I seem to have missed posting when Eden turned 4 1/2, so here it is!

Eden has changed a lot over the last six months. Being 4 seems to be a bit hard on her. She’s much more opinionated (which is hard on me!) and often seems to be in a snit about something. She’s developed a lot of sass, but is quick to rephrase when she’s called out on it. She still loves being the helper and is a great big sister. She has become very independent and likes to get herself drinks and snacks and normally gets some for her siblings as well.

Eden’s really glad to be back in school and is of course, doing great! This week she is the bell ringer, so when it’s time for everyone to sit on the carpet, Eden rings the bell and everyone has to sit down. As you can imagine, she loves the power! Haha!

She’s doing gymnastics at a gym down the street and they’ve been really pleased with her skills there. They’ve been modifying things for her and her teacher told me the other day that she’s going to start working on back handsprings with her next. Eden has a real awareness of her body and is very strong, so it’s fun to watch her learn new skills, especially since she loves gymnastics so much!

Eden recently learned how to ride her bike without training wheels, so Ben and I bought her a new bike. She’s on a 14 inch-er now and she zips around the cul-de-sac like she’s been riding for years! Andy and Eden love to ride everywhere and spend a couple of hours every afternoon riding around with the neighborhood kids. She’s taken a couple of spills recently and her knees and face took the brunt of it, but she is really brave and hasn’t let it slow her down much.

There is always a song on Eden’s lips these days and it’s wonderful to hear her singing church and VBS songs. She loves to go outside and swing on the swing set and sing to herself. Even the neighbors can sing the songs now after listening to Eden sing them so often! Ben and I are entertained by the funny lyrics that she sings. She sings very confidently, but some of the words are totally off.

It’s so fun to watch Eden grow and she’s constantly amazing us with the things that she understands and the mannerisms that she’s developed that make her seem like a little adult.

This has been a busy month for Grace because she is potty trained! She is just the cutest little stinker, and as soon as Ben and I decided that we were going to wait to potty train her until next summer, she went ahead and potty trained herself! It started on a Sunday with her randomly announcing that she needed to go #2. She sat down on the potty and did it. I spent the following few days doing minimal potty training which basically consisted of following her naked self around with a little potty. She had a few accidents, but since the weather was nice most of them were outside. By Friday she had a pretty good handle on things and Saturday morning she woke up screaming at 3am because she had to go potty. Her diaper was dry and Ben took her to the bathroom and we’ve been on a roll ever since.

She’s had a couple of accidents since then but those occurred when Ben and I weren’t there, so we’re not too concerned about it. She prefers a big potty and already likes to check out the bathroom everywhere we go. She’s wearing big girl undies which are big on her, but she loves them.

Grace has also started to gain weight so the high calorie diet is working! We’ve had to make a few adjustments, but overall it’s been fairly easy.

Gracie loves the water and has really enjoyed being at the pool this summer. I think she’s resigned herself to the fact that we won’t let her just swim around in the big pool by herself and seems to be happy in her floatie now. When it’s not too crowded she can just float on her back around the shallow end next to us while the kids play and she likes that she’s not being held by one of us.

Here’s a picture of Grace on the potty!

Grace is becoming quite the toddler! She is doing her best to keep up with the big kids and seems to have taken some lessons on how to be bossy from her big sister. She’s tough as nails but is a total Mama’s girl. She understands so much and is talking a lot these days.

We had her 18 month check up on Monday and she weighed 18 lbs, 3 oz and was 31 inches. She dropped off her growth curve again so she’s now been put on a high calorie diet. Basically, everything she eats now comes with butter, whipped cream or ranch dip and her milk comes with Carnation Instant Breakfast powder. She doesn’t seem to notice a difference, although she’s thrilled to be able to dip everything in ranch and was really excited to get ice cream for a snack.

