Time for a post

It's been 6 months since I've posted anything. Yep, about time. I've realized I'm better at reading blogs than keeping ours updated. Understatement.

So, the name of our blog is officially not accurate anymore. We finally moved Grayson out of his crib and into a big boy bed this past weekend. He has been perfectly content in his crib all this time, and never tried to climb out. (Although, my mom and I have had suspicions at her house, but that is a different story). I didn't really want to rock the boat before we had to, and possibly mess up his sleeping habits, so I drug my feet. And made excuses. And then drug my feet some more. But, I finally gave in when I realized it was time to start working on the nursery before I hit my 3rd trimester and rearranging furniture seems like torture (And this mindset is really comical because I generally just stand and point while David's big muscles do all the work. Hehe.)
I'm happy to report, however, that Grayson has done fabulous in his big boy bed since Day 1. I've shed way more tears over this milestone than he has. I'm blaming pregnancy hormones so don't judge my sappiness. My baby boy isn't a baby anymore. Now on to pottty training. We'll get there eventually. My goal is before high school graduation. I never claimed to be ambitious.

Here are my some of my favorite moments of the last 6 months....

-Back at Christmas time (oh geez, I'm a slow poster), Grayson came up to me one day and handed me a scrap of paper he found. I inquired what it was. He told me it was a Christmas card with him and baby Jesus playing hide-and-seek on it. He should work for Hallmark :)

-Two last one-liners from his crib....he was attempting a nap one afternoon when I hear "Mama, mama! Come here quick!" When I went to see what the emergency was he announced "I got celery in my pants!" I chuckled and started heading for the door when he repeated it and started wiggling.
Upon closer inspection, I found a little plastic toy celery in his jeans. Of course.

Another day it went like this "Mama, I've got a pwobwem!" I rush in and he says "I need my animals set up!"
I guess when you are 3 years old the arrangement of your stuffed animals can be a deal breaker.
-Overheard..."Attention Maya Pants, dis is da police! Put down your bone and go peepee!"

-Grayson and I generally have a conversation in the morning about our plans for the day. One morning he announced he had an idea, "Let's go to Pappy G's yesterday!" (He groups my parent's together so their house is Pappy G's).

-Before we found out the gender of our new little one, we would ask Grayson if he wanted a little brother or a little sister. His consistent reply, "I want a big brudder!" And then when we asked what he wanted to name the baby he says "Sticky". He answers this way every time. It makes David and I laugh so much that we now refer to this kid as "Baby Sticky" or "Baby Sticky's room". I think Sticky has stuck :)

-Part of Grayson's nightly going-to-bed ritual includes a "Music Show" where he performs a medley of songs for David and I. David must "ounce" (announce) him before he begins, and then upon completion Grayson bows and proudly says "Dank you bery much everbody!"

-A record breaking winter here in TX with several days of snow is confusing to a toddler. The last time it snowed, which was in February, Grayson woke up and looked out the window and said "It's Christmas time mama!" I didn't have the heart to tell him that he probably won't see snow at Christmas EVER again in his lifetime.

-Funny comments in the car. One day we were running errands and he randomly busts out with "Dis is amazing!" We were driving through a strip mall I think.
And, one night David and I made a Braum's run and Grayson got his own milkshake. David asked him if he liked it as he was happily sipping away in the back seat. After a long pause, "Dewicious!" was all we got between slurps.

-Latest things he has been doing around the house...Singing "The customer is always right" and "Steer Baby Steer" from Backyardigans at random times. And, feeding Maya all by himself and giggling when she gets really perturbed by the process.

Quotes that make me chuckle

Here are my favorite Grayson quotes of late...

This morning after breakfast, he tapped me on the leg and said "Mama, I wanna go to space. And get a stah (star)."
"Okay have a nice trip!" I responded.

Later, in the car, he announced "I'm gonna have a good abbitude today!" I was so excited he came up with that on his own, without my prompting, that I responded "That is so good buddy!" I'm sad to report that about 3 minutes later my "abbitude" went downhill after a frustrating parking experience. Pretty positive "do as I say, not as I do" isn't an effective parenting motto.

