babushka came for a visit

my mom came out for about a week. she wants to be called babushka (the czechoslovakian name for grandma), and we'll see how pace shortens it. she loved every minute of feeding pace, changing diapers, playing with him on the floor, being there first thing in the morning when he wakes up, and doing other general babushka fun. pace was reaching for her by the end of the week, which was fun to see.

pace began sitting up on his own a week or so before my mom came out, so we inaugurated his little booster seat instead of using the bumbo on the floor. he's loving growing up and getting to do new things. one of his favorite toys--the spoon! i always give it to him to play with after he's done eating, and he loves it. he lights up when he hears the word.

when we were all little, the grandma thing to do was smocking. i don't know about my brothers, but i still have all the smocked dresses my grandma made for me. here are a few examples:

my mom wanted to pick up smocking and make an outfit or two for pace. while she was at my grandma's learning how to smock, they actually found a couple panels my grandma had made, but had never placed in an outfit. so my mom took the panels and made the most adorable little rompers for pace-boy. this panel has little sailboats on it, and another outfit (that pace probably won't fit in for another 2-3 years) has little bicycles on it. so cute!

my mom also noticed pace will pick up any toy and play with the tags. he's very detail-oriented, picking up a single blade of grass and fingering it or passing it back and forth between his fingers, careful to not pull it apart. he has a couple toys that have antennae on it, and he'll just play with the little antennae instead of the whole bug. when my mom saw he like playing with tags, she went and cut off all the tags from her clothes, and we found some more soft ribbons, and she sewed up a little tag toy.

we also invested in a hiking backpack for pace, knowing we had a few hiking vacations coming up. the little teddy bear came with the backpack. pace loves all things stuffed and fluffy, so he immediately fell in love with this bear that was smaller than him!

pace's favorite spot is on da-da's shoulders! he loves being up high, and will laugh and giggle when david jumps up and down with pace on his shoulders. when david gets home from work, if pace is still awake, he'll go outside with pace on his shoulders and check out the flowers and the garden. pace will see himself in the windows and smile and laugh.