Updates on Gracie: A story in pictures

WARNING: This is a very long post. Feel free to just skip it or skim it if you don't have a couple of hours to read it! :)

I've been updating Gracie's blog lately (which you can access by clicking here or on the picture of her on the sidebar to the right), but I haven't done an official Grace Watch in a long time, and I don't know if I'll ever go back and do the ones I've missed. So I've decided to catch you all up on her last few months by finding cute pictures of her and using them to talk about her and what she's been up to lately. I'm doing it on this blog because, well, I've run out of ideas for things to post. So here we go!

March 2009 (January & February pictures are on the other computer, so we'll fill you in on those later)
She has become quite the artist and loves drawing with crayons, pencils, pens, and markers (the last two are very occasional, supervised incidents!). Here she is drawing a self-portrait (she asked for me to set up the mirror for her).

Her drawing is becoming much more controlled, and she can often identify shapes (and the letters a, b, or c [the only ones she knows so far]) in what she draws. Here is a triangle

and the letter a. Good, no?

She also passed through a stage where she was obsessed with a little pig stuffed animal given to her by her cousins Emmee & Kaybree. She would very carefully wrap it up in a blanket and hold an cuddle it, then take it for a walk in her doll stroller. Her obsession came about, in part, from watching Charlotte's Web over and over, so she would even sing songs to it from the movie. ("There must be something more to us than...you and me!") So cute! Here she is cuddling "Some Pig/Wilbur/Piggy" (her names for him).

and getting him ready for a walk.

One day, Dave's dad came over and helped us put up shelves and hang a bunch of pictures, which got Gracie very interested in hammers. We bought her a toy one, and she delights in pounding on everything in sight, including knees, toes, and pregnant tummies (hers and mine--she has a baby in her tummy too;) ).

We bought her a toy Tinkerbell cell phone whose main function has become "taking pictures" of everyone. There's one button you can push that makes a camera sound, so for quite some time she would go around the house and say, "Say cheese!" then push the button. I tell you what, I'm grateful that it doesn't really take pictures, because I'm sure there would be many, many unflattering pictures of me on there!

One morning I was ambitious and made French toast for Gracie and Dave, so here they are enjoying their feast together.

Towards the end of the month, we had to make a trip to San Francisco for Gracie to have a medical check-up (which went well), so after her appointment we went to Pier 39. We ate at Bubba Gump's, where Gracie got her meal served like this:

Cool, huh? We also thought she'd be excited about this statue of Spongebob, because her uncle J has exposed her to quite a few Spongebob episodes in her short life. But she was terrified. (And I must admit that I wasn't sad about that, if you know what I mean. I think you mothers do.)

And amongst all her activities, she found plenty of time to relax

and keep cool.

Now, on to April 2009!
More drawing/coloring

She got her first pair of big girl tennis shoes (aptly named "Ariel shoes")

She loves to be a little mommy, and even puts her baby in the high chair to feed him. (By the way, it's a boy baby, and his name is Bobby.)

Grammy & Gramps got her a watering can for Easter, and she loves to water our backyard grass and plants (as well as the sidewalk and her feet). (For more about our Easter celebrations, look here.) Such a great helper!

She has several routines that she goes through over and over throughout the day, and one of them is bedtime. She gets a pillow and blanket, lays down, squints her eyes, makes "snoring" noises, and then (literally, 2 seconds later) sits up and says, "Muh-molin'! Time-a get up now!" (i.e. "Good morning! Time to get up now!") She makes us do this with her quite frequently, too, and I tell you, I never knew that going to bed could be so exhausting! Here she is going through the routine with Daddy.

She also LOVES blowing/popping bubbles, and would do that all day if someone had enough breath to blow them for her. Here is our big girl blowing bubbles all by herself with her Dora no-spill bubbles from Easter.

May 2009
Dave has an old PDA that he doesn't use anymore, so he lets Gracie play with it (mostly with the drawing program it has). It's so funny to see a 2-year-old walking around like she's scheduling things on her Palm Pilot!

Coloring with Daddy (Dave is such an awesome dad, by the way, in case I've never mentioned that.) :)

One day I found her sitting like this, reading library books to her stuffed animals! Maybe we have a future teacher on our hands!

For Mother's Day, she and Dave surprised me with breakfast in bed before church (which is at 8:30 AM!)! I felt very spoiled and grateful, especially since they also gave me a homemade card (drawings by Gracie) and a beautiful Willow Tree statue.

I've been working out more recently, usually after Gracie goes to bed, but this day she happened to be awake and wanted to work out just like me. She did a pretty good job, too! (Obviously, please ignore how I look in both this picture and the Mother's Day picture).

Just being cute as we get ready to go to church. (Speaking of church, she still loves Nursery and can barely stand to wait until Sacrament meeting is over before running to "play toys!" She's getting pretty good at being able to tell us what they talked about, who she played with, and what they had for snack, too.)

For Easter, she got a Suzy's Zoo book about the animals having a picnic, so she likes to have her own picnics at home. She lays out a blanket, gets a plate and fork, and often invites one of us to join her while we eat the imaginary special of the day (which is usually burritos). Such a cutie!

I can't believe how long and thick her hair is getting! We've still never cut it or evened it out, but that's because her curls hide the fact that her hair is uneven, and it's so beautiful! It goes about halfway down her back, and I've had a lot of fun coming up with different ways of styling it. :)

She finally got to start swimming in her little pool in the backyard towards the end of May, and she loves her time out there.

She even convinced me to swim with her one day! (Yeah, it was a tight fit, but she was absolutely delighted!)

June 2009 (so far)
Can you tell she's been wearing her pretty pink flip flops in the sun a lot?! We also had mommy/Gracie pedicures (courtesy of Mommy) and got "pretty pinks" on our toes. Fun, huh?

Again, she is so sweet with her baby and loves to carry him around and feed him. I can't wait to see how she does with our baby when she's born! I'm sure she'll have the normal jealousy and frustration from not getting as much attention, but I really think she'll be a big help to me with the baby. :)

It rained for a few minutes one afternoon, and she was SOOOO excited about it!

She loves wearing this hand-me-down from cousins Emmee and Kaybree. (See here for a cute video of her thanking them for it.)

Okay, that's the end of the pictures for now. Other updates:

• Gracie has learned to do somersaults and is very good at them. She can also do the splits almost perfectly. We think we'll sign her up for gymnastics in the next couple of years! :)
• She is learning to get herself dressed and does very well with it.
• She is not potty training yet, partly because she doesn't really seem that interested and partly because I'm scared to death to start. Any ideas, suggestions, condolences, or advice (especially about how to know when she's ready) would be appreciated. Thanks.
• She thinks everyone has a "Katie" in their tummies, so don't be offended if she ever pats you on the tummy and says "Katie." I just hope we can convince her that everyone else's Katies won't turn into real, live babies like Mommy's will. :)

Alright, I'm exhausted. I'll try to start doing Grace Watches again soon (on Grace's blog), but for now, I'm done! I hope you've enjoyed getting caught up on our little angel!