My Baby Isn't a Baby Anymore

I guess I can no longer call Elsie "the baby". By the time Mary Grace was the age Elsie is now, Elsie had been around for about a month and I was certainly not babying her anymore! Over Christmas, we watched some video of Mary Grace's 2nd birthday. It's amazing how alike they are and hard to believe that that was just two years ago. So, here's some evidence that my baby isn't a baby anymore:

1. I gave her crayons and paper today to color while I changed clothes after work (Mary Grace was at ballet). I sat down in front of her and she drew a perfect circle on the paper with a purple crayon, pointed to it, and said, "Circle. Purple."

2. On the way home from dropping Mary Grace off at ballet, she held up her hand and said, "Boo boo." I asked her what happened. She said, "AJ push me." (AJ is a friend at Ms. Julie's)

3. I told her no about something tonight, I can't even remember what now, but it really made her mad! She pushed over a big wooden kitchen chair and ran over to me and swiped her little hand at me! Terrible Twos anyone?

4. She can tell you that her best friend is Maddie and that Maddie's sister is Lainee.

5. She can dress herself, socks and velcro shoes included. She's been able to do this for awhile.

6. She likes to sing, especially Happy Birthday. It's ususally Happy Birthday Maddie. Mary Grace sat down last night and tried to teach her Jesus Loves Me.

7. When she wants milk, she opens the refridgerator, takes the carton out (we keep it on the low door shelf), unscrews the top, and hands the carton to me and says, "Milk, Mommy."

8. Ms. Brittney (one of her caretakers at Ms. Julie's and our occassional babysitter) doesn't let her have her paci while she's at Ms. Julies and puts it away in a drawer. If you ask her what Ms. Brittney says about her "pappy", she says, "No! Drawer!" If you ask her why, she'll say "Cutz" ("Cause").

9. She insists on getting herself out of her carseat now and walking up to the front door. She also has to be the one to open the front door after I unlock it.

10. Like her big sister, she likes to sit and "read" her own books. She can remember many of the words and does a pretty good job of telling you what's on the page.

11. She can tell us what she wants now and we can ususally understand what she's asking for.

12. She can tell you who gave her what doll for Christmas. She says, for example, "Nana gave it me." She also knows that Nana gave us our new placemats that we use all the time now. "Nana gave it me," she told me tonight.

But she's still my baby and she's still sleeping in her crib. Although, her little friend Maddie broke her leg trying to jump out of her crib over Christmas. Maddie is a month younger than Elsie but a little bigger so I'm still not too worried about Elsie trying the same trick. I think she loves her bed too much!

It's hard to believe that she'll be two in less than two weeks!

The Last Day of Duck Season!

Yes, the last day of duck season is upon us! As we speak, Stephen is in Pierce County with his friends getting in one last day for the year. He left last night and they spent the night at Jay's new cabin. There was duck hunting early this morning and quail hunting this afternoon. We're looking forward to having Stephen home tonight.
The girls and I had a lazy morning. We went to the park then to the grocery store. Speaking of which, I can't go to the grocery store anymore without spending around $150 each time. And I go every week! What are we eating?! I had stocked up on meat a few weeks ago when Publix had a sale so I didn't have to buy much of that, just a little seafood for one night. But, in exchange I guess, I had to buy diapers, shampoo, lotion, toothbrushes, wipes, all that good stuff. And, of course, there were the two Tinkerbell tumblers that I picked up just to keep the girls quiet in the cart. You do what you have to sometimes!
Anyway, after the grocery store, we came home for lunch. The girls went down for a nap, I went for a run on the treadmill, and now I'm just waiting for the girls to wake up.
I thought it was going to be warmer today but it's still in the 60s. I guess that's better than the 40s we had earlier this week!

