Save the Babies!!!

Yesterday morning while I was working, I kept noticing this Robin sitting in the grass right outside my window. She was there all morning long. And I thought to myself, how strange that this bird is sitting in the grass so long..... and then I noticed what looked like a nest next to her.


I went outside for a closer look, and there were babies lying in the grass next to the Mama bird. I was really in a panic when I saw the poor babies. You can ask Matt. He must have thought I had completely lost my mind when I called him asking how to save these babies.

Anyway, I called the Chattahoochee Wildlife Preserve and asked them what to do. They will only rescue birds of prey, so you're on your own with 'song birds'. But Norma was nice enough to tell me that I should pick them up and put them back in their nest and up in a tree off the ground. I thought if you touched a baby bird, the Mother wouldn't come back. But she said that was an old wives tale.

So I marched out there, put on my gardening gloves and put the little babies back in their nest. And put the nest up in the Magnolia tree. One of the babies didn't make it though. There were 3 total, that I found.

And then I worried all day long that the Mama wouldn't come back. I kept seeing her, and I suspect the Daddy, in the grass near where the nest had fallen. It looked like they couldn't figure out where the kids were.

This is like my own personal Bird Soap Opera.

When Matt and Grace came home, I took them outside and showed them the babies. And the one that didn't make it was moved from where I had last seen it and GONE this morning. Suspiciously, Gabby (the neighborhood stray cat) was hanging around all afternoon.

I kept checking back all evening to see if I could see the babies, if they were still breathing and if the Mama had found them. Finally, just as the sun was setting, I saw her in the nest. I was soooo excited.

So this morning, I of course, checked first thing on my baby birds. They were still there, still breathing, and sounded HUNGRY!

And guess what! Mama brought breakfast.


The nest is probably not in the best place, and the little babies are getting quite big, and the nest keeps tipping. One baby fell out this morning and had to be rescued again. And I've already had to reposition the nest twice to keep them from falling out again. It's like having 3 kids, I tell ya!! I might have to move my desk so I can actually get some work done around here. :)

Christmas in July

Guess who found the Santa hat!

Cutest Pirates....EVER

A shot from dinner out with the Hall's in Savannah at The Pirate's House.


I think Grace just told Natalie to walk the plank in this picture...... and you can tell from Natalie's expression, she's less then impressed with the suggestion! She's like..."girrrrrl, I'm not going to let you ride in my cool bus with a slide attached when we get home if you don't recognize!"

They made up, obviously....

Grace's Space

We got Grace her own table and chairs for the kitchen, so she can eat her snacks or color while we're cooking in the kitchen.


Do you think she likes it?

18 Month Stats

Weight: 26 lbs. 1 oz. - 75th percentile
Height: 33 1/4 inches - 90th percentile
Head: 48 1/2 cm. - 90-95th percentile

I'm sure I'm the only one who will notice this, but her head ONLY grew 3/8 of a centimeter in 3 months. Actually, all her numbers were only slightly up this time. I guess we're slowing down. Poor thing got 3 shots today. But got to go run them off at water day at school. Hope she's having a blast!

18 Months Old!

The last year and a half has flown by. And our baby......


is turning into a little girl.


Our doctor appointment is tomorrow, so stayed tuned for some stats. But we're comfortably in 18 month wear, so I think we're where we should be.

So some things about Grace these days:

1. Eating/drinking - Not sure how much milk we intake daily. Some days she sucks down almost two whole glasses for breakfast, and some days she has what seems like drops (today was one of those days). Hard to tell about lunch consumption, because she's mostly at school, but dinner is usually most of her glass. But I try not to worry about it too much because she gets her dairy from other sources. We have yogurt almost every morning during the week. I got fed up with my options in the store and have been making my own. It's just plain, but we usually add some apple sauce to it for her. She's also a cheese lover. Grace does pretty good with most every food we've let her try - she eats what we eat, so it's a pretty broad spectrum of options. The only thing that she seems to regularly NOT eat is her fruit at school. And I think we experience the normal toddler picky eating behavior. Some days she eats a ton, some days hardly anything. Some days things she loves just don't appeal to her. Some days she just can't get enough.

2. Continues to sleep so well. With her bunnies. We had one night recently where she was up off and on all night, but we really couldn't attribute it to anything. But those nights (and the next day) are rough on all of us since we are so used to getting a decent nights sleep.

