Today seemed to have lots of small memorable moments, so here they are, noted to preserve our memory…. 

Grace and I went for a swim early this morning while Donné was exercising and she had so much fun – kicking her legs, throwing her polar bear toy around, sliding off the edge and so on. There is a lane barrier in the middle of the small pool at the gym, and what stood out was taking her underneath the water and under the barrier to fetch her polar bear which she had thrown over. She went underneath the water like this four times quite comfortably. 

This afternoon Donné was baking cupcakes with Grace and she said to Grace, “Put the egg into the bowl,” to which Grace responded by throwing the egg into the bowl. Amazingly the shell cracked perfectly in half, the egg slid out into the bowl and the shell could be easily recovered. 

We have decided that we will walk to a near-ish park twice a week, both for the exercise as well as for Grace to go and swing regularly. It is about a 20 minute walk at a brisk pace. While we were swinging another little girl (Amy, who we guess is 5 years old) came and swung on the swing next to Grace. Amy was quite chatty and while swinging started to say “Woo-ee” as she swung backwards and forwards. Grace responded with her own little, “Wooo” while swinging, which was very cute and funny. 

The length of Grace’s sleeps as a baby was…umm….a challenge for us, but over the last week she has been having really good day sleeps. Today she slept for over three hours. In my memory I can only think of it happening once. Donné reckons there have been more times, but not more than you could count on one hand. We are enjoying the long sleeps. 

Today is also the one week mark for being totally nappy free. No accidents at all during sleeps. 

Over the last little while I have been bathing Grace, first she gets a wash and then I wash myself. There is a little pink cup which we use to rinse her off, and which I use to get wet and rinse myself off (not much space with two of us in there). Today Grace decided she wanted to help me bath, and assisted by filling the cup and pouring water over me, just like we do to her. 

I am not to sure how it is done, but it is possible to pop your lip open while sitting on the floor. Grace managed to get her arms caught up in her jersey (while trying to take it off) and was not able to stop herself from going face first into the floor…evidence below.

Today Grace and I had our first tea party with her tea set and all her dolls and soft toys.  She had so much fun making tea for each doll and putting in the "milk" and "sugar," followed by a vigorous stirring action and giving the doll or teddy their delicious "hot tea."  It is really sweet to see how she is starting to get imaginary play and both Grace and I thoroughly enjoyed our yummy cups of tea.

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When I woke up this morning I felt tired and my back was still a little stiff and sore from my gym session.  All I wanted to do was stay in bed and avoid life for a little longer.  I was enticed out of bed with a cup of coffee at Vida, which didn’t have the desired response, that of feeling awake and ready for the day.  

It is good to be playful and having a daughter has definitely increased my playfulness. I think I had lost some of it over the past few years and it has been good to enjoy playing again.

I am very fortunate that I can stop work, walk out of my office and start playing with Grace at the end of a day. We often spend some time in the garden at the end of the day which is sometimes just peaceful garden time (I inspect the garden while Grace potters around), but at other times it is a great chance to play. Yesterday was very precious. Grace was having a great day and was full of life and fun while we played outside.

She ran around the garden with her arms stretched out behind her, loved being dragged around in the washing basket (which is always fun), danced in the washing basket, sung (also in the washing basket), dived on the ground, rolled around, walked around the wash line, drew with chalk and just had fun. It was a small moment in time which was mine to cherish with her and I really loved it.

In the background Spice is eating chicken Grace has just fed him from her snack container…

This morning Grace asked to look at her stars – the stick on type, so I gave them to her and carried on with what I was doing. Now I know that she is able to take her stars and stickers off and stick them on to herself, but I didn’t quite expect to come back after about 2 minutes to find Grace covered in stars and none left on the paper.  

Our good friends Em & Jay let us know about the newly opened Green Point Park which is right next to the stadium. Well, “right next to” took us a little while to find, but we did get there. It is a really stunning open space with a wonderful family vibe about it.

I can remember making sure to avoid stepping on the cracks between tiles and paving stones as a child, and I have often wondered why we do it, and today was the first time I saw Grace avoiding those cracks. There is a bridge over some water – the “Stepping Stone bridge” – and when we walked over it Grace made sure she stepped over all the cracks.

Donné & Grace about to cross the bridge

I also managed to get some photos of a crab spider which had caught a fly (in our garden). I think the smaller spider on her back is a male. With the plague of flies we have had this summer it is good to see all the animals helping.

Bad day to be a fly

Results are in from the first night in panties and….all went well.

Grace had so much fun playing with a bag of potatoes today. She would take them out, throw them across the room, laugh, collect, repeat. Here is a tiny bit I managed to capture on video.

At the hair salon

Today we had our monthly get together at Kim’s house, which as always, I really enjoyed.  It is lovely to just hangout with people you feel comfortable with, chat, eat yummy food and  Grace gets a chance to play with the boys.

Jack requested to see the helicopter scene from “Happy Feet” so Grace, Caleb and Jack watched the scene and some, while us ladies drank our tea.  They all sat quietly with that familiar spaced out look, staring at the screen. While we all agreed that the DVD makes for the perfect nanny, I think we all found it a little disturbing how spaced out they all looked, as evidenced by the photo.

Both Duncan and I have been rather anti- television and as a result Grace watched basically no TV (which includes, no educational programmes / DVD’s etc.) in the first 15 months of her life.  We have relaxed a little in the last couple of months, but she still doesn’t watch more than 30 minutes a day and not everyday.  Look don’t get me wrong, I think it is a wonderful “nanny” and gives me the time to do things quickly and effortlessly, and there are definite times that I would love to sit her in front of the TV for a few hours to have some me time, but I actually can’t bring myself to do that.  So instead we build puzzles, read books, have tea parties, ride our scooter and just have fun.

I love that Grace at 21 months is potty trained

I love that I don’t have to change nappies

I love that I don’t have to wash / buy nappies

I love being able to buy her cute panties

What I didn’t realise when we decided to potty train Grace at 19 months is that any form of pants (whether they be jeans, leggings etc) for 2 year olds are still designed with nappies in mind. Okay granted the 24 month old clothes are still a little big for Grace, but with no nappy on, they just don’t fit her around the waist making her look like a “baggy-pant hooligan.”   As a result we have to roll the top of her pants over so they “fit” a little better.

Neat Butt

I have been fortunate – no, blessed is the right word – to work with really amazing people through my journey as a small business. I was thinking about it today after our car would not start yesterday.