Grace Watch #19 (October 29-December 5, 2008)

New Words/Phrases: She has been putting words together a lot more the last few days, forming simple sentences, and it's been so fun to hear! Besides that, here are some new and fun words she's been saying:
Hey Baby! - "Hey Baby!" (her favorite greeting lately)
sleepy - "leepy"
police - "peece" (she was scared of a siren, so we explained what it was--don't worry, no visits from cops or anything!)
eyedrops - "i-dops"
hill - "hulk" (?)
park - "park"
splits - "buh-lits" (she tries to do the splits from time to time and gets pretty close!)
it's okay - "duts otay!"
look at it - "loo la lit"
fence - "wents"

The concept of -ing has clicked in her mind too, so she'll tell me what she's doing while she's doing it by saying, "walkin" or "runnin" or "sitting". A couple of weeks ago, we were sitting at a booth at a restaurant, and she tried to climb over me to escape. Unfortunately, I was sitting on the edge, so as she started to fall she said, "Fallin'!" so we caught her. We got a good laugh out of that!

She can also sing all of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" (pronounced "Keekle, keekle") without any help at all! She'll start singing it randomly (and not on command, of course), and it is SOOOO cute! We keep wanting to record it, but we have to do it sometime that she doesn't know she's being recorded. She is also starting to like "popular" music and sing along to it. Imagine our surprise when we are driving down the road and she starts singing (on her own--the radio wasn't even on) "Ella, ella, ella--ay, ay, ay!" That is, "Under my um-ber-ella, ella, ella, hey, hey, hey!" She also sings along to parts of "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz. We've got one cool kid on our hands!

She loves to say family and meal prayers (with help, of course), and even adds in some of her own words. For example, one day I helped her say the lunch prayer after we had come back from a park visit. I had her say, "Thank thee for the park" and as I tried to move on to "bless the food" she said, "lide, wings..." So we added a "thank thee for the slide and swings too." I'm so glad she's learning to be thankful for things!

Whenever we look for things, she says, "____[whatever we're looking for], ah-you?!" (where are you?) and when she finds it she says, "Der tis!" (for there it is). :)

She tells us the color of everything she says now. Usually the first thing she says to me in the morning is whatever color my shirt is. :)

Favorite Foods: We [read: Dave] finally got her to eat a cheese quesadilla the other day for lunch, and I was so excited! She almost always has a peanut butter & honey sandwich for lunch, and I've tried a billion other things, but she won't eat them. Thankfully we have Dave to be the strict one and make her try foods even though she doesn't want to! I'm way too soft! She also loves oatmeal, and I came up with a fun way to make it that tastes really good without being too unhealthy. I microwave the oatmeal with milk instead of water, and then mix in part of a packet of hot chocolate powder, and it's really yummy! She's just excited that she gets to have chocolate for breakfast! Another favorite food is popcorn:

Favorite Movie: We discovered the Arthur the Aardvark video series at the library, and there's been no turning back since! Gracie wants to watch "Ar-ter" all day long! The stories are pretty cute, though, and not very annoying, so I can't complain too much!

Favorite Books: The Sneeches by Dr. Seuss, Dora the Explorer, and Este no es mi tren... by Fiona Watt

Adventures: We started a "Good Girl Chart" for Gracie a few weeks ago, and she gets to put a sticker on it each time she does something good, such as cleaning up or helping Mom/Dad, etc. Then, she gets a reward at 10, 20, and 30 stickers (after which we start a new chart). For 10 we went to the park, 20 I made cookies with her, and 30 she got to go on a date with Daddy to the library! She was SO excited about each reward, but especially about the library with Daddy. Although they had fun at the library, the most exciting part was that she got to ride in the "little truck" with him. Dave's dad has a small truck that Dave uses from time to time. It has a switch to turn off the passenger air bag, so Gracie got to sit in the front seat, and she felt like such a big girl! Here's a picture of the two of them ready to go!

