Let the Good Times Roll.....

Oh- the glorious sun has finally decided to shine here in the Pacific Northwest and we took FULL advantage of our 70-80+ degree weather!!!! We hit the beach on Thursday and Saturday and the park with boyfriend Ben before we had to take Jake to school on Friday.

I think it's official...... Grace is definitely a beach girl!! And I'd have to say one of the cutest seaweed monsters around-- thanks to her brother and friend Ryan!! (and maybe mom helped a bit too!!)
Grace is all about blowing kisses-- here is the double kiss! The other night she looked right at Mike at the dinner table and just blew him a kiss-- out of the blue!! LOVE it!
To our sweet little Ben-- we will miss him. Ben, and his family, are moving to Portland next weekend!!! :( Even though Ben would cry, or run and hide by his mom every time Grace let out one of her "endearing" shrieks, we know he has a soft spot for an outspoken little lady!! And he always gave her the sweetest kisses and hugs.

Speaking of Grace's shrieks..... it's been a LONG week or so. I'm not sure how our perfect, sweet, happiest little one turned on us... but she did!! :) She shrieks/yells if she wants something, doesn't want something, wants to be doing something else--but hasn't figured out how to crawl yet so she can't get herself there, etc...... Things have actually gotten a bit better these past few days, but consistency has been the key with her. We're constantly saying, "use your nice words", "no yelling", etc.... I have even had to remove her from the dinner table a few times for her yelling when she wanted more food...... but she's now starting to sign "more" or let out a softer little "yelp" when she wants something. But, she's definitely quite the "girl" compared to the things we dealt with with Jacob. Many more emotional outbursts/little fits these days. We've had to adjust our parenting technique.... but things seem to be getting better-- at least for the time being. We'll be dealing with "issues" with both kids FOREVER, but the first set of behaviors always seem the most shocking. As one friend said, "It looks like the honeymoon stage is finally over!!" Now don't get me wrong... Grace is still sweet and happy and just so darn cute ..... she's just starting to enter the world of being a toddler! Hold on!!!!!