A Big Helper!

Gracie does her part to help out with the laundry on Mother's Day!!!!!!

A Dream Come True

I am overjoyed to have the opportunity to tell everyone what a wonderful and selfless mother Rebecca is. Rebecca tirelessly takes every waking moment with Grace as an opportunity to expand and enlighten Grace's view of the world. Rebecca's precious few moments of free time are spent reading and learning about how she can make Grace's life better. I so admire Rebecca's dedication to being the best Mother ever - she certainly had a wonderful role model in Mary Ann and Rebecca has inherited her wondrous maternal instincts and desire to make her child's life as rich and fulfilling as possible. Thank you Rebecca for being the best Mother I could ever imagine. Bob and Lil' Bit (co-author).

Big Girl Sitting by the Ocean

We stopped for lunch today at a place called the Sea Shack. It is a dive right next to the ocean that gets its seafood directly off the fishing boats -- there were clamers working in the marsh directly behind Grace. The plates were paper, the food was fried, and customer service took a backseat to the food quality and location. However, the end result was great seafood as we proudly watched our Amazing Grace sit on her own while feeling the fresh green grass and looking at the spring dandelions. Grace truly enjoyed herself and there wasn't anything in the world at that moment that would have made us more fulfilled or happier than watching our precious Gracie girl.

Sleeveless!

It has been over 80 degrees here for the past three days. Yipeeeeeee. This type of weather is practically unheard of in Maine for the month May. Grace and I are loving every moment of it!

I Love the Great Outdoors

Mommy and I had lots of fun playing outside this morning thanks to Daddy! He set up my new sun tent for me so that Mommy and I can play safely outside without worrying about getting too much sun. There is so much I have learned by being outside. There is so much for me to see, to touch, and to smell. Here are just a few things that I love about the great outdoors:

I love to open my mouth wide and feel the wind blow
I love to feel the blades of grass with my hands
I love to listen to the sound of a babbling brook near our home
I love the way the pine needles on the trees tickle my feet
I love to hear the birds sing
I love to go on walks with Mommy and our three cats through the woods
I love to walk to the lake to see the sparkling blue water

"May Flower in Full Bloom"

The learning theme this month continues to be focused around Spring, with more of an emphasis on leaves and flowers. Grace and I have been giddy with excitement that the weather in May has been so sunny and warm. We have taken full advantage of the beautiful weather by going on nature walks every day. In the beginning of May, I would talk to Grace about the buds on the trees and flowers. We closely examined many trees and flowers, eagerly anticipating the first dash of color to appear. Each day we became more and more excited as we watched the buds grow bigger and bigger. On Wednesday we took a morning walk and noticed the first sprinkling of green on the trees and yellow on our daffodils. Later that day when Daddy came home from work, we went on a family walk and much to Grace and my delight, all the leaves on the trees had opened to a brilliant green and the flowers had bloomed. Grace was inspired by all of the bright and beautiful Spring colors so she painted a purple hand flower shown here to celebrate the greatest gift that Spring has to offer -- color!

I Love Those Raspberries!

"GBGB" (Gracie Big Girl Baby) has made incredible progress with her lip trilling thanks to lots of fun work with Mommy. Grace loves to hear raspberry sounds and she also does big girl raspberries on her own!

Cousins!

Grace loved watching all of her cousins playing!

Grace & cousin Rose shared their favorite books with each other! The whole team is in this picture - Rose (2 years old), Julia and Grace (5 years and 5 months) and Andrew (2 years). Grace loved spending time with her cousins. She really appreciated Julia and Andrew driving down from New Hampshire with their Mom (Bob and Rebecca's cousin Kathy) and Grace's Great Aunt Jeannine. Grace really enjoyed playing with Julia and especially loved her long hair - Grace even took some souvenier pieces!

Gracie goes to Leominster, Massachusetts!

Grace had a great time at Memere & Pepere's house on Saturday. Grace loves to read books with Memere - even better when she can eat the book too. Memere made a great lunch for everyone though Gracie stuck to her avocado and banana puree - yummmmmmy.

Gracie loves to be held by Pepere. Pepere does a great job of changing positions as Grace always wants to see everything going on around her. Grace is very thankful that Pepere came up three weeks ago and helped Daddy prepare the floor for a cushy new carpet in the living room. Thank you Pepere!

Grace shares her excitement that Auntie Allison is pregnant again! Grace loves her cousin Rose and she can't wait to have another little cousin to play with. Allison and Steve are expecting their second bundle of joy in October. Cousin Rose is very excited and is ready to move to a big girl bed to make room for her new brother or sister!

Our Little Princess(es)

If you look closely at the basket underneath Grace, you can see that Grace had a little friend accompany her in the stroller. Bob's parent's dogs, Booda and Belle, came on our nice walk to Uncle Ron and Aunt K's house on Saturday. Belle is much more into being pampered than working out so she decided her needs would be best served riding with Grace than walking. She gladly rode in the stroller half-way to their house and the whole ride back.

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo!

A little guacamole........Ole!

We need your HELP!

