0 Grace meets Santa

3 Grace's First Vegetable

We started Grace on solids this week!  First up....sweet potatoes.
As you can see, she was very excited about being in her high chair!
She finally is big enough to sit up in it!

I plan on making her babyfood, so I started by pureeing the potatoes and
adding a little milk to smooth it out some.

This is how the next 10 minutes went. I took the pleasure of adding what I think was going thru Grace's mind.

{Yum. This has FLAVOR!}

{Oh my....I'm not sure I like FLAVOR!}

{Oh no....not a fan of FLAVOR. AT. ALL.}

Not wanting to traumatize her, I stopped shortly after the above face. Baby steps.
I thought it might be fun to let her play with it and feel the texture and maybe put a little in her mouth herself.
Nope.
She didn't want anything to do with touching it. Can't really complain about that now can I?

She ended up eating about 1/4 of a tablespoon the first night.
We have slowly worked our way up and last night she had almost a whole tablespoon!
My big girl is eating vegetable and she is tolerating it!!!

1 Six Months

Grace Mae - you are SIX months old!!! 

You weigh 13lbs and 8oz and are 25 inches long

You are wearing almost all 3 months clothes but started wearing your 6 month sleepers.

You wear a size 2 diaper.  

You started eating cereal last month and you love it! 
You eat it twice a day and haven't ever spit it out!
You even grabbed hold of your spoon a few times and managed to get it in your mouth. 

You can finally touch your tiptoes to the ground and love spending time in your jumper. 
You have started pulling yourself up when you are in your bouncer, 
so we have to keep an eye on you in there and make sure you don't tumble forward. 

You are a rolling machine! You go from front to back to front and repeat. 
You don't stay on your tummy enough to realize yet that crawling is possible.
But I'm sure you'll get it before too long. 
You do sometimes push your little butt up in the air. Its adorable!

We started to put up the Christmas decorations this week. And you loved watching me string all the lights up. 
I dressed you in your first Christmas attire to celebrate the occasion! 
I can't wait for your Christmas cards to come....you were outgrowing your Christmas dress, 
so we got your pictures taken in it. You are just ridiculously adorable!!!

You are such a happy girl. You really are. 

I would venture to say you smile about 90% of the time.

I know we are so lucky to have not only a healthy but a happy baby. 

You have started talking more and even better squelching. Yes its funny to us. (for now) 

I can't wait to hear what your voice sounds like when you start saying Mama and Dada! 

We love you Gracie!

0 Grace's First Cereal

We started Grace on cereal when she was 5 months old.
We attempted to feed her in her highchair...but she was still not big enough for it.
But she liked sitting in it for a few minutes.

We ended up moving her to the bumbo and she did a lot better with that...while she faced forward.
She is a little wiggle worm!

That worked out pretty good, but every now and then it was easier to feed her in the bouncer.

She will start to fuss and scream if you take too long in between bites.

We started her out with one tablespoon in the evenings vis spoon, and then moved it up to 2 days and she has some at lunch too.

I can't wait until she gets to try something with flavor!

1 Grace's First Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey Day!

It's Miss Gracie's first Thanksgiving. 

She had to get an outfit to celebrate the day. 

And of course a matching hairbow!

The bib says it all.

She is so thankful for her wonderful daddy. 

She loves staying home with him while Mommy is at work. 

He gives good hugs and kisses and makes her giggle!

We spent the morning watching some of the Macy's parade while nursing and getting sweet potato casserole 

ready to take to Uncle Tom & Aunt Cheryl's for dinner that night. 

I made the mashed potatoes the night before and put them in the crock-pot so all I had to do was heat them up 

and throw a little more butter on top before heading to my in-laws for lunch.

I am so thankful for my healthy and happy daughter who gave me the gift of motherhood.
I am blessed to have a wonderful husband who loves us both so much!
I am thankful to have a good job that is close to home and allows me
the flexibility to be there for my family when I need to be.
I am blessed to have a wonderful and crazy family that lives close and stays in touch.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

2 Let's Meet some Friends

While we were on Thanksgiving Break, my friend Natalie and her adorable daughter McKinley were going to be in Ohio visiting her family. We picked a spot that was halfway for both of us and decided to meet for lunch the day before Thanksgiving! Yay! I love meeting long-distance friends! Since we only have one car right now, it was best to have all of us take the roadtrip up to meet her. Plus I was happy that she would be able to meet my husband too.

You know how you are before you meet someone that you have talked with for a long time, I'm talking over a year. You are kinda nervous. You know, wondering will we get along as well as we do on FB/Twitter/Blogs etc. Am I as funny/witty/adorable as my writing and status updates are? LOL.

She is as sweet and down to earth in person as I thought she would be! She is such a pretty lady and we had a nice visit talking and catching up.

Isn't her mini-me even more adorable! Look at those eyelashes! It was crazy to see this little baby (who I had seen growing and learning thru her momma's pictures ) pick up french fries like a toddler. She is such a good girl!

It was so nice to meet her and I'm so glad we set something up while she was in the state. Grace was a little fussy after the longer car ride, and wanted to be held most of the time we were eating, so me and my husband took turns holding her. Hopefully if we do it again in the future, she and McKinley can play and color on some place mats or something.

Thank you Natalie for all the friendship and advice you have given me throughout my pregnancy and the last few months of learning to live and understand my baby girl.  It has meant so much to me and I am thankful for you!