Storyland 2010

Sorry for the late posting this week but we spend the early part of the week at Storyland with the Shah family so we are just getting caught up tonight.  We rented a cute little log cabin in the mountains and spent a couple days at the park.  This is the second year we have taken the trip together and as usual it was lots of fun!!!

Last year the girls were not tall enough to ride all of the rides but this year they reached the height requirement so they had free reign of the park.  Grace is pretty fearless when it comes to rides but is not a big fan of the characters unless they are princesses, which she loves.  We left the park today thoroughly exhausted but had lots of fun and are looking forward to next year.  Some pics of the trip below.

Getting ready to start our day

I love the teacups!!!!

Cinderella?

A panda in New Hampshire?

The big bad wolf and the three little pigs

Exhausted

Daddy's Day

This past week kicked off summer for us as Jen finished up school.  We are keeping Grace in daycare for another week but after that it will be Gracie and Mommy all summer long.  But today was about Daddy.  We started out our day with some lobster rolls for lunch, Grace opted for a hot dog.  Then this afternoon Grace joined me for a kayak ride.

Pretty good day overall!!!  Some additional pics of Grace enjoying the sun.

Makeover

No, you are not at the wrong place....Just doing a little makeover on the ole Blog.  Blogger has some cool new templates and we figured it was time for a change.  Grace chose this one because she likes to blow the heads off dandelions.  Let us know what you think of our new look.

Two Years Later

This weekend was our annual get together with our China travel group.  8 of the 14 families made it out this year for a great time.  The girls are all getting so big and don't look like babies any more, they are just sassy little girls.

It is tough work wrangling two year olds

Still one missing

We had to bribe them with cupcakes

Three Amigos

How much they have changed

*** Potty Update ***

Potty training is going very well.  Only one accident over the weekend and very few over the past week.  She seems to have turned a corner.  We are still not ready to brave a long car trip without pull-ups but we are getting there.

Potty Weekend

*** Just a warning this post is about pee and poop....skip to the bottom for the cute pics ***

We were pretty free this weekend so we decided it would be a good time to start potty training in earnest with Grace.  Grace needs to be potty trained by September as the new preschool she will be going to requires that the kids be trained.  We have plenty of time but the summer can get busy and go by fast so we decided to get a head-start.  We have been sitting Grace on the potty at night and in the morning and most of the time she will pee.  She has also recently been asking to sit on the potty but that has been pretty sporadic but it tells us that she is now ready,

A couple months ago we tried with not great results as she obviously wasn't ready and neither was I.  It started out pretty well and then Jen left to run some errands....big mistake.   About 2 minutes after Jen left Grace climbed up onto one of our dining room chairs and proceded to pee on it.  This was change #1.  About 10 minutes later I sat her on the potty and she peed.  Then a few minutes later she peed on the couch, change #2.  About 10 minutes later we sat on the potty but she didn't have to go.  But just 5 minutes after that she peed on the floor.  At this point I was getting frustrated and decided that she was just not ready.  Jen came home and agreed and the diapers went back on.

This weekend started pretty well, she went most of the day Saturday in dry panties.  We went out later in the day and used some pull-ups and she did pee in those once.  But overall it was a pretty good day.  Sunday we were running errands most of the day so we were on and off with the panties and pullups.  She was able to experience peeing and even pooping in a restaurant bathroom but also peed in her pull-ups a couple times. 

Monday all hell broke loose....I needed to get some things done around the house so Jen was on her own.  As I was coming upstairs from mowing the lawn I caught a glimpse of a pile of poop on the bathroom floor.  Apparently it fell out of her panties as Jen was sitting her down to pee.  This happened again about an hour later.  We kept sitting her on the potty throughout the day every 15 minutes or so and had some success and some failure.  At one point I think Grace had enough and refused to sit on the potty...when I finally got her on she started crying that she wanted to put her diapers on and then threw up all over herself.  Poor baby.

