Beware the Dragon!

One last picture of Halloween.  Should we be bothered by solicitors, we now know how to defend the Robinson home.

Gracie and her friends enjoying books before breakfast

Grace likes a good story (as you can see, her friends do too!).  This morning when we got to daycare, Grace and her friends were all gathered around April in the book corner enjoying books.  Grace especially likes books with pictures of cats in them because she likes making her approximation of ‘meow’ (it’s a rather loud and someone screetchy noise).  Yay for reading!

This morning, Mama woke up early to go stand in line at the Wake County Health Service building where they were having an H1N1 vaccine clinic today beginning at 9.  Getting there at 7:30 meant that Mama was the very last person to stand inside the building as the line wound around the lobby and down the stairs to the clinic.  It was a tag team effort and Mama stood in line while Gracie went to daycare until 9 AM when Daddy picked her up then dropped her off at the clinic just long enough for her to walk into the clinic, wait in line for 10 minutes and walk back out with a bandaid on her thigh.  Now we just have to get the second half of the vaccine in a month and Gracie will be protected (too bad if Mama or Daddy gets it…)

This is a big week for Gracie health wise– today was her H1N1 shot, Wednesday she goes in for a pre-operative consult, Friday morning, she gets tubes put in and then Saturday morning, she gets her flu shot.  Hopefully after that, we’ll have a nice long break until her next H1N1 vaccine.  Maybe next time we’ll be able to get some at her pediatricians office…

Upon getting her shot, Gracie and Mama headed back to day care just in time for Grace to play on the playground with her friends.  Clearly, Grace was not phased by a tiny little shot and got busy pushing toys and having fun.

Watch out Archita-- Grace is on the move!

Today Great Grandma Emmy had an appointment to get her picture made for the church directory.  Gracie thought that sounded interesting and volunteered to go and supervise.  Once there, she was so cute that everyone knew that Emmy needed a professional photo of her darling little great grandbaby.  After her photo shoot, Mama & Gracie got back on the road so that they could see Daddy.  Grace was delighted to get fuzzy Daddy kisses (a rare treat, because Daddy isn’t often fuzzy)…

Two seconds after Grace gave Daddy a big kiss

Grace's first reaction upon seeing her new toy

Gracie got to visit her Great Grandma Emmy & her Great Aunt Jenny.  Her Cousin Elizabeth came too, making for a wonderful day!  Grace, Jenny & Elizabeth went out searching for fun new toys.  Grace was particularly glad to get a new toy that had both stacking cups and a shape sorter.

Grace buliding a tower with Cousin Elizabeth

The BEST present, however, was a plastic horsie that Aunt Jenny got her.  This horsie will gallop if Grace bounces up and down.  She’s a little to small right now and so needs some help, but will really enjoy it in a few months.  She’s well on her way to being another Jenkins cowgirl!

Aunt Jenny helping Gracie gallop!

Last night, we found out that Gracie’s Gammie is in the hospital.  A few weeks ago Duke (the Garner Robinson’s dog, who has been on vacation for all of Grace’s short life) was on the floor of Gammie’s room looking around for crumbs when Gammie dropped something yummy on the floor.  Duke got to the tasty morsel before Gammie could pick it up off the floor, and when Gammie reached down to retrieve said morsel, Duke bit her.  While this behavior is understandable from a very hungry dachshund, it unfortunately lead to a bad bite on Gammie’s finger.

Yesterday, while Gammie was at chemo, the nurses saw that her finger didn’t look good and after a series of doctors looking at it, Gammie & Pee-Paw ended up at the Emergency room so that she could have it drained and get strong antibiotics to combat the infection that had started in her finger.  With lots of luck, she’ll be able to come home today, but she could be in the hospital through the weekend.  Gracie and Mama & Daddy are all sending up strong prayers that Gammie’s finger gets better soon.

A table full of day care friends

Today at day care, another friend joined the Toddlers classroom.  Unfortunately, Mama wasn’t fast enough to catch the new young lady’s name, but we feel confident that Grace will make friends soon.  Now that Lucinda has moved up to twos, there had been an imbalance of power in the room between the boys and girls that was pretty drastic.  While there are still 5 boys and only 4 girls, somehow, if Grace is any indication, those seem to be pretty fair odds.

Who, me?

Daddy is trying to scare away any earaches...

Monday was Grace’s godmother Cynthia’s birthday.  Because Cynthia is so popular, she wasn’t able to fit us into her schedule until last night, but in celebration, we met out for pizza and good times.  Grace wasn’t feel 100%, so we had to leave a little early, but that gave Mama some time to go vote, and Grace got a jump start on her sleep.

Daddy took Grace to her consult this morning about getting tubes, and Grace, once again, has a double ear infection.  Good thing we’ve started moving towards getting her tubes.   As always, Grace remains her chipper self regarding the whole ear infection thing, and continues to be mostly sweet despite what must be pretty awful pain in her ears.  I guess for the last 6 months or so, that’s just been the way her life has been, so she’s gotten used to it.   Poor baby.

Grace is a brave girl.   This morning, while at breakfast, she opted to eat her blueberries and yogurt without a bib.  We’ll see how that went when we pick her up this afternoon….

Daylight saving time is an interesting phenomena, fraught with more challenge and drama than one might expect.  Especially in the Robinson household where younger members of the family were not able to stay up to the modified bedtime, and so went to sleep at 6:15 PM (which felt like 7:15 to her) and so woke up at 6:15 AM instead of her typical 7 AM.  This wouldn’t be so bad if Mama & Daddy hadn’t fully made the switch to the new time and so were quite tired when awoken by a cheerful little voice from Grace’s room.  Daddy changed her diaper and she came in to spread her cheer to Mama by putting her face very close to Mama’s to assure that it was, indeed Mama, and then poking her eyes and nose for good measure.  Needless to say, there was not much more sleeping going on once Ms. Grace entered the bedroom, but much laughter and snuggling was enjoyed.  Hopefully she’ll play hard at school today and make the transition successfully tonight.