Friday, November 18, 2011

Grayson and Brooklyn.... back together again!

Grayson has been "friends" with Brooklyn since they were just hours old!  Of course, their friendship is forced upon them by the fact that we are close friends with Brooklyn's parents, Eric and Lareasa.  The story of their "friendship" is unique in the fact that they share the same birthday.  Not only were they born on the same day, they were also born in the same hospital room.  Some of you may have heard the story, but for those who haven't... here you go!  Our friends Eric and Lareasa Mettler found out they were pregnant about a month before we found out.  Then, once I had gone to the doctor and had my first ultrasound, we discovered that our due dates were less than a week apart.  January came upon us quickly and Lareasa's due date came and went... much to her dismay!  Will of course returned home from Afghanistan and 2 days before my due date I went into labor.  Grayson was finally born at 4:26 am on January 26.  Only a few hours after we left the delivery room the Mettlers came into the hospital ready to have their little girl.  She ended up being put into the same delivery room we just left and little Brooklyn was born late that night!  It has been fun watching the two grow up and it was sad to have to move away from them last year.  They happened to be our first visitors to Georgia just this past week when they came to visit with Brooklyn and her new baby sister!  More blogs and stories about our adventures with the Mettler family are coming next! Here are just a few pictures of Grayson and Brooklyn together over the past year and a half.  :)

Brooklyn & Grayson-1 month




4 months



8 months

14 months

22 months

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Adventures since Daddy came home

Will got home on November 3rd!  Grayson was a little confused it seemed when Daddy walked through the door since he had been so used to seeing Daddy on the computer rather than in person.  However, he was quickly excited to be able to hug his Daddy and have someone to wrestle with again!  We've been busy since he came home getting some things together around the house, hunting for a new bed that we've been wanting to get for ourselves, and getting ready for friends from Washington to come visit.  Here are a few pictures of what Grayson has been up to since Daddy came home. :)  As you can tell her loves his stickers!






Grayson was also happy to have Daddy home to swing with!  He's gotten really good at hanging on to the swing so he can swing like a "big kid".



Daddy got him a special treat one night and we rented the new "Winnie the Pooh" movie from redbox for Grayson to have a "movie night".  He sat with all his Pooh characters and loved watching it.  He'd never really seen a Pooh show and has only read a few Pooh books.  But now he LOVES Pooh and has to have his Pooh stuffed bear with him in bed each night.




Of course there's more pictures of stickers!  This time he found it fun to stick them all over his belly. :)

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Halloween 2011

Grayson had a fun Halloween this year although we missed having Daddy around with us!  After we went to the Poppell Farm Pumpkin patch, we had decorated his little pumpkin and carved the big one.  I got the big pumpkin because Daddy gave me a hard time about not carving a pumpkin with Grayson.  I figured Grayson would love getting into the pumpkin "guts" and would like to "help" carve it.  Surprisingly, he wanted nothing to do with it!  He watched as I scooped out the seeds and I tried to get him to scoop some out, but when asked he quickly replied "no... no".  Then when I showed him the seeds in the bowl and showed how he could play in the bowl, he again said "no".  He was content with his Sharpie markers coloring his little pumpkin and could have cared less if we carved a pumpkin!  He also loved the fact that this little pumpkin had a long enough stem that he could carry around the pumpkin.  Took a bit to get him to leave his pumpkin on the front steps with his other one!  

Not sure if he got more marker on the pumpkin or his legs!






On Halloween I let him wear his dino costume all day.  Figured what other day would it be fitting for him to walk around town like a dinosaur!  However, it was hard at times to keep him in it due to the fact that he loves to unzip it!  




That morning we made some pumpkin sugar cookies.  I attempted to let him "help".  However, I know now to make sure I have the dough made up first.  For some reason I could not get the dough the right consistency and while trying to get it less sticky, he kept getting in the way and Mommy was loosing patience.  Once we got the dough rolled out though, things went better.  Grayson loved cutting out the pumpkin and when he would run out of room on the rolled out dough he'd  say "more puh puh (pumpkins)" and get mad when I wouldn't get to rolling out the dough again fast enough for him. :)  He pitched a small fit when the dough was all gone and he couldn't cut any more pumpkins out, but it quickly subsided thankfully!






After nap time, we decorated the pumpkins.  He attempted frosting them, but quickly found more enjoyment out of putting sprinkles on the cookies.  Mommy couldn't frost them quick enough for him!  As I was trying to frost the cookies, he kept taking the unfrosted ones from the pile and taking bites out of them!  Guess he was just doing a "quality check" on them to make sure they were ok! :)  He also found that he really liked eating the orange sprinkles!  By the time we finished, his fingers were stained orange along with his mouth.  Once the cookies were done he was in heaven to have a cookie break and finish eating one of the cookies he took a big bite out of at the beginning.














That evening we went trick-or-treating.  Grayson wasn't too sure what to think at first.  He loved seeing all the neighbor kids outside too, but didn't know what to do when ones with masks would come up and say his name.  The first few houses he wasn't quite sure what was going on, but as he kept seeing more and more candy fill up his little pumpkin basket he got excited.  He kept pulling pieces out, showing them to me, and saying "an-e" (candy).  He typically doesn't eat chocolate or candy (even when we have offered it to him he usually turns it down).  However, the kiddo has become a fan of suckers and smarties.  When he started getting more suckers he really got into the whole idea of trick-or-treat and would run up to the house when the adult would be sitting on their front porch waiting for kids.  He did really well trying to say "trick or treat" and would say "ank u" (thank you) before leaving each house.  There were a couple houses with decorations that made noise or moved and he wasn't too sure about those.  He'd walk up while keeping his eyes on those decorations, not even noticing the candy that was going in his basket.  He was happy to be walking away and eager to move on to a new house!  Once we got home, we were able to Skype with Daddy for a little bit and he found every sucker in his basket and showed it to us.  He wanted to eat them so bad that he started sucking on them with wrappers on.  It was fine until a wrapper broke and he could actually taste the watermelon sucker.  He had a grip on that sucker after that and was NOT happy Mommy took it away and wouldn't let him eat it before bed!  The candy is now stashed away in the kitchen and he was happy to get some smarties as a treat today.  :)  







Overall, it was a fun Halloween and I'm sure next year Grayson will be even more excited!  

A mind of his own!

 Grayson is definitely getting a mind of his own these days!  My "baby boy" is growing up into a little man right before my eyes!  He loves to put on my shoes these days and walk around the house.  Not sure if he's more proud of himself for being able to walk in them, or if he likes the sound they make on the hardwood floor.  Probably a little of both. :)  


It wasn't until just this week that Grayson ever showed any interest in what he was wearing.  He woke up from nap and was playing in his room.  He found the tote that was holding his pajamas and found his dinosaur pj's.  I was resting on his bed as he played and he crawled up, put the shirt in front my face and "roared".  Then he kept saying over and over "on" until I let him take off the clothes he was wearing and put on his dino shirt.  He wasn't satisfied with just the shirt however, and needed the pajama shorts that went with it.  Once we got downstairs, he climbed on his dino scooter with his snacks and was a happy boy "roaring" around the kitchen.  Good thing we didn't have any errands to do that afternoon since it has gotten more chilly and shorts would have been cold.  I don't think I would have been able to convince him to put pants on!  He was set on being a dinosaur that afternoon. :)