Eas! Eas!

So as I eluded in one of my posts from earlier this week, Grace was quite enamored with all things Easter this year. Although she doesn't exactly grasp the true miracle of Easter yet, she certainly appreciates the seasonal festivities. By the time Easter Sunday rolled around, Grace had participated in three Easter egg hunts and quickly learned that delightful treats come in those little plastic eggs. For about a week, we let Gracie have one of her eggs each night after dinner, but we had to eventually cut her off for fear of developing a bad habit. Here we are more than a month later, and there STILL isn't a day that goes by without Gracie asking us for "Eas! Eas!"

A few days before Easter, Gracie received a package in the mail from Grandma Elaine and Grandpa Allen. Here she is tearing into her presents.

She got a gigantic blue bunny, a Cabbage Patch doll, and a set of puzzles with coordinating books. Although Grace loves to play with puzzles, her favorite part is the deconstruction phase after we've put the whole thing together. She cracks us up!

The day before Easter, Chad took Gracie to a children's health and wellness fair at a local hospital. There were workshops on bicycle safety and proper carseat installation, plus GG got to walk around and sit in a real school bus (hmmm, maybe that's where her fascination with buses began...). But the true highlight of the event was the Easter egg hunt. Thankfully, there were no 'real' Easter bunnies this time. (Grace freaked when we tried to get her picture taken with the Easter Bunny a few weeks earlier.)

The following day, we went to my mom's to celebrate Easter with my side of the family. It was a very rainy day, so once again we opted for an indoor Easter egg hunt. Brenden, er, I mean the Easter Bunny, hid all the eggs downstairs; then Rubie and GG went nuts finding them all.

Because my Grandma Z could not be at Gracie's birthday party later in the month, she decided to give G her present a little early. She gave her a classic red Radio Flyer tricycle with streamers coming out of the handlebars and a little storage compartment in the back. Here are some pics of the girls riding it in the garage:

And here are some other pics we took throughout the day:

If you can believe it, I think I'm finally all caught up. If you haven't done so already, be sure to check out the photos in the previous four posts. I haven't mentioned it for awhile now, but we LOVE it when people leave comments for Gracie on this site. In my former life, otherwise known as PGG (pre-Gracie Girl), I used to spend a good amount of time scrapbooking. Because I don't exactly have time for that these days, this blog is like a virtual scrapbook. Someday, Gracie will be able to look back through all the posts, photos, and comments and see for herself how much she was loved from the very beginning.

April Adventures

Well, I found the photos I was searching for. We take A LOT of pictures, so it's easy to lose track.
After our day at the tulips, Benji stayed at our house for a sleep-over. We decided to have a little birthday party for Chad that night, so Grace and I made some chocolate peanut butter brownies for the birthday boy.

Chad needed some help blowing out ALL of those candles, so it's a good thing the kiddos were willing to assist.

Here's GG being silly with her happy meal box.

The following day was Chad's actual birthday, and he wanted to go somewhere to test out his new Garmin GPS. We eventually decided on a day trip through the Gorge. Here we are having lunch at a cute little place in Hood River.

We walked around town for awhile, then found a nice park for GG.

On the way to our next stop (the Bonneville Dam and Fish Hatchery), Grace and I were playing "peek." She loves that game, as evidenced by that great, big smile.

Here's Gracie taking a gander at the scenery through the binoculars at the visitor's center:

But Gracie's favorite part of the day was at the hatchery where she got to feed the fish.

So those are all the pics from our birthday week.

A few weeks earlier, we went to the Trillium Festival at a state park near our house. One of the harbingers of spring -- the trillium -- was in full bloom along the trails.

There were lots of fun children's activities at the festival, including a diorama table...

...arts and crafts...

...and face painting.

When we got home, we did some backyard exploration.

Then Gracie rode her rocket car down our driveway.

That just about catches me up to Easter. I know, I know. My timeline is just a bit out of order. We have quite a few Easter photos to share, so it looks like I'll be back here again tomorrow for one last post.

