Dance like nobody's watching

Sometimes I envy my kids.  I envy their freedom of expression, their complete lack of inhibition, and their ability to find utter delight in the simplest of things.  Take our recent trip to Best Buy for example.  Grace was wearing clothes that she picked out with her rain boots on the wrong feet.  Yeah, that's how we roll around here.  And Grace was totally and completely confident in her wardrobe choice - leggings because they're "soft pants" and a shirt with her name on it "so everybody will know my name's Grace."  Then, Grace discovered some headphones she wanted to sample.  And she rocked out to the tunes only she could hear.  And you know what?  Grace couldn't care less if anybody was watching or what they thought.  She just felt the urge to dance and she went with it.  Just imagine how much happier we could be if we would only follow our children's examples.

So, today take a lesson from Grace.  Wear clothes that are comfy and be confident in your choice.  Put your shoes on the wrong feet because that's what the cool kids do.  Get loose and groove to your own personal rhythm.  Rock to the music in your head. And dance like nobody's watching. 

Then, post it on youtube so I can laugh myself silly. 

Give a kid a camera

Grace has had quite a time with her camera.  She takes pictures of the most random things.

Like her feet.

Boxes ready to go to the recycling dumpster.

The window in our front door.

Our wedding pictures.  

The inside of her stocking.  I think she was investigating to see if Santa made another surprise stop.

Her big toe.

Her little sister Faith.

Many a self portrait.  This is her happy face.

This is her mean girl face.

Grace made pictures of our ceiling.  They look so high from her viewpoint. 

More pictures of Faith.

Closeups of Faith's nose.

Then pictures of her toes.

And finally such a closeup shot of Grace's own nostril that everything just turned out red.  I'm not sure who is going to enjoy the new camera more - me or Grace.  She likes taking the photos and I like seeing the world through her eyes.

Grace is walking in my shoes

Grace has a minor obsession with shoes.  My shoes in particular.

She really likes my red heels with the bow on top.

Apparently, they match her dress.

A little girl wearing her Momma's shoes is so iconic yet true.  Grace is following in my shoes.  I am one of her biggest role models right now.  It's such a big responsibility but also a great joy to watch as my little girl grows into a beautiful young lady.

Grace walks in her first fashion show

Our local Belks was having a children's fashion show this weekend and Grace participated.

She got to select whatever she wanted to wear from their fall line. 

 Of course, she picked a dress with pink in it!

 Grace liked posing in the dressing room.

And making silly faces, too.  She's such a character!  After she was dressed, we went to the practice room to practice walking.  Grace didn't want to practice.  She suddenly turned shy and buried her head in my leg and whispered, "I don't want to."  So I told her she didn't have to and we could go home.  But first she had to take her dress off.  She didn't want to do that either.  Then it was time to line up!  So I put her in line and walked away.  Of course, I sneaked back through the clothes trying to hide from her to see how she was doing.  I was fully prepared to pull her out of the fashion show at the first sign of tears or fright.

 To my surprise, she was having a great time chatting up all the other girls around her.

 And then she called me silly!  So I finally left feeling a little less nervous for her.

Until I saw the crowd ready to watch the show.  There were so many people that I couldn't find room to sit or stand at the end of the makeshift runway.  So I stood by the models instead.  Can you find David?  He's peeking out from the crowd.  He managed to find a seat so he could record Grace.

 Before we knew it, Grace was up!

 She looked a little nervous nibbling on her fingernails.

 But then Grace marched right out there like she owned that runway!

 And she stopped on the flower just like she was supposed to.

She posed there for a bit until everyone clapped and then she walked off her runway like it was no big deal.  I would have never believed she was nervous and shy and didn't even practice.  She was so sweet and confident.  Just like her Daddy.  I would have been a nervous wreck in her shoes.  But then again, I'm an introvert.   

Here's the video of Grace's first fashion show!

She enjoyed it so much that she said she wanted to do it again. 

Catching a Show and Tell

Grace is learning about amphibians in school and each Friday they have Show and Tell.  So I promised Grace that we would catch her an amphibian for this week's Show and Tell.

 So we headed to the pond hunting for frogs today.  But it was too hot to find any.  I'm not exactly certain what amphibians do during the hot of an Alabama summer day, but apparently they do not loung around in the sun waiting for a 3 year old and her Momma to catch it and put it in a jar.

 So Grace and I went inside to cool off and enjoy a snack.  Then we came back out when the skeeters (mosquitos) came out.  Frogs eat bugs, y'know.  And what better time to catch a frog than when the bug eating is best?  As soon as the sun starts to go down our state bird, the mosquito, comes out in full force!

We had quite a bit of success!  Grace caught this small frog in her net.  We already captured another, bigger frog as we walked out the door.  She (Grace insists it's a she) was sitting by the door to our elevator.   After telling Grace she could only put one frog in our Mason jar, she decided to let the little one go.

 So her is Grace's Show and Tell for tomorrow. 

Grace named her "PUH-seel-uh!"  (Priscilla)  I have no idea where that name came from!  But as soon as we brought Priscilla inside, can you believe that frog relieved her bladder all in my jar?  Apparently Priscilla had been holding her bladder for quite some time.  She put a good 1/2 inch in my jar!  Therefore, according to Grace, Priscilla needed a bath.  oh boy. 

So I grabbed the net and dumped Priscilla in it over the sink.  Then I rinsed out the jar and tried to hose that frog off.  I even made sure the water was tepid so as not to scare or kill the frog.  Priscilla, however, didn't appreciate the efforts I went to and tried to hop away to freedom.  I did what any woman would do.  I screamed.  And so did Grace.  But David just laughed like a coyote.  All our commotion managed to encourage Priscilla to hop even harder.  Fortunately, I caught her mid-air with the jar before she got out of my sink.  Now Priscilla is safe and sound and semi-dry in her Mason jar home for the night.  I can hardly wait to see what Grace's teacher thinks of her show and tell tomorrow.  And then tomorrow night that frog is going back to the pond.  No matter what.

Caught with my pants down.

I was in the our bathroom today when the phone rang.  Before I could get to it I hear Grace say, "Hello!"  So I hurry to wash my hands hoping that Grace hasn't actually answered the phone.  (I've been waiting for an Elder from our church to call and let me know when we're having dinner together.)  But Grace has answered the phone and as she sees me coming for her, she takes off running down the hallway all the while continuing her conversation by saying, "Well.  My mom.  She's going potty.  You there?  Yeah!  My mom's going potty right now.  She's potty trained!"  All I could do was hope that it was someone I knew and not the Elder from the church... 

Fortunately, it was just my mom.

Grace says a blessing

Grace is bendy just like her MeeMee

Grace is quite flexible.

Apparently, that is an inherited trait from her MeeMee.

It's not from my side of the family.  My bones definitely don't bend like that!

When you give a kid a camera

You just never know what kind of pictures you will get.

A view of toys from the sofa.

Maybe a picture of a painting already on the wall.

Streamers.

Perhaps the carpet.

Our ceilings look really high from her viewpoint.  And somehow we ended up with footprints on the ceiling.  I'm not sure I want to know how those got there...

I can't believe how long our stairwell looks!

A picture of the most important people in her life.

And that includes Chloe.

A closeup of Chloe's nose.  Everyone wants to see that, y'know.

Seeing the world from Grace's eyes is so enlightening and wondrous.  It makes me want to be 3 again.

Grace is very particular about her socks

Grace wears her socks a certain way.

 For some reason she insists on pulling her socks up as high as they will go.

 She says, "Dis is how you do it, Mom!"

 She thinks she looks "bewful" when they are pulled up high.

And I have to agree.