Bye Bye Babyhood

I've been thinking a lot about Grace leaving her babyhood behind.

I think she left it behind a long time ago, but I still see her as my little bub.

She can walk,  talk in sentences,  feed herself,  go potty sometimes, understand how people are feeling based on facial expressions. She knows animal names/sounds,  colors,  some shapes,  countless objects and what they do. She knows how to regulate how she's feeling with a little help (SOMETIMES, obviously that one's hard even for me, hahaha).

All of those things are pretty grown up.

She's really not a baby anymore.

I feel like she's going to completely lose her baby status when the new baby comes though.

Like I'm just going to rip it out from under her and she'll be left a big girl with a lot to live up to!

I know she's already there,  but I'm clinging on to the fact that she's my baby for as long as I can.

I love this sweet little one.

Being a mom changes your whole world.

I can't wait to see how she changes with me when her baby brother arrives. It'll be a learning curve for everyone!  She's going to so awesome though, because she already excels at so much.

I love my big, grown up girl!

Dear Baby Boy

Dear Baby Boy,

I realized that I mostly write my blogs about your big sister and I haven't explained much about you!  I think since she's in my face (quite literally) all day long it's easier to write down things about her.

She screams for my attention and demands a lot, which I'm sure you'll find yourself doing someday.

My time with you in my tummy seems to be lasting a very long time.

I started feeling you move at 14 weeks,  which seemed so early to me.  You go through spurts where you'll move all over for a couple minutes,  then it'll be awhile before I feel you kick again.

This pregnancy was kind of hard in the first trimester,  as far as feeling sick,  but now I mostly feel fine. The issue now is I'm just getting bigger,  more uncomfortable, and more emotional all the time!

I'll be 25 weeks pregnant on Friday.

Just the thought of 14 more weeks makes me want to cry sometimes!

It's not because of anything you're doing or have done.  It really is just because my body is the way it is.

Since Mommy has diabetes,  it's hard to keep you safe. It's a struggle everyday to stay healthy.

And most days I just wish you could be here,  instead of in there where I have to worry about you so much.

I should probably explain....

If diabetes is controlled then there should be nothing wrong during pregnancy and nothing wrong with the baby (ie. You).  The way diabetes is controlled is through good blood sugar numbers. Anything between 70-110 is a "good" number.

Numbers above 150 or so, can be dangerous.  Most of the time they are only dangerous if they stay there and linger for several hours.

The danger is that you can get too big off of numbers like that.  And pretty much jump starting growth is bad all around. It can cause complications and hard stuff for you.

So basically I work all day to stay in a good range to keep you as healthy as if you had a healthy mom with a normal functioning body!

I have several doctors that I go to all the time to make sure I'm helping you stay good and healthy.

I go to my endocrinologist  (a doctor who specializes in diabetes) every month and checks to make sure my numbers are tight and where they need to be.

I went to her today and she was very encouraging!  She said I am doing exactly what I should and to keep up the good work.

I really like my endo.  She's very supportive and almost just like a motherly figure.  She's never made me feel bad about anything I'm doing or not doing. She's very personal,  yet professional,  which I think is hard to find in a doctor. She just makes me feel calm and better about my situation,  which is the best.

I also love her nurse. She's super spunky and hyper most of the time and will talk a million miles an hour. Today she thanked me for being the only happy, positive pregnant lady that they see!  Haha. She said all their other pregnant patients are so miserable all the time.

I think that's something I've learned through all of my health problems,  that I just need to stay positive. It makes all the difference.

Another medical professional that I go to is the dietician at the same office as my endo.

I hate calling her the dietician, cause that makes it sound like I need constant advice on my diet.  That's not the case,  since I eat pretty dang good!  I guess I could call her the diabetes educator?

I see her once a month too. She's actually the main person I send my blood sugar numbers to for modifications. I'm hoping I can start just emailing her my numbers,  because going into their office every two weeks is really adding up with my other appointments.

In between going to the endocrine and diabetes clinic I also have monthly appointments with my OBGYN.

