Bubbles of fun

Today Chloe, Grace, and I went outside to play.

Grace was excited to play with her "bubbahs" (bubbles).

First she would take a really, really big breath.

And then blow as hard as she could.  For a while, I was kinda worried she might blow a lung out.

But soon she got the hang of it.

She even shared bubbles with Chloe, but Chloe wasn't too impressed.

I think Grace has a fetish

A hat fetish that is.

Or perhaps she's just a control freak.  Whenever she wears her hat, we all have to put on a hat.

Including Chloe. 

Feeding the birds

Today we went to the pier for some fishing.

Grace, however, had other ideas.

She wanted to share her "fiss-ee tack-ers" (fishy crackers...aka goldfish crackers) with the birds.

It started with this one bird.

Then it squawked for his friends and soon we were surrounded.

After we ran out of crackers, Grace waved to birds and said "See ya yay-ter burds!" (See you later birds!) and blew them kisses.  Sigh.  She can be so sweet sometimes.

A sailor is a pirate, right?

Today Grace received a package in the mail from Queenie.  As soon as Grace opened it, she said, "I won ware pire-ut!"  (I want to wear the pirate outfit.)

So we put it on and it fit her beautifully!

And Grace climbed on the ottoman and was a pirate for the rest of the day.

 Here's my pirate ready to conquer the world!

Taking a walk

Grace is very much a girly girl. 

Yesterday morning she insisted I paint her fingernails and toenails pink for her.

But she's also very much the tomboy, so it's not often that her nails stay manicured.

Since it was so nice out, we decided to go for a nice walk around the neighbornhood.

We took a slight detour to admire and select some rocks.

Then Grace walked down the little pier over the pond.

And stopped at the very end to toss her rocks in the water.

Tossing rocks into the water is a favorite pastime.

Grace likes to sit and watch the splash from each pebble before throwing the next one.

And she loves watching all the "sir-culls" (circles) they make.

After 20 minutes or so we decided to finish our walk.  Again we took a slight detour.

"Yook at duh pre-ee fow-urs, Momma!"  (Look at the pretty flowers, Momma!) 

What color are the pretty flowers, Grace?  "Lellow!"  (Yellow!) 

"Here, Momma. I pitted pre-ee fow-urs for you!"  (Here, Momma.  I picked the pretty flowers for you.)

Thank you, baby.  I love the pretty flowers and I love you, too.

Happy Birthday Seth!

Today my not-so-little brother

 turned 16 and finally got his driver's license.  Congratulations!

 

Happy Birthday little brother!

We love you!

Daddy discovery

We have stumbled upon an amazing discovery.  We have finally solved a mind-boggling mystery.  And the answer, the glorious answer, was so simple I could hardly believe it!  At first I thought it was a fluke.  After the second time, I thought it was surely pure coincidence.  But after the third time it's a pattern, right? 

Cookie monster and friends pictured above is our simple yet brilliant solution. 

Let me start at the beginning.  Grace has her own room and her own bed and she sleeps there.  She's been sleeping in her room since she was six weeks old, but for months, nay, years, Grace has been waking up in the middle of the night - roughly 2am to be precise.  And she cries and comes to our bedroom.  So I usually get up and take her back to her room and stay with her until she goes back to sleep.  Some nights this happens 2-3 times.  It's exhausting. 

But then we had company come in town and our guest, Melissa, stayed in Grace's room.  So we put a pallet on our floor with David's old Cookie Monster and Sesame Street friends sleeping bag.  And Grace loved it!  After Melissa left, Grace still wanted her "seepin bag" (sleeping bag) and went to our room and crawled back into it ready to go to bed. 

David got the bright idea to put the Cookie Monster sleeping bag on her bed. 

And it worked!  Grace crawled right in and went to sleep.  And slept the whole night through!

Three nights in a row now!  Cookie Monster sleeping bag, I think I love you.

The world from Grace's viewpoint

Grace loves cameras.  She loves to have her picture taken and she loves to take pictures.  She's getting smart about them, too.  She found our little pocket sized blue camera, turned it on, and snapped a few pictures. 

She caught me off guard with this one.  Normally she says, "Say teez, Momma!" (Say cheese, Momma!) if she has a camera (real or pretend) in hand. 

Then she got a closeup of my belly. 

And finally, one of my face before I took the camera away.  Look at my double chin and forehead wrinkles!  It's interesting to see what I look like from her viewpoint.

