Bedtime

One of my favorite parts of the day is bedtime. Partly because it means I'm headed toward more relaxing and less chasing, but mostly because of the quality snuggle time that Gracie and I have. Every night Jeff takes Gracie up for bath time. I love listening from downstairs as he sings several renditions of "Rubber Ducky" and Gracie giggles and giggles. I always know when bath time is ending because I hear her cry. She hates getting out of the tub. Jeff gets her dressed in her cozy pajamas, then from the top of the stairs Gracie yells, "Mama!" That means it's my turn. I bring up milk and her favorite stuffed animal, Baba. Jeff hands her off and it's cuddle time! We sit in her glider, read the same Elmo book and the same page of her Bible every night.

Then comes my favorite time. We pray. I always ask her who she wants to pray for. It usually consists of some combination of her grandparents or aunts and uncles. Every once in awhile she says she wants to pray for Elmo or Baba. Last night she really surprised me. She started out by saying she wanted to pray for Elmo. I giggled and asked, "Who else?" She quickly responded "Owl Pa, Nana, Doctor" which translated means Grandpa Oral, and Nana Bea (my grandparents) and the doctor. You see, my grandpa has recently spent some time in the hospital. My mom returned home from a visit with them yesterday afternoon and had been updating me on how they were doing. Gracie had taken it all in and remembered that night to pray for them. What an amazing and insightful little girl!

Pumpkin Patch

We had a really fun time at Jubilee Farm's pumpkin patch this morning. We got to ride in a horse pulled wagon out to the pumpkin patch. Gracie loved watching the "neigh-neighs" walk along the road so much that she wouldn't even turn around to let us take her picture. In fact, it was next to impossible to take her picture the whole time. She was so excited to explore the pumpkin patch that most of our pictures are of her running away. She was much more interested in the herd of cows near the patch than the pumpkins themselves which wasn't surprising. She did choose a great pumpkin in the end that you can see her hugging in the last picture. We got to ride in a tractor pulled wagon on the way back to the farm which was also a lot of fun, especially when we rode past chickens and pigs. My personal favorite part of the morning was the car ride to and from the farm. The whole way there Gracie sang, "E-I-E-I-O" which actually sounded more like, "YI-YI-YI-OOOOOO!" It was too cute!

80's Girl

Gracie did her own hairstyle this morning. I think maybe she was born in the wrong decade!

Where Did my Baby Go?

I put Gracie's hair in pigtails today for the first time in a long time and was blown away by how old she looked. I don't think I was really able to capture it in the pictures, but she is definitely looking like a big girl these days! I miss that sweet little baby, but Gracie is so much fun as a toddler and continues to amaze me with what she learns everyday!

Testing the limits

Gracie has found new pleasure in finding trouble. She has a knack for finding the one thing in any room that she should stay away from, and once she's found it, you can bet she'll go back to it over and over and over again.

Our experience this morning is a perfect example. I was trying to get a load of laundry done before heading out for the day, and Gracie was playing in the loft. For months she has ignored the closet in the loft, but this weekend she discovered that it held many new treasures, her favorite being a box that holds place mats and chopsticks. She got it out several times this weekend and Jeff and I made her put it back each time. This morning as I was putting the laundry in, she went straight for the box. (She also has a keen sense for knowing when we're busy and not paying that close of attention.) I walked toward her, and she obviously knew I was going to ask her to put it away because she ran just inside my bedroom.
"Gracie, put that back please," I said in my best "mommy voice".

"Back?" she responded in her cutest voice with a sly smile forming.

"Gracie, bring that here now, please."

"Now?" Her smile is growing bigger.

It was time to bring out my sternest voice..."Gracie....", and do you know what she did?!?! She gave me a huge grin and slammed the door shut! It was a good thing the door was closed so that she couldn't see me lose it and laugh hysterically. I pulled myself together, opened the door, and she ran out and handed me the box.

A few minutes later things were very quiet, so I went to check on her again. This time I found her sitting in her rocking chair reading her Bible. Ahhhh....that's more like it!

I hear her playing in the china cupboard now, so I'm off to another battle! =)

Shirt Heads

Recently Gracie has been learning to take her own clothes off. She's mastered pants and (unfortunately!) diapers. This was her attempt tonight at taking her shirt off. Jeff instantly joined in the fun and they became "shirt heads". It was the end of a long rainy day spent inside and I think we were all feeling a little goofy!

Yogurt

Grace has recently been working on learning to eat using a spoon and fork. She's got the fork down pretty well, but the spoon is another story. This morning I gave her a bowl of yogurt and a spoon to see what would happen. She started out really trying to use the spoon and made quite a mess. The spoon must not have been quite efficient enough, however, because she soon gave up on it and began scooping the yogurt into her mouth using her whole hand. When that wasn't fast enough, she just tilted the bowl up to her face and tried to drink it. You can see from the picture that she made quite a mess, but yogurt supposed to be good for your skin, right!?!? For some reason she thought it was hysterical to stick her finger up her nose every time I tried to take a picture. What a little lady!!!