Pictures are Deceiving

By the pictures, we had a wonderful weekend away.

There were blue skies and a sparkling lake.

Matt was able to show the girls how daddy rode up the worst road known to man.

They touched his brick for the effort in last years Savageman.

BUT

What the pictures don't show is the fact that Clare was on another tear again this weekend. The three hour drive from Baltimore to Deep Creek alone had us rethinking our weekend plans. By the time early evening rolled around, I was using my phone to see if I could rent a car to drive back home with the girls that very night.

What there are no pictures of is the fact that I was walking, seething with rage over temper-tantrums, small town rental car hours and slow 3G connections on my iPhone, and playing with my phone instead of looking where I was going. Or that I am a clutz and I always look down while walking on uneven terrain.

There are no pictures of my fall down a few rustic, nature preserve stairs, when I insisted I was fine to finish the walk down to Matt's bike drop off, or when my vision went white and I was .this.close. to fainting so I made Matt move road blocks to come pick me up in the car.

There could be pictures of the fact that my right foot is still swollen to about double it's normal size and turning the most delightful shades of purple, black and blue, but it is so grotesque, I will spare you that visual.

There are no pictures of the fact that it meant that I couldn't attend the triathlon the we had driven 3 hours to watch and cheer at. That attitudes did not improve, adults included, in our 2.5 days away.

Honestly, the best part of the weekend? The drive home.

We are headed to Chicago tomorrow. Wish us luck, and maybe send a prayer or two our way.

Upgrade. Again.

Gracie's little feet are growing like weeds.

I am finding the same problem in her clothes, particularly shirts. She's so long and skinny, that while the sleeves fit, the hem of the shirt is giving little baby belly and butt crack shots constantly. I've been upgrading her shirts to 24 months and now her feet have gotten in on the action.

After two short months in her Grace shoes, she is once again getting an upgrade. Like I said, growing like weeds.

It doesn't hurt that her polk-a-dot shoes look like they've been though a weedwacker either. Put three of the dots together and you have whole #1. Whole #2 is another solid polk-a-dot's width. Not attractive. Plus she keeps pulling on the material, ripping it more.

*Note to self: If we ever have another kid, don't buy the canvas covered Pedipeds. They rip.*

In fact, they riped just over a week into their new status as Gracie's shoes, thanks to a 70 degree day and her first toddler foray onto the playground. I was told she screamed like hell when the teachers made her go back inside after their 1/2 hour play time.

So the new shoes?

This time we went with the Abigail in Navy & Pink.

I figure the darker color will hide more dirt, the leather will stand up to outdoor play better AND I scored them for half price.

Grace was insanely happy to put them on this morning too. She started squealing and laughing with a "Sues! Sues! Sues!" chant, followed by a happy dance when I put her on the floor.

Definitely my kid.

Gracie's Grace's

Gracie L-O-V-E-S shoes. Which, frankly, makes me very happy. 'Shoes' (pronounced Sue) was one of her first words and is a constant object of playing, piling and taste testing in our house.

Since she has started walking though, the extra room in her first pair of shoes has disappeared.

Pretty much overnight. I checked to make sure that she had plenty of wiggle room everyday, but as of last weekend, the constant pressure on her tootsies have removed every centimeter of toe space.

So, as of next week, these are her new shoes.

Cute, huh? My mom was very pleased at the opportunity to be the one to purchase these sweet little things.

Their style name? Grace.

Officially Official Now

We are the official proud parents of a Toddler now.

Yep, you read that right. At 14 months, 4 weeks and 3 days old, Grace has upgraded from four legs to two.

While yes, she has been walking for quite awhile, I kept telling myself that cruising isn’t quite the same thing as toddling. When she can cross a room like some crazy looking Japanese robot, then and only then, will she get the title.

That moment came tonight. My baby, I mean toddler, made the long walk from the front door all the way to the kitchen table.

Watch out world. She’s coming for you.

Doctor’s Orders

When we took Gracie to her 12 month doctor’s appointment, the pediatrician suggested that we buy a kiddie shopping cart to help encourage her to walk.

It’s amazing how quickly she will learn to balance on her own with one, she told us, and I find that girls especially like shopping carts. She’ll spend all day putting stuff in and taking it back out.


Sure thing Doc, we said. We’ll get on right away!

I did all sorts of research to measure their sturdiness, push-ability, fun colors, until I found the perfect cart. Then it went out of stock. Well, well just wait a little longer.

Well, Gracie turns 14 months on Friday, and guess what? Yeah, that’s right. No cart.

Until yesterday.

In an effort to be thrifty, I went to Babies R Us to buy baby wash and some miscellaneous bath toys with a gift card we received as a birthday gift for her. Stay on task, I kept telling myself. Stay on task. You don’t NEED anything else in this place.

Then I saw the checkout line. It looked a mile long and ended inches away from the modest toy section.

Well, maybe I’ll go look at the 1 year old section really quick. The line is super long anyway, I’ll might as well wait for it to go down a little.