Most mornings one of the first things I ask Grayson when I get him out of bed is "Did you sleep well?" I've been extra foggy lately I guess because a couple of days I've accidently asked "How did you sleep?" His response every time..."I sweep on pillow wif my bwanket and animals."
Of course.

He's been fighting naps and bedtime a little harder lately. He has no shame when it comes to stall tactics. Reading books, several drinks of water, requesting a song to be sung, rubbing his back, his blanket laid out a certain way. He also usually cries for the opposite person of whoever is putting him to bed. The other night he got creative and kept saying "I want Yeye! I want Yeye!"
No buddy, even doting aunts cannot keep you from going to bed.

Grayson Art

I'm very thankful that Grayson loves to draw or color while I'm making dinner. Some of the time at least. The other night he proudly announced "Look at my picture Mama!" Of course, I oohed and awed, and then inquired what the picture was. He snapped his head to look at me, and with a tone that gave me a preview of what the teenage years might bring he said, "Mooooom, it's a dinosaur in a boat!" I swear I saw him roll his eyes too, as if to say "Anyone could have seen that! Duh mom!"
As I was laughing hysterically that I hadn't interpreted his art as accurately as he had desired, he also pointed out that he had signed his name at the bottom...
"G, R, Grayson...that is how you spell it."

Thank you for the art and spelling lesson buddy. I obviously needed it :)

One of "those" weeks, continued

So, the week continued. There was no stopping it. Tuesday got a tad better on the sickness front, but we had one of those long boring days stuck inside because I was too terrified to attempt any kind of an outing after the whole WalMart fiasco. It's so fun feeling awful and trying to entertain a very active 2 and a half year old boy. Inside. All day long. By Wednesday, both Grayson and I were climbing the walls. (Remember, this is the kid who asks me every morning as soon as I flip on the light, "What we doin today Mama?") We needed to get out, so I decided I would brave going out in public again. We could stretch our legs and get some fresh air at a new park we had been wanting to try. Out we went.

We didn't get past the garage.

When I tried to start our car, the engine was completely dead. I figured it was the car battery, so I tried calling David but he was in a meeting and couldn't answer. A quick call to Pappy confirmed it. Again, Grayson was distraught. He kept grabbing my hand and trying to drag me inside the house saying, "Mama, in here. Battwees in dis dwawer!" I had to applaud his rationale. He had heard me say the battery was dead in the car, so why wouldn't we use the batteries in our junk drawer that we always use to fix his broken toys? It made perfect sense. If only it was that easy.

It was at this point that I had to make a decision. I could either stay at home again all day and wait for David to fix my car when he got home from work, or try to fix it myself with a toddler in tow. Looking back, I was a bit crazy in the head. I had jumper cables in my trunk so Grayson and I walked next door to ask our little sweet neighbor, Mary, if we could borrow her car in order to jump mine. She is the best neighbor and even though she is a widow and probably in her 70's, she has a busier social life than David and I could ever dream of. She cracks us up. Anyway, she was looking good this Wednesday morning with her red lipstick and all, and she told me she was on her way out with her friends who were about to pick her up. Insert grin here. However, she didn't hesitate and immediately handed over her car keys and was completely trusting that I would safely return her car. I love having great neighbors. I'm pretty sure I heard some good-natured giggles and laughter from her car of old lady friends as they were pulling out, and Grayson and I were pulling HER car into OUR garage :)

My dad walked me through how to jump the car, and I was overly cautious so as not to kill myself somehow, or let Grayson "work" on the engine like he was trying to do during this whole process. I got it jumped on the first try, ran inside, grabbed my purse and a sippy cup, googled an auto place by our house, and off we went. I remembered that David's mom was home from work that day so I called her to ask if she would stay by her phone just in case we got stranded on the side of the road. (Thank you Jen for being my safety net!) We made it to the auto place and sat on the blazing hot curb while the guy replaced the battery for us. The eye-level candy inside the air conditioned store was too much for Grayson to handle. However...we were successful in our car adventure!!! It was lunch time by this point and determined to make the day fun somehow, I called a friend and we still got to meet her and her little boy at Chick-Fil-A.
Whew. We made it another day.

