AFV?

Made a trip down to Leah's house to help her organize her loft/spare room. Took Gracie with me. She's slightly more containable than Jack if we want to get work done.



We did get some organizing done. Not quite as much as I think we intended. After all, we have Gracie to play with! And any work that needs to be done can be done while she's sleeping.

Oh, wanna know why I called this post "AFV"? It stands for America's Funniest Home Video's. I've had a couple suggestions that I send this little tidbit of Gracie in. What do you all think? I know for a fact that Nana thinks this is endlessly funny and has watched it at least 50 times.

Here's my little moaner. She tends to moan when she's tired.




Besides the moaning she was being quite the clown.

Is it spring yet?

*whimper* Will it ever get warm. Sure we may have just had our first decent snowfall earlier this month but we are ready to get out of the house! I think Jack has cabin fever worse than any of the rest of us.

It may have still been a little chilly but we're managing to get our walks in.









And in case you were wondering, the bottom lip is perpetually missing because she's working on another tooth.

Floor time

It's good to just take a break and roll around on the floor every once and a while. But do make sure to take a break and chew on your feet occasionally.



Please note the new yoga pose that Gracie has invented:

Just because

Just because I think my kids are cute. Here's some more pics.







Jack doing his best kilroy impression:

I have a freaking comedian for a son

Funny Jack story - Eric takes him into the bathroom at bedtime last night to brush his teeth. Apparently Jack was "acting" mad about something but Eric did/said something to make him laugh instead. When he finishes laughing he tries to "be mad" again but couldn't wipe the smile from his face so he puts his hands on the counter, lowers his head down to his chest and mutters "I have to focus."

Photo shoot!

I wanted to make sure that we were able to get professional photos for Gracie's 6 month birthday. I did it for Jack and I needed to do it for Gracie.

I would have liked to have gotten a family pic but Eric wasn't feeling well. Enter Nana. Thank goodness my mom was available to come to the mall and help me. Jack was SO much of a handful. Must have been that lollipop we gave him before we left. Mental note - don't give Jack sugar before photos.

So Jack would NOT stand still. It's purely a miracle that we got any pictures of him at all. But we did get a couple.







Then it was time to try to get a couple pictures of Jack and Gracie together. Combine one hyper 3 year old with a 6 month old that got woken up from her nap early and you do not get the best pics ever. They're manageable, just not quite what I was hoping for.









Then it's Gracie's turn. Mom takes Jack to McDonalds to try to cut that sugar with a little grease and I stay to have Gracie's pics. She did not want to have her picture taken. *sigh*







Our time is up. I'm so disappointed.

Mom still had Jack and I was just standing around waiting for the pictures to be processed and trying to calm Gracie down. One of the photographers had a cancellation and took some pity on me and asked if I wanted to try one more time with Gracie since I had been able to calm her down while we were waiting. So nice! And she was such a better photographer too! I finally got the pictures of Gracie that I wanted to celebrate her 6 month birthday!





She has my crooked smile!




and this one is by far my favorite. I got it in an 8x10 and have it framed in the living room. Doesn't she have brilliant eyes?

This is for Leah

Gracie duplicated one of Leah's favorite picture's of Jack. Purely coincidence.

Jack:



Gracie:



Of course she doesn't quite match the level of concentration in Jack's eyes...

My little ham

Jack has picked up a new habit. It's a cute one. I have no idea where he learned it and you should have seen Eric's and my face the first time he did it.

Occasionally Jack will doing something so good that he deserves applause. Like last night he actually ate all of his dinner and his salad without a single word from Eric and I about him sitting still and eating. So when he took that last bite of salad Eric and I cheered for him and clapped and told him what a great job he did. (Nothing like a little positive re-enforcement, right?)

What's he do?

He stands up, takes a bow with one hand over his stomach and the other hand behind his back and says "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." Bowing each time he says "thank you."

So friggen cute.

He must have been on a roll last night because he also did the cutest thing with Gracie. Must have learned this at Miss Linda's along with the bowing.

Gracie was standing in her exersaucer and Jack sat in front of her lifting her hands and saying "SO BIG!" It was the sweetest thing because I remember doing "so big" with Jack when he was only as big as Gracie. One of those mommy moments.




Oh, and here's a couple more pics of Gracie that same night... she's getting so big!

So Big

Funny, for some reason I thought I already posted this. If I'm repeating myself and I don't even know it I apologize!

I remember doing this with Jack when he was this little. Here's Jack doing "SO BIG" with Gracie...

Snow Day

Finally.

We got snow.

Of course it's March now and we all have spring fever. But that's ok because Jack and Grace got to wear their snow suits at least once and I didn't have to eat the cost of them. Seriously. Since when is it March before a kid needs to wear a pair of snow boots and snow pants in Pennsylvania? I remember having snow storm after snow storm to go sledding when I was younger.

And of course it snowed on a Monday. Couldn't have snowed on a Saturday or Sunday so that we could play all weekend, right? No, of course not. Instead I RUSHED home from work so that I could go get the kids, get them bundled up and get outside before it got dark.

But it's all good because we got to go out. Gracie had no idea what was going on but went along with it anyway. I mean, what choice does she have? Of course I guess she could have complained but she didn't let out a peep. Good girl. Jack, now Jack was beside himself excited to go play in the snow. I was wondering it he would balk at needing to put on special pants and special boots and special gloves but he didn't question me once. Well, there was one quick correction when he thought he had to take his regular pants off to put the snow pants on. *giggle*

So out we trundled as a family. Got a couple quick pictures with Gracie to prove that she did, in fact, receive the most adorable snow suit from Nana and then we proceeded to try to teach Jack how to make snow angels.

Now, had we gotten the snow on the weekend I would have been dressed to play and would have physically shown him how to make a snow angel. However, it snowed on Monday so Eric and I were wearing our work clothes still. We really don't need to be laying down in the snow in our work clothes. So we tried to teach him while we were standing up.

"Jack, lay down in the snow."

"HUH?" as he looks at us like we each just grew an extra head

"Lay down in the snow."

"?"

"It's ok honey, just lay down."

So he lays down. Now, here comes the funny part.

"Jack, now put your arms up over your head."
"No honey, not towards the sky, up over your head."
"That's right, now swing them down and back up."
"No honey, not towards the sky, up over your head, look at mommy do it."

It continues like that for a few minutes. Eric and I laughing the entire time because we know how confusing it must all sound. But he gets it! And he loves it! He must have made 5 or 6 snow angels in the short amount of time we were outside.

Eric took Gracie in so that she wouldn't become the cutest popsicle ever and I stayed outside with Jack. He had such a blast just running in the snow and making his foot prints, then randomly laying down and making another snow angel, then grabing a handful of snow and putting it on my. Yes, putting it on me. I think he meant to "throw" it but would just walk up to me and hit it against my leg. Too funny.

All in all it was a blast and I'm so glad that he got to do it at least once this season. I'm sorry that he didn't get to go sledding at all but I guess I'll just have to be satisfied that he'll just love it that much more next year.

















Those are some rosy cheeks!

Looky what I did.