Top Ten Daily Conversation in Our House

10. Me or Trent: "Gracelyn, do you need to go potty?" G: "No."
....Few minutes later....G: "Potty! Peep-peep! or Poop!"
Clean the potty and then get the treasured M&M. G: "Yank you."

9. Gracelyn, while carrying a phone or remote or book: "Four, Fife, Six"

8. Gracelyn, while sitting at the table eating a meal: "Home"
Me or Trent: "No, I'm not going to hold you until after I am done eating."
At the end of most meals, she ends up sitting in her Daddy's lap with him feeding her cause Mommy eats SLOW.

7. Me, while cooking: "Gracelyn, please stop pulling down my pants. I will hold you in just a minute."

6. Gracelyn makes multiple requests a day to watch "pat-pat" (Little Ensteins) or to play on the "i-pa" (I-pod) which she can manage to play music and pull up games like "pow-pow" (Angry Birds) all by herself.

5. G: "My!" Translation: "I am a big girl now and I am capable of doing this myself without your help, thank you very much"

4. Gracelyn, when going down for her nap or bed: "Pac?" (Paci) which was weaned over a month ago. Weird she has started asking for it again. Me: "Baby, mommy doesn't have a paci for you. They are all gone." G: "All goine? Purse." Me: "No, baby. I don't have one in my purse. Sleep tight" ...closing the door hearing G say "pac?"

3. Gracelyn: "Su-ee" (Sonny) who is my sister's dog who came with the family to visit us at Christmas. She has a little toy dog that has affectionately become our own "su-ee". We really like stuffed animals for our family pets :)

2. Trent: "Gracelyn, who loves you?" G: "Mom" said with lots of giggles and taunting. Trent: "What! No, Dad!" Followed by tons of tickles and laughter. Trent: "Whose girl are you?" Gracelyn: "Mom...hehe" More of the same...

1. Our precious bedtime routine: First, prayer by dad. Then secrets from dad...whispers like "I had so much fun playing with you today" "I love you more than I thought possible" or "I like seeing you grow up." Gracelyn returns her own secrets: "fa-fa-fa" Then a song with mommy that Gracelyn has started singing with me: "Gracelyn Mae, mommy's girl, Gracelyn Mae, daddy's world, mommy loves you, daddy loves you, Jesus loves you too, mommy loves you, daddy loves you, Jesus loves you too. Gracelyn Mae, trust in the Lord, Gracelyn Mae, will you trust in the Lord, mommy loves you, daddy loves you, Jesus loves you too, mommy loves you, daddy loves you, Jesus loves you too." Me: "Night, night baby. Love you." G whispers with a wave: "bye"

An Overview in Pictures

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This Long Lost Blogger

Wow, I can't believe it has been several months since I have blogged. Everytime I felt the urge to blog, I was so overwhelmed with all the things I wanted to say that I just never did it. How sad! It was so easy when Gracelyn was little to note all the new things that she did....they came a little bit at a time. Now, it seems that she is learning ten new things a day. Who can keep track? So instead of trying to cover all that I've missed in the past few months, here are a few of my favorite things happening now...

I LOVE when Trent and Gracelyn share secrets...he whispers sweet thoughts in her ear, things like "I love you more than I thought possible" (tear!) and "You are so pretty." Then she whispers little jabbers in his ear and asks for more secrets. Absolutely precious!

Gracelyn loves playing with her dolls, especially a soft pink doll that she sleeps with each night. She prefers that her dolls sit in the high chair with her and she diligently feeds them and shares her drink.

Sleep comes so easily for her these days, which is a bit surprising when I think back to the struggle it was when she was little. For naps and bedtime, we cuddle for a couple minutes, say our prayers and then I lay her down in her crib. She wraps her arms around her doll and I snuggle her blanket around her back. Sometimes she even waves bye bye as I leave the room.

