Monthly Archives: May 2011

Grace reading

Donné mentioned Grace reading her book yesterday, here is the evidence,

Grace has decided that she should pant like a dog while building the Pluto part of her new Mickey Mouse puzzle. On the point of puzzles she now has 24 piece puzzles under control, so we need to start looking for 36 piece puzzles with decent size pieces.

3 Little Stories

I just wanted to share three little stories that make Grace who she is:

The other day Grace and I went to Willowbridge to buy some groceries.  When we parked the car I asked her to remind me to phone Duncan when we got inside Woolworths. I remember thinking that I wouldn't forget because I had just said it out loud, but by the time I entered Woolworths a whole 5 minutes later I had forgotten.  We had been walking around for about 2 minutes when Grace started      "Da-dee, Da-dee, Da-dee" on top of her voice – I may have forgotten to phone "Da-dee" but my nearly 2 year old certainly hadn't 🙂

This afternoon I left Grace in the kitchen and quickly checked my email.  After about 10 minutes I realised she was particularly quiet and went to check on her.  She was still in the kitchen, sitting on the floor reading one of her books.  Lately when reading to Grace, she wants you to take her finger and follow the words with it in the book.  When I took a closer look at her reading in the kitchen she was following the words in the book with her index finger – very cute.

Grace has always been emotionally very aware of what is going on in her environment, for example if another child hurts themselves she is always worried about them.  It is interesting to see how she is becoming aware of the emotions of various characters, in her storybooks.  The other day I was reading to her "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and we got to the part where Baby Bear discovers that his chair is broken.  Grace got very upset and started crying.  I told her that Daddy Bear would build him a new one and then she was fine.  Every time we read her the story now, we have to add that Daddy Bear will build Baby Bear a new chair.  She usually smiles and nods – like all is well now. 

Grace has had a cold the last few days, so she decided to snuggle on the couch this morning with Jog, Monkey and of course Spice

Snuggling

 
   

A helping hand

One of the things I have been working on this year is building a network of developers, both to help me achieve what I need to, and to help provide a smoother flow of work for them as well as help them achieve what they need/want to.

Over the past month or so I have been working with someone (Francois) on a project and the whole process has gone really well. I have worked with another contractor in the past and it did not go well at all, but working with Francois has been a really great experience. It has been a big learning curve for both of us and I have been working really hard to make sure I provide him with a platform to be creative, and then get out of his way and give him as much responsibility as possible. I really want to make sure that I avoid any form of micromanagement so I am making sure I restrain myself. Francois has been amazing and has taken initiative which has been awesome.

It has been a really satisfying and rewarding experience and I am looking forward to working with him more in the future. I hope and
work towards becoming a great leader who empowers people to effect change in the world – to achieve that would wonderful.

Mother’s day fruit

I think the most exciting thing for Donné about Mother’s day today was finding plastic fruit and vegetables in the toy shop. They are the type that velco together and can be cut apart, and Donné has been looking for some of these for Grace for a while now. Maybe that captures the essence of being an amazing mother – that it is not going out for sushi, or coffee, or a gift or flowers that excite you, but that it is the joy you get when you see your child enjoying life and the world around them. Happy Mother’s day.

Closet monkey

Grace learned a new skill today…..not so sure how well it is going to work out for the cupboard though.

Bed wetting Houdini

It has been 1 month since Grace has worn any form of nappy at any time of day. She has been doing amazingly well – sleeping through without any accidents, and we only had occasional accidents during the day. Until two nights ago that is….

For the last two nights Grace has wet her bed and not woken up to let us know. After having had this long problem free period I find it quite strange for this to happen, but I keep remembering a discussion I heard on the radio a while ago. They were discussing bed wetting (from toddlers up to teenagers) and one particular thing stood out. One of the ladies said that most bed wetting (a very high percentage, something in the range of 85% if I recall correctly) was due to physiological reasons, i.e. the bladder and muscles are still developing. So I will just hold on to that for now and hope the development comes quickly. For now we are just going to make sure she does not drink too close to bed time and that she has definitely made a wee before bed time.

