Bare

As I was busy in the kitchen making dinner, Grace was busy playing in her room. When I went to check on her, she was sitting in one of her buckets, bare naked. The obsession with undressing continues.

Grace isn't the only thing that's looking a little bare. There are no more ornaments on the bottom half of the tree. The ones that aren't broken or missing have been moved to the top half to keep them safe from the ornament thief.

Where is it?

Look at this little sweet and innocent face. You'd never think this was the face of a girl who hides Christmas ornaments, or worse, breaks them. But it is. I have a growing pile of ornaments on the kitchen counter that need to be super glued back together.

The Strawberry Shortcake ornaments that my dearest friend, Michelle, have given me over the years are the ones she finds the most irresistible. Grace willingly stands in the time-out corner just to get her hands on the cute little decorations. I can hardly blame her though. They're my favorites, too.

I noticed there was one missing from the tree this morning, but when I questioned little Miss Innocent, her eyes went real wide, she started looking all around her, and said with much concern, "Where is it??"

Magically, the rogue ornament showed up right before bedtime.

Mr. Fix It

My dear husband was Mr. Fix It today. He fixed us a delicious pancake breakfast before church. Grace even got a chocolate chip Mickey Mouse pancake, which she devoured. He fixed the garbage disposal that had died. And I haven't been feeling 100% well the past week, but he was even able to fix that by running out to the pharmacy, picking up some medicine, and then forcing me to take it. I'm notoriously horrible about taking medicine- I hate it.

I'm just glad Mr. Fix It was able to spend an uninterrupted day with us. Grace and I have been missing him terribly. When he came home from work yesterday, after kissing us hello, he headed to the bedroom to change. Grace ran after him yelling, "Daddy, come back!" She thought he was leaving us yet again. Just broke my heart. But I know it was even harder for Mike.

We had an easy breezy day that we ended with a movie night. It was perfection.


Trying to get a picture of her in her pretty church dress, but she wouldn't cooperate. This was the best I could get.

A Milestone's a Milestone

I used to be a big fan of Jon & Kate Plus 8- the good years. There was an episode when the babies were potty training and Kate took pictures of their first poop in the potty. I thought it was pretty disgusting and I had no clue why anyone would ever think of doing such a thing.

That was before I had a kid of my own.

Grace was trying to take off her diaper this morning and saying she had to go poo-poot. She's said this many, many times and not once has she ever gone, but I figured consistency is the key to everything so I lead her to the bathroom and sat her on the toilet.

Lo and behold, the child actually went this time!

And I took a picture of it.

I totally see where Kate was coming from now. You just want to document every milestone for them, and I count this as a pretty big milestone. Okay, so it's not as heartwarming as, say, the first time she said 'Mama' or 'I love you', but still- a milestone's a milestone.

So Thankful

We may have had our Thanksgiving meal on the ship, hence the lovely school tray culinary presentation, but we still have plenty to be thankful for.

If you ask Grace what she's thankful for, she'll tell you, "Santa brings you presents!" (Hey, if I was a year old, that would be my number one, too!)

If you ask Mike what he's thankful for, he might say he's thankful that he didn't have to work today. Although he DID check his email when we were on the ship.

If you ask me, I'd tell you I was thankful that we were all together today. It's such a rarity these days so I definitely cherish any family time we get.

Because I got a reprieve on cooking a full out Thanksgiving meal, I wanted to at least whip up some dessert to enjoy while we pulled out the Christmas decorations. It was a wonderful way to end our Thanksgiving day.

My assistants had to run out to Walmart and get a last minute ingredient for me.

Checking on the chocolate chip cookies.

Thanks to Uncle Dave, Grace learned her very first cuss word phrase. He was helping Mike move a chair down the stairs when he inadvertently said it, not knowing little Miss Copycat was right behind him. After which she immediately copied him. Several times. It's okay, Dave, she was bound to hear it sometime in her life.

She had a blast helping me decorate the tree. We'll see how long the decorations actually stay on the tree since she has a hard time keeping her hands off them.

Time Out

If she's old enough to start potty training, then she's definitely old enough for time out. She got placed in the time out corner this morning for ripping pages out of her Dr. Seuss book. Actually, she got a warning after I saw her contemplating the idea of ripping out pages, and she was put in time out when she followed through with it.


As pitiful as she looks, this was the only time when she needed use of the disciplinary corner. She was a good girl all day long after that.

Happier times.

