Lil Miss Grown Up!

Gracie loves to help with anything and everything. Last night she wasn't happy unless she was right with me, which was making it difficult to make dinner! So I pulled up a chair and she watched for a little bit and then started whining again. I gave her a spoon and let her stir and she was happy as a clam! She stirred and stirred! When I was done having her stir and took the bowl away she was so upset she was on the floor staring up at the counter screaming at the bowl because she wasn't done! She's such a good little helper!

Gracie LOVES talking on the phone. She's talking to Grammy in these pictures.

Gracie is getting over a cold, and has no problem laying down on the couch with her bottle watching TV! She just keeps seeming older and older. Ahhhh! I want it to slow down!!!

Leaps and Bounds...

Okay, okay... finally some pictures for everyone. I had them ready to do... just have had a very busy month. Gracie is really getting soooo much personality. She's such a happy baby, almost always smiling. Very social with not only other kids but adults as well. She has become a dancing maniac. She is always dancing. And if we are listening to rock she is head banging (well, kinda). And after watching Papa dance, now she lifts her little legs up to do her dancing sometimes. It is pretty darn cute. I gave her my old cell phone and she carries it around constantly lately. Jabbering away.


Earlier this month we went to the children's museum in Ann Arbor with Anthony and Rosana. It was mainly too old for them, but they still had a lot of fun. They get along really well.

She is imitating like crazy. she pretends to comb her hair, tries to put clothes on ( she has figured out zippers so she likes to unzip anything she's wearing and can even get a jacket off. ) She even helps get her toys out of the tub before she gets out by handing me them one by one. She also helps unload the dishwasher, mainly just the silverware, but she stands and hands me it piece by piece. Looking ever so proud that she is such a good helper.

I had to include a picture of her with her bathtime mohawk. Plus the expression on her face is pretty funny. I can't get over how fast she's growing and developing! She can even fit circle and triangle puzzle pieces in one of her toys. She's such a smart cookie! Now if we could just slow down this whole growing up thing.....

Halloween!

So, a couple days before Halloween, I tried a couple different costumes on her. First I put on Pooh, and she was in front of the mirror and just stared and smiled. Then, I tried the princess costume. And she SCREAMED and cried! So, I didn't have to decide... Gracie did! She has really been good about letting her opinions and wants be known.


( yes, i know that is a scary picture of me... but gracie looks way too cute not to post it!)

Well, it was not Gracie's first Halloween, or first time getting dressed up, but it was her first time trick or treating. She even held her own candy bag.... and had some chocolate... she LOVED it. We went with Rosana and Anthony. Anthony is Gracie's age... and they were VERY interested in one another. It was pretty darn cute.
We went to the allergist yesterday and my suspicision that Gracie is allergic to eggs was confirmed. She is not terribly allergic though so she just can't eat plain eggs. She can still eat most things with eggs in them. The dr. even said that she would most likely outgrow the allergy. And the less things she eats with eggs in them the sooner that will happen.
Gracie also surprisingly enough loves tomatoes and portobella mushrooms. She shoves tomatoes in like it's nobody's business!

Walking....

Yes! Gracianna is walking! And able to get to standing from anywhere ( by artfully standing on her head and pushing up). It is sooooo exciting and even she seems like she is glowing with pride! She does still love to crawl when she wants to get somewhere fast. But otherwise seems to much prefer walking. And now because she is walking "confidently" she is allowed in the "big kids" room at the gym daycare. She hated being in the infant room and would be all over me when I would come back to get her. When I came to get her out of the big kids room for the first time she didn't even want to leave. I walked in and she was sitting on these child sized couches watching tv with some other kids around her age. She had her feet up and her arm up on the back of the couch stretched out. She even had a look about her like " yeah... i'm in the big kid room... I'm a BIG kid now!" When i approached her she just patted the girl's leg next to her... and it just seemed like she was saying... " see mom, this is my friend!" Okay, Okay, I know I am probably looking WAY too into it but let me believe what I want! She is getting her eighth tooth now so she is biting again badly! And if you couldn't tell from the background of the pictures... she is making TERRIBLE messes!

Well we finally had her year check up. She weighed 25 1/2 pounds (92%), was 30 inches (60%) and her head was off the charts ( >97%). The larger head can sometimes be a sign of neurofibromatosis so she now needs a ultrasound of her head. We also have to see an allergist to get her tested for a possible egg allergy : ( She is doing so well otherwise though. And I just kinda feel like saying "phooey" to all those people who evaluated her at the beginning of the school year that said she was " slow." She seems like she is developing beautifully to me! She is quite the jabber jaw.... she can say doggy and hi... and when she imitates it sounds like she can say a LOT more.



