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Gracie's Steps


Gracie is making leaps and bounds daily - it is so rewarding and amazing to watch her develop before our very eyes! She took her first steps the other day (supported) and has been working on feeding herself snacks. She is quite bonded to us and still enjoys meeting new people as long as mama and daddy are around. She is bonding to her grandparents and aunts and uncles with still a clear sense of who her parents are. We have been so blessed by our friends and family - this child will never want for a cute outfit or fun toys while we are in the States! We even are blessed to borrow this gait trainer which will help her learn to walk "on her own" and gain some independence!

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Check out this progress!

A year ago, my friend Rachel http://josiecomehome.blogspot.com/ emailed a photo of her beautiful son standing on his own... I've since dreamed of having a photo to post of Gracie doing the same thing. It was always one of those wild-don't-think-it'll-ever-happen kind of dreams, a romantic, fairy tale type of dream. But this week, Gracie made another leap in development and muscle tone. It started when I leaned her up against the wall and planted her feet a shoulder-width apart. For the first time, she didn't lunge for the safety of my arms or hands, but rather, she allowed herself to stand steadily on her own two feet and she kept her center of gravity centered over her feet instead of wildly in front of her or to one side or the other. She even quickly figured out that she couldn't lurch around in excitement while standing on her own two feet with no support but a wall behind her back, but rather had to express her excitement over this new development with a gentl...