My Gracie Grace

Grace Autumn just minutes after birth.

I like to tell a little about the birthday kid around their birthday. It's fun to look back from year to year and see how much they've changed and how much they're still the same. Gracie was probably my hardest delivery. She was upside down which made it impossible for her to come out. I was induced in the morning and by early evening she was still not coming out. The midwife was starting to talk about a c-section when Gracie finally decided to turn and quickly come into the world. I was so happy to be able to have her naturally and not have to have a c-section. She arrive at 8:20 in the evening; weighed 8 pounds and was 20 inches long (pretty easy to remember) She's been such a joy ever since.

6 Weeks old

Gracie is probably our most independent child. She loves to be around her siblings, but she also loves to be with just Mom and/or Dad. She's hit the age where she can do everything herself (this has been somewhat of a blessing because Hannah has hit the age were she can no longer do anything for herself.) Speaking of Hannah, it's been fun to watch Gracie and Hannah growing up as sisters. They are very close and are normally very good at playing with each other. Gracie's just getting into the playing age and she and Hannah really enjoy hanging out with each other.

Disney Cruise (April of '08)

7 Months

One of Gracie's favorite things to do is sing. She wanders the house singing all throughout the day. It's taken awhile to figure out some of her songs, but she has 3 now that she frequently sings. One is Sunbeams, very cute and easy to know what she's singing. Another favorite is from Imagination Movers on Disney Channel. She'll turn in circles singing "turn around, turn around." Being that we don't watch Disney Channel that often I wasn't sure what this song was. Kenny was smarter than me and knew immediately what it was. Her most favorite song is by far my favorite. She runs through the upstairs with her hands out wide singing "How know" over and over again. This took awhile to figure this one out, but after some thought Kenny suggested Enchanted's song 'How do you know?' This is another movie we haven't watched in a while, but I have the song on my mp3 player and we listen to it sometimes during the day while I'm cleaning. Sure enough we put the movie in and when it came to that song Giesle runs through Central Park with her hands out wide singing "How do you know?" and there goes Gracie running through the upstairs, hands out singing 'How know.' Very cute. I'm going to have to try and get it on video.

Halloween 2008. Gracie surrounded by all the candy.

Gracie's 1 year picture. California coast; November '08

Gracie's tall and skinny, much like her big sister Sarah Kate. At her 2 year check up she was 36 inches (95%) and 24.4 pounds (19%). This is amazing to me because she loves candy. Most of my kids like candy, but Gracie LOVES it. She would eat only candy if we let her. Kenny has commented that she could be 300 pounds by now if we left her to choose her own food. Instead we feed her a lot of mac and chesse, sandwiches, chocolate milk (hates the white stuff just like the other kids) fruit snacks and whatever else she'll eat. She's normally a pretty good dinner eater (as good as any 2 year old) we just have to watch her candy intake before dinner. :)

Hot tubing at Grandma Newbry's over Easter weekend 2009 (18 months)

Gracie's annual summertime photo. (July 4th 2009; 21 months)

Gracie is such a fun kids and we love having her as part of our family. Her smile is contagious and so is her laugh. She's full of spunk and has a little tantrum side to her sometimes, but overall she's very good. So that's my Gracie in a nutshell. It's hard to believe she just turned 2. In some ways it seems like there's no way she's already 2, but mostly it seems like she's been 2 forever. No matter what, I'm excited to see what her 2's bring.