This morning while I was cooking breakfast, Grace entertained herself by drawing pictures on a dry erase board. Her first masterpiece was a drawing of me, and she kept asking me to turn around so she could take a good look at her subject matter. She wanted to be sure to include everything: eyebrows, feet,…

Today was Grace's last day of preschool, and she was very excited about that. I am not sure if it's because she's excited about summer break, or because she feels so grown up to be heading to the "pre-k/k" classroom next year. Her daddy wanted to celebrate the occasion, so we made pizza together and…

According to a 4-year old, and in no particular order: * presents * baby sisters * climbing trees * being an animal rescuer * hiking in the woods with your dad * looking at motorcycles and bicycles * getting a new toy * getting a new pet * going to a barbecue at your friend's…

Grace: Mommy, I love you more than you love me.   Me: No, I don't think that's possible.  Grace: How much do you love me?  Me [Trying to come up with something different than my standard "All the way to New Zealand and back."]: I love you infinity.  Grace: What's infimity?  Me: It means that…

Why can’t children ever manage to make it to the bathroom to throw up, instead of making a colossal mess all over the stairs? Why does your husband find it funny to make jokes about throw up (“We’ve got ourselves a PUKER!”) while you are scrubbing away at the ruined carpeting, instead of offering to…

Gracie is making huge strides with her swimming skills – and she finally thinks swim class is the most fun thing ever. She is getting much more confident, and will actually swim on her own towards the wall without circling around to head back to the teacher because she’s scared. And she’ll even dive into the…

This afternoon, Gracie told me that she would like to sleep downstairs from now on, because her bed isn’t comfortable anymore. Luckily, I can see right through that one. This kid loves the chicks. She held each one of them twice today, and she held Rosie four different times. Grace is getting very good at…

This time, when Grace asked if she could do some stamping while I was putting Tess in bed, I said: “Sure – just don’t stamp your face.” Of course, she replied, “Why not?” And I made up some excuse about how she might get ink in her eyes or her mouth and it would be bad…

According to Grace, today was “stick-fighting day” at Curly’s school. When she called to check on him, his teacher said he had been hurt, so Gracie rushed to pick him up from school. It turns out that someone had poked him in the eye with a stick, and his eye was bleeding. (I guess that’s…

Just when I thought she couldn’t possibly come up with anything to top the handmade kitty earrings, Grace made her own eyeglasses using a magnifying glass and – you guessed it – scotch tape. And when this proved to be impractical, she made a new, improved version with paper and tape. She wore these “glasses” for…