from the archives: january 2007

gracie lately

Santa brought Grace an aquarium this Christmas. She was a bit over the moon for it. Admittedly, her excitement was not attributable to her love of fish. Rather it was due to her understanding that the fish would be but a gateway pet eventually leading to a puppy (sometime waaaaay down the road). She has proven to be a very responsible caretaker so far. The fish get fed every other day and she keeps track of who's turn it is to deliver the pinch of fishy flakes. She loves to observe them. The tank currently holds some 8 lucky gold fish. Only one of them is named. He has just one eye and has been named One-Eyed Willie.

She loves school as much as ever. Miss Carrie often comments (with a slight roll of the eyes) on the steel trap that is Grace's mind. This girl remembers everything, something that is at once useful and annoying. Miss Carrie and I have also shared a smile over Grace's perfectionistic tendencies. She will spend hours working on projects. Miss Carrie will try and hurry her through sometimes. That doesn't really work for Grace. She brings some projects home to finish.

Speaking of hurrying, Grace doesn't really do it- ever. It is just not her style. She will not be jostled. The other morning, we were running a little behind. I asked Grace and Grant to get their shoes on because it was time to get in the car.

Grace: What shoes should I wear, Mama?

Me: Getting Eden into carseat What ever shoes you like, but please hurry. It's time to go.

Grant: Got my shoes on!

Grace: I don't know what shoes to wear...

Me: It really doesn't matter hunny, just choose some from the shoe basket quickly please.

Grace: Rummages through basket I think I want to wear my black shoes, but I can only find one.

Me: Finds two brown shoes and lays them in front of her corresponding feet. Please put these ones on. We'll have to find your other black shoe later. PLEASE HURRY.

Me: Gathering up Eden, my purse, sunglasses, keys, heading for the garage door.

Grace: Standing with a brown shoe on one foot and a different metalic brown shoe on the other foot with both black shoes in hand. Mom! I found my other black shoe!! Can I pleasewear my black shoes today?

Me: turning head to the side, biting knuckle, muffling the scream in the back of my throat. And then sort of growling, Just get them on right now. IT IS TIME TO LEAVE.

Grace: Laughing, completely unaffected by her mother's angst. Oh mom...

Grace is all about having her hair pulled 'all the way back' these days. She gazes in the mirror and smiles, "I look just like Aunt Tiffany." I do my best- her hair isn't quite long enough yet.

She remains our very tender-hearted girl. We were having a little spat over how to do her hair one morning (see above). I told her that soon, she would be old enough to do her own hair, and that I wouldn't have to help her anymore. She seemed surprised by this news and started crying. She said that she would always want my help. I told her I would always give it. It is very like her to get emotional over change or any kind of neglect or disapproval. I'm taking microscopic notice of it all now, as I suspect these issues will be key to understanding her as a teenager. Sometimes, I feel like we are dealing with a teenager already!

For all that she is a fantastic big sister. I can always count on her to play with Eden. She adores her sister. We were talking about changing the car seats around and Grace cried for about 3 days ( I wish I were kidding ) that she wouldn't be sitting by Eden anymore. She and Grant continue to be great buddies. They love sharing a room. Grace always looks out for him at the park and at our baby sitting group.

Okay, I want to give a little report on the adventure that is Grace playing an organized sport. I need to start by expressing (in my humble motherly opinion) that Grace is socially precocious, pretty smart, well mannered, and nothing if not enthusiastic. And it would seem that so many of the things that make Grace so uniquely and wonderfully herself make her not the best of soccer players. I do not mean to imply that little kids who are good at soccer are immature, dim witted, rude and brutish. I write this simply to make clear that we not critical of Gracie's athletic ineptitudes. We are so happy that she is enjoying herself and that soccer has been a fun experience for her so far. But Future Grace is going to need to have a sense of humor about her first experience with competitive team sports. These pictures are from her first couple of games. If you are wondering about the pink striped socks, the team socks didn't come in time for the first game. So everyone got to wear whatever socks they wanted.

