Toddler Art Class

Grayson started a toddler art class a couple weeks ago at the train museum.  It is geared for kids 3 and younger which I found wonderful since many are for kids 3 and up.  The teacher introduces the kids to different art forms each week and seems to understand her audience very well!  She invites them to sit together on the carpet to talk about the materials first and discuss them, but knows that kids will be kids and may not want to sit for longer than a few seconds!  The first week the kids got to explore textures in art and glue different materials onto cardboard.  There are 2 little girls and then about 5-6 boys in the class.  It was funny to see the little girls sitting on the floor touching the materials, listening to the teachers questions, and talking with her.  Where were the boys??  Well, Grayson and two little boys were more interested in the train table.  Another boy was reading books instead.  And the last was over coloring a picture.  None of the boys wanted to sit on the floor!  Imagine that!  Glad it wasn't just Grayson though!  I did manage to get his attention on glue though once she brought that out and he glued a few things on his board then went right back to the trains!

Ryley hanging out at art class!

The second week, we walked in and Grayson ran straight to the train table and saw it was covered up.  Needless to say, we had a 2 yr old moment with him bawling and throwing himself on the ground!  He was NOT happy!  He tried running out of the room while saying "All done... all done!".  I finally convinced him to come sit at the carpet with me when he stopped crying and noticed she had playdough.  Thank goodness it was something he was interested in!  The kids got to make things with playdough, model magic, and clay.  Grayson played with the model magic for awhile and we made a handprint to take home.  But then he was more interested in coloring a Chuggington picture which kept him busy until she uncovered the train table to play again before the time was up.  

Ah man... do I HAVE to wear this?!

This past week was painting day!  Funny how EVERY single kid was attentive and sitting quietly at a table this time!  It was a small crowd this week so she had extra canvases and each kid got to paint two.  We left them at class to dry and this Friday I'll get to bring his home and we'll hang them up in his room for decoration! :)  He loved to paint and it was a treat to have Daddy get to come with us since he had a 4 day weekend for St. Patty's Day.  After the canvases were covered in paint, the kids went outside to "paint" with water and sidewalk chalk. We had a little bit of a "teaching" moment at that point with Grayson not wanting to share.  

Painting a snake

This next will be more painting but this time with watercolors!

2 Months old!

So... are they the same?  Or different?  I found a picture of Grayson at about 2 months which is the one on top.  All the ladies at the gym childcare tell me that they know exactly who Ryley's big brother is because the boys look so much alike. :)  They definitely have similarities! 

At Ryley's 2 month checkup last week, he weighed 12.4 lbs and was 24 inches long!  That puts him about 46% in weight and 77% in height.  Looking back to Grayson's baby calendar, I see that Ryley weighs almost a pound more than Grayson did at that age, but is a half inch shorter.  I also notice Ryley getting little creases in his legs and having a rounder, chubbier face than Grayson ever had.  It will be interesting to see how they grow up and see if Ryley continues to look similar to Grayson in features or not.  I'm happy to say Ryley is still sleeping like a champ and last night he even slept through the night!  *knock on wood*  I'm hoping he keeps it up!  It's definitely a nice change from when Grayson was a baby!

Sidewalk Paint, First Haircut, and Birthday Party! :)

Spring has sprung here in Georgia!  Of course it seems like winter never came, but my tulips and daffodils are starting to bloom out front and we've been busy fixing up the yard with flowers, grass seed, a garden and starting spring cleaning this weekend.  Of course, with spring, people think of sun and warm weather which we have had no shortage of here!  The down side to the warm weather is the darn biting gnats!  Here I always hope for a strong breeze when it's warm like this because it keeps the gnats at bay, but haven't had many days like that yet.  One sunny afternoon while dinner was in the oven, I made up some sidewalk paint and Grayson had fun painting on the driveway.  Ryley had fun too hanging out in the sun. He was all smiles sitting in his bouncy seat as Grayson and Mommy painted together.  While painting, Daddy came home so he joined Grayson on the fun while Mommy and Ryley went inside to finish getting dinner ready.

Grayson also got his first haircut this last weekend!  A lady I met at McDonalds referred me to the salon she goes to with her 3 yr old since there aren't any specific kids cut places around Savannah.  He wasn't too keen on sitting in the chair on his own or wearing the shawl, so he sat on my lap and we got hair all over both of us! :)  The ladies were great there!  The receptionist pulled out the basket of rollers that Grayson had a blast putting the small ones through the bigger ones, and the hairdresser managed to get his haircut despite the constant head movements.  I was amazed!  They obviously cut many toddlers hair and have learned the tricks to getting it done as quickly as possible!  He even let her use the trimmers on his neckline and smiled while she did it saying "tickle tickle".  

Later that day, his friend Shelby had her 2nd birthday.  Shelby and her sister came over for Grayson's birthday and we were honored to share in her small little party as well.  Grayson and Shelby will have the best of times when they're together and are all smiles!  Shelby's mom, Mel, had asked me to make Shelby's cake after seeing Grayson's birthday cake.  Shelby loves Elmo so I made a larger Elmo cake that the parents ended up eating and then Elmo cupcakes for the kids.  The great part about baking and going to someone's house is that you don't have to take the leftovers!  It was a great time hanging out with friends and watching the kids play!  

Playtime and Home Projects

Grayson loves to "play" with Ryley!  However, I have to constantly remind him that he can't lay on top of him. :)  He likes to grab Ryley and try to pick him up or give him big hugs.  Ryley does great most of the time and doesn't seem to mind Grayson being in his face.  I've started noticing too that Ryley doesn't like to be left alone.  He'll get fussy when I step out of eye shot of him, but when Grayson goes to him, he settles down and is happy again.  

We got busy this weekend working on things around the house and outside.  Spring is definitely in the air.... guess it never left GA since it's been warm all winter! :)  We decided to take the rainy day we had Saturday to head to Lowes and get things to start a garden in the backyard, flowers for some of my pots, and paint for the playroom.  We spent Saturday painting since it rained non stop that day.  Then Sunday it cleared up and we spent the afternoon outside working on the raised garden bed and potting flowers.  Grayson of course wanted to help with everything.  

The playroom is underway!  It's no longer yellow and pink! :)  We painted it all a light blue with two sections of black chalkboard paint.  I finished painting grass along the bottom of all the blue sections today.  Tomorrow I'll begin working on painting clouds on the slanted ceiling.  Next will be finding glow in the dark stars to put on the slanted ceiling of the black nook area.  Grayson and Daddy like to lay on their backs in that area when playing in the playroom so we want to paint a moon and find stars to put up there for them to look at together.  I'll also take white paint and put an alphabet border on the large chalkboard wall near the doors to the boys rooms.  I really want to find the courage to paint a tree in the tall corner of the playroom with branches and leaves extending onto each wall and ceiling so it's like you're standing under the tree in that corner.  I'm not an artist though and it would probably turn out weird!  We'll see!  I'll be heading to Michaels this week to look for stencils or stamps I can use for bugs to make it easier.  If I can't find any, then I may attempt some easy ones like ladybugs and bees free hand!  I'm hoping to get most of the playroom done before we have lots of visitors coming at the end of March through beginning of April.  They better watch out though... painting the playroom got me brainstorming other rooms and I may put them to work helping me paint during nap time! :)