Mommy Guilt

I must say that I know we all experience moments of guilt from time to time, but my first real dose of "mommy guilt" was this past Wednesday. It was the last storytime for the summer at our local library and I was not able to take Grace. I know, I know, such a small thing you say, but to me it was sad :( For those of you that don't know, I have a wonderful job at a non-profit organization that allows me the flexibility of working in the office three days per week and from home the other two. Even on the days that I'm in the office, I usually have some flexibility in being able to take some time off to make the important things...like storytime at the library. There's nothing like having a parent present during school plays, recitals, etc. so I make sure to encourage my staff to do the same.

We've been blessed that Lance's mother, Mimi, and my mom, Noonie, take care of Grace in our home the three days that I work in the office. I grew up very close to my grandparents and I love that Grace has some VIP one-on-one time with her two grandmas. But I still miss her when I'm at work - A LOT! It helps that the organization that I work for helps to make a difference in the lives of children or I don't think I could stand to be away from her to go to a job that I didn't believe in.

But on this particular Wednesday, a crisis appointment left me unable to go to storytime, and hence, the source of my mommy guilt. I didn't get to go with my little pumpkin to the last session for the summer. I asked my mom to take Grace since it was the last one and I didn't want her to miss it. She had lots of fun and even got to spend some time with our friends' kids Amelia and Abram.

Coloring oh so delicately! Hanging out with Amelia Talking to Abram Grace and Noonie Knowing how much I wanted to be there, Noonie brought Grace by my work for a little surprise visit - definitely made my day! Showing me a new book. Such a sweet little pumpkin! Goodbye, guilt. Life's too short to be held back by guilt. Tomorrow's a new day full of possibilities...like a Grace and Mama trip to the library :)

Trees...Owls...Love it all!

It's not often that I like an entire collection of anything. I'd rather mix-n-match to get that vintage feel with a modern twist. But when I browsed through the new PBK catalog I received in the mail today, I fell in love with the Brooke Collection! It has the cutest combination of trees, owls, chocolate brown ric rac, cord accents, aqua blue, strawberry pink and green, and fun prints for that modern retro vibe AND it's shown on the Olivia bed - my FAVORITE of all time (okay, except for my antique euro single bed find years ago which I had cut to a twin size, added decorative wood mouldings and painted the sweetest shade of milk glass green - my first furniture refinishing project so it has a special place in my heart)!

I love that it's girlie without having the typical "princess" type look to it. Reminds me of last year's Woodsy Treehouse collection from Gap, which I loved and bought some pieces in anticipation of Grace wearing them this Fall. However, my little pumpkin has had a major growth spurt and none of the pieces fit :( ebay resells here I come! LOL, maybe I can finance my operation that way - he, he, he! And check out this adorable mouse play house - LOVE IT!!!! Makes me think of Grace's pouty lips when she says "mousssh" It's never too early to do a little Christmas shopping, right? Too bad PBK doesn't take gymbucks ;O I'm dreaming of tea parties :) Hmmm...maybe this bedding for when Grace transitions into a twin bed? Which has me thinking, when exactly do kiddos move from a crib to a bed? I figure I've got at least another year, but just curious. Anyone??

For the love of books...

Plain and simple, we love books at our house! Reading is one of Lance's two favorite pastimes and although I don't have as much uninterrupted reading time as I used to enjoy, I love to curl up with a glass of lemonade and a great book. It makes me giddy to see how much Grace loves books. By far, she would rather look at the illustrations in a book and say the words for the pictures she knows than play with most of her other toys - with the exception of Elmo, of course! Needless to say, the Children's Reading Program at our local library is a huge hit. It's so fun to see all the kiddos during storytime dangling their little legs as they concentrate on what the teacher is reading!

Hmmmm, which one should I choose? Today's project I can't decide if I should color the turtle orange or brown (I'm practicing my colors for thanksgiving :)
And just for fun...

Daddy, you too?? Mama is usually the only silly one that takes these crazy arm-stretched-out photos!! I just don't know what to say.

Conversations with a 16 Month Old & Flowers

Grace's vocabulary has been growing so much lately. She is one little chatterbox for sure! She surprised me the other day by counting to 10! It takes a little prompting, I will say "one" and she says "two" then I say "three" and she says "four" - so cute - but I had no idea she could go all the way to 10! She has learned a bunch of body parts...eyes, nose, mouth, ears, head, hair, fingers, toes, belly, belly button, knee, neck, and her newest, chin! She knows the words for and can recognize the letters a, b, c, i, and G (her favorite). She also knows the letters "a,b, and c" in spanish and the spanish word for floor "piso".

