No months of Grace's parents

So it happened. We had a baby and she became our world. Now it's all about her, and rightly so. But we're going to pretend like you're all interested in some updates about Grace's parents. We're both smiling and jabbering and growing out of our clothes just like Grace, but we're also doing other things too.

Aleisha

I, for one, am obviously not doing that 10-day health challenge anymore that I wrote about...52 days ago. The summary with that goes thusly:

I got tired of taking pictures of food I mostly didn't like.

It  was, however, a great kickstart back into working out as I could just do different workouts (T25, P90X, 21 Day Fix, Insanity, etc) here in the apartment (because our neighbor below us moved out. Otherwise....I still probably would have done it haha). I was reminded of and introduced to some excellent and more healthy snack substitutes to finger-fulls of frosting. Such substitutes include:

• apples and almond butter
• bell peppers and hummus
• cottage cheese and nothing
• peanut butter and honey rolled up on a tortilla

That last one is just my favorite snack that I've eaten all my life and will never give up. In recent years it has been a 100% whole wheat tortilla, so calm down.

Speaking of getting back into working out...I'm really not working out. I actually went in to see a doctor this past Monday and was told (2nd time in the past 2 years) that I have IT Band Syndrome and need physical therapy. Don't know what exactly caused it or why it caused it when it did. It didn't really hinder me during pregnancy because I didn't try to run much, but now that I'm wanting to get back into running (I was never a "runner" per se, but I ran a little, yo), it's very apparent that my first bout of PT did not do the trick. So I'm a little discouraged and a little muffin-toppy, but no matter....no matter.

I am in my summer semester of clincials with SLCC's Diagnostic Medical Sonography program, or shall we call it "ultrasound school?" In August I will be halfway done! And oh yeah, back in March the week before Grace was born I passed the physics portion of my ultrasound board exams!! I am learning SO much and loving it SO much. It brings out my inner nerd when I talk about anatomy all day and get so jazzed to see patients with such photographic liver vessels. I am doing two online classes in addition to clinicals, so no physical class time, and I only have to do 16 hours of clinicals per week to stay on track of my hours. It's flexible though, and my lovely mother-in-law watches Gracie baby while I am away checking for goiters on people's thyroids. 

Other than that I started a book club this year that is A) massive (we hit a record of 7 people last month!) and B) further evidence of my inner nerdiness. It has gotten me really excited to have friends over once a month for treats and book discussions. Goodreads is becoming my new Facebook and I frequent the library....frequently. (Anyone reading this can join via Facebook or physical presence at an upcoming book club meeting.) 

I am busy practicing the piano for the choir, gawking at everything on Food Network, LOVING the summer weather and walks with hubby and baby, and tripping over furniture.

James

James is a busy bee with a longer lifespan than an actual bee. He started up a tutoring program in our ward this past semester and it really helped some kids out. He was called as the ward executive secretary at the beginning of the year and so he spends Tues evenings hanging with the Bishop Rick (more commonly known as bishopric) and meeting people in the ward. He's always busy scheduling appointments and also serves as the ward choir pianist's babysitter, so instead of coming to choir with me, he spends some quality time with his girl Grace.

James is the awesomest of all the awesomes. Let me tell you a little something about J Frank. He is spectacular about setting goals and following through with them. Anyone who knows him knows this. And that is why he has accomplished so much in his life. Here are two of his current goals (in my words, of course):

• Run. He just wants to run more, run harder, faster, be in better shape, spend some more time enjoying the summer weather, etc, and he's totally making it happen. He has his week of workouts planned out and he gets up early each morning and runs. Sometimes 3 miles, sometimes 10. Always sweaty. I told him the other day I wish this increase his physical fitness would automatically increase my physical fitness the way an increase in his income affects us both equally. Alas.
• Rock MBA applications. (These are definitely not his words). He is also on a schedule dedicated to applying for business school this fall. He's revamping his resume, brainstorming and writing essays, and doing all sorts of research on the schools he's interested in. It will be many months until applications are over and even more months until we know where we'll be moving next fall, but that's okay. We'll just continue to love Draper while we wait.

The dos of us

We have done lots of fun things together since I last wrote about US, but I will only tell you about them if I have a picture of the event, because I'm tired of using so many words.

Oh dang, all I have are pictures of Grace.

The tres of us

Three months of Grace

I feel like Grace has been three months ever since she hit two months, because she's been wearing almost exclusively 3-month clothes. But it is official; today she is three months old!

Some things you should know about 3-month-old Grace:

• While she is not the most smiley baby, she is giving a LOT more smiles these days, especially in the morning, and especially to men.
• She sucks on her hands and fingers constantly
• She licks her right arm during tummy time when she needs to give her noggin a rest
• She jabbers like crazy, especially during tummy time
• She wants so badly to talk and is very interactive and observant when people are talking to her
• She gets excited and is trying to laugh, although for now it mostly sounds like breathlessness accompanied by arms and legs wildly akimbo
• She is calmed down by being in a sitting or standing position
• She's a great sleeper. To celebrate her 3-mo-mark she slept 10 hours!
• She can hold her head up really well
• She's increasingly more social and wants to be where the people are
• She seems to like music and when people dance with her
• She is very attentive to the TV (not sure how much I like that)
• She is grabbing, holding, and taste-testing the different fabrics of her blankets and spit rags
• She still likes us to hold the binky in her mouth and will hold our hands and fingers as we do
• She always wants her carseat cover open so she can observe everything
• She is is so expressive
• She is still a major spitter and it looks like she probably has eczema
• Her fake sneezes have gotten increasingly more hilarious, almost like she's doing it for her own entertainment
• Although it seemed impossible, she just keeps getting cuter.

We love our tiny Grace face!