"That looks like puke! What sort of dinner is this anyway?"
Welcome to four.
Four to me feels like a bigger transition than going from one to two or two to three. Four is school age, four is a kid age, not a baby age. Four. woof.
So what is new with Miss Grace, you ask? Well, Grace is a magnificent player. She will play out dramatic scenarios with anything she can get her hands on. A few days ago, she took a makeup sponge from my make up case and said, "I need this, it's going to be the evil queen," and off she ran to set up her barbies and evil sponge queen. Something that has changed significantly from last year is that she can play by herself for long stretches at a time, and where last year she seemed to only be able to play one character, this year she can handle multiple characters and story lines. She still prefers to have someone play with her, but she never seems to mind too much when she has to play by herself. Her favorite things to play are My Little Pony and Barbies. When we play ponies, I have to be naughty princess Cadence, and when we play barbies I'm usually naughty Rapunzel. This means I have to find different and interesting ways to be naughty and ruin her character's lives in ways like: stealing someone's bedroom, being a better dancer or singer, or demanding the attention of the male characters (THIS ONE MAKES ME CRINGE but she loves it).
Another thing that is new and exciting is that she can color and paint by herself, with very little supervision from me. She's a fantastic artist, super creative, careful and patient. She can draw people and animals and can write a few words and all of her letters with a little coaching. I had the privilege of volunteering in Grace's preschool classroom last week, and I got to sit at the craft table and cut art projects out for the teachers while talking with other students as they worked on their craft projects. Grace was one of the first kids to start her project and the very last one to leave the table, chatting casually with her teacher while she worked. I wish I would have taken a picture of her project -- a turkey feather -- there would be no doubt which one was hers...loaded with feathers, stickers, heavy with glue. She's a creative, through and through. Have I mentioned how thrilled I am?
Something else that's new is how she seems to enjoy testing boundaries. She has always been, and still is, so very sweet and compliant, but lately, if things don't go the way she hopes, she has no problem asserting her personality and explaining why she should get her way. Luckily, she's easy to reason with and usually resolve her problems, without too much drama or too many tears. One thing she looooves, however, is emotional manipulation. It drives me NUTS. For example, "Grace, we're going to have to find a way to share the Barbie house with Elle, can you think of a place where Elle can put her Barbies too?" Grace, in the most pathetically sad voice you can image: "Fine. I don't need my Barbie house. Elle can have it. I'll give it away and never play with it again. I'll put it outside. My Barbies don't like it anyway. My Barbies don't like me. I don't need any toys." And so on, and so on and OMG WHYYYYY. This is something I am not well-equipped to handle and the kid knows it, which is why, I imagine, she keeps it up. Send help. I can only imagine the teenage years.
I enjoy being surprised with things she continues to work on at preschool like her impressive scissor skills, finger plays, and affinity for Bible stories (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Mongo, in Grace-speak) were hot ones for awhile). She's got a delightful way of telling stories; today we had to take Elle to the Dr. for an ear infection, and after I explained Elle's symptoms to the receptionist, Grace added, "yeah, she definitely got her cold from me," with a little half eye-roll and shoulder shrug, waving her naked Barbie in hand like, I'm the big sister, this is possibly my fault, also please don't forget I'm sick here, too. The receptionist gave her a nod and me an eyebrow raise that felt like a fist bump. She surprised us this birthday too, when she was spoiled with toys and gifts from family and friends that she requested thanks to those CAGEY YOU-TUBERS who highlight all the fab new toys. We made sure she got a few of them, and while she was thrilled with them, the toy that is her unabashed favorite is a cute little toy puppy that barks and drinks a bottle, which she got from my grandparents. She's carried it around with her for the last four days and shows no signs of letting up. We met them out for dinner last night and as they left the restaurant she shouted, unprompted, "OH I REALLY LOVE THE PUPPY!" My Grandpa was so delighted, he did a double take and then just cracked up and I just thought ok, this is what life is really all about. Speaking of family, Grace's favorite people to play with are her cousins, which is excellent, because my favorite people to play with are her cousins' parents. Check it↓
We sort of procrastinated Grace's four year old photoshoot because our weekends have been booked traveling to see family and friends out of town. The afternoon we ended up shooting, Elle took a long nap, so I left it up to Eric and Grace to manage. I was getting Grace ready and told her I wouldn't be there to help her and she said, "It's okay mommy, I've got some poses I've been wanting to try," and flashed two peace signs as she bent at the waist and widened her eyes as big as they could go, sticking her chin out and flashing a big, toothy grin. Heaven help me.
Then, after school picture day, when she decided to add a certain sparkly accessory to her look,
her teacher stopped me after school and said, "I just have to tell you, for the class picture, Grace was standing next to me and I noticed as the photographer was ready to take the picture Grace grabbed the corners of her skirt and did a little curtsey." Girl knows what's up.
I love her innocence, I love how when people can't understand some of her words she tries very patiently to correctly pronounce the word and then sort of looks at me like, can you believe this joker? She uses the word preposterous correctly, and she loves to use rainbow-sprinkles or rainbow-sparkles as adjectives. A few nights ago I was reading her off to sleep (oh, she still doesn't sleep through the night. Remember when she was like 4 months old and I was like WHEN is she going to sleep? Turns out possibly never.) and I heard her say, "Eden, Anna, Sonja, Alex, rainbows, New York, unicorns, cupcakes, kittens." When I asked her what she was doing she said, "thinking about what I want to dream about." ME TOO. Take me with you to dream land. Last night I had a weird dream about Lionel Ritchie after hearing his name in a conversation. I identify with four. Please deliver rainbow sprinkle unicorns to my dreams, God.
She never stops moving, she never stops dancing, she never stops twirling. She can't wait to take ballet.
While I would say she can be shy in new situations, she is LOUD and busy and a little clumsy and so PRECIOUS I can hardly stand it. Her vivid imagination leaves her afraid of monsters, afraid to be alone in any room of our house for more than a minute, often hollering "MOM WHERE ARE YOU?!?" Two feet behind you, dear. This is how I see her face, when I think of her. Open, sweet, ready to be plastered with kisses, while she giggles and shoves my face away. ↓
There are so many things I want to say about her. And I might come back and add a few stories, just so I have them recorded somewhere. Grace, you are such a delight. Your dad, every night, says to me, we have the best girls. We have the BEST KIDS! and then recounts a story of something you did that impressed him or made him laugh. Thank you for being our first born, for being so fun and sweet, for bringing tears of joy to our eyes daily. We just LOVE you. Please, someone, figure out how to slow time so I can enjoy her, just like this, for just a little longer. Tears are threatening to take me away, so I'm going to rest in the fact that Grace wants to grow, that Grace wants to learn, that Grace is going to blast into the future, rainbow-sparkles bared, ready to ride a unicorn to ballet class, and beyond.
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