Lauren Elizabeth

Grace at 2.5

Man oh man I had no idea I would have a child with as much personality as Grace. This girl is hilarious and crazy and just such a goof ball. I love her energy and spirit. She is the queen of hand gestures and her facial expressions always leave us laughing.

 I think since she got introduced into the land of make believe so early with Vi, she is just over the top with everything. Almost every day she is asking me to call her queen or pretend that she is a princess or ballerina. She will have the most serious face while she dances, with her arms above her head and her feet flying up in the air. She is always trying to mimic dancing that she has seen from different movies.

 The first thing she will do in the morning is ask Violet if she will pay pretend with her. Even when Violet is gone she will sit at her castle or dollhouse and play with her princesses. She rarely wears regular clothes, unless we are leaving the house. She always has a tutu, headband/crown, dress up shoes and probably 3 other accessories wrapped around her in some way and then 20 minutes later she is in a totally different dress up. 

She likes to lip sync to her favorite song and pretend that she is belting it. This usually consists of her closing her eyes and throwing her head back while she opens her mouth as big as she can. I will hear her singing in her crib almost every day and she doesn't hold back. She will literally sing at the top of her lungs whatever song she is feeling that day.

She loves to read books and will bring me books all the the time to sit and read with her. She knows all her letters and the sounds they make. She is super bright and picks up on expressions and phrases very quickly. People at church and at Violet's school always think she is so much older than she is because of how much she talks. She is the only one her age in nursery. All the other kids are quite a bit younger than her. So she kind of runs the place and chats it up the whole time. Anytime she is around other kids her age you can tell a big difference just in the extent of her vocabulary. I think it helped a lot that she had a super chatty older sister during the time that her speech exploded. 

She adapts really well to things and is by far the most rational of our children thus far. If she wants to do something and you explain to her why she can't do it, she will just go, "ughhh okay mom" and that's that. It has been so nice. She isn't one to throw tantrums. She cried and gets over things really quickly. She is good at brushing it off when she gets hurt. Lots of times she just needs a little snuggle and then she will say" okay mom i'm fine". I seriously love her for that. She is a screamer though and it drives Mike and I nuts. We have been really trying to stop it the past week or so. It is her natural reaction to everything and it's the worst. It is so loud and it will drive you crazy. Hopefully we can get her out of that stage real fast. 

She still takes a 2 hour nap every day and then lots of times she will sit in her crib and play for a bit after she is awake. We never hear her in the morning until about 8:00 and she is still in her crib. I am a firm believer that if they aren't trying to get out then don't take them out. So I'm hoping we still have a few more months of her contained in there.

 She is also our picky eater. She is not a fan of most things we have for dinner and will only take a few bites of it. We don't make her anything else for dinner and she doesn't ask for snacks, so maybe she just doesn't have as big of an appetite in the evening. She was a lot better at trying things when she was younger. Luckily Vi has gotten a lot better at trying what we have for dinner, so maybe they are trading places for a bit.

 Grace is always making funny faces and doing silly voices. She is naturally just very funny. Mike and I find ourselves laughing all the time at her. It's also not just us that find her funny. A lot of our extended family and friends seem to think she is hilarious too. She is such a fun kid to have and I love the dynamic she brings to our family. Vi and Grace are best friends and I love seeing how close they are and how much they look out for each other. it is a sweet thing and it is very much what you hope for with your children.

We love our Grace Face and I am so excited to see how her personality develops at this age.