Stickers & bow-ties?

Grace loves wearing her headbands, though her usage is a little un-ordinary. And she's recently discovered the joy of stickers; Mama got her a pack last time we were at Michael's, and we stick them everywhere!

Airplanes, farms and ping pong balls....

Just a few more of Grace's favorite things! She's been fascinated with airplanes of late, and every time she hears one fly by, it's "ei-bee! ei-bee!" Which of course, means airplane. Most mornings (when Mama's feeling up to it) we take her little ride-on airplane for a walk around the complex and watch for airplanes. Unfortunately, it's been pretty cloudy of late, but we usually see at least one low enough to be visible. It's such fun entering into the joys of such a little person! Last week we went to the library and found a couple children's books on airplanes. They were both a bit disappointing - lots more pictures of kids than actual planes - but we've still enjoyed "reading" them.

Last Saturday we took Grace to a local community park and farm, and ever since she's been talking about the "fahm!" with all the oink's and quack's and cock-a-doodle-doo's that go along with it. I'm gonna have to take her back pretty soon. :-)

And during my last Target run, I picked up a pack of ping pong balls for her, and that might be the most fun $1.40 I've spent in a long time! She's had such a blast filling up her pail and dumping them out into various containers or chasing them around the hallway. And she's so determined to pick up two in each chubby little hand - it takes her awhile, but she can do it!

Our little lady

Grace came around the corner a few minutes ago wearing her tutu (which mama had helped her put on) with her red dress strewn over her head (which she put on herself) and carrying our bathroom scale. I love her enjoyment of life. :-)

Mommy?

Last week Grace started calling me "mommy" instead of "mama". I'm really not sure where she got it from, we've always said "mama", and when here books say "mommy", I often read it as "mama" so it wouldn't confuse her. For a few days, she was even saying "mommy" in her sleep. Maybe it's just an inevitable part of growing up, but I'd gotten kind of use to "mama"! Fortunately, this week it's back. :-)

Wisdom from Laura

"Eating too many donuts feels so much worse than eating too few."

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!

Update: I should have added "pappy" too! She definitely knows that one, but I neglected to list it earlier as it doesn't quite qualify as a double-syllable. But we definitely know what she means! :-)

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.