She's kind of a hilarious lady. She is very straightforward and nice. She always seems to be apologizing for her staff.  Which kind of makes sense,  cause they do mess up quite a bit.  Haha

At my last appointment the medical assistant said "and at your next appointment we'll be doing the glucose testing for gestational diabetes." And I just laughed and said "oh,  that's okay,  I have Type 1 Diabetes,  so you don't need to do that".

My OB was SO mad that the girl hadn't looked at my chart and saw that I have Type 1. She apologized like 5 times,  haha.

I wish I only had gestational diabetes!  That'd be a relief to be done with it after I deliver you!

The fourth doctor I go to, who actually watches over you the most probably, is the maternal fetal medicine doctor. They do ultrasounds to measure your growth and make sure we're on the right track. I've only gone to them once so far,  but once we get closer to the end I'll go in twice a week to do non stress tests.  Those will monitor you and make sure that you're happy in there and they don't need to get you here faster than normal.

I keep wondering when you'll get here.

I know for sure it'll be at least August 25th. My OB won't let me go past 39 weeks,  just because there is so much involved with the high risk nature of the pregnancy.

Some people might wonder why I'm doing this simply because of the label of high risk.
Why would I put myself and a sweet little baby in danger?

My answer really is simple - because I'm not going to let my health problems stop me from being the person I've always wanted to be.

Yes,  there is a lot involved.

Going to all of these doctors every month.  Managing my health every hour of every day.

But I can see the bigger picture and I know I want you in my life.

I have already felt so much love for you,  which I know will grow more all the time.

Sometimes it makes me nervous to have another baby,  because it's hard to imagine how I could possibly love another child as much as I love your big sister.

But I know I already do.

My love isn't divided,  it's multiplied!

I've felt God's love for you and I know He wants you to be part of our family.

I don't know how easy it'll be growing up having a mom with Type 1 Diabetes,  but I know no matter what it'll be worth all the hard moments.

So even though sometimes I feel selfish bringing you into this circumstance,  I know it's what is best for our family. To have our love grow by adding you and all the joy you'll bring...I know it's what we should do.

It's going to be a big adjustment for everyone,  but I think it will be more fun than anything else having you here.

Grace is going to love you.  I think she might be a bossy big sister,  which you'll learn to deal with,  hopefully. I'll try to help you out as much as I can.  She will also be very sweet to you though,  and will always watch out for you.

Daddy is going to love having you to play with!  I can already see how excited he is to have a boy,  and I think he'll be your best friend. I know you're going to look up to him so much. I won't be surprised if he's your favorite person.

We only need to make it 14 more weeks! It seems like such a long way away, but before I know it you'll be here and crying in my arms.

Thanks for putting up with me as your mom already.  I'm thankful for you every day!

Love,
Mom

Talking All Day Long

Keeping with my ever recurring theme....I guess since I blogged about diabetes yesterday, I need to blog about Grace today!

Ha ha ha.

Mostly I wanted to share this story from the other day.

We spent the weekend at our family cabin. It was just two nights, but I think by the end of it Grace was exhausted from being around so many people constantly. (She must get that from me! Ha ha) Probably being out of our normal routine had a lot to do with it too, I think.

After a full day of Mother's Day celebrating on Sunday, by the time we got home around her bedtime that night she was just SPENT!

She was pretty emotional and just ready to sleep.

We tried to just get her changed, brush her teeth, say prayers and lay her down.

That didn't work.

Jeff said the prayer in her dark room while I held her and she just SCREAMED nonstop through the whole prayer.

Side note: She loves saying prayer. She folds her arms and closes her eyes really well for most prayers. She's always reminding us to say a prayer for food or really any other time. She really enjoys saying prayers with us. She'll always say a resounding "Amen!" at the end of every prayer.

So obviously her screaming meant she was out of the ordinary upset.

After the prayer she started begging "book book book book", which we always read a book before bed, so it made sense. We just knew she was SO tired, and thought we'd just try putting her down.

So while Jeff went and unloaded the car from our full weekend, I read her a book.

She calmed down immediately and laid on me while I read the book.

The very second the book was done she very sweetly folded her arms and said "prayer?"

Meaning - she wanted to try prayer again now that she was calm.

I thought it was really mature of her that she realized she had a hard time and wanted to try again now that she was calmed down and happy.

She's such a sweet girl.

