The Crank!

Most of last week and through the weekend Grace was in a funk. She was a constant crank. Considering she cannot talk this is very frustrating because I cannot say: Grace, what the heck is your deal? It gave David and I a chance to work on our patience. Of course, we had a photography session scheduled with Libby and of course Grace was a fuss bucket. After a 5 minute power nap in Mom's arms she perked up and allowed Libby to capture some pictures of her good side. Go to http://libbylewisphotography.com/blog/?p=415 to check out a few of the pictures. This is just a sneak peek to all the pics. The rest won't be ready for a few more days. Thanks, Libby! Even though Grace was a crank, David and I still had fun.

The wait continues

The guessing game continues...will they stay blue, will they shift slightly to green or will they go brown?! One just doesn't know. Eye color usually comes out when a baby is anywhere between 3 and 9 months. David and I frequently find ourselves inspecting Grace's eyes for a brown fleck or a sign of some color change. This is made quite difficult by the squirmy Grace who doesn't stay still for two seconds let alone look you in the eye for two seconds. So we wait..... Here is a good shot for everyone to inspect Grace's eyes and make your own predictions. For assistance: Mom has dark brown eyes and Dad has green eyes.

Dinner anyone?

If adults were this flexible would we suck on our toes?! Most likely not considering we walk around and our feet are not exactly the definition of clean. Grace sees this differently as the picture above displays. She loves to suck on her toes. I throw her for a loop when I put shoes on her because she can't quite figure out where the tasty treat has gone. Oh Grace....

4 Months Old!

Where has the time gone? Grace turned 4 months old on Monday. She had her 4 month check up today and in short, as my sister would put it, we have another tall, skinny, pinhead in the making! Grace weighed in at 12 pounds 2 ounces and is 25 inches tall. She is the 25th percentile for weight, 75th percentile for height and 10th percentile for head! I swear, smart brains do come in small packages. At 4 months Grace loves to be on the move! She would be walking if she could. For now she will settle for the occassional army crawl/scoot. She enjoys watching football with Dad, really she does. Maybe it's the bright lights and all or maybe she is preparing for the days when she can play sports. Who knows. Above is Grace's 4 month pic. It's getting increasingly more difficult to capture this picture because Grace's hands have taken up permanent residence in her mouth. It's tough breaking ground on a few teeth!

Stay tuned. I am sure there are many more fun filled stories to come and before we know it another month will have flown by!

Sibling Love

Since shortly after I got pregnant--Robby and Lizzy knew something was up. For 3 long years they ran the household until that terrible day in May when this little thing entered the house. It wasn't until a week or two ago that Grace actually noticed the cats. Now she gets very excited and wants to pet them constantly. If you hold her next to the kitties she reaches her hand out and grabs their fur. It's quite cute. So far the kitties have been very gentle and haven't lashed out at her--let's hope this continues! We were able to get Robby to sit still long enough to capture a picture of Big Brother Bubba, who outweighs Grace by at least 12 pounds, and little sister Grace. Let's hope the kitties satisfy Grace's desire for a sibling for quite some time.

Worst Idea Yet!

David, Grace and I attended the first regular season game for the Seahawks today! Yay...... Not so yay! I have been going for 3 years now yet somehow forgot just how loud it can be. We went prepared with earplugs and figured we were golden. Grace dozed off to sleep shortly before the game was starting and we thought YES, just like the Mariner's game. Or not. The opening ceremonies were very loud and Grace freaked out. I took her up to the lounge area to wait it out and go back to our seats once that was over. Again, or not. David and I spent the first quarter of the game going up and down thinking that she would settle in. We tried the ear plugs but her ears were just too small to get them in properly so they didn't do the trick. We felt awful when Grace's little bottom lip would stick out and the sad, pathetic cry would begin--it was clear she was petrified. I think we are the worst parents in the world! We spent 75% of the game in the louge watching the game on the TV. The broadcast was about 20 seconds behind the game so we could always tell when something was about to happen!

Just when we thought we were headed home for happier times it took us a mere 48 minutes to get out of the Qwest parking garage and then another 40 minutes to get home. We live maybe 5 miles from the stadium, on the high end.

Moral of the story: almost 4 month old and loud Seahawks game do not mix!

Sorry Gracie!

Can you sleep like that?!

Recently Grace has decided that she would like to sleep on her tummy, every night! We are slowly getting more used to the idea. BACK TO SLEEP has been engrained in David's and my head so we were a little uneasy when she first started rolling herself over in the night and sleeping face down. It doesn't even look comfortable! However, it cracks me up she has her little booty up in the air in this picture. Just to make sure I wasn't missing the boat I checked in with the pediatrician's office. The nurse told me that ideally I would roll her back over until she is 1 year old! Seriously, when would I sleep, I would be rolling my child over every 15 minutes. Trust me, I tried this method when she first started doing this and it made for many sleepless nights for Mom and a Grace who still likes to sleep on her tummy. For now, I have settled for checking on her 3 times a night which still doesn't exactly provide great sleep but better than the suggestion from the nurse!

The Littlest Fan!

After a day where Grace was called a boy 4 times--while dressed in a dress and white cardigan I have decided to dress her like a boy in honor of the start of Husky season tomorrow! We were going to make an appearance at the tailgate but will be on the boat enjoying the beautiful rainy weather with Grandma and Grandpa.

Huskies we wish you luck! Grace will be cheering you on in purple and gold tomorrow.

Above is Grace sitting up wonderfully until she gets too excited looking at the strange light (flash...) and falls over, face plant! Good work G, you are on your way to being very athletic.

GO DAWGS!

To roll or not to roll

As I have mentioned before, Grace is now rolling! She started off rolling from her tummy to her back. Now all she wants to do is roll from her back to her tummy. Anytime I lay her down within seconds she has rolled to her tummy. Here's the problem, she has forgotten how to roll back. We don't quite understand it. It's so simple, drop your shoulder and roll back over. Nope, there is no convincing Grace to do this. It must feel like a really far drop off or something that she just can't commit to.

I knew as I posted the 14 hours sleep story that it was going to come back to bite me. Sure enough it has. Since Grace is the squirmiest baby ever she finds it necessary to ROLL in her sleep. Well, most would find it scary to wake up on your face, half asleep and unable to get back. For the last 5 nights I wake around 3:30 to the sound of angry grunts which get increasing louder the longer I take to get out of bed. Grace is in her crib face down and can't roll back. I feel awful for her and it freaks me out. Each day we are practicing tummy time in hopes that she will master the roll back. No such luck yet.

Above is Grace in her new favorite position. That is until she gets tired of sitting like that and the angry grunts begin.

Real Life Friends

We always talk about Grace's friendies....which consist of various stuff animals and characters on the wall. This time they are real life friends. On Sunday we went to a picnic at Golden Gardens with a few families from our PEPS group. It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time. All the babies were really enjoying one another's company too. Above is a picture of Grace with her friends, her real life friends that is.