twenty-one

Since I have miserably failed at keeping an adequate baby book for Mary Grace, I feel as though it would be completely negligent to fail to document Mary Grace's life at this stage in the game. At twenty-one months of age. 21? Really? That just seems so old and unbabyish to me.

Mary Grace may be small and cute, but this child is a true fireball. She is so full of life. Full of personality. Full of herself. Independent as all get-out. She's spirited. Knows exactly what she wants. Stubborn, some might say. Oh heck, we would all say it.

The kid is loud. If Mary Grace doesn't think you heard her the first time, no worries- she will shout it again and again until she knows for sure that you've heard. And in the past month, her vocabulary has sky rocketed. I clearly remember this stage with Carson, and once again I am blown away watching her little mouth spitting out all of the language she has been internally processing for months now.

Carson continues to be Mary Grace's favorite ever. With some inevitable hiccups every now and then, they play awesome together. Mary Grace mimics everything Carson does and says, however... this has served as an excellent teaching point for the big bro on being an example.

We're working on potty training, and it's going swimmingly. I'm currently in the "get 'er done"/potty bootcamp way of thinking about this and am planning to virtually stay home with the kids until I'm confident enough to stick her in the Target shopping cart in her undies. In a perfect world, this would have happened, like, yesterday. But I'm bound and determined to take her out by Sunday. Today is Thursday. Let's just say Mary Grace picked up her stubborn and self-determined nature from someone else around here...

Mary Grace is still a fantastic sleeper, even with her recent switch to a big girl bed. We will sometimes hear her sneaking out of her bed to gather all of her books and Little People sets and lug them back into her bed one by one. Without any intervention from us, she always somehow winds up sound asleep in her bed amidst piles of toys. She's a sneaky little hoarder, that Mary Grace.

A few tough things about Mary Grace:

• it's an all-out battle every single night just to brush her teeth. She has her first dentist appointment next week. It should be loads of fun.
• She does this super annoying thing when she's refusing to let us pick her up. With her head down to the ground and booty up in the air, she assumes a pike position which makes it difficult/awkward/maddening to try to pick her up.
• She's a jumper/climber/dasher. Who thinks she is about 3 years older than she is and clearly has zero fear. Which means my anxiety has shot up 150%. Which is not a good thing.

But, ohmygoodness, this little girl of ours has completely stolen our hearts. She keeps our lives so fun and exciting. We laugh a ton and are constantly reminded not to take ourselves too seriously. She's a crazy little combination of the personalities of both me and Matt... and I hope this is a good thing. :) She's the sweetest little thing who loves her family, her baby dolls, coloring, and Cat in the Hat.

We love you, Mary Grace!