April 29th, 2008 What age is Grace today?

June 17th, 2009 Blog is temporarily down

Due to technical difficulties (the photos won’t upload) this website will be down until I am ready to read the instructions …

June 2nd, 2009 A Compliment

The other night after dinner, Grace hands me her empty bowl and says, “Good job, Mom!”!!! Isn’t that too funny?!?! I’ll take whatever compliment is thrown at me these days, even from a 2 year old!

June 2nd, 2009 Toddler Tools for Teeth Brushing

Ingredients: Two different tubes of children’s toothpaste, favorite toothbrush, water cup; chart & a variety of stickers

Directions: Get excited about brushing teeth TOGETHER over the sink

End Results:  Sticker fun & good, clean teeth!

I mentioned that Grace LOVES to brush her teeth in a previous post.  I thought I would elaborate on it here with some photos.  Take a couple of her flavored toothpastes (she likes to do it “MYself”), have her suck what’s on her toothbrush, drink or rinse with water and after you are both done, plop down the little one (she likes to sit on the stool while I sit on the cold floor) and say, “Mommy’s turn” while brushing her teeth. Finally, it is “Sticker Time” (get excited again)!!!  It’s a great motivator to see her chart fill up with some fun stickers!

May 26th, 2009 The Feminine Side of Grace

I should start this off by saying what a tomboy Grace is right now.  Although I dress her in pinks & leopard print, dresses & skirts, she prefers to wear pants & sneakers (she asks for her Squeaky Shoes but they are still hidden).  So when I discovered this evening’s event, I thought I would share …

Grace likes to brush her teeth in our bathroom. So this evening, as I was in her bathroom running the bath water, it got really quiet … everyone knows that when it gets really, REALLY quiet from a toddler, she is up to mischief.  She had pulled out my very nice jar of Foo-Foo-Cream-That-I-Won’t-Mention-The-Pricetag by Shiseido and had covered both her hands up to her wrists (no exaggeration here) and had proceeded to smear it on to her cheeks in an attempt to get it off her hands!!!  Ahhhh!!  The lotion was so thick even I couldn’t get rid of it!!!  You have to admit, this girl’s got expensive tastes for her hand cream!

Oh!  I should mention that she loves to put foot cream on her soft, baby-smooth feet and tells me to put some on myself. God knows I sure need it!

Finally, today was Grace’s last day with Miles.  I know she’ll miss him terribly as they get along so well together.  Alisa is getting ready to deliver her 2nd child next month.  This afternoon when I went over there to pick Grace up, she was talking to Miles about her cookies! It was really adorable to watch her interact with Miles. And the best part of all this was that she wore her boyfriend’s brown Star Wars t-shirt with her leopard print pants on her last day!!  I wish I had a photo of that!! 

May 21st, 2009 Gracie’s Turn

The other night, David stood in the kitchen and gave me a big hug. Grace was near me when he did this. Grace looked up and said, “My turn!” so David gave her a big hug. She’s now at a lovey-kissy stage so we are grateful.

May 19th, 2009 Happy 2nd Birthday to Gracie!!

The morning of Grace’s birthday, both David and I walked into her room only to find her completely naked and bouncing up and down in her crib. She has figured out how to strip off all her clothes, including diaper and was having fun being naked! How appropriate for the day of her birth!

For Gracie’s 2nd birthday, her daycare allowed us to have a small party during snack time. Right now, Gracie’s favorite character is Elmo, but the previous week, another kid celebrated his birthday using Elmo as his theme, so we had to fall back on Curious George! Most of the decorations were done by the daycare so I just brought the cupcakes, George cups & napkins and some party favors. Grace was quite surprised that both her parents showed up at the start of the day!

Unfortunately, leaving wasn’t too fun as Grace cried when she figured out we were getting ready to leave. Oh well. Grace can now sing the “Happy Birthday” song! Here’s a video of Grace’s birthday party.

May 13th, 2009 DARN! Those Squeaky Shoes!!!

