Our little Gracie is about to turn four. When I think back on this past year, three words come to mind to describe her. She is organized, creative, and brave.
Grace is organized. She loves order, structure, and logic. This is the quirkiest and funniest part of her personality.
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| Watching the clouds roll into the mountains in Northern Thailand. |
One day I asked her little sister what her favorite color was. She answered "Pink." Then, I asked Grace. She responded, "Red. And my favorite color tomorrow will be orange. And after that, yellow." And so she continued through all the colors in rainbow order.
Grace enjoys creating countdowns for big events. Several weeks before her 4th birthday, Grace told us she wanted to create her birthday countdown 11 days before her birthday. Every day or two, she would check in to ask how many days until her birthday.
One day, I told her that there were 14 days left until her birthday. The next day in the bath after not mentioning it all day, she told me out of the blue, "Mommy, there are 13 days until my birthday. Tomorrow there will be 12 and then the next day, there'll be 11, and then we'll make a countdown!" Lover of order, structure, numbers, and logic to the core.
Grace has also been working hard to figure out how reading works. She knows the sounds of English and Thai letters and she has started to sound out English words. I remember one day after her bath, she asked me what was written on the toilet. "Mogen," I said. She practiced reading it everyday. Then, one day, she read it backwards accurately, "Negom" and laughed. That's when I knew she had figured out how reading works.
Grace is creative and imaginative. Grace loves to talk. She always has ideas, stories, memories, and questions brimming out of her. But, if we give her art supplies, she stops talking (!) and gets lost in her own little world of imagination and creativity. She draws pictures of gardens, the beach, rainbows, and clouds. When she's finished, she sometimes gives elaborate explanations of everything going on in her art.
Grace also loves music and dancing. She particularly enjoys learning Thai kids' songs, even more than English songs, and she loves having dance parties after dark with the lights off, the music loud, and her light up rings flashing.
Grace is brave. I've never felt more proud of Grace than this past year as I've watched her go from being a toddler living in America to a preschooler growing up in Thailand. It's been a hard transition, causing nightmares and category five tantrums. Watching her persevere through all the difficulties and learn to enjoy life here makes us so proud.
Because of her bravery, she's gone from knowing just a few Thai words to being able to understand everything her teachers tell her and beginning to speak a little bit. This past year, she also learned how to ride a bike with training wheels, she went down a water slide all by herself, she rode a pony, and she fed an elephant and a giraffe at the zoo. She is naturally very cautious, so all of these new things were scary to her, but she decided to be brave and ended up enjoying them all.
Grace, Mommy and Daddy could not have thought you up. We love everything about you from your passion for numbers and structure to your love of music and art. We think you're an amazing kid!
Darling! This post really reminded me of my first born in so many ways. Well, on the first point at least! You know, sometimes I wonder if the cat. 5 tantrums aren't related to the loss of structure and patterns and logic they had to make sense of their American worlds. PS: I wrote a quirky creative post from his perspective when he turned four called "This is my world." I was reminded of it when I read your sweet tribute here. Hard to believe he is turning five this week!
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