One of the cutest things about Grace is her walk. She walks as fast as she can and most of the time, her arms bent and are just swinging as fast as they can back and forth. She actually has a tan line where her arms crease because she walks like that all the time.
She is a giggler! I love that belly laugh that comes out when she is tickled about something. She loves to be tickled and currently likes being held, turning your face away from her and then when you turn it back, she just laughs as hard as she can. We do this over and over and over. She loves to be chased and laughs a lot during the chase.
She is into somersaults. Atticus recently learned how to push himself over in a somersault. Well, Grace copied him and will immediately bend over in position and then wait for us to push her over all the way. She will stand up, motion for "more" and we do it over and over again. I think it is so cute because she is so little and so funny to see standing upside down waiting for us to finish her somersault for her.
She loves to dance to music. She will laugh and giggle her way through a song and stomp her feet up and down to dance.
She still loves Frozen. I mean, she seriously loves it. When Vic's family was in town and I was at my scrapbooking weekend, they went to Barnes and Noble. Apparently, there was a Frozen section of books and she was obsessed at looking at them. When GG was in town a week later, we headed there as well. We found the Frozen section and sure enough, she was obsessed. She looked at all the books before deciding to carry around a set of Frozen themed headphones around the children's section for the duration of the time we were there. She has not idea what to do with headphones, but because they had Elsa and Anna on them, she loved them. We went home with a set of 4 Frozen board books and she happily looks through them over and over again.
Speaking of books, she finally enjoys being read to. She has her favorites that she will bring over to read and she already likes flap books that belong to Atticus. I will sometimes find her sitting on the floor in his room looking through whatever books are on the ground.
As we all know, Grace's sleeping patterns are always changing. She finally started sleeping through the night around 10 months. Then, sometime later, she decided to start waking up again at night. On average, it was only once and I think for awhile she was having tummy aches. But, that eventually turned into a habit of just waking up so I could rock her back to sleep. While I don't mind that and actually love a chance to rock her, that routine was getting old. So, now it is only off and on. She will want to do that for 4 or 5 days and then she will sleep all through the night for 4 or 5 days. It's just funny because as soon as I lay her back down, she is fine for the rest of the night. If she truly has a tummy ache, I will know it because she just cannot fall back asleep and does not want to be left alone. Also, up to a couple of weeks ago, she has always happily fallen asleep in her bed on her own. But, recently, I started rocking her for a wind down routine and now she almost demands to be rocked at nighttime to fall asleep. Sometimes she will fall asleep in my arms, but mostly she just wants to be held and rocked. She will talk and giggle and play with my face, but she is calm and just happy to be held. Atticus hasn't ever cared to be rocked past being weaned, so this is a special treat. There are other times though that no matter what, she just wants to be held and will still have to cry for a couple of minutes before realizing she has lost the battle and has to put herself to sleep. I do love those snuggles when I get them though.
Grace is not really talking yet. Atticus did not start saying words for a long time either, so I'm not too concerned. But, Grace is more of a cave woman as she likes to grunt. She knows exactly what I'm saying all the time because if I ask her a question, so tells me yes or no by shaking her head and if it is a yes, she grunts. She will say mama, dada, da, mmmm (cow), baaaa (goat or sheep), dack (quack for duck) and if I prompt her to say thank you or yes ma'am, she will grunt the syllables. But, no talking. I really thought she would be quicker to learn words because she is with Atticus all the time, but so far that is not the case. I am pushing words a lot now because at her 15 month appointment, the doctor said she should be saying 6-8 words and now we are almost to her 18 month appointment. But, I'm sure she will talk when she is ready.
Grace has interesting hair. It is starting to grow out of the mullet stage, but it is a slow process. We can put it into pigtails or a ponytail but she moves so much that I end up pulling her hair which makes her mad. And most of the time, she pulls them out in her carseat before we get to our destination. I also have some little clips I have successfully put into her hair. But, her hair is so fine that if I don't get them in with just the right amount of hair, they slip and come out. She will still wear headbands and bows, but only until she realizes they are there and then she pulls them out. I'm looking forward to more hair on her little head so we have more options. She does have the sweetest, softest, blonde hair that it so fun to brush. She likes to brush it too and when I tell her she is so pretty, she will just smile into her mirror. If you tell her she "looks so pretty!" she will also sometimes look down at what she is wearing! She also loves to brush her teeth and will immediately put her fingers to her teeth each time we walk into the bathroom. She has 10 teeth on top and 10 on bottom, but has the cutest gap between her top two. I love that little toothy smile!
