put a pillow behind your back

get comfortable cause you're in for a long update today. When I go a week or so without updating, the pictures just pile up. And I just don't have the heart to leave any out. So, here we are.

Little Gracie Loo Hoo is quite the mobile daisy. I think last update she was just starting to bounce and do the downward dog position. She's crawling and standing and cruising now. There is no sitting still for this one...pretty much ever again.

I took these pictures on august 6 so we'll see some progress before this post is through. Here she's using objects to stand up. She pretty much started, learned and mastered all in a matter of a couple days. I'd say she pulled up for the first time around August 1st. She was standing and pulling herself up about a week before she truly crawled.

I was trying to change the sheets on her matress, and instead ended up sitting on the floor taking pictures of the kids for....a while.

This is one of her fave toys right now. Grammy gave it to baby Levi four years ago and now it's passed on to the sis. It took her about a day to realize she needed to push the green button to make the music play. If she pushes the button today, she dances.

I just love her face in this picture. She's thinking, "sigh. Isn't my big brother great?"

And now she and Charlie are thinking the same thing. Levi has quite the fan club.

This was Levi's reward for his traumatic experience going to the ER earlier this month. Your head bleeds...you get a costume. Congratulations, Bumble Bee.

They start out so young now. Don't worry, she doesn't know how to use a straw yet.

Maybe I should try to sell it to StarBucks though

This was a fun afternoon. An empty box becomes a go-cart.

I got a pretty good tummy work out pushing these two around the kitchen that day. They're quite cute. When Levi saw this picture he said, "Wait! Why does Gracie have four hands?"

Nathan finally got to come home. After two months of no papa, Levi took him any way he could. That first day Nathan was exhausted from working crazy hours to finish out the deployment. But Levi just kept playing with him even if he was asleep.

It's crazy, two months isn't excessively long, but Gracie was so much different when he left. She couldn't even sit up unsupported when he left. Then the day he got home (aug 8th) she officially started crawling.

These are photos from the first time I went into Gracie's room after a nap to find her standing in her crib. I remember the same thing happening with Levi one day 4 years ago, so I knew I needed to capture the same poses. With Levi it was the first time I'd ever seen him pull himself up. Not so with Gracie, but still fun.

She looks so proud of herself, which I think she is. She also looks like she's thanking God for the triumph.

One day I had to rearrange some of my books on the bookshelf, thus I had a few piles of books on the floor. Levi was inspired to pick out a few and have a story time...with his cowboy hat.

And in reference to the face he's making; all I'm gonna say is, I've seen the exact look from Grammy.

He had some pretty strict rules about photography during his story time...

Bella girl had to read a mama book too, naturally.

Each evening, it was pretty exciting for the kids when Nathan got home from work. This progression of pictures is funny to me. I think Levi and Nathan are playing a computer game and Gracie's position has to be changed a bit.

I like Nathan and Levi's excited expressions here. Must have been an intense game.

If she can't press the keys then she'll pinch the ears. She's not picky.

I think she was happy with the end result.

This photo is funny because Nathan is taking apart our coffee table and putting it away for a while because it's like a "boo boo" station for Gracie right now. So, naturally, while he's working on it, she mossies over to have a look.

Just some silly play with papa, making up for time apart.

This is our neighbor and Levi's new friend, Amiah. She and Levi yell to each other across the distance when they're both outside playing. The other day, we were in the front yard, so Levi was able to go up to her fence and "play" with her.

Eventually I had to go knock on their door because the two of them worked together and loosened a few fence posts. Amiah was on the outside running up and down the sidewalk with Levi. But then I met her mom, and we decided to set up a time to let them play.

This is what Gracie and I do while they play. After the first night that they played together, we put Levi to bed while crying, "I want my girlfriend!" I don't know how he knows that term, but I did tell him that she is really just his friend.

Another picture of Gracie's progression with standing. She's a pro at this point. She just crawls half the day, and stands the other half. She's starting to pick up her feet like she wants to climb. And she cruises around a little bit while holding onto tables and couches. I think she'd appreciate a little walker toy any day now. She seems right on track to walk just as early as Levi did.

The two of them play a lot, of course. Levi is realizing that Gracie is gonna invade his world, though. Now that she's mobile she wants his toys and his space. And she has decided to let out pretty big cries if he tries to take a toy or mess with her unjustly. So, he's adjusting to this new Gracie. ;) But, I keep telling him, she's gonna be the little girl he's always wanting to play with him soon.

Don't worry though, she's still completely enamored of Levi. All he has to do is look her way and she's a fit of giggles and smiles.

I'll end the post showing off some close ups of my cute people. Her eye color is still a little bit mysterious. And look at those eyebrows. That girl will have to learn to pluck at young age! Or else Auntie Vera might pin her down and do it for her. For any who don't know, I say that because that is exactly what Vera did to me when I was a young teen.

And look at those eyebrows! Geesh! You know where they get it....

From this guy, right here. I'll have to be the one keeping him from looking like a crazy old man with catipillar eyebrows when we're old.