Grace at 3 1/2

Grace continues to grow to a beautiful girl! I sometimes believe she thinks she is older then 3 1/2. She loves playing with her friends but continues to be very motherly to them (and sometimes that gets in the way of a good play date). She loves when I ask her to help watch Olivia. She claims it by stating that she is the "babysitter". She is great with Olivia. She helps her climb onto furniture, holds her hand in the parking lot, picks her up, hugs and kisses her, finds her toys and pacis. And she always MUST give a hug and kiss before they go to bed. Gracie's favorite thing to do right now is write, color or cut. I try to always have a notebook and a pen in my bag when we go out because I know if will entertain her for a while. She does a great job coloring within the lines and she can even help me cut out coupons now! She also likes playing mommy with her baby dolls. She loves puzzles and games as while. Grace is a good eater as long as their is nothing green to eat. I even have a hard time hiding veggies in stuff, she always seems to find it. She loves milk especially chocolate milk! I bet she drinks her weight in fluid every day. She continues to be shy around people at first (even people she is familiar with) but will start showing off within the first few minutes. One of her church preschool teachers told me the other day that she is so sweet and talks to them until a youth volunteer comes into the room and then she goes right to them. She absolutely LOVES our youth group kids. The play with her, give her fun food...really give her whatever she wants. Grace is completely potty trained but we do still put a pull up on at night. She sleeps about 10 hours at night and 50% of the time she takes a nap in the afternoon. She will now say our prayers before meals by blessing our food and family. It is so sweet to hear. Chad and I are having to start working on her little sassy side. Even though it is funny at this young of age we also know we need to nip it in the bud. Here are a few of her sassy comments and actions from the last few weeks...

~ They other day I went to check on Grace as she was suppose to be going potty. I told her that she needed to stop acting up or I was going to spank her. She looked right at my face and said, "No you won't.". I was shocked at her back talk and responded with ,"EXCUSE ME?!". She then went on to say, "You won't spank me because y'all get poop on your hand!".

~ One afternoon I asked Grace to lay down and try to take a nap. She went kicking and screaming in protest. I let it go for a while but finally went into her room to check on her. She was lifting the corner of her quilt where the tag was. Through tears she started yelling at me that, "It says it right here!". Pointing to the tag. When I asked her what it said she read the tag, "Grace does not have to take a nap!". I told her I overruled her quilt.

~ When Grace acts up she either gets time out or something taken away from her. So just today I went to turn the tv off when she was being ugly. Of course she starting crying telling me she wanted to watch tv...and then she asked if she could just have a spanking so she could finish her tv show.

~ This past week as I asked her to rest during a nap she continued to get up and come find me in my bedroom. I threatened that I better not see her again. Just a few minutes later I saw her walking backwards towards me. In my mommy voice I said, "GRACE". Without turning around she said, "It's not Grace...it's just my butt." Where does she get this from?

This is a picture of Grace's chalk drawing outside. It is of her daddy in a stripped shirt under a umbrella. Better good for a three year old to do all by herself.