Words, Words, and More Words

So, I reported on Grace's physical growth a couple days ago, but I definitely need to document some of the adorable things she has started to say. You might've noticed in the tulip photos that Grace is holding a little bottle in almost every shot. Those are her bubbles. She does NOT leave home without them. We have a bottle in the car, in her diaper bag, in the bathroom... you name it. "Bubbles" was actually one of her first super-clear words, and she still says it any chance she gets. Aside from some of the obvious ones (Mama, Daddy, bye bye, hi, etc.), some other oft-repeated words in Grace's ever-growing vocabulary include the following:

• "Buckees" (breakfast)
• "Tacos" (tickles)
• "Eas!" (Easter/egg/candy. Easter was pretty much the first time we really gave Gracie any significant amount of candy, so now anything that reminds her of that time is "Eas!")
• "Pazza" (pizza)
• "Spaggi" (spaghetti, her favorite)
• "Crackers"
• "Cookies"
• "Blana" (banana)
• "Cheeeeeese"
• "Fruuuuuuit"
• "Juuuuuuice"
• "Waler" (water)
• "Mo! Mo!" (more! more!)
• "I'm done" (accompanied by the sign for done)
• "Bonkie" (blankie)
• "Baby"
• "Bus!" (Gracie loves herself some buses. We'll be driving around town when all of a sudden, she'll shout "bus! bus! bus!" and point wildly at a bus on the road.)
• "Choo choo!" (train -- she has started to plug her ears when she hears a train whistle off in the distance)
• "Purple" (everything is purple, dontcha know)
• "Bed"
• "Potty"
• "Diaper"
• "Bye bye poopy/pee pee" (She says this when I change her diaper in the morning and when she sees the garbage truck picking up our trash.)
• "Up/down"
• "Hot/cold"
• "Please/thank you/sorry"
• "Pool"
• "Park"
• "Hoooooome"
• "Side" (outside)
• "Close" (pronounced like Glen Close)
• "mmmbise" (I wanna bite, please.)
• "Boo boo"
• "Two" (she's working on holding up her two little fingers)
• "My bella" (my umbrella, even though it's actually MY umbrella. We play a game on the drive home from daycare wherein Grace announces that it's her umbrella, then I say it's mama's umbrella, and so forth..."
• "Go, go, go!!" (usually shouted from the backseat when we're waiting at a red light or in traffic)
• "It's loud!" (when she wants us to turn the radio down in the car)
• "Bidle" (beetle and/or spider)
• "Teeth"
• "Shoes"
• "Sockies"
• "My boots" (her red cowboy boots, of course)
• "Bath"
• "Row, row, row" (She says this when she wants me to sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat while she's in the bathtub. She even does the rowing motion with her arms.)

And my favorite is when she snuggles up with me and tells me "back" because she wants me to rub her back. I've always rubbed her little back when I rock her to sleep, so I love that she asks for it.

One of my not-so-favorite words that she has started using a little too frequently (and with way too much conviction) is "No!" I appreciate her assertiveness, but there's a fine line between that and precociousness.

Of course, she knows the words for most animals as well as her body parts, and several of her toys. She calls Ron "Papa." We've been working with her to say "Grandma" but instead, she says "Mamaw" (one time, she referred to my mom as "Nana" because that's what Rubie calls her). She calls Mike "Mikey" and Ashley "Ashee." She (and everyone else) calls Brenden "B." She also knows how to say the name of our next door neighbor's little girl (Deli). She truly comes up with new words every day. It's so awesome!

OK, so back to the photos. I know that's what ya'll come here for, right? :-) I posted a few on the sidebar, but I'm searching for some specific ones to post here and I cannot seem to locate them right now. Soooo, I'll be back again tomorrow. 'Night.

Cowgirl Party and Tulips

OK, so back to Gracie's 2-year birthday celebration. Noelle and Jeremy were kind enough to host a cowgirl-themed birthday party for Grace at their house this year. As an added bonus, my dad and Debbie, Mom and Ron, and Mike and Ashley were all there to celebrate with us. In addition to the usual birthday party highlights (balloons, presents, and cupcakes), other standouts included a bubble machine and a brand new play structure in Rubie and Brenden's backyard.

Here are some shots we got right before we left for the night. It was a really good day.

So, Grace's birthday definitely kick-started our birthday week. The following weekend, we went to the tulip festival with Jill, Megan, and Benji (Grace calls all 3 of them "Meggie"). Grace could've been the poster child for the event in her adorable little tulip outfit (thanks Mom!).

Our day at the tulips marked the 2nd year that Gracie got to be part of our springtime tradition with the Sages. Next year, Baby Sage #2 will get to join us (for now, Benji calls him "Gunk").

Believe it or not, we STILL have a bunch more photos to share. I guess I know what I'll be doing each night this week. ;-)