Mission Accomplished

My goal every day is to make sure that Grace is happy, healthy, and so tired from all the activity that she's ready for bed at night. When I found her trying to climb into her crib to go night night, I'd say my mission was accomplished.

We had a full day starting at the beach first thing in the morning. The weather was gorgeous, the water was warm, and the sand was the best toy in the world. She squished it, she scooped it, she tasted it, and she got it all in her hair and inside her diaper. The girl could've stayed out there all day.

But we said goodbye to the beach after a short hour because I had a date with my kitchen stove during Grace's nap. I made our Memorial Day meal- pancit, BBQ chicken, and cucumber salad. Unfortunately, I don't know how to cook in small batches so I had a ton of food- way too much for just me and Grace. So I passed some out to my sweet neighbors and headed over to Nellie's to share the fruits of my cooking frenzy.

The rest of the day was spent watching all the kids run around and play while trying to carry on a decent conversation. Grace loves hanging with the boys, just as much as I love hanging with Nellie. It's definitely a win-win kind of situation.

Even with our busy schedule, I was very mindful of the reason why today is a holiday. A big thank you to my husband, who is out there serving our country, and all our service men and women- past and present- for the sacrifices they make to ensure our safety and freedom.

Sweet Sunday

We had a lovely day of doing nothing particularly special. We made it to church early and we didn't even have to go into the baby cry room this week. I always consider that a small victory. And they were giving away free cookies after church today!

Then Grace napped in her stroller while I browsed Barnes and Noble for a possible first novel for a book club that I'm sorta in. I say sorta because club implies a bunch of people. This one only has two- me and Liezel. Possibly her sister too, depending on the kind of books we read. So I'm really nervous about choosing the right kind of book for our starter. I'm super excited about it though because I think it'll be fun.

Last minute, I decided that I wanted to make a special meal for Memorial Day, even if it is just me and Grace. So off to the grocery store we went to get ingredients. On the menu tomorrow- my mom's famous BBQ chicken, pancit, cucumber salad, and brownie bites for dessert.

We ended our day with some play time in the driveway. There were a bunch of rain clouds moving in so I busted out the sidewalk chalk for Grace to use. She got more of it on her clothes than on the driveway. She had fun chasing after the chalk as they rolled all over the driveway because of the wind. The absolute best part was the cat sighting. The poor girl has been trying to look for the cat for over a week without any luck, and she finally saw the 'meow' tonight.

***Just a quick note about the first picture- I painstakingly iron all of her dresses, but after about an hour, they end up looking like that. I don't know why I even bother to iron them if they're going to look that wrinkled after a few minutes.


Her pants are a little big and they kept slipping down. One time, I heard her yell, "Mama! UH-OH!" I thought, great, what did she break now? But when I went to check on her, her pants were around her ankles and she was stuck in that position.

Her face after a cat spotting.

What's Your Name?

For all the words Grace knows how to say, the one important word she refused to say was her name. I would practice with her.

Me: My name is Mama. Your name is Grace. What's my name?
Grace: Mama.
Me: Good job! And what's your name?
Grace: (a 'cricket, cricket' kind of silence)

Hanging above her changing table are the hanging letters Mike made that spell her name. Every time I'm changing her, I'd say, "There's your name- Virginia Grace. That's you! What's your name?" Again, silence. Sometimes she'll laugh and wag her finger at me because she knows she's not supposed to touch them. Not that it stops her. She'll still try to pull them down at every opportunity.

Finally, during one of our practice sessions yesterday, she actually answered my question! Sometimes she says her name is 'Gace' (minus the 'r' and sounds like gays) and sometimes it's 'Race' (minus the 'g'). But it's close enough for me!

We spent some time at the pool today. I've discovered that my child inherited her daddy's quick tanning ability. I slathered her with SPF 50, she wore a rashguard swimsuit with SPF 50 built in, we sat in the shade when she wasn't in the water, and I tried to keep a sunhat on her head. Despite my best efforts, when we got home, the child was tanned! By the time we leave Florida, we are going to look like a couple of tropical natives. Which we kind of are, I suppose, with our Filipino blood. But what's funny is that Filipinos born and raised in the Philippines don't like to get tanned! To them, the paler, the better. Go figure.

The Men that Made Me Cry

Edwin McCain and Peter Cetera- these are the names of the two guys who made me cry today. Edwin McCain's "I Could Not Ask for More" came on the radio and I couldn't help myself; I started to bawl. I'm talking total waterworks. As I'm driving!

The song just made me think what a great life I have and how truly blessed I am. But until I have my husband back, I can't honestly say that I'm completely happy. Grace gives me so much joy every single day, but even in those moments of fun, laughter, and love- it's tainted with a little sadness because Mike is missing out on it.

