Sleeping - One nap is going well. She usually goes down for it just after lunch and sleeps at least an hour and a half, sometimes longer. I have moved the older girls rest time to start around 1:30 and end at 3 so the quiet time in the house is a little earlier. If Grace is up by 3:30, I'll get her up (and it is rare that she is still sleeping then, but it has been known to happen). For about 2 weeks in early July (so 20 months old), she would wake in the middle of the night and just scream off and on for an hour. She showed no symptoms of cold or physical ailments (other than another molar coming in!) so I was reluctant to give her anything. She was fine during the day other than being tired. It eventually went away but it was a little annoying to say the least!
Eating - Did I mention that Grace loves ranch? Well in addition to that being a food group in her mind, all other condiments, especially guacamole and sour cream are right up there in being enough to fill her belly with. She was a great eater during our vacation. We went blueberry picking 2 weeks ago and she ate her weight in blueberries which was great, except for the waste products associated with them! She also loves peas, because they too are balls and she enjoys saying what they are before eating them. Grace does show some signs of wanting to use a big girl cup and insists on having a fork at every meal. She doesn't always use the fork but she wants to have one just the same.
Play - Gracie loves balls to hold and roll; babies to wrap up in a blanket and feed; kitchen toys to bang on; (certain) books to read (her favorites are Go Dogs Go, Anna Karenina, Sense and Sensibility, Usborne Touchy Feely, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom). She isn't too interested in the book if it isn't a board book and she generally doesn't stick around if her older sisters are being read a book that is "too big".
Speaking of babies, she LOVED being at the Langehaugs with baby Zeke. She just burst into giggles everytime she saw him and each time I carried her upstairs from her room to the main part of the house, she reminded me there was a baby up there.
She loves playing with her sisters and they are really all super sweet to each other about 90% of the time. She enjoys having Mama and Daddy around to sit next to and regularly calls us over with "Mama seat" if she wants some company.
EVERYTIME I turn the water on to do the dishes this girl is pulling a chair over to "help". She loves playing in the water and yes, it takes more time to do the dishes with her "help" but is a sweet time and I love it. Plus, someday I have a vision of sitting down with a hot cup of coffee while she happily washes the dishes and sings songs of praise :)
She still loves to play peek-a-boo and dance with her sisters. She loves "If You're Happy and You Know It". The "horray" part is her favorite!
Skills - Grace has been doing very well swimming with her floaty on. Out of the water she climbs on everything and has very little fear. The girl loves to play with shoes but not actually wear them. She is a stereotypical southern child and takes off her shoes to play outside every time she can get away with it.
Her potty training, which we started the week she turned 18 months, is going well. It took about 2 full weeks for it to click with her but she did eventually get it. At this point I would say she is "potty" trained, poop trained, not so much. I am going to have to start doing some hard decision making here as far as consequences for this because I am tired of soiled pants :) She does love practicing to take her pants and panties off and on a lot! Grace's favorite color is blue. That is the color she can identify most readily. She is happy to repeat the names of other colors when we say them but she usually declares them to be blue when we ask her for her own answer. She enjoys picking out her own clothes and I think it distresses her that she has so few blue clothes!
Well, I am sure there is plenty I forgot but that is why we also make the videos of them every month and unlike me, Frank is on top of his responsibility there!
