Now she's a big "G"

Grace, being the mature four-month-old that she is, is so over the activities of youth (birth to yesterday : ) She's beyond just being held, changed and fed. She's moved on to bigger and better things, like bouncing, jumping and grabbing. Her bouncy seat is finally be used for it's intended purpose -- bouncing. And as for jumping, as you can see in the photos and video, she's a big fan of her Jumperoo. Then there's grabbing. Purple elephants, cardboard pictures of Snoopy and Mom's clothes are all common targets. She also likes to grab her own clothes, especially when Mom is trying to get her dressed.

Seriously though, she's matured quite a bit. For example, she's a better napper and quite a good little traveler. This weekend Grace and I went to Menomonie to interview some nanny candidates and then on to Eau Claire for cousin Brady's graduation party. She was super good. Just a bit of fussing now and then, but overall she made a great impression on everyone. She marketed herself well to the prospective nannies and grinned at her cousin. (Since he's going to Madison on a golf scholarship, we're hoping he can teach Gracie that skill so she'll have college paid for too. We're thinking ahead ....)

Hold on a minute, I'll be right back. Bedtime has turned into awaketime.
Correction: It's wide awaketime ... I'll finish this post tomorrow.

And I'm back (the next morning).
Good thing this post was about maturity. After two attempts at putting Gracie to bed in her Miracle Blanket we realized that it had finally lost its usefulness. Within minutes of putting her down, her leg started to emerge and that was the precursor to escape of the arm. So we decided to give a new sleeping implement a try: the sleepsack. Since it's basically a blanket that zips up, the sleepsack allows her a lot more freedom (i.e. access to her arms). We thought we were in for a long night. While she did wake up three times throughout the night, she also fell back to sleep before I even had a chance to turn on the video monitor.

Our little girl's growing up : )

Lowercase "g"

Gracie's new thing -- beatboxing (a.k.a. making raspberries, a.k.a. making use of drool). We're quite the proud of her, case she's quite good at it. She's got the arm gestures down and everything. Yo, we do indeed have the coolest kid around. See for yourself.

While our beatboxer doesn't have any bling yet, she did wear a dress for the first time this weekend. Shockingly we didn't take pictures of it, but I have a feeling it will be a summertime outfit staple. It's green, it's cute, it's easy to get off and on, and most importantly, it offers quick diaper-changing access.

Our little hiphopster rounded up her entourage (i.e. Ella and I) for a walk this Sunday. This was the first walk with baby in stroller and pug on a leash ... together. I'm sure we were interesting to watch, swerving around the sidewalk when pug wanted to go one way and baby and I wanted to go another. But all in all it was a decent trip. A few close calls, but no stroller-pug fenderbenders this time around.

Grace is riding in the most basic baby transportation for the time being, a nice simple, reliable and practical stroller. But before too long I'm sure we'll be adding accessories and/or upgrading. Perhaps some big speakers, a GPS and a drop down TV screen or two ... that's how we roll.