Grace lately

I love it when Gracie says:

"Can you find us some rockin' music?" - on the way to school just about everyday.

"Please bless us to have eternal families." - to her Heavenly Father when she prays.

"Grant! Good job, bud!" - when Grant uses his potty.

Grace is always telling us about the stuff she wants to do when she's bigger. Cori told her she should make a list. One afternoon she was looking for something to do and exclaimed, "My list!" A piece of scrap paper was procured and she started asking me how to spell different words. The list: play tennis, brush my kids' teeth, tie my kids' shoes, tie my shoes, read to my kids, pet, airplane, outer space, and submarine. It is the first we've heard of playing tennis. But she talks often about having a pet, flying airplanes, floating in space, and traveling by submarine.

She loves dandelions. We encourage her to pick as many as possible. She wants them in her hair and in cups of water around the kitchen. She picks them on the way into school everyday to give to her teachers (they are very nice about it). I try to limit the amount of weeds that make it into the house, but she is very concerned with the mortality of flowers.

As part of our afternoon checklist, we sit and read together before the kids go outside to play. One afternoon, we had just gotten comfy on the couch with our little pile of books when the doorbell rang. I told Grace that I thought it was a friend asking for her and Grant to come outside. Honestly, I was ready to send them out - it had been one of those afternoons. As I got up to answer the door Gracie asked me to stop. She didn't want to play until we had finished our reading time. I was so surprised. She ran to the door and told her friends that she would come out when we were done reading her books. I wanted to take that moment and frame it. We sat and read for a while and then she happily spent the rest of the afternoon outside.

Last weekend marked Gracie's final swim lesson for a while. She really enjoyed this second round of lessons. In the course of a year, she went from being terrified to walk in the baby pool by herself to almost conquering the list above. Most importantly, she is more confident and happy in the water now. We'll take a little break from weekly visits to the pool until our plans are more set for the summer. In the picture below, the kids were practicing jumping into the pool. Grace kept asking her teacher to move further out. Her teacher patiently obliged though Gracie remained a bit timid in her leaps.

Grace insists on wearing short-sleeved shirts almost everyday now that it has warmed up a little. She loves turning the music up and singing loudly in the car. She knows how to use her tears to manipulate her susceptible little brother (we're working hard on this one). She asks for a face massage every night once she is in bed. She is happiest amidst a project. She loves to play outside with the neighbors. Pink remains her favorite color. She is learning to let her brother win once in a while. She couldn't be more thrilled about the baby sister coming her way.