Almost a year

With Grace's one-year birthday coming up, I've been reflecting a lot on the past year (and then some). It's so hard for me to believe that this time last year I was waddling around in misery and wasn't even able to tie my own shoes or put my socks by myself. I'm still trying to figure out how I did it while teaching. This has been a TOUGH year! And to think I'm ready to do it all over again! Whew! I must be crazy!

Grace is still teasing us. She'll take a few steps on her own, but once she realizes what she's doing, she plops herself down. She took six steps across the front hall at my parent's house last night. She's SO close! She's experimenting with solid "people" food right now. She seems a bit sensitive to textures (like her mama), but is off to a good start. She is sleeping more during the night - Thank you Lord!!! She's only up once now and I'm trying to put a stop to that as well. She's putting herself to sleep at night - sometimes she talks herself to sleep, sometimes she sings. Which reminds me, she's taken to singing along with Father Gahan at church on Sundays. She doesn't quite realize that it isn't her turn. She sure loves music. She's quite talented too. How many one-year olds do you know who can play two pianos at once? She has a toy baby grand piano which she adores and a mini-piano on the front of one of her push cars. She loves playing them both at once. (Did I mention she dances all the while?)

Her vocabulary is as follows: dada, all done, up, down, don't touch, Ranger, kitty, kitty-cat, hi, bye, cracker, uh-oh, sit, get it, what's that, and awa (mama, I hope).

I'm totally lost as to what to do for her first birthday party. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?