Grace's First Christmas

The pictures are
#1 Grace in ALL the jewelry Santa brought her on Christmas Eve, she had every single piece on
#2 All 5 in matching jammies, right before bed on Christmas Eve
#3 Grace and J opening their stockings
#4 Grace and Bitty Baby
#5 Grace and Bitty baby and the bitty baby bed

Grace had a wonderful first Christmas. She loved all the cookies and treats and loved going to look at lights, she would point and say ooh. She was into doing any activity her brothers were doing so she made and decorated cookies, saw Santa, sat with Santa when he came to our house, colored, wrapped, and put bows on presents.

The presents were the only hard part of the day for our Princess, she wanted open them all and when she was told no, there was a tantrum. As a result, she spent some time on the stairs. When she opened gifts that she could play with right then, she was happy for a bit, but she wanted to open more presents!! (who can blame her, isn't that what everyone wants?) She loved all her gifts and let me tell you, she knows which ones are hers and if one her brother's touches one of her new toys she goes screaming after them, MINE! We're working on the sharing, she has no problem playing with their stuff, lol, but she'd rather they leave her toys alone. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Santa brought Grace a Bitty Baby, who goes everywhere with her. We have spent a lot of time changing her clothes and putting her to bed. She practically throws the poor doll into the crib, which prompts Scott to say, SLEEP BABY in his meanest voice. What a hoot.

All in all a wonderful holiday for everyone, filled with lots of gifts, food and love, and couple tantrums for drama.

Scenes from the Christmas season

I have had too many parties and guests to post much lately, so I will put up some pictures from some of our Christmas celebrations. Grace loved Christmas and only went to time out three times while we opened presents :-). She would like to own it all and sharing doesn't rank high on the list of things she likes to do, but drama does, so she chose to throw herself on the floor in very dramatic displays of displeasure, hence the stairs. She's been home five months and throwing these tantrums almost that long, and I still have to turn my head so she doesn't see me giggling. Hope every one had a very Merry Christmas!

He's making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty or nice....

Our Christmas card. Merry Christmas!!

The one where we celebrate ALL religions.

First, let me say that I am a died in wool Lutheran, and that really only matters for this story.

Yesterday I went to the post office because I needed Christmas stamps. I can buy stamps at the grocery store, but I wanted to get the festive ones. I planned out my errands so that I could go to the post office early and beat the line. I even planned to go to the small one, hoping there would be less people. The line wasn't huge, 10 people or so, but they were all mailing packages so it was very slow moving. M and J asked if they could go sit on bench. I said yes and they went and sat pretty nicely. I should mention that mine were the only kids in the post office so it was silent there, besides their noise. So Grace see's J and starts to point and yell Doodle, our family nick name, she doesn't say it, she yells it several times. I can't get her to be quiet, so I'm covering her mouth, people are starring. I make M and J come back hoping to keep Grace quiet.

We are still in line and now Grace doesn't want to hold my hand, or be held or frankly be that cooperative. None of this would be bad in a normal situation, but it was silent in there and I could feel the stares. So I finally get to the front of the line and I have now sandwiched Grace between my legs so she can't go anywhere. She is yelling out doggy and baby and all the words she knows and is still yelling Doddle, there are occsional screams.

I ask the lady for 60 Christmas stamps. She holds up 3 choices and I pick the blue ones with gold tree. I paid and struggled to sign the visa slip. Tthen I stuffed those stamps in my purse and got the heck outa there.

Later I took the stamps from my purse to show Scott how pretty they were. Upon closer inspection, I notice that isn't so much a tree but scroll work in sort of a tree shape. I told Scott that I thought I bought the Hanukkah stamp and we laughed and laughed. Then I said what is EID, it's here in the corner of the stamp. Being curious, Scott went to the postal site and looked up our stamps. They aren't the Hanukkah stamps they are the, ready for it????



ISLAM stamps. They won't exchange them so I'm sending my Christmas cards with an Islam stamp. Scott thinks I should write we celebrate all regions on my envelope so people don't think we're nuts. I'm not worried about them thinking we're nuts, they already KNOW that!