One of "those" weeks

Grayson and I had one of "those" weeks a while back. You know the ones where you are so thankful when the weekend finally rolls around because it means you somewhat survived the days prior? Maybe I'm being a tad dramatic, but I've been wanting the chance to write this one down so I can go back and laugh at myself and my little munchkin helper for months and years to come. I'll try to leave out the gory details, but if you are faint of heart, or have a strong gag reflex, you may want to stop reading. Right now. However, if you want a good laugh and another reason why you sometimes see moms with frizzy hair mumbling to themselves, then read on.

The week started off like any other except that I had gotten food poisoning the weekend before. I pretty much stayed at home on the couch while David and Grayson did boy things all weekend. When Monday rolled around I had convinced myself that I could "mind over matter" my sickness and I couldn't be sick anymore because I had too much to do. So, off to WalMart we went for our weekly grocery shopping. Glamorous I know. Anyway, I started feeling a little weird on the way there so I thought a quick stop at the nearby Sonic would be good for two reasons. A small Sprite to settle my stomach, and kid-size apple juice slush would keep Grayson nice and occupied at the store for a while. After our quick stop we made it into the store, but before we even got down the first aisle, I realized I had to go the bathroom. And quickly. Very quickly!!! I started running, actually sprinting, and pushing the cart as fast as I could toward the front of the store where the restrooms are and the whole time Grayson is squeeling in delight and saying "We go fast Mama! Weeeeeee!!!" I plucked him out of the cart, threw both of our Sonic drinks in my huge "mom purse" and make it into the stall before disaster struck. Or so I thought.

In my haste, I guess didn't get my purse hung on the door hook very well so within seconds of the stall door closing, my purse AND all it's contents, AND both our drinks go crashing to floor. All over the disgusting, sticky, cleaned once a month or less Walmart bathroom floor. My germaphobe self was hating life at this point, but I was still just thankful that we made it. Poor, sweet Grayson was so upset by the spilled-drink-purse-mess on the floor, that he started crying and grabbing handfuls of toilet paper to try and "help" clean up. I kept reassuring him that everything was okay and I would get him another drink soon. Then, all of sudden, a lady runs into the stall next to us, and very loudly starts vomiting...over and over again. Did I mention it was loud? Grayson's eyes got huge and I realized he had never heard that sound before and it was downright terrifying to him. Heck, it was downright terrifying to me too. He started wailing at the top of his lungs, with tears streaming and hands full of soggy toilet paper, "Maaaamaaaaa, I wanna go home!!!! Let's go hommmmmeeeee!!!!!" There was nothing I could do at that point except feel bad for all three of us in that bathroom.

Once the lady left and Grayson and I finally de-germed as much as we could, I decided that since we were there already, we might as well get something done. We did a super market sweep and grabbed the essential grocery items we needed for the week. Finally, we made it home and both took naps. Much needed naps. And that was Monday. I warned you it wasn't for the faint of heart. More on the rest of the week later...

One-liners, not neccessarily from the crib

I haven't blogged in awhile, but don't worry. Grayson doesn't disappoint. Here are some of his one-liners this past month that made me chuckle...

-He and Maya (our dog) were playing chase around the house. I love this game because it entertains and wears them out. At one point, he stops and says "Maya, you're crazy!" You think he's heard me say this before?

-We were riding in the car when he very matter-of-factly said "Mom, I'm Jesus." I was in shock and about to wreck the car from laughter when he piped up with "Nah, I'm God." I mean, he pretends he's certain cartoon characters sometimes, but this is taking it to a whole new level.