Other: Several weeks ago our ward did the Primary program, and Gracie absolutely loved it! Their opening song was "I Am a Child of God," and she applauded and said, "Yay!" when they finished. (We were sitting in the back, so hopefully she didn't distract any children!) She kept saying, "Ying, more!" (sing, more) and got excited every time they sang, especially since she recognized some of the songs. [On a related note, yesterday I put a Conference DVD on where the choir was made up of Primary children, and she was thrilled! I showed her the same song 3 times in a row, and she kept saying, "Again, kids singing!"]

One of her Halloween candies was a Dora candy bracelet, so we let her have it one evening. She loved wearing it, and was even more delighted when we showed her that she could eat it! Eventually she got tired of eating one at a time and I found her with puffed out cheeks, trying to chew something. I stuck my finger in and all I could get out was the string! She ate like 8-10 pieces at once! Here she is showing it off.

She loves to watch videos of herself, and lately she has been asking me for "yi-yos" and pulling me to the computer to watch them. She sits on her own "big" chair and watches the same videos over and over again. And if the video is of someone other than Gracie, she has me stop it and find another one. :)

Coloring is her life these days. She colors all day long, and thankfully she's stopped trying to color on the walls (although she still tries to color in library books sometimes). She likes to color at her little table, but her new favorite coloring position is laying on her tummy on the tile inside the front door. Apparently that's where she really gets inspired...? ;)

When she's done eating a meal or snack, she stacks her dishes/cups for me and announces, "Clean up!" then hands them to me! I'm really not sure where she learned it from, but I think it's so adorable! Here's a picture of her handing her dishes to me.

This part is mostly for my mom, who asked for a picture of this. I've started singing a lullaby called "Bye-o" (sp?) to Gracie that my mom used to sing to me and my mom's dad used to sing to her, and Gracie really loves it. She sometimes asks me to hold her, cuddles up in my arms like a baby, and says, "Bye-o?", so then I sing it to her. Here we are doing just that.

Here are some other pictures I just had to include:

dancing on the couch

all tuckered out

cute hand-me-down from cousins

beautiful sweater from a friend

pressing her tummy against the window (?)

another cute cousin hand-me-down, with some
attitude thrown in

One final story: A few weeks ago we got to church late and waited in the foyer for a chance to sneak in the back of the meeting, and as we were waiting Gracie was walking around smiling and waving at people and just being adorable. There was an older man there whom we had never seen before, and after watching her for a few minutes he said, "Boy, she's sure a little ray of sunshine, isn't she?" I couldn't help but agree. :) We're so grateful for Gracie and the sweet little spirit she has. We are so lucky to get to be her parents, and I only hope we can preserve her sweetness and help her grow up to be the best person she can be!

Grace Watch #18 (September 16-October 28)

New Words/Phrases:
ticklish - lik-lish
hot dog - hah-doga
bell pepper - buhl-puppy
lemon - memmon
tomato - tato-tato
hiccups - ee-dops
jacket - dac-dek

She has also started adding a -y sound to the end of lots of words, such as hug(gy), dog(gy), bag(gy), ball(y), etc. We're not sure why she does this, but it's pretty cute anyway.

I've also been trying to wean her away from the TV (which she would watch constantly if I'd let her), so I've had to answer, "Not now..." a lot to repeated requests for movies. One time I said that and then said, "Say, 'okay'," so she said, "O-tay" and went about her way. Later I heard her talking to herself, saying the same thing over and over again, and so I listened carefully. This is how it went:
"Lilo?...Nah now...Tay....Nani?...Nah now...Tay....Buds?...Nah now...Tay....Nine-nine?...Nah now...Tay."
Translation: "[Movie title: Lilo & Stitch, Bugs, Einstein, respectively]?...Not now...Okay."
Isn't that hilarious? It kinda made me sad, too, 'cause I don't want to say no to her all the time, but I also don't want to let her watch movies all day either. Oh well, at least she wasn't sad as she was saying all that.