Grace LOVES animals and the sounds they make! She can point and say horse - neigh, cow - moo, pig -(makes this hilarious snorting sound), sheep - loudly "Baaaah, Baaaah", bird - tweet, tweet, duck - quack, owl - "oooot", dog/puppy - "roof, roof" followed by "hush" (guess she's heard us say that to Jaxon, our dog, one too many times!), cat - meow, shif (for fish) - no sound here :), butterfly, ladybug, turtle, spider followed by "yuk, yuk", and probably some others that I'm forgetting. And thanks to Lance she can also say "foo ball" for LSU football, of course! Last night during dinner, she surprised us with her first three word sentence. Up until now she's been putting two words together to let us know her needs/wants. We were doing the usual "bargaining routine" for dinner to try to get her to eat new foods. I was telling her that "big girls eat their chicken spaghetti" and then I asked her "are you a baby or a big girl?" to which she responded, "I's the baby" followed by "Me a girl" - he, he, he! Of course, I whipped out the camera to get a little moment-caught-in-time video, but it was too late. She was ready to move on to something else :) I'm amazed at how fast kids grow and I find myself thinking, "seems like just yesterday..."
FLOWERS
The other day, Grace brought me flowers!!!! Actually, a whole branch :) Noonie said they were on the ground at our neighborhood park and Grace pointed to them, grabbed them, and said "Mama". I'm not quite sure if this story has a little bit of "fairy dust" sprinkled on top via Noonie's love for me, but I LOVE my flowers and the sweet little note that greeted me on that day - thanks Mom!

Fashion 101

Grace definitely has her own opinion about what she wants to wear...hmmm, I wonder who she gets that from :) Her current obsession is bibs or "beeb, beeb" as she likes to call them. She will grab them and put them on at random times, so long as actual eating is not involved. When eating, she actually tries to rip the bib off the first chance she gets! Here she is wearing a favorite one that stays in her play area - hey, a girl's gotta have a style all her own! Grace loves "itsy bitsy spider" and the hand gestures that go along with it. She gets so excited when we're in the car and I do the motions for her. Today she decided it was HER turn to do the motions. She was so happy that she could do it - I loved seeing how proud she felt of her accomplishment! This afternoon Lance and I took Grace to a local park with fun sprinklers and rainbow shapes. Here she is checking things out (check out those cute jellies - I remember wearing those when I was a little girl :) Okay, I think I'll go check things out. Ouch, the water is coming down really hard! I'm not sure I like this anymore :( Daddy, HELP!! If you see the girls in that last picture, they are rubbing the top of that post and that's what makes the water come out. I thought that was so neat - a little science discovery lesson built right into the park!!! Yesterday, Grace got her first mosquito bites and today her first scraped knee at the park - I guess you can say we have officially entered toddlerhood!

Dreaming of Fall

Maybe it's because it's so hot outside or maybe it's just because it's my favorite time of the year, but lately I've been dreaming of pumpkins and changing leaves, of Autumn in all its glory.

Some of my inspirations and my sweet little pumpkin last Fall!


If you have a favorite Fall tradition, I'd love to hear all about it!
~Jessica

Family Visit

My stepsister Karla and my sweet nieces Nikki and Katie, who I have not seen in person in 8 years, came to visit!! We had a blast with them over the weekend - it's so much fun to have them around! I'm going to miss them even more when they go back home.

Here's all of us girls Karla and Nikki Katie and Grace bonding over their mutual love of monkeys! Grace learned to say "kayteee" really fast. Katie was so sweet she let Grace play with her light up watch over and over and over :) Grace having fun dancing with Papa A.J. Father and Daughter Noonie and the girls Enjoying a little trolley ride (Grace's first - she loved it!) We went to one of those science discovery centers - LOTS of fun for ALL of us!! Here's Grace having a "BIG" movie moment. So much fun with all of the hands-on exhibits! Our NASA moment Okay, that's as close as I'm getting to that one! I'm not so sure about this... Ok, this is FUN! Let's race! Arguing over who's going higher, LOL! Can you tell we're a competitive bunch! Noonie is winning!! Grace was mesmerized by the Space Walk Tunnel Everybody SMILE! Happy Days, Happy Days!!