Camping with Dad

Brian and Hannah went camping Friday night with Brian's dad. They had a campfire and roasted marshmallows but the highlight for Hannah was going fishing the next morning.

2 Months

Grace had her 2 month appointment on Thursday. Here's how the numbers came in . . . . . .

• Height: 23- 1/4'' (90 %)
• Weight: 11lbs, 12 oz. (75%)
• Head: 36.5 cm (5%)

In other words, Grace is a big girl with a very little head!

At 2 months, Grace is a wonderful baby. She is super smiley and just started to smile in response to us. She definitely is aware of who mommy is and will calm down when she hears me or even sees me coming toward her (she doesn't calm down as well for Brian). I tell Brian that's the reward I get for 9 months of pregnancy, labor and breast feeding. Grace loves it when I play a game where I draw a circle around her face and say all around your face I got your nose or other body part on her head. It always gets big smiles and babbles. Grace has started to babble a lot and has about 5 different babbles.

Grace is a good sleeper and has started sleeping 5 to 7 hours of at night. We haven't been able to get her to sleep on her back so she usually sleeps her swing or sometimes propped up in the corners of the couch (see previous post). She also like to be held in interesting positions. Here's her favorites.

I get funny looks in the store when I hold her like this.

It's amazing how many things you forget about babies. I mean it hasn't been that long, Hannah's only three. But here's Brian re-discovering the joys of diaper changing. Sometimes I can't believe how much comes out of something so little!

Good thing she's so dang cute!!

Happy 31 to me!

This week I turned 31. It's weird, such a big deal is made about turning 3o but 30 didn't really seem like such a milestone. 31 seems like a much bigger deal. It's the first time that a birthday has made me feel old but I guess that's life.

Brian took me to San Francisco for my birthday. We started the day by going to the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. They had a touring impressionist exhibit from the Musee d'Orsay that I have really wanted to see (I'm no art buff but love Impressionism). I loved it!! These were a few of my favorites.

The Magpie, Claude Monet

The Floor Planers, Gustave Caillebotte

The Ballet Class, Edgar Degas

We had these great roast beef sandwhiches at Tommy's Joynt.


Followed by Dessert at Mitchell's Ice Cream. It's some seriously good ice cream with a bunch of unusual flavors.

We finished the day with a short walk on the beach!

Going..........

Going..........

Gone!

God Bless America

I really enjoyed our 4th of July weekend this year. We kicked it off by going to the River Cats game Friday night with my parents. Can you get more American than that? I love everything about going to the ballpark, especially Raley Field. I love casually watching the game while chatting with family or friends. I love the music and energy of the crowd. I love standing up for the 7th inning stretch and singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame. I love eating a hot dog and cheering for my team, as if my yelling "we want a pitcher not a belly itcher" from the lawn behind right field will really rattle the pitcher.

Friday nights game was against the Fresno Grizzlies. It was a tough game but the "rally pants" were put on (apparently a pitcher on the team who is currently on the DL squeezes into skin tight pants and coaches first base when we're behind) and we won in the 11th inning 4 to 3. We all loved the firework show afterwards.

It was a warm weekend so Brian and Hannah tried to beat the heat by hanging out at our pool.

Sunday evening our friends hosted a dessert and firework potluck. My contribution was this white cake with strawberry and blueberry filling.

There were around 10 or so families from our ward and so Hannah had a blast running around with all her friends. Here she is with one of her best friends, Aubrey.

With everyone pooling their fireworks, we had quite our own show. Hannah's favorite were the sparklers!

Hannah's 1st Ballet Recital

Hannah had her first ballet recital yesterday and she did such a great job. She has wanted to dance on a big stage since she started taking lessons and has had many conversation about how she couldn't wait for everyone to see her and how everyone would be clapping for her (she's a ham, can you tell?). I was still worried that she would be scared about actually being on stage in front of the audience but she wasn't nervous at all.

I thought her costume was super cute!

Here she is with one of her fellow dancers, Paris.

She was very proud of the ribbon she received. Here she is showing it off with her teacher, Miss Sheila.

Hannah loved doing her recital and keeps asking when she can do it again. We are so proud of our little Ballerina.

More about Grace

At 2 weeks old, Grace is 21 inches long, 8 lb 10 oz, with a head circumference of 34 cm. That means she is in the 75% for height, 60% for weight and 10% for head size. Grace has very long arms, fingers, legs, feet and toes. She has pretty good muscle control of her head and neck, more so than most newborns and can already roll over from her tummy to her back. She is very comfortable on her tummy and prefers to nap that way, in fact she won't really lay on her back without incessant fussing. This makes it hard to leave her sleeping or napping, so the compromise is that she spends a lot of time snoozing in her swing. She loves to look outside. No matter where she is, she will find the window and just stare at the sky.

Hannah is still stuck on the name Diamond but now she calls her baby Gracie Diamond or if you ask Hannah her full name it's Grace Isabel Diamond Simmons. Brian has also given her the nickname Gracie Girl or GG for short.

I'm so amazed at how instantly this tiny girl has become part of our family and how much we love her already!