She is imitating sooo much lately too. She puts her eyebrows togther and look all stern.... imitating the look I give her when I am telling her no. She puts my phone and headset up to her ear and says " hi!". Everything just keeps happening faster and faster I feel like.... ahhhh! I feel like I can hardly catch my breath!

Getting SOOO Big!!

Okay, well I know I've been terrible about blogging these past couple of months. We have just been soooo busy. And any spare time I have I am usually too exhausted to move or I am practicing on my machine! So in the next couple of weeks we should be done being evaluated by the school district. The PT came last week and said she looked really good ( which I was expecting to hear). Tomorrow the teacher comes and next week we meet with the school psychologist and the other two ladies to discuss "the game plan." Which will most likely be to do nothing, but wait... just like we are doing with the doctors.....

Gracie has been super busy getting into everything! She has discovered how to open drawers and cabinets. And loves to do so. She is not walking totally yet still. Just a lot of cruising and a few steps here and there. Which stinks, because at the day care at the gym they make her be in the infant room until she can walk! And most of the kids in there are too little to really play with.

I know I may be biased but Gracie just keeps getting cuter and cuter. In fact yesterday, we first had a lady stop us at the gym to say that she had seen Gracie in the daycare and had though " who is this baby? She is just soooo cute!", then a deaf woman that was not able to effectively communicate wanted to tell me that she was so cute so badly that she pulled her Sidekick out to type it out for me! I know, I'm bragging, but I figure I'm entitled to it!



A couple weeks ago we went to the zoo with my cousin Katie, her husband, and Andrew their little boy. He is just a month or two younger than Gracie so it was fun to see them interact. It was crummy weather but still a lot of fun.



Gracie does not like it when all attention is not on her, so lately she says hi to anyone that isn't paying enough attention. It is quite funny. She imitates a lot of the words I say, Like "stop" , "mom", " hi", "hey".. She is really learning to communicate. She even does the "all done" sign when she is done eating. It is amazing to me how far she's come in the past 13 months.


One of her favorite things to do lately is put any article of clothing she can find on her head. It is constant. She'll strectch the clothes like she is about to pull it over her head and then just place it on her head. And she usually looks pretty proud afterwards!





Well, I promised pictures from her final birthday celebration at Grammy's. I thought this picture was very appropriate. It not only shows her covered in cake. But she is doing this goofy face ( which she does all the time now!) She scrunches up her face and start sniffing really hard. It is hilarious. She's such a ham!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Well, one year ago today at this exact time actually ( It's about 10:00pm) my water broke. I was moved from antepartum to labor and delivery and my labor began. And just 16 short (ha!) hours of labor and one hour of pushing later the beautiful Gracianna Patricia was born! It is so hard to believe it's already been a year. And yet we have gone through a lot this year. She was in the NICU for 5 days, where she was poked more times than I care to remember. At Christmas, she was "failure to thrive".. and once again poked more times that I could stand to watch ( but of course did....). Then there was the neurofibromatosis thing... which now isn't as scary to me..... but still a little..... But look at her... she is definitely thriving at a whopping 23 pounds! She is doing so well with her weight that I pulled a muscle in my back lifting my little sugar plum! She has travelled to Texas three times! She is doing well developmentally... at least I think so! She is soooo verbal, not that surprising considering who she spends most of her time with : ) And she is HAPPY! When I was pregnant that's all I really wanted was for her to be happy and healthy. And she is.... In one year, she has had one bad cold accompanied by an ear infection and one VERY mild cold that lasted two days. She has an awesome immune system, because I was sick quite a bit and she caught nothing from me! I am just so proud of her and so in love with her! Okay, enough gushing... although I could go on and on....















I would just like to say that yes that is a picture of her kissing the vacuum. She makes it nearly impossible to vacuum lately. She is not scared of it at all but goes straight for it wanted to kiss it, climb on it, or just sit right in front of it. Making it very difficult to actually do anything with it! It's just so funny! She loves books and being read to... which I take as a very good sign. And she loves to music and to dance. She will actually cry in the car if you turn the radio off. As soon as you turn it back on, she's fine..... she really is developing such a strong personality.















After next weekend Gracie will have had 4 celebrations for her first birthday! She is one loved little girl! Her first party, at my dad's, was a couple of weeks ago... and Gracie was probably the most tired I have ever seen her. But we still had a lot of fun and she knew just what to do with her cake! Later that week we had a small birthday dinner with Gma Sharon and Gpa Pierre. And today we had a little birthday dinner with her dad, her Grandma Pat, and her Aunt Stacey and Aunt Michelle. She had so much fun! Next weekend my mom will have a little party for her too ( I'll make sure to post pictures.. I know I've been bad about it lately!)! If only she knew how lucky of a little girl she is to have so many people that love her!



