in grace's words

The last 2 days have been like the Great Flood here, so Grace and I have spent some time cooped up in the house talking and playing. Here are some of her thoughts....

Yesterday morning I groaned at the size of my belly and how uncomfortable it's becoming. Grace asked me what was wrong and I told her that Marion was just really kicking me a lot....

"She's kicking, so she can make a hole, so she can get out???"

Clueless of what else to say, I just agreed.

.......................................................................................

Earlier today Grace took an elephant ornament off the Christmas tree to play with...

"Elll... elll... elephant! Mommy, elephant starts with L!"

I absolutely hated telling her that something that sounded so right was wrong! Elephant should start with L!

Thanksgiving 2008

We spent Thanksgiving at Nana and PawPaw's house. We were joined by Uncle John, David, Natalie, Tim, Beth, Lillie, Caleb, Isabelle and Baby Jess. It was so good to see everyone and Grace had a wonderful time playing with her cousins.

Grace playing with a bamboo shoot she picked.

David with Isabelle, Caleb and Lillie

Baby Jess

Here I am with my cousin, Natalie. I'm almost 31 weeks along now. Really, can my belly get any bigger?!?

On the way home we took a short detour off of Henleyfield McNeil Road to see a row of homes that go ALL OUT with Christmas lights.


Grace stared in total awe! When we came to the end and began driving away...

"Mommy, wait, are those people's houses??"
"Yes Grace, those are people's houses, they just put lots of Christmas lights up."
"Mommy, wait, can we go see their back porch??"

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone has had many things to be thankful for this year. I am thankful for my beautiful family and for a healthy pregnancy. I feel so very blessed to have a child that I completely adore, and blessed to have the opportunity to spend my days with her.

Some of Grace's Turkey Day art...

Handprint Turkey

T is for Turkey

30 weeks

Today is 30 weeks and 1 day! I now have doctor appointments every 2 weeks... getting close! Baby Marion is so active. While I thought Grace was wild in the womb, she was relatively calm! With Grace I felt strong kicks and punches. Marion makes my whole stomach toss, turn and wiggle! Jeremy has nicknamed her "squirmy," because we constantly feel her squirming around. I don't know if she's spinning, flipping or what, but it sure feels (and looks) like something major.
I measured 33 weeks at the doctor, 3 weeks ahead, although I really don't feel bigger than I was with Grace. We'll see, I'll be back for another appointment next week!

ho ho ho

November 22nd and we've already made visit number 2 to see Grace's number 1 man!

All I can think when I look at this picture is... "She's getting so old!!!" I know, she's only 2 1/2, well, almost 3, but it's going by too fast!

the school party

Last week Grace had this invitation in her folder...

Her first school party- and notice the part that says "entertainment provided by your preschooler!" Grace and I were both very excited!

I promised Grace I'd bring a cookie cake...

Hmm, looks like "Thanksgiving" has become 2 words! It's crossed my mind to submit this to the Cakewrecks Blog, but I decided that it's the whole story of this cake that gets me so hysterical!

...little did I know what a total pain that would be! I ordered it the day before from the cookie place at the mall and was told it would be ready by 10am yesterday. I arrived at 10, it was still cooling and undecorated. I was told to come back at 10:30, that it would surely be ready by then. I approached the counter again at 10:30 and received this explanation for why my cake still wasn't ready...

(while pointing her finger at her about 7 year old son) "HE decided to be bad at school this morning, so I had to go pick him up, you're cake is almost ready."

Yeah, blame the kid! I'll spare you the details of how many teeth were in the mouth that these words came out of.

At 10:45, I had my cookie cake in hand and headed to the preschool. When I walked into the building there was a video playing of the children at music class last week practicing for the big day. The preschool director explained that they taped it to show us that the kids really did know their song and dance routines, just in case they underperformed under pressure! How'd they know!? The first song was "Gobble Gobble Turkey Talk," which Grace did many stunning renditions of for me at home! I'll give her her fair credit, she did sing out loud, which was more than most of her classmates did, but the enthusiasm wasn't at an all time high!

