We've been busy

Lots of happenings in the Gore household lately. We're busy living life to its fullest, which means we are here, we are there, we are everywhere. This summer weather has gotten me very inspired to dust (literally) off the stroller and head outside daily for a walk of some sort. We usually cruise the neighborhood but occasionally head to someplace more exciting.

Grace loves it. She loves cruising around, usually with her sippy cup and graham cracker in hand. I think she feels like a 'big girl' when she feeds herself in the stroller.

Since Grace is a total animal lover, we decided to get a zoo membership. This thing has nearly paid for itself already. We've been twice this week so far and the week isn't over yet. She LOVES the animals. Her favorite animals so far are the giant fish, the monkeys and the elephants. She spends the entire time yelling at the top of her lungs at these creatures who, thankfully, are behind really thick glass and don't seem to mind her yelling. She is also equally as interested in the 'big kids' roaming the zoo. I can see the wheels turning in her head...."so that's what those legs are used for. How do they go so fast on their legs? I need to learn how to do that." So far, it's a toss up as to whether she's more interested in the big kids or the animals....or her graham cracker.

Here are a few shots from our trip this morning with my friend Dima and her son who is Grace's age.


Checking out the fish in the Amazon Rainforest area.

This picture was taken this morning before our zoo visit. You can see she's getting in the mood for animals with her giant panda, Fred. (compliments of her Uncle Brian.)

Random shot from one of our walks. I played around w/the color, etc. Kind of fun, so I thought I'd post.

Aside from the zoo visits this week, we have also been enjoying a few backyard pool parties. I finally got her a kiddy pool a few weeks ago. She loves it. I do fill it up with 1/2 hot tap water and 1/2 water from the hose so it isn't too cold. Kind of like her own personal hot tub.

I had the hardest time finding a pool small enough for her. I went EVERYWHERE and it seemed the smallest hard shell pools they had were about 5 feet in diameter. My 30" kid doesn't need an olympic size pool, so I finally found this cute little 36" diameter pool for her...at PetSmart.

That's right peeps, my kid swims in a puppy pool.

Hey, it works.

Here she is enjoying some with with my friend Joanne's daughter KK. She was enamored by KK and loved spending time with her 'big girl' friend. I can completely see the benefit to having more than 1 kid. Just having KK around was sheer entertainment for Grace and Joanne and I could actually eat lunch while the girls played on a blanket in the back yard. YESSSSSS!

Grace just as happy as a little clam after a walk around the 'hood. I'm thrilled just to get out and get some exercise in beautiful sunny weather!

Here's our attempt at a family photo. My sister snapped this one in our backyard when she came thru town for a quick visit. We look a little worse for the wear, but we're all looking at the camera....a rare thing, indeed.

In other news, Grace STILL is not crawling. That's right folks 10 1/2 months and no crawling, or even an interest in crawling. I was totally stressed about that, thinking I'd have a 2 year old who didn't move (I can see that having both pros and cons :-) Anyway, I'm done stressing about it because I'm convinced she's skipping the whole crawling thing all together.

She's obsessed with standing, starting to cruise on the furniture and walks everywhere while holding onto my fingers. My back is killing me from spending hours a day hunched over walking Grace around the yard, around the kitchen, around the family room, to the mailbox. But, she's getting much better at it. I can tell it won't be long till she's up and running. Then I'll miss the day when I could find her in exactly the place I left her.

Here she is playing her new favorite game...take the magnets off the fridge and wait for mommy to put them back on....only to rip them off again and throw them on the floor.

Apparently that's fun when your 10 months old. Whatever. She isn't crying so it works for me!