One of Grace’s favorite phrases is ‘come on!’ which sounds like “MON!” and she pulls your finger to drag you along behind her. She gets very excited when we interpret correctly what she wants or is telling us and rewards us with a big cheesy smile as she claps for us like, “Yay, you’re finally catching on!”.

Grace recently went through a “clean up” stage which was kind of great, except that she cleaned up by throwing everything into the trash can. I pulled shoes, bathing suits, silverware and many other things out. I seem to have missed the tv remote though, which we are really missing. She is also in a baby doll stage. She loves to put her baby in the high chair to feed it and push it around in the stroller. She especially likes to feed her baby a bottle and to tell you “Shhhh!” when her baby is sleeping. She likes to play with the bigger baby dolls in the basement, but has a little tiny baby that she has started taking with her everywhere we go.

Grace LOVES to eat corn on the cob!!

One of the best things about Grace is that she LOVES to go to bed! She rarely cries or has a fit. Normally when we tell her it’s time to go to bed she runs to us and calls, “Night night!” over her shoulder to whoever happens to be within earshot. When we rock her, she snuggles up with her blanket and bunny and when we put her in bed she blows kisses and says, “Night night!” over and over until we close the door. It’s awesome!

It’s hard to believe how quickly she is growing up and changing, but it’s really fun to see her personality develop.

Well…our baby is not a baby anymore! Grace is 15 months and is officially a walker. She can stand up in the middle of the floor, she can bend down and pick things up and she definitely walks more than she crawls. Grace is very happy to be able to chase Eden and Andy and access them easily. She can climb onto the couch and is able to pull herself onto Eden’s bed.

She says about 10 words and she understands so much! I don’t remember Eden or Andy being so good about following directions, but Grace will go find her shoes and bring them to me when I ask her to, she will crawl up the stairs when I tell her it’s time for bed or a bath and she goes right to her chair when we tell her it’s time to eat. She will even follow directions from Eden, which makes Eden very happy!

Grace had her first flight as a big girl when we went to California at the end of April. She did a great job on the planes and had her own seat on two of the four flights. She did a really good job adjusting to the time change, only waking up early one morning. She loved the pool but did not love being stuck in a floatie. She liked the ocean and stood in the water until her legs were cold and I dragged her out. She played in and ate the sand and she did a good job being flexible with her schedule and napping in her stroller.

Gracie is very happy as long as she is included in what everyone else is doing. She is my daredevil and will be the one to give me gray hairs. She is not afraid of anything and is willing to try anything that Eden and Andy are doing.

At her 15 month check up Grace weighed 17 lbs, 10 oz and was 30 inches long.

Grace is now 14 months and she is growing and changing so much! Ben was gone last week on a business trip and she seemed so different in just the week that he was gone. She was diagnosed with a double ear infection several weeks ago, and when we went in for her recheck both ears were still infected. She’s been on her new medication for several days now and I think it’s working because she is actually walking a lot more. She still crawls most of the time, but she will walk on her own now, as opposed to just when we made her do it. And she seems more stable then she did last week as well.

Grace is also talking a lot more. She says: mama, dada, eden, deda, all done, more, bye bye, hi and night night. She gives lots of kisses, shakes her head ‘no’ when she doesn’t want something, claps and is doing great with her milk. She cracks herself up by making noises with her mouth and she is suddenly very interested in books. She’s also been eating like crazy! Last night we went out for dinner and Grace ate a squeezey applesauce while we waited for our food, a bunch of chips with cheese dip, an entire corn dog and some french fries. Andy didn’t even finish his corn dog!

She loves being able to do whatever the big kids are doing. She follows them everywhere and is so happy when they include her in their games. She’s also toughened up quite a bit, not screaming and crying every time that Andy comes near her, although she is still very much the baby. She likes to be carried around and can do a convincing fake cry when she wants attention.

Gracie has her 15 month check up in a few weeks and we’re anxious to hear how much weight she’s gained and are hoping that her ear infections have cleared up.