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!