Dog Hair

Dear Gracie,

I constantly worry about you having dog hair on your clothes or face.  All of your toys are made out of materials that have crazy dog hair attracting properties.  I vaccuum and dust like crazy, but guess what?

 

 

I really don't think you mind.

 

 

xoxo

Momma

10 Months

Dear Gracie,

You are ten months old, lovebug.  Where has the time gone? 

 

 

It took me almost 15 minutes to take ONE picture of you lying (sort of) on your back this month.  That's a pretty typical expression you've got on your face.  "Mom.  Just stop." 

 

Daddy and I decided that you said your first official word this month.  You've been babbling "momma" and "dada" for a while now, but you defintely don't know what you're saying.  They're just fun sounds that we smile and clap for when you say them.  When you say this first word, you absolutely know what you're saying, and you use it in the correct situations and context.  I am just really nervous that this word might be providing us with a little bit of foreshadowing of what we can expect from you.  Your first word, my darling, is "uh-oh".  Your favorite use of the word is when your are sitting in your high chair while Daddy and I eat dinner.  You raise your sippy cup way over your head, make total eye contact with one of us, drop the sippy cup to the floor, and whisper "uh-oh".....all without breaking eye contact.  You. Little. Stinker.  Uh-oh, indeed.

 

During this month, you graduated from army crawling down on both or sometimes just one of your elbows, to crawling up on both hands, to crawling to the middle of the floor and attempting to stand up by yourself.  Sometimes you make it and stay errect for a while, balancing with a Little People in your hand or a mum-mum wrapper, and sometimes you end up in a small heap of little arms and legs on the floor.  The latter has led to an awesome collection of bruises in varying shades of color all over your body.  To say you inherited my clumsiness is an enormous understatement.  There's usually some delayed crying after you fall, and Gracie, you look absolutely pitiful when you cry.  You push out that bottom lip and hold your breathe for what seems like forever with your face growing extremely red until the wails finally start coming.  I have to admit that the whole thing makes me giggle sometimes.  The best part is that you make sure someone is watching before you launch into 100% beast mode.  It makes me ponder - If Gracie falls in a room without anyone to see her, does she make a sound?

 

While we're on the subject of crying, I must tell the story of your eye appointment earlier this month.  Due to your (now ex) pediatrician thinking she may have possibly saw something not completely totally cool in one or possibly both of your eyes (can you tell how happy I was about this yet?), we made an appointment for you to see a pediatric optamalogist for a full eye exam.  This was an awful experience from start to finish that I'm glad you will have no recollection of, but you won an award that day!  You were the MVP of not opening your eyes for eye drops!  We were forced to hold down your little arms so that the nurse could pry open your eyes and get the drops in there.  She said, "I have NEVER had this much trouble with a baby before.  She has strong eyelids!."  I think it's more that you have a strong will to not doing anything you don't want to, and that you were hungry, but we'll go with strong eyelids.  The award for the strongest baby eyelids goes to, Grace Fleming!!  The crowd goes wild!  My poor baby.  I wanted to swat that nurse's arm away and rock you in my arms, but you made it through.

 

Oh my, how could I forget?  This month was your first Christmas.  We love Christmas, and we put you through a lot of travel and four seperate family functions, but you made the rounds like a champ.  You ripped wrapping paper, played in boxes for hours, smiled for pictures, and made 150 laps around Grandma and Grandpa H's island in their kitchen with your hippo walking toy.  You got a wagon, your first set of pearls, a bike, and more toys than you know what to do with.  You ate ham, beef, kielbasa, noodles, and a bite of cookie that I totally regretted later that night.  My favorite moment was when you put Little People Jesus from your Nativity Scene on the toilet in your Little People Dollhouse and flushed.  Everybody has to go, right? 

 

You spent New Years Eve with Grandma and Grandpa F because we were at the hospital visiting YOUR NEW BABY COUSIN!  Yes, Gracie, you are officially the older and wiser cousin on The Fleming side.  You love baby Carolyn, even though you cried the first time you met her and kind of punched her in the face (on accident...I think).  You love to touch her little hands and pet her head.  After spending most of your days with Daisy, you pet everything.  I can't wait to watch you two grow up together and get into all kinds of trouble (that doesn't involve the police).  I think if you had one piece of advice for baby Carolyn right now, it would be, "let Mommy and Daddy sleep so that they are nice - no sleep = mean Mommy and Daddy."

 

Eleven months will be here before you know it.  You've officially been outside in the big bright world longer than you were taking up residencny in my stomach.  I'd like to say you've already moved mountains in that time.  I love you, little lady!

