Day 5

Bear with me, I know my post is long but we had an eventful day! 


Whew, tough day! I think switching classrooms threw Grace off a bit but we had fun painting and getting to know Terri and Jennifer. When it came time to paint, the intended lesson was that kids would use different colors of primary paint and mix them to make new colors. You know, red + yellow = orange, etc. Grace was all for it but when I painted her hand, the paint went everywhere except her paper. At one point during our little wrestling match, I looked down and noticed that both my arms were almost totally coated in paint up to my forearms, there was paint on both of my legs and Grace was sporting some lovely blue lipliner. It was almost comical to watch as I futilely tried to keep the paint off of Grace's pretty pink dress and ended up with it everywhere on both of us. Eventually we managed to get some of the paint on the paper and we even ended up with a yellow handprint. 
At recess, the sunlight was hurting Grace's eyes so I found a pair of orange sunglasses for her to wear. Grace was the talk of the playground, the teachers noticed her shades and all of the other kids were jealous. 
Grace had lots of fun in gym where we got to run around with Corbin and Kate. It was so sweet, Kate came over and said "Katlin, can you come babysit me??" and Corbin chimed in to ask if I could come to play at his house and Grace nodded vigorously in agreement. Later when I was telling the story to Terri with Grace sitting at my feet, she again nodded and laughed. Personally, I think she likes me a whole lot better when there aren't any rules and she gets to watch Elmo. 
Lunch time went decently well until Grace flung a bite of sandwich onto a boy sitting nearby. I like to think that Grace was biding her time until I leaned forward to pull the mush off of his shirt and she pounced on me and put a generous amount of grape jelly in my hair. 

"She looks like a...cool girl!" -Katie
"She looks like a rockstar!" -Gabriel

Wiggling around and getting paint everywhere

Look at the camera, Grace, look at the camera!

Finished product, we got one handprint on it

On a Side Note...

 I was babysitting Grace and Corbin on Saturday night. Ginna asked me to take Grace's pigtails out before she went to bed and after biding my time and acting while Grace wasn't paying attention, I finally got them out. But as soon as I tried to put her hair into some semblance of a half up-half down 'do, she was not having it. So she ran around with this crazy hair all night and I can only imagine how it looked in the morning. 

Model shot

There's that look again

Day 3 & Day 4

I missed Grace's 3rd day of school while I was at orientation but I heard she did well with her sweet speech teacher, Faith. I'm glad Faith knew Grace because as I'm texting her some helpful hints for school, I realize I'm saying slightly ominous things like "if she pulls your hair" or "if she runs away..." But all's well that ends well, Grace got to use her Dynavox at school and it was supposed to be pretty cool to see her communicate through it. 

I think this is the same model that Grace uses?

My 4th day with Grace was largely uneventful. There was a little bit of casual hair pulling, more like Grace was thinking "I'm bored so let's yank some hair" but thankfully, my high buns and tight braids have served me well. She did extremely well in chapel, where Mrs. Jane read Rainbow Fish and the Big Blue Whale. Grace, who usually sits next to me or on my lap, alternated between sitting and laying on the floor listening to the book all by herself.

In class, we read the original Rainbow Fish book and Grace got to play with Mrs. Jones' rainbow fish puppet and make a fish of her own. 

While working with Faith the previous day, Mrs. Nancy and Mrs. Valerie figured out that a great way to keep Grace occupied was to play music and give her some of the instruments. So we gave Grace tambourines and jingle bells and let the fun ensue. 

2 lunchboxes and an elmo book, it doesn't get much better than that!

Laying on the floor at gym

Every time she catches me taking a picture of her,
I get this slightly dirty look

Jammin' in class, she wouldn't let me have anything to play with

Day 2

What a great day! Grace had fun, giggling and smiling and occasionally shrieking, all day today. We started the day with making cards for the retirement home, Brighton Gardens, and Grace colored and helped me put stickers on her cute little card. She danced and clapped in chapel, listened incredibly well to Horton Hears a Who and made an adorable Horton puppet. 

We even went to see Coach Kayla at the gym, where we ran around and played with balls, hippity hops and a balance beam (Grace liked to sit on it). We finished the day with an awesome lunch, Grace ate more than half of a PB&J sandwich and applesauce. 

Grace only pulled hair twice today. Poor sweet Corbin didn't even flinch when she grabbed a fistful of his hair. Luckily I separated the two of them and minus one more incident with a little girl with long curly hair, there were no other incidents.

When I told Ginna that Grace had eaten such a good lunch, she laughed and (I love this) said "oh my gosh Katlin, I want to kiss your face!" 

So glad today was so good!

Your name is written on the hand of God.
Isaiah 49:16

Pushing the baby around, Grace got a kick out of putting a toy bottle to its mouth.

A person's a person, no matter how small. 

We love our Horton puppet!

Listening so well to Horton Hears a Who!

Grace is part of the flower garden...she was always too active to get a great picture.

Day 1

We survived! Grace seemed to enjoy summer school...for the most part. There was minimum hair pulling and pinching, during which I learned that I should probably get used to wearing my hair in a high, tight bun. I mean, I hopefully look like Natalie Portman in Black Swan (minus the crazy) when I rock that bun, so it's no problem, right? Grace quickly learned that pinching my arms doesn't fly with me; so, when it came time to apologize, she'd give a quick rub on the arm and then sprint off to whatever else caught her eye.

First craft of the day...Grace: favor of God (English)

Craft #2
 She actually enjoyed choosing strips of tissue paper,  but I think she enjoyed eating the glue more...

Who knew a 6 year old could like National Geographic so much?

Doing a puzzle with Mrs. Jones. Grace even helped clean up.

Had to take a break at one point, hanging out in the hallway

We did crafts, sang, listened to stories and danced our way through the day until it was time for her daddy to come pick her up. All in all, not so bad! And many thanks to her sweet mom Ginna who brought me a cute card, flowers and a lifesaver, the wheelchair: complete with the instructions to "just strap 'er in!!"

Jitters!

Tomorrow's the big day!  I've babysat her and hung out with her at Sunday School but I am so looking forward to working with Grace in a school setting.

Nevertheless, I am so nervous for the new experience. This sweet girl moves fast and thinks even faster! I know it can be tough keeping her happy and working but I'm up for the challenge.   

I am so thankful for the amazing network I'll have backing me up and would much appreciate prayers for both of us tomorrow!  

In the words of Grace's awesome mom 

"Looking forward to tomorrow...praying for a sweet, no hair pull day :)"