12 Months Old

My baby is one! Grace has been such a wonderful addition to our family. We love her more than we know how to express with words, and I am so happy I get to be her Mommy.

Since Grace has a summer birthday, I thought it'd be fun to take summery birthday pictures! What better place than the beach!?

12 things about 12 month old Grace:

1. Weighed in at 20lbs 0oz and 29 3/4" tall
2. Tricks she does on command: fold arms, hug, kiss, dance, clap, high five, wave (usually after we walk away from the person she's supposed to wave to, though), throw and catch (if you use those terms loosely)
3. Stands alone very steadily, but does not attempt walking - and screams if you try to make her
4. Handled her first ear infection really well. It was a double ear infection and I didn't even know! We happened to be at the doctor checking her iron (which is still low) when they found it
5. Has recently become very cuddly and affectionate - especially loves giving hugs. It's adorable. When Russ gets home from work, she gets so excited and holds out her arms to be held.
6. When we stop the car, she gets very excited - kicking her legs and smiling - so if you're just dropping another family member off without getting her out also, she gets pretty offended
7. Signs "milk" often (I kind of think she uses it for hunger/thirst of any kind, not just milk), "all done", "please", and "ball"
8. When she sees something she wants, she reaches her little arms out and makes a "come her" motion with her hand. She especially does this when we walk past balls, animals and stuffed animals.
9. We've been working on sharing toys between Sophia and Grace. Now Grace thinks it's a fun game to hand things to us and gets very proud of herself when we say "thank you". She also does pretty well relinquishing toys if Sophia holds out her hand and says "please" (at least, there are definitely fewer tears than when Sophia would just snatch things from Grace)
10. While I cook, she opens a few select cupboards and drawers and throws everything inside out on the floor.
11. Trying more different types of table food, but won't let us feed her baby food anymore. When she doesn't want something, she throws it on the floor or spits it out.
12. makes the funniest/strangest/cutest/most embarrassing facial expressions

Some other things she was up to this month:

 One of the many tourist days where she patiently hung out in the carrier

lots of love and attention when she's with her cousins 

 helping in the kitchen

Family trip to Orange Beach, Alabama:

 When Grace decided to wake up at 5:30am and we all shared one hotel room - I decided to force her into some early morning pictures at the beach before it got crowded while Russ and Sophia hunted for shells

 Good morning, blue eyes!

Father's Day 

 keeping busy at stake conference

When we walked in the room, she pointed to the horse and babbled. It's cute that she can tell us what she wants a little bit. 

She kept spotting Sophia and waving to her during gymnastics. So cute. 

 waiting for the doctor at her well-baby visit. Thanks for the entertainment, light switch!

 She looks so big when she strands up by herself! 

hey, little movie star!