Hand, Foot, and Mouth

Not to be confused with Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes (knees and toes).... Hand, foot, and mouth is a diseases infants and toddlers get from exposure to a virus in poop, and Grace came down with it this past weekend. (And we thought Duncan was our only child that ate poop!)

All jokes aside, I was little concerned how Gracie came down with this dreadful disease. At first our daycare thought it might be chickenpox, but thankfully they were wrong. What a cruel joke that would have been, since she is getting the chickenpox vaccine at her 12 month appointment in two weeks.

This disease is named for the blister-like rash that appears on a child's hands, feet, and mouth. Gracie has them all over her legs and arms as well, but none on her trunk (which is why I was shocked when daycare suggested it might be the pox).
At first we thought they were just bug bites since they appeared the night after she's played in the grass at my dad's house in Nashville (a separate post about our trip to follow). But she was very fussy that day, and then she got more bumps and we had the questions at daycare. So, Trinity took her to the doctor, who noticed she had blisters on the roof of her mouth as well. Poor baby!

The rash seems to be subsiding slowly, but the blisters on her feet seem to be the worst! And of course this comes as she's trying to walk. Thankfully they don't seem to bother her too much any more, and she's back to her normal self. She only had to stay home from daycare one day, as the disease is not contagious once the fever is gone and the rash appears. And when we went back to school on Tuesday, two other kids arrived with the same rash. I'm still trying to decide which one of them started the epidemic... in a non-judgmental way of course! I'm sure it wasn't Gracie; at least one of the other kids has it worse.

Labor Day

When we got back home from Amarillo, the weather had miraculously cooled down! So, we decided to ditch our plans to stick around the house on Labor Day and ventured out to the Arboretum instead. And I am so glad that we did... the weather was perfect, and we had a great time!
Since our last time visiting, the Arboretum had added a Peter Rabbit village that was super cute! There were four or five houses made of sticks and leaves, and each house was dedicated to a different character from the Peter Rabbit

We had a great time pointing out all the cute decorations in each of the huts, and then we took a break in the grassy shade to let Grace crawl around for a while.Because of the extreme heat this summer, she hasn't had much time outside since she was born, so it was so fun to watch her feeling the grass between her toes and investigating the leaves on the ground.

I can't wait to take Gracie back in October like we did when she was only three weeks old!

Amarillo by Morning

For our anniversary, Trinity surprised me with plane tickets to see Beth Anne over Labor Day weekend. We took Friday off work and headed to Amarillo that afternoon. At this point I just expect that Gracie will be good on plane rides, and she didn't disappoint! She loved looking out the window at the wing and crawling between me and Trinity on the flight.

When we got to Beth Anne's house, we were greeted by this adorable sign in her kitchen! She has the cutest house, and she's done a lot to it since the last time I was visiting, so it was fun to get an updated tour of the place and see all her new furniture.

We spent most of the weekend in the kitchen or family room, eating and visiting. It was a very relaxing weekend and SO good to catch up in person. We also got to spend a lot more time with Tyler, and it was so good to get to know him better!

On Saturday we did get out of the house to meet our friends Nathan, Larmie, and their daughter Elise for lunch. We stopped by their apartment first, and Grace had a good time playing with Elise's toys. We got the girls to toss a ball back in forth a few times before Gracie decided to steal it from Elise and not give it back! About that time we headed to lunch at a great Mexican food restaurant.

After lunch we headed to the historic 6th Street, where there are several antique stores, local home goods stores, and even a video game store. Somehow, Trinity was able to find a bunch of cheap comics at the video game store! While he was rummaging around, the rest of us headed to Cowboy Gelato! Gracie loved trying the lemon shortbread and dark chocolate gelato.

Sunday we spent most of the day at Beth Anne's house before heading home that evening. Gracie loved looking out the big glass windows at the airport. Here she is waiting for our plane to arrive.

It was a great weekend, but it went by way too quickly. Thankfully we'll get to see Beth Anne again soon for Gracie's birthday party!