She is also developing into quite the drama queen. When it's time to go to bed, I say (in a subdued, attempting-to-be-calming voice), "Time for n'night, Gracie." However, she has misinterpreted this as me being sad. So whenever we talk about n'night, she says "sad", does the sign language for it, lays down, and then moans and groans like she is very sad. She does this for several seconds and then I say, "No, let's be happy!" and then she says "happy!", signs that, and then is very happy and smiling. Maybe she'll be an actress someday. Hopefully not, though. :)

Another recent development is that after a meal she always tells me what she just ate (as if I didn't just make it for her! ;) ). She says, "All done!" and I say, "Are you all done?" "Mmm-hmmm, wan-wich" "Did you have a sandwich?" "Doops" "And grapes?" "Moke" "And milk too?" "Yee-haw, num-num-num!" It's pretty cute, and definitely makes me feel good about the food I've just prepared!

Okay, last thing for language! She has started repeating everything we say, which has made it very difficult to figure out what she wants! One such conversation went like this:
Gracie (gesturing towards something on the counter): Dat
Me: What do you want?
G: Want?
M: What is it?
G: Is it.
M: Can you show me?
G: Mow me.
M: No, can you point?
G: Point.
M: Ahhhhh! (ok, not really, but that's what I want to do)

Favorite Foods: smoothies (moo-mies), marshmallows (lu-lellos), candy (tanny), raisin bran (cereal), and pumpkin bread

smoothie mustache!

Favorite Movie: Dora the Explorer! We rented a video from the library, and she has watched it over and over! She even sings and dances along to "We Did It!"

Favorite Books: Dora's Colors, The Sneetches, Curious George, and Yummy-Yucky
She loves books, and quite often we find her reading on the couch or in her room all by herself. I hope she always loves books so much!

Adventures: We got to go to Knights' Ferry (a historical site near here) as part of a ward preschool group last month, and we had a nice little hike and picnic while we were there. Here is a picture of all the little girls who went. (Mine's the short one.)

We've also had some fun Halloween-themed fun, but I'll do another post about those.

Other:
Her hair is coming in so thick, and it's getting so long! I love it! I was going to cut it, but I think I'll wait a little while since it's wavy and doesn't look as uneven as if it was straight. I've been experimenting with some different hairstyles, and it's been so much fun. She's really good about sitting still while I do it, too (well, as long as she's eating or watching TV).

Look at that thick head of hair!

Fun hairstyles!

A couple weeks ago Dave was playing with her, doing Daddy things that really are safe but still are hard for moms to watch (y'know what I mean?), like throwing her in the air or tossing her on the bed. Anyway, I got a little scared at one point and said, "David!" and Gracie said, "Bavid!" It was so funny!

She's learned how to gargle liquids in her throat, so now she does it at every opportunity. She'll do it, look at us proudly, and say, "Bubbles" (as in, I just blew bubbles in my throat). It has actually come in handy a few times, though, like when she's had something sugary and I want her to rinse out her mouth with water. :)

She has lots of fun pretending to be a big sister when we watch a friend's baby twice a week. Here they are watching "Baby Einstein" together. I put the baby on the blanket, and Gracie was in her rocking chair. A few minutes later I looked and Gracie had left her chair to sit by the baby! She's such a good helper!

My computer doesn't have speakers, so I have to use headphones to listen to any audio. One day Gracie was begging to listen to "Hoo-hoo" (i.e. Gwen Stefani's "The Sweet Escape"), so I found it on YouTube and let her listen on the headphones. She was really getting into it...until I got the camera. These pictures cracked me up!

Jammin' out!

What?

She also played her first "board" game! We got out Hi-ho Cherry-o after FHE one week and played it. Kinda. She got very upset if anyone else got to pick up cherries, and she really just wanted to spin the spinner, thank you very much. But a good time was had by all nonetheless.

And here are some more pictures I had to include.

sittin' in the Lego box!


THE END!