I just really miss my husband. I wish I could think of a better/stronger adverb to describe the way I miss him. But I can't, so 'really' will just have to do. Just imagine your most favorite person in the whole wide world. The one who, just by their presence, makes you feel like everything will be alright. The one who you have so much fun with, even if y'all are just watching paint dry. The one who knows everything about you and, amazingly, STILL loves you for who you are. Then imagine that you can't be with that person for months and months on end. It's absolute agony.

But I believe in the reasons why he has to be away from us for so long- he's out there defending our country. And so I live with sacrifice, as do many other military families.

So after all that, the radio takes a commercial break and I'm able to pull myself together as I listen to ads for laser hair removal and winning tickets to see Justin Bieber.

Then Peter Cetera's "Glory of Love" came on and it started all over again.

Luckily Grace wasn't afflicted with any kind of melancholy I seemed to have today. Here she is after she asked me to turn on the music (she points to the iPod and says 'dance'). She likes to climb onto the table and shake her little bootie. It's cute today, but she better not be doing this 18 years from now...

Goats, a Doctor, and a Horse

That's a pretty random list of things, but these are all things Grace saw today. She was so exhausted from our busy day that she was asking to go 'night night' before she even had her bath!

We started off with a nature walk in the morning at the Tree Hill Nature Center with my new friend, Liezel. It was a beautiful morning, but the unpaved trails were definitely not friendly to a little rinky-dink umbrella stroller that I was pushing Grace in. And dodging the random spider webs made the walk even more interesting. But the company was great and other than asking for a cracker every once in a while, we didn't hear a peep from Grace, so Leizel and I were able to carry on a decent conversation. The highlight of the walk was the little goat petting area. I didn't realize goats were so cute! Grace was in awe of them and kept calling them horses.

For lunch, we decided to splurge and go to Cheesecake Factory. I was a little nervous about how Grace would do since her track record at restaurants has been less than stellar since she became a toddler, but she did okay today. Thank goodness.

Then after her nap, it was off to her well baby check up. Her pediatrician gave her a clean bill of health, was amazed at her vocabulary, and pronounced that she was a healthy little baby. Emphasis on little. My girl is still petite, but she's growing steadily and that's all that matters. Grace also needed to get some immunizations today. She was a trooper, but when she saw the nurse getting the shots ready, she let out a nervous little, "Uh oh..." I guess the poor girl has done this enough times that she knows what those little needles mean.

We finished our day with a quick trip to the mall to scope out any early Memorial Day weekend specials. It's getting hotter and hotter by the day here and I am sadly lacking in warm weather clothes that fit. I didn't get to shop for very long though since Grace refused to stay in her stroller after only the second store. Then when I was trying on clothes in the dressing room, she kept crawling underneath the divider and into the next dressing room. She also tried to eat some random snacks on the floor that were left by the previous kid who was in the dressing room with their mama. When she nearly put a half eaten lollipop in her mouth, I was so grossed out that I admitted defeat and abandoned Operation Stylish Mama.

It was a packed day and we were constantly on the go. Just the way I like it since it makes the day go by faster. One day down means we're one day closer to Mike being home with us.

Playing before her doctor's appointment.

She finally learned how to climb on her horse all by herself! I now understand why she kept calling those goats horses- they were the same size as her rocking horse and they even look pretty similar.

A Good Friend is Hard to Find

But I definitely found one here in Jacksonville. Nellie insisted I take some time for myself and babysat Grace for a few hours this morning. She actually tried to convince me I'd be doing her a favor if I let her keep Grace for a bit. With her two adorable toddler boys plus my active toddler girl- it was a nice try, but I know who was getting the better end of the deal. And did I mention she's pregnant? Thirty three weeks pregnant. When I was that far along, I was such a whale I could barely move, much less keep up with three toddlers. The woman is an absolute saint.

So I got a much needed haircut and did some shopping. When I'm out and about trying to shop with Grace, I always think, 'if I could just shop solo, I'd be able to buy more stuff for myself since I won't be distracted.' Then I finally get the opportunity and wouldn't you know, I didn't buy a single thing for me- it was all for Grace!

After my fabulous morning, I went to pick up Grace and found that Nellie was able to put her down for a nap. Seriously, is there anything this woman can't do? So we sat around for an hour while all the kids were napping and just chatted it up like a couple of teenagers. I think THAT was actually my favorite part of the day- being able to talk uninterrupted about random girl stuff. What a special treat!

Happy Sweet Sixteen

Lola called this morning to sing Grace a 'Happy Birthday' and to tell me to make sure to get a cupcake for the celebrant. I always listen to my mama, and I NEVER let an opportunity to eat a sweet pass me by. This was a perfect opportunity to check out a cupcake shop that I spotted recently. Grace got a vanilla cupcake with strawberry buttercream icing called 'Katie' and I got a pina colada cupcake with a pineapple cream filling called 'Lola'.

