31/365 (Little) Lady in Red

Well, I have officially made it to the end of the first month with this blog. Although I haven't had the time to post every night, I have taken pictures every day and put them all up within a few days. This, my friends, is a major accomplishment in my books. In celebration, today is a really fun picture that I can't look at without giggling.

As part of the 365 day photo challenge I am doing, there are also weekly challenges as well. The theme for this week is "RED." Our silly red picture:



Over the top? Maybe. Silly? Definitely. Fun? Absolutely. One of my new favorite pictures? Positively.

30/365 5 Months Old!!

Yesterday, Grace turned 5 months old! I can't believe how much she has grown in the past five months. She is learning so much every single day and teaching Ryan and I new things every day as well. She is such a fun-loving, happy, beautiful baby girl and I know how blessed we are to have her in our lives.

Here is the little babe when she was just a few days old, all cuddled up and sleeping so sweetly.



And here she is now, at 5 months old, a few minutes into her new "skill" that she is learning. She now sits by herself long enough to actually count as sitting without trying to face-plant 2 seconds into it. She starts by sitting with no hands, then after a couple of minutes she puts her hands down to help balance like this:



(Once sitting isn't such a new skill, I'll get pictures of her sitting without her hands. For now, I'm not comfortable trying to focus on using the camera and taking my eyes off of her even for a split second until those little hands are down providing some mommy-backup).

Here she is watching Daddy talk:



..and here Daddy was eating a chip that the baby really wanted him to share with her:




Soon enough, little one! For now just enjoy the baby progress steps you are making and continuing to amaze your Daddy and I.

29/365 Playdate With New Friends

The other day, Grace and I met up with a couple of my "mommy friends" and their adorable little ones at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. Despite Grace not feeling 100% and having a slight cold like her Daddy, she seemed to have a pretty good time. She absolutely loves other babies...and I love watching them interact! I had a great day also, visiting with Katie and Stefanie. I plan to post more pictures from that day, but here are a few shots for now.

The 3 little ones in their strollers, all holding their Sophie giraffes:



Adorable Addie:



Sweet Baby Grace (who I guess couldn't just pick one finger to chew on):



The handsome Ryker:



...and Grace letting Mama know that she was completely ready to leave and in desperate need of a nap:

28/365 So Pretty

My beautiful baby girl, all dressed in pink. My really good friend, Elle, once commented to me: "You really like having a little girl to dress up like a doll, huh?" My response was, of course, "ABSOLUTELY!!!" I mean, does it get any better than a beautiful baby girl wearing a pink tutu/dress ensemble? I think not. Well, her yellow one is stinkin' adorable also, but come on...how cute is this?!

27/365 That Big Gummy Grin!

We can feel Grace's first tooth cutting through on the bottom. We have sworn it is going to make it's full appearance for a little over a week now, but it's still just the tippy-top of it poking through. We are excited for the tooth to come all the way in and hope it will help alleviate some of her pain and frustration. What I'm not excited for, though, is the thought of missing this big gummy grin of hers:



I know her smile will be just as beautiful when it has more of an ivory hue, but for now, I just want it to stay like this!

26/365 Cuteness x 2!!

Grace and I got together with Heather and her adorable baby Addison, who is just a couple weeks younger than Grace. It was so hilarious, cute, and fun to watch the two of them interact with one another. At first, it was like they were so shocked to see this other little person that was just like themselves. It was hard to pick only a few pictures because we took so many and they were all great. Look at these two cuties:

Heather and I got these matching onesies for the babes when we went to a taping of Ellen. And of course we both put babylegs on them, too.



No surprise that Ryan and I's baby is the squirmy one always trying to move and get somewhere...anywhere other than where we put her! He does call her Squirmy-Wormy for a reason, I guess :)



Apparently Grace has become bored with her own feet and took the opportunity to grab Addison's.



This picture can be interpreted many ways. We think they are either saying, "Okay, friend, what's your next move?" or "These crazy moms of ours won't stop with the cameras. Quick! Do something!"



Gotcha!



Uh, Oh...not pleased at all.



Now I'm going to get you!



I can't help but to laugh whenever I look at these pictures. Great fun and great memories.

25/365 I Fly, Mama!

