January 3, 2008

Saturday morning, and Grace and I are hanging out at the kitchen table. She's eating breakfast, which this morning is peanut butter and jelly toast and bananas. She's already said that after breakfast she's going to play some computer games. She got a couple different computer-type games for Christmas, and she also likes playing games on our laptop. She's gotten pretty good at running a mouse, and it's fun to watch her learn how to play the games.

We're still trying to figure out where to put all of Grace's Christmas presents--Santa and family were very good to her this year. To summarize, she received baby stuff, barbie stuff, polly pockets stuff, princess stuff, games and puzzles, a fancy purple princess dress, and other clothes. The amount of pink and purple around the house continues to grow. Maybe this summer we'll go ahead and paint the house pink to match everything else.

December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas to everybody! It's Christmas Eve day, and we're at home. We spent last weekend at my parents still unsold house in Clear Lake for our family Christmas. Grace had a great time playing with her cousins Logan, Emmalin, and JJ. She talks about her cousins ALL THE TIME, and she made the most of the couple days she got to spend with them. Tonight we're heading to Marcus to spend Christmas Eve with my Grandpa and Grandma Bird, and tomorrow we'll have Christmas dinner with my Grandpa and Grandma Nelson and other Nelson relatives. In betwee, of course, we'll make plenty of time for Santa's arrival at our house. Grace has recently veered off her typical Barbie and Polly Pocket course and become engrossed in playing with babies. Thus, we anticipate that Santa will arrive with numerous baby-related gifts. Then, later tomorrow we'll head for Carroll to spend a couple days with Michelle's family. All in all it will have been a great Christmas week.

December 7, 2008

We took Grace to see Santa Claus today, and that went really well. She wasn't as shy as we thought she'd be, and she managed to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas. She told him she wants a purple dress and a doll house. What was most funny was that afterward she told us she wanted to tell Santa that she wants the "Baby Alive" doll that goes "poop and pee," but she didn't want to say the words "poop and pee" to Santa. It was a pretty funny moment.

Also, we got word late last week that her power wheelchair is almost ready. We started the process of getting one back in early August, and we knew going in it would be a long process. It'll be nice to have the chair, which we'll probably have her use to get around the house. She'll continue to use her Standing Dani at school, because that's worked really well and she uses it a lot more at school than she'll use her wheelchair at home.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

It's Sunday morning, and Grace and I are sitting here together eating waffles. As usual, it's taking Grace a long time to finish her breakfast. Right now she's busy talking about the Mickey Mouse characters on her plate and counting (she's pretty proud that she's learned to count to 100). She's also currently wearing a cheerleader outfit over her jammies, something that's a pretty regular occurence on weekends around here.

We had an abbreviated Thanksgiving weekend, because Grace got sick on Thursday. On Friday we found out she had Strep Throat, so we came home early from our travels. The good news is she's doing a lot better today, and we won't be surprised if she's able to go to school tomorrow.

November 23, 2008

We've finally compiled our list of those who participated in Race 4 Grace 2008, either by riding during RAGBRAI or by contributing money to the team and FSMA. We hope to put this list on the website soon (www.race4grace.org). Our goal is to double the list in 2009, and we'd love to get as many as possible to ride in RAGBRAI 2009.

Grace is doing well. She continues to love preschool; she's learning to write letters and numbers, she can do some sign language, and she can sing a ton of songs.

Also, her wish list for Santa is already multiple pages.

November 8, 2008

Grace was all over the place this past week, because the Sioux City schools were having conferences. She got to go to Kathy's for a day (her previous daycare provider), and she also got to spend some quality time with her Grandma Colleen. She's pretty flexible, but she's also gotten to the point where she misses school if she has too long of a break from it. She must've learned about the election at preschool, because this past week she's been singing the name Barack Obama at home--pretty funny. She told me today that she was frustrated because I wasn't listening to her because I was watching basketball (game film). Funny to hear her say the word frustrated.

I just learned this past week about the guestbook on the Race 4 Grace website--thanks to those who've signed in and posted a message. Pretty cool. We always encourage you to go to www.race4grace.org for current pictures (Halloween pics were just added) and for next year's RAGBRAI info. Locations for next year's event will be released sometime in January or February. We're already looking forward to it!

November 2, 2008

Grace and her mommy had a good Halloween this year, while daddy was on the road with his basketball team. Grace was an angel this year, and she was beautiful in her costume. She had initially resisted any attempt to make her wear anything other than a queen costume, but her mom did a good sell job over the past week. They had a great night for trick-or-treating and made quite a few rounds. We'll get pictures on the website as soon as we can figure out how.

I've decided over the past few weeks that Grace is the most popular girl in her class at preschool. Every morning when we get there all the kids say hi to her and ask her to play with them. I think they've really accepted her and have taken to helping her out with certain needs, such as getting toys and things for her when she's not in her Dani. That makes us feel really good, and we hope that she'll continue to do well socially as she gets older.