No, It's Not Ash Wednesday

The mark you see in the middle of Grace's forehead is a nasty bruise from her first remarkable run in with a door. Unfortunately, we have 14 other doors in the house so I'm a little on edge these days.

Grace's First "Kah" (Car)

Pamela's & Penn Mac

Two of Pittsburgh's finest. Pamela's and Penn Mac aren't bad either.

Enjoying the Warm Weather

Here are a few photos of Grace horsing around with Rob and picking grass off her feet. Speaking of horses, Grace cannot get enough of this video on youtube. She screams with delight when the riders and horses are jumping.

Bye Bye Fly-Aways

A BIG thank you to Cost Cutters for Grace's new hairdo. Those little errant hairs were driving me batty. We found the shop online after reading a positive review and have to say, they lived up to the hype. Looks can be deceiving though. The store looks like a Fantastic Sams and there isn't anything kid-friendly about it...until you get in the chair with your baby. They have little smocks and every child gets a toy to keep. The stylist we had was great with Grace and for those of you who know our daughter she's not an easy child to win over.

Grace does Teppanyaki (and mochi)

For dinner, we decided to checkout a local Japanese steak and seafood restaurant in Wexford called Miyako. The teppanyaki was a big hit with Grace and provided the perfect distraction. The chef and his cooking acrobatics were spot on and the Mochi Ice Cream was oishi (delicious)!

Grace's Current Endeavors

Singing - sounds much like you do when you're singing a song and can't remember the words, but that doesn't stop you from finishing the song. Las Ruedas Del Bote is currently her favorite, although Frère Jacques is a very close second.

Getting dressed - shoes are a whole other post, Grace is perfecting the art of taking her shirts on and off. She hasn't quite figured out that taking an arm out first is key. She also loves hats. Of course, every time she dresses herself, she has to check out the outfit on one of her monkeys first.

Kissing - Grace will dole out the kisses but we're still working on puckering the lips. As of now, you get a whole lot of saliva, and occasionally plenty of teeth.

Dancing - I will post the video of her number to Michael Jackson's "Beat It" soon.

Talking - Grace is talking (and signing) more everyday and uses Spanish for common words like water. Please (peez) and agua (a-gah) are currently my favorites, but there's a bilingual vocabulary quickly developing and it's just a hop skip and a jump to ¿mamá, puedo tener las llaves del coche?

Where does the time go?

Soergel Orchards

Today we drove to Soergel Orchards for a meet-and-greet with some farm animals. Grace was intrigued but not interested in touching any of them. Fortunately, the mini old west town agreed with her, as well as, Ezra's almond butter and honey sandwich! Thanks, Ariel for providing yet another nutritious lunch for Grace.

Grace & the Penn-Pattys

Our friends John and Maggie returned to Pittsburgh over Memorial Day weekend and brought their daughter Hazel to our house over the weekend. Hazel is a little younger than Grace, and they enjoyed playing together. This mainly consisted of taking things from one another and pushing each other, which was a good warm-up for Grace's friend Ezra's visit the next day.

An Afternoon with Ezra & Ariel in Oakland