There was also another surprising thing today – a great escape. We have changed things around a bit with Grace’s day sleep and we are still in the process of getting her to go to sleep quickly and easily during the day. After a while of restlessness things seem to go quiet and I think she has finally settled for her sleep. Then a little moan after about 10 minutes and quiet again. Phew, seems like she has now gone to sleep. Five minutes later she is calling and I go to check on her.

There she is, sitting up in bed, out of her sleep sack and out of her panties. Clearly the “quiet” time was spent figuring out how to unzip the sleep sack…..

Feeling the love

With Mothers Day this Sunday, I just want to say that I think it is an amazing privilege and gift to be a mom and I really am enjoying it. I know that being a mom can be a tiresome and often thankless job, but I didn't decide to become a mom for what I would get out of it. I wanted to be a mom to grow our family and the love that we share. Beingf 3 has definitely grown the love in our family, more than I could have ever imagined and I think it such an amazing gift from God.  

Tuning in

I have been told this many times, but I was reminded today of how in tune our children are to our moods and anxieties. I feel that Grace is a child who is very aware of her environment and what is going on around her, so she is possibly even more tuned in to our emotions.

In today's swimming lesson Grace was quite a bit more moany than she has been over the last while. One aspect of it was that there was no class last week due to the holiday so the break between classes was long which can affect the flow of things. In retrospect I think there were a couple of other aspects too.

She had been excited about the lesson signing "swim" and smiling while getting ready and driving there. I was a bit flustered when I arrived after having been rushing around before the class and as a result of this, as well as her good mood, I didn't talk her through the process as much as I usually would (reminding her of who will be there, talking her through the class before it starts, and so forth). Today I was also just a bit more stressed about some work things that need to get done, and from the moment we walked through the door she was more moany and a bit more touchy than she would normally be.

It made me think back on the other classes when she has been a bit more touchy versus the classes where everything has gone well. In many of those classes I have been on edge in some way – either tired, or stressed, or nervous about how Grace was going to handle the class. So I will just keep reminding myself that my attitude is an important part of how much Grace will enjoy something.

A few notes on Grace's swimming progress:
  • She is rolling over onto her back and back to her tummy with little assistance,
  • She paddled today for the first time,
  • She is doing the actions of the songs independently when she hears the songs,
  • She is blowing bubbles in the water on her own,
  • She is quite comfortable being submerged,
  • She is most comfortable when she has something to hold (like her polar bear bath toy),
  • She has become fairly comfortable with the instructor taking her for a swim (which has taken some time).

Wet hair

Winter is upon us (kinda) which means wet hair and hair dryers….which Grace thinks are quite a lot of fun. Fun to dry mom’s hair, fun to have her hair dried and fun to dry her dolls hair (even the ones without any). When Donné is drying her hair in the morning there is a procession of dolls, each coming to have their hair dried, and then Grace spends some time having her hair dried. It also means she is quite excited to get her hair wet while bathing, as then we need to dry it with the hair dryer….

Donné having her hair dried

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Just some thoughts

I have been thinking about parenting today. It certainly isn’t an easy job and I often find myself asking “am I being the best I can be for Grace?”, are we making choices that are good for her etc?  A friend of mine said that “once you become parents you live in a state of guilt”  She didn’t mean that in a negative, oh “I’m such a bad parent” kind of way, but rather “am I doing the best I can at all times?”

Parenting is an interesting journey, challenging, but definitely rewarding.  It teaches you to become selfless, it teaches patience, it shows your strengths and your weaknesses,  but most importantly it gives you the gift of loving and family – a new kind of love and a new kind of family, which is very special.

I know I get it wrong on a daily basis, but my hope and prayer for Grace is that no matter what choices she makes in life, good, bad, or ugly, she will know that Duncan and I are a safe place, where she can come and feel accepted and unconditionally loved.

Some photos from today:

Grace and the Goggles

Goggles

Grace and Dad – We don’t even have to say smile these days and she makes her “smile” face, just point a camera at her and that is what you get 🙂

Dad_and_grace

Grace teaching Andrew how smiling is done

Teaching_my_doll_to_smile