Every day...

...we both learn something new.

What I learned:

I learned to take Marc Weissbluth's advice and "respect your child's need to sleep." I usually do this, but yesterday a friend came over. We had planned to go to Homeplus. I knew it wasn't the best idea since Grace hadn't had her afternoon nap yet (another friend was over before that), but I went anyway. She was too tired and found the bright lights and noises of Homeplus a little too stimulating. Luckily there is a nice nursing room there, so I was able to take some time out and calm her down before we left. Because she didn't get nearly enough sleep yesterday, she didn't sleep well last night (had me up every two hours!) and I've spent today trying to catch her up on her sleep. One of her wakings last night was painful -- up at 4:40 am, back to sleep at 7:00am. That was a first for her; usually she wakes me up, has a bite to eat and is back to sleep within minutes, no problems. So it's settled: no more outings after 3:00, especially if she doesn't have her afternoon nap. Live and learn!

What Grace learned:

Over the past two or three days, Grace has learned to grab things! I've noticed her eyeing her hands a lot lately and yesterday I saw her taking pretty smooth swipes, sometimes at things I dangled in front of her, and sometimes at the air. Today for the first time, with some intense concentration, she opened up her hand and swiped at my little finger and grabbed it. Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I put her on her rain forest gym and dangled some toys in front of her -- she did the same thing. She grabbed the giraffe's head! So cute. I must try to get this on video!