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.

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

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.

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.

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

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…..

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.  

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.

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

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