As the baby parade continues among the Fuchster clan (Grace’s sister is due January 11), Grace finds herself spending more and more time at church. Grace’s Great Grandma has set a high bar for church behavior so Grace decided to butter up early during her cousin Bette’s Baptism:
Grace is, however, social by nature and couldn’t resist letting everyone in the pews behind her know that she’s available to hear confessions later:
After the actual Baptism, which Grace’s dad somehow failed to take a picture of, Grace and her cousins decended on the grandparents:
Here she holds her cousin Ted’s hand for moral support during a barrage of photos:
And nothing quite rounds out a religious event like posing with your Aunt Karen or stealthily trying to poke your cousin Anna in the face:
Although this next picture has nothing to do with the Baptism, Grace did want to remind any of our visitors this winter that 1) yes, our apartment is 90 degrees at all times, so dress accordingly and 2) if anyone viewing this site hasn’t seen Grace’s dad in a while and thought perhaps that he may have aged gracefully, they would be wrong:
Perhaps next year, Grace’s dad can be thankful for not forgetting to take one single picture on Thanksgiving - but that’s unlikely. So this posting begins on “Black Friday” a day that, surprisingly, did not begin at 12:01 a.m. for Grace & Co. outside the door of a WalMart or Best Buy - I guess we’re just not in the proper holiday spirit. Not wishing to be seen as a traitor however, Grace decided to at least wear a red shirt and celebrate another over-commercialized holiday: Valentine’s Day.
Thanks to apparent global warming, Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania has a certain summer feel:
Holidays are never complete without group shots in which at least 40% of the people in the photo are looking the wrong way:
Being one of the lighter people in a family gathering gets you airborne (courtesy of Grandma), played with (there’s nothing quite like a game of full contact patty cake), and obligates you to wear one of the eight party hats that come in a package (in honor of Grace’s Grandma’s birthday):
Thanksgiving was also an educational experience for Grace as she learned to imitate her 3-year-old cousin Anna’s every move (including candle blowing and cake eating):
And finally, no post-Thanksgiving celebration is complete without a local parade in which your Aunt Mary plays trombone and Santa Claus hands out Halloween Candy:
Now that Grace is a little older (18 months today), her presence is requested at a few more parties than when she was younger. Recently she had a chance to celebrate the 3rd birthday of “the Bob’s” (her friends Dylan and Marley), although I think the indoor playground made it easy for Grace to forget that there were other kids in the room.
Here she is hamming it up in “the cage” (hopefully she doesn’t enjoy the “behind bars” feeling too much):
Her ability to “work a wall tile” is what gets her invited back to parties:
And nothing quite endears you to a bunch of 3-year-olds like being the person who seems to take an eternity to go up and down the slide:
When everything was over, and despite her Dad’s attempts to distract her, Grace unwound from the party by sidling up to her mom and burying her nose in T’Choupi - her new favorite French kids book.
It’s a little strange to say “2nd annual” anything when it comes to Grace (considering she’s six months away from turning 2), but this weekend, Grace was able to lure her Uncle John and Aunt Linda up to NYC to join her as she checked out the Chocolate Show for the second time. Fortunately, Linda also brought her camera:
Even Grace had a breaking point when it came to endless Chocolate, and dove into an “apple” (she calls any fruit that’s crunchy and roundish an “apple”) when she got home:
Grace came to a fork in the road near the eastern end of Long Island - and she chose to go right in the middle, and spend the weekend on Shelter Island - with Catherine and Steve, friends of Grace’s dad. The brief fall trip outside of the City gave Grace a chance to see a little bit more of nature, and a little more of the Long Island Expressway. Here she is, sampling the local cider selection and selecting a pumpkin during a stop at a farmer’s market on the north fork - after which she decided to claim some other kid’s toy and take it for a spin on the market’s back patio (how very Long Island of her).
Once we arrived on Shelter Island, Grace was reaquainted with her friend Andrew who did an interpretive dance for her and then showed her the video of it:
