Watch him learn & grow

Driving to work, and it’s been raining this morning. He says, “Is it raining hard, Mama?” I say, “yes, it was raining but now it isn’t anymore.” He asked if the rain was “all gone” and I told him I didn’t know. “It might rain again soon - who knows?” And he said with a knowing tone, “Becky knows.”

We drove by a cemetery and he wanted to go in. I wasn’t going to open the can of worms for explaining what a cemetery is exactly, but I told him that we needed a special invitation to go in. (Yeah, I hadn’t had my coffee yet, I don’t know.) So we went back and forth for a while, and I finally said, “You know, this is just really hard to explain.” and he said, “Maybe Daddy can explain it for us.”

(I think he must think Mama isn’t too bright!)

Whenever he asks where something is, and it isn’t within sight, he always ALWAYS asks two questions:
Grayson: Where’s the park?
Me: It’s… where it always is, but not here.
Grayson: Is it hiding? Is it all gone? (always the exact same inflection on these.)

One more:

We were having trouble getting some supper into him, and then he asked for chocolate milk. Bingo! We thought we could use that as leverage. So I said, “please eat your supper, and then you can have some chocolate milk.” And:

Grayson: “Okay, no chocolate milk then. No thank you.”

WE ARE DOOMED!!

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The other day Grayson popped the dreaded question that sets fear in the hearts of all new parents; the question that we know, once they start asking, they never stop asking. He was watching me shave my legs and said, “Why, Mama?” I gulped hard. “WHAT did you say, Grayson?”

“WHY, Mama?”

Oh boy. Here we go.

That same day, we were getting ready to go to Rick & Becky’s house for supper. I asked Seth something like, “What time are we going to your parents?” and Grayson perked up his ears and said tentatively, “Parents?” like he was testing the word out. So we tried explaining what it meant, that we were his parents, etc. Then this:

Seth: Rick and Becky are MY Parents. Becky is my mama, and Rick is my papa.

Me: And Nana Louie and Grandpa Gary are my parents. Nana Louie is my mama, and –

Grayson: (sounding very proud) –Grandpa Gary is MY mama!

Heh. So maybe we’ll tackle that concept a little later.

We went on a hike yesterday at Franklin Creek State Park and he kept up very well with us on the trail. He spent the first half going almost faster than we were… but then he ran out of steam and we had to carry him most of the way back. What a beautiful day.

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5 years ago today, Seth and I stood on a mountainside high over Boulder and, in front of our friends and family, took our vows and began our lives together.

It’s been a wonderful 5 years, and so much has happened. We got a dog, moved from Colorado to Illinois, built our house, changed jobs, and almost 2.5 years ago welcomed Grayson into our lives.

It just keeps getting better.

Here is a great video of a fun afternoon Grayson and I spent together. If you can get past the first few seconds of whining, there’s a great punchline.

Unfortunately we had to spend most of our day apart, due to work issues, but we plan to celebrate “officially” next weekend or so. Meanwhile, I got to spend my day with Grayson, and we enjoyed an absolutely beautiful cool summer day together.

Hope this finds everyone else doing well too!

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Nana Louie & Grandpa Gary are on their way here, and we’re all very excited about that. We’ll need the extra hands around here, because Mr. Grayson McSmartypants can now open all of our child-safety locks on all our house doors, including the ones that go outside. He can also get into the garage and open the garage door. I’m not sure what to do about that, since we have already installed those childproof things on all the doorknobs. Chains? Shackles? Last night he got out while I was going to the bathroom, and when I found him he was at our neighbor’s door. Yikes!

In other news, here are some of the things I’ve heard or overheard in the last couple of weeks that made me giggle:

Yesterday, at the park and playing with a BIG boy who was 5 years old.
Grayson, pointing up to the roof above the picnic table: “Look! A Roos!”
Other Boy: No, it’s a ROOF.
Grayson, getting all fired up: No, it’s a ROOS!
(Mom & Dad, does this remind you of anything like “scarfberries & boyboys”?)

The other night as we were driving home, just out of the blue, he said, “Good news… bad news.”

We saw a tractor in the road. Grayson shouted, “TRACTOR!!” For the longest time, “tractor” is our catchall word for everything that resembles any sort of tractor. Push lawn mowers, all the way on up to bulldozers and excavators. But we’ve been reading all about the different types of tractors, so I said, “That’s right. It’s a tractor. What kind of tractor is that? Is it a…. loader? or maybe a scooper?” Long silence, then I SWEAR he almost rolled his eyes at me as he said, very slowly, “TRACTOR, Mama.” (Like, dang she’s slow!)

He’s great on verb tenses; a few weeks ago I asked him, “Did A.J. drink that?” and he replied, “No, Grayson drank it!” so that impressed me, but now we’re getting all confused on pronouns again and he’ll ask, “Where’s him going?” Still, he seems very verbal at least in his “comfort zone”.

Not sure if I’ve ever mentioned here that he has a “comfort object” like most kids have blankies, a teddy bear, etc. Whenever he is tired, uncomfortable, or just feeling a little shy, he twiddles his belly button. It’s been going on a very long time, but it started out just whenever we’d read bedtime stories. He really pulls it out pretty hard, and twists it around, and sometimes I can’t even look! Now we have a pretty good barometer for his comfort level — if we see that t-shirt lift up a little, and his hand resting on his belly, we know he’s tired or something. Pretty weird, but at least we don’t have to worry about it getting lost or dirty!

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Not much time to write; Grayson is already running around this morning and needs breakfast soon.

His dental surgery was yesterday and went very smoothly. Within an hour of the anesthesia wearing off, he was almost back to normal. By 2 hours, you’d never know anything had happened, except that now he has two very large, white front teeth. MAYBE too large — but maybe it’s just that we were so accustomed to his small, decayed teeth.

We are happy and blessed that he will have a healthy mouth now. Yesterday he ate a wide variety of foods with no difficulty.

Here are some pictures (and more can be accessed by clicking on one and going to the flickr album.

mebeli

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I had to throw these two other videos in; the first involves him galloping in tight circles around the living room with his “jukebox”, and the 2nd is a good demonstration of his inherited “concentration tongue” habit.

Untitled from mcjessica on Vimeo.

Concentration Tongue

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And, a quick update:

Grayson did not have his dental procedure done yesterday. We got there at 6:15am and after the anesthesiologist examined him, they determined they wanted to hold off until he was not running a fever. So we came home; I am glad they waited, because he really wasn’t feeling well. We have had a couple of VERY rough nights with Seth and I only getting about 2-4 hours of sleep, and Grayson getting only 5 or 6, so right now I’m frustrated and tired (as is Grayson, I am sure.)

Anyway, some of the videos from the last couple of months:

Wedgits + Whining from mcjessica on Vimeo.

Vigorous Jumping! from mcjessica on Vimeo.

Jumping! from mcjessica on Vimeo.

Counting from mcjessica on Vimeo.

Oh, Medicine! from mcjessica on Vimeo.

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So, once again I am way overdue with an update. And once again I lack much time (or energy) to do it properly. So here’s the quick end of things:

