Operation Butterball and Other Updates

::Note: It is 9:30 pm as I begin this entry and Grace JUST fell asleep. She did not nap at all today. I repeat - NO NAP! Don't be surprised if the following entry puts you to sleep - it is about to be my nightcap - so no hard feelings.::

Having a mobile child - and one that opts to ignore nap time - does not allow a lot of time for blogging. So here are a few quick updates.

First, Grace and I went to Boise for a few days...to get my hair cut and my nails done. Yep, I drove 5 hours... with an 8 month old... just so I could have someone babysit while I beautified. Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?!

I got back from Boise just in the nick o' time to drive to Seattle...with Grace...for Court's cousin's bridal shower. Too much driving with a small child makes Katie an extremely cranky girl. The good news? I got a picture of Grace and her grandmother and her great grandmother.

The shower was lovely. One of the bride-to-be's new relatives is a 10 year old girl who has some SERIOUS baby sitting skills. I mean she was like a babysitting prodigy...she definitely had about 8 kids in a previous life...I mean she acted like she had already birthed and raised 4 kids of her own. It was crazy! I honestly felt more comfortable leaving Grace with her than I do with most adults. (Too bad she lives in Oklahoma or I would put her on the payroll STAT!) I was already excited about attending this winter wedding in San Diego - but warm, sunny weather AND a babysitter?! All in the same day?! Guess who's getting crazy and cutting loose at that wedding?!

In other news, Grace's gastronomical adventures continue. She is now eating anything steamed, pureed and bottled by Gerber. She has mastered the Gerber puffs, Cheerios and Kix. She LOVES crunching. She likes avocados and bananas. I tried putting some peach in a mesh thing, I am still a bit scared about the whole choking incident

but she had no idea what to do with it. So far, there are no obvious dislikes. Looks like we are right on schedule to have her eating oysters and sushi by age two.

:: By the way, BIG thanks to all the email support/phone calls in regards to the entry I posted about Grace nearly choking to death - thanks to you all, Grace will be eating something besides applesauce and yogurt when she is 10 years old!::

She enjoys chomping on her spoon...

and grunting. She is definitely getting more and more...uhhh, shall we say vocal? When we see other kids/babies while out and about she starts smiling and grunting. She definitely wants to be social and I feel bad because we have no one her age here in town for her to play with. Next month, we start a Mommy & Me class so hopefully we'll meet some new friends.

Here she is trying her first scrambled egg yolk (who knew that babies under 1 can't have egg whites??)

She tackled her first "cookie"...or teething biscuit. Cookie sounds so much better than teething biscuit, don't you think?

All this eating and Grace has yet to double her birth weight. My rickety bathroom scale (which I don't totally trust...although the numbers are moving in the right direction for me lately so I am running with it) puts Grace at 17.5 lbs. (I think she and Lindey now weigh the same...although my money is on Lindey for still being heavier.)

Grace is definitely a mover and a shaker. She crawls and pulls herself up on anything and everything ALL day. Her preferred method of movement...crab walking.

And now, what you have all been waiting for....madly scanning through this entry to get to...the Operation Butterball update. Operation Butterball began exactly three weeks ago. At that time, I had 48 sticks of butter to shed. I am extremely proud to report that I am lighter by 22 sticks of butter!! Not too shabby. I "rewarded" myself by trying on a pair of my pre-preggo jeans. I was pleasantly surprised because they fit! I wasn't expecting that at all. (I did try on another pair and I still had a bit of a muffin top going on...or a lot of muffing top going on...but whatever, I am focusing on the positive.) The overwhelming fact remains - I still have 26 sticks of butter to lose...26!!!...and I have a feeling, that once I get there, things just won't be the same.

Finally, I will leave you with what Grace doing her two favorite things...

Looks like it won't be long until this one is going to need a full length mirror...and a pullup bar!