She has her meltdowns like every toddler or two year old, but there are many things that she understands that I think are advanced for her age.

She's a smart girl!

A couple weeks ago I wanted to see how many words she knows, because Jeff and I had been guessing and wondering if it could be more than 100.

I typed out a list and it was above 200!

That kind of boggles my mind.

She turns two next month and already knows 200 words?

I looked up what is normal for this age and it said usually about an average of 50 by the age of two.

I guess what makes it boggle my mind is my experience with early intervention before Grace was born. I did therapy with kids who were three times her age and only knew maybe 15 or 20 words. Some three or four-year-olds I worked with knew less than 10 words.

Although Grace isn't on that spectrum and doesn't have those special needs, it still kind of blows my mind sometimes.

It's going to be fun watching her grow and go to school someday.

What's most evolved in Grace's speech lately is the fact that she talks in sentences a lot now.

Her most common sentences are:

"I want milk!" (or really insert anything after "I want")

"I watch Panda" "I watch Pooh" "I watch Minion" "I watch Elsa"

"Go Monster Slide?"

"I go park"

She's started really enjoying telling Jeff what we do everyday after he gets home from work. She'll just go off rambling, it's pretty funny!

"I go monster slide and it yuck...and a monster slide a yucky...and a park and a monster slide and Tigger say yuck."

Ha ha ha ha ha ha....

We have an elementary school really close to our house and there is a smaller playground there (probably the kindergarten playground) that has a bunch of fun slides.

Grace has named them: monster slide, twisty slide, and daddy slide. (Daddy slide, cause Daddy went down it one time)

We go most days before the first recess lets out. She LOVES going and sliding!

A couple times it will have rained the day before so when we get there the slides will be wet! This is pretty upsetting for a baby.

In fact the first time it happened, I didn't notice and Grace went down a slide full on into a huge mud puddle. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Mother of the year.

So now we make sure to always check if anything is wet before playing. Grace will always say something is yucky if it's wet.

After she started using the word yuck/yucky it had been a couple of days and then she watched Winnie the Pooh for the first time. In that show Tigger (her favorite character) says "yuck" to something and Grace thought it was HILARIOUS! I think she was so proud that Tigger would copy a word that she was already saying, ha ha ha.

She was pretty proud, ha.

So now anytime we talk about something being yucky she'll smile so big and say "Tigger say yuck".

Something else cute that she says often, is she'll list off people's names when we ask her if she likes something or wants to do something.

"Do you like going to the park?"

Grace: "Yes. Zach?!" Meaning she thinks Zach likes the park too.

"Do you want to go play in your room?"

"Yeah! Mama!? Dada!?" Meaning Mom and Dad need to come play too.

Well, that might be all for my over analysis of Grace's speech! I'm sure there will be more in the future!

1 Year Diaversary

750 shots of insulin.
800 pills of oral medication.
3000 finger pricks.

1 year with Type One Diabetes.

I deal with my blood all day long.  Either I'm making myself bleed to see if I'm doing okay,  or I'm thinking about my blood and if I'm doing everything I need to do to stay in safe range.

Does that sound depressing?

Maybe kind of.

But for me - it's reality.

Type 1 Diabetics don't get a vacation,  even while they sleep.

Many nights I am woken up by the reality that I have an incurable disease and if I don't do something about it I might be in trouble.

I've spent a fair amount of 4:00 AMs eating away low blood sugar and wishing I was sleeping like all the healthy people in the world get to.

Type 1 Diabetes requires ongoing management.

I always hesitate sharing anything about my diabetes, because diabetes is a joke in society. (I can name several people who are laughing at the "hesitating sharing" statement,  cause I know they think I over share).

In the year I've had Type 1, I think the biggest thing I've learned is that nobody understands diabetes unless they have it,  or have a very close relationship with a person who has it.

Because of that realization, I've had a hard time coming to grips with the social side of diabetes.

When in reality I'm in the 10% of diabetics who did nothing to cause their condition,  I always am confused with the 90% that suffer majorly from a completely different lifestyle disease that in many cases can be prevented.

I can't count the number of confused and unbelieving faces I've gotten over the past year when I explain that MY diabetes doesn't have anything to do with poor diet or lack of exercise.  Nor will it be cured by a good diet and enough exercise.

