All is well...

Which is why I've been afraid to post. It always seems that when I make a post about how well Gracie is doing, something happens and we end up in the ER or an extended stay at the hospital. So I'll start out by saying that Gracie has a runny nose. We're hoping it will just go away without morphing into something worse. She seems fine, and is playing and eating and being her sweet little self. She's a busy bee these days and I am just waiting for the day that she starts walking and then I am really in trouble. She's jabbering quite a bit and while most of it is incoherent, she has several words that she uses quite frequently. Off the top of my head, here is a list of Gracie's words and interpretations of Gracie's pronunciation.

that - Sounds like dat. This is a very common one. She points a lot at things she wants and says it.
bye bye - This is an oldie but goodie. She cracks me up with it because she uses it not only when we leave somewhere, but when she wants to leave too. I've noticed it a lot when we're at the doc's office. About 5 mins after we're in the exam room she starts saying bye bye and looking at her Daddy and me expectantly. She is a sassy one.
baby - She has a baby and uses the word a lot. Lately, she also combines this word with bye bye so that she says "bye bye baby"- its so cute.
door - usually pointing at the door or swinging it back and forth.
up
down
a bath - Sounds like baf. Also she never just says the word bath. Its always "a baf."
eye - usually accompanied by the finger gouging of whoever's eye she's talking about.
ball - This was her first word. :)
mama
daddy
kitty - sounds like tikky, which is soooooo cute.
boo - she's still a huge peek-a-boo fan.
hat - taught to her by Munts who is usually wearing one.
book - she is an avid reader. ;)
ooooh - her excitement sound, love it.
hey - said on occasion when she's playing with the phone.
busy bee - Sounds like bizza bee. Noni taught her that one.
pasta - sounds like pitta, she loves pasta like her cousin, Nuvy.
apple - sounds like appa.
splash - sounds like spish or spash... obviously said mostly during bathtime.
tub - buh or bub... another bathtime word.
tickle, tickle - ticka, ticka It is so funny when she says this.
She also is trying to say "diaper dance" from her Baby Signing Time videos. This one is a work in progress and requires my prompting by singing the song to her, but it sounds like di di dah.
Thats all I can think of right now... if anyone remembers any more, let me know so I can add them to the list.

She also signs a few basic words.
eat
more - she does this one a lot for Munts who then takes her to raid the pantry. :)
no - this is just her shaking her head.
hi - she has a great beauty queen wave.
all done
bed - she only does this one on occasion.
She can also do the hand motions for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and has just in the past few days mastered the "diamond" motion. That was so exciting to see her work on.
I love you - This one is the best. She made this sign up herself. No one taught it to her, but one day she started doing this motion when we told her that we love her and she's done it ever since. Its like she hugs herself and turns from side to side. I think its the actual sign for cuddle. Jimmy and I love this one most of all.

She's a good pointer and she's really into learning what everything is called. We observe her moving her lips as she tries to make the sounds that we make when we're teaching her new words. Its exciting when she masters a new word or sign and uses it a lot.

Gracie got a cool Radio Flyer trike for Valentine's Day that has a parent's handle with steering capabilities. Her feet don't quite reach the pedals, but she loves loves loves to ride it all over the place. We took it over to Noni and Munts' house so that we could ride it outside up and down the driveway. Oh, she loves it. She also loves to walk her push toy back and forth on their driveway too. We're slowly discovering the joys of being outside. :)

Thats us in a nutshell. I think we've finally narrowed down a date for our Make-a-Wish Photo Session on March 11. We wanted to get it done before she got her new tubes in case she takes some time to recover. Also the possibility exists that we may not be able to put in the new tubes when we take out the old ones. It depends on the size of the hole thats there. We may have to wait for them to heal up and then go in again for the tube placement. I hope not, but it might happen, so we want to do the photos beforehand just in case.

Hope you are all well. Much love.