Pictures

Our first post placement report is due at the end of the month, so I'm getting ready to send it off for the appostille and onto our agency. We are to attach one to two pages of pictures to the back of the report. So I've been going through five months of pictures and I've narrowed it down to 22 that show a broad range of the activities that Grace has experienced. How on earth can I supply enough photos to show how much she is loved and how much she has enriched our lives? We're confident that she is happy and attaching, and we hope that the Russian officials will see that, but we really hope they'll see the love. Now how to get all 22 pictures onto two pages, presented in my best scrapbooking format, and with captions, ugh!

On the food front, we're going to chalk the pickyness up to toddler hood, which we knew, and we're going to work on the food hoarding in her mouth and try not to give it too much attention. We encourage her to chew and swallow a lot, and she knows what to do and does it. As for getting down from the table, the same rule applies to all the kids, if you get down, you're done eating. Hopefully she'll figure out to stay there before she starves.

Food Issues??

When Grace first came home she had some very obvious food issues. If someone in the house was eating she would scream unless she was eating what they were, and she would eat and eat and eat. We have gotten those under control, but now I'm concerned because she has gone the other way.

Background issues, we have the four skinniest boys ever!! They eat to live and that is it. They have yet to be big eaters. They are picky, but eat the minimum for the meal, and go without until the next meal if they must. So the problem may be that I have no clue how kids really eat.

Grace today, she is getting picky, and she's a toddler and so I'm not worried about that. I am concerned that if someone else finishes eating and is excused, she just gets down, and sometimes she has eaten a bite or two. We put her back and try to get her to eat, but she shovels food in and has such a mouthful she gags. She is a s l o w eater, so having the boys stay until she is done is not that realistic, it can be 30 plus minutes while she picks at food. We have found her hording food in her mouth, she stuffs a bunch in and doesn't chew and it's been in there 10 minutes.

I've looked for info on post PI food issues and haven't found any, does anyone have any suggestions? I don't think she has any really serious issues, but because she is a girl, and they tend towards this problem, I want to nip any issues she may have from her early life in the bud.

So help a Momma out if you can and pass on any and all tips or book titles, I'm looking to educate myself.

Grace meets Snow!!!

Living in the Pacific NW we don't see a whole of of snow. Yesterday we go a nice taste of it. It snowed off and on throughout the day and Grace was transfixed by the sight of it. We were surprised at how fascinated she was with looking out the window and watching the snow fall, she's from Siberia. I assumed that she probably had never been outside in it, but I remembered looking out the window at in May. Maybe when she left her old life behind, all the memories stayed there?

We put off taking the kids out in the snow because I don't have enough snow gear for all of them, some of it is going in their stockings and I refused to give it to them now. And then there is the snow boot dilemma. We might get 3" of snow once a year if we are lucky, and I just can't see my way clear to buying boots for that little use, so I sent them out in rain boots. Anyway, at 8pm, as the kids were getting ready for bed I caved and got out all the gear I could find and let them go out. (Grace was in her jammies, bad mommy) A bunch of neighbors were out and we had a huge snowball fight. I wondered how Grace would react to the snow, she loved it! She was running around, throwing snowballs and laughing. What a treat to get share this special first with her.

whoops

here's the best picture of the night!!

Grace meets Santa!!!!

We made our annual trek to see Santa on Monday (tip, if you go early your kids have to stop adding to their list because they've already talked to Santa, so we go EARLY!) We lucked out and there was no line, so we walked up and said we wanted to put Grace on his lap last, assuming she'd scream. She didn't! She sat there nicely and smiled for a great Santa photo of the five of them. Then all the boys got off his lap so we could get an individual picture of each kid with Santa, and they could talk to him. when her brothers abandoned her, Grace SCREAMED! and ached her back and put on a great show. This was the picture I was hoping for (we have one of each of the boys screaming, it's a family thing). When she got to bottom of the ramp and they handed her a candy, all was right with her world. I was hoping to get her to say baby to Santa, since she's getting a Bitty Baby, but he'll have to use his ESP for her present, lol.

It was a great night all the kids had fun, and the boys are certain that he will bring them what they asked for because they have been so good! HA. M's idea was just to tell Santa they'd been good even when they hadn't so they could get something besides undies, but his brothers squashed that plan since Santa sees all. I'm still not noticing angelic behavior, so I guess they'd better resort to praying and finger crossing.

PS the red coat that Grace is wearing was mine when I was two, how cute is that??

Big Ole Update

We have been very busy, sick and travelling so there has been no time for any updates. We are now home and well, for the moment. I think about posts, and when I am thinking I have tons to say, but then when I sit down I can't think of a thing, ugh!