MY diabetes is in it for the long haul.

The rest of my life,  no matter what.

Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disease.

But you know what?

I look back at where I was a year ago today and I'm SO happy that I can say I'M ALIVE!

Because exactly a year ago today,  I almost wasn't.

Exactly a year ago today I was in a hospital bed with four IV's pumping me with what I needed to live.

I didn't know my body was broken.

I never could have predicted it or done anything to correct it.

I had a vital organ that shutdown on me simply because it did.

And no mattered what I would or could do,  there was no undoing it.

I can say a year later, through everything I have learned, that I am so glad I got a second chance.

That I didn't have to leave my family all too suddenly and at no fault of my own.

I can't imagine not being here for Jeff and Grace.

I can't imagine it at all.

And the difficult part is, I have to advocate for myself and maintain my health everyday so I can stay here with them.

It's hard.

I've never wanted to make myself a spectacle.

I've never wanted to get in the way and put myself first.

But now I have to.

It's been a year of learning how to speak up for myself, and you know what?

I still suck at it.

Majorly.

I don't know how to tell people I need to eat or they might need to call 911.

I don't know how to make endless phone calls to doctors offices and insurance to ask for the proper care that I need.

I don't know how to explain to people around me that shooting medicine into myself several times a day is necessary and not just a convenient solution in my life.

I have to do those things and explain those things now, no matter how much I dislike it.

Somehow I'm still figuring out how to make it work.

And at the end of the day I wouldn't be able to do any of it without Jeff.

I get SO frustrated that I have to count literally EVERY single carb that goes in my body.

(Spoiler Alert: everything has carbs.  At least a little bit.)

So I spend a good amount of time asking Jeff how many carbs he thinks is in the food I'm about to eat.

On my weakest days I ask him if he'll just count my meal for me so I don't have to.

And he does.

And never complains.

He never complains about me waking him up in the night when I'm too shaky to get my own food.

Or if I'm just so tired of maintaining my health and don't want to do something as easy as go in the other room and get my meter.

He knows the consequences, so he very willingly helps me.

I know he never wants to see me struggling for life in the hospital again.

His unconditional love for me has grown a million fold this year.

If he's simply asking me what my blood sugar number is,  or if I've taken insulin for something,  he cares.

He cares all the time.  And I'm glad he asks.

Type 1 Diabetes is such a lonely journey,  the emotional side of it is just as hard as the physical.

And he gets that.

More than anyone in my life,  he totally gets it.

He knows the depth and breadth of my everyday life with diabetes.

What would I do without that support?

This year,  amidst the hard social things and the learning curve that is this disease,  I think I've learned more than ever that without faith I have nothing.

That without gratitude I wouldn't be where I am.

That I need to be humble and realize who I can depend on.

I can't do this alone and I probably never was supposed to.

This year I have learned that I can do anything as long as I keep a positive attitude and maintain my faith.

So here's to another year and many more after that of the monitoring and maintaining and administering and learning.


"I have observed that life,  every life, has its shares of up and downs.  Indeed,  we see many joys and sorrows in the world, many changed plans and new directions, many blessings that may not look or feel like blessings, and much that humbles us and improves our patience and our faith.  We have all had those experiences from time to time, and I suppose we always will.  Being human we would expel from our lives physical pain and mental anguish, and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort, but if we were to close the doors on sorrow or distress,  we might be excluding our greatest friends and benefactors.  Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience,  long-suffering,  and self-mastery."

-President Spencer W. Kimball <3 p="">

Baby Boy!

Our baby is a boy!

We have been waiting for what seems like forever to confirm this!

At my 14 week appointment my OB asked if I wanted to know and naively I was like "Uh yeah!!"

Little did I know I'd then go through 6 weeks of "well, it's PROBABLY a boy." and "We're thinking it's a boy,  but we don't know for sure." Etc etc

At my 14 week ultrasound she said there was a 70% chance it was a boy.  And I'm no expert,  but I looked at the ultrasound and I for sure saw boy. Hahaha

We couldn't be sure till later though, at our big target ultrasound at 20 weeks.

So we went through 6 weeks half guessing boy.  I bought clothes,  referred to him as a he,  and basically just wished it was true....all the while thinking I was getting my hopes up and it'd be a girl.