She is very good at listening to her coach. Practices are loads of fun for her and she tries hard to complete the drills. During game time, she attentively receives Coach Jason's instructions and then proceeds to chase after her team mates (not the ball) reminding them about what they are supposed to be doing. "Our goal is that way!" "Stop the ball!" "Go the other way!" "NO HANDS!"
She is sure to call out loudly when the ball goes out of bounds. She also yells spontaneous cheers for "Team Lightning" in the middle of game play.
Occasionly the ball comes her way and she kicks it.
She LOVES being the player on the sidelines who gets to throw the ball in. Here, she is throwing it in to her good friend Makayla. We are so glad the A*s signed up for this with us. We have a little too much fun observing the girls every weekend. Makayla's dad, Thomas, pointed out that Grace could always become a motivational speaker for the team should the athlete thing not work out. It is a little idea we've filed away for future consideration...
Coach Jason rotates all the kids around so everyone gets a chance to play goalie. It has taken a while for the girls on the team to react properly to an oncoming opponent. As in, they step aside and watch the ball roll into the goal. We parents on the sidelines have a good laugh about it. After countless efforts to teach our girls to be polite, to share, to give the other kid a turn first, we find ourselves screaming "steal the ball!" "GRAB IT FROM THEM!!!" At one point during her first game, Grace was over with us for a water break and she said, "But Dad! It was their ball." We tried explaining that it is never 'their ball', but we could tell it wasn't clicking into Grace's context of social behavior. Another notable quote from Grace was at the end of her first game when she tapped Makayla on the shoulder and sighed, "At last... snacks!" This girl has her priorities.

Team Lightning (it was almost Team Lightbulb upon Gracie's recommendation - but she was out voted) has 5 girls and 2 boys. The boys get it. They chase the ball. They run it up the field. They kick it towards the goal. They scoop it up when they are playing goalie. The picture above kinda says it all where the girls are concerned. Coach Jason is giving instruction. The boy is looking directly where Coach is pointing. Both girls are ready for action and pointed in the other direction.
This is a little huddle that, we later learned, was initiated by Grace. It was the first of a few at the end of their last game. The assistant coach approached them and inquired about what they were doing. What followed was a flood of excited and very gesticulated instructions from Grace. I heard the assistant say, "Let's just work on kicking it towards the goal." After the game, Grace told Cori that they were busy making game plays. The plays involved passing the ball from oldest to youngest- and then from tallest to smallest. (These were actually great ideas as they would have put the boys in position to score.) Despite the careful planning, their team efforts were invariably the same. Though Team Lightning has yet to claim victory in battle, we are all having a lot of fun. Coach Jason is super patient with the kids (girls) and all the parents are fun and not crazy competitive- which is good.

And I think we'll try some dance classes or something this summer...

other things we did on holiday

There were a few other notable aspects of our long holiday in Nevada. Dad took us out to our favorite Basque restaurant in town, JT's. Eden and I were obviously not ready for the following picture.
My mom is now an avid handbell choir member and recently procured a small set of colored bells. We colored up some music and played all together for while one night. I helped Grant out with his bell, but Grace really got the hang of doing it on her own.
After Christmas, we packed up and headed to my parents' place at the Lake. We arrived in time to witness one of the craziest snow storms we've ever seen (and we've seen more than a few). Getting snowed in is pretty fun when one is on holiday and accompanied by lots of family. And then, once the clouds blew through, we were in wonderland.


The temptation was to ski every single day. But the storms kept the mountain closed down off and on. So we occupied ourselves with games and movies. We still got in plenty of great skiing. New Year's day was particularly spectacular. The runs were empty. Eighteen to twentyfour inches of powder. Amazing.
Jared and Erin came up to have dinner with us the night before they headed back to CA. Grace and Grant love playing with this guy!

Though the snow conditions made for amazing skiing, the weather was pretty rough. It was either stormy and windy or clear and bitterly cold. So we didn't take the kids up the mountain to do any skiing this trip. But we got them out to play around the condo.