Grace Watch #17 (August 26-September 15, 2008)

New Words/Phrases: She knows all her colors really well now and asks for specific ones to color with. One day when she was coloring we had the following conversation:
She had the black crayon and seemed to be getting bored, so I said, "Do you want another color?"
Grace: "Luller lollar" (another color)
Mommy: "What color do you want?
Grace: "Red"
Mommy: "Okay, here you go." (handing her the red as she hands me the black)
Grace: "Bye-bye, Black."

She does this kind of thing all the time, always remembering to say good-bye to everyone and everything. :) She has also become very good at handling the "just one more" thing. As long as I remember to inform her that she can just have one more of something, then she knows she's all done after that. She still sometimes asks for more, but she doesn't whine when I tell her no. Some of her other new words are
moose - moose
plop - buh-lop
papaya - papaya
Hawaii - Hawaii
leaf - leaf

There's a funny story to go along with "leaf." We were walking outside a few weeks ago and she discovered a bunch of leaves that had fallen off the tree. She had fun picking them up and letting them drop. When it was time to go inside, she had to take a couple to show Daddy. Later I heard her saying, in a very serious voice, "Leaf--flies" (I thought). She kept doing it over and over, and then finally I figured out what she was saying. "A Bug's Life" was her favorite movie a while back, so she watched it all the time, and the leaf made her think of the part when Hopper tells the ants that they'll be back "when the last leaf falls." As he does this, he holds up a leaf (ok, really it's a piece of his brother's molting skin) and lets it fall to the ground. So now she re-enacts that scene many times a day, holding up a leaf (or piece of paper) and saying, "Laff--leaf--walls" or "Last--leaf--falls." We think she'll make an excellent drama queen someday.

New Injury: She fell off the ottoman the other day because she was tired and misjudged the distance between it and the couch. No serious owies, but she was very sad for a few minutes. :(

Favorite Foods: I got to bring some leftover hamburgers home from Enrichment last week, so we had those for a couple of meals, and Gracie really liked them! She ate the burger and bun separately, and the burger had to have a lot of ketchup on it, but still! It was nice to have her eat something other than a frozen burrito for dinner. :) She is also really loving pomegranites. We are lucky enough to have several pomegranite trees near our apartment that are just getting ripe, and Gracie loves to eat the seeds as a snack. :)

Favorite Books: Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Goldilocks and the Three Hares (not a favorite of mine--too many puns for my tastes--but she enjoys it)

Favorite Movie: Monsters, Inc. is her newest favorite.

Other Developments: She is now the official gift-giver-outer at family gatherings and is very good at her job. Here she is in action:

Last week while playing at the park she learned how to climb up the slide all by herself! I know I probably shouldn't encourage that, but I figured she'd try it whether or not I helped, so I opted for being there to help avoid injury. Here is a video of this new trick:

Several months ago when we visited my family in Arizona, my mom bought Gracie some really cute pink flip-flops. I tried to get her to wear them back then, but the part between her toes bugged her, so I gave up and put them in her closet. A couple weeks ago she found them and had to wear them, so I put them on her and couldn't get her to take them off! They looked adorable, and she liked them so much that she walked differently to make sure they made as much noise as possible. :)

She even had to wear them for naptime:

Finally, we got to watch a friend's baby a couple times last week, and Gracie has had so much fun with her! That didn't really surprise me, but I was surprised that Gracie started getting in touch with her inner baby. I laid a blanket down for the baby to lay on, and Gracie had to lay on it; I got the thing out that has toys hanging off of it (don't know the name of it--see picture below), and then Gracie had to "lay nown" under it; the baby sat in the SuperSaucer, so Gracie had to sit in it (even though she had to bend her knees to fit).

I'm pretty sure we've got a goofball on our hands, but we sure love her! That's it for now!

Grace Watch #16 (August 9-25, 2008)

Lotsa cuteness to record. Here we go!

