Challenger completes its final challenge

OMG I just made it through a very long week.  I have two days off in a row this weekend and I am SO excited!  My plans include the farmer's market, student graduation parties and playing with Grace.  Jason has been really busy too because he has been on baby duty with not much break, plus he has had a lot of symphony work this week.  He also installed this:

Jason managed to install and wire this during Grace's naps and also with her looking on from her pack and play.  She'll be a good helper some day!  Our old one was making some horrible death throes before it finally refused to open.  

We don't know how ancient this is, but we do know that it is too old to purchase a second door opener for it.  We used to do this delicate dance with the single opener and the car that would be arriving home first, but now we have TWO openers, a sensor so we don't squish anything, and a keyless entry!  My cup runneth over with all these fancy amenities.  Jason of course has wanted a new opener this whole time and humored me by putting up with the old one.  Maybe he sabotaged it... nah.  

What would a blog posting be without a picture of Grace?  Here she is enjoying one of her favorite finger foods: beans!  They might be a distant second to her very favorite food: Cheerios.  She inhales them and starts wiggling in her chair like crazy when we get out the box.  She is a little tired in this picture because it is right before bedtime.  She goes to bed at 5:30 or 6, can you believe it?  She sleeps for 12 hours so we figure it must be right, as ridiculous as it sounds.      

And here is a short one for you.  The morning after the shower, we still had all the metal folding chairs arranged in a row in the living room, and I was cracking up watching her creep back and forth in her pjs and bang on each one.  She is growing so fast!  I love watching her babble quietly to herself while she "reads" her books. I'll keep trying to catch it on video for you all, but she gets distracted by the camera.  Happy Memorial Day to everyone and I hope you are also enjoying a relaxing break!    

A Bowling Ball Belly

I was honored to be the one to host Gini's baby shower!  It was a labor of love.  When I say labor I mean it was a ton of work, and by love I mean it was so much fun putting it together and was totally worth it.  

Gini loves books, so I thought a library themed shower would be perfect.  I didn't receive many books before Grace was born, and I went crazy buying books for her because I was dying of boredom reading the same dozen over and over to her.  This should not happen to a book lover such as Gini!  I stole a lot of my ideas from Martha Stewart, including this invitation template.  It was originally in pinks and purples, but I photoshopped bright colors more conducive to baby boys and more importantly Gini's aesthetic.  I attached blue ribbon to the bookmarks and wrote the invitee's name on them.    

I made these book garlands that I also saw on the Martha Stewart website.  I sacrificed book pages from one of Jason's old fantasy novels.  I hot glued silk flowers, ribbons and paper stars to the string and attached the books with multicolored miniature clothespins.  

I also did a nursery rhyme theme for the food and games.  These were called Goldilocks and the three tea sandwiches.  They are moon shaped with paper star toothpicks.  

We also ate Humpty Dumpty deviled eggs, Jack Horner thumbprint plum cookies, Mary Quite Contrary fruit skewers, Jack and Jill's pail of mango iced tea and Sugar and Spice cake.  The cupcakes have images of Golden Books as toppers, thanks to the blog Aesthetic Nest which provided the template.

Our wonderful friend Anne was my cohost for the shower, and provided among other things the cake and cupcakes.  Here she is putting the finishing touches on the frosting.  

But enough of that, on to the actual shower part!  Gini was really excited to receive "Go the F*$& to Sleep!" from a pastor friend, no less!  She is surrounded by her aunt and mother who made a long drive from Ohio for the shower.  That is some serious pressure!  Luckily they seemed very pleased by the whole thing and even INSISTED on washing all of the dishes for me afterward.  Grace and kitty, her favorite stuffed animal, approved of the gifts from a perfect vantage point.  

I tried to catch everyone on their way out the door so that they could receive these lamb shaped sugar cookies I made as favors.  I discovered sugar cookies are hard!  Or maybe I was just impatient.  They tasted good I thought, but they only sort of look like lambs.  The little poem helped get the idea across.  

Gini is so absolutely gorgeous with her bowling ball belly.  We love you so much!  

Playing Ball

We have been working on playing pass the ball and she is starting to get it!  Jason caught the tail end of our playing session on camera yesterday. 

She has also started to clap a little bit!  

Bunny is soooooooo big!

Thought I'd post some cute pictures for you all!

Our Grace is still working on her standing and walking skills.  She has perfected her cuteness skills as you can see.

She LOVES hanging out with Daddy and gets super excited when he walks in the room.  It is so fun to see!

She enjoys reading and pulls books out all the time.  Apparently, they are just as good upside down.  We read these books so often that we have much of them memorized and recite them in conversation.  Sorry to our non parent friends because we probably sound like crazy people now.  Our favorite as many of you know is from Pat the Bunny.  "How big is bunny?  Bunny is soooooo big!"  Grace loves Pat the Bunny too.  She likes to wave at Paul and Judy on the last page!  It says "Paul and Judy are waving bye-bye to you."  

She is so curious and loves getting into everything!