18 months of praise...

Grace had her 18 month well check visit this week and for a moment her Dr looked worried that she had fallen off the growth chart, until she realized that they had still been tracking Grace on the "typical" kids chart.  Once she plotted her on the Downsy Doo chart, she boosted on God's goodness big time…  she was in the 95% for height and 75% for weight!!!  As many of you know, we tend to make little people, so Grace's stats are nothing short of amazing, ESPECIALLY when you take into account that she's a heart baby (weight is always a battle and something that you watch very closely when you have a heart kid)!  I can't remember a whole lot of other details from the appointment except how much Grace cracks her Dr up with her personality; I guess that means it was a great appointment because I didn't walk away with any big concerns (not this time at least :-).  Another praise is that Grace seems to be lifting her boycott on sign language!  She will now sign "more, all done, eat, bottle, thank you, yummy" and she has all sorts of other fun tricks.  Praising the Lord for the opportunity to get to watch this little angel blossom.

Abby's 1st grade class had Reading Restaurant, where the kids serve their guests by reading to them and the bill at the end calls for hugs as payment.  These kids were so polished and took their jobs so serious…  it was simply precious!!!

As you can see, Grace is always the highlight :-)

Andrew had rodeo day at school.  Love this cowboy!

This weekend we went to the zoo for the first time in… a long time, in fact it was Grace's first time to the zoo!  We had such a great time and it was a beautiful day for some fun family time and oohing and awwing at the super cute baby animals.  

Duncan, the baby elephant that is just a few weeks old, was certainly the highlight of our trip to the zoo!  

He looks much smaller in person for some reason...

Here is Andrew's favorite animal, the cheetah!  If your kids (especially boys) haven't watched Wild Kratts, I highly recommend it.  A typical day in the Ross house consists of all things "creature power."

Here are my favorite animals posing with the cheetah...

I wish I had a picture of Abby's favorite part of the zoo, but some how we didn't get a picture of Miss Kelly.  One of our sweet friends works at the zoo and she walked around with us and told us tons of fun facts about the animals.  Miss Kelly was Abby's favorite part of the zoo :-)!

We went to Gramaldi's, where the kids love playing with the pizza dough while we wait for our food.

Abby made a heart because… well,   we are obsessed with all things hearts these days (in tribute to Grace's special little heart).

Andrew made…  me!  Unfortunately, the flash makes it impossible to see his creation, but I can tell you that it looks just like me ;-)

Grace has a cardiology appointment on Tuesday of this week.  Sweet Village, will you please pray for nothing but great news?  Please pray specifically that her heart and lung function/pressures look perfect and that her valve is still doing amazingly well (it's not leaky and the gradient across it has stayed the same or even gone down)?  

Thank you, with much love and appreciation!