New Words/Phrases: Gracie has caught onto the idea of possessives (as in, what belongs to whom), but amazingly, she doesn't talk about what's hers. She just points out things that belong to other people. For example, she almost always finishes her breakfast before I've started mine, but she still wants to eat mine. :) If I'm not in a sharing mood, I say, "No, this is Mommy's" and then she'll come back a few minutes later, point to my food, and say, "Mommy's." Then she leaves and goes about her business. I'm just grateful that (so far), she's not into the "Mine, mine, mine!" stage. I'm going to enjoy this while it lasts! Here are some other words/phrases I remember:

kneeling - "neening" (she does this for prayer now!)
potty - "pobby" (more on that later)
beautiful - "bee-you-foo"
Hickory-Dickory-Dock - "ree-ree-rock"
hold you - "hoad you" (does this when she wants to be held)
clean up - "neen-up"

She can also fill in words to familiar songs and books. She loves "Click, Clack, Moo" and will finish sentences in it if we let her. Also, one night we were singing "I Am a Child of God" and paused at the end of each phrase, and she said the right word every time! It's amazing that she's been listening and remembering all this time! She can do this with a lot of songs, we've noticed, and it's so cute!

New Injury: Nothing serious! Yay!

Favorite Foods: She really likes beans this week. It's taken a long time for her to eat them, but she's finally doing it. She still won't eat most meats (I think it's a texture thing?), but she likes beans, so that's fine by me! Just so she gets some protein!

Favorite Books: "Click, Clack, Moo" and her Disney Princesses book from Aunt Jenni

Favorite Movie: Lilo & Stitch; last night she wanted to watch it so badly that she even started singing, "Lilo, Lilo! Stitch, Stitch, Stitch!" :)

Other: She is becoming a great helper to me lately. She loves to help clean up and helps to sing the clean-up song as we tidy the family room. She also helped me bake for the first time a couple weeks ago. We made pancakes for Daddy one Sunday, and it was really fun. I got everything ready first and then let her dump the ingredients in the bowl and help me mix. She did really well (except for trying to mix the eggs with her hands!), and we had a good time. Here are a couple of pictures

We have also "started" potty training. I use the word "started" loosely, because we've mostly just talked about it and gotten the equipment (potty chair, books, training pants). I don't think she's quite ready, but I've been letting her play with and sit on the potty chair, and she just loves it. I'm in no rush to get her trained, but I'm a little scared about starting. Any advice on the subject would be greatly appreciated. Anyway, here are some pictures of her sitting on the potty, just 'cause I think they're so darn cute!

In other news, she hasn't asked about or talked about her binky for at least a week. She takes longer to fall asleep than she did with the binky, but she still sleeps well. Hooray!

And last but not least, Gracie went to the cardiologist last week and got an excellent report! He said her heart looks good and that she doesn't need to come back for a year! (When she was younger, we were going every few weeks!) She had trouble gaining weight after her second surgery and I would dread our visits, because he was so negative about everything, but all was forgiven when he saw her this time and said, "Gracie, you look marvelous!" It was such a relief, because the worrier in me keeps thinking, "What if something goes wrong? What if she needs another surgery?" I was so glad to hear that everything looks good. :)

Well, I better go. Until next time...

Our Little Narcissist

We took a little trip to Dairy Queen last night and sat in a booth. We didn't notice that when Gracie stood up, she could see herself in a mirror. That is, until she started doing this...

Grace Watch #15 (July 15-August 8)

Yet again, I've gone far too long between posts. Forgive me...

New Words/Phrases: Some memorable ones are "yee-haw" (yee-haw), "dirt" (dut), "ghetto" (detto) [heehee--we drove through a less-than-desirable part of town today, and Dave felt it important for her to know this one!], "mailbox" (bee-bots), "plum" (num), "bench" (nench), "Bugs" (Budz), "run" (wunn!!!), "wolves" (woolz) [which, by the way, say, "Ow, ow, ow!!!" in a high-pitched voice], "kangaroo" (tane-woo), "trash" (tash), "cinnamon" (minnum)"watermelon" (muh-memmon), "color" (luller), "smile" (my-mo) and "cherry" (cheewie).