Happy Sweet 16 (Months), my baby girl!

Snippets From Our Day

As I made out my grocery list, Grace colored a picture to send to her Daddy. Notice how she's not satisfied with holding just one crayon. The girl has to have as many as she can hold.

I started trying out the pigtails because I was tired of her ripping out her bows. I guess today she was over the pigtails too.

Play Day

All of Grace's waking hours today were filled with fun, fun, fun. We spent the morning at the Baggetts' where Grace played with the boys' trucks, dinosaurs, and footballs. We took a break for nap time. Then it was over to our neighborhood sprayground for a bit of cooling off. We ended the day back at our house where the boys played with Grace's teddy bears, dolls, and baby stroller. It was interesting to see how different boys and girls toys are, but the kids had fun playing with all of them.

What started out as a morning play date turned into an all day funfest. What ever will we do when this precious family moves later this year? It will be a sad, sad day for me and Grace. But until then, we are going to take full advantage of our time together.

Finally

After months of passing it by and longing to check it out, we finally went to play in the neighborhood sprayground this afternoon. It was fantastic! It did not fail to live up to our expectations. Grace squealed with delight and it was so much fun watching her reaction whenever she got sprayed with water.

The sprayground outing left Grace exhausted by the end of the night and she was crying to go 'night, night' a good 40 minutes before I normally start her bedtime routine. I'm hoping this means she'll sleep all the way through till morning. I know exactly how she feels though because I'm super tired too. It's only 8:40 and my chores are all done so I may be making it to bed tonight at my earliest time since I became an adult. What an absolute luxury!


Still in high spirits after all the fun at the sprayground.

Friday Fun

I got some adult conversation time with Nellie, Grace got to run around and play with Nellie's adorable boys, Turner and Eli, and we all got yummy treats- Hawaiian shaved ice. If that doesn't count as a darn good time, I don't know what does.


Grace did not want to leave! When I said it was time to say bye, bye, she said it. Only she didn't say it to the Baggetts, she said it to me!

Meow

Grace has this thing where she rarely refers to animals by their name. She likes to call them by the sound they make. There's a cat that's been hanging around our doorstep lately and so anytime we head out, she starts meowing like crazy and tries to search for it. That's what she's doing in these pictures. No sign of the cat today, but that didn't stop Grace from checking behind the bushes and looking in the driveway.

The only other exciting thing we did today was go to Target for some curtain shopping. If you could call curtain shopping exciting. But any trip that involves Target is an exciting time in my book. Grace's early bedtime means an earlier wake up too, and it doesn't help that her room gets a lot of light, even with the blinds closed. I found some room darkening curtains that I hope will help her sleep in a little longer.

Of course, I can never seem to leave Target with just the one item I came there for. Some extra thing(s) always ends up in the cart. I'm trying to build my summer wardrobe seeing how HOT and HUMID it is here, and I spotted a few things on sale. Grace was in a good mood so I thought I'd risk trying them on really quick. She did great in the dressing room. She giggled at herself in the big mirror and had fun trying to take the hangers away from me. But then I guess the novelty wore off and after about five minutes, she was asking me, "All done? All done?"

And the best news of all, today marked day two of not hearing any chest congestion in Grace! Thank you for keeping her in your prayers- it seems to be working!

Proof

I fear that one day, Grace will look back on her baby days and wonder if I was ever really around because we hardly have any pictures together. I'm so busy running around trying to capture moments of her, I forget to capture moments of US. That and I have short arms so when I try to do the 'hold the camera backwards and take a picture', it turns out to be an extreme close up that is far from flattering.

But if I keep expecting perfection, I'll be waiting forever. So even though she kept squirming away from me and wanted nothing to do with the 'cheese' (how she refers to the camera), I tried to capture a picture of us today. Proof that, for a while, it was just the two of us. And despite missing Mike more than I can adequately describe, we made the best of it and, by the grace of God, managed to live life with lots of love and laughter.

A Couple of Shut-ins

That's what we were today. Grace is feeling great, and the disaster that is my house is proof. I did laundry and worked on projects that I've procrastinated on. It was a productive day. The only hiccup was Grace didn't want to sleep at her new bedtime. It took me a little over an hour to convince her. But she napped extra long this afternoon and 9:30 is still a lot earlier than she used to go to bed, so I'm okay with that.

Just in Case

I didn't have anything special on the agenda for today, but I certainly didn't expect our day to go the way it did. Grace's random cough/chest congestion became a little more regular yesterday, and even though she's not acting like she's feeling sick, I decided to take her in to see the doctor anyway. Just in case.

