In my attempt to remember all the little details of my little girl’s life… here’s another little journal entry I wrote about Grace.

So much has changed in my Grace in the past few months. She is a brilliant creative little girl. She talks CONSTANTLY – some gibberish but with real words thrown in for good measure. She counts to 12 and says her ABCs… and loves letters. Any letter on ANYTHING gets her started and she’ll begin to say her letters over and over. My favorite is how she says W… first it was double-dee. Now it is Double-doo.

She says “Dye” instead of “Bye” – so a few days ago she was holding tight to a letter and she dropped it off the changing table. At the top of her lungs she said “Dye Double-doo.” I cracked up.

She hears Justin and I call each other “honey” – especially when we are in different rooms and trying to get each other’s attention. So now anytime she is yelling at me from another room or trying to get me to look up from my computer – she will say “Honey!” in this precious little voice. It is hilarious. She is such a little parrot.

She loves Bananas (she calls them Nanas), Toast (she calls it Tub Toa for Tubby toast on the Teletubbies), and Candy (chewable medicine she has to take when she is sick). All juice is Abblejuice and she really is constantly hungry.

Her little L sounds are Ws… so she’ll say “Hewwo!” when she sees us. If she is doing something she shouldn’t be doing – she’ll come running at us and say “Hi Momma! “ or “Hi Dada!” to distract us from getting onto her – with of course this sweet innocent smile. It sometimes, I confess, is effective to distract us from punishing her.

She loves her family… she’ll say all of the names over and over and over – Mimi (my mom), Papa (my dad), SaSa (Jess), Mama, Dada, Sassy, Ivy (Mom’s cat and dog). She just repeats the names over and over. She is constantly talking.

Anything can be a phone – and she is such a mimic. She’ll pick up the phone and say “Hewwo – Hey! – insert gibberish here – Bye!” and hang up. Sometimes the gibberish goes on for 5 minutes. She loves to talk and sing. She sings several songs by herself now… Jesus loves me (she always says the “Soooooooo” part at the end super low), Twinkle Twinkle, the ABC song, the Teletubbies theme song, the Jay Jay theme song, and Itsy Bitsy spider. When we put her in bed we will hear her singing at the TOP of her lungs… it is hilarious. She’ll just stay up there in her bed talking and singing to herself and her Lambda forever.

She still is incredibly social – but just a little slower to warm up to people than she used to be. She will get fussy a bit when we try to pass her off – but after a moment – she’s fine and entertaining with the best of them. She LOVES my sister – literally her favorite toy in the world. Jess always gets a MASSIVE response. She finds pictures of Jess and carries them around the house with her saying “Hi Sasa!” over and over. She is totally in love with her.

She’s in school now (Mother’s Day Out) two days a week and LOVES it. She just plays with the kids. I can’t wait for her sister to get here and get big enough for her to have a friend. I am so glad we put her in MDO – it has been so good for her. They say she is great and never fusses for them (I bet they tell that to all the moms). She comes home EXHAUSTED. I know she is having a great time.

She is so very very strong willed. And figuring out how to end rebellion without breaking her little spirit is challenging. We pray and try everyday. I just know that this strong leader nature in her is a GREAT gift from the Lord. And my job is just to protect her (from herself sometimes) and love her and lead her the best I am able. Sometimes there are crazy fits – mostly because we’ve pushed her schedule too much or if she is not feeling well. Coping with those and figuring out age appropriate responses is trickier than I thought it would be. But her little heart is so very sweet. It is amazing to me even after a terrible fit and after some time in time out – without fail when I grab her those little chubby arms reach around my neck and she’ll hug me sweetly. I know she has the inherent sin nature – I see glimpses of it everyday and real evidence of it some days. But I also see her sweet heart. And I wait in anticipation of the day where that heart will turn to the Lord and be will indwell it with His spirit. It is going to be SO PRECIOUS to see – so powerful. She is such a gift and I know the Lord has an amazing plan.

We are having another girl… and I pray Grace will love her like I love Jess. Grace is such a sweet beautiful little girl – she’ll be a great big sister. I am still working too much – doing too much. I want to do better for her. So I am trying to pray through what that looks like. It is scary and daunting to change – to change really my nature – I’ve just always been a worker and not so much of a person who takes time to talk and sit with people – but she deserves that from me. She deserves my undivided attention. So I am trying to change. I want to so badly be a great mom – to be found faithful in this task which is the most important. So if you stumble on this and read it – be in prayer for me to that end. My girls, both of them, deserve it. There is such a short time where I have unlimited time with them each day. I don’t want to miss it.