gracie-isms.

gracie talks a lot. like, all day long. and she's been that way for a long time now! she just picked right up on her language and has never looked back. and most of the time, it's pretty hilarious. here are some of my favorites from her from the last few months that need to be documented somewhere other than my phone:

"it's ok mommy. i'm super gracie. you don't have to worry."

mom: "ok gracie, if you come in my room, you have to be super quiet cuz lola is napping."
gracie thinks for a minute... "maybe i'll just go downstairs.."

g: "i'm sorry sister, but you have to share." (she then picked up lola's socks)
mom: "why her socks?"
g: "cuz my baby wants some socks."

"let's watch the clouds go by mommy."

"i'm going to clean up dad's shoes. it's ok, i'm a big girl. i've got my sleeves up!"

mom: "gracie can you be quiet for like, 2 minutes?"
g: "no i can't! there's music in my ears. so i can't be quiet."

mom: "are you going to go outside?"
g: "no it's really windy. my  head doesn't have glue so it will blow away." (with a very concerned look on her face)

mom: "gracie we don't spit."
g: "but if there's a big dragon in my mouth, i have to spit it out."
mom: "there isn't a dragon in your mouth."
g: "i know, cuz i just spit it out! see right there??" (pointing to her plate)

"seriously, child??!" (she got that from her father! just sayin.)

"please stop! my hair will fall out if you talk so much." (to me. thanks.)

mom: "gracie was that fun taking cookies to people?" (we had just made cookies & taken them around to some of our neighbors. sidenote: she really likes to help with the mixer when we bake things)
g: "yes, we gave them cookies cuz they don't have mixers." (yeah...totally. that's why.)

to gracie jane: 3 years old

gracie:
this past year you have had to grow up and become a big sister. you have handled all those changes (including two moves to new houses and everything that went with that) like a champ. it's been a busy and confusing time i think, but you just go with the flow and say ok and keep being the big helper that you've always been. you're still learning patience with your sister and how to share and not rip things out of her hands, but you are working on it and you are getting better and you are so nice, even when little sister pulls your hair. it hurts, i know!

you are so dang smart. too smart! you pick up on so much just listening to others around you, and your little mind is so quick to catch onto things. you've pretty much been talking non-stop since you were 18 months, and i don't see that changing any time soon. you're starting to understand sarcasm more, and we can joke with you and you get it and laugh and it's so fun (except sometimes dad is too serious and you just get mad because you don't know he's joking..that dad!).

you are so excited for school. you don't even start school until next fall, but you have met your teacher and visited your school already and ever since, you talk about her and going to school almost daily. you have a backpack and a couple lunchboxes and you pack stuff up and 'go to school' all the time. you will be so great, i know it! i'm so excited for you and your future.

while you have a ton of personality (and some serious sass), you are so very sweet. you always want to give loves and kisses to everyone. you are the best little momma to your baby dolls (even though you don't like to name them - they're just known as 'baby' usually ;)). you feed them and burp them and swaddle them and carry them in your little mini carrier and push them in the stroller and put them to bed. and then shush everyone in sight so we don't wake up your babies.

your imagination is pretty amazing, and it only keeps getting better. you come up with things that come out of nowhere, but you're so clever! you are so obsessed with dragons right now. everyone is usually a dragon at some point during the day (many times it's lola). you are also obsessed with ghosts (that's what you want to be for halloween! a 'nice ghost') and you love to put blankets over anyone you can, and tell them to be a ghost! you think it's hilarious.

without a doubt, your favorite people are the 'kids' - aka your cousins. also 'susie' (aunt susan), and your grandmas. you ask to go to their house or for them to come over to ours daily. and they adore you and love you right back.

you are so outgoing. you have no fear when it comes to people. you'll say hi to anyone we pass, either at the park or the store or wherever we are. you will see random kids that you don't know and tell me that they're 'your friend'. you love to put on a show, whenever anyone is around. you like to have the attention and you make sure others know you're around. you have so much energy and you get so excited about all sorts of things - big or small. it's infectious.

you love the park! it's probably your favorite place to go. you cannot get enough the swings, and you always want me to push you higher in the sky like a rocketship! your sister loves to swing with you now, too. and she loves when you push her in the swing, she just laughs and laughs. you make her so happy.

you definitely have your moments - you are strong-willed and you know what you want most the time. and you will let me know! i can't be too mad though, because i know that a lot of that attitude comes from me. you have taught me more about myself in the last three years than you will ever know.

one of your favorite things to do right now is to race. race outside, race around the house, race at the park. anywhere. and your favorite part is to say, in your best announcer voice: 'on your marks, get set, go!'. but no one else can say that! only you. you have a little runners stance and everything.

you are very tenderhearted. you get worried for someone if they get hurt or are feeling sick. you have genuine concern for others and tell people they have to be careful or they need to rest. and you say 'i'm sorry' even when there's nothing for you to be sorry about. you are a sweetheart.

you have changed our world, little one, and it has been the best three years of our lives! you have taught us patience and love and happiness that we never knew before. when i think about you growing up and what you might become, i honestly have no idea where you'll go in your life. there are so many possibilities for you, sweet girl, and i know you will be happy whatever you do and wherever you go. the world is yours, gracie jane.

love, mom.

gracie jane - 2.5 years

gracie was actually 2.5 in april, but saying she's 2.75 seems a little silly.

speaking of silly, gracie jane is so super silly! she is a joy and she also pushes my patience more than my patience has ever been pushed. she is such a good big sister. she's learning to be better at sharing. she wants to play with lola more and more but i have to remind her lola is still a baby and isn't quite as stable or able as she is, so she can't quite 'play' with her like she wants to all the time.