So I passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the toy section.

And there it was. No, not THE cart, but A cart and it was cheap. Cheap enough to be covered by the gift card anyway.

Within minutes of getting home yesterday it was snapped together and on the floor. Gracie went straight for it. For the first time ever, well since she’s been mobile, I was able to make dinner without someone clutching my pant leg and demanded to be picked up to see what I was doing.

Faux bottles of ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper and syrup?!? were clinked together with joy. Laps were made around our kitchen island in a half sprint. Falls were taken, carts were toppled, but the sheer joy of it made her jump right back up and start over again.

I can honestly say this was the best $22 I’ve spent in a long time. Guess I should recommit to following doctor’s orders when given, huh?

Please Approach the Elephant

Have you ever been to a Rainforest Café? (I know, stay with me here…)

It is overpriced, but extremely entertaining and monumentally kid friendly. As the name suggests, it is highly stylized in a rainforest theme. It is actually REALLY cool.

My favorite part of the experience though was always over before we were even seated. (OK, sure I loved the faux thunderstorms and random monkey noises too, but if I had to pick one it was this...)

The host stand was a giant elephant. Think Disney’s Dumbo ride (slighlty less cutsie) and that was the size of the thing. So when you were ready to be seated, the host would get on a microphone and call, “Will the X party please approach the elephant. Your adventure is ready to begin.” You would then follow the waitress along a path of painted footsteps, into the jungle that was the restaurant and order fancy sounding smoothies.

Having someone tell you to “Please approach the elephant,” was always so joyful. It was your turn. It was finally your turn!

Well, I do believe we are about to hear, “Please approach the elephant, your adventure is ready to begin,” from Gracie. She is standing, quite well, with no support these days.

At home she has been stretching the length of time she can stand without wobbling. It seems like just last week it was 5 seconds. Now is it up to 30 seconds. This morning I got a report at daycare that yesterday she stood on her own for about 3 minutes. Apparently, the only thing that caused the tumble was her excited clapping over the accomplishment.

Normally, the daycare people are really supportive about milestones. With this one though I have been warned there is trouble to come. One they can stand, walking will come very quickly, I am told.

“You’d better watch out. That Gracie, she will be into everything!” Thanks lady.

Another milestone is upon us.

I am excited about it. I love the excitement and twinkle in Grace’s eyes when she figures out new skills. And this is a big one. There should be fireworks!

Miss Idependent. Almost.

The steps are here and independent walking is just around the corner.

Grace has always been impatient. She is a wonderful, smiling baby 95% of the time. That other 5% though you’d better watch out! That little snippet of evil has been rearing its ugly head lately.

Because she wants to walk.

She is fighting to dance and twirl, run and jump, well ... maybe just toddle and crash for right now, but she is fighting to do it all on her own. And she is so, so, so close.

It is the exact same "Why are you screaming for no reason?" response we got when she was learning how to crawl. One minute she is fine, then next she is screaming like her hair is being plucked out. Only now it is for walking.

I’m sure, if she would try, she could stand alone at the point. She will not try though. Gracie is completely engaged with the exercise of actually taking steps and walking now too. She is the one holding onto me now, not the other way around. Yesterday we made 3 laps around the den and countless laps at daycare.

The purchase of her first shoes has come just in time. Cute, aren’t they? ------>>

This development may have begun just in time for a full blown toddler in the Bahamas too. 1.5 more weeks kid!

While I have repeatedly lamented the transition from babyhood to toddlerdom. Now that the toddling is actually here though, I am excited. I am embracing it.

I think we are even ready for it.

Maybe.

How Much Padding Does a Baby Butt Have?

To add to her bag of tricks, Grace is not only making it up over the step from the living room to the kitchen in seconds flat, she stands before doing it.

For the most part she just makes a table top (straight legs & hands on the kitchen floor) to get up the stair.

Last night she was getting fancy with it though.

Our gutsy child was standing straight up with no support for a three count before baby bumping on her butt back down to the ground.

Hey! Stop that!!

Thankfully she only did it a few times before realizing that it is much faster to just table top onto the next level.

Red Foot, Blue Foot

One foot, two foot,
Red foot, blue foot.

This crazy Dr. Seuss rhyme is stuck in my head.

Tonight, Gracie was starting to figure out the one foot, two foot process of walking. With support of course and only for a dozen steps or so, but still...

One foot, two foot,
Red foot, blue foot.

As a parent, you want you kid to figure things out. To grow up. I am realizing though that no matter what milestone we are working on, I'll never really be ready for it.

Sure, I keep saying that I want her to walk by the beginning of November. Sure I keep saying that she needs to work on saying more words than just dada.

But what happens when her favorite word is the dreaded "No?" What happens when she turns and bolts away from me in a crowed place with her new found legs?

I know the answer is you suck it up and deal with it, while trying to cherish the memory of getting to those moments.

One foot, two foot,
Red foot, blue foot.