This is what 5 looks like

My girl.

Grace's Fairy Fourth Birthday

You know how you have an idea and then you decide to pursue said idea even though you're fairly certain the idea isn't exactly feasible without your spouse's help and a tremendous amount of work, but you wait as long as you can to tell your spouse so you can be too far "in" to said idea to turn back?  Allow me to introduce you to the fairy party idea 😊.

This is what 4 looks like

"That looks like puke! What sort of dinner is this anyway?"

Welcome to four.

This is what preschool looks like

I can't.

This is what three and a half looks like

Dearest Grace,

You are three and a half today.  Three and a half.  THREE AND A HALF!?  HOW DID THIS HAPPEN SO QUICKLY.  Because three years ago you looked like this ↴.

This is what 2.5 looks like

Insert advertisement here.

This girl. I love her.  

This is what 19.5 months looks like...

And it looks like an explosion.  An explosion of toys scattered throughout our house and lawn, an explosion of limbs as she tears down the side walk. It tastes like an explosion of yogurt as she decides spoons are the worst and fingers are where it is at.  It sounds like an explosion of words and syllables and animal noises.  It feels like an explosion of life itself, as she flexes her own muscles and discovers the world around her.

Not a Griswold Family Vacation

It's Turks time!  Finally! At the end of March, my parents rented a beautiful home on Chalk Sound on the island of Providenciales in Turks and Caicos, and invited my band-of-wildlings sisters, our husbands, our Gracie, and a Schuette cousin to join them in paradise. I'm so excited to share these glorious photos and wonderful memories with you, my loyal readership. Before we get there, you should know that this post will function as a giant thank you to my parents for their generosity and accommodation.  We have all contributed some thoughts and a few favorite memories that wouldn't have been possible without the benevolence of Tami and Hanser, aka Mimi and Papa.  

Holidaze

Guys!  It’s a new year!  I hope you’re off to a great start.  We had a great holiday, and now that things have settled down, I'm excited to share some of the highlights of our Christmas.

This is what one year looks like

8:38 am, 365 days to the minute.  Happy Birthday, dear Grace!

I am truly embarrassed at how long it has taken me to write this post.  Actually, I'm truly embarrassed how long it's taken my husband to dump/cull/edit/upload the photos from our camera to his computer so I could access them for this post, but no one likes a...
I asked him to finish that phrase for me and he said, "actually, he had to dump/cull/edit/upload them, and he works full time, and he's a busy dad, and we went to a Badger game, and there was a holiday..." so, you see how things roll around here.  Eric, I have mad respect for you, but no smoke-blowing will happen in this blog post.
No one likes a whiner would suffice.  I digress. 

Mom On the Go

Right now I’m sitting in the Detroit airport.  Alone.  Well, not really alone, there are hundreds of people milling about and 20 or so at the café I’m sitting at.  Ok it’s a bar.  But there’s a café immediately adjacent and the only open outlet was at the bar and mama’s laptop needs constant juice.  Mama needed juice too, and debated between the espresso shot or the Griffin Claw IPA to get through the mid afternoon slump.  I’ll let you guess which one won.

November 3rd is a popular day to be born

Since it's birthday week at our house, I am going to share with you my favorite story from the day Grace was born.  It might be one of my most favorite stories ever.

This was the last time she ever slept this soundly until last week.

In order to fully appreciate how funny this story is, you need a little background information.  Eric and I moved into our house in 2009, so we lived here five years before Grace was born.  Our street is quiet, and while our neighbors are very neighborly, everyone keeps to themselves. A friendly wave is about as much interaction as we have on a regular basis.

November 2nd

The other day someone asked me how old Grace is.  I replied, “She’ll be one on Monday!”  Except, it didn’t come out like a nonchalant, factual answer…it was like a half choked-out sob covered by a semi hysterical laugh, “SHE’LLBEONEONMONDAY!!!!” I sounded like a donkey.

Cutest. Baby. Ever

This is what 11 months looks like

You know how annoying it is when you type something on your computer and then you go back to check on it and your computer has turned on you, decides what you've written is garbage and now it's gone?  That happened to me last night.  I hate that.  So, round two.

