Professional Walker!

Grace is getting really good at walking! It's so fun when we go to pick her up at school and she walks over to us! Speaking of school, she's getting promoted to the one year room since she is doing so well walking and feeding herself. She's done visitations this week and will be permanently placed there starting Monday. We have loved the nursery room teachers and hope that we have as good of experience in the 1A room!

**Note: we did this about a dozen times tonight :)

The many moods of Grace

So normally this is the smiley, fun girl we get to hang out with...

But every now and then this little grumpy girl shows up!

A trip to Michigan

We made a quick trip to Michigan this past weekend to visit our family up there. We didn't take many pics but here are the few we got :)

With daddy and Grandpa

Grace and Sandee

Snuggling with Grandma and Daisy...

And more snuggle time.

Before we left on Sunday, my mom made a pre-Thanksgiving turkey dinner. Grace loved it. As you can see by the top left picture, she was skeptical at first but after that first bite she gobbled it up. The surprising winner--cranberry sauce! I never would have guessed that she would have liked it!

Random Fun at the Williams'

I like to think that we know how to have a fun time at our house. I think Grace agrees! Here are some random fun times at the Williams'.

This first set of photos is from tonight. This is Grace before dinner:

This is Grace during her second course--cottage cheese. The kid loves cottage cheese. If we give it to her first she refuses to eat anything else until we prove to her that the cottage cheese is all gone. (Note: We don't always feed it to her like this!)

Post-dinner: We had to take Grace's cottage cheese covered sweater off and she took off running around the house before her bath. She grabbed her hat so Mark put it on her. Pretty cute, if you ask me!

On our way to school last week

This next set of pictures was taken a few weeks ago when Grandma and Grandpa Applebee came for Grace's birthday party. Grandma couldn't wait for the party to have Grace open her present so here it is!

Stay tuned for more fun times at the Williams'!

Reflections

The first year of a child's life is such a special time. As a parent you bring home a little baby who is completely reliant on you for everything. During that first month you start to learn about the little one--what certain cries mean, how she likes to be held, and most importantly you learn just how quickly you can fall head over heels in love. Over the next few months you celebrate the little things--a head being held up high during belly time, seven straight hours of sleep, a smile. Then somehow, without you knowing how it happens, that little baby starts to become more independent--she learns to sit on her own, to reach for toys, and how to squeeze you tightly when you pick her up. And then, before you realize it, she is rolling over, eating baby food, and filling your heart with unbelievable joy as she says mama and dada. The changes seem to come at rapid fire speed then--crawling, cruising on the furniture, pointing to what she wants, standing on her own, and then taking those precious first steps. All the while, you witness a little personality developing. You learn that your baby is a social butterfly who waves to people in the supermarket, in restaurants, wherever you may be. And that she has a way of making people feel so good when she reaches out for them to give them a hug. You discover that she has inherited your lack of patience but, surprisingly, is a morning person, often babbling in the morning instead of crying. You giggle at what a discriminating palette she has developed in such a short time, showing clear preferences for certain types of foods (some that neither of you ever eat!). You are amazed at what a vociferous "reader" she already is as her bin of books is her favorite thing to play with and she even shows preference for certain books (although she'll page through all of them). You smile as you hear your little girl's belly laugh and try to get her to do it again and again. Indeed, we have experienced all of these things over the last year and have had our hearts filled with the joy of watching Grace grow. On the fourteenth of each month we celebrated her birthday. While it may seem like a silly tradition, it gave us a chance to pause each month and reflect on and give thanks for all of the changes that occurred during that month. Although the tradition ends after her first birthday (we want her real birthday to be special for her as she grows up and don't want birthdays to become too commonplace!), we hope that we still take the time to pause and reflect on all the little changes that are culminating to make a little baby into a little girl...and not just any little girl, a little girl who has stolen such a big piece of our hearts.

Happy FIRST Birthday Grace!

Today was Grace's first birthday! And what a day we had! We are in Chicago because I have a conference. I took the day off from the conference and we had a family day. We're staying on Michigan Avenue just south of the river. It was a beautiful day so we decided to walk to the aquarium. We visited Millennium Park on the way. The aquarium was awesome. They had a few interactive things that Grace was able to do which was a lot of fun. After that we walked to State Street and had lunch at Macy's followed by some shoe shopping (no purchases though--they were out of Grace's size!). We came back to the hotel and played. We tried to go out for dinner but it started to rain on us so it was back to the hotel to order in and have birthday cake. It was the perfect day for the three of us!

Ready to go in the morning!

Family shot at the "bean" in Millennium Park

Under the "bean"

Grace loved the fish!

Playing in the waterscape

Dressed as a penguin in the polar play zone

On the artic slide

Waiting for the FantaSea show to start

Back at the hotel--Grace loves the view!

All dressed for dinner and doing the pouty lip look!

Time for birthday cake!

And what a yummy birthday cake it was! (We decided to save the outfit and let her eat cake in her diaper and bib.)

Happy First Birthday Sweet Girl!!! We love you so much!!!

Grace's 1st Birthday Party!

This past Saturday, November 7th, we held Grace's first birthday party. It was a week early but we'll be in Chicago for her birthday so this was the weekend for the party. The party was at Puccini's, a local pizza place. We had a ladybug theme (see the invite above) and were joined by several of of family members and friends. Grace was surprisingly great through the whole party (she wanted to nap when we first got there so I thought it was going to be a disaster!). She loved her cake and put on quite the show for all of her guests. A big thank you to everyone who was able to join us and help us celebrate this big milestone!

Grace's ladybug cake (made by yours truly!)

Ladybug cupcakes (made by Grace's Grandma Applebee and mommy)

Ladybug birthday banner

Center pieces (These were supposed to have chocolate ladybug lollipops in them but unfortunately they got lost in the mail. Thankfully we were able to pull these together with the help of Rubia's Flower Market about 2 hours before the party!)

On the food table we put our digital frame and had a slide show of Grace's first year.

My BFF, Alexia, came from Chicago to help Grace celebrate!

Grandma and Grandpa Applebee

Grandma Williams

Grace LOVED the balloons!

Aunt Amy

Grandparents, GG and G2Pa, Aunt Amy, Uncle Greg, and Stacey

LaShara, Iris (a special guest all the way from the Netherlands!), Alexia, Abigail and Andy

Kristie, Ryan, Jenn, Mark and Porter

Joy, Rick, Caleb, Lynn, Ryan, Uncle Marcial, and Aunt Barb

Raven, George, Eileen, Vicky, and Kari

Opening birthday presents

Cake time!

Trying out the wagon for the blocks--after an outfit change!

Below is a video capturing some of the festivities!
(Thanks Uncle Greg for doing all the recording!)