Meeting Margot

Our good friends Mary Alyce and Ryan had their beautiful baby girl, Margot, on August 21st. The following weekend, we got to meet Margot and catch up with her parents. Gracie was extremely well-behaved and even loved pointing and smiling at Margot. We just know they are going to be best buds!!!

Holding Margot, I was surprised at how quickly I'd forgot how small and quiet a newborn baby is! It's hard to believe that Gracie was ever that small!

We are so excited to have another baby in our Dallas friends circle! Because of their birth dates, Gracie and Margot will be in the same grade throughout school, so it will be fun for us to watch them grow up together!

Celebrations

This weekend we flew to Midland for two important celebrations: Luke's 3rd birthday and Steven and Megan's engagemenet party! It had also been a while since we'd seen our families, so it was great to spend the weekend with them!

Saturday morning we got some good pool time with Mimi. Gracie loved floating and playing in the water with Daddy! The water was a tad on the cold side, so I stayed on the sidelines and watched them play. Once she got tired of being on the float, Mimi pulled out some new water toys, and Gracie sat and played happily on the pool shelf.


After an hour or so of playing, it was time to eat lunch and go to Luke's birthday party. Kim had rented a huge blow-up pool and slide set for the kiddos. Gracie was a little too small for the slide, and it was pretty hot in the sun, so Trinity's uncle pulled out the baby pool for Gracie. It was perfect for her, especially with the HOT weather. She splashed around and laughed at the kids running around and splashing each other in the big kid pool. Cousin Luke got lots of great presents from the family, and he was pretty excited about the bike that Gracie gave him!

Saturday night we celebrated my brother's engagement to the sweetest girl in the world, Megan! We are all so lucky to welcome her into our family, and we couldn't be happier for the two of them. The party was a huge success and had a great turnout! We had delicious brisket, ham, and a ton of sides, complete with plenty of wine and beer. Mimi and Pop sure know how to throw a party!

The Family

The rest of the weekend we spent visiting with Mimi and Pop or Nana and PopPop. Thanks to our family for another great visit! We love you all so much and wish we could spend more time with you all.

10 Months

With only two months until our baby girl is no longer a baby, I wanted to share our daughter's life as a 10 month old.

Gracie is crawling all over the house like a champ. She loves to speed crawl between our living room and kitchen while panting! She'll even chase the dogs around, which she thinks is great fun. I can't tell if they are playing with her or running away from her, but she obviously thinks it is a fun game! She will occasionally still crawl in her own special way, but I don't see her do it as often as she used to do it.

Grace is also walking along the furniture and walls with no fear! I keep thinking she'll let go and take her first steps any day now. We keep trying to get her to let go and walk on her own, but for now she still holds on to our hands with an iron grip! If she happens to let go, she quickly plops on her bottom and begins to crawl where she wants to go.

The other day Grace stood unsupported for the first time! She was standing at our coffee table and trying to drink her bottle with one hand. At some point, her other hand let go of the table, and she was standing with both hands on her bottle for at least 30 seconds. Thankfully Trinity caught my attention and I quickly snapped a photo with my iPhone.

Bedtime is finally becoming less of a struggle! After talking it over with a friend of mine, I decided a more rigid nighttime routine was necessary, and it worked like a charm! Sometime I'm going to blog about an average day in the life Grace Vaughn (also an idea stolen from my wise friend above), so you'll get to hear about our new bedtime routine when I get around to writing that blog.

Thankfully, feeding Gracie is still an easy task, and she'll eat just about anything you stick on her tray. Every once in a while she'll decide she doesn't want "insert dinner item here" for dinner and will stick it in her mouth and immediately spit it out, but then the next day she's eat it ravenously. I guess that is no different than my tastes on any give day. Just ask Trinity. He gets SO annoyed at my random pickiness when we're trying to decide what to eat!