Gracie still really enjoys taking her bath. And now loves to try to "catch" the running water. She is absolutely fascinated by it. She's so funny about getting out of the tub too. She'll pull her little leg up and over the side of the tub! As if to say, " C'mon mom, I'm DONE!". She took her first steps earlier this week. She doesn't do it much and can only go about three steps at a time... but it's progress! I just REALLY have to coax her.

She is really doing well feeding herself. Though some have said she makes too big of a mess (Yes, you know who you are). But I figure that's all part of the learning process. And I don't mind cleaning up the mess. So it works for us, and at times it is pretty hilarious.

And Miss Gracianna has a thing for throwing her hands up to her head. She'll put one up to the side of her head everytime I say "Aw, man!"She does it on her own at the funniest and often very appropriate times. She really is becoming quite the character.

We went to the neurologist this week. He didn't really say anything new, just that she seems like she is doing very well so far. It was a pretty optimistic visit. He said that if she isn't diagnosed by the time she's six, we'll do an MRI. We just have to see the geneticist when she's two and keep seeing the opthamologist once a year to keep an eye on it. So I'm feeling pretty optimistic about it all.































Just the cutest one year old EVER! And no, i'm not bias... of course not!

Fun, Fun, Fun!!

Okay, so we're back from Texas. Gracie is turned 11 months a week ago! And she had sooo much fun with her cousins! Leanna and Emily both fed her. Emily was really into playing with Gracie! Leanna was not so sure about her though. She would yell at her to go away and was very possesive of anything Gracie may have been going after. When asked if she like Gracie, you were given a firm "No!". But by the time we left Leanna was saying she liked Gracie.

Alyssa loved helping out with Gracie too, she even babysat her a little! We went to the zoo, went on the train, went to the beach at the zoo, went to Sea World ( including the water park) and went swimming at Cricket's. Gracie is like my lil fish. She really seemed to enjoy the water park at Sea World. And she is really starting to notice animals at the zoo ( and Sea World). But most of all she just really loved having her cousins to play with!

She's still not walking, but she is doing so well with feeding herself ( other than her cereal and yogurt).

I Know, I Know....

Okay.... So I'll admit I have been slacking on the blogging.... It has just been a pretty boring month!! Gracie is still crawling and cruising... No first steps quite yet. But I don't think it will be long. She has four teeth now, two for the top and two for the bottom. I have been trying to get a good picture of her top teeth but she won't cooperate!
She started her Kindermusic class and loves it. She loves being around the other kids. She is the youngest one there ( as am I!). She is super friendly and just crawls up to all the other moms and will start climbing on them. She has no stranger anxiety to speak of, what so ever! She weighed 23 lbs at her last doctor visit! So she is off formula already and just drinking milk. Soo much cheaper! She also eats mainly all table food with a few exceptions like her cereal before bed and in the morning.
She is so funny with her toy "box" lately. She pulls the whole thing down and pulls almost EVERY single toy out. It's so funny. She crawls into it to get ALL the toys out! Well, we leave for Texas tomorrow and will surely have lots of things to write about when we get back. Not to mention good pictures!

My First 4th of July!!

Well, we didn't do much during the day but we had a very fun evening! Gracie took an early evening nap and then we walked to the park for fireworks! Unfortunately, I was unaware dusk was as late as it is so we were kinda early! There were tons of people there though and Gracie didn't seem to mind the wait at all. In fact, when we first got there before we got a spot she started kicking and laughing with excitement about all the activity and people. And then she had fun just crawling all over me and the blanket! The picture above was taken before the fireworks started...
















I was nervous that Gracie may get scared by the loud noise of the fireworks. But fortunately, she didn't mind at all! The above picture on the top left was taken right when the fireworks started. She just layed back in my lap and took it all in. They must have made her nervous though because she suddenly stood up, turned around and clutched on to me watching the fireworks over her shoulder. So I put her up on my knee, gave her her blanket and wrapped my arms tight around her and she was happy once more. There were times when I looked at her where she just had these wide eyes and her mouth hanging open! The fireworks kept her attention for an amazing 20 minutes ( which is an extremely long time for something she is only watching to keep her attention!) Then she got distracted by a water bottle, but she did watch the finale! All and all a great first 4th of July for Gracie I think!