Hahaha

So hooray for not having to return clothes!  Hooray for being able to talk about 'him'!

It's funny how a mother's intuition works.

With Grace I knew from the moment I saw the positive pregnancy test that she was a girl. Don't ask how,  I just felt it.

I told my mom Grace would be a girl the morning I took the test and called her.  I just really knew she would be.

With this little guy, I think I secretly knew too. The feeling wasn't as strong as it was with Grace,  but it was definitely there.

If you remember the girl trend I talked about a couple posts ago,  my family would say I should be having a girl this time.  Since that trend was in my mind so strongly, at the beginning of this pregnancy I was tricking myself into 'of course I'm having a girl'.

Seriously, this family trend thing has been going on for 4 generations,  it HAS to be a girl!  Right?

For some reason that never really settled with me though.  I really never believed it.

Then the 14 week reveal happened and I was like....okay,  yeah,  that's obviously right,  cause I've never really felt like it's truly a girl.

When it's all said and done we are having a little guy,  and I'm so happy!

A couple weeks ago I was talking to Jeff about "what if it really is a boy!? I don't know what to do with boys!?"

And he reminded me "umm....you've been taking care of a boy [our nephew] ever sense he was 4 months old."

Haha...

Oh yeah.

K, I guess I'll be fine.

But still,  I'm going to be a MOM to a boy!

I'm excited and scared and happy all in one!

This morning I had two doctors appointments.  The target ultrasound/gender reveal and then my monthly appointment with my endo.

Seriously most days I want to say exactly what my sister said in this message about diabetes.

Hahahaha, she's the best. 

But today....

I totally won!

I am winning at diabetes!

That's not a very easy task to accomplish either.

It's not what anything in the media says about diabetes.

It's not about avoiding sweets.

With Type 1 it's so much more than anything like that.

It's a completely broken, nonfunctional, VITAL organ.

It's constant medicine and monitoring.

And with pregnancy hormones it's a crazier game than normal.

I have worked SOOO hard these 20 weeks to keep my baby safe.  And I'm going to do it for 20 more, no matter how hard it is everyday.

So on rare days like this,  I can feel good about everything I'm doing.

Because,  seriously,  today I'm a diabetes champ!

My A1C is 4.9!!!

Wooooooo!!!

Do you know how good that is?

Of course you don't,  nobody knows about diabetes.

Pregnant diabetics ideally need to have an A1C under 6.0 to have a healthy pregnancy/baby.

So 4.9 is killing it!

(An A1C is an average of blood sugars over a certain period of time)

Also at the target ultrasound baby boy was measuring perfectly!

Our ultrasound technician was SO nice and informative. She made me and Jeff feel so at peace about everything.

She was very knowledgeable and kept telling us how everything looked exactly right.  All the bones,  structure of features,  organs etc.

Having Type 1 is high risk and that means a lot more complications can happen to the baby.  To hear that everything was perfect is such a blessing to me.

Talking to multiple doctors today and hearing them all sincerely tell me how well I'm doing is such a boost for me. To hear medical professionals who know my exact condition, my exact circumstance,  and tell me I'm doing better than they could hope is such a weight off my tired mom shoulders.

I am SO excited for this little boy to join our family!  He was very wiggly in our ultrasound,  moving all over the place.  He constantly had his hands up by his face and at one point he even rubbed his eye with his hand.  Soooooooo cute!

Isn't technology amazing?

I am seriously so blessed to be able to have babies. 50 years ago a person with a Type 1 would have never been able to have a baby.

I am so grateful for modern medicine and technology that allow me to be who I want to be.

I already love this baby so much!

Favorites

I want to document some of Grace's latest favorites and silly quirks, so I can remember them.