Gracie has started to get a little bit more attached to her first doll, which she sleeps with at night. Although she doesn't carry it around with her or cry for it like some kids do for their "lovie", she does cuddle with it when we put her in bed each night. I hope that Grace continues to love on this baby doll, as it brings back great memories of my favorite doll, Polyanna. I actually still have Poly-oly, as I called her before I could say Polyanna, but she is VERY dirty and falling apart! I just can't bring myself to get rid of her. She used to comfort me when I was sad, even after I was too old to have a doll.

Right now, Gracie's favorite activities include stacking blocks, pulling toys in and out of a box, and reading books. Trinity and I are both glad that she loves books, even if it means she pulls ALL the books off the shelf on a daily basis. We have two canvas boxes of her toys in the living room, and almost every day Grace will pull toys in and out of them. Her teachers says she does the same thing at daycare!

Speaking of daycare, she is doing great there! She has made lots of friends, and it is so fun to drop her off in the morning and watch the little babies get excited at seeing each other and start playing before I've even left the room. I absolutely love her morning teacher, and I will be extremely upset on the day Gracie has to move on to the toddler room. I am sure the toddler teachers are great as well, but Miss Sylvia has been an amazing teacher. I know she is the reason I'm so comfortable with Grace at daycare.

I'll leave you with a recent picture of our growing girl, who's hair is finally long enough for a small clip!

July is Over?!?

Wow, this summer sure has flown by, and it sure has been a hot one! We are on day 30 or 31 of 100+ temperatures, so it's been too hot to spend much time outdoors with Grace. We have, however, spent a morning in a baby pool our friends were kind enough to let us borrow. We just hook it up to the water hose, and it's like a mini-waterpark for babies! Hopefully we'll get some more use out of it throughout the rest of the summer because Gracie loved it!

Unfortunately, the hot weather made our trip to Rahr & Sons almost unbearable! We scheduled a trip to the unairconditioned Fort Worth brewery with Erin and Craig a month in advance (I know, crazy that our schedules did not accomodate a trip for an entire month), so we had no idea the weather was going to be quite so hot. But it was good to catch up with them while drinking three good beers in a keepsake glass for a cheap $7 entry fee!

We knew we were in FW when we saw this man...

The last week of July was my 29th birthday, and Trinity made it a special one! He took me to eat at Fearing's for a wonderful meal complete with a bottle of wine and scrumptious desserts! I've been wanting to go for quite a while, so it was good to celebrate a special occassion there! Trinity had to leave town on my birthday, so he ordered flowers and had them delivered to Grace's daycare. So when I went to pick her up that evening, I had beautiful flowers to take home along with my beautiful daughter! Her teachers also put together a birthday card from Grace, which was so sweet of them! We met Steven and Megan for dinner that night. It was one of the best birthdays I've had in a while!

Grace and I ended the month of July with a trip to Houston to visit Trinity. He's been working there a lot lately, so we decided to take advantage of the free hotel room for a weekend getaway. Grace did great in the car both to and from Houston! I was a little worried, as we haven't been on a roadtrip with her since Christmas when she was only 3 months old, and I would be solo on this trip. But I shouldn't have worried. She slept the entire trip, except for the stop at Buckee's to buy Daddy some beef jerky!

We split Saturday with Anna and her family and then my aunt, uncle, and cousins. It was so fun to see how much Ellie and Lexa have grown, and Gracie was very interested in watching them play! She loves, loves, loves to watch other children. I don't blame her; they are very entertaining! It was also great to catch up with my family. We were supposed to watch Hayden play baseball, but his tournament was canceled due to a flooded field, so we just hung out their house and then went to dinner instead. They are always so much fun to hang out with, so I was glad we were able to spend some quality time with them too!

Sunday Trinity, Gracie, and I met two of his coworkers from brunch and then headed to the Waterwall, which is a 64 foot waterfall right next to the Galleria. I had seen pictures of the wall from Jessica's trip to Houston but had forgotten about it until Anna mentioned it to me on Saturday. Our hotel was just down the road, so it was a convenient place to go! I'm not sure Grace knew what was going on, but it was fun to get some pictures; one of which is my new favorite picture of the three of us!