Day of Grace

This week, I'm in Ohio visiting my family. When I come home, in many ways, things are still very much the same as they were when I lived here (although it's been 8 years since I moved to Colorado). On the other hand, some things have definitely changed. My parents still have one of our cats, Smokey. She's 16 now! Her brother, Bandit, died 2 years ago, though. Since my brother is now temporarily living with my parents, there is also a dog at our home, which hasn't been the case since I was 5. Sampson is a black lab/rottweiler mix. Despite my fear of large dogs, I have to admit that he's actually rather sweet.

Last year, my parents redid "my" bedroom to make it a guest room for a married couple (aka - Shawn and me). However, when my brother moved back home, it made sense for various reasons for him to take the "guest" room. Therefore, I am now sleeping in his old bedroom, which I have to admit is just weird to me.

Although most of the time she lives with her mom, my 2-year old niece comes to my parents' house on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, so I've gotten to spend some time with her this week. I know that I'm biased, but she is absolutely one of the cutest kids I've ever seen! My parents have recently gotten a John Deere riding lawn mower, and Grace loves to "go for a drive." When they're going slow, my brother lets her steer.

We also have been going on walks after dinner. Grace knows that we're going "to see the alpacas." Yes, she knows what alpacas are. There's actually an alpaca farm next to my parents' neighborhood. After our walk, she entertained me with playdough and I entertained her with a quarter. She was amazed that I could make it spin on the table. :)

I think my favorite thing that Grace does is play with a camera. She'll pick up a digital camera (that's turned off), look into it, and say "Cheese!" Then she pauses a few seconds while looking at the back of the camera. She then announces, "Cute!" She's obviously imitating her mom there. :) I did notice over the last couple days that Grace is definitely in the stage of repeating anything she hears. Note to self: watch what you say around the 2 year old!