We'll start with what Grace has been up to. Two weeks ago we took her to build a bear for her first building experience. She got a gift card at one of the showers for her and we had been saving the trip until she would have some idea of what was going on. She chose the bunny and calls it doggy. She loved the whole experience and was ticked when her brothers were trying to do things for her. We just bought bunny/doggy a little skirt because all of Grace's babies are naked and we assumed this animal would be too. Glad we decided to forgo clothes because bunny/doggy wore the skirt to the car and has never worn it since. She does love the bunny though and carts it everywhere, with her baby in the other hand.

We went to my parents house for Thanksgiving, she survived the six hours in the car fine, and she ignored the movies when we showed them! That night we went to church at the church I grew up in. I was prepared for many meltdowns between the five kids. We had driven all day, the had to sit through church and then there was a pie social so they were hopped up on sugar. They were all charming angels! We were quite the stars of the night, everyone wanted to meet Grace. She is an outgoing child and will walk up to people and "talk" to them, if someone she knows is right there. So she would walk around a flirt with all our old family friends. My favorite comment of the night was, you all travelled half-way around the world and still managed to bring back one that looks like all of you. I said well God planned for her to be with us, so I guess that makes sense. The boys were fabulous the whole evening, they usually are, but I was worried that things were aligned just right for it all to go bad. B's Godfather took all of them up the church's balcony to fly paper airplanes into the Sanctuary. He's the youth Pastor so if it was okay with him, then it was okay with me.

Thanksgiving was a nice low key day. I dressed the kids nicely for dinner so we could take pictures, and I didn't take a single one. It's quite odd for me and I'm still upset that I have no shots of Grace at her first Thanksgiving. She didn't eat a bite of dinner, she had just woken up, on the wrong side of the bed, and just didn't want to be at the table. I let her go because I wanted everyone else to have a nice meal. I guess maybe next year will be her first Thanksgiving dinner (with a photo).

Now we are trying to get ready for Christmas. We went to get our tree, and since we live in the NW, it rained. Grace got muddy, as did her brothers, but we all went out and hunted down the tree, and ended up soaking.

I am having big holiday issues this year, and maybe I'm not the only one. I have built Christmas up in my head and I so badly want it to be the biggest most special day, it is Grace's First Christmas and I want a perfect picture, tree, lovey gifts and just a fabulous day. Scott and I were talking about this and he can't understand why I'm such a freak about this, I wasn't this bad for the boys first Holidays. I told him when the boys had their first Christmas' they were lumps who didn't care, she is two and she knows what' going on. I just want everything to be perfectly magical for her. I am working hard on letting it all go, all that matters is that this is Grace's first Christmas, and whatever we do will be special because it will be her first time doing it. It will all seem magical to her. So we so have a lovely tree, it's not perfect, but it is our family tree. We did take 100 pictures yesterday trying to gt one with five smiling kids who are looking at the camera. IT won't be a perfect shot, but the kids are cute. Her dress may not be exactly what I was dreaming of, but she looks amazing in it. And, I know she will love the lights and the music and the gifts. SO we will have the perfect Christmas in her eyes. (now I just have to keep telling myself that)

First ferry ride and first Post placement report

On Saturday we got take the ferry across the Puget sound to our Social worker's for our first Post placement report. We had to visit early because of Thanksgiving and Scott's work travel schedule. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I left feeling great! I was telling Scott that everyone should have a social worker. Some days I feel like I could have 10 kids and that this is the easiest job ever, and frankly if there were awards for parenting I would win several. Then there are the days where I'm pretty sure they'd take my kids away because I am not the greatest Mom at all. Most days are somewhere in between those two extremes. Our social worker makes us feel like we have way more award winning days, than we think we do. She is so reassuring and positive and nice and I could go on, but you get the point. Parenting is hard job, and to talk to someone who makes you feel great about how you're doing is priceless!

The ferry ride was quite fun, on the way there it was still cold and breezy, we took the kids on the deck, but they lasted all of 10 minutes, it was just too cold. So we sat inside and Grace said Boat a lot, yay for new words! On the way home the sun had come out and we spent the whole trip on the deck tossing popcorn to the seagulls, when we weren't eating it. The ferry is such a fun way to get places, the kids just have a ball every time we go.