We never know what we're going to find in the bay

David has been having great luck at the pier lately.

So we decided to try our luck again.

Grace brought her fishing pole and dropped it into the bay.  Fortunately we were able to fish it out.

Then David got a bite on his line.  It was an EEL!

He sure was angry!  Just look at his eyeball.  Doesn't he look mean?

He thrashed and thrashed about.  Finally David let him off the hook.  We've heard eel is a great delicacy, but this guy was too mean for me to ever try to cook up.

Grace got super excited and went back to fishing.

And she yelled out, "Yook, Momma!  I tink I tot an a-yee-day-tor!" (Look, Momma!  I think I caught an alligator!)   And so she did.  She caught her tiny toy alligator we have tied to the end of her line.

She was content to cast her rod.

  And catch her baby alligator over and over again.

We stayed at the pier until the sun set.  The only thing we caught other than that mean eel was Grace's baby alligator.  But we sure did have fun making more memories.

My pregnancy this month

Today I had another OB appointment.  I gained 5 pounds since my last appointment 4 weeks ago.  No surprise there, this was the first month where I actually had an appetite and didn't get sick after eating a meal.  I have gained a total of 10 1/2 pounds so far this pregnancy.  Already I look like I've swallowed a watermelon whole. 

And people have started asking me if I'm having twins.  Of course, they asked that when I was pregnant with Grace, too.  My nurse with Grace, was positive Grace was going to be well over 10 pounds and I must have had gestational diabetes.  Neither happened.  I gained 35 pounds - mostly in my stomach - never had gestational diabetes and Grace was born weighing only 7 pounds 6 ounces.  Little Indy is taking after his/her big sister.  It's amazing how big my stomach will get by the time Indy is born.  No wonder I have stretch marks...

Anyway, on my with doctor visit.  My blood pressure was 100 over 65.  The nurse said that was fantastic blood pressure.  What can I say?  It's a breeze going to the doctor by myself.   If I had Grace with me my blood pressure would probably be something like 160 over 90. 

Little Indy is doing great.  For those of you who don't know, we've been calling the baby "Little Indy" as a nickname - not his/her real name.  We picked Little Indy for a nickname because my original due date was July 4, aka Independence Day.  It makes the baby seem more real to us when we call him/her something other than "it." 

Little Indy is growing right on schedule according to my belly's measurements.  (And yes, my belly is huge, but not any larger than expected.  Pretty incredible, huh?)   Indy's heartbeat is steady and strong.  And Little Indy should be able to hear us now.  Isn't that amazing?  Indy should be able to hear Grace's bedtime stories, too.  His/her eyebrows are starting to grow in, as well.  Of course, if he/she looks like Grace we won't be able to see eyebrows even after Indy turns 2...

My next OB appointment is scheduled for April 20 at 9:10am.  That's going to be a long appointment since they will do the gestational diabetes test.  I remember that yucky orange goop I had to swallow and then wait 1 hour for the blood test.  I'll be sure to bring my iPod to that appointment.

Oh.  And as for Little Indy's real name, we've got a couple of ideas for both boy names and girl names.  But we haven't made any final decisions yet.  We are still taking baby name suggestions under consideration, so if you have any suggestions please send them this way!

Mediterranean chicken pizza

Today Grace said she wanted to eat pizza, so she helped me make a homemade pizza for dinner tonight.

We started by spraying our pan and pizza dough.

Then we spread the dough out on our pan.

Next we added about 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil to the dough.  It keeps the dough soft and not crunchy.

Instead of using a regular tomato based pizza sauce, we added minced garlic for our sauce.

A LOT of garlic I should say.  We are a garlic loving family.  There's no such thing as too much garlic for us.

Next came a layer of fresh spinach.

Then mozzarella cheese.

And more spinach.  We're spinach lovers, too.

And some cooked chicken.  I cooked the chicken earlier in my cast iron skillet with a little kosher salt and pepper.

Then we added sundried tomatoes.  Yum!

And finished it off with feta cheese.   Then we cooked it in the oven at 375 degrees (anything hotter will burn the tomatoes) for about 25 minutes.  Then we took it out of the oven, sliced it into square pieces and devoured it.  It was so delicious!  Grace ate two slices by herself.  This will probably become a regular meal for us.  Maybe we'll start a pizza and movie night...