A little of this, a little of that

With Corey leaving at the crack of dawn this morning to run 13 miles (crazy much?), we had a pretty low key day. He was so tired after he got home that we just hung out in the backyard until nap time. I am proud to report, however, that out of 2000 runners, Corey finished 110th overall and 12th in his age group with an impressive time of 1 hour and 37 minutes! Way to go, Hon!!!

My mom and aunt stopped by for lunch and a little bounce house fun. It looks like Bonnie loves playing in it just as much as Gracie!

Celebrate

So many birthdays, so little time.

We've got Ellison, whose 6 month birthday is today, Bonnie just turned 14 months, Corey turning the big 3-0 on Halloween, and Aunt Stacy has a birthday a few days after that.

Lots to celebrate!

Mimi, Gramps, and Aunt Nancy threw a little party for all of the guests of honor...minus two. Corey has to leave the house at 5am to head over to Athens to run in the half marathon, which meant that he and Bonnie were going to be fast asleep for the night at about the same time. As a result, they stayed home while Grace and I went to the party.

It's been a few weeks since Emma and Grace have gotten together, but those girls sure didn't miss a beat. Grace started screaming Emma's name as soon as we pulled into Mimi's driveway.

Uncle Dave with his Baby Girl

Ellison is SO cute (check out those blue eyes!!) and is getting so big!

I had fun pretending to be a professional photographer. Here's my favorite "look up at me like a deer caught in headlights pose." And I'm not kidding when I say that it's my favorite pose, either. It actually is. Not too shabby for someone who has no idea how to work her camera the right way!

Walking on the river rocks with Gramps

After baths we snuck in a little Wonder Woman dress up time before heading home. Aunt Stacy did a great job on the homemade crowns and wrist cuffs. I'm still cracking up at Emma's "lasso of truth" that she's wearing around her waist!

The serious Wonder Woman face...

They really mean business!

14 months with Bonnie

I recently blogged about how much I love picking Grace up from school and how it is one of the highlights of my day.

Another major highlight of my day is getting Bonnie first thing when she wakes up in the morning or after a nap. As soon as I walk into her room she grins from ear to ear and yells "Mama! Mama!" If she's already awake, that is. She's equally as cute if I have to wake her up, though. She'll sit up with that sweet, groggy little face and matted down hair and flash a huge smile. Then say "uh oh" and point to all of the stuffed animals that she's thrown out of her crib.

Melts my heart every time.

Although she isn't walking unassisted yet, she is cruising up a storm. She also still calls her sippy cup "good girl", and has started telling me when she has a dirty diaper. Clearly she is not ready to potty train at 14 months, but she does say "poo" whenever she needs to be changed. Sometimes, however, she says it even if she hasn't gone potty and when I ask her if she has a poo poo she'll say, "Naooo."

Her vocabulary continues to grow by the day and she has added bow, ta-da!, walk, and Mmmmma (Emma) to her repertoire. She loves babies (dolls or people; she doesn't discriminate) and points and says "bebe" every time she sees one.

We love our sweet baby girl!!!

Silly Day!

Today was officially "Silly Day" at Grace's school, and believe me when I say that it took great effort to convince her to wear an outfit that didn't match. And really, it isn't even all that mismatched except for the bows. And the only reason she agreed to wear mismatched bows was because I put pigtails (sorry mom, puppy dog tails) in her hair.

Believe me again when I say that it took great effort to get these 2 pictures of Bonnie! I wouldn't have been able to do it if Gracie hadn't been such a great helper.

My Aunt Nancy is in town for a few days and Grace was so excited when she surprised her in the carpool line this afternoon!

She thought she was saying something mean to me...

I always look forward to picking Grace up from school. It really is one of the highlights of Bonnie's and my day. As soon as we pull up in the carpool line, Bonnie starts stretching her neck to look out the window for Gracie. And as soon as she sees her she starts squealing. And I just can't stop smiling.

