Chattanooga

We decided to take a last minute day trip to Chattanooga last Saturday since it's less than a 2 hour drive from Atlanta and is one of our most favorite places in the world. Grace had never been to Chattanooga before, so we were so excited to show her the sights. It was a gorgeous day (probably around 75 degrees) and I unfortunately forgot to put sunblock on Grace and myself. So both of us got burned...whoops! I definitely learned my lesson that babies have very delicate skin and burn very quickly...especially Scottish-Irish skinned babies like Grace.

We drank coffee in the Art District, walked over the pedestrian bridge, strolled around Coolidge Park, ate ice cream, and browsed the booths at the art fair. What a fun day!

We love Chattanooga!

We drank coffee in the Art District at Rembrandt's. Oh, and had a chocolate cream cheese brownie too.

Walking on the pedestrian bridge.

Hunter Art Museum in the background.

Tennessee River

Coolidge Park

Little walking baby lady!

Little Miss Smiles

Grace has been a smiling, chatty, lively baby lady lately. She is even doing a weird butt up in the air crawl. We think this must be her attempt to stand on her own. She is eating lots of new finger foods (broccoli, cheese, turkey, kiwi, waffles) and slowly learning how to drink from a cup (she still hasn't quite grasped the concept though). It's fun to watch her grow...we can't believe she's almost 11 months!

My good friend and college soccer teammate Leslie Keener (or 'Weeks' (her maiden name) as we called her in college) was in town on business and stayed with us for a few days. We had a blast! Grace loves her!

Grace loves her finger foods. Her favs are cheese, kiwi, bananas, broccoli and waffles. She's not crazy about carrots and sweet potatoes.

Right before the meltdown...

...and the meltdown...

10 Months!

Dear Grace,

You are a blessing. Your dad and I never knew it was possible to love so deeply. We are so thankful to God for the gift of parenthood and the amazing responsibility of loving and nurturing you. I want to have 3 more babies just like you!!!

Here are some things you have been doing lately:

- you are crawling REALLY fast.

- you are pulling yourself up on everything.

- you are climbing up stairs and belly flopping downstairs.

- you say "da da" and "na na" all the time...but still no "ma ma".

- you shake your head when you don't want any more solid food...and shake your head just for fun.

- you love to wave at people and backwards wave at yourself.

- you say "hi", although it sounds more like "haaaa" (are you already developing a Southern drawl?).

- you love bubbles.

- you understand what "up" means and you hold your arms out to tell us you want to be picked up.

- you love Baby Mum Mums, puffs, and diced bananas.

- you do not love vegetables of any kind (you take after your dad in this department).

- you sleep a little over half the night in your own crib and then around 4am you won't go back to sleep so we bring you in bed with us...which we secretly like since you are quite snuggly. :)

- you have a lot of hair now and it sometimes looks like a baby mullet

- you love your Gampy and Ducky's dogs (Pip, Gus Gus, Maggie and Vida (cousin Ali's dog) too). We even think we heard you say "dog" (but this might have been wishful thinking).

- you LOVE water! Bath time is your favorite and you love swimming in the pool too.

- you and your Auntie Em are twins! You look exactly like her when she was a baby.

- you loved meeting your little cousin Henry last week. He is a precious manchild.

- you still love your pacifier/binky and can't fall asleep without it.

- your favorite toys are straws, mom's keys, a tape measurer, water bottles, paper, and shoes.

- you love to take sips of water out of big people's cups, but do not like sippy cups yet.

- you love Trader Joe's banana yogurt.

- you love to watch other little kids and babies.

- you travel on airplanes REALLY well! You slept about 1/2 the flight on the flight out to Seattle and the flight back to Atlanta.

- you get really cranky if I take something away from you...you are throwing little temper tantrums already!

- you love to sit on my lap and have a book read to you before naps and bedtime.

- I love you Baby Lady.