Its a.........

WooHoo! Merry Christmas, everyone!

Two year pictures

Alisa once again outdid herself and took Grace's two year pictures (our tradition thus far has been to take them on the day of Grace's birthday). I will always be in awe of how she continues to capture the heart and personality of our pumpkin. I thought for sure we didn't get a good picture; Grace did not seem to smile much, would not sit still, and on top of that I was nauseous. But she did it again and everyone should know how simply amazing my friend is. Thanks again, Alisa.

WOOHOO! Gracie turned TWO!

Our little pumpkin turned two. I can't believe she has been a part of our lives for two years already. What an amazing two years it has been!
Grace, you are:

27 pounds (25th percentile) and 35 inches tall (75th percentile).
Wearing 2T in clothes for length but need an 18 month in the waist. You wear a 7 or 8 shoe.
Super into books, coloring books, and sticker books. You think you can read and make up words while you read your books.
Such a big helper. You LOVE to help put away groceries, throw away trash, bring us things from the other room, etc...
Still a pretty finicky eater. You like to eat a few bites and then move on to the next activity.
Singing "Twinkle, Twinkle", "Jesus Loves Me," and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" by yourself pretty well.
Not a big "fit thrower" but when you do it is hard not to laugh at the drama.
Starting to develop quite the imagination. At dinner with Brooke the other night, you two decided you were going to the grocery store. You even buckled your seat belt and told Brooke, "I hafta get my bags now!"
Counting to 20 but skipping 14 and 16.
Talking so much that sometimes I miss the drooling phase. But only sometimes.
Trying to brush your teeth by yourself but mostly just chew on the brush and drool.
Sporting three new teeth. 
Trying to potty train, but we are still taking it slow.
Showing a very compassionate side to your personality. When I hurt my back last week you kept asking "Mama, what happened? You hurt chur back? It's okay mama." We even caught you holding your back and telling us your back hurt. So cute.
Super sensitive and hate for us to poke fun of you or repeat something cute you say.  

My favorite things you say:
"Mama, read Bible tells so, pweese." You call your Bible "Bible-tells-so" like it's one long word. Love it.
"It sure is!"
"Bye guys, see ya wait-er!"
"C'mere daddy, give Gwacie a hug!"
You call Santa, Santa Closet. Oh my, I will be said when you say it the right way.

You love to go visit Papa at work and watch Sesame Street on Youtube with him. 

You also love to say, "Papa, scwatch my back. Pweeeeese."

Happy Birthday, sweet pumpkin. We could not have asked God for a better fit for our family. We hope you always know how much you are loved and cherished and prayed for. We consider ourselves the luckiest parents to have you as our little girl. Have an awesome year three!

I don't want to forget...

I have had an incredibly long and very full day. I spent the morning at doctors appointments, a sonogram, and bloodwork then booked it to the Civic Center to start set up for Holiday Happening. I got home about a half hour ago and wanted to put Grace to bed but she wanted daddy to "rocky" her to sleep so I obliged. I couldn't take not holding her so I cut in and proceeded to have the most precious conversation with my daughter that went something like this:

"Grace, who are you holding?" I whispered.

"My Elmo. Him's red. Red Shirt. Super Grover," she whispered back. We went back and forth with the whispering for the next ten minutes.

"Did you have fun at PDO today?"

"Friends. Zayden and da fish. No pushin' friends. Share friends. Pwayin' on da slide. No pushin' friends."

"Did you feed the fish today?"

"Yes. Pwayin' wiff da fish. Silly fish. Them's silly fish."

"Did you play with Mrs. Kerry? (Her teacher).

"No." (Oh, well okay!)

"Did you have fun with Daddy tonight?"

"Daddy and Gwacie pwayin' the dwums to-gev-er. Fun drums. Daddy fixin po-da-do. (Mr. Potato Head). Big nose, mus-ash, Daddy fix-in him."

"Did you color with Daddy in your coloring book?"

Daddy color orange. Gwacie pink and bah-wound. Daddy color turkeys orange and Super Grover orange. Daddy loves Gwacie."

"Daddy sure does love Gracie. Who else loves Gracie?"

"Aunt Cher-Cher loves Gwacie. Nana loves Gwacie. Papa at work. Papa in truck. Papa loves Gwacie. Mimi go night-night. Mimi in Dallas. Mimi loves Gwacie."

"And Mommy loves Gracie so much."

"Yes. Mommy loves Gwacie."