What's great is that Grace is equally as excited to see us and she also starts squealing as soon as she sees my car.

After we get out all the hugs and the "I'm-so-glad-to-see-yous" we usually talk about her day. Then, Grace will often entertain us with some of the songs she learned at music class and then request the Walkin' on Sunshine/Halo mash-up from the Glee soundtrack.

It seems that as soon as we get home, however, she stops feelin' the love, and starts in with the whining...and my parade gets rained on a little. Right when we walk in the door, it's time for Bonnie's nap. It's also time for Grace's quiet time. That is precisely when Grace starts the requests: fruit snacks, water, dress-up clothes, a movie...no not that movie...this one...nevermind...this one...

Aahh!!

After I finally get Bonnie settled in her bed I get started on Grace's to-do list. By the time I'm finished with that and get a load of laundry folded, nap time and quiet time are over. And I'm ready to go to bed.

But the requests keep coming and it's time to make dinner while entertaining a 3 year old and trying to keep a 1 year old from pulling the lamp off the end table. I'm exhausted just from thinking about this. Not to mention Corey recently had the nerve to tell me that he wouldn't mind having 5 kids. With whom is what I'd like to know.

Anyway, Grace had another wardrobe change request and I told her that I was not about to go back upstairs and get another princess dress this close to dinner time. She looked right and me and angrily exclaimed, "You're worth it!!!" I about died. It was impossible to keep a straight face when I was attempting to explain to a confused (and chapped) 3 year old that "you're worth it" is actually a nice thing to say to somebody.

It should come as no surprise that Bonnie is just as vocal as her big sister. I know I mentioned in a recent post that one of Bonnie's favorite things to do is to throw food off her tray when she's had enough. This remains true except now, as soon as she's finished clearing her plate, she'll look at me and say "cookie" in the sweetest little voice I've ever heard.

How can I resist?

She always milks me for at least 2 and sometimes 3 Vanilla Wipers.

What's hers is hers and what's Bonnie's is hers.

Of course, by "hers" I mean Grace's.

The interaction between these two girls gets more funny by the day. Bonnie also seems to know some words that I had know idea she could say. Like mine, for example.

The girls were watching Dora and minding their own business until Bonnie decided she wanted to play with her toys. She crawled in to the playroom and came out with some talking, musical, light up something or other, and Grace instantly ran up, screamed "mine" and snatched it right out of Bonnie's hands. Bonnie is shaping up to be quite a willful child and would have none of that sort of treatment. She snatched that toy right back and, in an even louder voice, yelled "MY!"

I've been laughing about Grace's "what happened" look ever since.

Princess Tiana/Aurora/Cinderella

Doing their "Hambercy" dance

Bonnie prefers to push the chair around rather than her walker.

I don't know where she hears this stuff...

Ok, so maybe I do know.

The other day, we were over at my mom and dad's house and apparently something or someone startled Grace. She said, "Ah! You just scared the 'S T' out of me!"

At least I know I'm careful about spelling profanities! I would have been mortified, however, if this had happened at school...or anywhere in public for that matter...or if she had spelled the entire word!

Conversations

These girls are talking a lot to each other these days. And by talking, I mean that Grace is doing most of it. At least the coherent parts. Bonnie, albeit only 13 months old, says lots of things. Obviously it is mostly gibberish, but Grace seems to understand every word.

For example, in the car on the way to school this morning, Bonnie kept making a noise sort of like a white noise machine, but intermittently. Grace finally said to her "Ha, ha, are you spraying webs?"

We're clearly still into Spiderman.

Bonnie still loves to throw her food on the floor after she feels she's had enough. Tonight, it just happened to be her dinner in its entirety. After she finished throwing the contents of her tray overboard, she looked right at me and said "cookie." Of course, as soon as Grace heard Bonnie ask for a cookie, she also had to ask for one. A "vanilla wiper" to be exact. And by vanilla wiper, she meant a Nilla Wafer.

And to think that all this time I was under the impression that I was a decent cook? Go figure.