4 year check

So my amazing Grace had her four year check-up at the doctors and amazed me once again. I don’t mind saying that I have dreaded this appointment almost since her 3 year check as I knew she was due another injection. I started talking to Grace about it a couple of weeks ago and told her that she needed an injection (never did we mention the word needle!) to make sure that she didn’t get any nasty diseases and that it would feel like a pinch on her arm. She seemed happy with that and we agreed that if she was a brave girl we would go and get a treat afterwards.

So in we go to see Dr Fath who asks the usual questions – does Grace know her colours (yep) can she count to 5 (5???? she can almost get to 20!) does she sleep, can she form sentences, does she ask questions (this one got a raised eyebrow as some days I swear the only word I hear is why!, she has also already surpassed my knowledge of the human body and I keep having to hit the internet to remember what various organs do!). Then it was off with her shoes for the weigh in – 36lbs and 3ft 3 1/2 inches so no booster seat this year – sorry Grace x Next she had to take her dress off and hop up onto the bed so Dr Fath could look in her eyes, ears and throat, listen to her chest and feel her tummy. I thought we were in trouble when the blood pressure cuff got a bit tight but no comments from Grace. Finally she got dressed and it was time for the jab. She sat on my knee, I cuddled her in so she couldn’t squirm and covered her eyes so she couldn’t see the needle and that was it. No scream, no tears, no wiggling, no complaining nothing. She was a superstar and I was really proud of her. I think the Dr did a great job and when we phoned Diesel to tell him she just said that she didn’t like the pinch but she wouldn’t get any nasty infections now. You can only imagine how pleased I was because I had imagined a million other scenarios taking place – none of which so easy to deal with.

If only I could find a way to contain Patrick all would’ve been perfect xxx

Fabulous at 4

This week has been Graces birthday week as she turned 4 on Thursday. We started last weekend when my Mum, Dad, Kelly, Anna, Emma, Marcus and Callum arrived for her party on Sunday. This year we decided against the indoor playground option as Grace doesn’t seem to like big groups and instead we asked her who she would like at her party. The usual suspects (Emma, Leah, Freya, Paige, Alex, Priya and Heidi) were consistently who she wanted so I avoided the pressure to invite her whole class and just went with her invites. It was enough for her to know that she was having a party so I managed to arrange everything as a surprise without too many questions. So this  year we hired a school bus! All of the girls have been wittering on about going on a schoolbus for the last year and so I thought it would be fun and it was a riot (maybe more for the Mummys – particularly those who bagged the back seat???). The girls all came to our house first and amazingly none mentionned the bus outside. We then had Graces cake (more of that in a minute) and said we were going for ice-cream before going outside to try and decide how to get there. It was fun to see the kids faces and I think they all enjoyed the bus. The ice-cream parlour was really hospitable and had put some of Graces photos on their big screens. You don’t realise but it is the simplest things that seem to get the biggest response. Unfortunately, we have had alot of thunderstorms this week and so the rain prevented us all from going to the park but I think it was fun – Grace certainly seemed to enjoy it.

Graces birthday was Thursday and she actually needed some convincing as she thought her party was her birthday. When she woke up in the morning we had to tell her what day it was and then she got all excited and wanted to go downstairs to tell baby Callum. The look on her face when she saw her presents in the living room was just priceless.

Some sort of transformation had taken place with Grace during the night before her Birthday because she definately went to bed 3 and woke up 4. Unicorns are her thing at the moment and Patrick had cleverly sourced a gift bag with a unicorn on it which he then filled with a number of Graces favourite things. We know they were her favourite things because when she openned the hairslides with unicorns on them she said ‘ oh Patrick you are a genius, I love it!’ – I kid you not!!!! She was so excited that she didn’t stop talking and managed to have very long conversations with Omi, Grandad, Nan, Kelly and Anna when most days she won’t even talk to Diesel on the phone. In the afternoon we took her out to practise riding her new bike and then went to the chicken nugget shop for tea. Again, 4 Grace appeared when we were playing air hockey and a little boy tried to push her off the game she said’ no – I’m playing with my Mummy right now’, a little girl tried to pull Patrick and she told him that wasn’t kind and then she actually introduced herself to someone before we left. I nearly cried xx To top off the week, this morning she tried pancakes and maple syrup ……….. long may acting 4 continue!

