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!