Grace and Reese

These photos loaded in reverse order. I think it will all be clear if you view them from the bottom up. No pun intended.

There's only so much poking a dog will endure.

Airplane.

"Cheese"

"Cheese"

Reese is lazy and therefore was subjected to some toddler pestering. Talley, who tolerates Grace much better, was smart and stayed far away during this photo shoot. Missing is the last shot, where Reese has gotten up and left the deck, upending Grace in the process. In the other pics, you can Grace doing her chores.

Our Second October

Head, shoulders, knees and toes!

No Paparazzi!

Grace has been using our stainless utensils for six months. But one night, after stabbing her fork into the wooden table time after time, we offered the ultimate threat -- "Do you want a baby fork?" -- referring to the useless, rubbery excuses for utensils that frustrate so many kids for so long. To our surprise, she replied "Yes!" with a big grin. Grace is shown here enjoying a meal of many baby forks.

Here she is, determined to wear her strawberry sandals from China one last evening before packing things away.

The weather has turned cooler here and we are enjoying every minute of it -- we've been to petting "zoos" to see the farm animals and back to the park we visited last year; we have taken Grace to the city to meet up with old friends visiting from far away; we have put away the summer clothes and moved on to tights and leggings and long sleeves and coats. Grace now finds plums, pears and apples in her lunch and cider in her cup. We roasted acorn squash (on the grill! Go Daddy!) and collected leaves in the yard.

Every day brings new words and skills. Lately, she has been singing ABC and Happy Birthday (sounds like "appee juju") and counting to 10 (using just 4 numbers -- clever kid, she's counting in factors! Or something like that....).


She enjoys drawing and making beautiful arts and crafts. She is very capable of expressing exactly what she wants ("The door OPEN," she says repeatedly before bed). She is also very stubborn and funny, and can really hold a grudge.

Eight weeks ago, a little girl in her preschool bit her finger while arguing over a toy. Not only will Grace still hold up her finger for inspection and kissing if you ask about the little girl ("Avery bite"), but she has also started to blame faulty household objects on this tiny fall-girl. "Avery broke it," she says, while pointing at lightbulb that has gone out. Cheerful and loving little Avery runs to hug Grace every morning despite Grace's visible lack of interest. One day, Dad witnessed Avery run full tilt toward Grace when, at the last moment -- like Lucy and the Football -- Grace ever so slightly and swiftly, and with no change in expression, leaned sideways and let Avery crash into the door behind her. When we tell Grace that she needs to forgive Avery for the biting, our daughter's response is (and always has been,) "Why?" We just learned that Avery will be moving away. Hard to know how Grace will take it but I sadly suspect even after Avery is long gone, she will not be forgotten -- or forgiven!

Grace has adapted well to her parents' busy schedule. Daddy's work means that Grace is spending longer days in preschool. Fortunately, she loves it and is thriving. She is very independent. The night before I left for a three-day business trip, I sat beside Grace to break the news: "Mommy's going on a trip-" I started, but before I could finish the thought, Grace held up her hand, waved and said "Bye! Bye Bye!" as if I needn't take a second more and should depart immediately.

Finally, I recently captured on video an episode of Grace TV (the baby monitor) where one normally finds at 9 pm reruns of the same soap opera of "Maaaa-mmmeeeeee," complete with fake tears and hyped-up drama. However, after spending a whole day with new people, Grace saved up some newfound dialogue for a zinger of a denouement. After we tucked her in, we turned to the monitor to find a pleasant, calm child laying on her back grinning and repeating my name in long, drawn out syllables. Guess she figured I was more likely to answer to that than the stock dialogue.

21.8

Pounds, that is. I weighed her on our scale today. Although she is still in the same sized diapers we brought to China, she is definitely growing. We estimated her weight a year ago at about 15 lbs.

She is still easy to carry but I am starting to think twice before letting other people pick her up.

Tonight some little girls in our neighborhood were remarking on her size ("So little, so cute.") They asked if they could pick up the "baby." In the past, I might have said yes. Now, however, I am starting to wonder if Grace really wants to be carted around (by other than her mom and dad, that is -- she clearly still wants that). So I told the girls to ask Grace if she wanted them to pick her up. The girls looked surprised. It's hard to see such a comparatively small child and imagine that her personality has advanced to the stage of having opinions about how she is to be treated. But then I reflect on the crib episode (see previous post) and I realize she's farther along than any of us fully appreciate.

In the end, they "jumped" with her by lifting her up and putting her back down (Grace likes to "Jum-pah!"). That satisfied their need to hold her and Grace retained some independence.

She then stunned them all by doing somersaults on the lawn.

Love and Lights' Out

Grace's vocabulary is exploding. There isn't a word she won't try to say. She's also very busy, watering the plants with a spray bottle and putting on her own socks, shoes and shorts. It's exciting to see her try so many new things.

Today, prompted, she said she loved me and daddy. Very sweet and rewarding. She also tried flossing: Hooray! Recently, she started calling me "Mom" instead of Mommy or Mama. It's cute and funny, coming from a 20 month old child.

But when it comes to bedtime, well....

She is rejecting the crib but won't stay in the twin bed. Since she is nearly completely potty trained, the crib represents an impediment to her ability to go without our help. But for whatever reason, the bed is not where she wants to sleep. She tricks us into taking her out of the crib by saying she has to potty. This little ritual went through three cycles tonight until I wised up. Tired of squatting alongside the toilet while she sang and grinned and made funny faces and tried to get me to give her bandaids or lotion or extra toilet paper, I turned out the light in the bathroom, left the door open and went down the hall, telling her to let me know when she was done. A few minutes later I heard "Ah Done!"

Maybe it was the lights' out technique, the tough love, or the fact that it was 9:30, but it worked well enough. We re-diapered her (pull ups still don't fit and neither does underwear), dropped her into her crib and left. She yelled for us for a few minutes and then fell asleep. Tune in tomorrow to see if she stayed there or awakened at 5:50 AM as she did this morning, conning daddy into putting her in her parents' bed.....

Amazing Grace...or just ambidextrous?

Tonight before bed, she did a little drawing. I noticed that she is equally skilled with either hand. I'll try to post some video soon to show you her mad drawing skills.

[Please ignore the wall paper. That was one project we never managed to tackle before we left for China....]