Happy Valentine's Day!

Gracie says it with cookies.

Another fun weekend - and this one Steve didn't have to work at all. Whee!

We went to the SF Zoo. We are a little bit of zoo connoisseurs/snobs, having been members of the San Diego zoo for so long, so we were pleasantly surprised. It's a great zoo - really good for young kids and much of it appears to have been redone recently. Grace had been to the Oakland zoo recently with Auntie Kristie and Uncle Hilary and had discovered G-rafffs, so she was thrilled to see them again. She also liked the gorillas and lions (she kept roaring at them) and the penguins. She also loved running around and the petting zoo. In fact, last night when we were talking about her day, Steve asked if she remembered patting the goat and she said "ah pet da ears!"

Natalie and Gavin met us there, which was a super treat.

As soon as Steve or I held Gavin, Grace demanded to get in our laps also. Gavin is such a sweet, lovey pie.

This one is from the "what goes around, comes around" sequence. Gavin was intent on getting glasses and she was adamant that he not. "No no myyy gassses!"

In the petting zoo...

Topped off a fun day with Lizzie and her parents coming over for the evening. I love that they're in the same posture here.

Did a little cookie decorating (that's Jane with the girls).

These two are so cute together. Lizzie is nine months older than Grace, and they mostly get along well. They chased each other around the house laughing and gleefully screaming - it was hysterical. They also watched a movie and when Lizzie got up to do something else, Grace followed her saying "watch movie peeeze, Lizzie." It almost broke my heart it was so cute. Grace seems to adore Lizzie, always interested in what she's doing - she'll follow her around the park or eat what Lizzie eats, trying to do what Lizzie can do, but she's enough younger that she can't always quite keep up.

And here we are making dinner tonight. Grace really helped by putting the potatoes on the pan after I chopped them. She LOVES her apron (thank you, Bjorn and co.!) and often won't take it off until bedtime (solution to the bib problem!) and even then sometimes it takes a fight. As soon as she puts it on, she starts pointing to where we keep the step stool saying "and dat one tooo!" She loves the step stool, but only gets to use it on very special occasions (i.e. to keep from bugging daddy when he needs to get some work done).

Looking at these pictures, I'm amazed by how clear it is that Grace has become a (very) little girl. She is at such a wonderful age. It's fun to take her new places (and familiar ones) because she understands so much of what is happening and is fascinated by learning new things. She sits and looks at her books, pointing at picture after picture saying "what's that? what's that?" She asks to call her grandparents and aunt and uncle on skype. She remembers things and talks about them. Anyway, I digress. But I guess it's fitting for Valentine's Day to talk about how much we love our baby girl.

Happy Heart Day!

Shorts in February

I feel a little cruel even mentioning that our weather was in the mid-70s last weekend since so many of you are in the throes of a rather hideous winter. But we did our time in New England and are now paying the price, literally, of such a lovely climate. Anyway, although we've had more than a few moments of thinking how lovely it would be to watch the snow fall over Boston and then head over to the Public Garden for a walk in the fresh snow, with a stop at Upper Crust on the way home, we were thrilled to enjoy a little mid-winter summer.

So, we finally made it to Mt. Tam. I found the endless hiking options overwhelming, so ended up picking Carson Falls since Grace is way into waterfalls right now (along with towers, airplanes, the moon, birds, and trains). Just wait till she sees Yosemite! It was a gorgeous day, perfect hiking weather. Despite the photographic evidence, I was there, too.

It is infinitely harder to hike with a toddler on your back. So we tried to convince her to walk part of the way back, but I guess one tires quickly if your mode of hiking is jumping up the trail...

Executive summary

I think what I was trying to express with yesterday's very long post is that as Grace starts talking more and more (and non-stop), it reflects the concepts she's starting to understand and we also see her personality emerge more clearly. But the distance between who she is today and the baby of a year ago also becomes more evident. I love it and don't ever want to hold her back; however, it is a stark reminder of how soon she will be 12, 16, 18...

Grace-isms at almost 21 months

(Okay, so this post ended up very long and rambly. But I need to remember all this so please forgive me/feel free to move on.)

20 month old Gracie is so indelibly etched in my mind, I cannot imagine that the way she is today will gradually fade from my memory. But yesterday my dad asked me if she still urgently asks "okay? okay?" whenever someone coughs, and I realized that I had already forgotten that particular antic of 18 month old Gracie. Sigh. Everyone says that having a child under 5 is the most physically exhausting stage of parenting, but it is also so terribly sweet that I hate to think I might not remember the incredible joy and sweetness and hilarity of One.

