Talky, talky

Gracie has become SO vocal these days. She just babbles and carries on little conversations with herself. I can't understand a word when she does it, but it is so cute! She says "Hey!" to everything in this precious singsong voice, and she'll get stuck on a word and say it over and over. Like this afternoon she got ahold of one of my shoes and carried it around saying "shoe" constantly. She also says "uh-oh" now, but not usually at the appropriate time (she'll copy us on it though). She was saying "go" repeatedly earlier, because I kept saying it trying to encourage her to climb up the stairs a bit faster.
Of course, she still won't say mama. She'll make the sound, but only when she's upset, and it's more of a ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma. I'll say "mama" to her, and she usually replies "dada!". Uh, no.
She's also taken to hugging things recently. She'll hug things on command "Can you give Wubby a hug?" and spontaneously (especially the cats). She'll even hug ME sometimes! The other night at dinner she grabbed ahold of my arm and kept hugging it to her- she holds whatever object up by her shoulder and bends her head over- and even sways back and forth sometimes! It is so cute- I gotta get it on tape. She has also figured out how to carry more than 2 things at once by gathering them up in her arms, and plays peekaboo by herself (putting a blanket over her face).
She is very into books right now, too. She loves to flip through the pages of her board books, and I can sometimes get her to sit with me voluntarily and read an entire book! She "reads" to herself, too.
That's about it for now. No more bragging on the baby for tonight. =)