After the performance, it was time to eat. We had cornbread muffins with butter that Grace's class had made during the week! Supposedly, they added salt to whipping cream and shook it, tossed it and rolled it until it made butter... at least that's the story I got! It was actually really tasty!

Grace enjoying a cupcake!

Grace and I both had a wonderful time at her first school party. I'm looking forward to Christmas!

boots!

I think it's genetic... my two and a half year old seems to get as excited about shoes as I do! Today we scoured the mall to find her first pair of boots. It was love at first sight for Grace... it was also our conversion for the rest of the day...

"Mommy, can I wear my boots to school?"
"Mommy, can I wear my boots to go see Santa?"
"Mommy, can I jump in puddles in my boots... or will they get dirty??"
"Nana, I got my boots at the mall!"
"Mommy, my boots are very comfy!"

Boots, boots boots! It's all I've heard all day! I suppose she can wear them to school tomorrow, but I may have a battle Wednesday morning- because they surely won't go with the outfit she's wearing for her Thanksgiving performance at school. Sorry Grace, but wearing them to see Santa is not happening either! Here she is, ready to go to dance class...


A little more from dance: Ms.Lori let us watch the girls at dance tonight! Here are some shots from the cell phone...


Our conversation on the way home...

"Grace, Mommy is very proud of you. You are a beautiful ballerina! What does Ms.Lori call it when you put one leg in the air?"
(silence from the back seat)
"Grace, is it called an Arabesque, is that what Ms.Lori says?"
"No Mommy, Ms.Lori says, 'You're the best!'"

Ms.Lori says "arabesque" and you hear "you're the best!" Grace, you crack me up!

and we've been shredding paper ever since

On Wednesday, Grace had her visit from our Parents as Teachers contact, Jasmine. A main focus of the visit was sorting, which Grace can do quite well. Jasmine then pulled out an old magazine and a pair of scissors and asked Grace to go through it and cut out pictures of food.
I became slightly confused/slightly panicked... Scissors?? And cutting out specific shapes?? I don't know if Grace can do that! Really, I don't think she can! It was the first time Jasmine had ever asked Grace do do something that I didn't think she could do, and it really bothered me.
Grace isn't very able with scissors, and I can totally take the blame. Honestly, I've discouraged them. Not only do they create quite a mess, but a few months ago she sliced a hole in the dress she was wearing before I could stop her. We do lots of crafts around here, plenty of painting, coloring, glue and chalk; but no, scissors are not my favorite.
So I asked Jasmine, "Should Grace be able to cut out shapes from a magazine??" She responded with a quick and sure "Yes," leaving me no room for doubt.
Well, needless to say, I've been feeling pretty guilty and our house has looked like this since Wednesday...
I've been working with Grace on how to hold the scissors correctly and how to cut out specific shapes. Maybe she can be back on track by the time she turns 3! ;)

from the pantry door....

From the pantry door... some schoolwork from their unit on "A is for Apple"

Apple Tree

Practicing the Letter A

A is for Alligator

A Snowy Number 5

ouch!

Grace visited the doctor today for her flu vaccine. The mist version seems to be the thing this year, I actually don't think any of her friends got the shot. I let Grace choose which she wanted, a flu shot, or flu mist sprayed into her nose. She overwhelmingly went for the shot! She had been bragging to everyone for 2 days that she was getting a flu shot and today was the day.

First came the nurse, who whispered, "You want the mist, right?"

"No, actually, I gave her a choice and she really wants the shot."

"Really!? Well that's a first!"

Grace was sticking to her guns, and when the nurse returned with the syringe, Grace pulled up her sleeve and confidently told Ms.Nurse exactly where she could put it! Then it happened.... the sting... Grace had a look of total shock on her face. She winced in pain, but there were no tears or crying. Poor baby, it wasn't as glamorous as she had thought. The whole way home she repeated, "I don't like my flu shot. My flu shot hurt." She wasn't even amused by the round purple Tweety Bird band-aid, which she would have thought very cool under other circumstances. I did ask her if she would like to get the spray in her nose next year instead of the shot... the answer was "I don't want nose spray and I don't want shot." Well, she has a year to decide.