She is talking more and more. She will mimic most words that we encourage her to say but most of the time she just gets out the first syllable. Spontaneously she says "wa-wa" (water) as she points to her mouth, "doll", "pa" (paci) again as she points to her mouth, "malk" (milk), "side" (outside), "bye bye", "all done", "mo" (more), "shu" (truck), "pow" (referring to a game on the Ipod), "bonk" (when she bumps her head), "book", "Bob" (our vacuum), "poo poo", "ba" (banana), "baby", "toot", "Pops", "Paul" (Uncle Paul), "au" (Autumn). She loves to moo like a cow and woof like a dog. She just started making a great meow sound too.

She stills love to be outdoors and we often take trips to the garden to pick "tom" (tomatoes). She likes riding in her wagon and carrying the water buckets. She also loves her stroller, so we takes lots of trips up and down the long driveway. One of her favorite places to hang outside is in the driver's seat of her daddy's truck!

She really enjoys playing hide and seek, esp with her daddy.

About a month ago she learned to run. That was really fun to witness!

Our girl still loves to watch Little Einsteins. I don't know if she will ever tire of it! She has no interest in any other TV shows...not even Clifford the Big Red Dog!

She has learned all of her body parts. Eyes, nose, ears, hands, feet, fingers, hair, toes, chin, cheeks, forehead, neck, shoulders, knees, bottom. And her favorite "bow" (elbow).

She is a bag lady, just like her Aunt JJ. She carries around various bags, walks to the door and waves bye bye as if she is off to work for the day.

She likes to help with housework...putting wet clothes in the dryer, sweeping the floor, opening and closing the dishwasher.

She has a few favorite books...a Veggie Tales book, The Belly Button book, and Goodnight Moon. But the biggest hit right now is "Hello World." It has various paintings of children's faces from around the world saying hello in their language. She chooses one kid out of about 25 on the cover and then shuffles through the pages until she finds the same kid.

Ok, so this was supposed to be brief. There are so many sweet memories that I want to store away in my memory box. Gracelyn brings so much joy into our lives and I am so proud of who God has created her to be!

Our Little Spring Flower

One of our only Easter pictures

Trying to get 11 month pics

From here on out it's just enjoying the outdoors...

"See the cows mom"

Eating a leaf

Even her ears are beautiful to me

Oh the hair :)

My Favorite Things

Despite the fact that I only publish posts about once a month, I actually create posts all the time in my head. I bookmark precious little moments in my head and wish I could skip all the steps required to actually document them here and just have them appear. But alas, I will try to recall them now even though I know I will miss several. Here are some of my favorite moments with or things about my family in the past couple months...