Favorite color: Yellow (hearing her say "yellow" is probably the cutest thing ever too) She also likes pink and purple (stereotypical girl), but yellow definitely wins!
Favorite animal: Dogs! Especially A Jojos.
Favorite food: Mac and Cheese!
Favorite snack: Rice Krispy Treat!  (Keepin it real healthy around here! We are working on fruits and vegetables at every meal.  I always offer at least one,  usually both.  And every time she'll "try" it,  but usually doesn't eat all of it.  It's a work in progress,  I guess.)
Favorite book: Red or Blue, I like you!  (Elmo/Sesame Street book)
Favorite movie: Monsters Inc.
Favorite TV show: Minnie's Bowtique
Favorite song: To listen to - Let it Go.  For mommy to sing - 5 Little Ducks.
Favorite character from a show: Minnie and Skye! Skye is from Paw Patrol. She's loving Paw Patrol lately. She wore her cousin's Paw Patrol hat for like 2 hours yesterday.

Cutest little babe! I love her!

Some funny things she's been doing lately....

She gets VERY hyper right before bed every night.  For about a half hour or 45 minutes she'll just run and run around the house at full speed!  Or she'll want to dance!

The other night she discovered spinning. She would throw one arm out and shout "fly a fly! Fly!! I fly!" as she spun around and round.  She seriously did this for 30 minutes straight before bed.  Jeff and I just laughed the whole time,  which probably egged her on more.

She has an amazing memory. I'll ask her to go find things and she always remembers where she left them.  She's very good at directions too. If I tell her to do something in a different room than we're currently in,  she usually can do it no problem.

The last couple days with Zach here we've been printing out pictures to color.  She'll color her picture,  then turn it over and will "write letters". She's only ever done "A". She'll do tiny scribbles and just repeat out loud "A.....A.....A.....A....." hahaha! It makes me laugh.

It doesn't actually look like an A, it's just scribbles, but the intent behind it is cute!

I think she's heard me spell words out loud when I've written them for her and Zach.  For example I'll write their name on their paper and spell it out loud as I go (I guess that's just the preschool teacher in me coming out). So since she's heard me do that she now spells out "A.....A.....A..." as she goes.  Haha. So funny and adorable.

It's cute and terrifying how she wants to be exactly like me.  I have a lot to live up to!

Something sweet that she's been asking for lately is for me to tell her about my necklace.

For our 5 year anniversary Jeff got me a beautiful necklace with our birthstones on it.  It has my,  Grace's,  and the new baby's birthstones.  If I'm holding Grace she'll reach for my necklace and say "more" (she doesn't really know how else to ask for things like that.  She can't really articulate "tell me about your necklace,  Mommy!" yet,  haha)

 

So I'll tell her "purple for mommy,  pink for Gracie Goo, and green for baby!" She's been super into colors, so I think she thinks it's fun that we each get a color!  She'll smile so big and will ask me to tell her over and over, smiling bigger every time.

She's a sweet girl!

An update on her "potty training", hahahahahaha.

You guys,  I'm such a rookie at this.

I don't want to mess it up though,  so I'm keeping it pretty child driven,  mommy attentive.

I really feel like she is still too young to just magically go to underwear, so we're not thinking about that right now.

She has successfully gone pee once,  and poop THREE times on the potty though!  I'm pretty proud of her.

Pretty much we just let her sit whenever she wants and keep it very positive.  I don't want to force her into it,  and for now I think we're moving in a good direction.

When she starts really acting like she knows all the time when she needs to go maybe we'll move forward.

I'm really not in a rush.  I won't mind one bit if I have two babies in diapers for awhile.

Something fun I've noticed she's been learning just from experiencing the world is transportation.  She'll point out cars, bikes, buses, trains etc by their name now and likes learning the difference.

Isn't it amazing to think that all of this knowledge that comes second nature to us can be so new and fun for little people?

I love early childhood.

Well, that's about it on the Gracie Goo update. I can't believe in 4 months she'll be a big sister.

She's going to love it!  She'll probably have a hard time with it,  but will mostly think it's exciting.

In so many ways I've been so absorbed with maintaining a healthy pregnancy that I haven't put much thought into what it will really be like once the baby is here.

My entire life is controlling my health and staying on top of my diabetes,  all for this precious baby's sake. Between that and taking care of Grace I don't have time to think about anything else! I think 2 or more months might need to go by before I get hit hard by reality that a brand new little life is coming to our home.

We find out on Monday for sure what we're having,  so stay tuned for that! :)

Learning

I want to write down these memories before I forget.  Grace changes all the time and I want to remember these things,  even the annoying things, cause they somehow still make me laugh. And I know they'll make me laugh more in the future.

