Some pics from Grady's b-day photo shoot (by me) at the Conservatory

Some stories I want to remember & pics of friends

I told my friend Cheryl that I would get some pics of her little guy for his 2nd b-day present (and promised if I didn't get any good ones I'd buy him a real present). But I think it went really really well! Could not have asked for a better subject, really! They spoiled me for all future photo shoots.

I literally had about 75 images I was pretty pleased with! I know Cheryl was happy too, this makes me happy!

Amy & Davis came for a visit. I took their picture.

Moira dressed Grady up for a "hula party". Ha ha!

My college friend Susan and her little guy Andrew. I got to visit with them Saturday night b/c they are in Ohio from NY visiting Family

Moira's school BFF Carly. She came over for a play date and I took her pic

We HAD to get outside!

I didnt' feel like taking my new camera into the snow, this is my old point and shoot. Grady's first "walk" in our back yard!

Before bed just now, I spend about 10 minutes talking Moira through her anxiety about having bad dreams. I have lots of bad dreams so I understand. Chris never remembers his dreams so I guess she gets it from me. Tonight I told her we'd make her a dream catcher tomorrow to help catch all her bad dreams. She didn't exactly understand but seemed to like the idea. Hopefully it will help. The other day, she got up around 8 am and since Grady had eaten around 4 am, he was still sleeping. Moi came downstairs to our bedroom and was standing over the bed. She said "Mommy, I don't want to bother you, but can you just turn the tv on? Actually, it looks really cozy in here, can I get in bed with you?" She never ever comes down in the middle of the night or gets in bed with us at night, so this was kind of nice. She was telling me about her dreams, mostly about new episodes for Max & Ruby (note to self to call the producers with some ideas...). She also told me that she dreamed of easter and that she and Daniela were looking for easter eggs and the easter bunny brought them 2 chocolate chickens that they could have and didn't have to share. Tonight she told me all her dreams were bad and I said, what about the one about you and Daniela and the chocolate chickens and she said "I just didn't want you to be sad, all of my dreams are really bad". Only once in awhile does she call for us in the middle of the night though, knock on wood. We hardly ever hear her fussing at night. Also speaking of dreams Moira told me that she had a dream she and Grandma were playing and a real witch appeared. And she and Grandma were scared but then they put on hamburger costumes and danced around. The witch thought that was silly and danced away. End of dream.

Today I was putting Moi's shoes on and she said "Mommy you beautiful" with a big nice smile on her face. Then after thinking for a minute she said "But you aren't THAT beautiful. If you were a human you would be more beautiful, but you are much smaller than them". ???? Also, the other morning she came downstairs for the morning completely dressed (I usually have to prod her out of her jammies). She even had her glasses on. She announced to me "I am traveling to Far Far Away Land (from Shrek), maybe it will be Spring there." We are all so ready to go outside. We finally ventured outside in the backyard to the snow. Grady doesn't have boots and he wouldn't keep his mittens on so we didn't stay out for long.

Tonight before bed Moira said she wanted to kiss me all over from head to toe. I said "I wonder if you will still want to kiss me before bed when you are 13". I shouldn't have said this b/c she is very worried about growing up and not being with me. She said "I will always want to kiss you. When I grow up and get married and leave your house, I will still kiss you right before I leave". Then she started crying and said "Actually, can I just marry you? And Daddy can marry Grady. They can watch NASCAR and look at airplanes and you and I can go to the shopping mall and bake cookies". Not a horrible plan...

Can't remember if I told this on here, but the other day Grady was eating his bottle and he sat up and started looking around saying "ought oh, ought oh". I said "I wonder what is wrong" and Moira said "Maybe he wishes the house were more cleaner". Indeed.

For my reference, Grady has one molar in, top left.

Not much new with G-man. Walkin, working on talkin, etc. He has slept through the night for 2 nights in a row! We've had a bad couple of months with him being sick, seems like every other night at least he is up once. We'll see.

I have started practicing photography on my friends. Eventually I'd like to make it a bussiness,but no hurry, just doing it for fun. I uploaded some of my favorite friend pics so far.

Grady's 12 month well visit

Grady had his 12 month well visit. He is 24 lbs 13 oz which is 80% for weight and 31 1/2" long, which is 85% for height. The Dr. said 1-3 words is the normal and he has- ought oh, ball, kitty, doggy, kodos, da da, ma ma, sissy, ducky, piggy, book, cookie, hi, backwards (said ak-ers), so we are good there. He is walking fully, even if, as the Dr. says, he looks like he just finished riding a horse. His ears are still clear. He got 3 shots. That's about all!

