It seems impossible that this is the last "month" post and second-to-last official chair picture. Grace isn't a baby anymore...she's turned into a little person. Part of me wants to be sad about it, but the other part is having so much fun watching it happen. Her little personality is 95% sunshine and 5% lightening. She smiles and laughs nearly all day long, but when she gets mad she can really turn on the drama. This is almost always due to not getting to play with a TV remote, cell phone, or laptop. Occasionally, the torturous activity that is lotioning up and putting on pj's after bath can bring out the temper as well. Thankfully, though, she's back to being patient and cooperative for diaper changes!
There've not been a ton of new developments this month, but one area I've noticed a big change in is talking. She talks all day long, and it actually sounds like conversation...asking questions, answering questions, etc. I just don't know what she thinks she's saying! The obvious ones we've picked up on are:
- saying "beebee" when picking up her baby doll
- saying "pip-pee" when crawling toward the dogs (we call one of them Puppy half the time)
- saying "bobba" when I'm making a bottle
- addressing us as "momma" and "dad-dee"
She's also standing up with no help and balancing for quite a while. It really freaked me out the first time I turned around to see her standing there by herself! She has no interest in pushing a walker or walking with us, which is fine with me. We haven't encouraged it at all as of yet. We
have been working on waving a bit, which she also has very little interest in. She just wants to clap! The other thing we're working on is being gentle. Grace has moments (usually with her doll or with real babies) where she's more cautious and delicate, but the majority of the time she's like a bulldozer. This is probably our fault because we've never really treated her like she's breakable, so she's a pretty tough little girl...she just expects everyone else to be tough too. She also thinks she's invincible,
except for when it comes to the two steps by her bedroom hallway. She's been able to go up them for months, but still - despite multiple practice sessions - refuses to come down them alone.
I'm anxious to see her stats next month because I've been told by others that she's slimming down. I figured this would happen as she became more active, but don't notice it since I see her every day. We just made the move from four bottles to three and soon we'll start adding whole milk. She's got this nifty one-handed bottle hold now that makes us laugh. We're all but done with the baby food, so I'm having to think about her meals more. She prefers to feed herself if possible...it's definitely getting messier! She's a great eater, though, so I can't complain. She's also an amazing sleeper. She goes 13 hours at night and averages 2-3 during the day, but she's really flexible. I rarely have trouble adjusting her schedule for church, errands, activities, etc. She's been the perfect baby
for us, so it'll be interesting to see what God has in store next time around. No, there's not another one in the forecast just yet! Here's some pictures of Grace standing and eating like a big girl this month:
She became increasingly pitiful throughout the day and cried out all night long, so we went to visit Dr. Smith on Monday and turns out sweet girl has a double ear infection. She's on antibiotics now and I'm just praying they'll kick in before Thursday. It's breaking my heart. We've dealt with random rashes, congestion, even a bout of bronchiolitis, but she's never been uncomfortable (or in flat out pain) like this. All she wants is to be cuddled and even then it's like she can't get close enough. I feel so bad, especially being that it's her birthday week and we're leaving her for Mexico in six days. :(
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