Nicklaus and Grace are walking all over the place, actually running because walking is just to basic for them. Nicklaus started walking backwards a couple of days ago. He thinks he is so smart when he does that. Both he and Grace love to play bump into one another and knock each other down. Then they both laugh, get up and do it all over again. Madeline is standing without holding on, and has taken a step or two, but so far is holding off on walking around. She is actually the tougher of the three, but at the same time the cuddler. She dishes out slugs and loves to pull hair to get her brother and sister to cooperate, but then loves to crawl into mom's or grandma's arms and cuddle. Go figure. Nicklaus continues to be the happy go lucky personality. He loves to laugh and make everyone else laugh with him, and has learned to make all kind of new sounds, mostly imitating a motor sound. Grace is still the scientific one. She studies everything and tries to figure out how things work. For instance, she has watched how we open the gate to their play corral, and tries to open the gate herself. So far she doesn't have the strength to push the unlocking buttons, but she still keeps trying to escape the corral.
July 1 was their first birthday. Since grandma and grandpa were out of town that day, the celebration with cake, candles and song was held on the second. Gracie didn't hesitate to dig right into her cake with both hands, and after getting a taste of the frosting, she began stuffing the cake into her mouth, eyes, ears, and so on. Nicklaus followed after watching his sister, but Madeline being the princess tried to eat the cake with two fingers so as not to get cake on herself. I have attached some Birthday pictures for you, please excuse the redeye. The pictures below are of Mom and Dad with their Biurthday kids, then the three together having cake, then Nicklaus, Madeline and Grace, in that order, having their first taste of cake--Birthday cake of course. So that's it for now. Grandpa Bernie