Today I got Scott to hang up the wall letters for Grace's room they look great and it definitely warms up the place. We are spending this blustery Veterans day in doors doing projects and laundry while the kids are running wild. Pray for our sanity!

Call me... Princess Pouty

Grace is not all sweetness and light, she is all girl however, which means her middle name is DRAMA! This picture was taken on Halloween after she was told no, she could not swing the light saber around in the house. She immediately threw her feet out from under her and flomped on her bottom on the floor and cried. These displays of drama don't last long since they get her nothing, but after she goes to bed at night, I sit and picture them a giggle. The longer she is here and the more secure she feels, the dramatic she is. I think we may be in for a roller coaster ride come the teen years!

Some recent photos of the girl

Here are some recent photos of the goings on in our little world. Here is Grace scooping pumpkin guts. She is such a girl, she had to continue holding her purse while she did it. Then we have all five kids on Halloween, the make quite a group coming to your door. After that is Grace scooping pumpkin at a carving party we went to, she was not a fan of pumpkin guts and she would get these looks on her face that clearly said, you have got to be kidding I'm not touching that stuff. Finally the picture I took of Grace before church this morning. A neighbor gave her this dress and it just looked so cute and sassy, just like Grace.

Not much else is going on around here, the kids were up at the crack of dawn, due to the time change. They always claim that you'll get an extra hour of sleep, but that is only true for people without little kids, we get screwed because the kids just get up an hour earlier.

This week Grace has a Doctor's appointment for a check-up and then we have our first post placement visit with the social worker. She lives on an island so we get to ride the ferry to go see her. This is always such a highlight with my kids, they love to ride the ferry and feed the seagulls popcorn. I'm interested to see how Grace will react, she is NOT a fan of wind in her face. Hopefully she will be more excited about feeding seagulls, than upset about wind.

I read a great post by Tonya, I still can't link, about how she forgets that she hasn't birthed her daughter and talks about how she references things to before she was born. I thought about it and realized I have gotten there yet. I still look at our sweet girl and I'm stunned and amazed that she is here, that we have a daughter ( I dreamed about adopting her for so long). I know some day the wonder of this miracle will fade a bit, it did after each of the boys, but I know there will always be a part of me that is extra thrilled that our dream came true with this perfect little blessing.

Grace's First Halloween

Scott and I spent quite a bit of time wondering what Grace would think of her first Halloween. I don't know why we spent time wondering, she doesn't talk enough to tell us her thoughts, but we still wondered. I'm not sure we knew for certain what she thought until we tried to take her away from the huge candy pile on the table. I'm not sure I've ever heard anything so loud. (a neighbor was at the Hanna Montanna concert and he said those girls were louder than any Seahawks game he's ever been to, I liken the sound Grace made to that)

We got the little Fairy all dressed up took a hundred or so photos of she and her brothers and then sent her off to beg for candy. She's mighty cute, so she did quite well. She walked along just fine and batted her eyelashes at all the appropriate moments. According to her brother's though, she was "dead weight" in their quest to get/beg for candy, so she only made it to 8 houses. Then she came home and answered the door with Mommy. She peered out the side light when she could hear kids coming and she was right there wand in hand to greet each and every trick-or-treater.

All in all, Halloween 2007, a rousing success(and if you could see all the candy we have you'd get cavities in your teeth just from the pictures) I can't wait to see what the next two Holidays will bring.

How Grace is doing at three months home

I have to start with a confession. I have an obsession, I have tried to give it up and move on but I can't. I am obsessed with finding the perfect Christmas dress. In my mind I can see it, a deep red, not burgundy and not bright red, but a deep scarlet. It is velvet, not foufy, just a traditional velvet float dress, and it has long sleeves (I already have coordinating outfits for the boys). I cannot find this dress anywhere, so I have taken to ordering all kinds of dresses and buying all kinds of dresses in the hope that I will happy with one of them (I'm embarrassed to confess I'm at dress number 6). I have one in her closet that is sort of velvet (that stretchy velour) and is the right color, but I'm not a fan of the style. I have three that should be here in a few days and one just might be it. I looked at Gap dot com on a whim and they had a beautiful red velvet dress. The only part that isn't perfect is the sleeves, they are short, but other than that, I think it's it. The color is listed as.... wait for it...... Russian Red!