Yes. Yes. Yes. Mommy loves Gracie.
I think God gives me these moments with her to remind me of His goodness and how deep His love is for me. I could have sat there for hours rocking her and listening to every word she said. I smiled the whole time, thinking "Am I really so lucky to be this little girl's mom?" She makes the long days worth it and I pray when she is older she will still sit with me before bed and tell me everything that is on her mind. I pray I have the patience and understanding to just listen and love, just as God does with me.

I love you so much, Gracie girl. Sleep tight.

Scrunchy- McScruncherson

Take One

Take Two

Take Three

My personal favorite, Take Four

Take Five

Take Six

And Seven....

Finally, a smile

Recently, Grace has decided that scrunching up her face is the only way to smile. Good luck next week on her two year pictures, Alisa. You have your work cut out for you!!

23 months- again, I'm behind!

I cannot stay caught up these days! Partly because I spend a large amount of time chasing around an ALMOST TWO YEAR OLD. So hard to believe, but the princess is 23 months (actually 23.5 months at this point).

This month Grace:

Is very into Blue's Clues. She cries when it is over and says, "No more Bwoos Cwoos. More Bwoos Cwoos, Mama."  Nana bought her a DVD for our Mexico trip and she has been hooked ever since. All I can say is I miss Sesame Street. That goof in the orange shirt is just too much for me to handle.

Is saying the funniest things. My favorites are, "Gwace, be tareful, might fall," and "What's daaatttttt??? after every noise she hears. It's very drawn out and dramatic. And adorable.

Laughs hysterically at the table when her daddy feeds her. I love to listen to them off in their own world laughing at nothing more than each others' funny faces.

Loves to eat apple slices and ritz crackers with laughing cow cheese for a snack.  

Is obsessed with sticker books and likes to affix the stickers to our arms, legs, and foreheads. If I find one more sticker in my bed or stuck to the carpet I may scream.

Will sit and color all day long. She loves when we draw a smiley face and write her name. Good thing she isn't more particular.

Loves her friends at PDO and can name everyone of them.

Is saying about 50 percent of the alphabet on any given day. Mostly we get A, C, H, I, K, L, M, O, P, Q, R, T, V, W... up above da world so high, wike a dimon in da guys... Genius that she puts the two together being as they are the same melody? I should think so.

Is repeating everything. I mean everything. Even the things we don't want her to repeat.

Loves to sing "Jesus loves me", "Twinkle, Twinkle", and an Elmo song about walking. Actually, Destiny's Child did a guest appearance on Sesame Street and it was their song but I digress...

Is still absolutely enamored with her Nana and Papa.

Enjoy the pics, all taken from a camera phone!

Pushing

Last week at PDO, Grace got into a bit of trouble. My sweet, kind-hearted, never-been-in-time-out, precious child decided she was going to start pushing.
I picked her up on Tuesday and asked the teacher how the day went, expecting the typical "perfect as usual!" answer. Instead she told me that Grace got put in time out TWICE for pushing.

Pushing.

My child.

We don't push her. She doesn't have any siblings to push or that push her around.

Not possible.

Miss Kerry told me that some of the other kids have been in trouble before for pushing and not to stress.

Right.

When we got in the car, I asked Grace what happened and the conversation went something like this...
"Grace, Miss Kerry told me you went in time out today."
Grace: "Uh-huh."
 "Why did you go to time out?"
Grace: "I pushin'."
"Why did you push?"
Grace: "I push Zayden. I push Brasher. I pushin'."
"Grace, that was a bad choice to push. Sweet girls hug their friends and don't push."
Grace: "I sorry. I pushin'."

The rest of the night was spent taking every opportunity to tell Grace about bad choices, why we don't push, we need to hug our friends, blah, blah, blah (even I was getting tired of the "teaching opportunities").
The next morning I dropped Grace off and lectured her the whole way into class and assured her teacher she had received an earful about being sweet and not to worry.
When I picked her up that afternoon you can imagine my shock and surprise that she was put in time out again for pushing. Miss Kerry didn't seem to be stressed about it and even told me that Grace was actually sort of sweet even when she was pushing and sat in time out better than any kid she ever had.
Perfect.
Our conversation in the car went much the same as the day before, except that Brasher wasn't there that day, so she took all her frustration out solely on Zayden.  We spent the evening yet again talking to Grace about being sweet and how good girls hug and kiss their friends, not push. We told her she would have to go in time out and get a spanking if she pushed her friends again.
The next morning I nervously dropped her off and resisted the urge to call up to Calvary and see if she was in trouble. When I picked her up you can imagine my dismay when the teacher said she had to send Grace to time out AGAIN.
"Today she didn't push. I had to send her to time out for interrupting nap time. She wouldn't stop kissing and hugging Zayden and Brasher today and telling them she was sweet."
On the way home I couldn't stop smiling and didn't even think about giving her a lecture. Parenting is too much fun.