Having Zach here ever since Grace was teeny tiny (2 months old!) has been SO good for her!  Seriously,  I can see why parents love having twins.

I get the benefit of "having twins", but only as a day job!  Haha. I get nights and weekends off! So really in no way can I compare my experience to actually having twins.

I get to skip all the hard parts.

Win win!

Having him here has made her progress socially so much faster than I could have ever expected.

She's learned that taking turns has to be a thing.  She's not very successfully learning that she can share.  She's also in the process of learning that she doesn't get to keep everything he brings to our house.

She's learned that if they are in a room alone and I can't see what's happening,  all she has to do is scream like she's getting hurt and I'll come get mad at Zach.  (This only tricked me the first couple times,  but she definitely loves getting him in trouble.  Poor kid)

She's kind of a manipulator in that way!  

Most kids are in early childhood at one point though.

It's fun watching it all unfold!  My textbooks are coming to life!

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law came and babysat Grace the other day and I think they said it perfectly:

She's bossy in the cutest way!

Hahaha, it's so true.

She tells everyone what to do all the time and knows exactly how she wants everything and everyone.

If she wants you to sit,  she will tell you till you do it.  If she wants you to pick her up,  she won't let it go till it happens.

So many times I'll say "Do you want to go play in your room?" Or "You should go find your toys!" Or "Go find *insert thing here*"

And her response in the sweetest voice is always: "Mama?!"

She wants to play in her room,  but she wants Mama to come. She wants to play with toys, but she wants Mama to play too!  She wants to go find the thing,  but she wants Mama to see her do it.

She's not one of those annoying,  demanding  bossy kids.  She really is a sweet bossy kid. She always says things in a sweet way.  She always gives extra love in return of you doing what she wants!  Haha.

She's not an angry or mean bossy little thing.

She's very much a happy girl all the time.

I guess you just have to experience it to understand it.

Another thing I wanted to document is how she learns and remembers things so fast!

She's learning her colors at a crazy rate!

She knows red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, and black.....but only if you ask her to point them out or give you the color.

I tried this to other day for the first time and I was amazed she got all of them right.

Babies are sponges.

She knows how to say "blue", "grrrree  (green)", "yellow", and sometimes "purle  (purple)".

She if definitely my child,  and possibly more accurately my mom's grandchild,  because she has mastered the art of becoming obsessed with things.

She currently loves Monsters Inc., which is kind of hilarious.

Isn't that movie kinda scary for a baby her age?  I dunno,  but she loves it!  She laughs hysterically at the same parts every time.  She screams Baby!  every time Boo comes on the screen and hisses when Randall (the lizard/creepy monster) comes on.

Before Monsters it was Frozen (we still dance to Let It Go 3-4 times a day).

She's also loving Minnie Mouse (that's been her longest obsession,  actually) and asks to watch Minnie's Bowtque on my phone.

She loves Peppa Pig thanks to my mom and Kyla! She'll ask for that on my phone too. Haha.

She's gotten pretty obsessed with all these characters.  I think she thinks they're all her friends. It probably helps that she has more than half of them in stuffed animal form!

I think when we finally find a house I'm going to make her toddler room Minnie Mouse themed. That's the love that has endured for her!  :)

Man,  we really need to go to Disneyland!  I think she'd absolutely love it. And I know I'd love it even more than her!  People say to not take your kids till they are old enough to remember it,  but honestly at this age it'd be more for my memories than hers.

I love Disneyland!  I would go several times a year if I could!

Grace's favorite book right now is called "Z is for Moose". She has it memorized I'm pretty sure.  She will always say "Uhh ohh!!" on the page right before the page where the Moose gets mad.  Her little memory is so good.

We've gone to the Treehouse Museum a couple times in the past couple weeks and this last time we went she remembered that the music room has a puzzle. We walked in, and when she saw the instruments she looked at me and said "puzzle! Puzzle!" In an urgent voice,  like we needed to find it ASAP!

I love watching how sweet and smart she is!  She's a good girl.  Even with being so opinionated,  she's a good listener and always wants to make me happy. She has a really kind heart, I can see that everyday!

I love that Gracie Goo!