-Another Maya one-liner. They are pretty tight. I had just handed Maya over to the groomer one day and he kept saying "Maya, taking bath? I want Maya back!" It was cute to see him worried about her.

-I guess I forgot to blog about our fireworks experience on July 4th. We met up with my family at Lake Grapevine and watched the fireworks they shot off from The Gaylord. Grayson loved the whole thing despite the fact that it was already dark when we put the blanket down in the grass, and he started screaming only 5 minutes into the show because he was covered in ants. Leslie and I also got bitten, and I'm not sure who screamed louder, him or us? Sweet little Grayson has never once mentioned the awful ants, but stills talks about how fun the fireworks were and how they went "Boom boom boom, pop pop pop!"

-David, Grayson and I like to take walks around our neighborhood after dinner when the weather is nice. Grayson's favorite thing is to walk up to the junior high school at the end of our street, and play on all the steps, ramps, tennis courts, etc. He's calls it a "Grayson adventure!" He's easily entertained. Anyway, the other night he got to running too fast on the sidewalk and fell down pretty hard. David and I instantly knew it was bad because he usually gets right back up, dusts his hands off, and keeps going. He was screaming and blood was running out of his mouth. We rushed him back and were trying to get him to rinse his mouth out with water, so we could assess the damage. Praying it wasn't his teeth and gums that were bleeding. Thankfully I figured out it was only a busted lip. He finally calmed down enough for us to understand what he was saying over and over. He said with tears running down his cheeks "I want to go on walk again!" As soon as we said yes, he immediately stopped crying and was back to his chipper self. He could care less about the blood and the lip, there was a junior high school calling his name :)

"First Movie"

Today I got a little sentimental for a silly reason. My friend Holly and I took our kids to the movie theater for a free showing of Madagascar 2. (A brilliant idea that Holly had since it's 105 degrees today, and by the way, she is full of these fabulous ideas :) Anyway, this morning while I was getting Grayson dressed I suddenly remembered a page in his baby book for all of his "firsts". When he was just a baby, I specifically remember looking at the spot titled "First Movie" and thinking "Well, that will be a loooong time before I fill that one in. It will be forever before he has the attention span for that!" At the theater, I got a little teary eyed as I looked over at him sitting in the seat beside me drinking his juice and loving every minute. Sniff sniff. (Of course, it only lasted 45 minutes before he decided that crawling under the seats and playing on the stairs was way more fun. Good thing it was free. And he had a nice full-blown temper tantrum on the way out to the car. So lovely :)

Update on "I Spy"...Grayson's latest obsession with this game turned into some clever manipulation last night. After dinner, Grayson broke out with "I spyyyy sumptin cookies, Mama. See sumptin cookies?" I had to give him props for the effort :)

I Spy

I died laughing the other morning when I heard Grayson in his crib playing "I Spy" by himself. Here's how it went, word for word...
"I spyyyy...sumptin bwack. See sumptin bwack?" Then, a short pause. "That's it!" he cried. Hahaha! I guess he found the bwack thing he had spied. Genius.

And when Pappy plays "I Spy" with him now, he knows the answer to Pappy's version of "I spy something sweet." Grayson obviously responds with the correct answer... "Grayson!" I can't wait for the day when Grayson tries to explain to Pappy that sweet isn't a color.

Grayson has been such a big helper lately and helps me put Maya in her crate before we leave the house, and then helps get her out when we get home. There is often a one-sided conversation during the process of course. This morning it went like this,
"Bye Maya Pants! We go to the grocewy store. See you wayter!" And then, when we got back he said "Hi Maya Pants! I got a sucka at grocewy store. Need to go peepee?" He doesn't care that Maya never responds.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Mom!

