A Very Special Visitor

First I just needed to show this picture of Gracie sleeping in the morning with her blanket over her head. It was like she was trying to tell me she wasn't ready to get up!
So, Alyssa came and we had soooo much fun! Gracie kept saying her name and was pretty interested in her. We went to the beach, the wave pool, shopping, the movies, out to eat... and had a pajama party! It was a fun packed time!
Gracie is saying more and more words... basically repeating everything she hears. I like to think she has pretty good manners usually always saying "please" and "thank you"... as well as "excuse me" when she burps and "bless you" when someone sneezes. She has definitely and FINALLY calmed down with the hitting and pinching. She of course still does it sometimes but nowhere near the way she used to. And I think its because the naughty corner has been so effective with her! If you ask her how old she is she says " Two" and holds out the right number of fingers too! ( I know she's not two yet... but almost!)
She's also gotten pretty good with names and amazes me with her memory! She loves to cuddle in bed and is so super affectionate. She really is such a good girl. And I think there is a possibility that she just might be a genius : )

Funny Silliness

Okay well, the above face is a classic Gracie face. In fact, when I was uploading the pictures she sat in my lap and we watched the slide show. When this picture came on she made the exact same face. She also kept saying " hi Gracie" to all of the pictures of her!
Okay, I have to say that this is just about the funniest face ever. She can do it on command and she knows she is funny doing it. She laughs until she bends over at the hip. She'll even do little variations of this face. She is such a clown! She just started doing it out of no where in the care this past weekend.


This girl LOVES the computer. My dad pointed me in the direction of a fun web site for her age and she LOVES to sit on my lap and play on it. Any time I get up from the computer for just a second... she hops in my seat sooo fast and makes it look like she is doing very busy and important work.

She recently had her ASQ and scored very well. Any delays that they may have thought that she had before, seem to have been caught up on. Something I was already very aware of. She talks more and more everyday. And has such a fun and sweet personality. ( At least when she's not pinching or hitting... hopefully just a phase like the biting was!) I've been using the naughty corner and it is slowly but surely really working. She even gave Noah a hug, stroked his cheek and said sorry after she had to go to the naughty corner for hitting him. Who knew watching supernanny would be soo darn helpful?!?

Well, that's all for now. We are getting excited to do lots of swimming this summer!!!

Step Stool

Just wanted to show off Gracie's super cool step stool that Grampy Bill made her!It even has a little stash spot in the top step! What a lucky girl!

Easter Fun in Texas

Well, the pictures are pretty much the jist of it. Gracie didn't really get to into everything the Easter bunny brought her until we got home. But it was a fun Easter with her cousins. We had a lot of fun in Texas. A nightmarish plane ride both to and from, but a good trip other than that. Gracie really seemed to enjoy being around her cousins. I think they enjoyed have her around too! ( By the way: Emily got a tattoo kit for Easter and that is what the girls are doing drawing on Gracie. We ALL recieved tattoos from the girls that day!)

Brief update... (sorry!)

Okay, I've been terrible about the blogging. We're just so busy. Gracie especially! She's talking up a storm.... it seems like everyday she picks up a couple more words. She signs still though when she says a lot of things or will sign instead of saying stuff. She is a total ham. She stands n front of the mirror posing and making faces. She cracks herself up ( well, let's face it... me too!) She's very cool in her shades. She likes to wear them EVERYWHERE. She wears them for long periods too.... and she just looks like she knows that she is sooo cool.

She is also obsessed with brushing her teeth. I have never seen a kid love to brush their teeth as much as she does. She asks to do it a least three or four times a day. She very into hygiene apparently!
She's super independent. And no longer allows me to feed her. So after a few tries with the yogurt... we gave it up. She drinks kefir now instead! She knows a large majority of her body parts. And is super pleased with herself when she accurately points at them. It's pretty cute.
And she is super into trying to help me. Here she is "mopping" the floor. She may make the apartment look like it was hit by a tornado most days... but she does like to make it look like she at least TRIES to clean up : ) We're going to Texas tomorrow, so hopefully we'll have lots of cute pictures to post when we get back!

Woah...

Woah, this kid is growing up so fast and keeping me soo busy it's almost hard to keep up! I hardly even know where to start about all her new cute Gracie-isms!

She's been hiding in the closet! And thinks it is pretty funny. She'll laugh hysterically if I start going where is Gracie? She watches me from the crack in the bend of the door and if when I pretend to look everywhere BUT the closet she starts really cracking up.




I got her a giggle and shake Elmo chair... and it is her favorite new place to perch herself. She's been weaned off the bottle except for at bedtime.. but that'll happen soon too! She's started to really start playing pretend even more ( I think she must be extremely advanced... 1 1/2 seems to young to play pretend!) She carries her baby around with her and tries giving her old pacifiers or their bottle. And is so gentle with them... It's pretty darn cute. She pretends to eat the toy food from her kitchen ( and of course wants me to do so as well!). She plays so well by herself when I am studying. She is really learning to be gentle with babies and dogs (FINALLY). And when she sees her "uncle" Zack and "aunt" Chloe she kisses them and is just so interested in them.