Now on to the Princess. We had a VERY TRYING week just at her three month homeiversary. She was testing us big time, and I was heart broken, it seemed like all the progress we had made had gone out the window. After a week, she turned right back into the delightful girl we know and love to be around. I don't know what brought on the change to just out of the baby home Grace, but I felt manipulated all the time.

SLEEPING

Grace sleeps 11 hours at night and naps 2-2 1/2 hours a day. She can make it with no nap, but she's nicer when she's had one.

EATING

She has decided she's a bird, a picky one at that. I would be frustrated, but that's how her brothers are, so I'm not shocked. Plus, she leaves the table with food on her plate, and that is huge. So I'm pretty excited. She still wants to eat whenever anyone else dos, but she's not so nasty about it. We're working on that but she's two so it could be combo of post PI food issues and being two and wanting everything others have.

SPEECH

After the week of bratty badness, she is talking more!!! We switched her to a straw and she is making progress. She now strings two and three words together, like where's Daddy? Daddy home, stop it An (telling her bro to leave her alone!) She will also try and repeat some words you say, the other day it was yucky. I'm still trying to get her speech, but I'm so glad to see progress on this front.

ATTACHMENT

I think she's pretty attached, during the week of bratty badness she would reject us and go to others and I felt very manipulated, but she has stopped that again. I spent a lot of time trying to decide if it was an attachment issue, or just her being a two year old girl, I have no experience with those. We think it's probably a combo of the two and we're just going on as we were. She is friendly with the women we see all the time, but she won't let the men pick her up. I feel like she knows we are her people/parents, but I just don't know how I'll ever know when she is fully attached to us. Is it a feeling? is there a sign? some one who knows can you tell me?

All in all at three months home I think things are pretty well, I haven't had a what in the heck did we do day in while, so I think that is the best sign of all. The other good sign is that when someone wanted to take Grace home with them last week, J did cry and say no she's ours. He may well learn to love her after all!

pictures

All the pictures in the two post were taken this past weekend. We went to the zoo, soccer, Church and the Pumpkin patch. I'll write a post when my brain cells aren't fried from little Miss tester!

pictures

Pictures

Pictures of Grace, home 3 months

Okay day three that blogger won't let me upload pictures.

I have to be honest, on Friday I was laying in bed and thinking about what I would say for Grace's three month home post. I was going to confess that the first two months were much harder than I had realized at the time, the whole family had a lot of adjusting to do. But the third month had been so nice, we had gotten in to a routine and Grace was not being so, well, witchy. But then came Saturday, Sunday Monday and Today, and I feel like we are back at day 1. The girl is testing us all the time and rejecting Scott and I for other people. We were at the pumpkin patch with friends and she wouldn't let either of us touch her, but she'd go to the other Mom. I have been having just a yucky few days. I spend a lot of time worrying, is she just being a manipulative female two, or is there more to it? I don't know, my gut says two, but I still worry. She's my first (and only!) adopted child so I'm not sure how to tell.

We're just keeping on the same way we have been, but when she goes to bed, I breathe a sigh of relief each night. A few hours without all the testing. Then I get on the computer and shop for Christmas dresses. I currently own three that are all going back. I just want a pretty deep red velvet dress, no fancy stuff, maybe a little embroidering on the bodice, is that too much to ask? If you see on let me know!

I can't come up with a title.

I was all set to talk about pigeon holing my kids, but Grace and J had a run in today so I'll start with that.

This morning Grace was upstairs and crying pretty hard. Now my little drama queen has a new fake, tearless cry that is really her mad cry and it is very close to her real cry so I wasn't sure what had happened and I let her come to me. J had closed the closet door, and her fingers were in it, ouch! The girl has a very high pain tolerance and only cried for a minute, but I could tell that her ring finger was really swelling. So we sat with ice for as long as she would let me and then I let her go play. I watched and she could move it and didn't seem to be guarding it.

Cut to after nap and the knuckle is really swollen and turning black and blue and she can't/won't bend it. She cries when you do much with it. I talked to the nurse, but frankly they always want you to bring them in and Grace is picking up every germ in town, seeing as how her former life was pretty germ free, so I'm hesitant to take her unless necessary. So for now it's buddy taped to the next finger and I'm icing it when she'll let me. J did "impologize" in his words, I think it was an accident and frankly at three he wouldn't have know what would happen. We did have a long talk about doors though.