Potty Practice

Grace continues to take off her diaper every chance she gets. But she's also starting to tell me when she is going poo-poot (number 2). Lola says Grace needs to start potty training. I'm resistant to the idea because she's not even two yet. That and it's just another step to her growing up. Potty train her now and the next thing I know, she's going off to college.

But I have started putting her on the potty every time she takes her diaper off for a little practice. She hasn't done anything in it yet, but she thinks it's a riot whenever I sit her on the toilet.

What's in the Closet?

When my brother Carl and I were young, we wanted a Nintendo for Christmas so badly. So we snooped around and were over the moon excited when we saw a box sitting in the back of the hallway closet. The joke was on us though because the Nintendo wasn't for us. My mom was keeping it for a co-worker who wanted to hide it from her snooping kids. From that moment on, I learned not to snoop for presents because you could be sorely disappointed. And besides, I love a good surprise.

I didn't think Grace would enter her snooping phase until at least five or six years from now. But, as Lola likes to say, the child is advanced for her age. She honed in on the closet I was storing her Christmas stash like a PMS-ing woman to chocolate. When I asked her what she thought was in the closet, without hesitation she answered, "Present for me!"

Waiting for Daddy to come home from duty.

So Sorry, Panera, but Thank You, Colonel Sanders

My sincere apologies to the people working and dining at Panera this busy Saturday evening. Grace and I stopped by there to pick up some dinner to bring to Mike on the ship. As we were waiting for our order, my girl got sick all over the floor. In perfect view of the people who were trying to order their food and the people who were already eating their food. The place was packed tonight.

I would much rather deal with a diaper blowout than throw up all over the floor. At least a diaper blowout is somewhat contained. There's just no way to control throw up. I would've died of embarrassment if it were not for hearing my sweet girl softly say, "I'm sorry, Mama." That brought me back and made me feel so bad that Grace felt like she needed to apologize! Just about broke my heart.

Thankfully, there was an elderly gentleman, who oddly enough looked like Colonel Sanders, that helped me to clean up while we waited for the Panera crew to come out and mop the floor. It amazes me that in a crowded restaurant filled with all kinds of people, it wasn't a fellow mom or a sympathetic grandma, but Colonel Sanders who came to my rescue.

After all that excitement, I almost decided to head straight for home and let Mike fend for himself for dinner, but Grace kept going on and on about going to the ship and eating with her Daddy. She kept chanting, "I miss Daddy! I miss Daddy!" Once she got her little sick episode out of the way, she seemed perfectly fine, so we quickly stopped by and ate dinner with Mike.

I'm hoping her getting sick was just a fluke and we won't have anymore of that mess- literally- tomorrow.

Mexican Night

We finally got to see Mike tonight so we treated ourselves to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. The food and service weren't that great but the dinner entertainment was pretty awesome. Plenty of hugs and kisses. And at one point, Grace got up, proclaimed that she liked the music, and started to boogie.



There was a Hallmark store next door so we stopped in so I could admire the new Christmas ornaments. Unfortunately, Grace fell in love with a singing kangaroo and was very upset when we wouldn't let her bring it home. Sorry, Baby, but Grandparents Week is over and now you're stuck with your mean old parents.

Pretty in Purple

I'm trying to remember what all we did today but I'm drawing a complete blank. A bunch of inconsequential stuff that adds up to me being exhausted. And I haven't even tackled the messy kitchen yet.

What I do remember is that my girl and I snuggled on the couch and watched an episode of Ruby and Max. She pretended to be an itty bitty baby and let me hold her in my arms like I used to when she was a newborn. She was content to do that for only five minutes, but it was the best five minutes of my day.

"No more pictures, Mama!"

Chick-Fuh-Way

I craved it so bad when we lived in Japan. We've eaten there many, many times since we've been back stateside. In fact, it's our go-to place when Mike is at work and I don't feel like making dinner. Whenever Grace wants chicken nuggets and fries, it's a given that she's talking about this place.

But tonight was the first time she actually said the name of my favorite fast food place. Mike was with Farrah and I was in no mood to try and make dinner, especially since it's always hit or miss whether Grace will eat it or not.

So as we were walking back to the car after an impromptu trip to Target, I asked her what she wanted to eat for dinner. Not surprisingly, she answered chicken nuggets and french fries. Then she kept chanting 'Chick-fuh-way, Chick-fuh-way' and became increasingly agitated when I couldn't figure out what she was saying, and was refusing to get strapped into her car seat until I understood what she was talking about.

It finally dawned on me that she was saying 'Chick-fil-a'. Silly me! I don't know why it took me so long to understand what was so obvious, but after I reassured her that we were headed there as soon as I could get her seat belt on, she was the very model of an obedient child.


