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.

Face of Change

So as some of you may know, we're moving ... to Wisconsin. And no, it was not my idea. Jay is voluntarily going across the border. I'm lucky to have married such a guy. He was offered a great job in Eau Claire that is a perfect for him, so Gracie is going to grow up a Wisconsin girl. This video we took of her recently shows the many emotions that we have gone through in making this decision:

First, happy and excited, then a bit nervous and surprised we're making such a big change, then thoughful and a bit melancholy about all that we're leaving behind in the Twin Cities (such as, family, friends, pizza delivery, Chipotle, ...). You read that right -- no pizza delivery. We've found a house outside of Menomonie (yes, we have some very happy grandparents : ) and it's far enough out that we need to figure out how to get some basic services that we've grown accustomed to, being the city folk we are. The trade off is a great home surrounded by trees and nature.

I'm going to remain at my job at Gillette Children's in St. Paul and have been lucky enough to work out a schedule of working three long days. This will allow me to spend even more time with Gracie, which is the biggest plus of all.

Sleep Over and Out

This long holiday weekend was eventful for the Edenborg family. It started off with the first night we spend without Gracie. Grandma Patti volunteered to have a sleepover with her. So this weekend we took her up on it and headed to a B&B in Wisconsin. I'm not going to deny it -- it was so nice to get 8 hours of sleep and not have one ear open to hear any peeps or whimpers. It was great to see her little face when we returned on Saturday. That evening when we put her to bed around 8:30 p.m., we were prepared to return to small batches of sleep. When we woke at 6 a.m. the next morning Jay asked me how many times I'd gotten up to feed her. My answer: "None." She'd more than slept through the night. We called Grandma Patti and asked what drugs she'd given our daughter and could we have some more : ) We thought it might have been just a fluke, but then Sunday night she more than slept through the night again. I hope this is a new sleep stage, but I'm also aware that it could just be a blip.

In an earlier post I'd mentioned Grace chatting with a lotion bottle. I recorded that for your viewing pleasure. The visual is a bit dark, but you can hear how into the conversation she gets.

Maybe she's telling the lotion bottle how excited she is about becoming a Wisconsin girl. More on that in my next post.

Heads Up

Grace (and I) did great with the first week of day care. We have a great in-home provider who really eased our minds about this transition. She updates us on how the day went and told us that Grace loves watching the other kids. I imagine they do much more interesting stuff than us adults. My days at work were good too. I wore real clothes (not comfy pants or hooded sweatshirst) and real shoes (not slippers or footie socks). I had real conversations (by "real" I mean conversations with words : ) And I really looked forward to picking Gracie up.

Now we put her to bed between in the early evening, so we make the most of the time we have with her when we get home. On Friday Gracie surprised us by holding her head up (see photo).

Grace is only in day care four days a week, but it's still quite the adjustment. I'm so used to being with her all day that it was weird to not be. I remember three months ago it freaked me out to think I'd be caring for this new being all day and all night, and now that I'm no longer doing that ... it's different. Not good, not bad, just different.

Firsts and Lasts

Gracie's a thoughtful daughter. She got me a Mother's Day card and told her dad to get me flowers -- a great first Mom's Day. (It was also great on a different level because I was able to get my favorite pair of pre-pregnancy jeans on!) The day was the perfect end to a week where Gracie and I learned a lot. She learned that naps are a good thing and I learned how to get her to take them relatively painlessly. If only I'd mastered this before the last week of my maternity leave ... Yes, tomorrow I'm taking Grace to day care for half of the day so she can get a feel for the new routine. Who am I kidding? It's so I can get used to the new routine. It'll be good for her to see new faces and places. Lately it's been so fun to watch her. Even when she's just sitting in her swing looking at the toys in front of her you can almost hear the gears turning in her head, processing all the new things she is learning.

On a lighter note, Gracie's been chatting so much lately, testing out different sounds on anyone and anything that will "listen" -- today she had a 10 minute conversation with the lotion bottle on her changing table. Giraffe and Snoopy must not be very good listeners anymore.

Mother's "Last" Day

Here's the Miracle Blanket update that I am sure you've all been anxiously waiting for. (For those who are curious, I've included a link to the Miracle Blanket website that show's how it works. It's like a straight jacket, but works wonders.) Gracie's allowed it to stay intact since the first report, so that's good. Also, she is getting used to sleeping while wrapped in a plain-old, regular blanket (see photo). Nothing like a laid-back, chilled-out baby : )

And in other big news ... Grace is three months old today! Happy day! And that means that Mom is going back to work next week. Not-so-happy day. I'm sure once I'm back into my work routine it'll be OK, but it hit me this morning that this is my last day like this with Gracie. While I will often have Fridays off, it'll be different. My first lesson in letting go. I'm all about learning, but these types of lessons aren't much fun.