So I’ve just read Graces 3 year update to see what has changed. Her likes and dislikes haven’t changed much but although she isn’t the greatest eater her diet is much better. Mostly due to the Deceptively Delicious book that my Mum bought me for christmas which includes ways to disguise vegetables in almost everything. She has a small group of friends who she plays with and will be quite assertive and bossy one on one. Groups still provide a challenge for her and she completed pre-school still not talking to any of her teachers. We have taken advice and will be working with her over the summer to help overcome this ‘Selective Mutism’. The suggestion that she will just talk when she wants to is something that we are not happy with and we agree with her doctor that if left untreated she could experience self esteem problems in class which could then interfere with her ability to make friends and do her school work. It is heartbreaking to see her in situations where she is uncomfortable but we are confident with some directed effort we can help her through this and let the outside world see some of the Grace that we have at home.

She still adores her brother and the feeling is entirely mutual. They do fight as Grace will take things from Patrick if she wants them. I am not sure this is a situation that will continue for much longer and I think Grace might be in for a shock when he starts to fight back. She does tend to mother Patrick and I have to remind her on occasion that I am the parent. One day as I was about to open my mouth she said ” I know, I know – you’re the Mummy” – funny xx

Despite the lack of talking at nursery she has learnt an enormous amount over the last year. I wouldn’t say she knows the whole alphabet but she probably has 60 – 70% and she can write both her own name and Omi’s. She can tell you all about the habits of a ruffle necked lizard and seems very interested in science experiments much to Diesels delight. Recently she is very interested in how her body works and will say things like ‘don’t worry my skin will protect me’ if she bumps herself. She is fascinated by the fact that we have bones in our body – Grandad saying that he has a bone in his leg adds to that. She still loves to create things and most days will draw, colour, paint or make a cake. Recently she has started to draw people and we have a house full of mini pictures of each of us. Patrick has crazy hair, Mummy has glasses etc etc.

Emotions are a big thing with Grace now and she is a real little actress on occasion. We are never in any doubt how she feels about something and will express herself using her hands, words and face. Often we get ‘look at my face Mummy, what do I look like’. I would say that mostly she is happy and it is only when wicked Mummy won’t allow TV or treats that she gets sad.

Baby Grace is definately growing up quickly and we are all excited to see what JK brings in the Fall.

 

 

My Grace

She seems to be growing up so quickly that I don’t think I am capturing it all on here. A couple of fairly notable things have happenned – firstly she is now completely potty trained. ‘Accidents’ are few and far between and she has even given up the night time ‘knickers’. It has been a week and so far so good and no accidents at all. We had found that she was waking in the night to go to the toilet but in sleepy mode couldn’t get her pyjamas and nappie off and was then having a fit. A quick conversation later and she is now dry at night. She is quite a cheeky little thing and when she goes to the bathroom you have to be very attentive otherwise she comes out and tells you that ‘you have forgotten to say good girl’.

Her memory continues to be outstanding and you only have to say something to her once and she will repeat it – and in context. The other day she asked for something she had seen on the television and I said “well maybe you should ask Father Christmas and see what he says”. So now almost daily I hear this back! In the car today she told me that she was going to ask Father Christmas for a piano for Catherine. When I repeated this to Diesel when he got home Grace piped up “only a little one for Catherine and a big one for me”! There are no flies on this kid.