22 months

*I'm a bit behind. Grace is actually 23 months as of Monday but life has been a bit hectic!
 
Happy 22 months, Grace! Here is what you are up to these days:

You are officially weaned from the paci. We cut the end off one day and handed it back to you right before naptime. You said, "Paci? Bwoken?" a few times but kept sleeping with it until one day we told you broken paci's go in the trash and you threw it in there. I am so glad it went easier than I expected!

You love to run and go "running" around the living room every day.

My favorite thing you say right now: "You kiddin me? That's di-gust-ing."  And the other morning you said, "Mama, coffee, yummy, daddy, sleepin', work, kay?" in one long sentence.

I can't keep up with your words and phrases so I'm not going to try. You are talking constantly and think you can speak in full sentences. Since you don't know any "filler" words you say things like, "Mama-going-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-in-da-car-d-d-d-d-d-daddy-work-d-d-d-d-d-d-play-outside-d-d-d-d-d-morrow-okay?" I will have to get a video up here because I can't do justice to how cute it is on a keyboard.

We are trying to potty train and not stress about it. It's neat.

Our first and only successful attempt thus far on the potty. You were so proud; we aren't sure what has happened since!

You lay on a napmat at PDO and like to spread your "bwankets" out in the living room at home for us to lay on.

We have a new schedule for the fall that I am getting used to. You are at PDO Mon-Thursday from 9-2:30. As much as it bothered me to do four days a week, I have found myself loving that the afternoons are ours and I soak in every minute I can. I have had to be so much more disciplined at work to get it done and not bring any home, and so far it's going well.

You will go to your room and bring us a diaper and wipes when you are wet. You also lay down by yourself so we can change you.

You LOVE bath time and would take a bath three times a day if we let you.

You are singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." It melts my heart. Again, I need a video.

You say okay? after everything. You also do this funny head bob with each word that is hilarious.

You like for me to sit on the floor in the kitchen and spin around with you.

You are giving lots of hugs and say "A tiss? And a hug?" all the time.

Anytime we give you food you immediately sit on the floor. You learned this at PDO and it cracks me up. 

Every night since we have weaned you from the paci, you have to sleep with at least three blankets and seven animals in the bed. We can hear you on the monitor after we lay you down counting and naming all of your animals. You don't even have a nightlight so I'm not sure how you can see anything!

Excuse and enjoy the poor mobile phone quality of all the pictures!

Giving us a daily dose of sass

I love this face- you did not care for this outfit and would not smile for the camera.

You still love riding in your wagon- even if it is inside!

Reading a book and trying to go potty. At least you are adorable when you sit up there!

you love to play drums with your daddy

this is what 90% of our pictures look like. I can't get a non-cheese smile out of you to save my life

"baking" with mama in the kitchen

you refuse to ride in the baby part of the grocery basket. it's either underneath, in the actual basket, or pushing your own little kid basket. (that only happens when daddy is with us)

Labor Day Fun

We had an amazing weekend with our friends Ryan and Traci and their sweet girls, Addison and Kamryn. They moved to the Tyler area before Kamryn was born and we have only seen them one time since. So needless to say we had a lot of catching up to do. We had a perfect plan: do as little as possible! We hung out and laughed and grilled burgers and watched Elmo at least five times and did as little as possible for the two days they stayed with us. We had so much fun you guys- we love and miss you!

Grace had no trouble smiling for Traci and her camera

Playing in the backyard with the pool and slide. They did not want to come in to eat!

My sweet friend!

Ryan, master chef of grilled asparagus and awesome burgers!

Best buds for a long time.

These girls had so much fun playing together. Kamryn is insanely sweet and encouraging and Miss Addi is so smart and thoughtful. Ryan and Traci have done an amazing job with these two!

Bath time fun

The girls would watch a movie after bath time before they would go to bed. It was very important to Addi that all the girls be laying down on their mats having a good time!

I played a third of mine and Aaron's set on Saturday night and enjoyed the rest with our friends. Alison and Stuart met us up there and Traci and Alison finally got to meet and catch up on their love of running. Alison is running the Tyler marathon and Ryan and Traci are running the half.  I love when my friends love each other, too!

Girls playing dress up. Grace was content in her pj's; the poor thing plays dress up every day with me so she was not into it. Kamryn loved to tell Addi and Grace how "boo-ti-ful" they looked. So cute.

Ryan and Traci, we love and miss you guys so much. We never laugh harder than when we are with you guys! You are a reminder to not take for granted the people you love. Thanks for staying with us and sharing your sweet girls!