Gracie's New Tricks

Gracie got a new tooth last weekend. It showed up Sunday afternoon, on the bottom, number 5! Just 20 -some more to go. Sigh...

And, she can make the 'stinky' action (waving her hand in front of her nose and scrunching up her face) because Brad did it when he changed her the other day. She was blowing kisses, but now she just blows, she seems to have forgotten the whole, kiss the hand and then blow portion of it....

She's been having fun!

Gramma Gay reading Gracie a book



Looking out the front window, where she can usually catch a game of street hockey or soccer.



Family Snapshot



Gracie's New Toy Trunk





Buried in toys. Heaven. Her favourite game now is getting in, and getting out, in /out, in/out. All day.

Almost One!??

Can you believe that Gracie is almost one? Eleven months old, and counting.... September 19th is the big day and I'm not sure I'm ready for it.

She got a taste of what it will be like to celebrate this weekend, when she opened a gift from Great Auntie Linda. Spoiled little girl loved everything! Thanks Auntie!











Now, to plan some festivities. Looks like we're having at least three birthdays this year so everyone can attend, one in Lethbridge, Hanna and Edmonton. Should be busy!

Plus, I booked her shots for the day after her birthday. Is it mean to pump her full of sugar and excitement and then make her get her shots the next day??? I'm starting to rethink my booking....

Back from Banff

We made a quick trip to Banff Monday and got back yesterday. Such a great place. It made us both miss the mountains. We got to meet up with a bunch of friends and take in a bit of the mountain scenery while checking out what's changed in the Bow Valley.

We didn't take many pictures, and they're all blurry, dark, or Gracie's not looking, but they're memories.



Just try to catch me looking at the camera...

Lee with Caden and Gracie. Caden is about three months older than Gracie.



Melanie with Dylan. He's 20 days younger than Gracie. Unfortunately, all of my shots of them playing are a blur....



And, the view from my old office. Had to catch up with some old friends there, too.




Gracie did good sleeping in the hotel room and enjoyed meeting lots of new people. Good trip.

A few more pictures

Gracie's favourite new treat - graham wafers.



Gracie's favourite toys of the moment, her parallel bars :) and her giraffe.





Gracie after her bath, slowing down before bed.... diaper and a housecoat. Cute.





Enjoying a bottle, by herself.



And a little bit of lovely from my flower beds.

Visitors

We just had a week of visitors and fun!

My mom popped in for a quick visit Tuesday and brought beautiful flowers and fresh veggies from her garden. So nice to have fresh stuff in the house (plus a few yummy treats)!



Steph and Broc and Kale (and Wiley) arrived that night, too so we had a full house. Five adults, two dogs, two toddlers, and lots of fun.





Davy Crockett made Gracie's zebra into a hat (with Uncle Brad's help)



Kale enjoyed tackling Giraffe as much as Gracie does...



And Gracie's new favourite toy was another big hit (but if we hear "Final Countdown" one more time, we may go crazy)



Kale enjoyed sitting on people while they read him stories....



You may not be able to tell, but he's sitting on Broc's face in this shot, wondering why Broc can't keep reading.





There were lots of stories read over the past five days. Both kids like their books.



After so much playing, they needed a good cleaning in the tub.

But, these two had a lot of fun together. Kale even gave Gracie some kisses by the end.



We had such a great visit. We headed to the mall, checked out a bike shop, Steph, Kale and I went to strollercise (Gracie chose to stay home and catch up on her naps), we went to the dog park, rented a movie, Brad and Steph went for a bike ride, and we had lots of time to hang out and visit.

So nice of them to make the trek up here!

The Cabin

I slowed down a lot on picture taking at the cabin, but we had a great, relaxing time with lots of friends and food and fun!

Gracie at the beach.




She ate a few handfuls of sand and then tried to clean off her hands, one grain at a time, slowly picking each piece of sand off.... She loved digging in the sand and splashing in the water. She ran into the water up to her armpits and then turned around and ran out, over and over again. She was full of smiles and giggles.




She was also very share-y with the sand.... and there was a lot of sand to share...



Ang took a few pictures of me kneeboarding, but Brad spent a lot of time on the boat, too, and we both tested out wakeboarding.... or we got up on the wakeboard, I probably should say... I don't know if we were wakeboarding.

The Zoo

The zoo was one of our little trip's highlights because Gracie had so much fun! She loves animals and these ones were all very new to her...

Gracie on Brad's back:



and the new baby gorilla, on it's mom's back:



and Jay on Lorne's back:



The Dinosaurs Alive display was neat. Ideal for boys aged 4-7, I'd say. Gracie wasn't sold on it....



They called the hippo's to feed right when we got to their pen, so we got to see them come out of the water.



The baby giraffe and parents:



Gramma Gay and Paige:



and Gracie:



Gracie's favourite animals were the elephants. She tried to jump out of the backpack when we were watching them and was chattering like crazy at them. Too funny. This video shows some of it, but she tamed down her excitement when the camera came out.





The tigers were a close second. She kept pointing them out.





Everyone was a little mesmerized by the tigers. The zoo just brought in a new male, and he was huge and active, pacing all over the cage.





All in all, a great day!