This little girl never ceases to amaze me. This morning, she chose to wear red glittered Dorothy shoes, but after having them on for a minute, we realized that they, like many of her other shoes, are now too small (sad day). I asked her to go to the closet and pick out another pair, and this is what she came back with… Of all pairs, Mama’s red ballet flats.
I guess she was set on having a splash of red with her cream and navy dress today. Good call, Grae. Good call.
If only jumping in place always brought us this much unbridled joy…
♥
Taking this little monkey to her first ever swimming lessons this morning…
♥
It was business as usual around here this afternoon… Lunch. Potty. Cloth diaper. Story. Snuggles and a song… Then I laid my munchkin down in her crib with her special blanket and bear family as I always do. I gave her kisses, told her how much I love her, and closed her door. As I did my usual quiet time tidy, I could hear her pre-nap time chatting and noise making coming from her corner of the house. It went on for a little while, but soon turned into squealing, giggling, and loud “Gi-GULL, Gi-GULL, Gi-Gull” noises. The girl sounded like she was having a crib party alone in her dark room!
For a dreaded moment, I thought to myself, Oh God, I hope this isn’t the beginning of her trying to drop her one and only daily nap… Thank goodness, she eventually did fall asleep. But it was not until an hour after the fact.
Once she woke, I went into her room to see exactly how she’d spent that hour…
Arranging her little bear family just so, of course!
She was quite unhappy that I came in only to dash out in search of my camera and return to take photographs rather than pick her up…
But once showered with Mama kisses and released from the confines of her crib, she was more than pleased with herself.
♥
As I was preparing dinner late this afternoon, Grae came into the kitchen and sweetly asked for hangers. I immediately knew what she wanted to do – she wanted to hang them on her crib railing as I do when setting out her outfit choices in the morning. I retrieved a great big handful of hangers from the top of her closet, handed them over, and she was pleased as punch. I was back at my cooking when she came in a requested more hangers, to which I suggested she take down the ones she had and put them back up afterwards. Off she went. A couple of minutes later, I sneakily poked my head around the corner to find this…
My little work bee always has to keep busy, even if it involves creating jobs for herself, undoing them, and redoing them again. ♥
Today’s play gym visit was all about Frog. Everything that Gracen did, Frog did. Come to think of it, Kermit probably had a better time than Grae because she used many of her turns to send him down the slide, help him jump on the trampoline, and push him on the plasma cars. 
Of course, when Grae went potty, so did Frog (ew…public washrooms and stuffed creatures – don’t worry – he didn’t touch a thing!) and when Gracen waved goodbye to play gym and all of the kids and toys, so did he. What a silly little doodle I have on my hands.
Our little daredevil watching a game of basketball at the school across the street. Luckily there’s a big bed covered in a cushy duvet and tons of pillows right there…
Holy heck. I just tucked my sweet little lady into bed with a teddy bear and Baby Tate‘s birth announcement magnet. The obsession just rose to a whole new level.
Gracen was born expressive (you can see examples here, here, here, and here), but recently it seems that she’s begun exploding with personality. It’s just the sweetest thing to watch our baby growing up to be a little lady with a personality all her own. More than anything, she loves to please. She is gentle, kindhearted, and truly loves to share and make others happy.
She also knows just what she wants. And these days, that’s to do everything on her own (payback time, Mama). “Grae Grae”, meaning Grae Grae puts on her pants by herself or Grae Grae walks down the slippery wet steps on her own or Grae Grae puts the books away without help or Grae Grae picks out her own clothes, is heard countless times throughout our days. And in all honesty, although it means our little girl is growing up, I love it. I love that she wants to be independent. I love that she’s up for a challenge. And I love that she has likes and opinions of her own.
But perhaps the most entertaining part of her emerging personality is her newfound sense of humour. You can just see her trying be funny and then pausing to enjoy the laughter that follows. A prime example was today when I asked her to stop and smile for a photo. Here’s what I got instead:
What a silly little duck. I absolutely love our little girl and her emerging personality. ♥
Scarily accurate. But we ADORE the screechy little munchkin anyways. ☺
When Grandma Sue was in town last, Gracen got the sweetest little package filled with pretty purple tops, a belt, and a new pair of jeans (of course the sparkly purple kitty belt is her ULTIMATE favourite). So when we tried her jeans on for the first time this morning, I snapped a couple of quick photos to send to “manmaw”. Little did I know that we had a little model on our hands!
I just told Grae that we were going to go to Toys R Us to pick up her new pool. Her response? She immediately turned, raced to her bedroom, and returned 30 seconds later with a giant smile on her face and her teeny tiny navy bikini top in hand. This girl seriously cracks me up!
Sometimes you just need to make a good mess.
For some reason, every time I do laundry this mysterious miniature little ghost makes an appearance…
Apparently routines are just as important for baby dolls as they are for our little baby doll.
First off, Bubba’s bath.
Then story time.
Next up: A pre-bedtime potty break.
And then into bed it is!
The funny part is that this was all Grae. I was in the bathroom getting drying my hair when she came in urgently saying, “Bubba!” and then signing ‘bath!’ on repeat. After Baby was squeaky clean, she then took it upon herself to make sure Bubba got a story and a pee in before I later found her in Grae’s crib, snuggled up with a blanket and all. I think we may have a little mommy on our hands…