3. Lots of words. She can say her name when you ask her to "say Grace". It sounds like Geese, though. I think still has the same number of signs as last month: more, please, thank you, all done, milk, and the makings of i love you. We try to remember to say a blessing before dinner, and she puts her hands together like she's praying, and watches us, and when we say Amen, she says MEN, with such a proud look on her face. Also knows that her dogs name is Beau.

4. Some hitting and biting going on. Mommy seems to be taking the brunt of the beatings. Trying to reinforce that we touch gently and we don't hit or bite. Lots of redirection going on. Lots of hugs and kisses to reinforce the point. And thankfully, they say she's a big hugger and kisser at school.

5. Attitude.

If this picture doesn't say attitude...... wooo.....

I don't think we've experienced a real temper tantrum yet. But we've had some serious melt downs. Like last night. We were putting the finishing touches on dinner, and I had walked in the other room with Grace, and she just melted down. Hysterical. Hit me, so I put her in a chair to maybe attempt a "time out". Ha. She nearly catapulted herself out of the chair on her head in hysterics. So I tried to sit her on the floor, and she just stood up and launched herself onto me. I picked her up, she screamed more. I put her down, she screamed louder. It was a no win. And if I tried to walk away from her, she was hanging onto my legs screaming/crying. In the end, I think/hope/pray that she was really just so very hungry. We went in the kitchen, had a noodle out of the pot, and it was a constant string of 'more more more'. And when we sat down at the table she gobbled almost every last bite of food off her plate and was pleasantly delightful for the rest of the evening. What we have experienced thus far can be attributed to being hungry or tired, I think.

6. Grace has no fear in or around water. Had a wonderful time at the beach, loved the sprayground, and is enjoying weekly trips to the pool.

And this just in..... I will not even honor it with it's own post because I know it was a fluke. I know it will be a long time before it happens again. I know she's not ready. But tonight, while I was running Grace's bath, I put her on the potty. And she PEE PEE in the POTTY! WOOT WOOT!! We have been having accidents before and after bath time, and every once in a while I'll sit her on it and talk to her about it. But tonight. Tonight. She DID IT!!!!

Fun at the Sprayground

Tonight we went up to the Sprayground after church. That's a water park playground. What a great idea, right?

Grace loved it! She also loved trying to drink all that water!! And she did really well around all the big, wild kids. Or should I say, they did really well around all the babies. Well be back soon.

There were so many good shots, I made an album of all the pictures. And for whatever reason, blogger is loading them sideways....... so go here to view all the pictures: Roswell Sprayground
A couple of videos:







We finished off the evening with a picnic dinner and some swinging.

And a very tired little girl who I have never seen yawn so big!

Vacation

We were down on Amelia Island for the 4th this year visiting with Granny and Grandpa Alley. We decided to keep Grace up for the fireworks, and she loved it! The noise didn't bother her at all, and she enjoyed watching the fireworks up in the sky, as well as hamming it up for all of the people sitting around us in the little park on Ash Street. We need to remember that spot for future shows.

We spent a few days at the beach, and Grace had no fear. She loved running down to the waters' edge and letting the waves crash into her. The first day, she would lose her balance at the tiniest wave. But the second day, she was steady on her feet. And couldn't get enough.




Grace also loved the sand. Thankfully.



I've seen/heard of babies not liking the sand. What a nightmare that would be in the world's largest sandbox.


We also went to the Jacksonville Zoo one day. The zoo was really quite impressive - if I've been before (can't remember), it has changed. They have a giraffe exhibit where you can feed them. Our girl fell asleep right as we got to it. Oh well. Next time.


She loved the open air bird aviary exhibit and had no fear chasing and get close to the birds.


The zoo also had a baby chimp. So cute!!

We finished our trip with an afternoon, overnight, and morning in Savannah. We took a trolley tour of the city, and then had dinner with the Halls. Grace loves Natalie (Na Nee, as she calls her). The girls played and bathed together. Then the next morning, as they were off to work and school, we went down and explored some more of the city.

And we heard about Na Nee all day long, even the whole way home.....

We finished up with a detour home through Louisville, GA. I've been wanting to check out this quaint little town for forever - a co-worker of mine has opened an Art Gallery there. Everything was closed. :(