Monday - Labor Day

Gracie awoke at 7:45 a.m. this morning. Ahhhh, that was awesome. She was in a great mood. We played with her "babies" (dolls) and her stuffed animals for a bit, then she informed me we needed to get up for some "juice".

We had a fairly lazy morning and went out furniture shopping (looking for a new tv/media stand) at 4 stores in town. Gracie was very good in all of them as long as we kept moving. There was a big German Shepherd in a SUV at one of the stores that Gracie fell in love with.

Then it was home for lunch, more playing, and then a nap. Gracie slept for 2 hours and woke up in the best mood. Then it was time for a walk. She wanted to go to the school playground, so we did inbetween the rain showers. It did rain on us a little, but Gracie didn't seem to mind. She just sat on the swings going back and forth for the longest time with the most content, happy smile.

Gracie's language skills have blossomed again and she is talking so much. She has a lot of independent words and still copies alot of what we say. On her walk, she lost her balance and started to fall. Jeff caught her and I said "Daddy saves the day!" Gracie then repeated that for a while. It was so cute.

Gracie wore a new shirt today that she got for her birthday with ballerina's on it. Everytime she looked at the dancers, she had to dance too. She also had fun playing with her Mickey and Minnie Mouse figures. A while ago I had put a sticker of Goofy on the ketchup bottle and forgot all about it. Tonight Gracie was eating ketchup, looked at the bottle and said "Goofy". She is getting so good at recognizing familiar characters, animals, and body parts. Gracie also is starting to have great empathy for others. She has a sign language video that talks about how to say "cry" and "sad" and it shows kids crying and sad. We have to fast forward it because it upsets Gracie terribly. The first time I thought I could just talk her through it, but each time she watches it gets worse and worse and she gets so worked up about it.

Gracie's great love, other than books, these days are her baby dolls and her stuffed animals. At night if we don't have the right baby dolls in bed with her we have to go get them. The bed is full of dolls and stuffed kitties, dogs, elephants, bears, and even a llama.

Gracie had a hard time falling asleep tonight. She got to bed later since her nap was later. Unfortunately we have to be at the clinic tomorrow bright and early for allergy testing. We may have a grumpy or tired girl.

Gracie is now all snuggled in...and wearing her Tinkerbell pj's.

Love,
Lisa, Jeff, and Gracie