Happy Valentine's Day!

Much love to all of our family, extended family, and friends from Maine to California (Mar, Paula, John, Lacey and more!), Qiangdao (Xiu Chen!) to the UK (Donna, Al!!!), Michigan (Betty!) to Florida (Penny! Mike!), and Arizona (The Family K!) and all the wonderful people who live in between, North and South, East and West (and my RQ friends from Canada to Australia, Washington State and Texas to Brussels and Iceland). Hope this Valentine's Day is filled with love. Here are a few pictures of Grace, the sweetest Valentine I ever had.

Thanks, MeinME, for the New England (lobster) to Maryland (crab) sweater!

She's cute and likes bold patterns. She picked out this sheet combo....hoo boy. At least she stripped and made her own bed -- guess we won't complain about the mismatch.

Black lips courtesy of Steeler-colored cupcake frosting (go Six-purgh!).

Follow this blog!

I know Grace has a lot of fans out there. I also know I haven't been very good at regular updates, although I try not to let more than 6 weeks go by without new pictures. If you would like to know when I update this blog, there's a way to sign up to be notified when it changes. Not having done this myself, I think you click on the "subscribe to posts" link at the bottom of the right hand colum, under the power blogger icon. Good luck and thanks for checking in with Grace!

Pics 2009

Grace sends her first email to her bud, Charlie in AZ. It went something like this:
wwwwwwwwwllllllllseeeiiiiiiiiiiiiicccccsaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa


Queen CiXi and her entourage.



You there, pull faster.




I may be from Hunan, but I don't mind a snow day.





She ate the whole thing. First robin of spring. (Truthfully, it was an ex-robin; already dead; pining for the fjords; perhaps even frozen. It wasn't going to see spring. It might even have been killed by the goshawk we have spotted lately in a large tree in the back swale. A pile of mourning dove feathers on the iced-over fish pond suggests that our backyard feeder may be a fairly dangerous bistro for our feathered friends.)

As of January, Grace can recognize and shout "Blue Jay! Cahdinal! Woodpacker! Skuh-rel!Chickadeedeedeee! Right before Reese eats it.

And New Pics - 2009

Grace's self-portrait of her feet.



Birthday, under the weather but still hoping for cake.



Gracie loves her clothes from Auntie C and Uncle K.




First helicopter.






Carrots for reindeer, cookie for Santa

Time for an UPDATE!!!!

Well, so much has happened around our house. Best of all, Grace turned two at the end of the year. Unfortunately, she was suffering from an ear infection and so we had a low-key holiday season and birthday. Then in January, she had a double ear infection, and mom and dad were sick, too. We did enjoy a few successes: Grace transitioned to a twin bed overnight, the last night of her first year of life. (Mainly because she was caught trying to do a dive out of her crib.) Grace's parents renovated the kitchen so dad could have a nice foundation on which to install our concrete countertops (the latter still pending -- pics soon). The inauguration was a wonderful sight to behold, and the Steelers won the Superbowl. Okay, so the last point is more about dad's happiness than mom's, as I am a Pats fan. Grace ran around the night of the football party sporting BLACK frosting on her mouth. She looked a bit Goth. One guest asked if I was worried she would ruin the furniture. Nope, I said, that's why we have black leather couches.

And did I mention Grace was fully potty trained in early December??? We are no longer building our own landfill with disposable pull-ups.

Grace had a good check up at 2 years (and a few weeks) -- she was 23 lbs and 32 inches, I think. 10th percentile weight, 10th percentile height and 55th for head circumference. I figure that explains her ability to pitch forward out of the crib AND her skill at recognizing and pronouncing "pomegranate juice."

Life is hectic right now. Dad just took another course in countertop fabrication, mom negotiated a big deal for work and Grace is leading the class in science (she correctly identified what ice is made of). Weather has been wild and Grace has seen a few snowy days, though nothing really allowing for a serious sledding expedition. Damn that global warming!

Hope you are all well. Happy Chinese New Year (of the Ox) and Happy Valentine's Day.
As we packed up the rotating tree and the snowman ornaments in early January, Grace asked "Where did kissmiss go?" We assured her it was in the attic over the garage and would be back in 11 months.