More Cinderella

Charlotte likes to play complicated pretend games and she wants you to play with her, but she tells you line by line what you are supposed to do and say. And she stops and corrects you if you get it wrong. She wanted to act out the scene from Cinderella when the Prince first sees her at the ball and then they dance and then she runs away and leaves her slipper behind. She danced with Derek a bit but Grace called him away. She then said I could play with her, but I had to pretend to be a boy. OK, got it. She wanted me to run after her when it came to the part about the clock striking midnight and Cinderella running away. She realized as she explained it that I am not very into running these days (I always veto the parts in the game where I have to run, although she did convince me to do jumping jacks the other day which I sorely regreted immeadiately afterwards.) She stopped sort of mid-sentence and said "and then we're going to run - er, um - walk fast over there to my carraige and then you're going to...".

3 years old

Here are a few quick images from Gracie's birthday yesterday. It was a nice day. 3 doesn't seem to quite get the once a year excitement and anticipation as well as 4 does and Grace is not really the most natural center of attention, but I definitely think she had fun. It was really nice to be with Mom and Pat and Ron and Laura throughout the weekend to celebrate another year of my little daughter's life.

Expressing her desire not to be photographed.



Some present opening. If it says Disney Princess, you know it's a big hit.






Her Cinderella cake. Grace loves Cinderella. She says Cin-da-wella, with the accent on the last 'wella' part.




Charlotte wearing the Cinderella dress that Grandma got for Grace. It fits Charlotte great, so Gracie only needs about 3 inches before it is perfect for her. Halloween, for sure.


Derek will be mad that this is not in color, but to me it just begged for black and white.

A new toy

Charlotte and I went to Toys R Us about a month ago and bought a Nintendo DS as sort of an impulse buy. It has been a big hit. It is a nice little system. It is very stylus-based and both kids picked it up quick. Charlotte plays many of the kid games like a pro and figures out pretty quick how to do stuff. Grace plays much better than I would have guessed, too. They both totally get it.

Right now, they actually play very well together (although I definitely see buying another one in our future). They share and take turns and watch each other play. And the clouds open up and a beam of light shines down straight into my heart.




Is it wierd that I consider this one to have serious enlarging and framing potential. One of my favorites in a very long time.



Grace playing by herself.




One of the things that I looked forward to doing with my kids before we even had kids was video games. I love video games. This has been really fun for me, actually. Charlotte and I play Super Mario Brothers together. Either she runs and I jump or, on hard levels, I control Mario and she manages the mushroom/flower/shell inventory. The other day our neighbor Crystal was over to play and she and Charlotte were in the bedroom playing the Disney Princess game on the Nintendo. From my office I heard Charlotte tell Crystal proudly, "my mommy has a game, too, and she lets me play it with her!" Like it was such a big deal. And to borrow a line from Dooce, I almost passed out with love for the little twerp.