Now pigeonholing. I have to say that I thought I was pretty good at not putting my kids in a box and labeling their behaviors but my M I had placed in one, and he has shown me how wrong I was about him. When Scott and I decided to adopt we knew that the two older boys would be thrilled, they'd always wanted a sister, we knew J wouldn't understand and we figured M would be indifferent.

My first hint that maybe I was wrong about M came not to far into the process, he told his pre-school teachers about the adoption long before I was planning to. I asked him why and he said it was because he was excited. I still expected total indifference on his part when Grace arrived, but I was so wrong. M is the most loving of the boys to her, he is always hugging Grace and singing to her and the other day I told him to get his shoes on so we could go to the bus, when I walked into the room he was putting Grace's shoes on her. I cried, it was so stinking sweet and so not what I expected.

M surprises us every day and reminds me that I can try and stick my little ones in a labeled box, but they're just going to bust out of it, so I might as well not waste my time.

Haircut, cheerleader and a Baptism.

I had a whole post written about the weekend last night and I uploaded the pictures too. I hit post and I have no clue where it went, I imagine it will just pop up on someone Else's blog someday.

I survived my funk of Thursday and Friday and did manage to get everything mostly ready before our overnight guests arrived. Thank goodness no one goes in our master bedroom to see all the laundry that was stored there!!

Friday after dinner we took Grace to get her first haircut. I asked our wonderful hair gal how to make her hair look less scraggly and a bit fuller. She said we'd need to cut off the fine scraggly bottom and bob it. I bowed to her superior knowledge and let have at it. Grace had about an inch cut off the length of her hair and she is close to boy territory, thank goodness it grows! Her hair does look much healthier and that was my goal, plus when I stick it up in a bow and curl it under, she looks darling. Grace didn't really care for getting her hair cut, until she got a lollipop to distract her, then she was a happy camper.

Saturday we watched a bunch of soccer and then came home to watch our Alma mater's football game. Grace's cheerleader oufit had come Friday, so I got her all dressed up for the game. Daddy tried to teach her to say go Beavs, but all he could get was go. She looked too cute and she and J had a ball with the pom-poms. Hopefully she looked cute enough to ease Daddy's wounds from the ugly loss.

Sunday was the big Baptism. I have been looking forward to/dreading this day for a month. Grace can be a pill and can squirm and scream when she doesn't want to be held, so there was some uncertainty to how this would go off. We took her to the nursery until time for the Baptism during the service, while I waited with her in the narthex she was a fine pill form!!! (a lot of extra attention from other's will bring this out and we had a houseful of guests) I was thinking we were dead, but she was an angel. She seemed a bit nervous about our Pastor (good thing) so she wanted to be held. When he put the water on her forehead she just smiled. After he put the water on her, he handed me a cloth to dry her forehead, Grace took it from my hand and wiped her head herself, drawing a big ahh from the congregation. We came home after church and had a lunch party for 25. All in all a great day.

Welcome to God's family Grace!!

Life is kicking me in the butt!

Grace on her first Merry go round ride, she wasn't sure about the whole thing.



This week has been difficult, for any number of reasons. Nothing major is going wrong, but all the little stuff is and I just feel like life is kicking me in the butt and winning. I am usually more like Tonya, and happy go lucky, but every once in a while I feel like this. Of course this weekend is Grace's Baptism and my Mom has invited a bunch of obscure relatives over for a meal I'm unprepared for at this moment. I'm yelling Serenity Now and going to Costco to shop. Check back Sunday night for pictures of the big day, and pray that I can survive house guests, a Baptism and and a party.

I LOVE having a GIRL!!!

I admit, I always wanted a little girl. After four boys I am used to, and frankly quite good at, playing trains and trucks and video games and soccer and all the boy stuff mine are interested in. But my heart always longed for a daughter. Well folks, I have one and for now she is a girlie thing (I mean she has four brothers so I don't kid myself that it will last). Don't get me wrong she'll run and climb right along with her brothers when she is out side, but inside she is all about the dolls and the jewelry and the dress up clothes and the tea parties. I am in heaven playing with her. I can still build a mean train track, but finally I get to play some games that I understand. And have I mentioned she LOVES shoes!!!! I bought her the sparkly shoes the other day and she wears them all the time. I have to admit, I even love her Drama. I totally get it, because that is how I feel sometimes. I guess I just feel an innate understanding of Grace that I have never felt with the boys, sometimes I just don't get them. And watching Scott befuddled by Grace, makes me laugh.