Happy Birthday
On August 6, 2012
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Happy birthday to our wonderful hubby and daddy, we love you lots and look forward to sharing many more birthdays with you.
Grace giving Duncan a big birthday hug – "Happy Birthday dear daddy"
That’s a good idea
On August 5, 2012
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Grace really wanted to wear her Daisy & Minnie short sleeve shirt this morning, which we were against. After unsuccessfully trying to get her to choose an alternative I said to her, "Grace, go and get a white top to wear under that." She comes back with her top, "That was a good idea!"
Grace was lying next to Donné on the bed and turns towards her, "You're beautiful."
DIY helper
On August 4, 2012
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Say cheese!
We're busy building some shelves for Grace's room and she was helping me to drill and screw the pieces together. I was struggling to get all the pieces to align nicely before drilling and it was taking some time so she says to me, "Taking too long daddy, want to drill."
I was swinging Grace and she starts kicking her legs and saying, "Feel so happy!" So I decided to start singing, "If you're happy and you know it kick your legs…" First verse was fine, but then I went onto, "If you're happy and you know it nod your head…" Grace looks at me and says, "Please turn off the music."
So sleepy
On August 3, 2012
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Last week Grace was saying, "Not feel well," quite a bit. We know that it can mean a number of things, from hungry, to tired, to anxious, to actually not feeling well. Often she will also add that she has a sore tummy.
This week it has morphed into a new say, "So sleepy," which is accompanied by, "I feel tired." Grace has never really been one who is big into sleeping, and she still stays awake through her rest time, but there are now two times of day that she clearly does feel a bit sleepy – in the morning and at the end of the day.
This week it feels like the wheels have been coming off for her at the end of the day. She will be happy and bouncing and enjoying her bath, and then suddenly, "I feel tired, so sleepy," and then it is time to get her to bed as fast as possible.
We think it is just school and the adjustment which is putting her brain into overdrive, so she is getting to bed a bit earlier at the moment. What is good to see is that she can now verbalise how she is feeling just a little bit more.
Bouncy pig tails
On August 2, 2012
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This morning Grace wanted “bouncy side pig tails”….
After work Grace was riding her bike in the driveway and Donné and I were sitting on the small wall chatting. Grace stops her bike and starts saying (loudly), “Good morning everyone, good morning everyone,” and just keeps going for about 15 minutes. “Good morning Coco, good morning Apple, good morning Spicy, good morning Daisy, good morning Mickey Mouse….” and so on it went. We couldn’t quite decide if there was something from group today that she was singing, or if she just decided that “Good morning everyone,” just seemed like a good idea.
After this she goes inside, collects her recorder and comes out again to continue. At one stage Donné asked her to pick up the recorder and pass it to her. She picked it up, and as it touches Donné’s hand Grace says, “Please don’t touch this, it’s dangerous and it’s going to get lost.” That might just be us…or at least me….speaking…..
Where did everyone go?
On August 1, 2012
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Sandwich hugs with Spicey
We had our first swimming lesson with a partner today, and I think that Grace really enjoyed it. She seemed excited about it before the time, definitely engaged in the lesson and seemed quite happy to have a friend in the water with her. So that is how our swimming lessons are going to be from now on.
Grace and Donné were busy today and Grace suddenly says to her, “Goodness! Where did everyone go?” It came out of nowhere and is not something that we have said to her, so she is definitely learning something at school.
Keren’s Birthday Lunch
On July 31, 2012
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Grace and I took Keren out to lunch at Cin Cin for her birthday. While we were waiting for our food Grace was playing teacher teacher with Keren – 2 weeks at school and already playing school :). Grace would hold up one of her alphabet cards, show it to Keren and say "say gift" or whatever else happened to be on the card. If Keren said the wrong word Grace would repeat it until she said it correctly.
After lunch cappuccino's at Vida
A little story from today. Yesterday Grace insisted on taking out her 150 piece bug puzzle which is rather tricky even for me and although we built a little of it yesterday I knew she wasn't really that in to it so I decided to build 90% of the puzzle today while she was at school. When Grace got home she looked at the puzzle excitedly and said to me "good job mommy, good job" looking very chuffed with me. She then sat down and finished the puzzle.
Group
On July 30, 2012
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Grace likes group – the part of school when all the children are together after their morning session. I'm not really sure what all group entails, but I know there can be stories, singing, talking about some topic (like the Olympics at the moment) and a time to share anything that they want to. Janine said that Grace is really enjoying group, but gets a bit stressed during the change over and cleaning up between the morning session and group.
She is also very excited to start swimming lessons with another little girl. We had a lesson today and have organised to have a swimming partner, so Wednesday will be the first lesson together….which Grace is really excited about. More time with friends.
We are really glad that she is looking forward to and enjoying her time with other children.
Independence
On July 29, 2012
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Getting some shade while she makes her calls
It has been fascinating to see Grace being more and more independent. She has become very independent in her play and can spend a long time pottering about without looking for any input. Up until recently she has wanted us to be involved, or to at least be watching her doing whatever she is doing, but now she will happily get on with whatever it is that she wants to do.
This morning was a big surprise for me. Instead of coming to call me to get out of bed as she usually does, she playing in the lounge and then played in her room (giving me some much needed extra time in bed!) It was only when she got hungry that she decided that Daddy would be a good option to help. She also spent a reasonable amount of time jumping on her own on the trampoline while I cleaned up around the house – and jumping has always been a thing that she expects us to be around for. There was at least 15 minutes of her jumping and singing on the trampoline without calling for anyone, and when she was done it was because she was thirsty, not because she was looking for me.
The one downside (sort of) is that she can independently unpack her toys, play with them, unpack others, play with them,unpack….and so forth. Current mission? Teaching her to pack away things when she has finished with them.
Bush diving
On July 28, 2012
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It was a beautiful sunny day, so what to do? Take a walk with the rest of the Capetonians (and the Bradshaw's) on the Sea Point promenade.
The thing that really jumped out from the walk today was a guy that we saw while I was swinging Jack. Jack says to Donné, "Look Donné, man jump over bush." Huh? What exactly are you talking about? "Look, do it again." We look around and a man is standing looking with some intent towards some shrubs. He puts his hands behind him, runs and dives over a rather tall bush (probably about as tall as he was). On that attempt he happened to break off a branch of the bush. He turned around and appeared to apologise profusely for his mistake, and then went on to dive over some other bushes too. Fascinating, and impressive to watch.
As far as Grace is concerned she thinks that if you are not using the potty seat on the toilet, then you are "hovering". I've said to her before that we are not hovering (as she does) but that our bums are bigger then hers and fit the seat. Donné was using the facilities and Grace says to her, "Mommy's got a very, very big bum, that's why you hover."