Fun in Kahoka

We went to Kahoka this morning to visit some friends. At one stop, Ray and Mikie's house, we had to play hide and seek. This is Gracie finding her hiding spot.

Ray and Mikie were our neighbors when we lived in Kahoka, and we spent a lot of time visiting them if we were free in the evenings. This is Mikie hiding behind the manure spreader in their field. You don't hear that everyday! She was a very good sport.

"Mikie, I see you!!!"

Ella is a pretty social baby, so it didn't take her long to warm up to Ray and Mikie. She really enjoyed the big open field to explore.

Mikie pulled some of her weeds in one of her flower beds, so Gracie wanted to pretend to be a weed so that she could be pulled. Ella was trying to pull her up.

Mikie and Ray thought Ella was so cute. They reminisced back to when we first moved to Westwood Drive. Gracie was the same age as Ella is now.

Ella was very interested in Mikie's numerous flower beds. I had to get onto her a few times because she was wanting to get into the flowerbeds and decorative things Mikie had.

More weed pulling! Gracie was a stubborn weed, I guess.

Mikie was trying to get Ella to help her pull the big weed.

Today we traded in Brent's car, a Dodge Caliber, for a Kia Optima. Gracie was very excited to get a new car, but she got a little sad when she realized the Caliber wasn't her car anymore. I took her picture by it, and that seemed to help a little. Ella is standing on the driver's seat and holding onto the steering wheel.

Gracie's First Convertible Ride

Nice car, Gracie!

We went to Keokuk/Kahoka this weekend for a visit, and while we were there Gracie got to experience riding in a convertible. Our friends, Bruce and Melissa, just bought a Mercedes convertible and Gracie asked Bruce if she could ride in it on the way to his house. She felt pretty cool riding in a "car without a top."

Oh, she's so pleased with herself. We drove behind them on their ride home, and Bruce and Gracie raised their arms up in the air a few times. I guess it was a pretty fun ride!

Summer School

Today was Gracie's first day of summer school. She gets to go to Brent's school, Atlanta C-3, so she was very excited. The only bad part is that they have to leave the house around 7 a.m., so it's an early morning for Gracie.

Gracie reported that it was a really fun day. Her teacher is very nice and she got to see Daddy 3 times during the day. She has a lot to learn about structure and school rules, so that is one reason we sent her this summer. It helps the kids who are going into kindergarten in the fall learn the ropes early.

A proud Daddy with his big girl, heading off for their first day of summer school. They will probably both be smiling on June 29th when it is over.

Off they go. Gracie was waving goodbye as they drove off.

Swimming Fun on a Small Scale

Today was the first day I dug out the little pool that we own. We used it for a sand box last summer, but this summer we might just use it for a quick cool off. It's hard to call it a swimming pool when Gracie can't even lay down in it, but she still enjoys cooling off in it and playing with the water.

As I said, Gracie enjoys playing with the water. The shadow you see in the pool is Ella trying to decide if she should get in. She was very unsure about what was going on.

Ella looked at the pool for the longest time. She couldn't decide if it was safe, I guess.

A tentative Ella finally got in, but wouldn't sit down. She stood up and played as long as possible.

I finally just got Ella's lawn chair and set it in the pool so she could sit down. She stood up forever trying to play. She was very pleased with this addition to the pool.

If Ella gets to sit in her lawn chair in the pool, then it's only fair for Gracie as well. Our neighbors must think we are so strange!

No swimsuit is complete without a pacifier! I am about to try to wean her. No pacifier unless she is sleeping.

I love the little belly button sticking out. She may have an outie since she is constantly playing with her belly button!

Gracie got out and rode her bike for a while, but I thought she looked so sweet watching Ella in the pool.

Since she caught me taking her picture, Gracie had to strike a pose for a few more.

What a happy girl. She is so fun to be around!

Peek-a-boo, Mommy! Ella kept leaning over until she was in my viewfinder.

The water was finally warming up, and so was Ella. She had a great time playing in the water after she got used to it.

More laughs from Ella. Once she gets started, she gets pretty goofy!

Gracie is Officially a Reader

Gracie has been able to read a few sight words for quite a while now, but recently I have noticed that she really can read. Pre-K was great for her, because she learned how to sound out words. It may take her some time, but she can usually figure out how to pronounce a word. Tonight she was reading a library book called "The Old House" to Brent. We have read it 25 times at least in the last week, so she has started to unintentionally memorize it. "The Old House" has some very big words and she was reciting the book to Brent when she stopped and said, "I sure don't know how I'm reading all of these big words. I didn't know I could read these big words." She didn't realize she had it memorized, I suppose, so it was pretty cute.

