Little Miss Independant

When Grace went to Daisychain nursery for the last time, my heart broke just a little bit. For nearly two years she has been going, her home away from home. She loved it, and I loved that she loved it. She's learnt so much from them, not least of all how to start out in life being little miss independant.

"Gracie do it!" has become one of the most-heard phrases in our house.

Take the bedtime story for instance. We have been reading "We're going on bear hunt" since it was passed down to us from a good friend of mine just after Grace came into the world. She knows it, the way it rolls, whats on the next page. I didn't realise how soon it would be before she started telling us... "No Mummy, Gracie read it!"

Of course she's not actually reading, she's recalling the pattern of the words, remembering the pictoral cues on each page. Nevertheless, my little miss independant is pretty darn good!

"Going on a bear hunt.... big one... not scared.... beautiful day"
"Grass! Swishy swashy, swishy swashy!"
"Going on a bear hunt.... big one... not scared... beautiful day"
"Mud! Squelch squerch!"

it goes on, through the snowstorm, through the river, through the dark wood....

"stumble trip, stumble trip"

to the cave

"dark cave, not scared. Tiptoe tiptoe. It's a bear! Raaaaaaaaaaa!" she mimics a bear at this point, claws ready to pounce!

"quick! back home, upstairs, door, stairs, bed"
"no bear hunt again"
"End!"

I'd video or soundbite it, but I'm not allowed. Little miss independant tells me "No Mummy. Away!"
So I put the smartphone away. I've been told.

And I ask her, has Mummy told you she loves you today?

"Yes Mummy. Love you too. Gracie do it".

And we both go to bed.

Meal Planning Monday (17/12/12)

It's been so long since I sat and thought about the week ahead - starting a new job is soooooo tiring! Anyway, here we are a month in, and I'm getting back on track for meal planning monday with Mrs M....

• Monday - chorizo and bean chili
• Tuesday - I'm being fed at a regional meeting so there's some pasta sauce in the freeze for the Husband and Grace.
• Wednesday - Mexican rice, ham and brocolli
• Thursday - Sausage, mash, peas and gravy
• Friday - Chickpea curry
• Saturday - Bacon & mushroom risotto
• Sunday - Sausage and three bean casserole (just realised we're having sausages twice this week but my thinking cap has been filed for the week so we'll just have to grin and bear it!!)

I'm most looking forward to the bacon and mushroom risotto this week as I haven't done it before. Grace likes all the ingredients, just be interesting to see what she makes of it all thrown together in a dish!

What are you planning this week?

Twinkle Twinkle Chocolate Bar

It's not often you find Grace and me behind the lens of the camera together. I try to avoid it, much to my Husbands annoyance. Nevertheless, here's one for the album. Beautiful but nippy out this morning at Newmillar Dam, Grace ate more bread than she fed to the ducks and seemed to enjoy spotting the blue lights on the passing ambulance more exciting than tossing crumbs to the critters.
I'm over my blue fit earlier in the week over her singing Twinkle Twinkle and making it 'her own'. SiCo would be proud, as would every other x-factor judge that has ever been. Taking a classic song, and making it your own. That's my girl.

So I'm listening to the sound of Father - Daughter cameraderie during bathtime, while I amused myself washing dishes in the kitchen. Proud to hear her singing along to whatever nursery rhyme took her fancy. Then I hear 'twinkle twinkle chocolate bar....'

I stop to listen. The Husband sounds confused. (It doesn't take much, nursery rhymes are tricky).

'Daddy drives a rusty car....'
'Turn the engine, pull the choke'
'Off we go in a puff of smoke.....'

Hm. Money well spent at nursery it seems.

On speaking to other parents in the same situation, it's common. They are conspiring against us. They are now, officially off my Christmas List. Hmph.

Today saw for me the first frozen lake of the season, it will have frozen earlier in the week and is thawing since the mercury has risen a few notches overnight.

Here is Grace spotting the flashing blue lights..... ne-nar, ne-nar, ne-nar!

Full steam ahead!

Apparently I am a very poor judge of time. Talking to my good friend Frances on the phone last week, I was telling her how it must be a good 20 years since I'd sat on Santa's knee on a Santa Special at Nene Valley Steam Railway. She chuckled. As a lanky teenager, sitting on Santa's knee with my 16th birthday looming was the last thing on my 'things to do near Christmas' list.

In making that closer to 30 years, we went on a trip down memory lane...

Silent Sunday

Grace, 28 months.

Let battle commence!

 Each day a new battle. A battle of the wills. A battle of the patience. A battle of the fashion sense even. None of which I seem to be capable of winning. So I'm just going with it. Blue it seems, does in fact go with green.

"Gracie do it!" has become the phrase of the moment. Be that dressing (her first full outfit yesterday, very proud moment), preparing a sandwich or completing an expenses claim in a mad dash to meet the cut-off. Yep, "Gracie do it".

This brings with it it's own challenges, the main one being time. Of which I never had much of, and since going back to work full time has become less and less. Trying to squeeze everything into that minute space between Grace going to bed and me going to bed is becoming tougher. So sometimes its best just to say to hell with it all, and pack up the car for an outing. Life can be tiring at times, obliging everyone else and their needs, and sometimes it needs to be more about the toddler. So we scrapped our to-do list and went to The Deep for a fleeting visit yesterday, amidst the chaos of family life on a shoestring. The only problem being who was going to drive... Gracie do it.

 

Silent Sunday