running on grace: June 2012

Monday, June 25, 2012

Hooray for Visitors!

We were thrilled to finally have our good friends, Elizabeth and Eric, visit our new home as well as have an excuse to attempt a few restaurants with Grace downtown! Notice my emphasis on attempt there. Going "out" with Grace is soon to be a thing of the past since sitting still is becoming harder and harder for our little one. The Shorts made the trip from Buckeye town on Saturday and stayed the night (despite Eric's deep hatred for the state of Michigan and all that it entails.. haha). We opted for Mexican at Barrio's Tacos and Tequila, then enjoyed vino on our patio while Grace slept soundly at home. The next morning was brunch at Toast and absolutely delicious.

The husbands.

Roomates and teammates in college!

All the girls :)

Great friends - love you guys!

Such a fun weekend. Can't wait for our next get together at a Buckeye football game!

Having visitors finally motivated me to start researching babysitters in the area. The luxury of both grandmas no longer being a 5-10 minute drive away has unfortunately sunk-in. I realized that with Zach's traveling and entertaining it is essential to have a few people in the area I trust with Grace that could help out if I'm ever in a pinch, have an appointment, or if Zach and I ever want to go on a date again! Luckily we've had a few great recommendations, and interviewing a few other girls throughout the week. Feels nice to be on the other side of "interviewing" for a change :)

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Happy 9 Months (and 7 days) Miss Grace!

Weighing in at 17 lbs 3 oz and 28 in long, Grace is growing up right before our eyes! She has stayed consistently in the 25% for weight and 75-80% for height since birth. As you can see from the previous posts and photos below, she's finally sitting on her own, army crawling and scooting everywhere, drinking from a straw and eating solids at normal meal times. She seems to get into everything she's not supposed to, and finds interest in the oddest things (i.e. doors, vents, shoes, loose wires, and dustballs... gross I know). Amazing all the money that goes into toys when we could just set her down next to a door to play with for hours on end! We are currently working on weight bearing on her legs and using her knees for crawling and pulling to stand.

While I would love to report that her torticollis has disappeared forever, we're still battling with weekly changes in her neck tilt. The past 2-3 weeks she was looking near perfect, and we had a wonderful progress report from our physical therapist at CDH back home! However, torticollis has proven to be one of the oddest and most frustrating things we've dealt with as her tilt will reappear on any random morning and decide to stay for days at a time (despite consistent therapy). Our new pediatrician has referred us to a Pediatric Rehabilitation Specialist in the area so we can get a closer look at Grace and more detailed treatment if necessary. Loving the initiative our new doctor has taken with Grace, and confident she's the right person to help us kick this for good! We'll also be starting physical therapy here (finally) next week at Beaumont Hospital.

Aside from a cute neck tilt, we're learning quickly that Grace has a rather large personality! She's quite the chatter boxer (or screamer for that matter) and super social. I am somewhat fearful of the quickly approaching toddler years as I'm rather confident we have a little sass on our hands :)

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Michigan Shenanigans

Trips to the Detroit Zoo, first Father's Day memories and BBQ with the Stowell's, hot summer days in our penguin pool and park dates with the Scheidt's sum up our past few weeks in the Mitten!

First time to the Detroit Zoo! We attempted a group shot here. Our awesome photographer obviously didn't think Grace and Hank were worthy of the shot. Not cool lady, not cool... haha

Carrie and her boys!

Hankster.

Loved watching this lil' guy enjoy the animals.

Obvious excitement.

Babes.

Happy first Father's Day superdad! We love you to the moon and back!

Framed NIU and Wheaton football jersey's for Dad's gift!

BBQ with the Stowell Family on Father's Day!

Keeping them on the blanket for .2 seconds was a bit of a challenge.

Jack!

Miss Grace with adorable Aiden!

We love his red hair, but still not sure about this "M" hat... haha We are teaching Grace that "M" stands for Mom :)

Giving high fives.

Scoping each other out!

I could eat him up! So cute.

Park fun on the swings.

95 degree day = lots of penguin time.

Welcome to the family Aaron!

Beautiful day, beautiful couple, beautiful wedding! It couldn't have been a more perfect weekend in the city for these two. Our family felt so blessed to share and be part of such a special day for two extremely deserving people full of more love and happiness than words can describe. Thank you Tom and Jodi for hosting such an incredible night, and to Jess and Aaron for asking us to stand up (and carry Grace down the aisle) on your behalf! You guys really went above and beyond for the entire family, and bridal party in particular, and we are so so thankful. Having Grace be part of the day was so special to us, and a memory sure to last a lifetime. I can't wait to look back at the photos and video 10 years from now with her by our side and reminisce your amazing day! We couldn't have been more proud that she managed to hold it together for the most important part of the ceremony. Pretty hard to do at nine months after a long, long morning! We hope you two enjoyed your honeymoon in St. Lucia, and we can't wait to hear all about it... hopefully during a trip (in the near future) to the dirty D? :)