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Monthly Archives: February 2012
New bread
On February 9, 2012
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After a few years of making rye bread it has gotten a bit boring, so thanks to Donné, my sister in law and pinterest we tried making a quick French bread this morning….and it turned out pretty well. The nice thing about this bread is that it is really quick to make from start to finish, which is what we need in the morning. I made some adjustments to the recipe – hotter oven (230C) and a baking tray at the bottom of the oven that I put a cup of water into at the start (which helps create a crispier crust).
We have downgraded Grace from her Sit Right chair to the cat scratching post – improved balance seems like a better goal than good sitting posture.
School of hard knocks
On February 8, 2012
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After the trampoline and the bed yesterday, Grace decided to focus on her head today.
She started this morning while we were having coffee. She jumps off her little chair just about everyday, normally proceeded by a discourse that goes, "Gracie jump. No gonking. Land well." This goes around a few times, interspersed with some "Wobbling!" when she gets a little bit off balance. With some encouragement from us she eventually jumps off. Today she jumps off and plants her face into the ground. Little bit of consoling, lots of laughing and fortunately in retrospect she thinks it was, "Very funny."
So in the last 24 hours she has, eaten dirt, eaten wall, and eaten floor.
Fast forward to this afternoon and we went to the park after work. Grace was playing on the aeroplane jungle gym and reached up to swing on the monkey bars….whoops, she didn't quite grab hold of those properly….let's add eat metal to the list. She planted her head directly into the metal floor and now has a big bump in the middle of her forehead.
At least when she was playing on her own jungle gym later she did not decide to sit in the pram…….
Life Lessons
On February 7, 2012
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Sometimes you just have to learn the hard way. Grace had two lessons in learning the hard way today. The first happened while jumping on the trampoline. Duncan and I both told her to close the zip on the sides of her trampoline because she was jumping high and fast up to the opening stepping out on to the edge and then jumping back in. She refused to close it and well bounced over the edge and landed on the grass. Duncan ran to her worried and I know I should have been more concerned, but I couldn't stop myself laughing. The picture of her bouncing out, was rather cartoon like and will be forever imprinted on my mind.
The second incident happened after we had said goodnight to her. The last couple of nights Grace has been pushing her bed away from the wall and then squeezing between the bed and the wall. She was warned that this could end badly but chose to discover for herself just how badly. Her crying and unhappiness sent Duncan to investigate, when he got to her room she was gone (she could be heard, but not seen) she had clearly pushed the bed away from the floor and had ended up rolling off the bed and was lying squished between the bed and the wall. I found this little incident rather amusing too, watching her crawl out from under the bed, complaining of a sore cheek and sore tummy!
Sometimes the only way life makes sense is to experience it yourself
The pipe cleaner monster
On February 6, 2012
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Two small things to note from today,
- The monkey tail substitution for hair twirling went pretty well today. We'll keep encouraging more of that.
- Grace's language has taken another leap. She is saying much more complete sentences and talking about things in more detail. Tonight she even sang "Round and round the garden" to Donné at sleep time.
Hair twirling
On February 5, 2012
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Grace has picked up this unfortunate habit of hair twirling. Over the last week or so it has become a bit of a compulsive unconscious habit. The problem is that she makes knots in her hair. So far only two that I can think of, but the intensity of the twirling is increasing so there are definitely more knots on the horizon.
Tonight, while she was going to sleep, Grace suddenly cried out a very unhappy and distressed cry. I rushed to her and found that she had knotted her finger in her hair and could not get it out. After a bit of wrestling with her hair – accompanied by crying – I managed to free her finger….and proceeded to lambaste her about hair twirling (we have been speaking to her about it all day). I don't think I had too much of an impact, but Donné was calmer and more thoughtful and suggested that she twirl monkey's tail rather than her hair.
So that will be our strategy for now: if she wants to twirl, she can twirl monkey's tail. Any other ideas for discouraging hair twirling are welcome too…
In other news it has been 5 years in the making but we have finally put quadrants into our kitchen. Just a few more rooms to go.
Glug glug
On February 4, 2012
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In a moment Grace's head slipped under the water. Quickly, get to her, lift her up. A half cough, trying to breathe in, but it's not just a splutter – she is choking. Whip her around, whack on the back. Cough, cough, retching. Breathing. She's okay.
We were swimming in the big pool at gym today because the little one was closed, so no step at the side. Grace was holding onto the wall and moving across to get onto the ladder to get out of the pool. I think she misjudged the distance and went under as she tried to put her foot onto the ladder. She was still holding onto the side with one hand as she went under and it was just a moment before I pulled her up, but I think the cold water made her gasp as she went under. She was clearly fine as I pulled her out, just a bit of water down the wrong way – a bit more than she has ever had before.
After she had settled, and we had a serious conversation about closing her mouth and blowing out when she goes under (as she knows and is taught to do) we carried on and enjoyed some more swimming until she was too cold to swim on. She loved her time in the water, even with the minor incident.
For me, I question whether I was paying enough attention? Does too little sleep mean I am not as sharp as I need to be? Could I have gotten to her a little bit sooner and prevented any water breathing? On the one hand I do need to get more sleep and be as sharp as I can be, and at the same time – regardless of my questions – it was minor and gave Grace's brain a chance to put some dots together about not breathing under water.
The Caleb & Grace show
On February 3, 2012
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Caleb was ready to put out any fires started while painting
Grace and Caleb were loving playing together today and had lots of entertainment for the parents. Here are a few little snippets….
Grace,while walking around with the pram, "Move out the way people!"
Grace was getting into a new dress an it got caught up so Caleb was trying to help her unroll it. As Caleb would get to the part he was trying to unroll Grace would turn the other way. Caleb then put his arm around Grace's head in an attempt to turn her, but all he succeeded in doing was putting his fingers up her nose.
Karen to Caleb, "Look me in the eyes." Caleb then proceeded to roll his eyes and look as far left and right as he could while three adults had to restrain themselves from bursting into laughter.
Grace rolled into the room in her dolls pram, being pushed by her man-servant. When she tried to get up, the pram came with her. Good job strapping Grace in Caleb! Very safety concious.
And those were just some of the things which happened in the hour I was inside for lunch….
Fairy Grace
On February 2, 2012
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Lots of fun dancing and being a fairy….until it is not anymore, then you lie down on the ground and hide away from the world. Let's just pretend she is auditioning for Swan Lake.
The power of 1-2-3
On February 1, 2012
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Grace was moaning about eating her food while we were having supper tonight. After a little while of trying to get her to eat some more and plenty of moaning Donné said to Grace, "If you keep moaning then you are going to go to timeout." Grace kept on moaning. "Grace, I am counting to 3, and if you are still moaning you are going to timeout."
"One."
Moaning.
"Two."
Moaning getting louder.
"Three"
Silence.
Timeout is working very well for us at the moment. If we tell Grace she will have to go to timeout then she usually corrects her actions, and if she does end up in timeout it seems to be a time of centering and she comes out with a totally different attitude. It fascinates me how effective it is.