New Year's Eve, Heavenly Village (where the condo is) hosted a family party. We bundled up and braved the freezing temps to wander around the festivities. Well, not all of us went- Grammie kept Eden warm in the condo. We were grateful to her for that. Back outdoors, Grant loved watching the snowboarding trick competition. Grace was pretty excited by all the wierd snow people who were dressed up and posing for pictures. The kids and Thea got some face painting done. Then at 9PM they did a 'gondola drop' which had great potential but was a bit anticlimactic. They failed to organize a countdown, so the lit gondola descended from the top of the mountain and stopped over the waiting crowd without fanfare. Then there was a (as in one) firework. And then we all went back to our rooms. Maybe that part of it will be a bit better next year. We still had fun!





New Year's Day, after we got in a good half day of skiing, Cori and I loaded our crew up and we started our journey home. It was hard to leave but made easier by our plans to get back up there in February.

Blessings

Grace giving the ball a little pep talk. This will come as no surprise to those who know her.

We had an eventful week. Grace had her first soccer practice and game. Eden has started rolling over and eating cereal at night. The week seemed so busy and yet I don't feel like I got much done. The kids all got a lot done, though, so I'll let that count and be grateful. :) This week I am also grateful for:

• The proximity of our church. Today was one of those days where I didn't get to take the sacrament, I didn't get to sit through any of Sunday School, and Relief Society was about as much a lost cause. But I took a moment to give thanks that we are only minutes away from our building. Grant spent his first Sunday in Primary today as a Sunbeam which also made the day special.
• Our big girl Grace. It is so much fun watching her do things she enjoys.
• My talents which were nurtured in my early years. So many things I love to do now -- read, sing, play piano, ski -- were developed through sacrifice of the time and means of my parents. I appreciate it so much these days.

lips

This baby face! The lips. The cheeks. The chin(s).

That's all.

Christmas Week

We spent the week of Christmas at my parents' house. Grace and Grant helped Papa Jeff assemble his train. We visited the children's museum. Everyone worked on getting the tree decorated- it was fun going through decades of keepsake ornaments. Aunt Thea and Aunt Sara took turns baking cookies with Grace and Grant. We watched our favorite Christmas movies. The kids moved Joseph and Mary closer to their stable on the advent calendar each night. Dad took us all out to our favorite Basque restaurant. Cori and I took advantage of a lot of babysitting (skiing and a night out to the movies, so great!). Lots and lots of books were read. We even got out to a fun Christmas light show.

Christmas Eve, we feasted on tamales.

Of course, we had a little Christmas program that night after dinner. We read Luke II. We sang carols and Hymns. The kids put together a nativity scene as we went along. Then we ate lots of pie.

Before bed, Grace and Grant got their first gifts. Then, a letter was written to Santa and a plate of cookies and carrots (for the reindeer) was arranged. Cori and Papa Jeff worked in the garage for a while getting certain gifts put together.

Christmas day was a complete treat. Grant and his new strider bike were instantly inseperable. He rode it all over the house. He would put it down for a minute and then decide that he needed to "park it somewhere else." By that afternoon he was cruising around with both feet off the ground. It will come as no surprise that Gracie is a gusher. She was extatic about gifts received. She also took great pleasure in watching others open the gifts she had chosen for them. It was so sweet. We got to spend a big chunk of the day with my brother and Erin, his girlfriend. We talked and played games (and laughed a lot) and finished the day with a viewing of Indiana Jones.

it couldn't last forever

After two blissful weeks in Nevada on holiday with my family, we are home again. Posts to follow about all our fun. Christmas was so very nice this year.

We've been busy unpacking bags, packing up Christmas, and buying fish and aquarium accoutrement for the tank Santa brought. Cori had today off work and we ALL slept in. Grace didn't make it to preschool. Nobody minded. We enjoyed one last family day before the grind resumes tomorrow.

In other news, Eden has been growing up at lightning speed before our very eyes. She dove into her first bowl of cereal tonight at dinner.