Well…I’m pretty late posting this, but we’ve been rather busy and I had to wait until we got Grace’s pictures back. 🙂

On January 26, Grace turned 1! It was a fun day which started with cinnamon rolls with a candle (she ate an entire cinnamon roll!) and then we played and did a little cleaning for her party in the afternoon. She LOVED her cake and was using two hands to shove it into her mouth. It was pretty cute, until she bit her finger and completely melted down. Although, to be honest, even that was pretty cute, right?

At her one year check up, she weighed 16 lbs, 13 oz and was 29 inches long. She’s still very petite, smaller than both Eden and Andy at this age, but she’s stayed on her curve, so Dr. Timmons’ isn’t concerned. I love it because even though she is one, she still looks like a little baby!

Grace is not quite as easy going as she used to be. She’s much more opinionated and likes to make her thoughts known by screaming at full volume. She isn’t walking yet, although she’s slowly getting more brave about standing on her own. She eats everything, often times more than Eden, and although she did her best to resist the switch to milk, is doing pretty well with that now, too. She’s a great sleeper, going 12 1/2 hours at night and taking 4-5 hours of naps during the day. We’ve limited her paci to just the car seat and her crib and she thinks it’s very funny when she gets to throw her paci into her crib when she wakes up.

Since Grace will be 11 months next week, it seemed like we ought to go ahead and do a post about her being 10 months! Poor third child… 😉

Grace is busy spending her time chasing Eden and crawling away from Andy. She’s pretty quick and when she really wants to pour on the speed she ducks her head down and crawls so fast! She has pretty much dropped her third nap, taking a very long afternoon nap instead. And she has been sleeping through the night without a an early morning feeding for a little over a week. That means she’s sleeping 12 hours straight which is good for all of us!

Gracie has caught another cold, but doesn’t seem too bothered by it. She is still eating well and really likes the squeeze packs because she can feed herself with them. We love them because they are easy to travel with and don’t require a spoon! Grace’s front two teeth are finally coming in and we’re very happy that her fangs won’t be quite so prominent.

We recently had friends staying with us and Grace was really interested in their baby. She loved to pull herself up on the baby swing to peek at him or crawl over and stare at him on the floor. She was even nice about crying sympathetically when he cried.

We’re looking forward to Grace’s first Christmas and her first birthday which will be here soon!

Grace has entered such a fun stage! She’s been very busy changing and growing over the last month. Grace continues to be very mobile and loves to chase Eden and Andy. She likes to play peek-a-boo with towels and blankets and waves and also said her first word, “hi”! Now she loves to wave and say “hi” any time she sees someone for the first time (like when the kids wake up from their naps or Ben comes home) and she likes to wave when she is being carried out of a room.

Gracie is pulling up on everything and has let go a couple of times for just an instant. She is eating more solid foods and has had tiny bits of hotdog, puffs, yogurt guys, bread, cheese and a few other things. She demands more solid foods now, but still eats a little bit of baby food as well.

Grace had her 9 month check up today and was 28 inches long and weighed 15 lbs, 15 oz. Grace seems to look more and more like Andy, but she’s MUCH smaller. Andy weighed slightly more than Grace does now when he was 3 months!

Grace is 8 months old and she is becoming such a little person! She is very active, crawling everywhere and pulling up on things. She has crawled up to the second step and climbed onto the kitchen stool. She chases Eden and Andy all around the house and has started pulling up by the backdoor to peek outside. Grace can flip herself from a crawling position to a sitting up position without a wobble although she still can’t crawl very far on her hands and knees and resorts to an army crawl after a few minutes.

Grace got her first tooth this past month. It poked through on the 16th and her second tooth came through the next day. She chews on everything and really prefers eating yogurt bites to baby food.

Poor Grace has had nonstop colds since the beginning of September and while she has been pretty pleasant, she hasn’t been sleeping or eating well. Grace and I get a lot of time together from 3-6am because her cough keeps her up, but she takes a great morning nap!

Whew! We’re behind, but tonight is the first night that we’ve had internet at the new house, so I’m playing catch-up.

Andy is now 2 1/2! He’s as busy as ever but is much more articulate and opinionated! It’s been so fun to listen to Andy’s speech develop over the last several months. He loves to talk and is quite good at expressing himself now. He is still plays pretty rough, even when he’s trying to be gentle and he’s always on the move. He could spend hours driving his cars, trucks and trains around and is very happy with his new rug that has streets and buildings on it in the basement. He recently decided he likes to read books as well and is constantly pulling books off of the shelf to read.

The hardest part of Andy’s life is that Eden is going to school and he isn’t. Every day that we drop Eden off is a struggle. He throws himself on the floor of the church and cries when we’re trying to leave because he wants to stay. I look like superwoman dragging Andy out under one arm and Grace in her car seat on the other.

Grace is getting more and more mobile. She army crawls everywhere and is fast! She is getting better at crawling on her hands and knees, but her arms can’t support her for very long. She started chatting a few weeks ago, although the most common sound from her is screaming. That’s pretty much the only way she can be heard above her siblings.

Last week, Eden and I were sitting on her bed talking and Grace was sitting on the floor. Suddenly, Grace’s cute little face popped up over the edge of the bed! She had crawled over to the bed and pulled herself into a standing position.

The kids are keeping us busy but it’s fun (most of the time!).