Gracie is Tired of Supervision

Now that Emily is working a couple of days a week, I have to go get Gracie and take her with me to do my supervision duties at ball games, and then Emily comes and picks her up and takes her home. It is hard to watch a 3-year-old, and get the score table ready, and make sure the ref's are taken care of, and get the gate money and table set up, and make sure the concession stand people have their money, and well you get the idea. Anyway, this last week, I picked Gracie up and then went to get gas at Casey's. She asked me what we were doing, and I told her that we had to go to a ball game. She said, "Is this the same ball game that we went to a thousand days?" I said, "Yes." She said, "I don't want to go to that game anymore." I said, "Well we have to because it is Daddy's job, and we have to be there." Gracie then said, "I will tell you one more time, I don't want to go to the game we went to a thousand days." I am guessing that she has heard her teacher say at school, "I will tell you one more time ..." However, I don't know where the 1000 days thing came from.

Well I keep trying to invite ourselves up for a New Year's Eve party, but I keep getting the run around. If you don't want us to crash your parties anymore just say so. However, Emily has been working on her numb-chuck skills, and people who have cool parties like to have people with skills invited to their parties. Just something to think about Pedro.

I did hear some news that we weren't going to be the only ones with a little bundle of joy, but then sadly it turned out to not be so. We will keep praying and when the timing is right, it will happen. :) Just remember I Corinthians 10:13 "...God will not allow you to be tested beyond what you are able..." If that means working till you are 70 to pay for high school graduation announcements, then I know you can do it.

To perform or not to perform; that is the question.

Gracie's big debut in our new church's kids Christmas program was last night. We knew for at least 2 weeks prior to the program that Gracie was expected to say a line, so for 2 weeks she was heavily coached. She was also to play a bell in the bell choir and sing 2 songs with the other kids. Keeping in mind that Gracie is 3 years old, we knew this might not all happen the way we wanted it to, but we were sure hoping. OK, I was hoping. I even promised a special treat (a much desired Barbie doll) if she said her line. Yes, I know that is bribery! Gracie had the full support of family last night as 7 of you drove all the way to Macon to see this event. My mom came early to french braid her hair and she was decked out in her new Christmas dress, all for naught. When the appropriate time came, Gracie refused to ring her bell, turned her head away from the microphone when she was to say, "Ring out a glad melody," and stood stoically while the other children sang the 2 songs. As many people informed us after the program, "She sure looked cute up there. Didn't she stand like a little lady even though she didn't sing?! It was a step in the right direction for her to even get up there since you guys are so new. Maybe next year she will feel more comfortable." All of the well meaning people were absolutely right, of course. When we got home we sat down with Gracie and told her how proud we were that she stood on stage so nicely, but that we hoped next time she would feel comfortable singing or ringing her bell. So for now, Gracie's decision was not to perform. To be continued...
P.S. - She still got the Barbie doll. ;-)

Winter Wonderland

This last week has been a big blur for us. Gracie got sick last week, and it has lingered into this week. Somewhere along the way she shared her bug with us, so Brent and I have each been feeling pretty blah too. We had our first Christmas of the season last weekend in Unionville, so we braved the snow and ice and made it to U-Ville safely for a weekend visit. This week has been strange with school being out 3 days. Brent had some early morning wake-up calls from his Superintendent who starts the calling tree VERY early. Brent then has to get up and call the local radio and TV stations so they can announce it and he starts the teachers phone tree. Somehow after all of that, he can still climb back into bed and fall asleep, but I'm wide awake!

Gracie is gearing up for her big debut in our kids Christmas program at church Sunday night. For some reason, she has been assigned a line in the program. I am taking bets on whether or not she will actually say her line, but she is sure practicing it a lot at home. She randomly will shout out, "Ring out a glad melody." I am prepared to bribe and bait her to say it, and I have already laid out the ground work for this effort.

Baby Doo is officially scheduled to enter the world on February 1st by c-section unless she chooses to make an earlier arrival. As you can tell, she is still nameless. I suppose we will eventually come to a decision, but who knew it could be this hard?? I am feeling very uncomfortable at this point, which I never really experienced with Gracie. It may be a long 7 weeks.

Gracie's Christmas List

We have a small problem in our house. We can't keep up with Gracie's rapidly changing wish list for Christmas. One day she wants everything Disney Princess has to offer, and the next she might want a new game she has seen on a commercial. Every commercial brings a fresh round of "Can we put that on my Christmas list?" Well, Saturday Gracie reached an all time low. I was reading to her but the TV was on. I soon realized she wasn't listening to the book because a commercial had captured her attention. It was a Zale's commercial where the husband gives the wife a big pair of diamond earrings. The next thing I heard was, "Mommy, can we put those on my Christmas list? They are beautiful." All I could do was groan.

Excuses, Excuses

Gracie absolutely didn't want to go to bed last night. Usually, since she has joined the ranks of a non-napper, she is zonked out by 8:30 p.m. Her bath puts her in sleepy mode, and many nights she doesn't even make it to her bed before going to sleep. Last night was different. It was probably compliments of the iced Christmas cookie she had at church at 7:30 p.m. Anyway, she had worn out every before bed activity we usually do, and I said, "It's time to brush your teeth and go to bed." Brent was in the basement painting during this exchange. Gracie thought for a second and said, "OK, Mommy. Here's how it goes. I need to go talk to Daddy first, and I have a lot to talk about." I was giggling, but I said, "Go tell Daddy goodnight and come back upstairs." I heard her go down and say, "Daddy, we have a lot to talk about before I go to bed." Then I heard fresh laughter, that can only be described as the unmistakable laughter of Brent Doolin. It's contagious. We were all laughing by the end of the exchange, so bedtime was kind of loopy last night in our house.

The Woes of Preschool

Gracie is still at the young and honest stage where she usually tells us anything we want to know. She goes to Preschool on Wednesday and Thursday, and I always ask her if she got in trouble at school. Today she said, "Yes, I did. I had to put my nose on the wall." I was shocked and said, "Well, what did you do?" Gracie said, "I was crying because I missed you and daddy, so I had to put my nose on the wall. Mrs. Joyce (her teacher) said if I would dry up my crying I could come off the wall." I simply said, "Mommy really wishes you would stop crying at school." To which Gracie replied, "Yes, I really wish I could too." I was feeling really sorry for her until I relayed the story to Brent and he said, "She probably actually took a toy from another child and when she got in trouble for that she started crying and began thinking about how much she missed us." He has been a principal for 4 short months and thinks he has all children figured out!

Growing Bigger

Some of you may be reading this thinking I was referring to my expanding midsection when I titled this "Growing Bigger." It would be a fitting description of what I am currently doing, but this post is in reference to a conversation Brent and Gracie had while I was fixing supper tonight. I was picking Gracie up and spinning her around until she/we were dizzy. She would say, "Whoa, Daddy. I'm very, very busy." We repeated this over and over again just to hear him mispronounce dizzy. Brent got to laughing at her and said, "Gracie, can you do your daddy a favor and quit growing?" Gracie just looked at him kind of funny, so I said, "Tell Daddy that you have to keep growing." Gracie looked at him and said, "Daddy, I have to keep growing just like you and mommy did." He said, "But you sure are awfully cute right now. I'd like to keep you little."