Grace Watch #11 (April 14-May 4, 2008)

(I really need to figure out this html stuff. The first way I posted the pictures, with Picasa, didn't always display them. So I posted them through blogger, and now sometimes each picture shows up twice. I tried to correct that, and it messed up the whole thing, so I'm leaving it the second way. So, some of you may get to see 2 pictures. Lucky you! :) )

Happy 22 months to Gracie today! I can't believe she'll be 2 years old in only 2 months! (Wow, lots of 2's!)

A child after my own heart--she loves dessert!

New Words: I don't think I can remember all of her new words, (1) because it's been so long since I did a Grace Watch, and (2) because she is picking up several words a day now. It's so exciting! Plus, the words she's been saying for months are becoming a lot clearer. For example, "I love you" used to be "wuv wuh", and now it's "I wub woo"; plus, it seems like she understands what it means more now. It's pretty heart-melting for Dave and me. Okay, here are some of the words she's learned (and her pronunciations, if different than the real pronunciation): bottle (bobble, as in bottle of shampoo), honey (uhn-ee!), lady (lay-lee), ice cream (i-noom), Lilo (Luh-lo, of Lilo & Stitch), pickle (pipple), knee (neh), chocolate (chaw-dit) {confession: I just gave her some chocolate so she'd say "chocolate" and I could write the pronunciation. Yes, I almost always have chocolate (albeit dark chocolate) on hand.}, ribbon (bibbon), ribbit (as in what a froggie says), boat (butt, heehee), chug-chug (chuh-chuh), little (lillo), giraffe (jaff), CD (dee-dee), horse (huss), eat (it), and the names of all my AZ family members. I should spare you all those, but it's really cute how she pronounces some of them: Paul (Pow), Rob (Row), Jenni (Nenni), Ashlee (Arlee), Blake (Bik), Spencer (Beh-ber), Emmee (Uhmee), Kaybree (Bay-bee), Chase (Chis). And she thought so highly of Chase (who's almost 3) that she made up sign language to go with him. She says his name and kinda rubs her hands together. (Actually, I'm wondering if she remembers me showing her "cheese" once or twice, which is twisting your hands back and forth; "Chase" kinda sounds like "cheese"....)

Chase & Grace--a match made in heaven!

She's also learned some prepositions (for lack of a better name for the group of words!): on, off (op), in, out (ous), up, down (nown). AND, one of the most exciting developments is that she has started to put words together, which is the next step towards sentences! The first one was "Light, on!" and the other one was "Gate, open!" (referring to the baby gate we have). :)

New Foods: I think we already covered them in the new words section: pickle, ice cream, and chocolate. And she asks for popcorn like every day--she could eat it all day long and not get tired of it. We had some on the train ride at the Phoenix Zoo, and I swear she ate twice her weight in it by the time the ride was over!

New Injury: Amazingly enough, she hasn't had any injuries this past month! Yay! (Now that I said that, something's gonna happen...:S)

***Correction: I just remembered! On Saturday we were shopping at Target. Gracie was sitting in the cart and all of a sudden got this really startled look on her face and looked at us like, "What happened?" She kinda started moaning, and I said, "What's wrong? Do you have an owie?" She made the sign for owie and said, "Owa!" She was moving her mouth weird, and I said to Dave, "I wonder if she bit her tongue...?" and he said, "Oh yeah, could be." I said, "Do you have an owie on your tongue?" and stuck out my tongue, and then she said, "Tunn, owa!" Then she started crying! I picked her up and held her, but then she started crying even more. (Dave's theory: she knows I'm a softie and will be {overly} sympathetic, so she cries/complains more to me. I think he's right.) Anyway, Dave headed for the checkout while I went and got one last thing, and she cried all through the store as we went to meet him! For some kids that might not seem strange, but Gracie hardly ever cries when she gets hurt, so I was a little concerned. But Dave's theory proved to be right in this case: sure enough, as soon as I put her in the cart when we got to Dave, she stopped crying and happily said, "Hi!" to Dave. That's what I get for trying to be a nurturing mother! Grrrrr...

Are you ready for swimsuit season? 'Cause we are!

New Skills: Daddy taught her how to load his gun! :) Okay, not as bad as it sounds, I promise! While we were in AZ, Dave had to do something, so he and his little brother bought Nerf guns that shoot little foam darts. Well, Dave taught Grace how to push them into the holes to load the gun, and she loves it! He shoots them all around the room, then she gathers them up and loads them in the gun. It's really a good system they've (he's) worked out.

She is also venturing into the world of singing. Every so often I'll hear her kind of humming or ahhh-ing along with music. We watched "Charlie & the Chocolate Factory" last week, and during one of the songs the Oompa Loompas sing, "Ooooo-oooh, oo-oo-oo-ooh!" and she repeated it. I'm so excited for her to start singing! And any time we sing or she hears music in church, she starts leading it with both hands. Apparently we have a future choir director on our hands!

Other News: In Arizona, Gracie went to Nursery with Chase and had lots of fun. He told me, "Ali, Gracie cried before [meaning after] you left, but I gived her a hug and kiss and she was okay." And she was! It was so cute! PLUS, they decorated pictures of ladybugs and got to play with real ladybugs during class! (I know, brave Nursery leaders!) So as soon as we got home, we hung up Gracie's ladybug picture on her newly-decorated bulletin board:

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(Those are pieces of red tissue paper glued to the paper.)

Also, while we were there, Chase (who speaks very well for his age) asked me a couple times, "Um, Ali, when will Gracie talk like this?", referring to how he talks, in sentences. I would laugh and say, "Probably in about a year!" and he'd say, "Oh, okay." I love how kids' minds work!

All done! Good for you for making it through that! Thank you for reading!