Another Week Gone...

Grace and Mark are both growing up so quickly! I'm certain that next week's blog will have pictures of Mark walking. He can stand and balance on his own, and he will even take a few steps when holding onto just one of my fingers... but despite our best efforts, he won't take a step on his own. Yet. Stay tuned...

Grace is really beginning to take off in the language department. Unlike most two year olds, she really doesn't say much. I've had multiple people comment on how quiet she is. The last couple of weeks she has started to "talk" on the phone, repeat almost every word that is said to her, and this morning she was moving a chair and said "Excuse me!" I have no idea where she learned that one, as I've not taught it to her yet - but I liked it!

This week I took a lot of pictures of us eating. I must have been really hungry. Lunch with Grace is always an adventure, so our photos start there...

Gracie eats PB&J regularly. But not in a "regular" way. She always peels the two bread layers apart, then eats the jelly by scraping it off the bread with her fingers. She then eats the peanut butter with the same scraping technique (which works surprisingly, messingly well). Next comes the center part of the bread, and if she's really hungry she'll even eat the crust. This week I gave her a sandwich, but didn't cut it in half like I usually do. She still ate it in her routine way, but had to work around the fact it wasn't halved.

Step One: Scrape PB&J off of bread. Mommy gave me
the spatula hoping it will help me stay clean... Ha!

Step Two: Eat center of bread. Where there's
a will, there's a way.

Step Three: Use full slice of bread as bracelet.
Next time mommy will remember to cut the bread!

Cousin Katie came to visit this week and Gracie had a ball. If Katie was going down the slide, Gracie was going down the slide. If Katie was running around the house, Gracie was running. If Katie was skipping, Gracie was... well, sort of hopping forward in a weird sort of sliding way. But it was cute.

We went out for a special treat and got doughnuts for breakfast. More photos of food:

Um, I don't quite get why going out for
doughnuts is so fun? Tastes the same to me...

Hey mom! Can we turn this into candy milk to go
with my candy bread?

Cousin Katie is enjoying time with Grace.
Grace is going into sugar shock.

Somehow, we also managed to convince daddy that going out for ice cream after dinner was a good idea too. So we all went out for ice cream:

Hey Grace, do you think we can get your mom
to give us insulin shots before bedtime???

Grace and Katie shared a dessert.
Grace was too busy eating to smile.

Mark didn't share with anyone. He said he got
jipped at breakfast.

At the end of the night, Grace once
again goes into sugar shock. :)

Mark had fun with cousin Katie, and he learned some new tricks:

Two, two, two.... Go!

How cute are these two?

Last week, we went to Grandma Dee Dee and Papa's house. We were only there for a short time, but my mom was saying that Mark was the only grandchild who hadn't had a bath in the kitchen sink, and she had no pictures. She was worried that we wouldn't perform this "tradition" before Mark got too big. Since I was ready to pack up and go home, I told her not to worry, that we would make sure she got her photos. Imagine my surprise when I turned around and found Papa undressing Mark! Well, you know what they say... why put off until tomorrow what you can do right this very minute?

This fountain is fun! No wonder all the grandkids
want to take baths in Grandma's sink!

Papa says if everyone knew what had been in
my diaper just before this, no one would
ever touch this sink again...

This week, I'll be working hard on getting my little boy to summon up the courage to take a few steps. Hope your week was filled with good food and cute, smiling, and maybe even chocolate covered faces.