I spent half an hour waiting on the phone with the lady who schedules appointments, only to have her tell me that there are no more pediatric appointments for the day. Seriously?!? I ask her to please check the family practice clinic because I'd really like to get my daughter seen, thank you very much. (I'm definitely grateful for military medical benefits, but sometimes it can be a bit frustrating.) I finally snag an early afternoon appointment for Grace. It's right in the middle of her usual nap time, but beggars can't be choosers at this point.

After lunch, I could tell Grace was getting sleepy, but we had no choice but to head out to her appointment. We got to the base gate and instead of being waved on through after showing my ID, I get stopped. Apparently, my base decal had expired. Last month. I had no clue since I've been coming on base all month and no one seemed to notice my expired decal until today. I begged the guard to please let me get on base without going to the pass office right now because my daughter is sick and we are going to be late for her hard-to-get doctor's appointment. I promised I would take care of it as soon as possible. I also mentioned that my husband, who normally takes care of these things, is deployed, and we're new to the area. I guess he was sympathetic to my sob story because he let me through.

During the appointment, the doctor agreed that she had some chest congestion, but instead of reassuring me that it was all fine and there was nothing to worry about, she ordered a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia! What?!? Talk about a nervous mama. I brought her in as a 'just in case' and for some peace of mind and now we're talking pneumonia? Thankfully, that wasn't the case, and Grace was just prescribed an antibiotic to help clear the chest congestion.

The poor people over at x-ray though- Grace screamed the entire time and it's a wonder they were able to take a picture at all with her trying to climb off the table. I was nearly in tears because I could tell she was terrified- she was half naked on a cold table with this weird machinery all around her. And it broke my heart that I couldn't go get her and comfort her no matter how hard she screamed for me. Thank goodness it only lasted a minute because that's about as long as I could hold myself together. If it took any longer than that, those x-ray people would've had two crybabies to deal with.

After the hospital drama, our day went pretty smoothly. She took a nap when we got home, after which we headed to the store for a humidifier and some Vicks Rub, and then dinner, bath, and bedtime as usual. She is still just as active as ever. I mean, look at that picture- does that look like a face that's not feeling well?

Even though Grace seems to be feeling fine, please keep us in your prayers that the medicine will do it's trick and clear up her chest congestion. All mamas know it's the worst feeling in the world to know your baby isn't 100% completely well.

New Do

Other than church today, we had nothing going on. And you know how girls are- we like to play with hair, so we messed around with a new hairdo for Grace. I kinda like it and so did she. I showed her in the mirror and she loved how they bounced around. She kept shaking her head and then giggling when she saw how they moved.

Sweet girl was sadly blessed with her mama's crazy sideburns. Her Daddy affectionately calls hers 'Graceburns'.

Obviously the backpart needs some work. But she's so wiggly, it was the best I could do.

Last Minute Treat

I don't want to jinx myself by actually writing this in the blog, but ever since we got back from Virginia Beach, I've been attempting to put Grace on a sleep schedule. And it's slowly worked. She now is in bed by 8:30 every night. This is quite a change from my little night owl who used to sometimes stay up until 11:00 (or later).

That said, I now make sure that nothing stands in the way of her new bedtime routine. So I was really torn when I got a major craving for some Rita's Italian Ice pina colada gelati at 7:30. I calculated the time it would take me to drive there, order my treat, eat, and drive back home. It would be pushing it, but I thought I could do it.

We pulled into the driveway at 8:20. I rushed like a mad woman to get her ready and we were only 10 minutes late for bedtime.

Makeshift Pool

We were getting a bit of cabin fever so I thought we'd venture out to the neighborhood sprayground. I've been dying to check it out since the moment we moved in. And since kids are still in school, that place is empty in the mornings and early afternoons. Her coughing is still pretty random and so is the runny nose, so I risked an outing since nobody would be there anyway.

We changed into our bathing suits, slathered on the sunscreen, packed our beach bag with towels and our picnic lunch, and off we went. To get into the pool, you have to use this key card, very similar to what you'd use in hotels. I swiped it and nothing. Tried again. Nothing. I called the number that was posted on the board for help. The lady who deals with key issues was out of the office and so nothing could be done at the moment.

Grace was none too happy when I had to pry her away from the gate to the pool and told her we had to go home. We've definitely entered the temper tantrum stage- piercing screams and dramatic falls to the floor. But this one I felt was justified. What a tease to get her all dressed up and take her so that she's only a few feet away from the pool, and then march her right back home.

To make it up to her, I let her go 'swimming' in my bathtub. I know, it's really more like taking a bath, but I threw in a pool floaty to make it more authentic. She loved it!