Last night, I had plans to eat dinner with friends, so David and Grayson were going to hang out at home together for a little father/son bonding. As I was getting ready, David was bracing himself for the usual crying and meltdown that Grayson does when he sees me leave, which is always worse around dinnertime because he's tired anyway. To keep the drama down, I try to keep my exits pretty nonchalant. I had just been spelling and motioning to David that I was about to L-E-A-V-E...so get ready!
Just then, Grayson looks at me and says "Bye Mom." And then goes about his business like he could care less who I was or wear I was going. He even threw in a extra touch and blew me a kiss on my way out the door. David and I jaw's dropped. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
I mean, really? As a stay-at-home mom I know I need healthy breaks from him to keep my sanity, and I figured the day would come when he would get sick of me too. But 2 1/2, really? To make myself feel better, before I had hit the end of the driveway, I decided that secretly he can spell and just likes to mess with our minds.

Oh Grayson

So I've thought many times in the past month "Oh Grayson. I have GOT to put that on the blog!" And yet, here I am, only remembering a few of them. So I will share what I have and hopefully refine my blogging skills soon.

Grayson cracked us up today when we were walking into church and David asked him what he was going to do while he was there. Grayson replied, "I play with toooysss, eat Goldfishhhh, and learn about Jesusss." Hahahaha! David and I joked that they should serve Goldfish to the adults too.

I forgot to post this on my last post, but Grayson has the habit of repeating words sometimes. I guess that is common for kids, don't know. He seems to only do it when he is really trying to drive a point home. For several months he would walk up to me and say "Hi Mommy Mommy!" It made me laugh every time which is probably why he kept doing it. And the other day, I got the triple threat..."What we do next Mommy Mommy Mommy?" Woah.

Yesterday was Maya's 4th birthday and all day long Grayson was singing "Happy Dirtday to Maya Pants".

Last weekend David was out of town so Grayson and I spent time out in Arlington. Pappy took us out on the boat and Grayson really wanted to tube. I had a few reservations about letting a 2 1/2 year old tube, but here we are...

Cartoons and Cuddling

Poor little Grayson got a fever yesterday morning and has had one all day today too. He's been pretty lethargic and keeps saying "Hold you Mama". That's toddlerese for "please hold me".
We spent most of the day on the couch watching cartoons and cuddling. I must admit, as sad as I was that he isn't feeling well, I can't think of a much better way to spend a Monday. He's still got a little spunk though because tonight after I gave him a dose of Tylenol he said, "Mmmmm, liciuos. Dank you mama!" David and I laughed because we didn't even know he knew the word, delicious. I guess this is an instance that I'm really glad he likes anything remotely sweet and sugary.

Inspiration

When David and I first started talking about having kids David once made me laugh out loud by saying, "I really hope we have a kid with my personality and your hair." Since what he was saying wasn't as arrogant as it sounds, I'll translate for you. Pretty much he wanted a kid with a crazy personality and crazy hair.
Thanks for that one David.
Regardless, that is what God decided to bless us with. Even though Grayson is barely over 2, we are pretty sure he has inherited both of those traits from him good ole mom and pop. So, these are some of Grayson's "moments" that inspired this blog in the first place. I don't want to forget them. In random order...

-Almost every morning while Grayson is eating breakfast he says "Cheers!" and he clinks his sippy cup of milk to my cup of coffee (carefully of course). My mom taught him that one when we lived with them.

-I'm convinced Grayson would stay outside all day long if I let him. Favorite activities include driving his firetruck, swinging, cooking food in his playhouse, walking up to the school by our house with David and doing the steps and ramps, and pretending to drive our cars and pushing all of the buttons. (I can't count the number of times I turn on my car and the radio blares, and the blinkers and windshield wipers start going!)

-Grayson loves to go on "Bamboo Adventures" with his Pappy. And occassionally other people get invited.

-Lately, Grayson has gotten pretty bossy in the car. I guess he has a good sense of direction because he generally knows where we are and if he doesn't like the destination he'll say "No, that way!!!!" and point in the direction he wants to go. Maybe we should mix things up a bit and go to different places for a change.

-I love that the other day Grayson dragged his Bibi into his room to show her all his toys and looked at us and said "Out!" He's two and we are already cramping his style.