The rest of the day went pretty well.  Jen put a piece of paper on the wall next to the potty and gave her a sticker to put on it whenever she had a successful pee and that seemed to work pretty well.  Tomorrow it is back to work and daycare for Grace.  Jen wrote up some instructions for them so hopefully they keep her in panties and have some success.  We shall see.  Just a couple pics of Grace being silly from this weekend below.

2 Year Familiversary

Two years ago today we met our Gracie for the very first time.  Hard to belive it has been two years.  It feels like it was just yesterday and yet feels like she has been with us forever.

Then

Now

Ponies and Canoes

It was a beautiful weekend here and we took full advantage of it by trying to be outside most of the time.  On Saturday we attended a birthday party for Jen's coworker's daughter.  They had great food, a fun playset and Grace's favorite.....Ponies!!!!

On Sunday we trekked down to Newton to a canoe rental place to give Grace her first taste of the Charles River.  She actually seemed to like it.

No Like the Mice

One of the restaurants in the area has a character brunch for kids a couple weeks a month.  This Sunday was Mickey and Minnie Mouse so we got up early and met up with the Shahs for a liitle fun.  Unfortunately Grace wasn't into the mice this time around which is very out of character for her.  The one pic we got below.

Fortunately this weekend was beautiful.  We spent the day Saturday on the Minuteman Bike Trail and most of Sunday outside around the neighborhood.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's day to all of the mothers and mothers-to-be out there.

We had a nice mother's day.  Grace and I started out with a run to the local coffee shop to get donuts and coffee for breakfast in bed for Mommy.  We headed to Portsmouth, NH for lunch and some shopping.

We gave our mothers framed copies of the below portrait.   This was taken at costume day at school.  They brought in a bunch of costumes for the kids to choose from and, of course, Grace chose the fairy costume.  Just love the devilish little smile in the pic.

Bittersweet

I made kind of a big change this week.....after almost 14 years I am leaving my postition at the company I work for to take a new job.   I will still be working in the IT field (actually I will be doing the exact same job I have been for the past few years).  But I will be knocking about 2 hours off my daily commute.  No more driving into Boston every day and I will have more time to spend with my girls. 

We had some really hot weather this weekend and got to spend part of it celebrating Uno de Mayo with the Shahs.  It was our first cookout of the year and Grace got to take a couple swings at her first Pinata.  Some pics below.

Vacation Week

Jen was on vacation this past week, overall it was a pretty low-key.  Jen and Grace had a couple play dates and the weather was pretty nice so they got to enjoy the outdoors.  Unfortunately our old digital camera decided to stop working so she wasn't able to take  as many pictures as she would have liked.  We were able to get out this weekand and pick up a new camera so just a couple pics below.

First bike ride of the season

This strawberry is bigger than my head

Wheeeeee!!!!!

Swingset!!!!

Grace's Swingset was finally installed today and she couldn't have been more excited.  We waited until I got home from work to bring Grace out to play on it.  Keeping it hidden was no small feat for Mommy given that it is huge.  Some pics of Grace enjoying her swingset below.

Hand me downs

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Princess-Easter-Anniversary

Busy Busy weekend over here.  We started out on Saturday with a trip down to Worcester to see the Disney Princesses on Ice show.  We didn't tell Grace where we were going, just that it was a surprise.  And boy was she surprised.  She absolutely loved the show.

Today of course was Easter and we have been talking a bit lately with Grace about the Easter Bunny coming to leave her candy.  She really got the whole Easter thing this year and was in our room at 7:30 (at least she slept in an extra hour) getting us out of bed to go downstairs to hunt for Easter eggs.   We spent the rest of the day with family and enjoying the beautiful day that we had today.

Lastly, it was two years ago today that we got the best news of our lives.  It was referral day, the day we first saw the beautiful little face below.  It was only a picture but it kept us going for the next month and a half while we waited to travel and meet our sweet Grace.

Those days of waiting are a distant memory now that we have this beautiful, smart, funny little princess in our lives.  Happy Easter!!!!  Hope everyone had as great a day as we did.