A little bit of Grace.

Just a few things about Grace lately...

- She's been really into copying Crush, the turtle from Finding Nemo. She walks around the house now saying, "woah, dude!"

- She calls her pink rubber ball a "socky ball" (soccer ball) and whenever she kicks it she proudly says, "I sock!"...which obviously sounds like she's saying something else. It makes me laugh every time.

- No matter what she is eating, she absolutely MUST have a plate for it. It could be just one fruit snack - and I don't mean one pack, I'm talking literally one individual fruit snack - and she will go get a tupperware (because thats the only cupboard within her reach) and use it for a plate. We end up with tupperware all over the house and I don't know which ones are actually dirty, so I end up washing all of our tupperware at least every two days or so.

- She's been the best helper with feeding Chipper. Sometimes I forget to fill his bowl but when I go to fill it, I see that Grace has already beat me to it! Sometimes she likes to just top his bowl off randomly throughout the day and ends up putting in a little too much food to the point where its spilling over the bowl onto the floor. At least I know Chipper won't go hungry with her around!

- She identifies everything by its color. It could be cars, flowers, anything, really. Everywhere we go she's constantly saying, "Wook! A wed one! A boo one! A weh-wo one!"

- She also says bye to everyTHING, emphasis on thing, because they are usually inanimate objects. (She usually works in the colors here too.) "Bye boo one!" We were at Target and she didn't know the name of the store and apparently saw red everywhere, so she just said, "Bye wed!"
- She loves playing doctor and especially loves checking up on the baby. She puts her stethoscope on my tummy to check the baby's heartbeat. It's pretty cute.

- A not so cute habit she's picked up lately is that she is always taking her diaper off. If she's not taking it off, she's reaching her hand down the back of her diaper...and you can guess how that turns out. I really need to get the ball rolling on potty training!

- And lastly, the phrase she probably uses the most throughout the day is, "Daddy work!" To which i respond, "yes, Daddy's at work." This one actually breaks my heart. Between working full time and going to law school full time, we don't get to see too much of Keith these days. Now, even if Keith leaves the house to walk Chipper, Grace automatically chimes in, "Daddy work!" We can't wait for him to graduate this spring so we can see him more often!

Checkin' out some turtles at Northpark mall. Big surprise - she named them all Crush!

Her first haircut! (About 2 weeks ago)

Filling up Chip's food bowl. Its a tough job but someones gotta do it.

Cutie pie.

Doctor Gracie in the house.

Fresh Start

I've been feeling really guilty at what a terrible job I've done documenting our lives this past year. I'm afraid we are going to look back at Grace's second year of life and it will just be a big fat blank. I try to jot down the cute things that Grace says and does in my journal but even that has been pretty sporadic.

So, I'm giving myself a fresh start. I want to start writing in my blog again! Not really for anyone else but myself. I unfortunately have a terrible memory and if I don't write things down, they're gone. I love being able to look back and see how things have changed and remember all that has happened in our lives - both good and bad.

These past few months, we've been going through a bit of a rough patch with Grace. The terrible twos, combined with 2nd molar teething and a transition to a toddler bed haven't exactly made for lots of moments I'd love to document. Honestly, there have been days that by 9 am, I'm ready to just go to bed and start over. But for every sleepless night and every tantrum, Grace has so many adorable moments that make it all worth it. Those are the moments I don't want to forget.

Grace is a high energy, independent, fun and spirited girl. She's sassy and smart. She loves to laugh and her beaming smile melts my heart. I can't wait for her to be a big sister and to watch our family grow.

Here's to a fresh start on this blog!