Where to Start?

Somewhere amidst the holiday festivities and the family gatherings and the general hecticness of life, our baby girl turned ONE! Now, that's not to say that this special milestone went unacknowledged (quite the opposite, actually), but that it is still so hard to believe that she's been with us for a whole YEAR!
So much has happened over the last month or so, it really is hard to know where to start...
Here is a video, shot just tonite, that depicts our girl so very well in all her busy glory...hope it loads...




and here's what else she's been up to:
-crawling fast and furiously and
-sometimes, when she's in the mood, carefully taking 2-3 steps at a time (mostly with some sort of incentive in front of her-cookie, anyone?)
-loves to dance (sway back and forth) to any type of music
-attempts to hold as many objects as possible in one hand
-enjoys trying to eat with a spoon
-decided on her own to stop nursing in early December :(little Miss Independent...)
-loves Elmo
-yes is "ha" and shakes/sways her head back and forth for no
-asks for grapes by exclaiming "ball, ball"! and clapping her hands
-is becoming a really good climber
-manages to find our little Christmas elf "Buddy" each morning, after he returns from reporting to Santa each night on the kids behavior...and often finds his new spot before her brothers do!
-is getting really good at going up and down stairs (!)






-loves, loves, LOVES her board books



-still, the moment she sets eyes on her taggie, gets that thumb right to her mouth!


-and, as we discovered the hard way, during a visit with her cousin Caroline, who is 3 weeks older, Gracie needs a bit more practice sharing....We promise to be better at this next time we see you, cousin Caroline!

Oh, and although she hasn't had her formal one year check-up yet (that's a whole other story), we had her weighed and measured this week and here's how she stacked up-she weighs 20 lbs, 1 oz (which is 30%ile) and measured 29 and 3/4 inches (which is 50-75%ile)...so growing, but slowing down a bit, possibly reflective of the fact that she has become a bit more discriminating (okay, picky) with her eating recently...

Although I am so very grateful for the WONDERFUL holiday season that we had, I am also thankful that things are slowing down a bit now, so I can attempt to document at least SOME of it! I guess the best way to document it all is to start at the beginning...(see next post)