Bananas and Finger Paints

Grace, despite illness has had a good week. On Thursday her Speech Therapist had tremendous success. I was terrified that with the way Grace has been feeling she would start a food fight or have some great temper tantrum at the table but she surprised us all. Jamie and Grace both ate yogurt and bananas. The yogurt is no big deal, we have been getting Grace to eat yogurt for a while but anything that is not puree smooth is immediately spit out or gagged on... Not Thursday, Grace chewed and swallowed the bananas with no issue and proudly opened her mouth and announced "All Gone!" All told she had about 1/2 of a banana and 4oz of yogurt (with strawberry pieces in it!) I am so very proud! Progress is being made. I had hoped that Grace would be eating like any other 18 month old by the time the baby arrives, but it looks like I will have to take what I can get and be happy about it... and I am.

We have been working on our colors lately. Grace can sing most of the alphabet but does not recognize the letters yet. And while I have both the alpha puzzle mat and the bath tub foam alphabet pieces to teach her, I though maybe we should start with something a bit more simple. So we have been using these tools to learn our colors instead. Grace has become less and less interested with coloring with crayons so I thought it was time for something new. To reinforce the colors we are learning in the tub I bought her bath tub finger paints. She LOVES them. He initial reaction was no surprise to me. Since her father is not a big fan of getting or being dirty she had some issue with diving in and getting the finger paint all over her hands. Now... well now they paint the tub, her body and mommy's face if I lean in too close. She has to ask for more paint when she needs it and has been correctly identifying Yellow, Purple and Blue. Red is not one she quite understands yet, but hey... 3 colors makes me pretty happy! Two of her feeding therapy tools are yellow and purple so she has started to ask for them by color. And will point to the purple pieces or letters on her puzzle mat and telling me "purple". Her rubber duckies are yellow so she has also been announcing to me that they are "yellow!" I hope with all of the jack-o-lanterns around our house she will soon learn orange, but we shall see...

Grace discovered today during a failed morning nap that she can work the zipper on her sleeper. After an hour of listening to her laughing; kissing her Teddy's; making her Teddy's kiss each other; talking to the walls; and telling someone or something "No barking!" Brian and I finally gave in and went to get her. We were surprised and amused to discover that the child who must go to bed with clothes on or will remove her diaper, has figured out how to unzip her sleeper. I am just thrilled that she has not figured out how to escape her crib or open doors yet... well that is not true. She knows how to open a door, she is not tall enough to reach the door handle just yet... all a matter of time I guess.