Paging Dr. Lee.....Dr. Lee.

Happy Birthday Tay!

We wanted to wish "Tay" or Katie (Todd's sister)

A

Very

Happy Birthday!

***Uummmm...does she look really grown up to y'all in these pictures? Because she sure does to me! It must be the hair bow.***

Dirt Dog

We went to Prince Edward Island while my friend Ashlee, her husband Travis, and their cute little boy Campbell were here visiting (slide show to be posted soon).

We got to drive on the Confederation Bridge which is a curved, 12.9 kilometer (8 mile) long bridge and is the longest bridge in the world crossing ice-covered water (in the winter). It took four years to construct using crews of more than five thousand local workers and cost one billion dollars to build. There's a $42.50 toll when you leave the island.

PEI is known for their mussels, potatoes and red dirt. I got Gracie this cute white hoodie from Dirt Dog. With all the red dirt on the island - they say that there are NO white dogs on PEI! HA!

Spice Girl

Here's Baby Spice.

This child is forever pulling things out of drawers...whether it's the tupperware cabinet or the desk junk drawer or the DVD basket or my makeup and hair things from the bathroom cabinets. She loves exploring around the house (and I don't mind - I just clean from one mess to the next). The drawer of choice these days is the spices! And she's quite good at twisting the caps off and pouring or shaking the spices into one of the pots she's pulled out of the pot drawer. She's our own Emril - "kick it up a notch" G!

Todd has called her "Pepper" from day 1!

She has lived up to her nickname

(which is what my Grandpa Jack called my Mom).

Company Picnic

On Saturday we went to Rockwood Park for Todd's company family picnic. Despite the foggy, misty, kinda chilly day (typical Saint John weather)...we had a nice time. Hot dogs, potato chips, cookies, and juice boxes! And guess who absolutely LOVED the jump castle. She kept repeating "Wha-Oooo"... I love my mini-me!

Umm...please check out her bow! I love that I can "fix" her hair now! And the pictures aren't blurry - it's the fog!

18 month check-up

We drove up to Moncton on Aug. 19th for Gracie's 18 month well-baby check up appointment. As you know, Canada has socialized medicine; for the most part, I don't have any complaints about the healthcare system or the care that we've received. The main issue in our province (we live in New Brunswick) is a lack of physicians. Some of our friends from the States are on a wait list to get a family doctor and some never were never assigned one while they were here --- for 4 years. We, however, got lucky! After Gracie was born, the family practice doctor on call that weekend that assessed Gracie was nice enough to accept us into her practice. (Initially, she said her practice was full and she checked with a few other doctors who were also at their limit for patients...but she agreed to add us anyway...I think it's because she liked me - and because I'm a nurse!).

So, because it's so difficult to get a family doctor and to keep continuity of care we've kept going to our doctor in Moncton even though we live 90 minutes away. We usually make a day of it and after her appointment we met up with friends at the park or go shopping.

Gracie had a great check-up! She's a healthy girl and doing everything she needs to be doing at 18 months. She also got her immunizations. Americans usually say "shots" but I've noticed that Canadians say "needles". Either way...Gracie didn't like 'em.

She loved sitting on the scale.

(She doesn't get that from me!)

She weighs 26 lbs. 12 ounces (75th %) &

is 35 1/4 inches long (>95th %)

She's really good about taking her

binky out when we ask her to for pictures.

Uh oh!!!!

Why is the nurse coming in here?

Awwahh! Such a sad pouty face.

She knows what's coming next....3 needles!

She cried with each injection but really recovered well. However, this was the first time after the immunizations that she got a fever and was pretty grumpy. Poor baby!!! She's had all of these immunizations before but in different combinations. This round included almost all of them all at once... Pneumococcal, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Polio, Influenza Type B, and MMR. While I know immunizations are important and I absolutely agree that they are necessary, I just wish that the schedule was different - not that I have any scientific basis for my opinion - I just think it's a lot for a little person in a very short period of time.

Mispec Beach

Todd and I keep talking about how we want to make sure we see as much as we can while we're here. The Maritimes (the nickname used for the provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia) are beautiful.

A few weekends ago we checked out Mispec Beach....it's a nice, small beach near Saint John but holy moly the water was cold!

WOWZERS!!!

I could barely stand to be ALL the WAY up to my ankles in that water...

Thank goodness Gracie wasn't too interested in playing in that freezing cold Bay of Fundy water!

1st Pony Tail

She finally has enough hair and I finally got to fix it (well, sort of) and she FINALLY kept it in her hair.

I think she might have a few little curls!

Checking herself out in the backseat mirror.

Just Being Cute

Yep, I got her to wear flip flops!!!

Canadian Summer - Part 2

Canadian Summer - Part 1