18 Months

Newborn Gracie Jo chillaxin.

Gracie turns 18 months old in three days! I cannot believe how big she has gotten, how smart she is, and especially how fast the time has gone! Her personality has emerged, and she is such a sweet and helpful girl. Here is my baby, in a nutshell:

Eight months

Mom and Dad's favorite traits:

• She's SO helpful. She loves to be involved in everything. Doing dishes? She wants to be sitting on the counter watching (or emptying the nearest cabinet, giving me clean dishes to wash!). Doing the laundry? She loves to hand the dirty laundry to me, or take the wet laundry from me and put it in the dryer. She even takes her dirty diapers from me or Dad and puts them in the trash can! Whenever she's done with the task her face lights up and she claps for herself.
• She sings and dances all the time. It doesn't matter where the music is coming from, she'll grin and start dancing. If it takes us a while to answer our cell phones, it's probably because we're watching her dance to the ring tone! She spent a couple of days last week with Grandma, who has a dog that Gracie loves. For two days after playing with Grandma and her puppy Gracie walked around our apartment singing "Puppypuppypuppypuppypuppy!" After a while, she also came up with her own "Puppy" dance. She pretty much marched in place, moving her legs almost up to her waist and singing her puppy song. She usually did her dance until she fell, she was dancing so hard! Of course, her favorite place to do her puppy dance is on the loveseat, with the cushions removed. I've tried to get a video of her dance, but it's so quick and spontaneous I don't know if I ever will.
• This kid SLEEPS. Last night she went to bed at 10 p.m. it's now 11 a.m. and she's still asleep. And she'll still take a 2-3 hour nap around 3 this afternoon too!
• Gracie loves water. I'm pretty sure she was supposed to be born with gills and fins. If she sees something full of water, she'll crawl in. We got a free turtle sandbox and filled it with water instead of sand! When we went to the Mall of America she tried to jump into the water fountain, and once we went to Grandma's to pick her up and she was IN the bathroom sink-fully clothed! At our church's 25th anniversary celebration on the riverfront she and Daddy went wading in the river, and she ended up in to her elbows, and even went under! So much for wading.
• She is always happy. People meet her and are completely entertained by her giddiness and I am constantly asked "Is she always like this?" Y.E.S. The rare times when she gets a little crabby can be solved by putting her down for a nap (or taking her out of her carseat-she hates her carseat), and she usually goes down for a nap pretty easily.
• Her independence is amazing. She could entertain herself all day if she needed to. She just goes from one toy/place to another talking to herself (or her toys?).
  
• My favorite-She's become a cuddlebug. If Daddy or I sit on the floor, she will bring her blankie over, put it in our lap and snuggle in. She'll get entranced by whatever is on the t.v. (seriously, video games, cartoons, chick flick, action movie, it doesn't matter) and just cuddle. Sometimes it lasts five minutes, sometimes longer. Usually when she gets up and leaves, she'll be back in a little while to cuddle longer. When she's sleepy, she'll sit there for a half hour or more. I L.O.V.E. it.
  

Eleven months

Of course there are a few less desirable traits, like spitting her food out on the carpet when she doesn't like something, but these are few. Our days with Gracie are so much fun, neither of us can remember what life was like before she made it worth it.


Enjoying hot dogs and ketchup for breakfast.
Seventeen months.