Gracie Goose is Two!

Well, it happened. My baby turned two. She's not so much my baby anymore. :( Breaks my heart. I had high expectations for two different photo shoots. She was having none of it. I took probably 800 pictures and in 790 she isn't looking at the camera, crying, running, or trying to get down from whatever perch I set her on. Adin was my big helper, but I finally gave up and decided to be content with what I got. 

We didn't do much on her birthday because it was a Sunday. This girl loves cake though so that would have been enough. 

This little two year old is a spit fire, and I couldn't love her more.

Some fun things that I never ever want to forget about her. Having the older two I know that even though I am totally immersed in life right now, I will definitely forget a lot about her. 

-She loves outside or as she said "side" "side" "side" (she repeats her words over and over and over again). Our back yard is not two year old friendly. There is so much dust and dirt. She tends to like to roll in the dirt so I have play clothes that I keep in the drawer by outside. I have some old jeans that Meg used to wear, I bought some specific play shoes for the backyard and she has to have an old jack or coat over her shirt. Then she always comes in with dirt caked in her hair. She adores outside though. The cat, puffsqueek, follows her all around the backyard like a mother hen. She will lay on top of the cat and pancake her into the ground.The cat just lets her do it. 

-She has the funniest prayer face. We really had to emphasize our eyes being closed for her to be able to understand. No she squints her eyes really hard, but doesn't shut them. She sits so intently while we pray and then says, "yay" after we say amen. I need a better picture because this doesn't quite do it justice.

-She loves to be chased or to hide from people. Adin can get her laughing so hard when he chases her. 

-She has a super limited vocabulary. We took her to the pediatrician and he wants to give her another 6 months to see if she develops more. She says about 10 words very clearly and another 10 that she has her own version of. Some of her words are, sofie, elsa, tui (toys), side (outside), come, dada, car, pooh, whee, bee, and no. The one word that baffles us all is that she will not and has never said the word mama. We have a lot of frustrating moments because of her lack of vocabulary. She wants to tell me things but just cant. 

-She is an expert at a lot of animal sounds. I need to get this on video. She's got a fierce lion growl, a cute kitty meow, her elephant noise is one of her best. She can do a monkey, a snake and a puppy. She doesn't say any of the words, but can sure make their noises. She also makes a cute tigger noise

-She's still pretty terrible in the car and if we are going more than 30 minutes, we better have the dvd player for everyone elses sanity.

-She still passes out while crying on a regular basis. She is usually really mad crying when she does it. 

-She is still extremely wary of strangers and completely loses it if people try to talk to her. If people actually break her bubble and touch her she goes ballistic. 

-I am still her favorite person by far, but daddy is definitely second. She hoards all of daddy's time when he get's home from work and uses him as a shield when it's time for bed. She loves to sit on his lap in the lazy boy and watch movies. 

-She loves to go in the "whee" (a word she uses for anything that moves, cars, strollers, bikes, slides) on walks.

-She loves slides but hates swings unless she is sitting on someones lap. 

-She adores being read too and calls books, boos. She will throw a major fit if I want to be done reading before she is ready to be done.

-She is a completely unpredictable napper, but does really well sleeping at night. Lately she has been taking one two hour afternoon nap everyday but sometimes it's only 45 minutes to an hour. 

-For her bedtime routine we read books and then I rock her with a small warmed bottle. Then we brush teeth and I lay her down after she gets a kiss from her lion, cat and horse stuffed animals. I always look her straight in the eyes, nose to nose, and say, "Gracie, mama loves you" Then she shakes her head no and giggles. I still adore rocking her. Sometimes I sing Amazing Grace. I rock her and think about how blessed I am to have her and how much I want her to stay little forever. 

-She loves baths or show shows. She doesn't say any words related to this but if I ask she if she wants a bath she runs upstairs and climbs in.

-She can be really independent. If she doesn't want your help with something and she wants you to go away she'll look at you with big eyes and say, "Bye, good day" (which means have a good day). 

I feel like this girl is so full of personality that I am surely missing some hilariously cute things she does. Despite her being my hardest baby, I still absolutely adore her and am so grateful to be her mom. As much as we wish time would speed up so we can move from Manti, I do not want one minute of her life to speed up. I just wish she would slow down.