These Days
These days, Gracie Girl is constantly on the go. Since she figured out how to crawl, I don’t think she’s stopped to rest for a single minute. She’s all over the living room, but really loves crawling around upstairs between her room and Bean’s room. Her favorite thing is when Bean gets down and crawls with her, chasing her all over. She just squeals the whole time like it’s the most fun in the whole world. More than crawling though, Gracie loves to cruise. She pulls up on anything that will hold her weight (and sometimes things that don’t…). She loves standing at the coffee table and then reaching for anything she can get her paws on. She’s into EVERYTHING, and we all are loving it!
These days, Gracie loves to boss us all around. She will sit in her high chair or stand at the coffee table and point at us and then point all around the room, babbling incoherent instructions. You can see her wanting us to all get up and move. And if none of us get up and actually DO anything, she starts to get really mad. She’ll cruise right on over to where we are sitting, point right at us, and start grunting and babbling her demands. What makes her really mad is if she’s sitting in her high chair, dictating the movements of the rest of the household and we all walk out of the kitchen in the middle of her reign. If we walk out while she’s “talking,” she sits there for just a second and then starts yelling, “HEY! HEY! HEY!” and tries to get us to come back in there. She’s a bossy girl. I can’t imagine where she gets it…
These days, Gracie is repeating everything we say. At first, I thought it was just coincidence that her babbling happened to sound like the last thing we said, but then it happened so often that I started to pay more attention to it. She really loves jewelry (that’s my girl!) and she’s always pointing to and pulling on my jewelry while babbling and cooing. Last week, she was pointing to my necklace and when I said, “Necklace,” she went, “Ne-ne.” I stopped for a minute and thought, “Did she really just say that?” and so I waited, and sure enough she pointed to my necklace a few more times while saying very distinctly, “Ne-ne.” She can also say “ball,” “bottle,” and “bibi” (which is binky). She’s said other things, but those are pretty constant in her vocabulary these days. I remember that from when Bean was little, too. They start to learn one letter sound at a time, and right now she is all over the “b” sound. My little chatter pants.
These days, Gracie is a pain in the tooshy at bedtime. She has learned our bedtime routine and so she knows right away when bedtime is coming. She loves her bath, whines a little while I put her in her PJ’s, squirms through two books, and then freaks out when I lay her in her crib. I’m sure it’s just something she’s having to adjust to because now she can tell when it’s coming, but it’s kind of annoying because it happens every. single. night. She girlfriend has a wicked set of pipes. She can yell and protest and cry with the best of ’em. But we just hold steady with our nighttime routine, then tell her we love her, and close her door. Harsh, but it’s how we roll. She’ll eventually learn that no matter how much she protests, she isn’t going to be rescued. Until she learns that part of the routine, though, we’re investing in the family-size packs of ear plugs.
These days, Gracie is eating anything and everything and lots of it. She’s turning one this weekend, and so starting next week we’ll start weening her from formula and adding whole milk to her diet. (And all God’s children with checking accounts said, “AMEN!”) Judging from the way she has so far happily eaten anything we’ve given her, I’m not expecting too many problems with that transition. Right now, her favorite foods are blueberries (or “crackberries” as we call them), bananas, pancakes, spaghetti, green beans, vanilla yogurt, cheese, sweet potatoes, and carrots. She tried two bites of a brownie the other night and seemed like she could have taken it or left it. She ate a bite and then went back to her blueberries. Good girl!!!
These days, Gracie is showing us her fierce temper and lack of patience. (Again, I don’t know where she gets these things…) If you take something away from her, she will stop whatever she’s doing, hurl herself on the floor, and cry like you just broke her wittle heart. Big, pathetic, crocodile tears, I tell you. All because you took away the remote control. Even if you temporarily take something away, like…oh…say, you have to get her out of the car seat, but she’s holding on to a toy so you have to take the toy away for TWO SECONDS while you get her arms out of the car seat straps. She will fling her head back, open those lungs, and out come the crocodile tears, all in about 2.5 seconds. And it doesn’t matter if you try to give the toy back at that point. The damage is done. You’ve angered the mini beast. And YOU. SHALL. BE PUNISHED.