Nana's Visit

We are enjoying having Nana in St. Marys again! We had planned to drive up to Oak Island for this long weekend but chickened out at the last minute because of the cold weather up there. Nana decided to drive down here to see us instead so she's been here since Sunday afternoon. She'll be heading back to Raleigh tomorrow. At least that's the plan. The weather is not looking so promising, though. The forecast is calling for snow in NC tonight and tomorrow.
Last night, Nana babysat while Stephen and I had a nice dinner out by ourselves. Today, Nana and I took the girls to Chick fil A for lunch. They love playing on the indoor playground there. Then we went shopping at some of the little stores around St. Marys. This afternoon, we went into Florida and took some of the girls clothes to Once Upon a Child to sell. Stephen went with us and we also stopped at Gander Mountain so he could get a quail hunting cap. Quail hunting seems to be his new favorite sport. Apparently, you have to wear a bright orange hat so you don't get shot in the head. Maybe this is where Dick Cheney's hunting buddy went wrong.
We had dinner at Ops tonight and are back home. Nana has marinated a pork tenderloin for us to cook for dinner tomorrow night. She's also done the dishes! Did I mention that we're enjoying having Nana to visit?!

IT IS COLD IN SOUTH GEORGIA!

I know that those of you who live north of the gnat line are not going to have too much sympathy for us but, let me tell you, IT IS COLD IN SOUTH GEORGIA! They say that you get used to the climate you live in. Well, I guess we've already adapted to the warmer climate down here because we are not happy about upper 20s in the morning and low 50s in the afternoons! Stephen is even complaining about having to wear a jacket! You know it's bad when Stephen gripes about it.
This is the coldest weather we've had down here since 2000 or 2002, according to the weatherman. The water in the dogs' bowl was frozen this morning, I had frost on the window when I left to go to the gym last week, and we've dug out our coats that haven't seen the light of day since they were stuffed into a box in Douglasville. Even our poor dogs can't take it. They run out to go to the bathroom then run straight back inside, and if you're not waiting to open the door for them right away, they start whimpering.
Okay, God, we've had enough of Winter! Bring on our Spring! But can you keep the gnats away for a little while longer?

Dancing in the Catholic Mission Exhibit at the MOSH

Fun at the MOSH!

We decided that this cold day was the perfect time to visit the Jacksonville Museum of Science and History, also known as the "MOSH".
It was lots of fun. They even have a planetarium, so we watched a presentation on the night sky over Jacksonville. Very interesting. Much of the science portion of the museum deals with marine life so we also saw alligators, turtles, and fish. I think Stephen and I enjoyed the history part much more than the girls did. Their favorite part of that display was the Catholic mission exhibit. I would have thought that the monk would have scared them but they thought it was lots of fun to dance around that for some reason.
We had lunch at the River City Grill overlooking the St. Johns. What a beautiful setting! The St. Johns is such a pretty river.

New Day

I started back to work on Friday and we are all adjusting to the new schedule pretty well. The girls are glad to be back at Ms. Julie's with their friends and Stephen and I are both very thankful for the great and cheap health insurance I get from the county. It's just $104 per month for the entire family for health, vision, and dental. And the deductibles are very low. Nice, huh? The county is self-insured so that probably has something to do with it. On the flip side, Ms. Julie has gone up $30 per week so that was a bit of a surprise. I can't blame her, though, with the cost of everthing else going up, too.
I've already signed three warrants and will be hearing two civil cases tomorrow. I imagine I will be doing bond hearings some this week, too. It's nice to be back in the legal field. It feels familiar and I understand what I am doing, which is a big change from my time at the bank. It's also nice to only have a 20-minute drive instead of a 55-minute one!
We relaxing weekend. Rosa did all the cleaning work so we got to enjoy our two days off work! On Saturday, we went to the park. The girls played on the jungle gym and then we ate our picnic I had packed for dinner. There are some pictures of that below. The slideshow also shows Stephen and the girls "geotracking". This is a new hobby they have picked up using Stephen's new GPS device. The girls think it is very fun to hunt "treasure" this way!

Swearing In