• Gracelyn took her first steps. It was past Gracelyn's bedtime and somehow we were all up still playing on the floor with her. I had a toy in my hand and she was standing with her feet firmly planted and decided to step toward me. First it was two steps and then it went up to five steps at one time. We were all clapping and dancing together! She was so proud and I don't think we could have been any more proud of her. It was such a special moment for Trent and I to share together. So that was about three weeks ago. She's only walked a few times since. Now she thinks it's funny to fall forward into my arms or fall onto her knees rather than take steps. Oh well, I'm not going to rush her. She will be up on two legs soon enough and for now we have enough trouble catching her when she crawls.
• I love springtime here! Just as soon as I thought I couldn't handle another day of snow and freezing temperatures, the spring rain came and hints of green started to appear and birds started to chirp and I could begin to feel humidity in the air again. Within days, the yard is full of bright green grass and buds are on the trees. The cows are back up close to the house eating their fill and Gracelyn loves to bang on the window and yell at them. Now that we live here, I actually have fertile soil and space to plant a vegetable garden. I have the desire, now I just need the knowledge. Fortunately, there are a ton of people around here who know what they are doing and are willing to help me along.
• Our little peanut loves basketball. For the past few weeks, I have been going to this killer work-out at the local gym a couple times a week. We all three come into town and take turns watching Gracelyn while the other works out. One of her favorite things to do is play with the basketballs. She wraps her arms around the ball, picks it up and twirls in a circle on her bottom. She rolls it back and forth to me and will crawl across the court to chase it down. If she is anything like her daddy, she could be a great player one day.
• She's made a big accomplishment by going to sleep with less and less assistance. For the longest time, I put Gracelyn to sleep in my arms in our living room. A couple weeks ago she started becoming more unsettled in my arms so I laid her down in her crib sooner than usual. We had tried this before with no success but this time she settled pretty quickly and went to sleep well. She even slept through the night without waking to nurse, which has continued for too long! She still needs a little reassurance that we are close by and in fact her daddy seems to have the magic touch needed for her to drift off to sleep. Because I am sleeping all night, I have been able to get up earlier in the mornings, sometimes even before she wakes up, instead of lounging in my bed with her until 8 or 9. I love this routine cause it gives me quiet time and the day seems longer and more pleasant.
• I am so grateful for God's movement at our church recently. Between Celebrate Recovery meetings, powerful sermons, revival and incredible worship, my heart is growing in expectation of encountering Him every time we are together with other believers. I have had some amazing times of personal moments with Him alone but I need more discipline to set aside the concentration and time needed to really seek God. He has been so patient with me and is drawing me closer.
• I absolutely love to play with Trent and Gracelyn. I love to hear her squeal when he is on the chase for her. She crawls to me and buries her face in my neck, all the while laughing and looking back to see how close he is getting. When he finally tickles her, she falls back into him, begging for more. Sometimes while I am making dinner, Trent will bring her up behind me and she will tap me on the shoulder. I turn around with a bunch of tickles and kisses and we will repeat it all over again. It makes her crazy when Trent blows on the bottoms of her feet.
• Gracelyn enjoys baby dolls especially one doll in particular. She squeezes and kisses her and tries to put on her booties and pacifier. She has even started pointing to her eyes and ears when prompted.
• I love to hear her baby chatter. When she isn't busy saying "mamamdadadadmam" then she is saying all kinds of words that start with B. Every now and then she will repeat some tough ones like "chicken" and "purple" and "blue" but it's a rarity and special.
• Our girl is a meal eater. She will try new foods easily (which I know may not last forever) so I am trying to take advantage and introduce her to as many new tastes as possible. She is doing much better with grains, esp white flour. When we give her whole wheat pancakes, she seems to get a little cranky and slows down just a bit. For now, I am thankful she isn't vomiting everywhere. Lately, she's signing when she wants more or when she's done. The biggest meal time battle so far is teaching her to place her cup back on the table rather than throwing it on the floor.
• Her favorite thing to share with others is her pacifier. Most people give it the ole "that's slimy with slober" look but take it anyway ;)
• I am quite relieved that Gracelyn has gotten more and more comfortable with being away from me. She spends time with her daddy a couple times a week while I am away from home tutoring a high schooler and they have a blast together. And at church there are several people she trusts to take her without me around. She and I both need this time. In a couple weeks, my mom and dad will be up and plan to watch her all day while Trent and I are at a conference. I am very hopeful that she will do well.
• Gracelyn and I both enjoy watching "The Little Einsteins." I am learning about composers and places all over the world and artwork....she loves blasting off in rocket!
• Finally, I have had an overwhelming sense of gratitude in my heart toward God. Between having some personal connections with the earthquake in Haiti to watching friends grieve the loss of their baby, I've been reminded that there are few certainties in life. Part of me is tempted to stop in my tracks out of fear but thanks to God for teaching me and reminding me to not let the uncertainties of tomorrow steal away the joy of today. God is worthy of all my trust and honor and respect, no matter what comes my way. Still learning how to do this.

Thanks for making it this far. :)

Nine and Ten Months

So I am behind a couple months and had hoped to write about the last couple months. But for now...here's pictures. Words to come later.

Looking at the snow

Quack!

Looking little in her new carseat

Sharing a bell pepper with Piggy

Eating yogurt

Pee shiver!

Hoping that if we put on sandals and swim suit that spring will come!

Note Kado with my shoes on

Eating meat for the first time

Peek- a- boo