You can now have quite detailed conversations with Grace and it is astounding the things that she comes out with. Grandparents are a recurring theme as she is always desperate for them to come and play with her. Sometimes I find these conversations difficult as if you tell the truth and say that they aren’t coming you get the bottom lip quiver and the “but WHY Mummy”. If you concentrate you can normally see these coming and divert the conversation to who will be coming to visit. At the moment we talk alot about Emma, Markus and Callum coming and Grace is having to work quite hard to get her head around the concept of Callum as her cousin although she does seem to have got the idea that Patrick is her baby brother and not sister! Her concept of time is just starting so she will say things like “we can go to Omi’s house tomorrow” or the funniest yet “I’m going to go to bed in 3 days Mummy”. That one really made us laugh and she thought that was great so kept repeating it over and over again.

Catherine continues to be an extremely important part of Graces life although she now embraces the fact that she has 2. Rarely do we go out without the Catherines (it was bad enough with one!) but she is easily convinced that one must always stay in the car. Bed times are interesting though as catherine now has her own bed and doesn’t sleep with Grace. My doll crib that I had as a child is next to Graces bed and every night Catherine is tucked in with her own blanket. She then stays there all night and it is really cute to see.

She continues to be a very spirited and willful little girl which is exhilerating and exhausting all at the same time but she is great fun and certainly never boring!

More sickness

So we had a long weekend here for a Civic Holiday and I’m sorry to say that we spent the majority of it with a sick child. Grace woke up on Sunday morning complaining of a headache and by the afternoon was running a fever of 40 degrees. We kept dosing her for the next 12 hours to try and get the fever down but ended up at a walk in clinic yesterday and 3 hours later came out with a diagnosis of ’strep throat’ and 10 days worth of penicillin. Frankly she is not well at all and we are all suffering due to the lack of sleep. I took both of them to the paediatricians today and it looks like we are in for a long week and potentially Diesel and I could get it too! She has been pretty good but she is struggling to eat and drink and obviously feels lousy so occasionally she will just scream and shout which is really tough to deal with. Patrick isn’t sleeping either which I think is teeth related so at night Diesel and I take one each and then compare horror stories over strong coffee in the morning. Because it is so contagious we are now confined to the house until the fever breaks so thank goodness that Diesel did such a great job on the playyard! It is the Amgen outing on Sunday so fingers crossed that we are all well for that.

All the threes!

So Grace had her 3 year check today and she weighed 30lbs and is 3ft and 1/2 inch tall. Which means that since last year she has had a growth spurt and gone from under average to average. As the doctor put it ’she is perfectly in proportion for her height and weight’ clearly I am getting more decent food in than I thought! We celebrated her being such a good girl by coming home and baking some cakes. As usual Grace is much more interested in the mixture than the finished product and keeps asking ‘can I try some’ even before it is mixed. As a treat we made some buttercream and decorated them with some jelly diamonds that I bought back from the UK. I’m not sure how we will do on dinner tonight as Grace ate nearly a whole bowl of buttercream off the spoon before I could even get to the table!

The doctor told me today that the normal weight gain for a child after they have hit 1 is 4-5 lbs per year. The worrying thing for me being the ‘after 1′ bit. Patrick was 20lbs at 6 months so who knows what he will be at 12!! He has finally cut his first tooth although it has been a painfully slow process and we really feel for him. He is such a happy little chap though that it only really seems to trouble him at night – not so great for us!

Midnight Madness

We know we have been here a year as we are beginning to go to things for the second time! Tonight is midnight madness in Oakville when all the shops open until midnight and have a sidewalk sale. Lakeshore is closed off and the shops pay for street entertainers and bands so it is quite a carnival atmosphere. It was fun last year and we are going to meet some friends this year so it should be even better. 

Grace and Patrick are great and growing up so quickly. Grace is fully potty trained now and as long as I keep on the ball while we are out and about then accidents are few are far between. Patrick is getting quite vocal and moving about quite a bit. He can sit up by himself and reach forwards and back and still steady himself and then when he gets fed up he falls onto his front, rolls onto his back and grabs his toes – its qute a party piece. He is delighted to have finally found his toes after all this time and plays with them all the time, he can’t quite get them in his mouth but is trying very hard.