Okay, they were cute, but it stops being cute after a few minutes.  When Grace wore them to Miles’ (her Mon & Tues buddy) house two days in a row, I could tell Alisa (Miles’ mom) wasn’t too thrilled either, but Grace insisted on putting those on whether it matched her outfit or not (she doesn’t care at this age anyways) … she just wants to squeak all day and all night (okay, too many children’s books at age 40).  She loves her squeaky sandals so much that she won’t even allow Miles to touch them let alone try them on.  It’s been raining off and on most of this week here in Seattle and she wants to wear her squeaky sandals…ugh!
 
This morning I hid them from her.  Grace cried most of the morning trying to find her shoes.  Am I mean? Sorry, NO photos of this tragic event.  The charm of those darn, squeaky shoes has worn off.

May 11th, 2009 Happy Mother’s Day & Squeaky Fun!!

Happy Mom’s Day to all my mother readers out there! David has refused to celebrate any Hallmark Greeting Card days and always reminds me NOT to expect anything! We started our day with a nice bike ride out along the Burke-Gilman Trail and stopped at the Fremont Street Market. It turned out to be a rain-free afternoon with plenty of sunshine … YEAH! Here is us enticing Grace to go into her bike trailer.

Of course, I received a nice card from both Grace & David, a Black & White Martini class (this is the 2nd one that David’s given me as a gift, so I guess I am collecting them) and a nice sushi meal … oh! and a McDonald’s Strawberry Sundae with french fries (it’s a treat for me)!! Woo-hoo!

I’ve included two videos below of our latest purchase …

Now we know when Grace is coming and so will YOU!!!

May 9th, 2009 Guest Blogger/Writer - David Law

I thought to spice up this blog (I just found out more of my friends are actually reading “What’s Up, Baby!”) I would bring in a guest writer, husband, entrepreneur and father in here for you all to read. David is currently taking a Non-Fiction writing class through the University of Washington’s Extension Program and has been turning in some weekly writing assignments. This is one of my favorites as it made me laugh so hard that I cried (that’s easy to do actually) and I was a witness! I begged David to have a copy of it so I can spruce up the site a bit. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Dog Shit - by David Law
I stepped in shit last night. It was dark, wet and I was walking my little dog, Lucky. Lucky is a dog that’s easy to see in the dark. He is small, white and rather noisy. The rain added to the darkness. I knew I’d stepped in dog shit even though I couldn’t see it. There was a certain squishiness to the ground and the surface under my shoe didn’t quite feel like grass. Then I got a waft of something nasty. I was wearing my running shoes, running shoes that have a very good tread. My shoes are made by New Balance somewhere in America. I feel good about that, I know that no child was mistreated covering my feet. Read the rest of this entry »

May 9th, 2009 Saturday Chinese Classes

Grace has been advancing rapidly on her Mandarin since attending her daycare in February. A friend of mine introduced me to Saturday morning Chinese classes held in Shoreline, WA, for 8 weeks of Parent & Toddler lessons. Today was our second class and it was a review from last week’s lesson: fruits, kiss, hug, brother and sister. There are 3 toddlers close to Grace’s age group here so it’s quite intimate and informal.

Today, I found her behavior quite frustrating during our 50 minutes of class. I also felt for the first time, some embarrassment and was quietly beating myself up for her out-of-control, lack of interest, disrespectful behavior. The instructor put up two couches as a barrier to her desk & computer … Grace quickly found a way to get over to the other side by climbing over the couches. Then when it was time to go, she threw a tantrum and kicked off her shoes on the sidewalk … ugh! Grace obviously doesn’t know about “The Silent Treatment” yet so she continued to be her almost two-years-old self in the car: whining, kicking, demanding … I thought best to change my attitude on our drive home. This made it much easier for both of us. We stopped by to pick up her favorite Chinese meal, dumpling soup, and headed back home to eat in peace and a much needed NAP!!

I should mention that the only time she listened to the instructor today was when she played some music for the kids to dance to. Seriously, Grace stopped, followed along with the music and danced all around the room! Once the music stopped, Grace started to head over to the kitchen and not participate. I’ve decided to post part of the class here to show you that Grace has a wild side to her!