Another Week Gone...

Okay, so can there be two episodes of Another Week Gone? Because despite having the flu for the better part of this week (more on that later), I have a lot to share. This twice a week posting bit is really cutting into my chat time. We'll definitely be re-evaluating that decision as part of our New Year's Resolutions. Here's Part One, as Part Two is entirely made up of cute pictures of Grace at the museum we visited Saturday.

Milestones... really it should be microstones. Mark is hitting the new stages so fast I can barely keep up. Was it really just three weeks ago that I reported he had just started crawling? 'Cause now he's sitting up like a pro, pulling himself up onto boxes, and about to learn how to fly like Buzz Lightyear...


Okay. The directions on how to fly are somewhere
on this box... Just call me Space Ranger.

He hasn't quite figured out the whole flying thing just yet... but he's definitely working on perfecting the pose:

To Infinity... and Beyond!

It was about this time though, he realized that Woody was right...

You aren't the real Buzz Lightyear!
You're an Action Figure!



Buzz wasn't flying... he was... falling with style! Help!

Oh, we also saw "Toy Story 3" for the first time last week. Can you tell? Gracie loved it. I didn't think Mark was paying attention, what with all the drooling, cat naps and crawling under the coffee table, but apparently he liked it too.

Remember the tooth I bragged about in early September? Well, it never really arrived. We could see it, but it just sat there, hovering under the surface like an alien probe, silently waiting for activation from an alien ship. Or bananas.

I'm guessing when we tried mashed fruit two weeks ago, this tooth decided it had better erupt like Mount Vesuvius before we introduced tri-tip and Mark missed out. Sadly, I was not the first to notice the tooth. Nor was I the second. Or third. On second thought, maybe I should be eternally grateful to be the fourth person to learn of the tooth, seeing as how I still breastfeed Mark once a day.

Yes, Grandma Dee Dee noticed first, when he bit her. (A bite of pure joy at seeing her, I'm sure.)
Then Uncle Kevin mentioned it to no one in particular, when Mark bit him on the finger (at which point Grandma Dee Dee shared her story).
This comment was then picked up by my husband's radar ears. (Programmed to hear all things relating to his children, trucks, and new video game releases. Also programmed to 'selective hearing mode' when his wife begins talking...)

Alas, I was the fourth to know - and even then I didn't find out until two days later! I guess everyone assumed I already knew, and just forgot to share. I BLOG PEOPLE! I don't "forget" to share. Sharing is my digital mommy duty. If my kid has a tooth, and there isn't a picture, comment or video of it here... I missed it. Re-send the memo.

Moving on...

There is still another milestone to report. I KNOW, this kid is keeping me up at night wondering what he'll dream up next. Since he's gotten to be such a pro at sitting up, we moved him to the big boy chair... in the bathtub. This photo pretty much sums up his reaction:

You get to play in the water every day??? This is great!

He loved it. The whole thing. The water, the chair, his sister pouring water over his head... okay, we put a stop to that pretty quickly. But Grace did prove to be pretty entertaining with her splashing and playing about. He thought she was hilarious, and kept leaning over the bath chair to "pat" the water. So. Stinkin'. Cute. But just one picture here, because hey - this is the internet after all, and even obsessive mommy bloggers have limits.

Our last milestone was the dreaded flu. Mark got to throw up for the first time (yipee?) and I learned that being a SAHM does not include paid sick leave. Luckily, my awesome husband came home to rescue me just ten minutes before I crawled to the bathroom to bow to the porcelain god. My rescuer came down with the flu two days later, just as I was recovering, so I suppose the Lord was watching out for us in some small ways. If you haven't seen or heard from us lately, now you know why.

You haven't seen or heard much about Gracie this post, but don't worry, there are lots of cute pictures in Part Two. I will give you one fabulous picture though:

We're building a stuffing skyscraper!

Gracie helped carry in food to our local food bank yesterday. We delivered a few items to help needy families, and the staff just loved her. She was a bit shy at first, but the woman who helped us was great, and had Gracie play "blocks" with the stuffing boxes so mommy could snap a picture.


I was very excited to help out this year, and I really wanted Gracie to have a part in reaching out to help others. Our church has some events we'll participate in, but I would love for this to be an annual event for our family. We may not be rich, but we certainly can afford to lend a helping hand.

I hope your week was filled with fun, and not flu. I also hope that you would consider checking with your local food bank or church to see if you can help those who are struggling this year - many for the first time ever - to have a Happy Thanksgiving.