The summer season is in full swing so we went to a local farm yesterday and are off to a park by the lake this afternoon. The temperature is consistently mid to late 20’s so it is very pleasant to be outside. It has been so warm that we currently have a hosepipe ban and can only water our gardens every other day. I do find it a bit weird when I will then spend the afternoon staring at one of the great lakes which is only 5 minutes drive away!

Unfortunately I have to go back to the UK for a flying visit next week so I am also busy preparing meals for everyone and making sure that all the washing is up to date. Diesel is taking time off work so he will have the kids for 4 days on his own. I know that they will be fine and our friends here are fabulous but it is at times like this that we really feel the difficulty of not having family able to help out – ho hum.

He did it ………

………… Patrick rolled over and had his first taste of chicken all in one day! Unfortunately, no one saw him roll over. He went down for his afternoon nap on his front and when I went to get him he was on his back. I think he was quite shocked by the experience as he was properly screaming when I picked him up. As for the chicken, he was a bit confused by the texture but seemed to brighten up when he got apple for dessert. Lets hope he always loves fruit this much. Tomorrow I am going to make him some ‘lovely lentils’ it was one of Graces favourite recipes at this age so if I’m really lucky then she might even eat some too …………..nope I think I must be delirious ………. I’m off to bed to recover! Oh but in other news we managed to persuade Grace to wear some clothes today ….. potty training is still holding up so the next challenge for her will be public washrooms, hmmmmm.

The Birthday Week

I thought I’d better post to talk about Graces’ birthday activities. We started off the week at Marineland which is an amusement park in Niagara. We had given her the choice of birthday treat and she chose to go and see the whales. On the way down in the car she suggested that the lions might be playing with the whales and luckily we arrived before we could answer as to why that wouldn’t be a good idea. We all had a lovely day although at 32 degrees it was a bit warm. We all enjoyed the live show with the dolphins and sea lions so much that we saw it twice, I’m not sure how much Patrick could really see but he certainly seemed to enjoy the atmosphere. Grace was fascinated by all the rides at the park and even asked to go on a couple. We got in the line for the lady bug rollercoaster but as soon as she saw it go round that was a no no. We did go on the dragon boats together which was nice but even they went up and down which was a bit of a shock. She asked Diesel to take her on the buzzy bee ride which went up and down and twirled around, I had my doubts but she was adament. As it set off she was laughing and shouting weeeeee, after about 10 seconds she asked to get off and still she tells me in a very hurt voice ”I said please and asked the buzzy bee to stop but it wouldn’t!” To commemorate the day we bought her an inflatable dolphin which predictably she went to bed with that night!

On Saturday we had her birthday party and the excitement levels reached there peak. Mum had flown in on Thursday and was then joined by Dad and Kelly & Anna on Friday. Saturday morning was like a birthday all over again and she was spoilt with princess things and a trampoline. Grace loves her trampoline and knows how to press all the buttons to find just the right annoying tune to jump too. Seriously, it is great and she exhausts you just watching her. We all really enjoyed her party. I had made her cup cakes and a birthday cake ……….. there are those that would suggest that my cake was a disaster, personally I was pleased with the effort and whilst I named her ‘Frankie’ (after Bride of Frankenstein) I can assure you that the picture on here is not her best side. All that mattered to me was that Grace appreciated my efforts and when she told me how much she loved her princess cake it was all worth it. 12 of her friends joined us at Busy Bodies indoor playground and we had a lovely time. The children played beautifully and with such a small number I am pleased to report that we didn’t have any accidents of kids bumping into each other. All of the parents stayed which was nice and we had a really enjoyable couple of hours talking and playing. Most importantly Grace had a brilliant time. The only problem when you are 3 is understanding that birthdays only happen once a year – every day she says “lets go to my happy birthday party Mummy”

Happy Birthday Grace

So, our amazing Grace turned 3 today. Its a cliche but it still doesn’t seem five minutes ago that it all happenned and she arrived so quickly. Todays little girl shows few signs of her early start and only those that know will notice the scars on her hands and feet. Developmentally she is exactly where she needs to be and as predicted by the lovely Dr Dixon she has caught up in time to go to school.

