and it just cracks me up. You want to hold Athens leash when we go for runs and drink out of our cups and brush your hair like mama and wear jewelry and I could go on and on and on, but mostly what I want you to know on Valentine's day is how much you are loved. And you. are. so. loved.
xoxo
Mommy & Daddy