Well, it was a big weekend for our family.  We went to dinner, went to the movies, and yesterday we went to the store.  And Gracie slept in her bedroom.  Yeah, I know that sounds like a pretty dull weekend by most people's standards.  But, what you have to realize is that this is the FIRST time that Gracie has ever been to a see a movie in a theatre (and at $19.00 for the three of us, she probably won't be going again soon!).  It's also the FIRST time in her entire life that she's spent the whole night in her bedroom.  Yes, I realize that she's 3 1/2 years old.  I realize that I told myself and everyone else when we started co-sleeping her that was only going to be for "a few months".  For the last several days, she's been saying that she wants to sleep in the little bed (the twin bed) in her room and she keeps telling these extravagant tales about her "other" family who lives in a make-believe town called Mahbalis that's somewhere down the second path in Tenessee.  That "other" family lives in a big house where everyone has their OWN room.  So, to keep up with the imaginary Joneses' we let her sleep in her own bed last night - okay, Steve let her - I just went along for the ride and lurked outside the door every hour or so.  So far, she hasn't stirred - the computer is in her room, so I'm quite happy to be working on it this morning, watching my big girl sleep.  The other part of Steve's theory was if Gracie was in her own bed, we could put Abigail in the bed with us and maybe she'd sleep better, giving me a little more sleep.  I haven't talked to him about that yet this morning, but I'm thinking that theory is probably dead and gone, since when she woke up at 1:30 a.m., I put her in the bed the bed with us to test his idea.  She immediately sat up in the bed and started bouncing and then crawled over and tired to maul Steve's eyes out in her little baby effort to get him to wake up and play.  I'm thinking she's going to continue sleeping in the crib and I'll just keep getting up to feed her for the foreseeable future!  Now, for the pictures that you know are coming!

Here's Gracie at the theatre on Saturday - yes, you know your mother is a shutterbug when you have pictures of your first trip to the movies!  Yes she wore a dress, and tights, and her black "dancing slippers".  I guess she thought it was a grand occasion!  And of course, we took Mumpmie (her blanket) with us, too!



And here she is attempting to immitate Remi running away from the knives.  I had to convince her not to stand on the cardboard stand - she wanted to stand right beside Remi.  That would have been good - go to the movies the first time and get kicked out of the theatre because you destroyed an adverstising poster!



And of course, I can't leave Mae Mae out - here she is this morning.  Yes, Ruby - those are your tennis shoes!  Her little fat feet finally got big enough to wear them - she loves them!  She thinks they taste very, very yummy!


And finally, the girls together.  As you can see Gracie survived her whole night of sleeping alone.  And she says she's going to do it again tonight!



And as an added treat for you Monday morning, here's a link to a little movie of Gracie singing Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music.  Now, I'll warn you - if you're a Sound of Music purist or a huge Julie Andrews fan, you probably want to skip this video!  And, as a little side note, Gracie is trying to act out the parts of all seven of the Von Trapp children, so that's why she seems a little spazmo, bouncing on her knees, twirling around, and running.  But, you have to give her credit for effort!

Little Julie Andrews

I hope you all had a great weekend!