So what is she like? Difficult to know where to start so I’ll just ramble for a bit and see where I go. Eating is still a challenge for me with Grace although to look at her you wouldn’t appreciate how limited her diet can be on occasion. Whilst spaghetti and meat balls is the most requested dinner I am pleased to say that curly spaghetti and tomato sauce come a close second. Whilst the first is processed rubbish the second is home made and she can even twirl the spaghetti on her fork ( a skill that Diesel has only recently accomplished!) I do try to keep her away from as much ‘junk’ as I can but she absolutely loves chocolate and lollipops.

Sleep has been a definate area of improvement in the last year – no mean feat when you consider that she has moved house and country! She still doesn’t have a scheduled nap in the day but the bedtime routine is much more pleasurable than chore and bath, story and leaving her reading to Catherine before dropping off to sleep is the norm. Grace has had her fair share of interupted nights sleep and has unfortunately started having ‘night terrors’. I have been told that this is perfectly natural and nothing to do with any external input but it is still very upsetting when she wakes up screaming and frightenned.

Socially, we have a great group of friends and Grace is very fond of Emma, Leah, Freya, Alex, Emilie, Eddie and Paige. Obviously they have their moments but for the most part play really nicely and in a recent change actually with each other and not just alongside. What has become very apparent over the past year is that Grace is quite shy in new situations and uncomfortable in groups – even when the group is all her friends. She has been at nursery for the past 6 months and some of her teachers have never heard her speak! Her vocabulary is actually very wide and varied. She has no problems in expressing herself and has just started to talk about how things make her feel. “I’m so sad Mummy, Patrick makes me so happy ” etc etc. She can count confidently to 10 and most of the time will make 20 although for some reason 13 can throw her off! She can also do very basic addition and subtraction which has started to come in very useful when we are negotiating what she has to eat for dinner. I bought an alphabet toy for the fridge and it has really kick started her interest. I wouldn’t say that she had mastered it yet but she can sing the ABC song parrot fashion and will make attempts at deciding what letters a word begins with.

Graces likes are very varied and her dislikes fairly hard to quantify. She loves to sing, dance, paint, read books, play outside, ballet, go to the park, cook, watch Dora and Diego on TV, play with her Little People, playing hide and seek, chalking on the drive, ride her bike, play ‘play doh’, dress up, put on make-up……….. phew – and they are just the things that she loves! As for dislikes – sitting still and eating, loud noises and being without Mummy & Daddy are the only things that spring to mind.

This year Grace also became a big sister and she completely adores her little brother. I am sure that there will come a time when she doesn’t think he’s so great but for the moment she loves to play with him, make him laugh, help feed him, bath him, pretty much anything really. If ever she gets cross it is always aimed at me rather than Patrick but for the most part she seems to have adapted really well.

Grace had the most wonderful Birthday and fully embraced he whole experience although I think that presents and birthday candles have been her favourite aspects. She was so excited when she woke up to a pile of presents and throughout the day has been humming and singing ‘happy birthday’ to herself which is very sweet. The celebrations started yesterday as Diesel is in the States today and we have got something special planned for every day this week and then her party on Saturday. She is so excited, I think she may have to sleep for the whole of next week to recover!

Gracie Ballerina

So things are starting to wind down for the summer and the ballet term has finished already. We were invited to go and watch the last class and it was great. As you can see from the videos, Grace often dances to her own tune but her teacher (Miss Carruthers) says that she really enjoys it and is a very accomplished ‘jumper’. We know that from her antics at home but wish that it wasn’t off of sofa’s, chairs and stairs!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZT2exF4k1s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj4gQKl2jQU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg68k8BPcag

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFgcsKKCFVY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_G3lK0HMyY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmJq1KXTtFA