Thursday, March 15, 2012

Grace- 6 Months!

Wow- I cannot believe that our little Grace is already 6 months old! Six more months, and she will be a year- that is just crazy to believe. This has been a big month for lil missy- lots of growing and changing!
For the most part, Grace is generally a very content and happy little girl. She is pretty chill and likes to watch what is happening around her. However, as I have mentioned before, she does have a fierce little temper! This is her mad about something face!
We have continued to explore new foods- rice cereal never became a big hit, but we tried oatmeal and she seemed to like that a lot!
But chewing on the washcloth is even more fun- and check out that girls rolls! 

She hasn't exactly learned the art of eating neatly. :) 
We also started giving her sweet potatoes and squash. This is the initial sweet potato face- obviously not thrilled, but she really liked it once she got used to the new taste! 

Gracie continues to be an awesome little sleeper! She typically takes 2 naps a day, for several hours each. Then at night she sleeps 12 hours- then occasionally goes back to sleep again after eating! It almost makes me forget all the previous months where sleeping was such a struggle- almost. :)
Her 5 month picture!
All the chewing and slobbering Grace has been doing over the past few weeks definitely amounted to something- her first little teeth appeared in February! The bottom right popped through first, and the bottom left popped through a few days later. She handled them both pretty well! And her little smile looks pretty cute now with two little teeth at the bottom.
Grace is still a little chatterbox in terms of making noise. She learned how to scream this month (lovely), and started making a gasping noise. That freaked me out the first time she did it because it sounded like she was choking! She also started to blow bubbles and spit- which she now does all the time, including while eating food. Nice. :) She does a little fake cough as well.

Her exercise mat continues to be one of her favorite places. Grace has also started to kinda like the jumperoo- she hasn't figured out how to jump in it, but she likes to be standing in there. But more often than not, she gets ticked off at one of the toys on it and can't calm down. :) As I said, she has a temper!
Grace discovered that she now loves to stand! She was never too interested in it before, but all of a sudden, she just decided that she wanted to stand all the time. We'll hope that standing up by herself is still a ways off. :) She also waves her arms up and down now wildly. 
She is thrusting herself all over as well, like when she is sitting in her bumbo or another type of chair. She's definitely gotten to the point where she could just flip herself out. And she is still scootching herself around on the ground, but hasn't discovered how to get up on her hands and knees yet to crawl.
One of our favorite parts of Grace is the sweet smiles she gives us when we come into her room after she has woken up. I caught them on camera one day. :)
Here is where she spied Mommy....
And good morning to you!
Gracie has started to grab at everything as well. If there is something within her reach, she's going for it. Bella obviously doesn't like this development so much as her toys are now open territory. :)
Another new discovery was lil missy's feet! She found them one night when sitting in her bumbo and has enjoyed playing with them ever since.
I think we can now say that Grace is sitting up on her own. She still hasn't quite mastered her balance when she is messing with a toy, but if she is just sitting by herself she does great. But she still likes to plop herself over onto her belly- that's one of her favorite positions!
Gracie looooooves giving kisses and playing with our faces. And I must say, I love getting a nice wet baby kiss from her! Even if she does have a tendency to grab ahold of my hair and pull.
Such a sweet little girl!


The Girlies

This past month, both Bella and Gracie have started to become much more into each other. Grace has always watched her big sister with amazement, but she is now really starting to interact with her and love on her- which Bella naturally loves! It has been quite sweet to see. :) 
Having a stare down contest- not sure who would win this one!
Snuggling on the couch together- so nice that Gracie is sitting up now and I don't have to worry about her toppling over!
For Valentine's Day, our family took a little trip to the mall and went out to eat. Our major stop was visiting Barnes and Noble and reading books. Well, Gracie slept and Mommy and Bella read. And yes, Bella is drinking a frappucino- and no it doesn't happen often! It's actually Mommy's. :)
Reading books to little sissy.
Posing in their sweet Valentine's outfits!
Bella LOVES to give Gracie big giant hugs- even though they somewhat squash her. Thankfully, Grace doesn't mind. :)
Such sweet girls. :)
Obviously this is our picture taking chair!
And here is an actual real smile for Bella! Her 3 year pictures this year may prove to be challenging... she is not easy to get a good picture of these days.
Kisses. :) Grace has also been giving Bella kisses, and grabbing at her hair and face. The hair Bella doesn't much like, but she thinks its so funny when Grace kisses at her!
We love these little girls soooo much!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

The Many Expressions of Bella

Hard to believe that it is already mid-way through March- February definitely flew by for our girls!
Bella finally got to experience her first major snowfall. Too bad that we've had such a non-snowy winter because she absolutely loves playing in the snow! She had been talking about building a snow kitty (Of course) for quite some time, so she was so excited to finally do it.
Daddy helped her make a big old Mommy Cat! She didn't participate too much as it was still snowing and hard for her to see.
She chose to make snowballs instead and throw them at Daddy. :)
Playing on Daddy's Ipad is one of her favorite special treats. :) Daddy doesn't mind either because he gets snuggle time that way!
It is crazy how much Bella's hair has grown in the past months. It fits really well in a ponytail now- and when it is wet, it is halfway down her back! Might actually have to get her first haircut sometime!
Playing on the couch snuggled up with her nigh-nigh and Cheshire the Cat. :)
Mommy and Bella went to play in the snow later in the week before it all melted. There wasn't too much snow left, so we made a baby kitten. Bella loved it of course. :) She was quite sad when it melted away!
She also loved making snow angels and throwing snowballs!
Such a little cheese. :)
I also found that Bella's hair is now long enough for braids! She looked SO grown up with these! Thankfully she lets me do things to her hair, so I will have lots of fun with her as her hair gets longer.
Her silly face. :)
Showing off those little braids.
This is Bella's grumpy face- yes, it is quite scary! She has a wide variety of facial expressions- will have to be an actress someday. :)
Feeding food to Tommy and reading her Tag books. Tommy gets play food fed to him throughout most days, lucky him!
Here are some other funny things that Bella did this past month I want to remember:
-In church, she loves to sing along with the songs. She even raises her hands up like other people- it is so adorable to see!
-When playing with her dolls and princesses, Mommy or Daddy always has to be the naughty person while she gets to be the good princess. :) And we are not allowed to make up our own storyline, she is the director!
-Bella is loving chasing games again! She wears Derek and I out nightly as that is the time that we have to "chase me."
-She also likes to play silly games when she is eating- like hiding her hands or eyes, then saying "Say where did Bella's hands go?" She is such a little goof.
-ADORES imaginative play. That is the basis of her play throughout the day.
-We have continued to work on learning the alphabet, which she has picked up with no problem- making me think I should've done it earlier, oops! She now knows A through I and M and O. Halfway done!
-She can also count to 14. Then she starts rambling off to 18, 19.... :) She also understands the concept of counting objects more now.
-A first and hopefully last experience: She locked herself in our bedroom. Not a pleasant experience for 10 minutes as Mommy tried to explain to her how to unlock the door while Daddy worked at taking the doorknob off. Hopefully that never happens again! I think she thought we locked her in there, so she wouldn't stop sobbing enough to listen.