New words!

Grace's vocabulary is expanding so quickly these days! Just this week she's started using two syllable words (and phrases). So far, it's:

• leopard - a puzzle piece from her alphabet puzzle book
  
• purple - Daddy told her she was wearing a purple shirt this morning
• sit down! - What Mama and Daddy say when she's standing on her rocking chair. And now what she tells herself.
• grandma - We're pretty sure we've heard this one a few times now.

Ok, so there's a handful of other two syllable words she's mastered for quite some time, but they all consist of double-syllables - mama, dada, mimi, coco, and so on. And of course, it'd probably take a parent's ear to translate from Gracie-speech, but to us it's amazing to hear!

She's also started singing recognizable songs now. The first is from a lullaby CD we have called Sounds like Fun. It's got a phonetics song on it that goes something like:

apple, apple, ah, ah, ah
apple, apple, ah, ah, ah
baby, baby, bah, bah, bah
....

A week or so ago, I caught her walking around going "ap, ap, ah ah ah" in a singsong voice. And a few days ago, she's starting picking up a boardbook we have that's a humurous adaptation of Skip to My Lou, and singing "lou lou". That's as far as she gets, but it's pretty cute.

It's a hat!

Gracie likes putting things on her head.

This is her nativity scene, just in case you can't tell.

The Joys of Motherhood

I've been sick all week, and haven't been able to read or sing to Grace as talking very much sets off my cough, but this morning I woke up from a nap to hear Grace knocking at our door. I'd opened the door and squatted down to talk to her, and she ran in and started to sit in my lap, but then changed her mind and ran off again. About twenty seconds later she was back with a rather large alphabet picture book and plopped down to read with Mama. It's nice to know you're missed!

Gracie and her Babies

This is how she's gone to sleep every night since we got back from Christmas. Until this past week... but you'll have to wait for a new photo of that one. :-)

And it can never be just one baby. It's "bay-beee bay-bee" over and over till she has her armful.

Thank you Aunt Sarah-Jean!

Ah-mi!

While we were at a friend's this week, Grace started clasping her hands together and emphatically saying, "ah-mi!". I was at a total loss as to what this meant until yesterday - I was talking on the phone with Caleb, and at the end of the call we prayed together. Right after I said "amen", Grace clasped her hands together and affirmed "ah-mi!"

Our first tree!

Since we've never been home for Christmas, Caleb and I haven't bought a tree since we've been married. But now that Grace is getting older, decorating sounded much more exciting this year. So on Black Friday, I picked up a "collapsible" tree from Fred Meyer for half price. We don't have much storage space, so we liked the small box, but it is a kinda funny looking tree. The entire thing is a big spiral, so when Grace tocuhes the bottom of the tree, the entire tree wiggles. We thought it made an appropriate young married's Christmas tree though, and with the lights and a smattering of ornaments, it looks just about perfect.

I also found Grace a little Christmas dress, and couldn't resist trying it on her a bit early. :-D