Grayson, almost 5 1/2 years old

It seems like lately I mostly use Instagram for documenting our days. I pulled up the blog the other day though to remind myself of the girls as babies, and thought 'oh, right, we have a blog'. Time for some updates...

 

Grayson will be 5 1/2 years old on March 18th.

Her Days:

• 3 days a week she goes to preschool, where she has totally come out of her shell this year and has loved every minute of it. Each day she gives us "3 thumbs up and 1 thumbs down". Almost always the thumbs down is "leaving." One other morning we go to the Amazing Collection Bible Study at church (this year she goes in excited instead of clinging to me!), and the last morning of the week is our home day where we almost always go to story time at the library.
• Every afternoon she has rest time for about 2 hours where she listens to audio books on CD, plays quietly in the bonus room, or draws and crafts.
• Her and Finley are sharing a room now as brother will take over the nursery. Overall, they've really done well together. Grayson has learned to fall on asleep and stays asleep mostly if Finley makes any noises.

 

Her Loves and Strengths:

• Drawing! Her drawings of people are getting more elaborate with clothes, crowns, fairy wings, and always lots of color. She almost always wants a pen and paper in hand.
• She still loves books. On library days she usually just sits and flips through book after book after book. Books on CD are also a big hit. And she is beginning to read basic BOB books and a few other things. She is semi-eager to learn to read, but mostly still just likes for us to read aloud to her.
• 'Imagination Station' as we call it is in full force lately. This girl can come up with some of the most elaborate stories, games, and pretend play scenes. I really am amazed at what comes out of that little brain.
• We took a year off from dance classes but she still loves to dance around the house. Give the girl a leotard or tutu and she is off.
• She has really started loving games...board games, word finds, card games, tic-tac-toe, rock-paper-scissors, and 'silly man' as we call it and have re-drawn it (who drew and named the game "hang-man"?? yikes!).

 

How She Grows:

• The tooth fairy is in full force around here. A few months ago she lost both bottom front teeth (pulled out by Daddy once they were loose enough) Two weeks ago her first top front tooth came out in a strawberry (much less drama than the pulling!) and then two days ago her second top front tooth made it's exit. She pulled that one out on her own! Now she has the cutest gappy-grin I've ever seen (and a little lisp to go with it!)
• At her 5 year old check up she weighed 40-ish pounds, was in the 99th percentile for height, and the 50th percentile for weight. Long and lean, ever since birth. She is one of the tallest in her class, and some size 6 clothes are already getting too short.

 

Things We Are Working On (just trying to keep it real!):

• She is still strong-willed. It doesn't manifest itself anymore as tantrums on the library floor when it's time to leave, but it shows up in other ways. She can argue like a champ. She is becoming a strong leader with friends, so we are working on leading them in the right ways. She has strong ideas and ways she wants to get things done, so we are working on being a peacemaker and still obeying Mama and Daddy. We have to constantly remind ourselves that this will can be wonderful, so we pray frequently that she leans into the Lord and uses her voice and strength to fight for the right things in life.
• Handling emotions. This is a huge one. Daily we face the challenge to teach her that it is ok to feel angry, sad, frustrated, etc etc but that we also have to learn how to use self-control and not let those emotions run crazy. Easier said than done! She also has a hard time waking up with a happy heart in the mornings. I passed that one down genetically I am sure, but it does make for rough starts some days around here.
• We might be taking the opportunity now that her two front teeth are out to start working on quitting the thumb-sucking. We will have to see if we can tackle this as brother makes his arrival shortly. As a die-hard finger-sucking kid myself, I am dreading this process!

And sometimes it's important to remember the Little Things...

• She has finally started consistently flushing the potty after every visit! (enter the chuckles, it's just something that this stay-at-home-mama has been trying to work on with her for forever!).