Tiny

It's hard to believe Grace was ever this tiny! But at the time, she didn't feel quite so tiny, since she's weighed over the 95th percentile since birth!

I can hardly believe how much Grace has grown in the last six months, both physically and mentally. She is definitely ahead of her age, and I often get shocked faces when strangers find out she isn't even two yet.

But that is about to change in three weeks! I am looking forward to this birthday much more than her first birthday. I was a complete mess last year. I had to go to the privacy room at work to cry in private on several occasions. I am not sure what got me so emotional, other than accepting that she wasn't a baby anymore! Now that it is clear that she is a little girl, I am embracing every age and enjoying every moment with her!

Oops!

Wow, I am so far behind on this month's blog-a-day! I just haven't had enough inspiration.

Oops!

And to make things worse, I don't even have pictures ready to go along with my blogs.

Double oops!

Oh well. I will attempt to recap the last few days' blogs in one:

September 9: Younger You
I don't have any electronic pictures of myself from a young age, so I'm sparing everyone the crazy perm hair and the awkward middle-school age! Instead, I'll blog about a few things I'd love to tell the younger me.

First, I would applaud the young Diana for NOT being boy-crazy. As Grace grows up, my biggest fear is having a boy-crazy daughter, which I will not know how to handle. I didn't even have a boyfriend until my senior year of high school. And then when that relationship ended my sophomore year of college, I didn't have another one until Trinity. Sure, I dated a few other guys, but I just never spent much time worrying about boys or whether or not I was cute enough to get their attention. I now realize this is very uncommon, but thankfully most of my friends were cut from the same cloth!

Next, I would tell me not to be so judgemental. It's one of the biggest regrets I have from my younger years. I was very conservative back in the day , and I know that I was hypocritical.

Although I am very proud of my work ethic and hard work throughout school, I would tell myself to lighten up! I was SO concerned with making a B in high school and college, that I often over-studied to make sure I was ready for tests. And I was way too hard on myself! I'll never forget the first B I made in college... Intermediate Accounting II. I made a low 70 on one of my tests and was a mess as I talked to my professor about it. She knew that it was uncharacteristic of me to "bomb" a test and asked me if everything was ok. At the time, it wasn't and I was so mad at myself for not focusing on studying. Now I realize that sometimes you have to make choices in life, and it's ok to let one part of your life slide a little so that you can be there for the other part. It was a hard way to start that lesson.

The one thing I would NOT tell the younger Diana was that I would end up marrying Trinity Vaughn! It would totally ruin our dating story! Not that I'm looking forward to telling our kids that mommy and daddy got married because we got really drunk one night and almost kissed until mommy puked. Yep, that's the true beginning... I'll spare you the rest of the details.

September 8: Flirt
I don't know what's scarier: the fact that she's flirting or that she's wearing a UT cheerleading outfit: :)

September 7: Sign
We are gearing up for Grace's 2nd birthday, and a few months ago we decided to go with a Sesame Street theme this year. The decision was mostly made by Trinity, since he wanted to have input into her theme this year, but we also thought it was perfect for our Elmo-and-Cookie Monster-loving little girl.

Once we had the theme set, we both starting looking online for inspiration. And low-and-behold, Trinity decided to create an actual Sesame Street streetlight for Gracie, complete with the street sign adapted for her name. Believe me: I was skeptical. I know, I know, I need to be supportive of my husband's hopes and dreams, but making a streetlamp from scratch is just not the sort of thing Trinity's natural abilities would allow. However, Trinity was very resourceful and ended up doing an AMAZING job! Just look at it! Thankfully, he admitted that he was a little shocked at the outcome himself, which made me feel a tad bit better about my doubts.

The streetlamp will make it's debut at the party on October 6th, afterwhich will reside in the loft area where I hope to redecorate as a playroom.

September 6: Scoop
Here's the scoop: it was Trinity's 30th birthday on the 6th! Unlike me, he was not excited about this birthday and has said over the last year that he did not want to celebrate with a big bash. So, all we did was meet Steven, Megan and Erin for dinner at SaltGrass. It was a nice, chill dinner with lots of meat and beer for the birthday boy. Afterwards, Erin came back to our house for the pineapple upside-down cake that I made for the first time ever. I couldn't believe how well it turned out and that I was able to effectively turn it upside-down after cooking, especially considering my prior baking mishaps (like the time I dropped the uncooked Christmas pie upside down in the oven a few hours before Christmas dinner)! I am still not sure Trinit likes his new age, but I sure am glad that he's finally caught up to me.

Guilty Pleasure

Some of my favorite guilty pleasures:

-Shoes, shoes, shoes! I bought two new pair of TOMs this weekend!

-Stopping by the toy aisle at my local Tom Thumb. I am often suckered into buying something for Grace... bought her an Ironman book yesterday and four new "big girl" cups last week.

- Phillipa Gregory and Diana Gabaldon books. It is about time I pick up another one of these. It's been a while since I read one!

Labor

For labor day weekend, we drove to the LBK for the first Tech football game of the season and to visit some good friends!

We had a great time visiting with everyone and meeting the newest addition to the Reynolds' family! Avett is such a sweet little baby, and he was so good while we were out and about. Addison is a great big sis, and Grace loved playing with her while the grown-ups visited.

The football game was fun, even though we didn't get to watch as much as normal with Gracie with us. We headed to the Honors College cookout first. I was shocked at how many honors students were present. It has doubled in size since I graduated from Tech! Next we shopped for some new Tech gear and enjoyed some margaritas and beer at Ruby Tequilas before heading to Raider Alley to get Grace's picture with the Masked Rider before the game. She loved seeing "the horsie" and getting a picture with it!

Grace did really well at the game. She enjoyed the band and "watching the movie", i.e. the game on the big screen! Most of all, she loved playing with Jeremy's bracelets and all the attention from those around us!

On the drive home today, Grace kept talking about "Texas Tech football game!" I love it!!

Fear

I fear our little girl is growing up too fast! Two weeks ago, she moved to the 2 year-old class early because she was getting bored in her class. I think that was her teacher's way of telling us she was causing trouble! She is much more verbal than the other kids in her class and has probably been demanding a lot of attention. We are excited about the move, especially since it meant potty-training could begin.

Her new teacher suggested going straight to panties, so we took a pile of panties and extra clothes! The first day, Grace had five accidents, but we are down to one a day now. And this weekend she has been great with no accidents! We put her Ina pull-up if we are going to be out for a while, but she was dry after both of our outings today! We are so proud of her!

Grace is also speaking in complete sentences now, and her annunciation is good enough that we can understand most of them! She is a chatterbox like her mommy, and we just love listening to her vocabulary grow. We are working on counting to twenty... She can get to eleven but then skips to fifteen.

Grace is still really good at independent play. She sometimes likes us to sit next to her and join in, but she can generally keep herself occupied when we are relaxing around the house. I love seeing her imagination grow as she plays with her babies or talks on her pretend phone. The other morning she woke up earlier than normal, and after a few minutes of playing in our bathroom while I got ready, she wandered into her room. I found her playing tea set on her bedroom floor fifteen minutes later. So cute!

Before

I never thought I would say this, but WHAT did we do before our minivan, complete with a DVD player and port-a-potty?!?

It has made traveling so much more pleasant...

Blog a Day: September