What's Next???

Ella is a very unique child. She has a bit of an infatuation with Gracie's underpants and often carries Gracie's stash of clean underpants around the house. Tonight after Ella's bath she grabbed a pair and made the motion for me to put them on her. I did, and she was so pleased with herself. She didn't take the time to notice that her underpants were on over her pj's. Ella only cared about having Gracie's big girl pants on.

I was going to take them off of her, and this was Ella running away from me. Too cute! She has quickly gone from walking to running.

Ella's First Nightgown

It's silly to post about something like this, but Ella looked absolutely adorable in her new nightgown tonight. It was a risk to put her in a gown when she could potentially have access to removing her diaper. Eek!!! She looked so big standing up and walking around in her gown, but of course she wouldn't cooperate when I tried to get that shot. Instead, she wanted to sprawl out on Gracie's bed and acted big.

Just kickin' back and relaxing on big sis's bed.

Ella's first nightgown in a Dora gown. She gets really excited when Dora comes on TV, so I guess she will be a lot like Gracie.

Not again!!!

Oh, yes. Tonight Ella made a nosedive over the side of the tub again. She just really wants to play with Gracie and reaches over sometimes to grab a toy. This is the second time that she has reached too far. She wasn't happy about it this time.Ella didn't think it was quite as funny as Gracie did. She wanted out immediately.

Once I removed her onesie and her water logged diaper, Ella was all smiles again. I hope you learned your lesson this time, Ella!

Trying Out Our Tennis Skills

Well, I guess it's actually racquetball, but the semantics are the same as tennis. Gracie loves to strike this pose for me after she has successfully hit the ball. I think it's super cute!

Anything Gracie does, Ella has to try, so she has been trying to get coordinated enough to hold a racket and ball. She just bounces the ball and thinks she has done something big!

This girlie loves her pacifier. I really don't let her have it all day, but while she is teething so hard right now I have had mercy.

Ella also continues to have her passion for sweeping. Any broom will work, but this yellow one happens to be her favorite.

Work, work, work...that's all she ever does! :-)

Feeding the Birds

This summer we have committed to feeding birds. Ella has noticed birds for a long time, and would stand at the windows during the winter waiting for a bird to be in our yard. Then she would point and grunt. Well, now if she sees a bird she points and says, "ba, ba," so that's progress. We have two feeders outside, but this little suet feeder is outside my kitchen window so we can really keep our eyes on things. It was going great until a beautiful woodpecker found our home. He likes to visit around 6 a.m. and start pecking on our house. Hmmm...we may rethink feeding the birds.

Gracie's Day of Fun

This week something interesting happened in our house. Gracie started talking about getting her ears pierced. She has really never expressed any interest, so it surprised me a little. She wanted to get her ears pierced, and I realized I was 4 when I had mine done, she is now 5, so why not?! We ok'd it with Brent just in case he had a differing opinion, but he thought it was fine so today we headed to Columbia.
She might look a little nervous in this picture, but she was mostly excited.

It seems like it took forever for the girl to line up the dots she marked on Gracie's ears. That was probably my nerves making me feel that way, though.

This is the 12 year old girl who pierced Gracie's ears. OK, she probably was 20, but she looked 12. She did a fine job, though.

The girl let Gracie hold a teddy bear to squeeze in case she got nervous.

We were just trying to kill time until the second girl was available to help pierce Gracie's ears. We definitely wanted both ears done at the same time so that we could ensure she ended up with 2 pierced ears instead of 1.

The big moment......

Oh, that is so sad. Honestly, that's as bad as it ever got. Gracie never really cried hard or anything, but she acted a little stunned that it hurt. We never really talked about it hurting. I just told Gracie it might make her jump because she might be startled.

The tears didn't last long. In fact, 10 minutes later Gracie was happily riding the carousel sucking on her sucker the earring store gave her.

After the carousel, we headed to Chucky Cheese for the first time. Gracie was very excited to go, and she thought it was fabulous.

Gracie made a friend instantly, and they buddied up and did everything together until Reece had to leave.

Oh, what a fun day. We don't get so spend as much one-on-one time with each girl as we would like, so this was a fun day.