From Rebecca and my unbiased perspective, Grace is clearly the cutest baby in the world. Sadly, this notion has not been validated on a national, nor even in a statewide forum. Fortunately, our local WJBQ Q Morning Radio Show is having a Maine Baby Idol Contest that will lay claim to any baseless claims of "the competition." We entered Grace in this "cutest baby" competition which runs from May 5th to May 18th. Anyone may vote by sending an email (20 per day max per computer) to qmorningshow@wjbq.com with 684 in the subject line (any other characters in the subject line will void the vote!). The other method of voting is to send a phone text message to 68255 with the keyword Qbaby followed by a space then 684. Again, any other added characters will void the vote!

As you can see above, Grace is clenching her "Q" and biting her nails with her two new bottom teeth as she nervously awaits the results of the WJBQ contest. Please vote daily, as many times and in as many ways as you can, for our beautiful Grace.

To confirm that Gracie is the cutest baby in the world, please visit:
http://207.126.125.50/gallery/album42/798_grace2006_adelphia_net

THANK YOU - We love you all. Bob, Rebecca & Grace

Changes!

Grace has changed so much since she turned five months old on Wednesday. What a difference a few days makes. Grace is now rolling her body to get from one side of a room to the other. She is very quick with her rolling....one roll right after the other until she reaches her desired destination. Grace is also sitting on her own now for minutes at a time and sometimes with both hands free to play. Grace has also discovered that she can shake toys to make a wide variety of sounds. This is quite fun to watch - Grace's little arms go up and down so fast that her whole body shakes! Grace is using both hands to hold on to two different toys too! Grace also has teeth now --not one but TWO teeth! Since Wednesday, two perfectly white teeth have appeared on her lower gum ridge. Furthermore, Grace has discovered a variety of new sleeping positions. Much to my surprise I have been finding Grace on her side or stomach while sleeping in her crib. So many changes in just two days. It's going to be an exciting month ahead for our Gracie girl.

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things.....

Grace adores our three cats -- Emma, Good P, & Lil' Bit (pictured here).

Grace Can Sit All By Herself Now!

Grace has been sitting on her own for several seconds at a time for the past several weeks but today, on her five month birthday, she dazzled Mommy & Daddy by sitting up by herself for almost two whole minutes! We are SO very proud of our Gracie girl.
Grace stunned us by sitting and using her hands to hold onto a book too. What balance! She is an amazing girl.

Five Months Old!

Grace is five months old today!Here is what Grace is doing now ---

• Dropping toys to see where they land
• Localizing to sounds from all directions
• Watching and petting Emma, Lil' Bit & Good P
• Moving - Grace is now rolling her body 3-4 times to get to toys that are out of reach!
• Sitting & standing with support - no more laying down!
• Sitting alone for a few seconds all by herself
• Teething- white bumps have appeared on Grace's bottom gum ridge
• Going on nature walks with Mommy
• Eating! Grace loves homemade butternut squash, acorn squash, sweet potatoes, apples, oatmeal, avocado, & bananas......and so many more new and exciting foods to come this month!
• Music & dancing
• Laughing at silly sounds, animal sounds & peek-a-boo
• Using both hands together and transferring toys from one hand to the other
• Favorite toys: Ella the Elephant, Glow Worm, the "Q" (mouthing toy), mirrors, bubbles
• Favorite books: Goodnight Maine, It's Spring, Crunch Munch, Wiggle Waggle, Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, Baby Einstein Animal Discovery Cards
• Favortie Songs: Rawhide, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Fingers & Toes
• Smiling at familiar rhymes, words, and songs!
• Using the crib bumper to pull herself up!
• Removing a cloth from her face during peek-a-boo
• Making new sounds every day -- loud ones, quiet ones, silly ones

You Know You're a Daddy When......

If it makes her happy, then I will gladly check my Man pride at the door. Such is the case when Gracie became very excited at the site of this exersaucer when we visited Babies R' Us this afternoon. The only logical thing to do was to find the nearest associate and say, "We'll take that one please." Well, it happened to be the very last exersaucer so Daddy promptly picked it up, brought it to the nearest register, and proudly carried it out of the store. If Gracie likes it, Gracie gets it.

Rawhide......WHAT HAVE WE DONE?!!?!?

I don't quite remember how it evolved but Grace's favorite song is "Rawhide" from the 1959 Western. Yikes! I think most babies have favorite songs like "Old MacDonald" or the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" but not our Grace. Bob & I have downloaded Rawhide from YouTube and play it daily (many, many, many, many, many times) for our Grace because we always get such a great reaction from her whenever she hears it. We also have choreographed a special dance to go along with the song. I think Grace's love of Rawhide all started when she was a newborn and I would sing "move 'em up, move 'em down" and "keep movin' movin' movin" to her while moving her arms and legs. Over time this catchy tune (???) has become part of her daily routine and once Grace started rolling it became a classic in our house........"rollin' rollin' rollin' keep the Gracie rollin'". We find ourselves making up differnt lyrics to the Rawhide tune all the time too! This is the reaction we always get from Grace whenever she hears this song:
Here is a link you can click on to hear Rawhide:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9VFWpE41ws
Viewer discretion advised: This song will get stuck in your head ALL day and KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT! Rollin' rollin' rollin'.........

There is no substitute for books in the life of a child. (1952)~ Mary Ellen Chase ~

Fun in the Sun

"Look at me playing outside in SHORT SLEEVES! All day yesterday Mommy, Emma, Lil' Bit, Good P and I played outside under a tree. We also went for long walks and I didn't even need to wear a coat. I love the warm weather!"