New Beds for Everyone

We are sleeping in style around our house these days. Mr. D and I decided to splurge in the purchase of a much-needed new bed, and Gracie has been upgraded to a toddler bed.

With the onset of the new baby, we decided we should start to transition Grace out of the crib. Since she never won the World's Best Sleeper competition (actually I think she finished close to last), we figured we should get an early start. We found a listing on Craigslist for a great little bed for her, and saved ourselves a few pennies in the meantime.

The transition is definitely still in progress. We hit Grace with a double-whammy though. In getting the "big girl bed", we also told her big girls stay in the their big girl beds all night, not with Mommy and Daddy. (Plus Mommy and Daddy don't want any wet diapers yet on their new bed).

She threw a big girl fit about that for a few nights.

I think she has resigned herself that she's not getting in our fancy, smancy new bed, but she's still paying me back. I was up with her three times last night putting her back to bed. I felt like my newborn had already arrived!

So I'm tired and haven't been able to enjoy my new, giant bed. Here's Grace enjoying it for me! (And yes, she mushed the pillows all up during our photo shoot.)

Oh, by the way, in other news....
IT'S A BOY!

How I Get Gracie to Eat

Just add avocado.





I swear this kid has eaten more avocado in her mere 22 months here on earth than I probably have in my many more months alive. She loves them.

I can't complain. There are worse things for her to eat.

Tonight for dinner I made a baked barley dish with onions and mushrooms. It was just us girls tonight, so I dish it up and we sit down to eat. Grace wasn't too interested. She picked out the mushrooms, deeming them "ick" and played with her food.

So I thought, I could add a little cheese. Cheese usually solves most problems for both her and Mr. D.

Cheese didn't do it - besides picking out the pieces here and there.

So I thought, "Do I give up on dinner and offer something else?" Oh, but wait, Mama has another trick up her sleeve. "Grace, do you want some avocado?". Affirmative response.

So I take half an avocado, mash it up along with the barley. Bingo. She scoops in and starts eating away.

My toddler has an unique taste in cuisine.

Jet Setting Party Animal

Wow. It has been two weeks. Missed me much?

We had our exciting adventure to Washington DC last week for my friend's wedding and this past week we have spent getting back into the groove, doing piles of laundry, and pretty much kicking back since Mr. D took the week off work.

Traveling with Grace turned out to be much better than anticipated. I've decided she's going to be a jet-setter and party animal. I'm in trouble.

She loved the traveling part. The airplane ride was exciting - well for the first 3-4 hours. The last hour not so much. But I was feeling the itch to get moving too, so who can blame the kid. Even then, no tears. We only have to use our portable DVD player (AKA, our back-up relief pitcher) for only an epidsode of Go, Diego, Go and a little bit of Wonder Pets.

Then the hotels. Whee - elevators, running down hallways, Mom and Dad always in the same room with her. She was in heaven.

Oh, and the Metro. She loved riding on the train.

Everything was just so exciting.

So when she's off traveling the world when she grows up, she's also going to be dancing the nights away. I'm worried.

She was the life of the party at the wedding. She danced and danced and danced some more. If Mom and Dad sat down, she would take us by the hand back to the floor. I wanted to take a video of her with her fancy moves. My daughter now does the "Raise the Roof". Sweet. But I didn't think of it til she was somewhat winding down for the night. She danced until the party ended at 11pm.

Unfortunately, my pictures didn't even turn out the greatest - my flash was turned off for half of them. I'm usually much better at documenting our travels, but multitasking between being in the wedding and helping with Grace, made my photo skills suffer. Fortunately, I think my mom had some good ones on her camera, but I haven't seen her to snag them yet. So I guess some of these medicore shots will suffice for now.

The Family

Dancing Away

There's a Reason I Haven't Posted

So I haven't been very good at posting lately. But before you give up on me, I have some excuses. And they are good ones too.

- Nausea

- Fatigue

- Irritability

- Excessive trips to the restroom

Oh wait, those all sound so familiar. As if I experienced them sometime in the past couple years. Oh yes, its coming back to me.

It's a baby folks.

Yes, Mr. D and I are excited to announce that we've been blessed with an addition to our family. I'm due in late-October - putting me at almost 15 weeks right now. This first trimester has been a rough ride. But I think I have put the worse behind me... well, for now. There's always that ninth month... oh yeah, and delivery isn't exactly a party.

We're very excited. Only a few weeks before we find out if our baby will be wearing pink (which we have a lot of in boxes), or if it will be a boy who wears pink!

We're getting Grace ready for her new Big Sister role. She has a cool shirt - that's the first step.

I think she's a little concerned about the prospect - all that sharing that is in store for her.