I know that Gracie is getting taller. What I didn't consider is that would mean she would now be able to reach things that can cause some extra work for mommy. On Saturday I spent an hour and a half looking for my phone charger. It had been on the counter in the hallway where I always keep it and I thought it was far enough out of reach. Gracie is fascinated by it so I was pretty sure she played a part in the great phone cord disappearance of 2011. I finally gave up and resigned myself to getting a new charger but when I talked to my dad that evening he suggested I look in her toy box. I did and it wasn't there but then I thought, could she had hidden it under her crib? Of course, the answer was yes! There it was all the way against the wall. She crawled under and got it and I said Gracie did you hide mommy's phone charger? She said "yes, I naughty?" I said yes, a little bit! Then about an hour later she was playing in her room as she often does and I walked into the living room. It was quiet for about 3 minutes and I went back in to check on her (her room is right off the living room) and she was rubbing something into her little princess chair. I touched her hands and they were sticky. I said Gracie, what did you do? She said "I wash chair's hair." Turns out she was able to reach the hair detangler which I thought was too high for her to reach (she must have really stretched to get it off the changing table) and "washed" her princess chair. I dabbed it with water but honestly, what else can you do about that. I've had that chair since my niece Meghan was a baby so it we need to toss it we can. So on Sunday we walked around the house and I pushed back or moved just about everything I thought she should reach that I would prefer for her not to. Well, if nothing else, she keeps me on my toes.
We have had a great weekend. I was off on Friday so we have 4 days together. It's mostly been the two of us which has been so much fun. She's gone from a baby to a little girl so quickly and her speech is changing rapidly. A couple of weeks ago if she dropped her sippy cup and spilled a little on the floor she would say "oh no, cup fall down". Now she says, "oh, sorry mumma. I dropped the cup. I clean up." Yesterday I went in to get her out of her crib when it became clear that a nap was not in her future. I walked in and she was in the corner of her crib talking but none of her babies were there. I said Gracie, what are you doing? She said "oh, the Backyardigans come Gracie crib, come play Gracie." Then she named them all and sang their little song.
Now that we've skipped spring and gone directly to summer here in New England, we got a little wadding pool. We blew it up on Friday and she and the cousins had a fantastic time. They played for two hours in it and I had to pull her out kicking and screaming. Yesterday she was running around saying what I thought was "I want baby youp". I could not figure out what she meant and every guess I made sent her into hysterical laughter. I finally asked where the "baby youp goes and she said "my belly." So I think oh, of course, she wants some kind of soup so I go take out a can of Dora soup thinking that must be it and she yells "no,no,no! No youp! I want baby youp!" It takes me another 2 or 3 minutes before I realize she is saying bathing suit. Yeah, I'm a quick one.
I'll close with some pool and dancing pictures. Gracie is a dancing beach baby. Among the things I like least in life are beaches/pools and dancing. I guess I'm going to have to develop a new respect for each.