On Sunday we went to some friends' house for dinner. Their daughter is almost 2 and a half, and she and Grace have spent lots of time together, but Lizzie always seemed so much older than Grace. This time, though, they were running around and almost playing together - jumping on chairs and giggling endlessly, tickling each other and talking to one another using dominoes as phones. Grace was so thrilled to be with another child. We know she likes "school" and she has always been incredibly social, but since I work full time I don't get to see her play with other kids very often anymore.

The biggest thing Grace is up to these days is talking, talking, talking. Many of her garbled, babble phrases have become intelligible and it suddenly seems like she understands everything. Everything. I'm starting to realize I have to watch what I say - not because of vulgarity (though admittedly I need to watch my mouth when driving), but because I can just imagine the day that Grace walks into school and announces that their sick policy is silly or says something else that was sort of intended to be a family secret.

One of her current things is to say "Daddy at work. Dokker." Then a few days ago, she followed with "Work hard." Often when we talk about Daddy being at work, I say "Yes, Daddy works hard." Little sponge. Another big thing right now is "Mommy work. Dokker." And then Steve tries to explain that I'm not a doctor, but it doesn't seem to stick.

Already, Grace's penchant for asking "a (blank) go?" to ask where someone/something is has evolved. Now she will say "Mommmmmmyyy, ere aaaare yoooouuu?" "Daaaddddyyy, er aaaare yoouuuu?" It is quite possibly the cutest thing ever. Other things that currently kill us are when she says "bess you, daddy/mommy" or tells us to pray before dinner and then yells "aaaahhhmen!" One of my favorites is how she mixes up pronouns and will say "help you?" or "carry you?" when she wants help or to be carried. And instead of up, she now says "uppy!" which is so cute that we encourage it against our better judgement.

I guess one of the most noticeable transitions lately is that her memory and sense of time/place seems to be changing or she seems to get the connections between ideas more. If we ask if she wants a bath or shower, she'll remember that a little while later and say she wants a bath and head into the bathroom (and that start demanding a bath immediately). She asks to go to church or to see the fishies (go to the aquarium). She knows that getting on coats and shoes means it's time to "go go go!" and she'll hustle us along with our shoes if she is ready to "go go go!"

She has no patience whatsoever and the tantrums are incredibly dramatic these days. Often it's hard not to laugh. We try hard to get her to use words to tell us the problem, but sometimes the problem is just that she is one and mad that she doesn't run the show.

A few other things for me to remember - she's very into the ocean, and loved her many trips to the beach with Steve last week while she was too sick to go to school. When she hears good music, her face lights up and she'll start bopping her head in a really funky way like the beat is in her soul. Last week she dragged us to the living room and lined us up for a dance party (bon jovi and aerosmith) and thought it was hilarious to use toys as mics. She loves the tower we can see from our window and will ask over and over again to go to the window to look at it. She will also loudly announce it as a revelation whenever we can see it while we're out. She also translated this into building a tower with blocks. It's just so amazing to see her make these connections. She also loves to clean up - vacuums, brooms, or just using a towel to wipe up a mess. If she sees a mess, she will go get a towel to clean it up. She also loves to make coffee (she loves the grinder). Tonight, in fact, she saw the coffee pot and started asking over and over, "maky cossee?" She also has the funniest, cutest way of saying "meh-owww" (meow), woo-wooo (woof woof) and "enk enk" (oink, oink). Tonight we read animal books before bed just so I could get her to say the sounds over and over until I melted into a puddle on her floor.

She is such a happy kid, except of course when she's not. She delights in running around and laughing and trying to be helpful and she loves to "pay" (play) with her trains and dolls and books. Her favorite foods are "chocate", "piza", "ice-seee", donuts, frozen peas and "brocki" and "cackers". I should perhaps feel guilty about most of those, but honestly, aren't they your favorite foods, too?

This morning when we walked outside, Grace said to me "I hear da birdies." And it took a few seconds to register that she had just said a perfectly in context, meaningful, intelligible sentence.
Then, when I dropped her off at school, I gave her a kiss and without turning around she said over her shoulder "I love you." The teacher's and my jaws dropped. It's so bittersweet to see my baby recede, but I'm so in love with the little girl taking her place.