She also said a sentence this week. Dave's grandparents treated us to lunch the other day, and Gracie finished eating before the rest of us. She was getting impatient and finally said, "I want out!" (as in, out of the high chair). We were a little surprised and amused. Hopefully one of these days she'll say a more polite sentence. ;)

New Injury: We bought her a table and 2 chairs to use for coloring, Play-dough, snacks, etc., several weeks ago. However, her favorite activity with them is to knock the chairs upside down (so the legs are sticking up). Well, one day this did not work out well because she was running and fell, and her forehead collided with the leg of one of the chairs. This is what happened to her forehead:

No fun! But at least we had some chocolate chips in the freezer to help it not swell so much. (Plus it provided a yummy treat for Mommy and Gracie!) It's official: chocolate makes everything better!

Favorite Foods: She's been loving the fresh fruits that summer has to offer, especially since her grandparents all grow them in their yards. We've been eating lots of fresh peaches and plums, and she has also discovered cherries this year.

(Sidenote: I don't remember if I wrote this before or not, but Gracie pronounces "ice cream" and "awesome" the same way--"ah-num!" It's very cute!)

Favorite Books: We're adding this category because she is really getting into longer storybooks now. Her two favorites are "Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that type" and "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig." We sometimes get tired of reading them over and over, but at least they're fun stories, so we can't complain too much!

Favorite Movie: Her #1 choice nowadays is "Budz" (a.k.a. "A Bug's Life"), and her favorite characters are, ironically, the grasshoppers. At the beginning of the movie, when the grasshoppers leave the anthill, one of the grasshoppers yells, "Yee-haw!"; this really had an impression on Gracie, so she now says "Yee-haw" at random moments throughout the day, usually when she gets excited about something. It's very cute and definitely takes other people by surprise!

Other: She is really enjoying coloring and usually only colors on paper now. :) She even draws objects (although they still just look like scribbles). But I'll say, "Do you want to draw a butterfly?" and then she'll scribble on a corner of the paper and say, "wuh-ly!" And then later, when she shows someone else, she points to the same place and tells them it's a butterfly! She also asks for specific colors (because I'm not brave enough yet to give them all to her at once) and is very polite about asking for "a-nuh wun" (another one).

The master at work

She has also started doing a cheesy smile when we tell her to smile, and it looks a little something like this:

That dress she is wearing is one that my family bought for my oldest niece, Ashlee (who's 14 now), when we went to Hawaii when I was 13. It's been worn by my sister's 3 girls, and my mom brought it for Gracie last month. We think it looks adorable (even though it's a tad big).

Dave has started teaching Gracie to count, but she doesn't quite get it yet (which we're fine with--we realize she's only 2!). It's really funny to listen to them count something together, because it goes something like this: (Dave in italics; Gracie regular)
Shall we count? Mm-hmmm. Okay, one... Two...Seven No, three. Say, "Three..." Seven Four Seven Five Seven Six Seven Seven Eight Eight Nine Nine Seven Ten! Good job! I guess the girl's partial to seven, huh?

Here are some other pictures of how she spends her days:

Lounging in her pool, with or without water

Riding in the nude! She's a wild one!

Lounging in her new "book nook"

And here's some of the most exciting news (at least for Mom & Dad):

Before

After

Anyone? Anyone? Gracie has been binky-free for a week and a half! I've been wanting to get rid of it for a long time and finally got up the courage after reading Joel & Aimee's blog about getting rid of the bink for their 2-year-old (and also seeking their expert advice on the matter). We cut off the ends of her pacifiers and then gave the damaged goods to her to suck on. She put them in her mouth and then pulled them out and looked at them funny, and then she put them on her table and just left them there (unheard of--if there's a binky in the room, she wants it in her mouth!). We told her they were broken and asked if she wanted to put them in the trash. She had no idea what the trash was, but obviously it sounded fun, so she said, "Please." So we took a family field trip out to the dumpster and she happily threw them in there, and then we all clapped for her. :) Then she went to bed without any complaint and slept through the night and everything! She still says, "Binky?" at least once a day, but then we say, "Where is it?" and she says, "Trash!" and then claps for herself, and the issue is settled! Thank you so much, Yates Family! We owe you one!