PAD #5

Today's photo is of my little girly-girl Grace painting her nails with the special polish Nanny sent her up for Christmas.

She loves, loves, loves having painted nails, and it's just one her many little traits that I'm sure she came hard-wired with at birth. I NEVER paint my nails, but she sees Trudy's and thinks they are just so awesome and she wants hers done too.

She asked me the other day if she could paint mine. I said I didn't really want to, and told her to go paint hers again! She looked at me like I was from another planet, sighed and said, "But Mum, you have to...It'll make you beautiful. Trudy does it and hers look beautiful" Sure enough, now I am the proud owner of pink toe-nails, that due to the shaky hand of the applicator, looks a little like blood dripping from my toes.

Of course Xavier doesn't get to miss out on the pampering, and he was lucky enough to have all his toes and fingers prettied up too. Daddy was not impressed. Until his darling little girl asked in her sweet girly voice if she could paint his too. She now has him and his shiny nails wrapped tightly around her manicured fingers!

~~Xav getting pampered~~

My beautiful little Grace is just a dream child at the moment (knocking frantically on nearest wood!) She is just being delightful, and we are lucky to have less than a handful of bad moments a week. I was telling her yesterday how lovely, kind, caring and sweet she is, then she said back to me, "I know, but I'm really shy at school. But not anymore, because Cassie is going to be in my class and I'm not going to cry and Cassie's not going to cry" Gorgeous little girl. I still can't believe that next year my first born baby will be trekking off to prep 5 days a week. This year is just going to go so quick, and before I know it I'll be dropping my baby off to school. I just know I'm going to be jealous that she will be spending so much time with her friends and teachers and I'll miss her desperately. She is so fun to hang out with, and I wont get to be with her every day. And that makes me sad..... :(

So that is just one of the reason why I put it to Duane the other day, that maybe we should think about me homeschooling the kids. His mumbled response sounded something like Blah, blah, blah, what about socialising, blah, blah. But little does he know it is something that I have looked into, and socialising a home schooled kid is relatively easy and probably the least of your worries. Anyway, it's just another of my back-up plans for if I don't get into Uni. Imagine being able to tailor your child education to fit them perfectly, whilst still allowing them to learn everything (and more!) that they would learn in a classroom. Think of all the opportunities you could introduce to your children, it would be an exhausting task but one that I am sure would pay off in the long run. Anyway, that's just my latest little research project

So back to my gorgeous daughter. I've mentioned it before, but Grace has an obsession with clothes and accessories. As soon as she wakes of a morning she wants to get dressed for the day, meanwhile Xav & I are happy to slob around in our Pj's unless clothing is required. She begs me from waking time, but I bribe her with eating her breakfast all up and then she can go pick her clothes out and get dressed.

The other morning, she was playing in her bedroom, then called me up. I went up and she had layed out on the bed her clothes for the day. She was umming and aahing about certain pieces, and was swapping them with others to get the perfect ensemble. She even had it layed out perfectly with undies, shoes and accessories in there right places. It's just another funny little habit that she definitely does not get from me. I whip out of the shower and grab the closest thing to wear that isn't dirty or smelly. I never, ever think in advance about what I'm going to wear.

~~All her clothes layed out~~

She also has a photographic memory when it comes to clothes. She can remember exactly who gave her what, even remembering what event she wore them too. I was cleaning out her wardrobe today, we were both sitting on her bed going through the clothes. As I folded each piece to put it back in, she recalled who gave each item to her. Some of these clothes she hasn't seen for ages, so I was quite amazed that she remembered. I pulled from the back of her cupboard a cute little hot pink top that she wore last year. She immediately said, "I wore that to Xav's birthday and I had it on with my jeans that Nanny gave me" I couldn't remember, so we went and had a look at the photos from his party, and sure enough there is Grace wearing the top and the jeans.

She loves picking out my clothes to wear. She gets quite upset on the days I just want to wear a comfy plain top and shorts, however she loves it when I wear a dress and shoes other than my thongs. She hyperventilates if I am going out at night and I wear heels AND make-up. Gosh, I can't even begin to imagine the line up that will be happening at the bathroom door once Grace hits the teenage years. She'll lock herself in our ONLY bathroom, preening herself, whilst we are all bathing in the laundry sink!!

All these little antics are rather amusing for her boringly dressed Mummy!