Thumbs up for the new year!

I don't know about you all, but we're excited to say good riddance goodbye to 2011. Here's to a wonderful 2012!

Happy New Year!!!

Do you see what I see?

Last week was Grace's preschool Christmas program. It was her first ever Christmas program so it was kind of a big deal. Some family came from out of town, I dug out the camcorder, and we spent too much money on a dress she would wear one time. So okay. It really was a big deal.

It sounded like it was a really adorable little show. I can't be too sure though, because most of what I saw looked something like this:

Bigstock

Drat the luck on that one. Oh, and to the guy in front of me who was leaning forward as far as he could while holding his camera in the air - thanks buddy. There is a lady in the 10 items or less line with a cart full of groceries and a bag full of coupons just waiting for you to get stuck behind her. When all you have is a box of ice cream.

Bringing the camcorder was a huge waste because of the sheer amount of heads in the way. Apparently preschool Christmas programs are a big fat deal to everyone else on the planet too. And I guess the time I spent digging around for an old Hi8 tape wasn't so silly after all. But the fact that we still use Hi8 tapes? Yeah, that may be a little silly. Oh well, at least we got to see the side of her face a few times. I was able to convince her to sing one of the songs for us later though, and I even got a video. With my fancy shmancy digital camera, yes sir.

Safety first....?

Me: Grace, why are you putting Giraffe in your microwave?

Grace: That's because I need to keep him safe.

She asked for a hamster the other day. I'm thinking that isn't such a good idea....

Ballet dreamin'

There is a little girl in our house who desperately wants to be a ballerina. She watches Angelina Ballerina and tries to mimic every move she makes. Sometimes when she watches Angelina dance, she gets this dreamy, far away look in her eyes and says, "I wish I could be a ballerina...."

There is nothing cooler than Angelina right now. Not even Dora, although she does think it's pretty awesome to boss me around in Spanish. We have differing opinions on this issue. But that could be its own post, so back to ballet.

Ballet is the first thing Grace has ever truly had her heart set on, so we enrolled her in a class that starts in March. She's thrilled. THRILLED. She already has the tutu she wants picked out and keeps talking about how she gets to have a real teacher and everything. It may be a long few months for the poor kid.

She has a few little play tutus but you never know what she's going to decide to dance in for one of her impromptu recitals. Anything can be a tutu in Grace's world. On this day it was an Easter dress and matching hat that someone gave her a few weeks ago.

Please excuse the big ugly box that I was too lazy to get rid of. Let the show begin!

It's good to smile at the audience every now and then. They like that.

Ballerinas love putting their arms up like this.

Ballet is very serious business.

Our dog just doesn't appreciate the art of ballet. Uncultured fool.

But the show must go on! 

Cribs and toddlers and twins, oh my!

This sappy post is brought to you by Grace. It's all her fault. So blame her.

Now that we've got that straightened out, here goes. Last week Hubby and I finally decided to fork over the cash for a twin bed for Grace. She's a little over four now, and the toddler bed just really needed to go. So we went out to buy her a new one and she. was. thrilled. She scurried from bed to bed, professing her undying love for each one. The more excited this child gets, the louder she gets, and the squeakier her speech becomes. She becomes a tiny bouncing blur of loud. We don't pretend like we don't know her even though it would probably be understandable.

Finally we settled on this one:

The nursery-like decor on the wall? Yeah, I'm a rip the band-aid off slow kind of girl. 

This is where it becomes Grace's fault. I was doing just fine with her being in a "real" regular type bed, which is awesome for me because I'm overly sentimental. I was proud of myself because I really am rather pathetic. But then on the third night of her having it, I was stupid and asked her a question when I tucked her in.

"Grace, how about you just stay little forever. Okay?" 

This wasn't supposed to be a serious question. I was being silly. And I was expecting for her to agree to this. She has no grasp of not being a child forever, right? She doesn't really get that she won't always be three feet tall...right?

Wrong. Instead she got very serious and said, "no...I just gotta grow up."

Why does she have to be so literal? Why does she have to be so realistic? Why does she have to understand things so well? It was the way she said it that got to me. It was spoken very kindly and almost apologetic, like she was trying to let me down easy. Of course I know she's going to grow up, but does she have to?

Then Insanely Overly Sentimental Krisi came out to play. That chick ticks me off. I started thinking about the other places Grace has slept and how big she's gotten. Once you start reminiscing it's hard to stop. Or maybe that's just me. 

Her first bed was a bassinet. 

Don't let her fool you. She hated this thing.

She could not stand to sleep on her back so the bassinet was only used for about a week. She woke up like every ninety seconds and it was pure torture for all of us. The only way she liked to sleep was in her swing, and it didn't even matter if she was actually swinging or not. The girl just did not like to lay flat. The bassinet was a gift, so we felt bad that it hardly got used. But that guilt subsided when we started to feel human again. As human as parents of a newborn can feel, anyway. As soon as we let her sleep in it she slept like a rock.  

God bless Graco.

Her nights were spent in the swing until she was nearly five months old. One day she just up and decided that sleeping on her back was pretty cool. But before she would sleep in her giant expensive play gym  crib, she would only lay in it to look up at her mobile. Otherwise, she wanted nothing to do with it. 

"These people actually thought I would sleep in this thing. Ha."

When she reached toddlerhood she got a toddler bed, and neither she or I took that very well. But Hubby wasn't at all phased by the fact that the last remaining piece of her babyhood kicked the bucket when he took her crib down. No, he was just all whatever about it. But he's a man and men are strange. 

Grace didn't mourn the loss of her crib for too long.

And now in its spot sits the biggest twin bed ever. Seriously, the thing is a beast. This is the last bed we will ever buy her. If she ever wants a different one she can just buy it herself because good gosh. Regular beds are stupid expensive. 

Get comfortable kid. You're stuck with this one.