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

Grace Elizabeth Now and Then

It has been a whole year since I had the ultrasound to determine that Grace was going to be a girl. And now she is a happy, growing, fun 8 month old.

Then....
* she loved to squirm, do somersaults, kick, and flip flop. If I didn't feel this, I'd be nervous, drink OJ and she'd start right up again.
* I'll admit it. After seeing this ultrasound picture I had to get Steve to reassure me that she'd be born with eyes. All her soft tissue was still developing and wasn't being picked up with the 4d ultrasound. I was afraid she'd look like the "Scream" mask.



Now....
* she's just beginning to pull up on things. Right now, she'll pull up to her knees by herself. With help, she can pull up to her feet and hang on to something.
* she's still doing the army crawl. Every once in awhile she'll get on hands and knees and rock back and forth. Then she'll plow forward and army crawl the rest of the way.
* she looked at Steve one time and said "dada". Steve had told her if she said "dada" before "mama", he'd buy her a car when she was 16.
* she loves Baby Mum Mums. Apparently every other child in Corpus loves them too so we clear the shelves while in San Antonio.