Grace Joins the Holograms

I'm not sure where Sarah gets all of Grace's cloths, nor do I think I want to know how much she pays. The one thing I am certain of is Sarah's inspiration for the outfits. This is not the first time I have found Grace dressed like one of the members of "Jem and the Holligrams", this is just the first time I was able to capture photographic evidence. The 1980's are alive and well in the Templin household. If you are interested, contact us about some tips for hosting your own Disco Wednesdays Dance Party. Martha Stewart gots nothin' on Sarah and her retro.

Eda-Mom-e

First we planned to see the Picasso exhibit in Seattle, but when the line for tickets was 3 hours long at 11AM we changed plans and headed to the Redhook brewery for lunch. Grace gets an edamome(sp?) snack before the brewery tour.

Sit-Ups

Developmental milestones continue to arrive as Grace gets more active with each passing day. This photo was taken about two weeks ago. Grace, if placed sitting up would remain sitting up, a bit wobbly, for up to 20 seconds before toppling over in the effort to reach a toy or some other distraction. In the short two weeks of this new year, that 20 seconds has grown to 20 minutes. It continues to amaze me how quickly she develops each day.

Below are some photos we took on the same day (notice the outfit) while she was hanging out in her chair swing. Pun intended.

New Revelations in a Video Chat World

The last time I tried to video chat was around the turn of the century. The video was as choppy as the Atlantic during a winter storm or like Chuck Noris fighting bad guys. Add to this the fact that there was no audio and you get a scene where two people stare at each other typing. Not the dream of two way video conversations I had seen in 2001 Space Odyssey (even though it really was almost 2001, and the film made in 1968)

Of course I was familiar with Skype, but my prejudice for this software had been shaped by scenes of mole like individuals hovering in the corners of coffee shops and libraries whilst they skype with similarly nefarious individuals on the other end of the internet. It is with these preconceived notions that I gingerly began figuring how to use our computer to reach out and touch someone. Not wanting to associate myself with the Skype Trolls, I decided to use Google chat, a platform built into Gmail and which I was not only familiar with, but also comfortable using. I knew G-chat was capable of including video, and that our computer had all the hardware necessary, I just needed to coordinate the two.

My first victim was our next door neighbor, who, working from home, graciously allowed me to take time from his day to experiment with the system until we connected. Even if it was a mere 100 feet or so away, I was impressed with how easy and quickly we connected.

From 100 feet to nearly 1,000 miles - my next victim was Carrie in Denver. It took a few tries, but as you can clearly see from the photo, Carrie ultimately succeeded in hijacking my screen and

video chatting with me for a while. Great fun.

Next step - get the Grandmas online. That might prove considerably more difficult than a few tech savvy kids who grew up with computers. I'll keep you posted.

Snowshoes

Both Sarah and I had to work this weekend so Grace spent most of her time with some friends of ours, Meagan and Seth. Thier son J.J. is 3 months older than Grace. (Check out their blog HERE) When they initially asked us if it was ok for them to take Grace snowshoeing up on Mt Rainier, there was a lot of hesitation from both of us. Ultimately, we couldn't come up with a good reason for them not to go. Grace had plenty of warm clothes, they would have plenty of food for her to eat, diapers to change, and all the other things you need when you leave the house with 2 babies. It seemed like a lot of work that Sarah and I were obviously just aprehensive about undertaking. But if Meagan and Seth wanted do it all, we were going to let them. The report back was simply, "Well, we don't think snowshoeing is Grace's favorite thing in the world." You can't tell by the photos. Apparently the one with her smiling is the "only split second she smiled the whole time."

Maybe I'll take Grace with me on a hike of the Wonderland Trail when she's about 2....

Jumping for Playdates

Grace has been doing all kinds of new things this past month. One of the most fun, for her - and for us to watch, is hanging out in her bouncy chair. It's essentially a chair, attached to a spring, connected to a clamp, which grips onto any door frame. Properly adjusted, it provides Grace with hours of entertainment. The first time we placed her in the chair, she got mad that we weren't giving her enough attention. In her frustration she would kick her legs. This motion would set the chair into oscillation which would amuse Grace to no end. It took her not more than 10 minutes to have the chair bouncing in a rhythmic romp. The video above is the second day she sat in the swing, whil we were babysitting another child of a friend of ours, 18 month old Macie. In the days since, Grace has become even more proficient with the coordination of her legs and the cycles of the ups and downs, becoming so good at timing her leg thrusts as to completely compress the spring on the apparatus. Next step is a full up trampoline.

Photo of the Day

"WHAT?! You haven't been posting for over a month?"

Grace was a little surprised to hear we haven't been consistent with our posts over the holiday season. Since the blog is mostly for the Grandparents - and they all got to hang out with either us or Grace recently, we took some time off too.

No worries, we've now accumulated enough stuff since leaving those Grand-Parental units to throw some of it up here. Enjoy.