Gracie settling in at home

Gracie's first full day at home was full of exploring the house and the yard. Gracie and Isaac ran from room to room and all around outside as Isaac "showed" Gracie all the fun parts of the house. Grace seems to love hanging out with Isaac, her new big brother. (Older by 4 months.) She will go to another room of the house or outside with him for 5 to 10 minutes at a time before she comes back to find Mom and make sure she is still around. Mom also tries to wander in and out of the room she is playing in often to let Gracie know that Mom isn't going anywhere. Gracie still doesn't like Dad to pick her up, but she likes to have him tickle her and the can play together side by side now and she looks at him and smiles, so we are making progress there. It is about killing John not to pick up this little darling and give her a squeeze!
Gracie is a very brave little girl and is up to the challenge of keeping up with Isaac. She is very strong willed and can hold her own ground when she wants something. Her and Isaac had a few times of pulling this or that away from each other and some screaming over it, but for the most part they really get along great. They both seem thrilled to have a new playmate. Gracie is even starting to mimic Isaac. She now throws her hands out and makes a sound like "all gone" when she is done eating. We will be thrilled for her vocabulary to come so we can better communicate with her. But, actually we all seem to understand each other very well already.