These were the best pictures I managed to take today. It is so hard to get her to a)stand still, b)look at the camera, and c) smile- much less do all three at once.

"Can I have it, please? It's my favorite!"

Grace and I had a lunch date with a friend today in a really nice area called Avondale- quaint street lined with boutique shops and restaurants near a neighborhood of grand, stately houses. We wandered into the shops and found this cute little toy store where Grace fell in love the dolls.

She is such a girly girl. And already knows how to beg. She asked if she could please have the doll/baby bottle because it's her favorite. Liezel helped me distract her long enough to lead her out of the store without my having to buy her anything.

But I was sorely tempted. If only that doll set didn't cost a whopping $75, it would've been hers. Darn these boutique stores and their boutique prices.

Then when we checked the mail today, there happened to be an American Girl catalog. I gave it to Grace thinking she'd have fun ripping it apart. I didn't think she had the attention span to actually peruse the catalog.

I was wrong. She looked at that thing as carefully as Mike looks at his car magazines. I'm sure if she knew how to dog-ear pages, she would have done so. I kept hearing exclamations of how cute and 'bootiful' the baby dolls were. Just watching her look through those pages with such longing made me want to jump online and order her a doll with all the accessories she kept oohing and ahhing over. If only they didn't cost so much. Darn American Girl and their absolutely adorable, but overpriced dolls!

Until Grace gets a little older and learns to take better care of her doll babies, Walmart ones will just have to do. I haven't picked up for the night and there are two baby dolls that are completely naked because their mama is currently obsessed with taking off and putting on clothes.

Some Sunday Fun

We made it to church with five minutes to spare before Mass started. That was pretty good. But I had to sneak into the baby cry room during the priest's homily because of Grace screaming, "Read! Read!" And my quietly whispering Dr. Seuss' Go, Dog, Go as the priest was solemnly trying to discuss the gospel reading was not enough for my girl. She insisted on pointing out every dog in the book and what they were doing. Loudly. Very loudly.

The rest of the day was pretty laid back. I even ignored my mess of a house and napped while Grace napped. Turns out I probably should've just done my normal routine of cleaning up while she's asleep because I ended up feeling a bit ill when I woke up.

Maybe I'm not used to napping. Or maybe I was a bit ill at the thought that I'll only get to see my husband twice next week due to various duty days and underway time. And that's if he gets off work at a decent hour. Decent being before 8pm. There goes that Farrah again- eating up all his time. (Sorry, I digress.)

It was while I was talking to him on the phone tonight (another duty day) that Grace decided to attempt an undressing. I was in the kitchen making dinner and catching up with Mike when this walks around the corner saying, "I'm stuck, Mama!"...


Thankfully I had the camera handy. I was cracking up so hard that I nearly hung up on Mike. She managed to get everything off, but her onesie got stuck on her head.


After I got a hold of myself, I picked her up and went in search of her missing articles of clothing/diaper. As I'm holding her against my hip, I realized that she had tinkled so I searched for her spot and cleaned it up. Mike is dying for a dog, but seriously? Who needs a puppy when you've got this girl?

Finally, I found her diaper, but she had yet another surprise for me. It was filled with something that Grace likes to refer to as 'chocolate'.

Fabulous. Why does Mike always miss out on this kind of fun?

A Hokie and His Girl

Mike had to work today, but at least he got home in time to watch the Hokie football game with his favorite little Hokie fan. While the two were cheering the Hokies on to victory, I was slaving away in the kitchen making dinner. I didn't mind though. In fact, I rather enjoyed myself. It was Saturday night and the three of us were all together. Can't think of anything I like better than hanging out with my two favorite Hokies.

My Daddy

I thought with this being Grace's first day without Grandpa and Grandma that she'd be asking for them nonstop today. But she was all about her Daddy. Whenever the phone rang, she'd run and say, "My daddy, my daddy!" If a toy broke, she'd say her "Daddy fix it." When I said her Elmo doll needed new batteries, she said "Daddy buy it."

Apparently, she thinks her daddy can fix any of her problems. And I find that absolutely adorable.

Jacksonville Fair

We saw cute little bunnies, fluffy chicks, docile cows, and racing pigs. We ate funnel cakes, kettle corn, and cotton candy. We rode on the carousel and a spinning strawberry. And the best part? Mike was with us the entire day!



First time eating cotton candy.




The worst part of the day was saying goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma Augustine because they head back to Virginia Beach first thing tomorrow morning. We knew they couldn't stay forever, but this visit went by too quickly.