The baby has a new obsession with jumping really hard and fast in her jumperoo, with her hands extended out to the side. She looks like she's a little bird or a little airplane flying through the rainforest (i.e. the rainforest jumperoo...)!

24/365 JoJo!!!!

Grace and I had a busy day today. We went to our first "Mommy and Me" stroller excercise class at the YMCA, which was a lot of fun, but has left Mama feeling a little sore. After the Y we went to Target with my mom to pick up some essentials (they have everything, don't they?!) and then stopped at my moms for a little while so Baby could have some playtime with her Grandma Jo (who has lovingly been nicknamed by her other grandchildren as JoJo). Here are some fun pictures of the babe and her JoJo playing together.

Well, hello baby!



Playing airplane with JoJo:



Flying baby!! (a little blurry, but still a great shot):




Stretching out:



Upside down baby! (Love this one, too!):



Trying so hard to figure out how to crawl (you have my permission to take your time, little one!):



Mama's big girl!



Gosh, these two ladies just make me so happy. I am so completely honored that Grace has such an amazing role model like my mama. This woman is truly an angel sent from above.

23/365 Everyone Loves Winning!

Before Christmas, I entered a giveaway for a free Bumbo chair cover. I had completely forgotten that I entered until I was contacted and told that I won. It was fun to pick out the fabric option I preferred and exciting when it arrived in the mail yesterday. I slipped it on the Bumbo chair today and we really like it!

My sweet baby girl trying out the new cover!



What do you think?



A pretty cool idea, huh?



Here is a picture of the Bumbo without the cover on it. This was almost 2 months ago...look how much my baby girl has grown! I love this picture, and how relaxed she looks :)

22/365 Let's Face It...

...the baby isn't always a happy, smiling, carefree little girl. We are very lucky that she is 90% of the time. However, that other 10% of time when she is either sick, teething, bored, or just being a baby, she makes some pretty sad faces. And some really loud noises! Today, she has 2 teeth that are on the way to the surface. We thought they were going to break through the other day but we can still just feel and see them. Needless to say, the babe isn't a fan of this process. There is a lot of this going on when the tylenol and oragel wear off:



But have no fear, as soon as she is calmed down, we get our happy baby back, even if only temporarily. Here we are cuddled on the couch staying warm:

21/365 No Love For The (new bath) Tub!

So, we gave Grace her first bath in the new tub. Remember the baby I thought must have been part fish like her father...the baby who loved the bath no matter what time of day or night or how sick and cranky she was? Well, clearly she doesn't like the water as much as I have believed for the past 4.5 months.

This picture had to be cropped big time to make it "internet appropriate," but this is how she sat in the bath the entire time... huddled in the corner, clinging to the side for dear life. The water was plenty warm, and there was plenty of water there. I don't know what gives.





Heather (who has an adorable baby girl, Addison, that is 2 weeks younger than Grace) has also recently converted from the PUJ tub like we were using before to a big girl tub, and she suggested trying it in the kitchen sink where you can let the water run continuously like it did with the PUJ. We will try that in the morning and hope for the best. The next option is to get a shower head that sprays a little lighter so she can be in the shower without water pelting on her skin. Wish us luck as we try to figure out how to get our water-loving baby ready!

...BY THE WAY...check out that chub on the baby! I love her so much!

20/365 - 2 of Baby's Favorite Things

...Daddy.

...and the computer.

The babe tries so hard to get to the computer. It's so funny when you hold her up close and she feels like she has accomplished something...she gets this look on her face like "OOOOH, now what?!" She has learned by example that she is supposed to bang on the keys and on the couple of special occasions that we have let her get close enough, she puts her fingers to the keys and presses away. Maybe she will like playing the piano?

Anyway, without any further commentary, here are the two keepers of my heart:

19/365 BIG Baby Smiles!! (and Baby Landon, too)!

Grace was extremely smiley for a large part of the day today - for which I am very grateful. It always makes me so happy when I get to see these huge baby smiles...and almost as happy when I actually catch them on camera!

Smiles!!
(Checking out our new "in-between" bath tub)



...and trying to escape the tub, of course!



...another huge smile from Grace...



Danielle and Baby Landon stopped by for a short while this morning also!

18/365 The Baby That Rolls

Grace has been the queen of rolling lately but until today I had yet to capture it on "film," let alone video. I took this sequence of photos this afternoon: