Their Own Way

The other day Gracie and my husband were cleaning the living room in preparation for company. I was in the bedroom doing some cleaning, when I heard my husband burst out in laughter. Of course I had to go investigate. He told me that he had just asked Gracie to do something, and she just shook her head and said, "Men have their own way of doing things." I guess she's learning early! :)

Just on Sundays

We took Drew and Gracie to get their hair cut yesterday afternoon. The hair stylist was talking to Gracie as she was cutting her hair, and asked her if her mommy brushed her hair every day. Gracie said, "No, just on Sundays." After she thought about it for a minute or two, she changed her mind, saying "Just on days we go somewhere." A little bit better, I guess. :)

And for the record, yes I do brush Gracie's hair!

Bush Hair

My husband has nicknames for the kids: "Long Hair" for Gracie, and "Short Hair" for Drew. I don't really remember when he started calling the kids that. However, I will never forget the day that Gracie looked at my husband and asked, "If I'm Long Hair and Drew is Short Hair, who is Mommy?" My husband asked her what she thought they should call me. Gracie thought for a minute, and said, "Bush Hair!"

Unfortunately for me, Gracie's description is very fitting. My hair is long, and if there is any humidity at all it gets frizzy and looks like ... well, like a bush. My husband thought Gracie's nickname for me was hilarious, and he has called me that ever since. Maybe someday when the kids are older I will spare more time to try to tame my hair.

O Christmas Tree

I have a confession to make: we have not put up our Christmas tree yet. In fact, we may not put up a Christmas tree this year at all.

One day this week Gracie was standing on the couch, looking out our front window at our neighbors' house across the street. "Mr. Tom and Miss Mary have their Christmas tree up already! And they have a wreath on their door!" She thinks Christmas is still ages away, so she seemed amazed that our neighbors have already started to decorate for the holidays.

I told Gracie that we were going to have our Christmas tree at Grandma and Papa's house this year. I know Gracie would love to have a tree here at home, too, but I just don't know how to keep Drew away from it. I have had suggestions from several friends: to buy a baby play yard or fence to keep him away from it, or to decorate the bottom half of the tree with non-breakable felt ornaments. Those both sound like good ideas, but I don't want to spend a lot of money on things we won't use for more than a month or two ... so, if you have any ideas for baby-proofing a Christmas tree, I would love to hear them.

Little van Gogh

This month our library is offering a series of four art classes for three- to five-year-olds, and Gracie had her first art class last week. When I took Gracie to the class I noticed that the teacher had a copy of van Gogh's painting, Starry Night. After class, I asked Gracie if they looked at any paintings by famous artists. She told me that they looked at a landscape by Vincent van Gogh (she hesitated on his last name) and that he didn't paint the sky straight. A minute or two later she commented that the sky is straight in our world, not whirly, so I asked her why she thought van Gogh painted the sky "whirly." Gracie said, "He painted the sky in cursive!" (We had talked about cursive handwriting earlier in the week, and I guess she was impressed by the loops in cursive writing. I thought it was a cute observation!)

Extra Me

The other day Gracie was talking about dressing up for Halloween, and her ideas made me laugh. She told me I could dress up as a hula dancer. I told her that being a hula dancer sounded like fun, and then asked her if she was going to dress up as a hula dancer, too. She said, "No, I just want to be extra me." Extra Gracie. I'm not sure I can handle that! :)

We don't celebrate Halloween and Gracie has never gone trick-or-treating. Her idea of dressing like a hula dancer came from Meet Molly, one of the American Girl books we read recently, in which Molly and her friends dressed up as hula dancers for Halloween. Even though we aren't going to celebrate Halloween, we still may make hula costumes like Molly and her friends did because Gracie enjoys dressing up and acting out the stories that we read. :)

Sandy Lane Beach

My house has felt like a zoo for the past couple of weeks. Drew loves to explore, and has started getting into everything. This morning as I was packing my husband's lunch and doing some other morning chores, Gracie came running through saying, "We're playing on Sandy Lane Beach." Sandy Lane is the name of the beach in an interactive DVD game Gracie plays occasionally, so I thought she was just having fun with her imagination, as she often does.

On my next trip through the kitchen, I thought to myself, "hmmm ... the floor feels a little bit gritty. I definitely need to sweep the floor this morning!" Still, that's not anything too far out of the ordinary around my house.

A few minutes later, Gracie was laughing, saying "Drew got the salt shaker and put salt all over." Finally it dawned on me. Drew had scattered salt all over the kitchen and dining room floor. The salt was the grit I was feeling underfoot, and was the "sand" for Gracie's Sandy Lane Beach.

Just the start of a typical day around here lately.

Uh Oh!

At 14 months old, Drew doesn't say very many recognizable words, so each time he learns a new one, we celebrate. As of last weekend, his new favorite word is "uh oh!" On Friday evening after he was finished with his dinner, Drew sat in his high chair throwing bits of food onto the floor, and before he threw each piece, he said "uh oh!" I let him keep doing it for a few minutes because his little voice sounded so incredibly cute.

On Saturday afternoon he started saying "uh oh!" before launching toys over the gate and down the stairway. We put a stop to that rather quickly.

Then Sunday morning during church he stood up on the pew and looked at the person sitting on the pew behind us (who happened to be his pediatrician), said "uh oh!" and threw his toy at him. Uh oh, indeed! :)

The "Big Owner"

Gracie says some funny things sometimes. The other day she was playing with her daddy, and he pretended to be a "Big Ogre" and eat her up. I came into the room to her giggles and a request for me to save her from the "Big Owner." Ever since then, my husband has been the Big Owner, and Drew has been the Little Owner. Oh, and Gracie is the Little Snack and I am the Big Snack. We are so silly.

Some other cute Gracie sayings: One day my husband was trying to get her to come so he could help her with her shoes. He told her to "Bring those little toes over here." Gracie said, "It would be easier to bring all of me." :)

And the last one for now: Gracie sometimes has a hard time being quiet during church, so I often give her a pen and paper to draw with in hopes that it will help her stay quiet. One Sunday morning, she was singing "Happy Mother's Day to you" ... to the tune of "Happy Birthday to you." (Now, I did think that was very sweet, except that it happened to be during a particularly quiet part of the service and it was the week after Mother's Day.) When my husband asked her to be quiet, she replied, "It's hard to draw without a song."