Gracie is just such a happy baby. She was playing at the library and approached this little boy who was probably 3 or 4. He turned around and slapped her across the face and ran off. I, of course, was stunned and worried about my babe... but it didn't even faze Gracie she just smiled and continued playing. At church, she goes into the daycare there during the service. She LOVES it there. And most of the people in there know her by now. And they have been telling me how she can get plowed over or fall and she just gets up and keeps on going! I knew she does that but to hear it from someone else, kinda struck me as " whoa... I guess that is kinda unusual!" Or is it? She is saying some words... like"No", "Yeah", "D" for dog.... and she is learning more and more signs. I hardly ever used the bath sign with her and out of nowhere everytime I ask if she wants to take a bath or a shower she starts doing the sign! And boy, this kid LOVES to take showers with me! She spends the whole time laughing and trying to splash in and out of the shower stream! She also has started climbing some. Which is a discovery that makes me kinda nervous. And of course now I have to be extremely more careful. She pulled open my kitchen cabinets and climbed up the shelves to get to a knife I had been using on the counter. SCARY! This kid definitely keeps me on my toes! She never ceases to amaze me!

Girly Girl

I haven't blogged in forever... so there is just soo much to gush about! Well, first off Gracie is quite the dancer. I think I'll definetly be putting her into a dance class in a couple of years! She is constantly dancing. And if she is in one room occupied with something and she hears the Elmo song come on... she goes running... and dances all at the same time. She's completely entertaining. She's currently getting her 4th molar and has been quite the pistol! But sooo loving all at the same time giving tons of hugs and kisses... go figure. I haven't been able to put her in any hard soled shoes because none of them fit her right. So, we went to a kid's shoe store... and they told me that her foot is abnormally shaped. She has an extremely wide foot, an extremely high insole and her foot is really fat. ( Hey what the sales girl said, not me!) So after trying on 7 pairs of shoes that fit these specifications we found 2 pairs that fit her right... 2 out of 7.... : ( So I got her a pair of over priced tennis shoes. And it was like she was learning to walk all over again! She wanted to hold onto me and furniture at first with every step. But she's pretty used to them now and loves to stomp her feet on hard floors because of the noise.

I gave her large crayons for Christmas and she carried them around with her until I finally took them away from her ( I suddenly realized the trouble she could get into with them!- Although a little too late because I've found that she colored on her little house and my entertainment center : ( Oh well...) But during supervised coloring times she's so serious. Every "scribble" done so carefully. She loves it!

She really plays with more than this tent/house... but I just think she's so darn cute in it... that I've ended up with tons of pictures of her in it!



She has been amazing me at what she can get into lately. She reaches up onto counters and yanks anything and everything off. She comes out of the pantry with stuff that was so out of reach I cannot begin to imagine how she got it. She came out with a bag of cheetos the other day, took the clip off and started walking around the house munching on them carrying the bag. She finally came over to the TV turned it on and plopped down in front of it chowing down on her Cheetos. It was actually pretty cute. I am constantly reminded of how quickly she's growing up : (

My boss gave her their old play kitchen. And I thought Gracie would probably not pay any attention to it really because she's a little young. But she ran for it when she saw it set up in her room. And played with it ALL day! She was almost knocking the thing over trying to turn the "water faucet" on! She talked on the phone, emptied and filled the microwave and oven. She LOVES it! She's such a girl!

Gracie has been carrying her dolls. It's adorable because she takes the dolls into her little tent/house and feeds them. One of her dolls cries sporadically and if she is having trouble giving the baby her bottle she'll frantically search for me so that I can help.




Gracie really has sooo much fun in the bath. She loves playing with the running water. She has a bunch of stacking cups and she has figured out how to stack them. She also loves to fill them up and empty them. Over and over. She's such a little fish. She lays on her belly and sticks her face in the water and comes up laughing hysterically. Our bathroom is usually completely damp after her baths from all her splashing. She's so funny to watch in there. That's all I can think of for now, but I will sincerely try not to take so long to blog again : )

Christmas 2006

I know, I know, these pictures were a long time in coming. We had a FABULOUS Christmas. We were super busy but had sooo much fun! Gracie opened many of her presents herself which was fun to watch. And she got sooo many great toys and even some super cute clothes! She loved the "hustle and bustle" of the season as well. I had soo many good pictures I couldn't choose just a couple so I've narrowed them down the best I could! I can't even imagine how much fun next year will be when she can at least sorta get the Santa part!







And a special thanks to Jen for finding Gracie's them song: Gracie by Ben Folds! It is Gracie's new favorite song... actually more like her theme... it's like she knows the song is about her! When she hears it she starts dancing like a maniac and flapping her arms around and clapping. TOO CUTE!!!!

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!!!