Baby 101

Grace has been busy learning to take care of her baby.

She pushes her in the stroller.

(she's still learning to multitask - walking and grabbing baby is too advanced)

She kisses and rocks her baby.

(learning to hold baby and not clap for self is also too advanced)


She even feeds her baby.

(feeding baby and not self hasn't been achieved perfectly either)

Presents, Presents, Everywhere

Merry Christmas!!!

'Twas the Weekend Before Christmas

We spent the weekend in San Antonio celebrating Christmas with all the Velas. Grace grew the family number to 18 this year and we were blessed to all be together.


We tried taking a picture of all the cousins. Grace wasn't really cooperating and certainly didn't want to wear her hat.



Grace got lots of loving and attention from her cousins.


Obviously shopping with a 10 month old is quite difficult. Add the horrible shopping in Corpus on top of that, and I feel like I'm a terrible gift giver these days. However, I was so excited about Kelsey and Taylor's towels that I had made for them.


Steve got to put his Santa elf skills to the test by putting together one of Grace's presents. She wanted to be a part of it as well.


These silver pants were the hit of the white elephant exchange.



But this was Grace's favorite place all weekend. Right in Grandpa's lap.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Brrr!! I'm sure our 40 degree temps today are quite balmy compared to other areas. Getting Grace to cooperate and wear a hat was not an easy feat. She did leave it on for our ride to the post office, but I'm not sure she could see out too well.



PS: In the first picture, notice the thumb and the tugging on the earlobe. While Grace has been a thumbsucker for a while now, she's recently added the ear thing in. Anytime she's tired, bored, or needs comforting, those two things pop into action.

Do you think she cried?

Of course, she did. They did manage to capture this shot between tears though. Santa's beard was real and yellowing. I think I would have cried too if I were in Grace's position.

Let Them Eat Cake

Grace's friend Madeline turned 1 last week. She has been so fun to watch grow this past year. I love to find out from her mom what she's currently doing so that I know what to expect from Grace in 8 weeks.

Her mom made a delicious cake that Madeline loved getting into.



Steve gave Grace a few tastes so she'll know what to expect in 8 weeks.


Happy Birthday, Madeline!!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

how lovely are thy branches....for now, at least until a curious 10 month old gets a hold of them

Thankful

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving break here at the Vela household. Grace got to spend lots of time with her daddy as well as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

She had a tray full of Thanksgiving dinner - turkey, green beans, dressing, and sweet potatoes. She's pretty much 100% into finger food. She HATES to be fed by a spoon - Miss Independent.

Happy Birthday Grace's Daddy!!!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful husband, father and friend!!!

Thinking Outside the Box

The box Grace's chair came in proved to provide lots of entertainment. The other night while I was making dinner, Steve and Grace cut peek-a-boo holes, carved her initials in it and decorated it with toys. Grace has had so much fun playing in it. Especially peeking through the holes. I've even gotten in it a time or two.

Baby's 1st Christmas

With Christmas just around the corner, we are so excited about being Santa this year. Here's a peek at Grace's presents:


Her own chair - for now she'll love crawling all over it (and the box it came in).

A set of blocks - how cool are these?

She has to have a doll. This one has a cloth body from Madame Alexander.

Grace LOVES these touch and feel books. We caught her last Saturday laying on her tummy in her crib flipping the pages of her That's Not My Puppy version.

This is her stocking we had monogrammed - I love the tail sticking out.

Wordless Wednesday

Look Who Found the Toilet Paper

Grace is 9 Months Old!!

Grace is 9 months old today - the end of the "external pregnancy". Time for the transition to more table food and a cup instead of a bottle. She throws her cup every time I give it to her so this will be interesting.

Grace weighs 19lbs 14oz and is 28 inches long - 65-70% in height and weight.
* she loves everything that is not a toy. She will leave a room full of toys in search of something she finds interesting - even a piece of lint on the floor
* she's crawling on all fours
* she pulls up on everything - surfaces with and without a ledge. She really likes the windows to look outside
* she loves to pull all her books out of her bin and will look at each one. She still prefers to "taste" the books while I'm reading to her though
* she loves music class. When I sing her the songs outside of class, she grins from ear to ear
* she will clap and kiss on command. But she's pretty stingy with her kisses lately. The duck in the bath has gotten more lately than Steve or I

Costume Day at Musikgarten

Today was costume day in music class.

Grace was the cutest, little duck



She brought Baby Mum-Mums for all her friends



She wore her costume the whole class without a single fuss, but she didn't like it when it first arrived

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

The Jacamans visited us last weekend with their beautiful daughter Ashley who is just 6 weeks younger than Grace. We enjoyed letting the girls play and showing them around Corpus.



Ashley and Grace are pretty much on the same schedule and had the best time playing.




Grace even leaned over and gave Ashley a kiss at one point.


We can tell that there will be many fun years ahead for these two.

Let the (crib) games begin!

Grace has been pulling up on things the last couple of weeks. Well, now she has gotten really good at it and does it every opportunity she has. I had the worst time yesterday getting her down for her nap. She consistently pulled up on the side of the crib. Steve lowered her mattress as soon as he got home.


Usually in the morning, I go in her room around 7 am and she is laying there waiting on me. Well, this morning when I found her, there she was on her feet, grinning at me. I wondered how long she'd been that way because she won't sit down by herself yet.

TEETH!!

This toothless smile that we love so much is soon to be a thing of the past. This morning I saw Grace's bottom two teeth just starting to show.

Montessori School

Grace had her first day of Montessori school today. We are blessed here in Corpus to have a great Montessori school (Mi Casita) that is a Spanish immersion program (ie only Spanish is spoken to the children). I have been trying to figure out where to send Grace to preschool in a few years and discovered that the Mi Casita school was going to start a Parent/Infant class to teach the foundations of the Montessori method in an interactive environment.

They have a special classroom set up for children under 18 mos called a Nido (Spanish for nest). The room was full of things for Grace to explore. We are really going to enjoy the experience and hopefully I'll get a sense for whether the Montessori approach is best for Grace.

First Day picture:


Exploring the Nido:


Babies in her class:



Climbing:

The Great Pumpkin!

Checking out all the pumpkins




Giving the pumpkin a kiss


Standing up with the pumpkins


Tasting the straw