 

xoxo

Momma

 

p.s.  After months of loving hats, bows, headbands, and anything else we stuck on your head, you've jumped ship.  Nothing is allowed to touch your head for longer than 60 seconds anymore....even if it is adorable.  Believe me, Momma would never make you wear something ugly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



My dreams for you

Dear Gracie,

This freezing cold Monday morning, we are snuggled up in the living room watching the build up to President Obama's inauguration.  You are just a tiny bit more interested in hitting the bathtub button in your Little People Dollhouse (over and over and over) than actually watching the coverage, but I'm sure the importance of this event taking place, and on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, does not escape you. 

President Obama will address our country shortly with sweeping ideas of what is to come - his hopes and dreams, and what he wants to tackle in the next four years.  Four years ago on his first inauguration, Daddy and I were still a few months away from being married.  We lived in Texas, and you were only a tiny idea floating around in the back of our minds.  Our world was a very different place than the one we live in now.  I will listen to the President's speech today with a different agenda than I had four years ago because this country that he speaks about now includes you. 

The world you will grow up in is vastly different than the one I grew up in.  You probably will not understand the importance of President Obama being elected as the first African American President of the United States.  He will just be another President to you.  You will never know a time without security threat levels and armed guards in schools.  You will grow up with information (and misinformation) from the media available at all times, and will have to learn to navigate that.  Oh yes, Gracie girl, your world will be different.

Here is what I wish for the President to say to us today, what he wants the country to look like for you.  Here is what I wish for you to know and grow up in, a country that I would be proud for you to call your own.

Let us move away from "red" and "blue" states and back towards the United States of America.
Let Congress soften their hearts and work towards true bipartisanship.  We elect you to do great things for us that we are unable to do alone.
Let everyone be free to love whomever they want and to shout it from the rooftops without fear!
Let us remember that we are all created equal, and that we all flourish together.   
Find the good, and praise it!
Pursue happiness - take risks - move onward and upward never satisfied with the status quo.

All of this and more is what I dream of for you, my dear girl.  I know that just writing down these words will not force these ideas into being.  It is up to me, and my generation to work together to create this country and world for you.  I promise you that I will do my absolute best.

xoxo
Momma

Sneezes and Cuddles

Dear Gracie,

This past week, you have been experiencing the second cold of your existence.  You woke up one morning barely able to breathe with a face frosted with glistening snot you had wiped all over your face and into your hair.  That first day was awful.  You were whiny, grumpy, and cried for hours while I scrambled to find something that would make you smile.  You totally skipped your second nap and did not want a Boogie Wipe within five feet of your face.  By 5 o'clock, I was exhausted and not looking forward to what was sure to be a sleepless night.

Then, something strange happened.  You stopped rolling around on the carpet crafting a dog hair beard on your face and looked up at me.  It was like something in your little brain clicked, and you crawled over to me and lifted up your arms, demanding to be picked up.  So, of course, I picked you up, and you laid your little head down on my shoulder and for those five wonderful seconds that you left it there, the world was ok again.

And then it was over, and you threw yourself down on the carpet and stuffed a sheep from your Little People Nativity set into your mouth.  Thank you for those five seconds when you let me play the role of nurturing mother.  I was re energized for the next three days.  Ha!  Yeah right.  We spent three hours together that night in your room where I attempted to rock you to sleep, and you waved to the stuffed animals on your bookcase and tried to jump out of my arms.

I still love ya, kid.

xoxo
Momma

Banana Back

Dear Gracie,

You have mastered the art of sharing your meals with your partner in crime, Daisy.  When you've finished eating whatever is on your tray, you peek down to see where she is and with one sweep of your arm, the scraps are on the floor and quickly eaten.  The only problem is that sometimes Daisy is not in the best position to receive your leftovers.  Like this morning, she was standing up and your mushed banana landed square on her back instead of in her drooling mouth.  Of course, she couldn't reach the mush, and you and I laughed at her while she ran in circles trying to get it off.  Silly puppy.  But, seriously, she requested that we work on your aim.

xoxo
Momma

p.s.  Next year at Daisy's vet appointment when they tell us for the third year in a row that she is overweight, I'm just going to silently point at you.

Nine Months

Dear Gracie,

It's hard to believe that nine months ago you were still just a crazy alien baby in my tummy.  You make me laugh and smile more than anything on this earth.  Some days when we just sit and play together, my cheeks hurt from all the smiling!

You are such a little lover!  This month you started kissing things.  Yes, things, not just people.  You love kissing Daddy and I, and even Daisy, but you also love kissing the mirror (vain, much?), your dolls, and pretty much anything that you hold in your hands.  Of course, that has nothing to do with us constantly saying, "awww, give it a kiss!"  Isn't that why people have kids?  So they can tell them to do funny things? 

The first few weeks of this month, I was busy finishing up my student teaching, and you were busy causing havoc at our apartment while Daddy was trying to work.  So, to help us out, we brought in the Grandmas.  Each Grandma stayed with you during the day for a week so that we could wrap this crazy chapter of our life up and remain sane.  During one of these weeks, while I was at school, you decided to pull yourself up for the first time on our footstool.  Again, I missed a milestone, but again, I was so happy and excited that you had Daddy and Grandma there to cheer you on, I didn't mind much.  Besides, I was the one who walked into your room a few days later to find a smiling baby standing up inside her crib begging for me to pick her up.  That might've been one of my favorite moments with you ever.  You were soooo proud of yourself standing there all wobbly and slobbery.  You were all like, look out world - here I come....once Mommy gets me out of here.  Now, you pull yourself up on everything, but it's more like look out Daisy - here I come.  Poor Daisy.

Not only did you start pulling yourself up, but you started walking behind push toys without any help from us old people.  While visiting the farm for Thanksgiving, you even created your own push toy by standing behind an overturned laundry basket and pushing it across the floor.  Who needs fancy toys when you're got an old household item and a big imagination.  It's so fun watching your brain work.  Sometimes it looks like maybe you are sitting there solving quadratic equations or finding the square root of pi before you make a move.  While visiting your little buddy Austin, somehow between the two of you, you unscrewed two door stoppers and were having a little sword fight with them.  While crawling at the speed of light across the wood floors of our apartment, you will stop suddenly and become lost in the pattern or irregularities of our old wood floors.  I'm just waiting for the day for you to sit up and tell me it's time that I do a little better job dusting.

Thanksgiving was probably the favorite day of your life so far.  You got dressed in a lovely fall ensemble, played with other kids, and ate a lot of yummy food.  Those are probably your three favorite things to do.  You are just in absolute awe when you see other kids.  Maybe it's because you're not around them often, or maybe you're just going to be a social butterfly like me.  Whatever the reason, you just totally light up when you see other human beings close to your size.  You even love the creepy toddler sized doll, Crystal, that lives on the farm.  You guys have some sort of connection because whenever she's in the room you just can't keep your eyes off her.  After playing for an hour in a toy tugboat, you sat down to eat a Thanksgiving feast of sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, turkey, and rolls.  You were in heaven.  Somehow a piece of watermelon made it onto your plate which led to a complete meltdown midbite (so dramatic), but other than that, it was a good day.  It was so strange for me to sit at the adult table with you and Daddy after sitting at the "kids" table for so many years.  I guess you finally made me grow up...a little.

Not every meal this month was so pleasant though.  You're started to recognize food by color or smell or some other keen baby sense and have learned to intercept any spoon carrying unpleasing bites on it.  Your put your hands out and grunt like "no way - no how, mister!"  You mean serious business.  Your eyebrows get all frowny and you scrunch your nose up.  I know I sometimes throw you curve balls by serving up strange things like kiwi and whole grain pasta, but why after three months of loving green beans are you suddenly denying them entrance to your mouth?  I wish you could just tell me that you're in the mood for Mexican and that's why you tossed the green beans to Daisy.  I would be on board with that because 99.9% of the time I'm also in the mood for Mexican.  Also, you were with me at the animal clinic when the vet told Daisy she had to lose some lbs.  Quit feeding her so much or you will have to get up and take her on those extra long morning exercise walks in the nice cold January mornings.  I don't think you were really paying attention to anything other than how much the other dogs perked up when you squeaked Sophie the Giraffe in the waiting room.  Remind me to never bring that toy within twenty feet of an animal clinic again.

Sometimes I watch you sleeping and search your face for the tiny infant we brought home from the hospital so many weeks ago.  You may not need me every 20 minutes like back then to feed you or change you or swaddle you tightly, but I realize now that I need you every minute of every day.  I love you, sweetie.

xoxo,
Momma

p.s.  Obviously, I am not a world class photographer, but these outtakes from your photo session make my heart happy.  So much sunshine - so many smiles.  You are my sunshine, Gracie!

 

 

 

Eight Months

Dear Gracie,

You are eight months old!  I feel like one night this month I put a little baby to sleep, and in the morning, I walked into your room to find a little girl.  You are growing so fast!

 

 

This month you perfected your army crawl, and girl, you are fast!  Before we realized we can't leave you alone (even for a few minutes) in a room anymore, you got into a few funny places.  You washed your hands in Daisy's water bowl, played in the fireplace, and crawled up on the bottom shelf of our tv stand.  No matter how many toys we place in front of you, you would rather crawl over to the edge of the living room and play with the crown molding.  Living in an apartment with all hardwood floors and a dog, you are often covered with dog hair and dustbunnies that escaped our daily swiffer runs.  We need to attach a mop to your stomach and knees and let you do the cleaning!  Your favorite thing to do is crawl through the tiny space between the couch and the footstool in the living room.  You think it is hilarious crawling through that little tunnel, and probably make the trip twenty times a day.  If someone's feet happen to be in the space, you just keep pushing through until they move.  Get outta Gracie's way!

This was a month full of traditions.  Daddy grew up going to apple orchards every Fall in Michigan, and this is a tradition we are going to pass on to you.  On a warm sunny Fall day in October, we made the hour and a half trip outside of the city to an apple orchard.  With you snugly strapped to Daddy's chest in your Baby Bjorn, we walked through the orchard, selecting several apples from their bins (the trees were empty due to a bad growing season).  You loved the apples!  We would takes bites and let you suck on the juice that ran out and gnaw a little bit on the inside.  You looked like a little vampire with apple juice dripping out of your mouth.  We also visited all of the animals at the orchard.  Your favorite was a little goat that stuck its' head through the fence and begged to be petted.  You were more than happy to help him out!  We took a small break for coffee and apple cider doughnuts (milk and mum mums for you!), and finished the day at the pumpkin patch.  You picked out a little pumpkin which Daddy helped you paint your name and handprints on that night.  I can't wait to go back next year and watch you toddle around by yourself!

The last weekend in October, our family all gathered in Chicago to celebrate your baptism.  It was a wonderful weekend, and you loved all of the attention.  You started off the weekend by dressing up in your first Halloween costume, a cute little elephant, and showing off your favorite neighborhood park for Boopalooza!  There was bobbing for apples, corn mazes, and a costume parade for kids and dogs.  You mainly smiled for a million pictures and checked out the other kids' costumes - we even saw another little girl elephant (you looked cuter!).  The next day was the main event, your baptism.  We dressed you in a beautiful long white dress and met all of your proud relatives at the church.  This was only your second time ever attending church, and the experience really moved you.  It moved you so much, that you had the biggest diaper blowout EVER two seconds before you were called to the altar for your starring role.  I was absolutely frozen in horror and quickly wrapped your lower body in a blanket hoping nothing would leak through.  The next ten minutes were the longest of my life as we handed you over to the pastor.  I don't think I heard a word of the blessing because I was just praying that you wouldn't leave anything on the pastor's all white robe.  Luckily, he was all clean when he handed you back to us, and I rushed to the bathroom to clean you up.  If anyone would've have walked in on us, they probably would have had a big laugh.  I had you stripped down and soaking in one sink and your dress in another.  We finally got out of there in time to hear the last song of the service and take some pictures which strategically hid the large brown stain on the back of your dress and your bare feet.  I can't wait to embarrass you with this story for the rest of your life!

You finally said mama, and in typical Gracie fashion, with a smile on your face, it came out in a devil voice.  You are just the most silly amazing little girl, and you make my cheeks hurt from laughing at you so much!  We've started having dance parties in your room everynight when it time for pajamas, and you love to be dipped and thrown up in the air to "You'll Accompany Me" by Bob Seger.  You always want to turn the lightswitch off, but haven't mastered turning it back on yet.  You get so absolutely excited at times that your arms and legs move at the speed of light and you just giggle and smile (and occasionally growl).  After a month of sleepless teething nights, you are back to your usual sleepy self and nap twice a day for two hours.  I'm so jealous of your life!

You've been extremely lucky to spend lots of time with your grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins.  We've had lots of visitors, and we even made the trip to Michigan for Auntie Ses' baby shower.  You're going to be a big cousin in about a month!  I can't wait to see you show their little one the ropes, and I can only imagine the trouble you two are going to get into.  You have so much love in that little heart to share.  We  love you, Gracie girl!

xoxo
Momma

p.s. I couldn't resist posting these outtakes from your photo shoot.  I just love to sit back and watch you get into trouble!