The Power of Words

Grace has added a few words to her vocabulary lately that are quite powerful. The first has the power to turn my hair gray and tempts to me yell at the top of my lungs, "Because I said so, that's WHY!!" (Of course I never do that, but it is definitely tempting!) Oh yes, we've entered the stage of WHY. She asks me "why?" all. day. long. I'm actually exhausted at the end of the day because of this one little word. Just for fun, I set the timer for 5 minutes and kept track of how many times she said those three little letters. It was 11. That doesn't sound like much, but that was just in 5 minutes. That's 132 an hour or 1,452 in the 11 hours she's spends awake each day. Honestly, it's probably not really that many, but it's a lot, and I'm tired, and I now understand why parents use the phrase "because I said so."

She has also started saying "thank you" all by herself with no prompting. These words hold the power to melt my heart, and she knows it, so she says it often. If "why" has the power to zap my energy, these little words have the power to build it back up. It's one of those little things we've been working on for a long time, and it feels good to see she's finally got it.

Finally, she has added a word that has the power to make me giggle every single time..."honey". It makes perfect sense. Jeff and I call her honey all the time. We call each other honey. But there is something so funny about a two year old saying, "I'm all done eating, honey," or "Be right back, honey." It's especially funny when she's upset or whining..."Don't put my toys away, honey!" Oh my, she's so funny.

While we're on the topic of powerful words, I have a few for Jeff who I married 8 YEARS AGO today. How could it possibly already be 8 years!?! Anyway...I love you honey! Thank you for being an amazing husband and father. Grace, Charlie and I are all so blessed to have you as the head of our family!

Pigs in the Park

While Charlie and I visited the doctor last week, Grace had a date with my mom. They met up with my Aunt Skipp, cousin Gina, and their granddaughter/niece, Kaitlyn, and went to see Valentine's Performing Pigs. Grace came home very excited about her fun day. She loved getting to play with Katie and watching the pigs jump and push a wheelbarrow. (I'm sure they did more tricks than that, but those are the ones Grace has been talking about!)

Grandma and Grace

Grace, Gina, and Katie

See that yellow rope Grace is holding? Inside sources tell me that the only rule at the performance was that you couldn't go past the yellow rope. Only one child in the whole group ran past that yellow rope. I'll give you one guess who it was....!!! =)

Trying again..

One of the videos didn't work on my last post. Blogger kept prompting me to fix the Html...like I know how to do that!?!? Anyway, here's the other video. Enjoy!!=)

More from my Little American Idol

Here are a couple more songs from our little performer.

Jesus Loves Me

My sweet Grace with her own rendition of "Jesus Loves Me". I love her special introduction to the song!

In His Own Universe

Charlie is now four months old. My, how time flies!

We went in for his 4 month check-up today, and once again the doctor was surprised by his size. She showed me his growth chart and said he started out barely on the charts and has continued to go further and further away from the charts. Then she showed me today's mark and said, "Now, he's out here in his own universe!" My little four month old is now the length of a typical nine month old! He is 28 1/4 inches long and 15 pounds, 9 ounces.

The doctor did have some bad news for me. I told her that he is still refusing a bottle in hopes that she had some helpful tips. Instead she said that most of the time, if a baby is still refusing at 4 months, they will never take a bottle. Ack!! Oh well, considering he is absolutely a perfect baby in every other aspect, I'll happily take this little set back.

Charlie had a great time playing with the "baby in the mirror" while we were waiting for the doctor. He also loved kicking and moving on the crinkly paper.

Pony Ride and 4th of July Fun

Grace has loved "neigh-neighs" for quite some time, so we were very excited to learn that our neighborhood's 4th of July carnival included pony rides for the kids! (You all can add that to your ever growing list of reasons to move up here!!) Grace is usually pretty timid when it comes to trying new things, and she's rarely willing to go within about 10 feet of a dog, so we weren't sure she'd actually get on a pony, but she did it and had a great time! She has been talking about it ever since and hopefully will get to take a longer ride in a few weeks when we visit the Oregon Coast.

Here are a few more pictures from our fun 4th of July!

Do you know how hard it is to get 3 kids to sit still at the same time for a picture? Impossible!!

We didn't have an official parade this year, but we had our own. We decorated the wagon, but chose to take the stroller because of rain. Grace had a great time sitting next to her cousin Jacob.

Our "parade" making it's way down to the carnival.

Grace and Momo

Family "Vacation"

I'm not sure that it's really possible to have a true vacation when you're traveling with a two year old and an infant, at least not the do-nothing-but-relax sort of vacation I dream of. =) Nevertheless, we did take a "vacation" this past week to Kansas City and Des Moines to attend Jeff's cousin Amy's wedding and visit his 97 year old "Nanny". It was definitely not a restful and relaxing trip, but it was a lot of fun to catch up with his family. The kids did AMAZING and loved getting to know their extended family better.

Charlie on his first airplane ride

Grace had a great time sitting between Grammy and Bop on the airplane

One of the highlights for Grace was swimming in the pool at the hotel. It was her first time swimming and she loved it! Everyone loved getting to meet Charlie...

Cousin Chad

Cousin Lindsay

Aunt NancyUncle Ryan scored serious points when he showed Grace that he could play videos of The Wiggles on his I-Phone.Grace had a great time playing Chad's drums. Aunt Nancy and Uncle Greg have a really long driveway that was just perfect for sidewalk chalk.

Charlie met Nanny for the first time.

It took Grace a while to warm up, but she ended up having a great time visiting Nanny. She drew her some picture and brought her lots of Kleenex.

It was a long trip back to Seattle. We drove from Des Moines to Kansas City, waited for our plane that had been delayed, then flew home. Gracie and Charlie did such a great job, and it was so nice having the help of Jeff's parents and brother, however I don't think we're planning on taking another plane ride very soon! =)

Smiley Boy

Charlie is seriously the happiest baby I've ever known, and I'm not just saying that because I'm his biased mom. =) Everywhere we go people comment on his huge smiles and easy going personality. He has a way of smiling that makes you feel like he's so excited to see you (even if it's only been a few seconds since the last time he's seen you!!) Even as a baby, has a way of making everyone feel special, and I think that as he grows up he's going to have great social skills and the kind of joyful personality that everyone likes to be around.

Bumbo

Yesterday Charlie got to sit in the Bumbo seat for the first time. He loved being able to sit up and look around. He looked so cute that I got the camera out to take his picture.But then, of course, Grace wanted to be in the picture as well.

I told her to give Charlie a kiss in hopes of getting a cute picture of the two of them. They don't quite have this one figured out yet. =)

I guess Grace figured the best way to have her picture taken was to sit in the chair herself. I think she kind of likes it because she has been sitting in it much more than Charlie!