gracie is so loving. she is always giving loves to everyone, unprovoked. she especially loves to give zuberts (raspberries? what else are they called?) to everyone. she won't leave a family gathering without going around and giving everyone a hug and usually a kiss (or zubert) goodbye.

gracie is a little stinker! she is getting smarter and figuring out ways to try to get around rules or having to do things to get what she wants. she knows which parent to ask for certain things or tries asking us both if she doesn't get the answer she wants. it can be so frustrating, but honestly it's pretty hilarious too.

lola adores her big sister and most of the time, she thinks gracie is just hilarious. gracie is good about being a helper with lola, getting diapers, trying to help feed her, getting her toys, and she tries reeeally hard to be quiet during lola's nap times. not always so successful at that, but she does try ;)

gracie loves to put on a show. she loves attention from anyone and she is not scared to talk to people, stranger or not. zero stranger danger with this one! she says hi to random people at the store and sometimes proceeds to tell strangers things that strangers don't need to know about herself or me. people usually thinks she's pretty funny.

if there's one group of people gracie loves most in life, it is her cousins! or 'the kids'. she would play all day, every day with them if she could. they're all at least a few years older, and she bosses them around like it's her job in life. and they do whatever she says most the time! (which doesn't help, but ya know). they love her too. they have so much fun playing together, and she gets ridiculously excited whenever we see them.

she's becoming more and more of a little firecracker, which i probably mostly have myself to blame. i hate to admit it, but i totally give her attitude sometimes because i know she knows better, and she just feeds that attitude right back to me. she has a good little glare going, and puts me in my place at least once a day. she drives me insane, but it's hard to be too mad because i know she gets a lot of it from me. i have to remind myself she's only 2 and it's her job to be a little trouble maker.

at the end of the day, gracie jane is my sweet little mini me bff. she is so funny and so happy and such a lover. she makes me want to be a better person and a better mother every day.

life lately: may 2016

here's some snippets from our month of may. 99% are of the girls (ok, there's only one pic of jae and i and it's a terrible picture!), but our lives revolve around them so it makes sense, right?

a rainbow shaped line of shoes is gracie's favorite thing to be OCD about lately ;)

big girl bed!!!! this bed has been waiting for months now (i've been pushing it off and pushing it off..) and since lola hit 6 months and wasn't sleeping in her crib yet (i had a lot of anxiety about that) because gracie was still sleeping in the crib - well i finally told jae it was time and we were just going to jump right in! so we did. and she's done pretty dang good. this was her first night. she was pretty excited.

endless kisses between these sisters

she is a momma's girl and a snuggler and i cannot get enough of the sweetness

she wanted to have a picnic in the basket with her snacks and books. so she did!

gracie went to see cousin quinn in her ballet recital. i think she got a little bored with all the dancing, but loved the costumes and the flowers at the end! and dressed up in her 'twirl' skirt and pink sparkly ballet shoes for it

pantry door, painted and knobbed and installed! check.

tile floor is done!!!!! jae did amazing.

she cracks me up. insisted on the hat (which is so cute but too big so falls off constantly) and the purse, of course. she gets so mad when she can't get it on and off over her head by herself.

oh and all of that while reading some books in mom and dads closet.

i wish you could see him from the front view, but someone asked gracie 'what is dad doing?' and she looked at him like this and said, without missing a beat, 'feeding lola!'. that's exactly what it looked like, now that she mentions it! it was so so funny.

first nap in the crib. now she's in there for every nap and every sleep and it's been so great.

just a goofy gracie face. she's super into scrunching her nose lately and giving us this disgusted look.

she often asks to have some of my morning smoothie, and it always makes its way up to her nose somehow ;)

lola doesn't make very many silly faces like this! i was so glad i caught it on camera.

we had a nasty cold turned bronchiolitis run through our house a few weeks ago and the girls (and jae and i) were sad little sickies for two weeks. it was miserable.

greatest family photo you've seen, amiright?! (lola's face!)

visiting my sister susan's new house that's being built and playing peek-a-boo in their fun little windows under the stairs. perfect gracie size.

first ride in the stroller sans carseat. she did pretty good sitting up! until she fell asleep.

lots of park days and lola got to sit in the swing too! she literally just sat in the swing for 10 seconds - but it's a start! soon she'll be swinging right alongside sister. 

(and it was too bright for little baby eyes)

gracie's first dentist appointment!! they took xrays and brushed her teeth and counted them and she got to pick out a new toothbrush and two prizes. she did awesome! and no cavities! 

(score one for the parents ;))

the zoo!

i had been really wanting to take gracie to the zoo. we hadn't been since last fall and the weather this week has been awesome. we wanted to go last week, but the cold plague hit us all and it just wasn't happening. so we talked grandma and auntie kennedy into going with us, and we made a day of it. it was so fun! PERFECT weather. mid 70's and sunny and just awesome. didn't get too many pictures of actual animals, but there were a few babies we got to see and that makes it even better. definitely going back a few more times this summer. it's so fun to have a toddler to do these fun things with.

obligatory lion drinking fountain picture. i mean, how old is that thing by now?

this is the best pic i got of the girls together ha! gracie chomping on her cookie & refusing to smile. and lola just needed a good nap.

not the greatest pictures, but the two bears were just rough-housing with each other in the water, putting on a show. it was awesome.

click on this one to see it bigger. she was smiling, which is great! but she was also looking over at her aunt kennedy rather than the camera haha. typical!

and now looking in the right direction, but still not at the camera. this girl!

turns out she's a popcorn fiend. who knew?! once grandma bought her the popcorn, she honestly couldn't have cared less about the animals and just wanted to sit in the stroller and eat popcorn.

these are too funny, i had to post all of them. gracie!! this is how it is trying to get any sort of decent picture with them ;) (also, grandma bought her a bubble gun and she traded the bag of popcorn in for that and wouldn't put it down. still won't.)

the train!