Grace - 21 Months

It's time for a Grace update! The last 3 months of Grace's life have been fun and challenging. Actually the last month of her life has been the most challenging month I feel like I've had to deal with as a parent. I'll start with the challenges and then list what I can remember her learning and doing since the last post at 18 months.

Challenges: As you have read we recently packed up the only house that Grace knows and moved across town to another house. I assumed through the whole process that Grace would do really well with it. I think I was wrong. She has her good moments but overall she seems to be really off and upset a lot.

I'm not sure if I can equate her daily (and often times multi-daily) meltdowns with just the stress of the move but I'm sure it has something to do with it. Along with being sick and starting to get her 2-year molars she has been extra needy. I have tried to appease her and just spend time playing, reading, singing and paying attention to her but she still struggles if she's not in my lap or being carried a lot. And carrying a 21 month old around a 2-story house while 7 months pregnant is pretty physically draining.

I don't want to dwell on the hard stuff because Grace really is such a blessing but I think I'm having a hard time right now. I just hope that she gets through this phase before the baby gets here because that could really escalate things.

Fun Stuff: While the last few weeks have been difficult Grace has been really learning, growing and just showing off her wonderful personality. Here is a list of what I can remember happened in the last 3 months.

• Says ABC's with almost no mistakes. She usually leaves out 2 or 3 letters but they are different everytime.
• Sings a ton. She can sing the whole thing of some short songs like "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."
• Has started saying tons of phrases. She is putting words together and trying out sentences.
• Repeats, repeats, repeats. I gotta be very careful what I say but this is also cool because Grace can learn new words very quickly. Just this week she learned iguana, flamingo, and dolphin and can now successfully identify those animals.
• Gotten good at identifying people. Grace knows everyone in her family (aunts, uncles, cousins) by name, most of her friends and several of her friends' parents.
• She's gotten really good at climbing stairs (thanks to the new house).
• Has gotten steadier on her feet, really good at running climbing and sort of jumping/bouncing.
• Can eat soft foods like applesauce and yogurt with a spoon extremely well. She's still working on spoon/fork on more difficult food but she does pretty well and loves to feed herself. She asks at every meal, "Little fork, hold it?".
• Moved to just a booster seat at the table right after she turned 18 months and she seems to love sitting at the table with us. We have had a lot more issues with throwing things off the table when she is done though.
• Still naps once a day in the afternoon for a couple of hours and sleeps from 7-7 at night. We are staying in the crib until a couple of months after the baby is born but we have a big girl bed set up for her to use when it is time to move.

That's all I can think of for now. We love our almost 2-year old. I can't believe she is going to be 2 in just under 3 months!