Tuesday, August 28, 2007
8:15 PM
Long time, no real update. A few people have written and asked for a Gracie update, so I figured I'd write one while Tom is monkeying with our new TiVo.
Anyway- Gracie.
She's now 21 months old and quite a little pipsqueak. She's FINALLY starting to speak English. She only knows a few words, like "mama", "daddy", "'nana" (for banana), "dog", "Wablo" (Pablo on Backyardigans), etc. But it's coming. So I am thrilled. She's also starting to answer in the affirmative- if we ask her a question, instead of "no" as every answer no matter what, sometimes she'll give us a yes.
Her swimming continues to amaze us. I have more video we took with the actual video camera. Now she's at the point where if we drop her anywhere in the pool (the big 55 foot one), she will navigate to the steps and get out. She's starting to learn how to tread water and pop up for air as she is swimming. We're still working on that. But she's starting to naturally do the breast stroke as she swims. I seriously think she's got some talent for this, and I don't know what to do about nurturing this knack she has for swimming. The swim team doesn't start until age 6, and "real" lessons don't start until kids are 4. They do basic lessons for 4 years and under, but it's showing kids how to keep their mouths closed underwater and blow bubbles and she's beyond that. When she swims, she gets speedy. Today we both swam a few laps next to one another, and she was keeping up with no problem. THAT was shocking.
I don't think she's ready for a team of any sort, but I want to keep her going in the right direction. She LOVES the water, loves to learn, loves to swim. She does not like to fool around much, and hates any sort of float or flotation device. She just likes to swim and glide around. I always hoped I would find someone who loved water as much as I do, and who understood how free and alive it makes me feel. I'm so amazed that someone is Gracie!
The terrible twos are approaching. For a while she did the whole "scream and cry" when she didn't get her way, but we either ignored her or would get up and walk away from her when she did it, so she stopped. She has little fits and moments of "this SUCKS!" but she gets over them quickly. She's getting too big for the high chair (and sometimes refuses to eat if she's in it), so we bought her a table and chairs so she can have her meals at it. Right now she's going through the food/drink as art stage. If we give her a bowl of food or a drink, most of the time she will sit at her little table and eat it, but sometimes she will use the food and drink as a paint and sneak off and smear it around.
Yesterday, out of nowhere, she handed Tom this tissue that was caked with thick, orange sludge. We looked all over for the source of whatever was on it, but couldn't find a thing. Last night as I was walking into the kitchen and the overhead lights were on, I noticed some smudges on the floor. Turns out she mixed her milk with some ground up Goldfish crackers, made a paste, "painted" with it on the floor, and then went and got a few tissues and cleaned it up. The only thing she left was a little residue. Kinda funny she cleaned it up (we found more orange tissues in the garbage) but we better watch out for that stuff.
She's actually big into cleaning up and putting things away. She loves to help us clear the table, and put things in and out of the dishwasher. When she's done eating or drinking, she HAS to get ride of whatever is left of her meal/snack immediately. She either throws it in the trash (plate/cup included!) or puts it somewhere where she doesn't need to see it.
Her favorite hobby now is drawing. We made the mistake of giving her free reign over a bucket of crayons. WOOPS. Not only did it frustrate her, she also snuck them out of the art studio (where she's supposed to be when she draws- i set up a little table and paper and coloring books and stuff for her so she can "work" when I work) and we are finding crayon on everything from the calculator to the cat beds. She doesn't draw on the walls or anything REALLY bad, but small things. But none of it is good, so we now only have three crayons and we can easily keep track of them.
A weird quirk of hers is drawing all over a paper until it's covered. When I was a kid, I remember wanting fresh paper all the time, but she really likes using the same paper until there is no more white.
Oh, and when she "works" (drawing and coloring) in the studio when I am in there, she wears glasses. Usually a pair of her sunglasses, and upside down, but I finally figured last week she is imitating me.
More soon, bed time!
There's lots of new photos at Flickr. bye for now.
