Word of the Day

All day long, Grace has been saying in her little voice, "Dada, Dada." No matter what she was doing- eating breakfast, playing in her room, making a mess in the living room, sprawled on the kitchen rug while I cooked, splashing water during bath time- it was, "Dada, Dada, Dada, Dada," in a sweet sing-songy way.

So we were both super excited when Dada emailed a picture of himself tonight. I opened it up with Grace on my lap and I wish I had videotaped it so Mike could have seen her reaction. She clapped and giggled and squealed with delight. It was the sweetest thing.

At the Playground

Up until three in the afternoon, the most productive thing I did was make a pitcher of sweet iced tea. But the sunny and semi-warm weather was making me feel guilty about staying indoors all day so Grace and I changed out of our pajamas and took a walk around the neighborhood. I almost bypassed the playground because most of the equipment is a little too big for Grace, but I decided to check it out anyway. It looked empty so I didn't have to worry about older kids running around and knocking Grace over.

Thank goodness for that last minute decision because I met another stay-at-home mama, who is also new to the neighborhood, and her fifteen month old son. We exchanged numbers and now Grace has a little playmate in the area. I'm on a roll- two new friends in two days!

After that unexpected surprise, we went home and I tidied up the place while Grace took a very short nap. But as I look around the living room now, you wouldn't even know it. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother. As soon as I'm done with this entry, I'm off to clean again. Only to have it look exactly the same tomorrow morning when she wakes up. At least it keeps me busy.

My little mess maker. Notice the toilet paper draped over her shoulder. I don't know which is her favorite bathroom activity- unrolling the toilet paper or trying to take out every single item from the cabinets.

Trying out a new hairdo since I'm having a hard time keeping the bow in.

A Great Day

I shattered a jar of baby food on the kitchen floor this morning. Shards of glass all over the tile floor and pureed squash splattered on every surface in a two foot radius. All this happens as I'm trying to leave the house to meet a new friend for the first time. I'm not the most punctual person in the world, but I don't need her knowing that on our first meeting. I now have no choice but to clean it all up because Grace loves to lay around on the kitchen floor and I don't want her hurting herself on a random piece of glass. I stuck Grace in her crib to keep her away from the kitchen and she screamed in protest the entire time I was cleaning.

Thankfully, things got better from there. I miraculously still made it on time and had a nice lunch with a new friend, Beth. We were introduced to each other through email by a mutual friend, Julie from Georgia. We talked about our babies and things to do around Jacksonville and made plans to meet up again when I get back from Virginia Beach. It feels good to have a friend here.

After lunch, we ran to the post office to get birthday invitations mailed out and then since we were out and about anyway, we went to the mall to do some shopping. Grace was the only one who scored any stuff today, but I got myself a Chick-fil-a chocolate milkshake to make it up to myself. The lady at the drive-through made a comment about how the baby was going to enjoy the yummy shake, thinking the shake was for Grace. Feeling fat, I didn't correct her. Since I'm still nursing, technically, she will get to enjoy it eventually, right?

Grace and I ended the evening by watching American Idol. She giggled at the crazy contestants and we both clapped at the ones we thought would make it to Hollywood. And then to top it all off, my bestie, Julie from Japan, called and we got to chat it up for a good while. What a special treat!

If tomorrow turns out to be less than exciting, I won't mind since today was such a great day.

To-do's

Usually I would consider a day where I got two loads of laundry done and put away, tidied and reorganized the nursery, cleaned the bathrooms, dusted the furniture, and made a whole wheat pizza from scratch (including the sauce) pretty darn productive. But because I had much more on my to-do list today that still remains undone, I have hours to go before I can climb into bed.

Thank goodness Grace is finally in bed. It is now 11:13pm and I just got her down 10 minutes ago. She was Little Miss Cranky Pants, but for whatever reason, she refused to go to bed. And because she was so cranky, the last couple hours were unproductive for me. Last night's easy breezy bedtime routine seems like a distant memory. I guess it was just pure luck. I was hoping it was the start of a great new routine. She has been sorely missing out on a routine since we left Japan.

Tomorrow is a new day- another chance to establish some kind of routine and more time to complete a fresh set of to-do's.


