Santa Cause

We took Grace to meet Santa Clause on December 11th. Before she took her nap, I told her that she was going to get to go see Santa Clause when she woke up. The first words out of her mouth when she woke up were, "Anta Cause!!!"

While I was getting her ready, I asked her if she was going to sit in Santa's lap. Her response was a resounding, "NO!!" I told her that good little boys and girls got to sit in Santa's lap and they would get candy. She got excited about that!

She said, "Go see Anta Cause, sit his lap, get tandy, get a boy!"

Here are some of our favorite photos:

Lipstick!

Grace loves to wear lipstick. She will put it on about 30 times in 15 minutes if I would let her!

Last Friday, we were out eating with her Nandy and Pa-pa and she was playing with her Nandy's lipstick. It was all over her face. I asked her if she wanted to go look in the mirror (of course she did) and we took off for the bathroom. She took one look in the mirror and said, "Oh, no! I a mess, mommy!"

The next day, her Nandy and I were in the office looking at stuff on the computer and she came in and said, "ta-da!" I looked over and this is what I saw:



She helped herself to the mascara that I mistakenly left out on the bathroom counter! Thankfully, I don't wear waterproof and it came off easily!

Sit and What??

Last year for Christmas, your Aunt Kim gave you a Simon Says Sit and Spin. It plays music and the Simon Says game while you spin. You love it!

The other day, you were playing on it and I could hear it telling you, "Simon Says Spin." When you don't do it what it says to do, it will either say, "Come on and play with me." or "Try again!" Well, listening in, I could hear that you weren't playing right, and normally you do well at it. I peeked in at you.

I saw you sitting on it, holding on to the handle, staring intently at the face on it. It said, "Simon Says Spin." And you spit on it! Apparently, you thought it was telling you to Sit and Spit!

Type A Personality

Honey, you have such a type A personality! You love to clean and organize and boss me around!

Cleaning: You think that baby wipes can clean up all of life's messes. If I am silly enough to leave the wipes where you can get to them, you will pull out at least 30 and clean every surface you can reach. If you make a mess, you start hollering, "MESS, MESS, MESS!!!" Until I come and give you something to clean it with. You love to wash your hands and every time you tell me I didn't give you enough soap. You are addicted to hand sanitizer. You hold out your hands and say, "rub, rub, rub." Then you sanitize every part of your body that you can reach!

Organizing: You sort everything by color or by size or by some little system that only you know. You can stand for your eggs to be paired with the wrong color. You will separate all your toys into categories. Unfortunately, you get side tracked from this easily!

Bossing: You constantly tell me and Daddy what to do. I don't know how many times I have asked you to stop bossing me because it is rude. Your response is, "Be quiet, I'm hiding." (When we play hide-n-seek you get to tell us to be quiet - so I think that is why you put the qualifier on it, so you don't get in trouble!). You think that you can tell us where to sit and when to stand. You like to even tell me which way I should turn when I am driving the truck! You really like telling Bentley what to do. And, boy, do you get upset if he doesn't mind you!

Independence: Your most used phrase is either "Gracie Do It" or "My Do It!" Either one is said at the top of your lungs when I try to help you in any way. You like to climb in and out of your high chair - and woe unto me if I try to buckle you in! You can do it on your own! You want to get in and out of the truck and car seat on your own. Every once in a while you allow me to help with that. You want to unlock the truck for me, open the mail box and jump off of every curb. You rarely want to hold hands any more because you can do it on your own.

Favorite activities right now: Sliding and Swinging for sure! Also, playing in the box (your sandbox). You love Kindermusik still - your current favorite song is called Peep Squirrel. You sing along with the CD now, which is just too cute for words. You absolutely love to play hide and seek and will play again and again. And again. You are actually getting pretty good at it. Sometimes you find a spot and are so quiet that it takes me 7-8 minutes to find you. Other times, you hide on the couch in plain view. It really cracks me up when you hide just your head! You love to go see Uncle Randy, Aunt Rhonda, Rachel and Sean - you ask to go to their house almost daily. You love craft projects and play dough.

Favorite Foods: Craisens, chicken, fruit, apple sauce, cheerios - and, of course, Peanut Butter. Did I mention candy? I have to fight that stuff away from you. Esp. orange lollipops.

Happy Halloween!

This year, Grace dressed up as a flamingo! And, I have to tell you she was the cutest flamingo I have ever seen!

She totally got the concept right away. Our doorbell rang, after giving candy to the tricker-treaters, Grace looked at me and said, "want some." Jeff and I explained trick-or-treating as best we could. Then, the 3 of us along with Rachel, set out to get some candy!



She was much more reluctant this year than she was last year. Last year, she would get mad if the people didn't answer the door fast enough. She would turn and head for the next house! This year, she wanted to be carried to the house, then she would stand patiently and wait for the candy to come. She would either not talk at all, or you could barely hear her say "or treat!"



Even though she was very shy, she kept saying, "More candy. More houses!"

When it was time to head home to hand out candy, she was just as happy. She really liked giving the other kids something when they came by. Of course, for every one piece she would give out, she would eat 2 or 3!

The Grumpy Flamingo

Grace was really sick this past week. On Sunday, she was finally starting to feel a little better. Our church has their annual Candy Carnival the Sunday before Halloween, so we thought that we would take her, since she was acting much more like herself.

She was happy the entire way, but once there, she really just wanted to be held. By me. The entire time. Her Granddad came into town and was with us, and even he couldn't hold her. She would get out of my arms long enough to play a couple of the games. But, most of the time, she wouldn't even participate.



Of course, getting candy always makes her happy...



Eventually, my arms gave out...and the grumpiness came out in full swing! We decided to call it a night at this point!

Mid-Night Pigtails

Twice now Grace has woken up in the middle of the night and asked me to put her hair in pig tails. It just cracks me up!