Grace waiting for her flu shot, still very excited about it!

build a leaf press

Grace and Daddy built a leaf press at the Home Depot Kid's Workshop!

who needs accountability from an elf?!

I'm very excited to start the "Elf on a Shelf" tradition with Grace this year. I wanted to last year, but she wasn't quite old enough to "get it," not to mention it was sold out everywhere. You buy a cute little Elf and he comes with a book that tells his story. You place him up high in your home somewhere and he watches the children's behavior everyday, leaving while you sleep to go report to Santa. When you wake in the morning, he will have returned and will be sitting in a new spot to watch the new day's activities. You may never touch the Elf, which is why he sits so high, because then he may lose his magic.
I told the story of the Elf to Grace and told her we need to get one soon so that he could start watching her and reporting her behavior to Santa. I thought she would be all about our new Elf friend (and that it would help her behave a little better for the next couple months!)... but her response... "Mommy, I don't want to have an Elf at our house to watch me, I DON'T WANT ONE!" Hmmm, she understood better than I ever imagined... and she's not too keen on the little tattling Elf. Maybe when she sees him and all his cuteness she'll warm up to the idea, because we're still getting one! :)

santa has arrived!

Santa arrived at the Turtle Creek Mall in Hattiesburg today. Yes, 2 months before Christmas, but not a moment too soon for Grace. She begged to go see him from the moment I told her of his arrival. I used it as a hook to help her make it through a couple hours of totally unsuccessful home decor shopping. She was thrilled to finally see him, and couldn't have been more star-struck. She told him, "I have a list. I want a playhouse and a My Little Pony that walks across the table." Santa gave Grace a special report card to fill out until Christmas and turn into him. It has some great criteria... listening to mommy and daddy, picking up my toys, going to bed on time. We didn't do pictures yesterday, and it may be a while... I'm just not sure I'm ready to dress her up in Christmas clothes yet... Thanksgiving still seems far away!
After her visited, she pretended to call everyone to tell them the news...

"We see Santa, Nana. And I tell Santa I want a playhouse and a pony. And Santa was sharing all his Christmas stuff. I got a reindeer hat... oooooh!"

school picture

Grace's 1st official school picture! She kinda has that "this is silly, but whatever!" look on her face, but still cute! :)

from the pantry door....

Grace completed her fire safety unit at school. They even had a visit from a real firetruck and Sparky the Firedog! She learned the classic, "Stop, drop and roll!"

Firetruck

Fire

Okay, this one kinda puzzled me, so I asked Grace what it was.... "a smoke thingy!"... oh, I see it now, it's a smoke detector!

A Dalmation

These are some that trickled home from circus week and are too cute not to remember!

Circus Lion

Clown

sunday in henlyfield

Sunday we visited Nana and PawPaw. Grandma Benton, Aunt Mary and Anne came out to visit too. Grace had a wonderful time!

a very pregnant mama and Grace visiting with Grandma Benton, can you believe we celebrated her 90th birthday almost a year ago?

Grace standing on top of the garden stone she made for Nana

here we are in one of the greenhouses making selections for our winter gardens

this is how you know you're in the country... a bonfire at night! Grace was slightly concerned, having just wrapped up a unit on "fire safety" at school!

sitting by the fire with Nana and PawPaw

27 weeks

10 weeks to go if Baby Marion arrives when Grace did... we'll see! Now that I have my mind set on the 37 week mark, I'll probably still be pregnant at 42!
I am feeling pretty good lately. About 2 weeks ago, I had blood drawn to test for gestational diabetes. The nurse called afterward to let me know that I did not have the gestational diabetes, but that my blood count was low, and I would need to start taking iron supplements. Hearing this was actually a relief! I had been so exhausted all the time, from morning to night, but had used the pregnancy to excuse it. Hearing that my blood count was low gave me hope that I may start feeling better soon!
I have now been taking over 600% of the daily recommended value of iron for about a week. IT HAS WORKED!! I feel so much better! I'm waking up rested and I feel much better throughout the day! Alleluia!
As for the nursery, it's really coming together. The drapes are up and the skirt and sheet are on the crib. There is still much accessorizing to be done, but it's looking good!