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...
I took Rondee and Hayden to the airport this morning. Very sad. We had such a fun week. While they were here, we:
