Early to bed

"Daddy, daddy." It is the usual morning call, but something was amiss this morning. Grace had turned her light on and was calling for me, but looking at the clock, 4am is a little bit early to start the day, especially for a little girl who had a fever the night before (and was still feeling a bit warm). "Grace it's still sleep time." Turn off the light, back to bed. By the third round of this I ended up lying with her which kept her quiet but she never really went back to sleep.

After breakfast I'm busy tidying up and I get a text message, "I think she is sleeping and I am trapped." Off to investigate and there is Grace passed out in our bed lying on top of Donné's arm. We carefully extract the arm so that it doesn't have to be chewed off. Time check: 08h45.

Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy wealth and wise……Grace's application might be a little bit extreme.

Fortunately noodle was feeling better, much more herself and full of energy by the end of the day.

The torch ritual

It all started with a glow in the dark egg. Grace got some glow in the dark eggs after Easter, and one of them lay on the bookshelf next to her bed for a while. One night I decided it would be a good idea to turn off all the lights so that we could see how much light one of the eggs gave off – I thought we could use it as a kind-of torch so that Grace could easily find her night light to turn it on.

And from then on the glowing egg has to be used every night to "find" the monitor.

But the glowing egg moved. It went to find a home in Grace's egg box in her washing station. Which meant we had a slight dilemma.

Fortunately the eggs came with a funky little blue-light torch which also conveniently sits on top of Grace's bookshelf. A slight re-direction and poof we have a night vision night light finder.

So now we have the nightly light turning off ritual:
  • Turn off the main bedside light
  • Find the torch in the dark
  • Turn it on and shine it around, then shine it at the baby monitor lots
  • Put the torch down and grope around in the dark for the monitor's on switch
  • Turn on the monitor, then turn on the night light
  • Get into bed.

Botherations

I'm not sure exactly what I said, but Donné says to me, "Don't put ideas into her head." Grace then starts crying and says, "No daddy! Don't put ideas in my head!"

Today's word of the day was, "Botherations," which I guess she picked up from one of us, and to go with that she has also recently been repeating, "Glory be!" which gives us even more options for emphasis, "Botherations, glory be!" – a phrase she repeated many times today.

Nick

Grace has decided that her little brother's name should be Nick. It started out as the name rhyme, "Duncan wuncan nicken nucken far fo fumba luncken, that's the way we spell Duncan." She would often walk around just saying, "Nicken, nicken, nicken…" and somehow that lead to her decided that little brother should be Nick.

We don't know what we're going to name little brother yet, but we are pretty sure that Nick is not one of the options, so I tried to break it to her gently today, "Grace, your brother's name is probably not going to be Nick." Well, that didn't go too well. She started crying, fell down on the floor and cries, "Please daddy, I want to call my brother Nick," while rolling back and forth. Sigh.

The time machine

There is a "Tick-tock time machine" in one of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes which results in the gang being turned into babies.

Grace looks at our table, says "Tick tock machine," crawls through from the one side to the other and says, "I'm a baby! Need a nappy." Off we go for a nappy change, then time to put the baby to sleep….and back through the time machine. Out she comes, "I'm a big girl now!"

Scooter fun

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Engaging better

Grace and I went for a walk through the aquarium after meeting Donné's family for breakfast this weekend. For me it was a really wonderful time that we had together this morning. We calmly walked through the Waterfront, onto the aquarium and then through the aquarium. As we walked we chatted and I talked about things as we went along. The time together reminded me about what I lose when I work the way I have been working.

What I lose is the ability to engage. Yes, I participate, I do the activity, and I do it with my whole heart, but if I have been working continuous late nights there is something missing. I am quieter, slightly (or more than slightly) removed, and just have a different way of engaging, one that is slightly more automatic. The same can be said for my relationship with Donné. I think so far I have denied or ignored the deeper impact that late nights are leaving. And all of this is in the light of an additional family member on the way.

Of all the reasons to change my working habits, this is the one which actually motivates me to adjust. It is not going to be easy, and I will need to put a number of things in place to help me create the space that I would like. It is going to be a long term project.

Baking at Café Paradiso

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Having some fun baking ginger bread men at the always awesome Café Paradiso

Happy birthday dear me

First words this morning? "It's Friday!"

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She then went through to the lounge to her gift table saying "Happy birthday dear me," and proceeded to 3 year old heaven opening gifts with her new Backpack (homemade by Donné) on her back.

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The process of opening presents was load of fun for Grace, so every time a new gift appeared (via grannies, grandpas or friends) there was loads of excitement and immediate unwrapping.

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Keren phoned to wish her happy birthday. Grace takes the phone, "Hello Ker, happy birthday to me, okay bye. It was Ker."

The party was today at The Party Playhouse which was awesome. Donné did well to decide to have it at a venue that was super-awesome for all the kids who came.

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The ball pit was a winner. I think most of the kids spent most of their time in the pit. Grace went around and around, up the slide and down.

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And the cake?

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Then on to the sushi afterparty

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It was a really awesome day filled with lots of fun.

A brief summary of Grace on her 3rd birthday:
  • What is your favourite color?  Green
  • What is your favourite toy?  Baking Cakes
  • What is your favourite fruit? Plums
  • What is your favourite tv show? Mickey Mouse Club House
  • What is your favourite thing to eat for lunch? Honey licks
  • What is your favourite clothes?  Summer Dress
  • What is your favourite snack? Sweeties
  • What is your favourite animal? Piggies and cows
  • What is your favourite song? Amy Winehouse – Valerie (decided in the car today)
  • What is your favourite book?  Tinker and Tanker
  • Who is your best friend?  Minnie and Mickey Mouse
  • What is your favourite cereal? Muesli
  • What is your favourite thing to do outside? Riding my bike and swinging
  • What is your favourite drink?  Water 
  • Where do you like to go on holiday?  Jeffreys Bay
  • What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Monkey and the hot water bottle pingüino 
  • What is your favourite thing to eat for breakfast? Muesli 
  • What do you want for supper / lunch on your birthday? Sushi for lunch
  • What do you want to be when you grow up? A Big sister

It’s gonna be a great day

There has been build up, counting down of the number of sleeps, excitement, happiness, singing, dancing, jumping and general merriment. Tomorrow is Grace's birthday and she is excited. She is even walking around singing, "Friday, Friday."

One thing that she has surprised me with is her ability to count down. I thought that she would need some prompting every day to know how many sleeps left, but there have been a few days this week when she has woken up and told the world that it is only, "Three more sleeps to my birthday," when the last number she had heard the night before was four.

One last sleep left now and then, "It's gonna be a great day!"