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).