flashback-I can't believe I'm posting this picture!

almost exactly 3 years ago....me & Gracie. Look how long Gracie's hair was!!!!

My baby's birthday is this week and she knows it! She will be "3" on Saturday and I can hardly believe it! She still "loves" Spiderman (most of the time) and quite a few other "boy" things. Before my little girl was this way, I used to snicker a little at other little girls when they would express such "tom-boy" ways. Now that my little girl is liking these things, I think it's precious! She still carries her pink bunny around and pushes the baby stroller, too! I have kind of gone 50/50 with her birthday gifts-1/2 tom-boy & 1/2 girly. She is so adorable-I just love her,

tom-boy and all! My friend Kristi assures me that she was a tom-boy too...crawling under dog pens and things and she is a very well adjusted, cute, feminine wife & mommy of 2! I'm just not used to this tom-boy thing after having had Miss Gracie who is so the opposite!

She is still very into puzzles. She'll ask, "I can do my puzzle?" I guess she thinks she has to ask because we are frequently getting on to her to clean them up after she leaves them lying around on the floor.

She has started enjoying eating apples whole. I've always cut them up for her but the other day I let her try it "like Sissy" and she did great! It's so cute to watch her eat it that way!

The other night we had a really bad storm. I woke up & jumped out of bed around 1:30 Friday morning to the loudest wind. I'm a huge chicken when it comes to storms so I encouraged Chris to go watch the news. There'd been those tornadoes in AL earlier in the day that had kind of freaked me out. I got both girls and put them in bed with me. I didn't think we needed to get into the bathtub but I was so nervous about all the huge trees around our house that I figured it'd be better for us all to be in 1 bed. If one of us would get crushed by a tree, we all would! I know that sounds morbid, but I really didn't feel comfortable leaving the girls in their own beds the way it was storming outside. Of course, Chris was in the other room watching the weather....It finally calmed down after about 20 minutes and me silently singing "O Master the Tempest is Raging"...."the winds & the waves shall obey thy will, peace...be still........" Gracie went back to her bed and Chris took Katie back to hers. Of course, Katie started crying, "Daddy, I neeeed you! I want to sleep in Daddy's bed!" Finally, she just walked into our room and Chris told her to come get in bed with us. I kid you not, 20 seconds later, she started whining, "I don't want to sleep here. I want my bed." UGH! So, since it was on her terms, she was able to go back to her bed and go to sleep just fine.

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Speaking of tornadoes, Gracie's class has been practicing their tornado drill. All 15 of them + Mrs. Stauffer have to get into their tiny little bathroom. Since Gracie is the smallest, she has to get under the sink! She thinks that's pretty crazy! It's a funny mental picture, definitely!

She came home today talking about "symmetry" and shapes that are "congruent." She was quite proud of this new knowledge!

She has received quite a few "behavior bucks" at school recently which she is looking forward to spending at the school store.

The other day, she found a workbook I'd bought for Katie. She decided Katie needed to work on it, so she took it upon herself to act as teacher. You can see in the picture that Katie is actually pointing to the book. Whether or not it's what she was supposed to be pointing to, who knows!

Gracie is still our little studious sweetheart who certainly isn't perfect, but is really such a good child & such a blessing to us!