All about Grace . . .

Oh my Gracie girl . . . I am loving watching her HUGE personality take form, even when it means clothes changing battles, the constant reminder of "I DO IT", and massive tears when you try to suggest that for a moment we aren't going to have any more candy right now/I'm not going to go in the tent one more time/let you stand on the counter and pick your own sippy cup because we're in a hurry/take a tubby at 1:30 p.m. Just love her. More than I even knew possible.

Things she is up to lately . . .

• answers "no thank you"
• talks to my belly . . . "hi baby" "bye baby" "pat pat"
• lifts up my shirt to kiss the baby
• loves to help in the kitchen, especially when she gets to "stir, stir, stir"
• loves to call things "pretty", "fancy" or "cute"
• is waking up 1-3 times a night instead of 3-7 times
• is much less rigid about her bedtime routine than she was when we first started a few weeks ago
• is understanding concepts and reasoning . . . first we have to put our clothes on, then we can play
• calls fruit snacks "nack nacks"
• will come tell me when she is stinky . . . "poops, poops"
• looks in certain books for certain things . . . she knows a certain book has pigs in it and will bring it to me and make me help her find the piggies, etc.
  

Some random pictures from the last month or so . . .

It was a sad day when I finally took all the Christmas cards off the fridge . . . she loved asking, "whose that" and was getting really good at pointing people out and naming them

"Kinna, Kinna!"Loves accessories of any kind . . . A month or so ago we took the tray off her high chair and scooted her up to the bar . . . she does much better at feeding herself now that she thinks she is a "big girl" . . .She LOVES blueberries . . . She can finally feed herself yogurt without making a complete disaster of herself . . . still messy, but doable. For some reason she calls this move swimming . . . "smimming, smimming Mom!"Since she started sleeping by herself, she loves to chew on binkies . . . not suck on them, just chew. These necklaces from cousin Laura continue to be a favorite . . . Cooking up something in her kitchen . . .
Cheering on the Pioneers at the basketball game last night . . . One more Christmas picture to share . . . thanks Alison!Since it was a balmy 60 degrees today and we saw Daddy driving the tractor across the road this afternoon, we went for a walk . . . in the span of an hour Grace got a tractor ride with Daddy and petted/saw calves, kitties, a puppy and chickens. She was in heaven.

That little peanut brings us so much joy, I can't even put it into words. Her sweet little smile, the adorable twinkle in her eyes and goofy little personality, her thoughtfulness and love . . . how did we get so lucky?