Humor Me

Quite by accident this blog has turned into Mary Grace's baby book. I truly record nothing elsewhere. I'm so thankful I've kept it up because even moments I swear are unforgettable at the time fade. Although I don't often write a ton (I'm getting better...or worse, depending on how you look at it!), I love being able to look back.

So...humor me as I look back on this last year!

-Mary Grace had her 4-year old well check up last week. I hesitate to brag about this since I don't want to jinx us for the coming year, but it had been an entire year since she'd been to see a doctor. She has always been a very healthy kid, but even I was impressed when I realized we hadn't met our pediatrician here in Lexington!

-At her check up she weighed 35 pounds, putting her in the 50% for girls her age. And she was 41 inches tall, the 75%.

-Mary Grace's personality hasn't changed a whole lot this year. Words her teachers use to describe her: outgoing, creative, energetic, polite, imaginative, thoughtful, and talkative. Words I commonly use to describe her are a bit more realistic: crazy, sassy, loud, crazy, wild and did I mention, crazy?

-Mary Grace is not a very black and white child. She is constantly thinking in grey terms. For example, if we tell her she can not do something she comes up with a very creative way to get away with it. Recently we started enforcing a rule where she can only sleep with 4 animals. After thinking about it for a while she asked me to sew some of her animals together so it would only count as 1 animal. Sneaky!

-Mary Grace continues to be a fantastic eater. A typical breakfast (no joke) consists of milk, yogurt, an English Muffin, a banana and sometimes oatmeal if she can weasel more food out of me. The girl is a bottomless pit, especially in the morning. She is starting to get a little bit funny about saying she doesn't like certain foods. I've noticed it stems mostly from comments from others. This summer she was driving me crazy over carrots. They had never been a problem, but all the sudden she would say she didn't like them. I decided to put them on her plate every single meal until she ate them. It took about 6 days, but she finally ate them and hasn't said a word about not liking them since!

-This past year Mary Grace did dance, soccer and swimming. She did not really excel at soccer, but I think a big part of that came from being the youngest on her team. That, and the fact that she looked at a soccer game as a strictly social event! She was much happier sitting on the sidelines chatting with her friends. She has turned into a really great swimmer this summer. She does not use her float any more and can jump into the deep end and swim to the steps unassisted.

-Mary Grace has known all of her letters (capital and lower case) since sometime early last fall. She has been writing most of her letters since early spring, although her huge handwriting is an issue. A lot of times when she writes words she runs out of room and ends up writing the letters all over the page. I don't think she realizes yet that it makes it almost impossible for people to read anything she's written.

-On a negative note, discipline has been a major challenge this year. I think year 3 was a lot harder than the 'terrible 2's.'

-Mary Grace has an incredible memory. Brent and I would notice that she could memorize most of the words to a song after only hearing it once or twice. So we've made a point to help her memorize important things too. Last fall she learned her phone number and address. She can 'read' most of her books to us (by memory). She knows the whole Lord's Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance.

-Overall Mary Grace had a great year. She adjusted well to the move (on a side note- the other day Mary Grace said "when I was 1 we lived in Florida. When I was 2 we lived in Knoxville. When I was 3 we lived in Lexington. Now I'm 4...where are we going to live?"), she has made a ton of friends, she somehow continues to impress her teachers at school, and in general she is a very happy little girl!