Keep Talking Gracie!

Dear Gracie,
This post is for you because I want you to know the first words you spoke not just signed. So here you go:
1st: DAD
2nd: MOM
3rd but gone now: BINKY! (right after she learned to say it like a week later we lost your last binky. Dang!)
4th: STINKY
5th: HOT! This is a picture of you saying it very dramatically. We are making a big batch of breakfast burritos for quick breakfasts for dad and sometimes you and I share one. I think this is the day you accidently burned your wrist on the pan. I felt so bad. I should not have let you stand so close and be cooking and have the camera at the same time. I went to put the camera down and I turned around to look at you crying with your hand in the pan. The worst part was that the burn was right inbetween your wrist roll where it constantly gets scabbed and reopened because of bending it. I can talk about it now a little bit because it healed very nicely and I can't see a scar. Thank goodness. I am glad you won't grow up with that scar constantly reminding you and me about my mistake. I hope there is not too many more to come. But that means you did learn your next word as a result of this.
6th: OUCH! sad :(
7th: HERE YOU GO! (I love this one. Gracie says it all the time for anything you want from me or if you have something you want me to have. You don't know the meaning of the 3 words separately right now so that is why it counts as 1 word.)
8th: YUM
9th: DOG (You love dogs but do get a little scared when they jump on you and lick you and get too close. I don't blame you. I still don't like dogs very much. I don't see what there is to like in getting covered in slobber and getting hair and dirty paws on you and getting awkwardly sniffed. YUCK! Hope you don't ever beg me for a dog.)
10th: BABY (You love your first baby doll we got from a garage sale. We didn't know till we brought it home that it if we turned it on it would laugh and cry. You adore this baby and love to make her feel better and tell her she's okay. You hold her on your shoulder right close to your cheek and pat her back and look very distressed about her crying. Then you give the doll to me to comfort her too. It is so sweet. You will be a good big sister someday.Then later when the doll laughs, you laugh, and I laugh and it is so fun to laugh together. Let's always remember to laugh together.)
Here's the rest of them you pretty much learned in the last week or so:
UH-OH (all the time)
YUM (only if something is really good)
OPEN (you want everything opened- oh and you can open doors now... GREAT!)
EYE
EAR
HAIR (It is hard to grab your hair but you can grab mine.)
UP (You always ask me to get you up on couches and chairs or in my arms.)
ON (You learned this and "off" while sitting on my lap in the bathroom turning the lightswitch on and off while you wait for me.)
OFF
HI (everything is a phone now and you say hi and then jabber cutely)
GO (only a couple times so far)
Yesterday you learned: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! (Today at church you just kept babbling it over and over with different intonation patterns. Can't wait until you start using it to talk back to us! Dad was saying it with you and thought it was cute so it is his fault.)

And if I ask you "What does a dog say?" You say: "WOO WOO WOO WOO!" (I can't believe how good your hearing is. Our walls are really thin here and we have lots of windows so we will just be sitting there eating and then you will bark out of the blue. Then I listen really carefully and you are right. There is a dog barking somewhere far away and you can hear it. Pretty cool!
WAY TO GO GRACIE JOY! You are a good talker. Keep up the hard work!
I love you!
Love,
Mom