This is what 19.5 months looks like...

And it looks like an explosion.  An explosion of toys scattered throughout our house and lawn, an explosion of limbs as she tears down the side walk. It tastes like an explosion of yogurt as she decides spoons are the worst and fingers are where it is at.  It sounds like an explosion of words and syllables and animal noises.  It feels like an explosion of life itself, as she flexes her own muscles and discovers the world around her.

She's obsessed with peonies.  She picks one every time we go outside, and even slept with one during her nap today..?

It's so fun, and it's getting...challenging.  Not like it was the first few months when everything is a guessing game and the stakes are SO HIGH because her life literally is IN your hands.  But challenging like I need to stay on my toes, challenging like I have no idea how to get her to do something she doesn't want to do.  So usually I don't make her do it.  And I fear she is going to be a monster.  A petite, doe-eyed monster.  So scary.

She's getting better at talking, and has a pretty extensive vocabulary...if you can understand it. (Papa calls it "speaking in tongues.")  She knows most of her colors, can sing a fairly accurate first few bars of the abc's, count to five, and she can even identify a few letters! When we see pictures of food in her books she exclaims, "ooh nummy!" and makes a crunching sound like she's taking a bite out of an apple. She loves to pretend to be different animals, especially a dog, crawling on all fours and panting.  Then she stands up really fast, pretends her arms are wings and runs around saying "peep! peep! peep!" pretending to be a bird. It's incredible, to watch her learn, to see her imagination spinning lively, brilliant scenarios...shortly she will be smarter than me but please don't tell her that.

Her favorite activities include going to the the "BIG PAHK!" and she can now do all the slides by herself. Even the two story twisty one that makes her dad talk nervously to himself the whole time she goes up and down. When we are not at the park she likes to google image search slides and scroll through them and give us a running commentary.  "Oh yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah Mimi!" "Oh whee!" "Up, up, up, wheeeee!"  "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, more! Moh! MOH!"  Her dad calls it baby porn and while I find that to be the most disturbing description in the English language, it is unequivocally the most accurate.  She also does this thing when she wants something where she taps the palm of her hand with her opposite pointer finger and kind of whine-grunts like a distressed puppy.  And we ask "Do you want that honey?" and she says, "Yeaaah, oooh yah yah!" and then we have to attempt to explain why we can't get her an airplane/pony/jungle gym at the present moment.  She also doesn't quite understand size and scale, as evidenced when we build a slide for her little buddies and after awhile she decides she has to have a turn and does her best to slide down a paper towel tube stacked against a few blocks. Talk about frustrating.  And hilarious.  Oh, and anything that even closely resembles a monkey bar she will point to, attempt to hang from, and say "ooh ooh ah ah."

Girlfriend also loves to DANCE.  And when I say loves, I mean LOOOVES.  She hears a good beat and I don't care where we are, it is ON. The grocery store, a parking lot, the middle of Mimi's kitchen...we drop it like its hot.  And when I say we, I mean Grace dances like Elaine Benes and I, all knees and elbows, resemble Gollum.  Her favorite song is Bad Blood, and she will point to a speaker and say "bah bluh?" and then we listen to Bad Blood over and over and over. Like 20 times a day. I'm not exaggerating. Her second favorite is Uptown Funk and frankly, I'm impressed by her acute sense of pop culture.

A few months ago you might remember me writing about one (Russian) Cookie Monster being her number one bathroom pal. Cookie has since taken a backseat to two friendly, striped-shirted gents, "Eenie and Buht." She's obsessed with them, but once they come to life she completely ignores their advances and totally stonewalls them. I hear myself, in my dopey muppet voice saying things like, "All I wanted to do was talk to you!" "Hey, what's going on girl?!" and I just think oh my god I feel so bad for her future boyfriends. She's a master manipulator of Ernie and Bert, and thus, once again, a master manipulator of her mother, and I think, anyone else who wants a piece of her heart. I'm nervous. I'm proud. Mostly, I'm impressed.

Gracie has a super sweet and tender spirit, so I know she will always use her powers for good. (RIGHT GRACE?) For example, the other day while I was working, Eric got out an old Star Wars toy--a storm trooper--for her to play with. He told me, "I wanted to introduce the toys to her one at a time to see if she could handle it..." (Please imagine my face right now. Please. I digress.) Anyway, sweet Mr. Storm Trooper rocked and sang one of her little babies to sleep, and after the third round of "Rock-a-bye Baby" Grace burst into tears because she just can't handle all that tenderness from one three inch plastic figurine. Imagine her reaction when *SPOILER ALERT* she finds out Darth Vader is REALLY LUKES FATHER. Other things that make her cry: when one of the five monkeys falls out of bed, when Mama Hen and Maisy find all 10 chicks, when while at a farm her mom holds a goat and talks to it in a baby voice, when her Dad laughs at the jam on her shoulder...this list goes on...

While she is definitely an independent-minded toddler, she still really enjoys being my baby.  She especially likes being carried around, which I really enjoy because have you got your tickets? To my gun show? Anyway, I'm trying to instill good manners so she always says "up PEEEEASE!!" And sometimes she drops the "up" and chases me around, arms flailing, screaming, "PEEEASE!!" Little princess even says it in her sleep. Sometimes I worry that she really needs a sibling so she doesn't get accustomed to being so spoiled...but then I remember her aunties, whom she treats more like sisters than aunts, often cutting off the simplest request with a swift "NO MOMMY." "Do you want to go to the pa..." "NO MOMMY." "Do you want to get some ice cr..." "NO MOMMY." Luckily they all have thick skin and can stand the toddler insults, because once mommy is out of the picture she has a blast playing with her family.  ("C'mon E! C'mon Papa!") Auntie Al even taught her where her armpit is and how to pretend pee like a dog.  Which she likes to demonstrate when we walk around our neighborhood. While Georgia continues to pee on the rugs inside.  

Ok, maybe this isn't normal...

Thanks Gracie, for 19.5 months of silliness, joy, and exhaustion.  I mean excitement.  Definitely excitement.