Stats

It seems cruel to celebrate kids' birthdays and other milestones by poking them with needles. Grace turned two on Tuesday, then went to the doctor on Wednesday for two shots. Miles celebrated his fourth month by getting two shots as well. What sort of associations will these poor children have with birthdays?

The fun part of their checkups is finding out how much they've grown. Wow, have they grown. Here are the latest stats:

Grace
37 1/2 inches tall (3 foot 1 1/2)
27 1/2 pounds

Miles
28 inches tall (2 foot 4)
22 1/2 pounds

We'd just like to point out, so that you can sympathize with us and our aching backs, that Miles is only five pounds lighter than Grace. They wear the same size diapers, for heavens' sake. We're sure he'll lose a little pudge once he starts crawling and getting more active, but for now he's above the 99th percentile for both weight and height (and so is Grace for height). Should we start funding an account now for the grocery bills we'll have when Miles is a teenager?

Grace is Two!

So our gorgeous girl was born two years ago yesterday. As I sit at the table, finishing my lunch and blogging, I hear her flopping and bouncing around on her "new big bed" (a regular twin size bed), having conversations with her lambies, singing Kumbaya at the top of her lungs, and reading Dear Zoo aloud. Grace is so full of life, so silly, so energetic, so smart, and so beautiful. If I was going to be mother to any little girl, I am so thankful that it's this one.

Grace is more likely to be playing with Legos than dolls, books than dress up, but Mr. Potato Head is her absolute favorite toy. So for her birthday she'll be getting his wife -- yes, they make a Mrs. Potato Head, and she comes with about 40 different options for eyes, lips, earrings, hats, purses, etc. Should be fun!

Mr. Potato Head may be Grace's favorite toy, but her favorite idea is bicycles. When we walk to our mailbox, we pass several homes with young children, and each has a number of bicycles or tricycles in the yard. We've told Grace that she can't ride them or sit on them because they're not hers ("Not ours bicycle," is her phrase) but that doesn't keep her from touching them. She knows the seat, wheels, handles, pedals, and helmet. Imagine how excited she's going to be when she sees her red Radio Flyer tricycle and helmet. We're pretty sure she doesn't know how to pedal, but for now I think she'll be satisfied just to sit on the trike.

Of course, at two, she has no clue what a birthday is, although she can say, "Happy Birthday," and will probably be saying it for the next two weeks. But we hope she knows how much we love her and how glad we are that she was born!

This Weekend with Grace

Well, to be honest, this post should really be titled A Few Weekends Ago with Grace, but that seemed like too obvious an admission of blogging negligence.

Grace has been very busy lately, and here are two of her favorite activities of a few weekends ago. (She'd love to do them again anytime her mother will let her.) First, we went to the Imagine Children's Museum in downtown Everett. What an amazing place! For anyone living nearby, I highly recommend it. Grace was literally running in circles trying to figure out what to do first. Thankfully, my parents, known to her as Mum-mum and Dad-dad, were along for the trip and helped keep her in sight and out of trouble.





Then there was the soap bubble splashing. This is a girl who loves -- absolutely adores -- water, and if it has soap bubbles in it, all the better. I filled a big bowl with soapy water, set it in the kitchen sink (which I absolutely adore, but I'll save that story for another post), pulled up a chair and Grace's sleeves, and let her go to town. The final shot of the day reminded me of one of the Junie B. Jones books by Barbara Park (I can't recall which one) in which Junie B. is trying to be a sophisticated lady in the bathtub, but can't resist just being her five-year-old self and dabbing bubbles on her face. "Sophisticated ladies wear bubble beards," she insists. Ha. I don't know about that, but silly little girls do, and Grace's silliness is one of the things I like best about her.

This Weekend With Miles

It was a good weekend at the Lipsey home. Lots of napping and lots of yummy food. Miles took part in the napping, and will have to wait on the yummy food until he has teeth. But he still had a great weekend. There was

lunch with Grace



watching the bunnies in the backyard



snuggling with a burpcloth



and hanging out with mommy



and daddy

Next post, This Weekend With Grace.

What Grace Likes These Days

Other than playing in the rain, Grace has lots of favorite things these days -- playing with Mr. Potato Head ("P Head" or "Pato Head"), singing and doing the motions to The Wheels on the Bus, splashing with water and soap bubbles in the bath or in the sink, and putting pretty much anything on her head and announcing, "Hat!" She also likes

pretty flowers



helping me bake cookies
(she knows the routine -- first we put our aprons on, then I pull over a chair and put her on it, then apparently I always say, "We need...")





playing in the sand




a trip to starbucks



spraying herself in the face

This is a girl who loves life and laughs a lot. And although there's the occasional defiance (followed by her saying, "Obey") and we're working on curbing her whiny moments, we're also laughing a lot and enjoying this stage of her life.

Happy Three Month Birthday!

Miles is three months old today.

Overall, the time has flown, although sometimes at 2:00am it felt like it dragged interminably. But our happy boy is now over 15 pounds and 25 inches (in the 95th percentile on both).

He smiles regularly and just started laughing last week. We now smile regularly too because he's sleeping 8-9 hours at night.

His naps during the day aren't always consistent, but there's a definite pattern developing, which is so helpful in planning our days. Miles has long curly eyelashes, hair all over his head (rather than the male pattern baldness of his early days), and dimples. He's discovered his fists and likes to hold them in a "put up your dukes" sort of pose.

And he's already working on rolling over -- he likes to sleep on his tummy, so he gets regular exercise of his neck, shoulders, and arms. We're going to have to get back to exercise ourselves just to keep up with this one...

What To Do on a Rainy Day

June in the Seattle area is not summery. Well, it's seldom enough summery that one can reasonably make that kind of sweeping statement. Regardless, this June, all two days of it so far, has not been summery. It's been rainy and windy. So what to do with a toddler who really just wants to go outside? Let her go. Miles and I will stay inside and watch from a warm, cozy chair.

Grace picked out the green hair clip this morning. It clashed with her outfit, but how did she know it would match the freshly watered grass?

She kept saying, "Raining a lot," or, more accurately, "Ray yah."

Notice the "girls will be jealous" length of Miles' eyelashes -- he just grew these in the last two weeks.