Santa was kind enough to get Grace a little chair of her own to lounge in, but wouldn't you know- this girl loves laying around on the floor.

Neatness

Little known fact about me- from the ages of 19 to 21, I was on the rescue squad. I drove an ambulance, performed CPR, the works. Even though it seems like a lifetime ago, I learned so much from that experience. I saw people at their most vulnerable and I was welcomed into their homes, often in the middle of the night, at times when it wasn't at it's most presentable state.

Because of those experiences, I always made a point to make sure that my house was tidy. I wanted it to be 'emergency' ready. I'm nowhere near being a neat freak and more often than not, you'll find a layer of dust on my furniture, but I do like things in their place. I'm finding it's a lot harder to do with a baby running around the house.
This was the state of my living room today. Grace had a hard time sleeping last night so sleeping in this morning was a must. But because of that choice, I was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to get me and my child to church on time. And as is the case nowadays, in order for me to get something done, like brush my teeth, make my face presentable, and get dressed, I have to be okay with Grace making a mess somewhere. And she did a good job of it this morning. I didn't even get a chance to make my bed, and it really annoys me when my bed goes unmade.

Then at church, I was confident we were going to get through the whole Mass without incident. There is a baby cry area in the back of the church which is a little room enclosed in glass that has speakers in it so you can still hear what the priest is saying. I consider myself defeated if I have to go in there with the rest of the screaming kids and their frazzled parents. I was defeated today. We got through fifteen minutes of the mass before Grace decided to check out how well her voice echoed in church. I grabbed her diaper bag and our coats and did the walk of shame to the room.


The rest of the day was fabulous though. We hung out at home playing and reading books. Grace is really into her board books lately and I'm definitely not one to discourage that. I must've read her entire library collection at least twice today, and her favorites countless times. We both took long afternoon naps and then she ate her broccoli without fuss at dinner. After a bath, more reading, and watching a little Food Network with me, she went to bed without a fight. Can't complain about any of that!

Whining With a Chance of Flurries

When I found out we were moving to Florida, I was looking forward to some warm and sunny weather. I pretty much threw out most of my winter stuff before we left Japan thinking I wouldn't need them. But tonight as I was listening to the weather forecast and they said there was a chance of flurries, I'm regretting that decision. How can there be a chance of flurries in Florida?

Even though it was freezing and the skies were gray, I knew we needed to leave the house for a little change of scenery. Who cares if it was past four in the afternoon before I could muster up the motivation to get going- at least I got the two of us out for a few hours.

We roamed Michaels for some party decor inspiration, but Grace didn't enjoy that too much. There was a lot of whining punctuated by a few shrieks of displeasure when I wouldn't give her whatever she pointed at. But I just ignored her and hoped that the few people around could ignore her too. Normally that kind of behavior would have sent me aborting my shopping trip, but because it was our first time out of the house in two and a half days, I kept telling myself that her screaming wasn't THAT loud.

She was better behaved at Target, but only because there were two screaming children with a mama who was screaming right back at them, so Grace was better by comparison. Apparently that mama was just as determined as I was to finish shopping. And don't get me wrong, I absolutely am not judging that mama because who knows, that could be me in that position one day.

To treat myself for getting through a whiny and less than perfect shopping excursion, I took us to Chick-fil-a for dinner. I haven't had any since before Christmas so I was long overdue. We had a great time there. Give Grace some waffle fries and she didn't make a sound. I wish I had known that before shopping. And even though she didn't get a chance to play because there were too many rambunctious boys in the area, she had fun watching them all run around.

Date Night Friday

When I woke up to a dreary and drizzly morning, I knew it was going to be a stay-in kind of day. And I honestly didn't mind since I'm really a happy homebody. But to make up for such a lazy day, I decided Grace and I were going to have date night. After all, it is Friday.

I whipped up some twice baked potatoes and made a mushroom topped steak with some steamed broccoli on the side. My date was a messy eater and didn't care too much for the broccoli, but our cuddle time on the couch watching What Not to Wear made for a great night.



These VT pajamas are for Daddy who we're both missing terribly...