-Six times now, I have walked into his room after his nap and found him pant less and diaper less. Sometimes with the added bonus of poo smeared everywhere. Six times he has gotten punished for this. You think he would learn. Maybe he senses the dilemma in my head of whether to laugh hysterically or start dry heaving.

-Grayson was a late walker and talker. Now he is making up for lost time, since he rarely slows down or meets a stranger. He loves to wave and talk to everyone we meet at the store, the dry cleaning lady, and pretty much anyone who will listen. He greets me every morning from his crib, before I even turn on the light, with a very loud "Hi Mama! Do today?" (which means, what are we going to do today?) He then rushes out of the room to go find Maya, our dog, and greets her with a very long sentence about random things. She is not a morning dog, so she just sits there and listens patiently and gives him a short happy lick when he is done. The whole thing makes me laugh every morning, which is no small feat since I usually haven't had a cup of coffee yet.

-I love that Grayson yells "Ellie! Anna!" everytime we see the Shelton girls, which is at least 2-3 times a week. He also threw a huge temper tantrum yesterday when he decided he would rather go home with them in their car rather than with me. Lovely.

-I love that Grayson gets to frequently play with his cousins Will and Anna Lee. I am somewhat fearful of the shenanigans they will get themselves into one day. Hopefully, Grayson won't be the instigator.

-I love that when we go out to eat with Holman's, we can sit Grayson and Cooper by each other and they totally entertain each other.

-Grayson says "nack" for snack, and "nake" for snake. Common kid stuff. I almost lost it the other night when David was sounding out "snack" for him, and he matter of factly looked at David and said "Nack, that's right Dada." Like, he was proud of David for saying it correctly. Ha.

-Grayson has one huge sweet tooth. He devours anything with a trace amount of sugar in it. He would shake his Easter eggs and say "Candy?" and if they didn't rattle he would throw them down until he found one that did.

-If he hears something out of the ordinary his eyes get real big and he will stick one finger up in the air and say "Hear it?"

-I love that Aunt Lele (my sister Leslie) can do no wrong in his eyes. Everything is hilarious when she does it. And that he prefers to hold her hand vs. mine when we are out and about.

-When asked who his favorite dada is he replies "Dada David" and favorite mama "Mama WeeAnn". He also calls for us by name from his crib sometimes. Weird.

-Some mornings when he wakes up before me I hear him call from his crib "Maaamaaaaa...wake up!!!"

-If our parents babysit for us, he is often heard saying the next morning "Bibi, are you?" or "G, are you?" (Which means, where are you? Come get me now).

-I love that everyday Grayson asks to go to school or music class. And to play with Play Doh. In that order. Before I have even lifted him out of his crib.

Obviously, I love his one-liners from his crib and I promise I don't leave him in there all the time. It was after hearing some of these funny things from his little self, that got me thinking "I have to write this down!"

Explanation

I started a blog in 2006 right before Grayson was born. Then, Grayson was born.
After the blur of several moves, a complete house remodel, and several job changes, I kind of started thinking about it again. Kind of.
But since we live really close to almost all of our family now, I didn't see the purpose. So like most things I get outspoken about, I stuck my foot in mouth a few too many times about stay-at-home moms who blog. Ouch. You can chalk that one up right behind me saying I would never be a nurse, get married right after college, or the one time I told a friend "Why would you ever want to live in Missouri?"
(Um, we did for 5 years. And it wasn't bad.)
So, I would like to recant my previous obnoxious statements about blogging. Please don't judge me.

With all that said, I'm not sure how I'll use this blog. I know some use theirs to stay connected, encourage others, or journal their feelings. I think my main purpose will be to record the hilarious and not so hilarious moments of Grayson's life that I know I won't ever want to forget. And even though I love the idea of cute scrapbooks, that is just not me. I'm a task oriented, right-brained kind of girl and I'm pretty sure Leslie got both our portions of creativity. So basically, I just want it written down so I can go back and remember. And, to repeat my tag line...
I type faster than I write. Plus it's legible.