Fall...

I cannot tell you how happy I am that Fall is beginning to show her face around the valley. I am loving the open windows at night and breakfast in my back yard on the beautiful new patio my husband created for Grace and me. I feel like surviving the next five weeks of pregnancy is possible now.

I realized today that I have been so caught up in all that my mother is doing to help and with the doctors appointments and my Birthday... That I have not blogged a whole lot about Grace. Yes she is enjoying her time with Nonie and will be so sad to see her leave tomorrow, but big things have been happening... On a side note and before I return to Grace; Neighbors, if you see Grace and my mother (Patti) walking around the neighborhood, stop and say hello. She wanted to put faces to all the myriad of names I am always talking about, but I kept her locked away this visit...

So on to Grace... In addition to the walks, and great fun watching the neighborhood boys on bikes, on top of the swimming in both pool and bucket in my back yard, Grace is surprising me every day. She learned a few weeks back to put her shoes on all by herself. First it was her crocks now it is all shoes all the time on and off and on the correct feet I might add... I am still not sure I always put my own shoes on the right feet at 32 and she does it at less than a year and a half. She is a huge fan of... and I do not know the appropriate name, but the buckles or clips that are on high chairs and car seats... whatever they are called, Grace is fully capable of connecting them and does so proficiently time and again. This has become a game both of distraction when I need a minute. "Grace, stand at your booster seat and click the buckle for me." and reward, "Grace take two bites and I will open the buckle so you can click it."

Then... out of nowhere... well not really nowhere, but sort of, Grace decided that she knows how to sing her A, B, C's... She can do "A, B, C, D, .....H, I, .....L, M, N, O, P, ...... T, U, V, W, X, Y and Z" Okay... now maybe I am biased, no... truly I am biased, but I think that is impressive! She still only sings the "Row Row Row" part of Row Row Row your Boat, and the "Ashes Ashes" part of Ring around the Rosie. If you start "Twinkle, Twinkle...", she waits until the appropriate time and then sings (at the top of her lungs) "Up above!"

What else has she learned??? She still says "Yellow" for every color and I cannot keep up with her words. She is beginning to put words together, but it is mostly sentences like "No Touch!" or "No, No Glasses." "Out please." "I see you!" "I got you" and "I Sorry" but that is, I guess a start... She has been simply adorable with her baby and I hope that translates with the new little one on the way... we shall see.