All About Grace: 4 years

I never posted an All About Grace blog on her birthday, so here we are, over five months later, and I thought I'd capture a blog about Grace now before I forget.

Here is lovely Grace. She marches to the beat of her own drum. Getting a decent photo of her is still like pulling teeth (also mentioned at 18 mos and 2 yrs and here). For each one photo of her in this post I have 10 others that are just odd. She loves closing her eyes, giving me goofy faces or crazy poses or deliberately ignoring the camera. I tried for a first-day-of-school type picture, and this was the closest to normal I got:

Which leads me to the fact that she has started pre-school! She really enjoys it and it is good for me, too. Poor Henry, every day when we drop her off he cries that he can't go, too. I'd like to think that school will help her learn how to follow instructions better and pick up on social cues. I'm not sure if that's really what's happening, but it's a process, right? The feedback I get from her teacher are comments like, "Grace has such a wild imagination! It's really fun to see what she comes up with." Which I interpret as, "She's kind of crazy and lives in her own world."

We visited the ponies at the county fair and Grace had sweet, personal conversations with several of them. She talked about My Little Pony characters and living in Ponyville. She told them she has a pony name (Sugar Star) and sometimes turns into a pony. It was cute.

And she was very happy to ride on one.

Since I can remember her having preferences, she has loved Halloween more than other holidays. It's not just the candy, but the costumes, the monsters, the bats, the spookiness. One of her favorite shows to watch over the past few months has been Ruby Gloom. She used to play zombie with Scott where she would chase him and eat his brains. A few days ago in the car we were listening to A-Ha's "Take On Me" and she said, "I like this song because when he sings "take on me" it sounds like "chick zombie."

Here's another recent conversation:
Grace: What if I were a monster?
Mom: Then I would be your mommy monster and love you.
Grace: Forever?
Mom: Forever.
Grace: And Henry would be our baby monster? And Daddy would be our protector monster? No, wait, we'd be vampires..." From there she expounded into a rather confusing story of us as vampires that I didn't follow.

We were watching the scene from Mulan where the Emperor and Shan-Yu (the villain) were talking and she exclaimed, "I like that guy!" I asked, "The old guy or the big mean guy?" to which she enthusiastically responded, "The HUGE mean guy!" She later also told us that Kronk from the Emperor's New Groove was handsome. Oh, dear, what do we have to look forward to in the future if she's attracted to the bulky villains now?

In the last week or so, she's been interested in clowns. During General Conference she came up to me to show me her masterpiece. I don't think I responded the way she was expecting.

What's funny is if she had gone to Scott first, she would've gotten exactly what she wanted. While I sat there firmly reminding her that markers are only for paper, Scott was trying to muffle laughter and grabbed the camera as quickly as he could. She actually did a rather good job at coloring her clown face without a mirror.

We started her in a ballet class this fall. She is such a beautiful little dancer.

She loves watching herself move in the wall of mirrors, and she is very good at moving gracefully! I dare say, she has a better sense of beautiful movement than any of the other girls in her class. But at the same time, she is still her own girl, as is evidenced in the photo below where she hiked her skirt up to her armpits.

As I watch through the window, it's also apparent that she doesn't know how to sit still very well and only kind of listens to the teacher. I love the photo below because it illustrates a few things to me: 1) she is the only girl who's actually following the teacher's instruction (there is hope yet!) to stand in first position and put your hand on your head to receive a stamp, 2) She is learning! She knows first position! 3) She has such a cute little body, especially when dressed in pink ballerina from head to toe... even if her skirt is tucked around itself.

Some other Grace tidbits: Her favorite color is purple and sometimes pink. Her favorite animal is horses. She always wants candy and sugar and a sweet treat. Always. She almost never wants to eat normal food. She is really growing up and understanding how to be a good sister. She is reading small words and writing her name. She has no fear of strangers, especially ones with food she wants. Maybe we should talk to her about this more often. She is a trial and a headache and a blessing and a sweetheart all at once. Her hair is no longer curly :( but now it's kind of flippy. This is how I remember my hair being as a child. I'm sure the curls will come back... in about ten years or so.

She is really such a good little girl. I'm honored to be her mother. I love the picture below because it shows her genuinely happy and waving to the camera. Of course, she's sitting next to her handsome daddy, so how could she not be happy?

I sure love her.