These days, you can see Gracie’s personality just bursting out of her. She’s sassy and funny and spirited and demanding and all the things I’d want my daughter to be. (Though I’d be cool with her taking the temper thing down a notch or twelve…) These days, she makes me happy from deep inside my heart and that happiness just bursts out through my ears. These days, when she’s not driving me absolutely crazy, I’m wildly crazy about her.
There’s just something about those baby girls…
16 Comments
Liz
I’m sure you hear this a lot but she is SO CUTE!!
Candice
What a precious little sweet pea! What a big personality! 🙂
1 – 13 months is a sleep regression stage, so it might get worse before it gets better OR she’s just in it a little early. Either way, you know, it’ll pass.
2 – I taught my son “switch” for when I need one arm/hand while it has a toy in it. I say, “Switch” and he moves the toy to his other hand and knows that I’m not taking it. Then we “switch” again and I’m done with whatever I needed to do and we move on, no tantrum. It obviously won’t work for everyone, but it’s worth a try.
Turner
She reminds me so much of my little girl Emmy (will be one next month). Exact same thing about bedtime… E loves her bath, but whines throughout getting PJ’s on until we get her bottle to her. Also, don’t take a toy from her or she will pitch a fit. In the car seat, she’ll throw her toys over the side and if I try to reach back and hand them to her, she’ll just keep throwing them off. Silly girls.
Alaina
Precious! And I love her shirt 🙂
Jen @ caved in
Crackberries indeed. Sullivan has eaten so many in the past few days it’s turning his poop a lovely turquoise color. We got a nice panicked phone call from daycare about that. And we do the same thing at bedtime. Sullivan has recently started doing that and we just stick to our routine. I’ve discovered the hard way it’s a million times harder if I go back in there.
Betty
Ok, I’m PREGNANT and these pictures make my womb ache. Is that possible?? Also, based on these pictures, not so sure if I believe you about her temper, ha! No more formula is worth a party, let alone her turning one. Y’all really need to have a bash when she’s potty trained!!
Sarah@Crazy Love Gamble-Style
Oh my goodness so much cute. My baby girl is 13.5 months old and they sound EXACTLY alike. In all the good and not so good parts, but every single day I can’t get enough of her, I forgot how much I loved this stage with my first. It is hilarious. Babies are the best!!
Chloe
Ahh she is beautiful! You´re so lucky Katie with your family. It´s funny how different she looks from Bean at that age and at the same time in some of the pictures she seems to have the same expressions as him!
Abbie
She is so beautiful. I have a little girl Ella and I can not wait to have my own “no more formula” party. That stuff is just so expensive.
Rachel @ The Ongoing Planner
Thanks for the amazing update! Man she is growing up so fast! Cannot wait to have my own little girl 🙂
Lindsey
I love how you described her – she sounds so awesome! Girls are so fun! I have two of my own 🙂
Laura @ Casa del Hansen
Oh you’ve made the cutest little girly! It’s so fun to hear how you love even the most trying parts of her personality…. and how fun to see so much of it in such a little person! Thanks for another little window into motherhood (and making me so much more excited for my own impending status!).
HeatherM
Remember when bean became mobile and you were TERRIFIED! And when you worried about how to even baby-proof a house? Remember when Bean was about 4 mos old and he would SCREAM in the car, and you askedwhat would help? We see you growing as a parent every day here. Look at you now- you’re a pro at this parenting thing!
Chelsea
What a darling picture of her at the end! SO cute
jenny-bird
Kudos for giving her such healthy foods. She’s got a good momma. I have to say though, I’m a little terrified of having children after reading this post.
Aoiffe
I feel all mushy inside. I don’t have any kids yet, so it all seems adorable to me!