This one's for you Gracie, just for the record.

Gracie is really and truly talking! And it's so much fun! I am loving this 17 month old stage. She just oozes cuteness!

My favourite phrase after "love you mama" which she repeated to me last night while driving home from Toowoomba is probably, "Sushi, please" (pronounced bbbbbbbblllleeeeeeasssssssse). I need to get a video of her saying it.

And somehow she's picked up a cute southern accent when saying, "bye".

A few days ago I heard Gracie in the next room saying, "cheese." She LOVES cheese so I thought she must be hungry. I turned around to see her holding my camera, pointing at me and saying, "cheese".

Gracie's also just discovered how to open up closed doors! (was hoping that developmental accomplishment would have waited a few more months). Which is how she happened to grab my camera (which was actually on a table top but she's so tall and gets on her tip toes).

Grace is the little darling at Simon's kindy. She loves playing in the sand box and walks around absolutely confident and happy. She's so different than Simon who hated getting his hands dirty and playing in sand at her age. She throws sand up in the air, laughs, and smiles away. She'll fall face first in the sandbox, stand up face covered with dirt and just keep playing. Our only problem at kindy is that she sometimes tries to snatch the other kids water bottles, but luckily she never actually drinks from them. Just from Simon's water bottle. Doesn't matter if I bring one for Gracie, she has to have Simon's. She's also started wearing her hat- after noticing that everyone else wears a hat, she'll say, "hat" and go get hers to put on too. Positive peer pressure at it's best!

This past week Grace discovered - dolls!!! She's been 100% tomb boy up until now so it's pretty cute to see this girlie side of her emerge. Our next door neighbor, Nyenda, was over last week and left her doll. I love it because it's absolutely a rag doll in all sense of the word- no clothes, ratty and torn, pen marks all over her face and in desperate need of a bath, but somehow this little doll has captured Gracie's heart! For about a day, Grace had to drag her around with her everywhere. Natalie gave Grace a pram for her birthday and Grace loves pushing her Dora pram around with the dollie in it. I was very impressed with Grace when we walked next door to return our friend's doll. Gracie had a moment of sadness, but then kindly gave Nyunda her beloved dollie back. And is now pushing around her very first doll Gracie, a gift from her Grandma Steph at birth, and she seems pretty keen on her as well.

We had a lovely weekend in Toowoomba at Bob and Steph's. Grace is so happy there and I never worry about ducking out for a coffee (and a movie too this trip! Thanks so much for that Bob and Steph!). Steph said she had a tumble in the rose garden and just sat back up, a few cuts on her face but no tears. She really has the most lovely, calm temperment. She's quietly social and lights up a room with her smile.

Gracie's favourite songs: wheels on the bus, old macdonald, the abcs, and itsy bitsy spider. She loves "round and round the garden goes the teddy bear" and the little piggies going to the market on her toes. She's also started making animal sounds. My fav is her mooooo for cow. Monkey, Elephant, lion, sheep, chicken and dog. The other sounds are a bit harder to catch although she seems to think she's got them down pat.

Gracie LOVES books. She just absorbs them and wants to read books with me for hours on end. While Simon's at school she'd be content to do just that which is also so different from Simon. While he loved books too, at this age he was always on the move and I couldn't easily sit in one room with him for an hour or so. We spent all our days outside at the playground or running around.

Gracie loves playgrounds too and is fearless. She's happy to go down the slide headfirst and is a little climber. She used to LOVE the swings but now that she can walk she's more interested in the other apparatus.

Gracie is so laid back by also really sensitive. I'll be in the kitchen cooking and hear her sobbing. Walk around the corner to see her lying on her tummy on the cold floor crying - you'd think she's just fallen or was really hurt, but instead realize it's because Simon's shut the door and won't let her in his room (but no more of that since Gracie can get the doors open now! :) ) Or sometimes Andrew will shut the door to do something alone with Simon and Gracie just sobs. It's going to be interesting to see what she's like in a few months time because I see moments of VERY strong will emerge but also a really easy, laid backness as well.

Two days in a row I had an awful time trying to get Gracie into her carseat. She just straightened her legs and back and is STRONG. She was determined not to get in and it was really frustrating me! Then Gracie pointed at the sand in her seat. There was more sand there than usual (from the playground at Simon's school) and I guess it irritated her because after I'd grabbed the hand vac and zapped it away, she happily sat in her chair. I love her newfound communication!!!

Okay this post is really not for anyone but me, which explains all my ramblings. I'm just enjoying Grace so much and need to write some of her daily happenings down before I forget them and they all fade away in my memory.

Just a few more of my favourite new words:

No, no Simon.

No, no, no, no, no.

Bee bee, me bee bee. (her dummy which she absolutely loves).

Bottle.

book.

milk.

fliss kitty.

Cheese.

Love you my darling.