11 months! What are your thoughts about how to refer to a baby's age after it turns one. I think I can still get on board with the month by month, like, "she's 16 months." But I think I draw the line after 19 months.  20 months?  What, you gonna card her next month? I digress.  Back to 11 months.

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead

About a month ago, Eric, Grace and I took a trip to Detroit for business. My business. Eric was responsible for Grace during the day while I went to work.  A complete role reversal.  They had a great time together while doing lots of sightseeing and field trips. When we would meet up at the end of the day, Eric was quick to praise the job I've done with Grace and quick to pour himself a glass something strong. I get it. I reaaaallly get it. Babies will take everything you got, and still want more.  He also remarked, almost everyday, how much attention he got for being a dad.

This is what 10 months looks like

At the end of this week, I will have an 11 month old baby, which means I'm going to blink, and we will be celebrating her first birthday.  What strikes me about this is that everyone who meets Grace now, for the first time, will only know her as a big baby, a mini person who can actually do stuff.  Sometimes I want to say to these new people, hang on a sec, let me bring you up to speed.  You see, just mere days ago she was really small and I had to carry her everywhere and she didn't ever sleep and I went a little nutty and then she rolled over for the first time when she was three months old! And she sat up so early, and she could wave bye-bye when she was four months old! Then she started pulling herself up on all fours, and then, it took awhile...but she crawled! Look at her now, she's almost ready to walk!  

But that's the sort of rant that gets you labeled as the "crazy mom." I know you get it, though, fellow parents, or really anyone who is invested in the life of a baby. They change SO FAST, that just when you get one stage under some semblance of control, they change the game on ya, yet again. And I feel that warrants an explanation, somehow. Like, my baby has been so many different babies this year, you really are just meeting the most recent version of her. There is a lot more than meets the eye with this one!

Ok crazy.

But I know you get it.

Save September

September!

Who loves September? I do! I do! Garden produce, the brisk morning air, shorter days...all these things whisper of the season to come, while still maintaining glorious Indian Summer afternoons, warm enough to wear flip flops and T shirts. September smells like freshly sharpened pencils, it sounds like football Sundays, (Mondays...and Thursdays. And Saturdays)  and it looks magnificent -- everything seems to take on a golden hue as we hang on to the tail end of summer.

This is what nine months looks like

It's that time again!  Time to jot down some of the incredible and adorable things baby girl has been up to this month.  Let's start with stats, shall we?  At 18 lbs 2 oz, Grace is weighing in at the 46th percentile, while her height, 2' 4.5," puts her in the 76th percentile, all with a noggin to make her mom proud, in the 70th percentile.  Wonder who she takes after.  This is interesting because she used to be just above average for both height and weight, and now she's just long and kind of lanky, but still chubby. The best.

Can we stop having fun now?

Alright, summer.  Uncle.

When I decided to start this blog, I thought I would post a few little snippets each week.  That's  proving to be nearly impossible.  Between tending to my baby, my house, and my high maintenance dog, there's little time left.  And what's left gets spent on fun summer stuff.

Lately though, the fun summer stuff is taking up the biggest piece of the time-pie.  And it's SO FUN.  But as we near the end of August, the "dog days" of summer, (it's 60 degrees as I write this. wtf.) I feel kind of like a drug addict;  thinking, planning, crafting my next summer adventure. It can't be almost over! We just started!  I only got one pedicure!  The people only got to see one shade of red on my toes for the whole summer!

Do you do this too?  Cram as much fun as humanly possible into twelve weeks? By the end I'm so full of fun it's hard to even see straight.

This is what eight months looks like

Disclaimer: This post is entirely self-serving.  It's my own little online scrapbook so I remember what Grace was like at 8 months. 

Congratulations to Eric and me!  With much help from our families, we have successfully kept another human being alive for almost nine months.  This is no small task.  (Trust me. More on this another time).

What should get top billing for month 8?  Crawling!  Ladies and gentlemen, we have mobility.  And it is a game changer. I can put her in the middle of our living room surrounded by toys and she can get whatever she wants by herself, even find me in the kitchen if she so chooses.  Awesome.  She can also escape the living room and find her way to any number of cords, dog bones, outlets, and endless amounts of seemingly innocent objects which now strike terror into the heart of this mother.  Scary.