Mush Daddy Mush

Daddy is in training for the 2009 Musher's Festival. Gracie thinks he has a long way to go but he's making progress....gradually. Gracie is a good trainer as she tells Daddy "go, go." She still looks at Daddy with a twinkle of disappointment in her big blue eyes after seeing the sled dogs run full speed for 20 minutes pulling full grown adults at the Musher Festival we attended yesterday. How tough can it be to sprint pulling a little baby? Plenty of work to be done!

It's a Bird, It's a Plane.....

It's Super Grace!

Grace clearly had no time to be waiting around for Mommy or Daddy to help her up to reach the wind tunnel at the Children's Museum.

Fast "Woof Woofs"

Grace, Rebecca, & I went north to Bridgton, Maine on Saturday for the Musher's Festival. There were seventeen sled dog teams from northern New England and Canada competing for the fastest six and eight dog teams. The dogs are amazing athletes ~ they whip themselves into a frenzy when they are harnessed before the race, all barking & jumping crazily as the excitement of the race overcomes them. They apparently have plenty of energy left as they sprint for 20+ minutes pulling an adult on a dog sled. Daddy has some work to do before pulling Gracie in the race next year.

Seeing Spots!

Grace continues to love ladybugs! Grace enjoys riding, pushing, pulling, and carrying her ladybug wheely all around our house and playing in her ladybug tent.

Love of Learning

I feel so fortunate to be home full-time with my beautiful daughter. It is a true gift to watch Grace grow and learn so many new things each and every day. I love seeing the sparkle in Grace's eyes and joy in her movements when she learns something new. I am in awe of Grace ~ she is only thirteen months old and she truly loves to learn. Whenever I'm asked what Grace likes the first thought that comes to mind is that Grace loves learning. Grace now names twelve letters all by herself (a, b, c, e, g, i, k, m, o, p, r, t). She loves to point to letters in books and name them. Just this week, Grace started recognizing her name in print and she says "ace" when asked, "What is your name?" Grace has also begun to fill in the letters a and e in her name when I start spelling her name out loud. Grace says "three" in response to, "1, 2....." Grace also names many shapes including circle, star, heart, triangle & oval and identifies squares and rectangles. She says the words open/close, up/down, stop/go & in/out during her play. Grace also uses many signs. Her favorite sign this week is, "my turn." Grace can name many signs when she sees them including: more, all done, my turn, hot, cold, hat, book, cat, mommy, daddy, stop, go, bus, apple, cheese, toast, drink, eat, up, down, open, close, train, car, where, and jump. This week Grace has been trying to jump! When Grace hears the word "jump" she squats down as far as she can and pops up quickly. Her feet have yet to leave the floor but the effort is there. Grace rolled over head first for the first time tonight. Grace has also been dancing A LOT! Much to our delight, we find Grace dancing in her crib when she first wakes up in the morning. Grace also dances whenever she hears music and she even dances upon seeing something that she knows makes music. Grace fills our lives with great joy, happiness, and laughter. She is the light of our lives.

Our little Gracie girl joined a gym! Thank you Memere & Pepere for Grace's membership to Jungle Gym. Grace and I had our first "Java class" at the gym this morning. Grace amazed me with her ability to climb a rock wall, jump on a trampoline, ride a bike, play in a ball pool, swing, slide, and dance. I am also very, very proud of Grace for using so many words at the gym today too! Grace used words to tell me the following: ball, bike, jump, hop, up, down, help, go, stop, all done, more, hi, bye-bye, my turn, thank you, and please.

Go Patriots!

Because we live in Graceland, we have not yet seen the AFC Championship football game where our Patriots play the Chargers. The game has been over for a few hours now and somehow we managed not to hear who won. Now that Grace is sleeping soundly in her crib, we are getting ready to watch the big game that we recorded earlier today. GO PATRIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!

This picture of Grace was taken earlier today at the Children's Museum. It was SO COLD today so we thought that it would be a fun place to spend the day inside. Grace wholeheartedly agreed. Here Grace did her best Lawrence Maroney impression and ran untouched to the "endzone." For Grace, her endzone was the farm display at the museum. Nevertheless, Grace carried that egg like a true champ!

