This Girl

This is a common reaction when I whip out the camera. "Smile Grace"

This girl is something else. I never really understood the old saying "Can't live with her, can't live without her" until I had Grace. She can send me on a roller coaster of emotions before breakfast! It's been far too long since I dedicated a post to Grace, so here goes.

Some days it takes every ounce of creativity and patience just to figure out how to communicate with her. She often over-reacts when she spills one drop of something on the table. One day when the offending liquid was milk, I tried to throw her off by being dramatic first. I said "Oh, NO! it's the END of the WORLD!" She looked at me a little like I was crazy and then calmly said, "It's not the end of the world! It's just a drop of milk! There's no space giant breaking apart the world that Jesus made. Don't worry." 

The metal lid was her shield and the shot was her sword. She was SO pleased with herself for coming up with this. Henry followed suit moments later with his own lid and a plastic spatula.

One day while Henry and I were putting together a puzzle, I invited Grace to join us. She said, "I'm busy. I'm having a ninja party with the Easter bunny. Mom, can you teach me how to do ninja?"

Whenever I put something in her hair she says, "I look gorgeous!" But she won't keep it in longer than an hour and she resists and runs away if it's not her idea in the first place.

Anything that happened in her memorable past (say the past few months) is referred to as "Last Morning." Examples, "Last morning, when we lived in our white house (in Utah)..." "Last morning, when it was Henry's birthday..." "Last morning when I was at church..."

Many, many mornings involve Grace waking up Henry, climbing into his crib, and exerting all sorts of powers of sisterhood domination. In this picture she was singing and dancing for him... while cornering him.

Grace: "Dad, can you make a snow angel in my Sprite?"
Scott: "No, your Sprite isn't snow and I wouldn't fit in your cup."
Grace: "But you can pretend my Sprite is snow and use your fingers to make a snow angel."

Grace loves friends. She calls every little kid within a few years of her age her friend. One night after we left a restaurant where she wanted to sit by "that boy who is my friend" but we were seated somewhere else, she sang for a few minutes, "Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, I want a boyfriend." The next day she was still singing the song, but had added the line, "like Ca-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ndace." Maybe we watch a little too much Phineas and Ferb.

She makes up a myriad of imaginary friends since I can't seem to supply enough real friends for her. Some of the friends that have traipsed through our house: Ratatouille, Woody and Buzz, Hello Kitty and Clifford (normally together), Wreck-it Ralph (he joined our family after *ahem* he knocked down the Christmas tree... according to Grace), Baby Jack Jack, Meep (the cute girl alien, sometimes called Meem), and those are just the ones I remember. I'm sure there are dozens more.

Grace stood in this pose for at least a minute to make sure I got a picture of it. I have about five.

Grace isn't really into toys, but one of the toys that she has quite an attachment to is a small plastic glow-in-the-dark bat that was a Halloween favor. His name is Monkey Doo. It's so absurd I'm kind of laughing just thinking about it. He's been known by that name for months now and we've had him since she went through her bat phase which started around this post.

Grace still loves her blanket. She loves to cuddle. She loves to take a nap. She loves to suck her fingers, and she loves it when I tickle her. At church she had a lesson about things that make her happy and she came home with a picture titled "I am happy when... my mom tickles me." She sure knows how to push my buttons. What a girl. Can't wait to see what she's like as a teenager...

Snow!

Yesterday we had a day where perfect snow met perfect temperatures and perfect timing. Scott even got home just as we were going out to play, so he joined us!

 It was perfect. "Smile for the camera!"

Our backyard isn't big, but it was just big enough.

This was a fun game in the picture below. I loved Grace's expression of anticipation.

We don't have a convenient sledding hill near our house, so Scott made one. It was a big hit!

While he was making it, the neighbors were plowing their parking lot. When they were done, we made a sledding hill there, too, but I don't have any pictures of that.

How many times as a child did I curl up in a sled bundled in my warm clothes with the bright sun shining on my face? Countless. She's a girl after my own heart.

What a handsome man!

Paradigm

I don't think I'm used to being in a small town yet. I feel like I'm mentally in one paradigm and physically in another. I expect others in my situation to have the same needs, see the same vacancies, aim for the same goals, but that has not always been the case.

I'm working on finding a way to make my mental paradigm and my physical reality work well together. Maybe I am the weird one and I'm pretty sure I can accept that. It's just taking time.

Christmas 2012

 We spent Christmas at my parents' house in Minnesota. It was so nice to be around family! Unfortunately, Grace and I struggled with the flu for most of the trip (evidence in the photo below on the right). We didn't take very many photos, but here are a few from Christmas morning.

The winning present for Grace was by far her Hello Kitty sleeping bag. She'd been asking for it for weeks and even started volunteering to do jobs so she could earn her own money to buy it! She's slept in it every night since, I think. We play with it often during the days, too.

Grace has never been really into toys, so I decided to try and peak her interest with musical instruments. Henry wanted to be a part of the noise and tried as hard as he could to make music out of the cleaning rod that came with the recorder.

The winning gift for Henry was this bead maze toy. I knew it would be. Henry is much easier to buy presents for.

I miss my family. It was nice to have so many cousins together! I only wish we all could've been more healthy to fully enjoy it. Grace's tell-tale finger sucking lets you know she was spent.

p.s. If you didn't see our Christmas card, I posted it here.

In 2013, I will...

Engage with my children in consistent uplifting ways.

Plant and tend a garden.

Redesign my blog.

Rediscover old dreams and perhaps create new ones.

Read less political drivel and feel less political animosity. Instead, focus optimistically on my sphere of influence.

Make my bed more.

Be a good example.

What are you going to do?

Goals for 2012 reviewed

Will floss my teeth more.
Check. That was easy. I hardly flossed my teeth consistently before.

Will prepare myself for the unexpected.
Fail. I don't know how to do this. I made this goal with the expectation of a move to an unknown place, and I still feel unprepared. And I moved. Six months ago.

Will learn how to cut baby hair.
Check, but I'm not that good at it. Still working on it.

Will be more careful to live within my budget.
Sure, I guess. It helps that we had an income this year :)

Will read the Book of Mormon from beginning to end.
Check.