Thanksgiving - And More

Gracie is once again healthy.  She still has a bit of the cough at night, but it is thankfully shortlived.  We had a great Thanksgiving and a nice long weekend without too many plans.  So we got to spend alot of good quality time together.  We even played outside a few times this weekend when the temps weren't too cold.  Gracie is starting to play more and more with her toys.  She played alot with her playhouse, sometimes having made-up word conversations and many times just stacking everything she can into the house.  She interacts nicely when I sit down to play with her too.  She also has been much more interested in writing and coloring.  She also loves when she gets marker on her fingers so that she can tell me she is a "mess"!

We spent Thanksgiving Day with my family and Gracie was so excited to see everyone.  She wanted NOTHING to do with mom and dad.  There were just too many fun cousins, aunts, and uncles to play with.  It was my dad's 89th birthday and we celebrated with a cake and by singing.  Cake and singing the "Happy Birthday" song are two of Gracie's most favorite things.  Gracie was very sad when we had to go home. 

Friday was a total lazy day -- we took a long walk and just played all day, while daddy put the lights up on the house and fixed the clothes dryer (much to my happiness).  On Saturday, Gracie and I did a little bit of shopping.  Gracie was enjoying some women in santa hats singing and ringing bells by the Salvation Army kettle.  I gave Gracie a dollar to put in the kettle.  With her fine motor skills not being perfect she didn't get it right in and just then a wind came up and blew the dollar across the parking lot. One of the women ran after it, picked it up, and then brought it back.  She didn't put it in the bucket, she again gave it to Gracie to put in.  We had one proud girl and one extremely thankful mom.  The spirit of Christmas is alive and well. 

On Sunday we took Gracie to the Festival of Trees.  She is so into lights and decorations, I thought she would love it, but I think it was a sensory overload for her and she was very edgy and anxious the whole time we were there.  There were some children playing Christmas music on the piano and we sat and listened to that and she really enjoyed that.  Music has always soothed her...especially piano music.  Then we left and let her run through the skyways and we also went to Barnes and Noble.  With Gracie's love of books she was having a great time.  She kept telling us that she was at the "library"!

Today it was back to daycare and school.  I just got a note from Gracie's teacher that she had a great day.  She was very verbal and she went down the slide and went through the tunnel....but the biggest news is she went POTTY on the potty chair at school today.  YAY BIG GIRL!!!!!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and a great weekend.

Love,
Lisa, Jeff, and Gracie