Disney 2009

What did Dan want for his 38th birthday? To go to Disney World for free dining! Disney has offered free dining the last week of August for the past few years and Dan has been wanting to do this for a long time. Usually I am getting my room ready for school so it isn't really possible. However, since I am on mat-leave it was hard to say no.

Grace hasn't been enjoying her car seat these days so what better to do than take a road trip? After a few trips of crying all the way to and from the cottage and a whiney trip to Montreal it was time for the car seat boot camp!! The drive wasn't too bad except the day Luke was vomitting every hour and the day Grace cried all day! Grace only took two 1.5 hour naps out of 40 hours of driving though she did take some catnaps here and there. I mostly sat in the back with her while Luke was in the front (with the airbag off) and Liam in the third row. Dan mapped out all the Starbucks and Paneras along the way so I had my coffee and nice cool places to nurse Grace. We quickly noticed that Grace is a lot more efficient now when she nurses. In March, our stops were much longer as she would sometimes eat for 40 minutes. Now she is done by the time Dan has the lattes! On the last day of driving, Liam did not leave his seat for 10 hours! Boy did he have to pee when we got home...

Coles Notes version of the trip: the weather was really, really hot; Grace got to meet some princesses - even got kissed by one; Luke lost a tooth and fell in love with water slides; we found a new ride that is even better than Soarin' - Toy Story Mania in Hollywood Studios; the boys tried to eat Mickey ice creams but they melted in less than five minutes, Grace got two teeth; and the boys were super surprised. They thought we were going to Naples to check out Nana and Papa's condo for the upcoming year.

Oh, and did I mention that it was HOT?!

Bikini Girl

Grace has a few years of being able to wear a bikini without having to worry about the rolls of chubbiness. Of course, this isn't very practical as she has to wear her sun suit in the sun and the swim diaper just doesn't fit under the bikini bottoms. However, it makes an adorable photo!

Visiting Mema

Mema (my mom's mom) is moving. She has sold 420 Bishop Street in Beaconsfield. We spent every other Christmas and at least a week each summer there for many years so I have lots of memories of that house. A few weeks ago we went to visit Mema and introduce her to Grace. The boys had a great time seeing the blue bathroom, the basement where Kathy and I used to play Barbies for hours, the driveway and backyard where we used to play on the monkey bars and stilts, the family room where Santa would leave all his goodies, the living room where the Christmas tree used to be (with presents filled to the doorway!) and the closet where we used to play Candyland with Lori and Carol. Good luck with the move, Mema!

Muskoka Chair

We are going to take a photo of Grace in this chair every summer and watch how she changes...(won't that make a great scrapbook page?) Of course, the boys wanted in on the photo action - they got in the chair with her but those shots didn't turn out - we will have to try again. It won't be long that all three kids will fit in one muskoka chair!

Sailing

If it's too cold to swim you can sail! Dan really loves the sailboat and has been taking the boys out in it this summer. Apparently Luke is a dare-devil when he is out there...but I'll let Dan fill you in on that. Check out how high the water level is from all the rain. The front corner of the dock is close to being under water.

Solid Food

Grace started eating solid food about a week before she was six months. I was trying to hold off as long as possible but she was really, really wanting it. She is now almost seven months and still only having one "meal" a day, the occasional bit of banana and sometimes a baby mum-mum. I wasn't going to let her eat the mum-mums as they are a product of China, but she REALLY likes to be in charge of feeding herself and this gives me a chance to eat my meal.

A good website for making fresh, homemade baby food is http://wholesomebabyfood.com/. Grace didn't like the fresh Ontario peaches - too sour compared to the banana, I guess.

Bows!

Okay, I admit that I used to be one of those people that laughed at moms who dressed up their babies with big (or small) bows and flowers. (Especially when a baby has little or no hair). In fact, I am guilty of laughing about this even a month or two ago...

However, I am now converted! Come on, doesn't she look cute? This fall, along with learning to make baby leg warmers, I hope to learn to make bows/flowers, headbands and barrettes myself so I ordered a few from this amazing website so that I could get some ideas. We got a few bows and flowers to mix and match various outfits. The bows and flowers can clip onto different hairbands or be worn as barrettes (when Grace has hair!). This is the only one you get to see now...we have to save the rest for cute blog pictures in the future.

6 Months!

Grace turned 6 months on August 3rd. We were having a lot of rainy weather at the cottage and the boys needed a little focus - so what better than a party? We planned a last minute half-birthday for Grace. I made a delicious vanilla cake from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (same cake we made for our Brazil party minus the coconut and made it into half a cake). The boys blew up some balloons, Luke wrote some trivia about Grace and instead of party hats we made Grace a headband and bow with my scrapbooking supplies. The boys got Grace a present of a pink bib from JOE and some baby food to celebrate her starting solid food.

Grace had her 6 month appointment and shots today.
Stats:
Height: 26 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 17 pounds (75th percentile)