I know I am talking about how cute and sweet Grace is. But, I must also tell of her opinionated, grouchy side. There are days that nothing makes her happy. She will cry every other minute, without reason. She wants to be held all day. She throws things and hits. She just gets mad and can't get over it. It can be tiring to listen to the whining and crying, but it can be hilarious to watch her actions. She will get mad at someone (usually me or Atticus) and will walk all the way across the room with her little hand bent back behind her head ready to hit you. And if I warn her not to hit me or Atticus, she will obey but she will immediately find something else to hit: the couch, the chair, a toy. It's like a spring sometimes - that little arm just flies back ready to hit. And, as soon as she hits, it springs back into place to be prepared to hit again. If I get onto Atticus about something, she will walk across the room and just hit me. I don't know if she's mad that I am getting onto Atticus or if she just knows that when I use my stern voice with her, it is in a situation where she is about to hit. And, her hit hurts! If we are somewhere that she needs to be held and carried and she wants down, she will hit my face as hard as she can over and over. And, honestly it hurts! And she will hit Atticus when they are bothering each other. When I'm really paying attention, I notice that he does not always hit her back unless it really hurts. He just ignores her until the 3rd or 4th time and then he can't help it anymore. And, honestly, who can blame him? I just don't know where she gets this hitting concept from. I have wondered if she has seem me spank Atticus and thinks that is it? But, I use the term "Grace, we do not hit" all the time.
In fact, Grace is getting close to time outs, but not quite there. We have a kid size comfy chair in the living room. So, when she has been unkind, I will take her to it and tell her she is in time out. She will usually giggle but I will make her sit there for 30 seconds or so while I hold her there or keep putting her back when she gets up. I haven't done this much, but one day, I told her we needed to sit in time out and she just walks over there and sits down as if she is being so good for following directions. So funny! And then one day, Atticus told her she needed to sit in time out and she walked over there and he sat exactly where I will sit and told her "we do not hit gwace! you need to sit in time out!". For whatever reason, it mostly worked too. She stayed there for a few seconds and then I had to take over.
And, Grace has an arm on her for throwing as well. She may be softball player or a basketball player in the future because she can throw. Atticus didn't learn the concept of throwing a toy or ball until much older. He would pull it back behind his head and then drop it before throwing his hand out in front of him. But, Grace knows exactly how to throw. And she has hit me a couple of times with heavier toys when I was playing on the ground with them and they hurt! I'm sure having an older brother to watch helps her out a lot.
So, my sweet Grace can be a stinker. But, sometimes I think I notice this more because I'm with her all the time. It will be fun to watch her personality continue to develop as she grows up!
Grace doesn't really have favorite toys yet, but loves them all. She does still carry her pink afghan Melbo made her around and it is her favorite item. When she is cranky or tired, she will find that blanket and pull it through the bed and carry it around. She loves it. She also loves her paci. This summer, with all of the traveling, and other people keeping her from time to time, I didn't have the heart to take away her paci (for her sake and those watching her!). But, we are getting ready to do it. However, we are trying an approach from someone at church. We only give her one paci and we have started to cut the end. I can tell she has noticed a difference, but I'm hoping that eventually she will not be able to hold onto it well and just give it up on her own. We will see. I know I can just take it away cold turkey and deal with some rough sleeping nights and naps for awhile. But, that seems so mean. I taught her to take the paci, so I need to be as kind as possible when I take it away. I think if this first way doesn't work well, we will just drop it to nights and naps. That is typically our routine anyways, but when we are with other people or not at home and she is fussy, I just pop it in to calm her. We will see how it goes. But, it has to be gone soon. I get tired of it being the way to calm her down or please her.
Grace still takes one afternoon nap a day. Although if she gets even 10 minutes in the car, she has a hard time falling asleep for a nap. The good thing is that she will just play in her bed with her babies for awhile and not fuss much
Grace has gotten pickier with her eating. She is now refusing vegetables, unless they are secretly in something. She likes waffles and bananas for breakfast. She will eat eggs and yogurt from my plate. She likes pb&j sandwiches, although they are messy. She likes goldfish, graham crackers, peanut butter, nutella, cheesesticks, cheese, grapes, apples, strawberries, blueberries, tortilla chips, and sometimes casserole or chicken. She usually likes ground beef and sausage. She LOVES beans and rice. They are her favorite meal. So, if we eat out, she is happiest eating Mexican food. The floor after she is done is a disaster, but she is happy and full. She, of course, also loves sweets. She only drinks water. I cannot convince her to drink milk. And I don't like to give her juice yet.
Grace also knows to say "cheese" when I prompt her and ask her to smile for the camera. She will sometimes do it as soon as I get the camera out. It's so cute when she scrunches up her face to show her teeth and squints her eyes. But, while we know she can do this, she REFUSES to have her picture made at the portrait studio. We've now attempted this 3 times and while a couple sweet smiles this last time, we didn't get any of her normal smiles. She cries and whines and refuses to sit or stand or do anything we ask. This is so strange for us because Atticus is wonderful with having his picture made and really always has been. Maybe one day! Until then, I will hope we have really kind photographers who want to take our pictures and maybe we can do it so sneakily, she won't even realize its happening!
She is just growing up very quickly. I can't believe that when Atticus was this age, I was already about 16 weeks along with Grace. And now, she is almost 18 months herself! I sure love this sweet girl!
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