Amazing Grace

Our Social Butterfly

Grace and I participated in a Kindermusik class today, which focuses on music and movement education for children. The instructor had all the children sit with their parent in a large circle while she informed us that every class is begun with a hello song. When Grace heard this she promptly stood up and ran into the center of the circle. Before I knew what was happening, Grace started waving her hands and saying, "hi, hi, hi," loudly and quickly while turning her body so that everyone in the circle could see her and say hi back. The majority of the children in the class were three years of age or older but this certainly didn't stop our little Gracie girl from making herself known!

GRACE LOVES THE SNOW (and it's a very good thing because we have lots of it)!

We are in the middle of a big Nor'easter! These pictures of our snow loving Gracie girl were taken shortly after noon time today. At that time we already had received over a foot of snow and the "heavy snow" isn't even supposed to arrive until three o'clock this afternoon. It's supposed to continue to snow heavily overnight too. Grace had so much fun playing in the fresh new snow today. The best sound in the entire world is hearing Grace giggle and squeal, which she was doing lots of today while walking in the snow with her boots!

A Girl's Day Out!

Grace was so excited to have cousin Rose visit her in Maine today. We were very happy to see Memere, Pepere, and Grace's second cousin John too! Grace and Rose spent an amazing day together at the Children's Museum. The two girls had so much fun and are already such great friends. It is very endearing for Bob & I to watch the two girls interact and it's especially sweet to see them hug, kiss, share, and play together. Grace & Rose put on a lovely show for us. Rose performed a puppet show while Grace provided the musical accompaniment with her musical drum tube. Bravo girls!

Grace loved watching herself in the fun mirror. She was one big smile as she kept walking to and from the mirror to see her image change!

As if from a Shakespeare play, Madame Rose is ready to take charge of the kingdom! Rose had great fun dressing up in the many costumes at the museum. A future stage actress, perhaps?!!

It's A Wonderful Life In Maine

LOBSTER!!!!

Our Snow Girl!

Grace and I built a snow girl together this morning.

Isn't she beautiful! ;) Grace used grapes for the eyes, a carrot for the nose, and shelled edamame to make the happy smiling mouth. Grace was nice enough to share her scarf and choose one of her hats to complete the look! Grace and I had so much fun this morning. We can't wait to going back outside after lunch to build another snowman!

Look At Me!

Grace spent a fun and a very busy day at the Children's Museum. Gracie girl had the whole world in her hands!Grace practiced kicking balls with Daddy and worked very hard as a fire girl!

Grace especially enjoyed the new addition to the museum ~ a ball that is nearly as big as Grace. The large size of the ball definitely did not stop our little one from picking it up and proudly walking around the museum with it!

Between the Woods and Frozen Lake..... (Robert Frost, 1922)

After several days of below zero and single digit temperatures, we enjoyed the much welcomed double digit temperatures today. We had such a fun time pulling Grace on her sled on the lake across from our house. Grace enjoyed greeting the many ice fishermen, snowmobilers, and fellow sledders that were also enjoying the beautiful day on the lake. Grace dragged her right mitten in the snow the entire time ~ we think she wanted to leave her little mark in the snow amongst all of the other large snowmobile tracks.

Grace

Thirteen Months Old!

Grace is 13 months old today. Grace has made tremendous achievements over the past month. She is now able to identify the following lowercase letters: a, i, o, and t. Grace also identifies the uppercase letters A, B, and O. Grace will spontaneously name the letters b, t, i, and o when she sees them in books or upon seeing the Leap Frog letters on our refrigerator. Grace continues to love books. Her favorite books now are Goodnight Vermont and Goodnight Moon. Grace also loves drawing with markers, crayons, and paint. She is able to build a four block tower and she especially enjoys knocking it down once it is built. Grace loves puzzles too. She matches puzzle pieces to their corresponding picture and is able to put knob puzzles in their correct place. Grace identifies several shapes including circles, stars, hearts, and pentagons (the pentagon is her favorite shape!!). Grace's language skills continue to take off each and every day! Her favorite words are: bye-bye, hot, all done, hi, up, please, cracker, and apple. Daddy calls Grace the safety inspector of our household because she informs us many, many, many times per day that the iron and stove are "hot" and that the refrigerator and snow are "brrrr" (cold). Within the past few days Grace has started to raise both hands up to ask, "Where?" and for the very first time today Grace climbed up on our couch all by herself (uh-oh!). A few of Grace's favorite things are: apples, Elmo, books, letters, music & dancing, blocks, puzzles, her ladybug tent, animals, the Children's Museum, her toy iron (!), and playing with her kitchen set and dolls.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2008