Here are some pics from their music class. Grady is quite a handful. We started this class with Moira when she was 14 months old. He is 12. He is way into where the egg shakers go and insistant upon getting into them when he isn't supposed to, trying to pull down the tablecloth that is under the stereo system, eating all the instruments. Moira never did any of that. I have a hard time believing it's just the 2 months of difference.... But he is a very good boy.

Moira is such a sweet girl. She is telling me all day how much she loves me, how she loves Grady, etc. I am very lucky mama to have 2 such great kids!

Florida pics, round 1

Happy Birthday Grady!

Grady got a new play kitchen. I thought Moira would be more into it than him but he seems to really like it.

Grady turned 1 February 12th! We didn't do a party for him, just made a cake and sang happy b-day. He didn't seem to mind :) His favorite things/word is "ball". I actually think this was his first word around 8 months. I made a "ball cake" in his honor. He is fully walking now, has been since about a week before his b-day. He is still unsteady and fall a lot. A LOT. But he always gets up and tries again. And he isn't afraid to go fast when he wants something. He is still pretty verbal, he has about 10 words which is awesome for 1 year old. The clearest things he says are "ought oh" and "kitty". He hasn't picked up a bunch of new words since he learned to walk, he's really had those words since about 11 months, but he did learn "duck" and "book" recently, which actually sound very similar. Funny Grady story, last night I said "are you ready to go to bed?" and he said "ought oh" and went running into the kitchen! I imagine that will only be funny the first time... Grady hasn't been a great sleeper. He's up every other night for about an hour fussing. He's had a lot of colds, 2 ear infections and 1 bout of the croup so I think that has a lot to do with it. I am hoping with Spring the illness will lift and he will sleep better. Hopefully by next winter, he will have a killer immune system. Moira has had some colds but she tends to get over them fairly quickly. I am writing this now at 2 am, he's been up since one. He finally sounds quiet though and I gave him a bottle, so hopefully he'll sleep in. When he gets up and eats, he tends to sleep in later but when he sleeps through the night, he's usually up at 5:30 and I find I am actually more tired on those nights than on the nights when he sleeps all the way. (so now you know it's the middle of the night so sorry if this doesn't make a lot of sense...)
I continue to learn about my new camera. I am hoping to use Sunday mornings to practice shooting other families. I've dreamed for years, really since taking a photography class at UVA, of being a professional photographer. I'm collecting my gear and it actually seems to be somewhat of a possibility now. It's nice b/c we don't NEED the money, it can really be a hobby until I feel pretty good at it. People I've taken pictures for so far have been pretty happy, but it's all been free so what's not to be happy about.

I had Moira's first parent/teacher conference yesterday. It went great, if they are all this easy, I will be extremely lucky. Here's how it went after initial pleasantries:
"Moira is really such a great girl, we really love having her in class. She's quite a leader with all the other kids, in a very positive way. She gets them excited about all the activities and they really look to her to set the mood and pace for the day. The kids all so enjoy her and really really miss her when she is gone. She is very creative but knows how to be Moira when it's time to be Moira. We have no issues whatesoever to discuss. Do you have any concerns or questions?" We talked about how she refuses to write lower case letters for her name. They just told me to tell her that there are two ways to write them and that is the way her teachers want for her to do it. We tried that last night and it totally worked. That's all! I am so proud of her!

**** note**** photos are taking forever, I will try again tomorrow.
We went to Florida! It was good, nice weather, lots of fun stuff to do. Moira was good, she got her own room with a king size bed and a dvd player. Grady was recovering from croup and ear infection so we had a few rough nights and lots of early morning (6 am or earlier) so it wasn't overly relaxing but still nice to get away. He really took off with his walking over the week, he is not 95% walking, only crawls when he is hesitant about something. He loved the ocean, wanted to be IN the ocean, so that was also not relaxing. Moira and dad swam a lot. Grady didn't really like to be held in the pool, wanted to do it himself, which didn't really work. He was pretty good on the plane. Moira was awesome on the plane! I took about 650 pics, but as we all know my blogger is horribly slow so that's why I don't ever blog anymore. But here are a few of the best!
Not much else new here. The kids both have colds. Again. When is it spring??? Chirs has been working a lot, he finally got a weekend off. We went to a hotel for the night for valentines day. Thanks to grandparents Russell for babysitting!
Moi has been asking a lot of questions about God. I guess they talk about it a lot at school. One of my favories "Is God Real? If he is, why doesn't he come to our house for dinner?" and in the car out of nowhere "who made God?" Also today she said "YOu are the best mommy ever, I am going to tell God! Can he always hear me?" I said yes. She said "GOD! MOMMY IS THE BEST MOMMY EVER!" She also said "I love you. I'd love you more though if you let me do anything that I want. Did you hear me?"