Baby Steps

Grace is walking now!  I've attached a video of course, but these aren't her first steps, nowhere close.  She has actually been walking for a little while, but we've had trouble catching it on camera.  Every time I get out the camera, she drops to her knees so she can get over to me quickly, because she LOVES watching herself on video!  She has been taking one or two tiny steps for over a month now, but on August 24th she finally took 5 big steps, right in front of both Mom and Dad.  Ever since then, it has been a mission to capture the elusive walking on video.  Every day, she gets a little bolder.  Finally, some proof for the blog!  

Fourth of July Parade

On the Fourth of July, we were staying at my parent's house at the beach.  Their town has an annual parade.

Grace's first parade!  

Grace took it all in thoughtfully.  

The parade mostly consisted of sparsely decorated midlife crisis convertibles and families riding bikes.  This is one of the few floats we saw.  It is a vehicle masquerading as an aquarium, I guess?

What is a parade without a band?  This one had a lady "playing" a recorder and a man banging on a bowl with a wooden spoon.  Retired hippies I'm guessing?

I'm not sure how this lady's black angel bug face costume is patriotic, but she was giving away free balloons so that was cool.

I'm not sure if there were more people in the parade or watching the parade, but it was a charming small town tradition!

Clamming 2012

Last time we visited my parents, my Dad took us clamming.  It was such a neat experience and I wanted to go again!  So we did.

Then of course we enjoyed the clams on the barbecue.  We put some on the barbecue just as is, and that was quite wonderful.  After cleaning, soaking, peeling, pounding and chopping the necks, we also had tasty clam steaks to devour. 

We had plenty for a massive batch of clam chowder as well! 

Kitty Snuggles

It finally happened.  Tosca let Grace snuggle her!  It is like a big, warm stuffed animal.  

Going to the Park

We went to a park one day while visiting Jason's brother's family.  

Grace experienced swings for the first time and she really enjoyed it!  For a short time.  

Grace also played in a sandbox for the first time.  The brothers observed the play.

I think you can see that she was loving that!  

She took her role as ship Captain very seriously.  

This is my 201st posting.  Congratulations to me that I have so many good things to share!

Hugging Cousins

Hello all!  I'm slowly going through all of our summer trip photos, of which there are MANY.  I especially have a ton from our visit with Jason's brother's family.  The cousins were so adorable together!   

This is one of my favorites.  Sophia is showing off her stuffed kitty to Grace.  Ella made it her mission to hug Grace as many times as possible.  Grace tolerated it most of the time.

These two are only 9 months apart and seemed to hit it off really well.  It was such a blast watching the three cousins play together!  I think it is safe to say that meeting her cousins was Grace's favorite part of the vacation.  She loves to hang out with other children.

Jason went on a downhill mountain bike ride with his brother that resulted in some nasty flesh wounds, but luckily no broken bones.  Other than that, it was a pretty low key visit.  We ate a lot of good food, went for walks, but mostly just played with the girls.  It was a very enjoyable time.

Well, most of the time!



*Jason was being silly and just pretending to be distressed in this picture.  There is no way that 3 screaming girls would shake his rock solid nerves.*

A Little Reorganizing

I don't think you all would want to miss out on this cuteness.  She does this whole body hug that I love!

This is a video of her reorganizing her changing table.  It isn't the most exciting video we've ever done, but watching her put something AWAY is worth it to me!  I love how she announces she is "done" after putting each diaper on the shelf.  I think this is her most recently acquired word.