• Grayson’s dental “surgery” is scheduled for this Friday, April 18th. For those who aren’t aware, Grayson’s teeth are very decayed, and the problem started before he was even a year old. Possibly he was born with an enamel defect in his baby teeth, which I also had as a baby. We first noticed what seemed like tiny little chips in his two front teeth, but everyone we talked to seemed unconcerned about it, including our pediatrician. By the time I finally wised up and just listened to my instincts to take him to a dentist, he already had cavities in 7 of his 16 teeth — 3 or 4 of them severe. The problem is most visible in his four top front teeth (central and lateral incisors). Those teeth are basically worn away to little, brownish, pitted nubs. Remarkably, it doesn’t seem to bother him very much. He has rarely demonstrated any pain or sensitivity in his mouth; mainly, he has learned to eat hard or chewy things with the side of his mouth. Anyway, to make a long story longer, we are having all of the teeth taken care of on Friday. We have to take him to Rockford Ambulatory, where they will anesthetize him and do several extractions, caps, crowns, and apply sealants to the rest. We are very nervous, but it will be a relief to take care of this. Over a year ago, we put him on a diet that is sometimes effective in remineralizing teeth. We gave him only whole milk to drink and very little water; we supplemented with fluoride tablets and brushed religiously with fluoride toothpaste. He rarely consumed refined sugar. The most sugar he consumed, outside of a birthday, was yogurt or whole fruit. He has always had a healthy appetite and really likes a large variety of foods, including vegetables, so we were lucky there. We gave no candy, no juice, no desserts except for rare and special occasions. I really can’t say that any of it helped at all. But it was still nice to give him that foundation — I am hoping that by feeding him in a healthy way, it will help us to get healthier too!
• Talking: He is talking up a storm. 4 and 5 word sentences mostly. Just a few weeks ago, if he wanted to know what I was doing, he’d say, “Do, Mama?” which was fantastically cute, but recently he started saying, “What’s Mama doin’?” and the like. He can count to about 15, though doesn’t seem to be able to count actual objects past two. Any group of like items is counted like this: “One, two! Two tractors, Mama!” I suppose we’ll get there! His speech is probably pretty typical of a 2 year old — not great at “L” or “R”, and the occasional, but very cute, lispy “S”. We’ve caught him singing snatches of the alphabet song, and he plays with the letter magnets on the fridge. He knows they are letters, but he doesn’t know the correct ones yet. He’s also become very aware of words in our books (we read a LOT of books here!) and seems to be very interested in what they say.
• Sleeping: He’s been in his own bed, in his own room, since the day after his 2nd birthday. We’ve had ups and downs, the downs mostly relating to illnesses. He has had 3 ear infections since the beginning of the year, which is discouraging. He’s currently fighting an ear infection, but despite that we seem to be on a pretty good track. What a difference this has made for all of us! He really took to it so well.

Here are some pictures — click on any of them and you will see the rest of the pictures in the set. Please keep Grayson in your thoughts and prayers this weekend as he recovers from his dental work.

Playing with his Wedgits — the coolest toy around!

Just like Seth, he totally does this thing with his tongue almost any time he’s doing anything that requires concentration.

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So, somehow we got in this habit of giving Grayson about a jillion blankets during rocking and then bedtime. I slowly cut them back, knowing it was overkill, and maybe even a little hazardous, until we ended up this list of blankets:

- the “Big Bob Blanket”: it’s a fairly large, but lightweight quilted Bob the Builder blanket
- the “Moon & Stars Blanket”: this was a handmade gift from cousin Betsy and is SO pretty
- the “Bear Blanket”: Just one very thin layer, with bears all over it
- Last, the “Soft soft soft soft Grayson James birthday Blanket”: SO soft! with his name & birthday embroidered on it, which was a gift from Aunt Barb. This blanket goes between him and the edge of the bed and usually ends up on the floor.

(The quotes above are because that is exactly what we call them, every single night, and sometimes more than once.)

So, in my quest to further eliminate excess blanketage, a few nights ago he was sleepier than usual, so when I laid him down I went through the usual list, naming the bear blanket, but just not actually putting it on him. Success! Until, about midnight, we heard him on the monitor suddenly yelling, “Mama, bear blanket! Bear blanket go? Mama, bear blanket!”

Seth and I looked at each other, amazed. This blanket is seriously thin enough to almost qualify as a flannel sheet. Further, it was always tucked between the moon & stars blanket and the bob blanket, so it wasn’t exactly visible in the first place. We still can’t decide exactly how he figured it out.

He’s very cute, and seems very smart. This week he had a nasty virus, AND an ear infection (his first). I have to admit to some sense of let-down when I heard he’d gotten an ear infection. Like somehow I’d failed as a mother, and then I realized that, (apparently), I’d been owning a small but embarrassing sense of superiority for the fact that he’d never had one. I’m so weird, and that’s so dumb. Anyway, he’s been VERY cranky, and I’m having a bit of a hard time dealing with the whining and demands when he is like this.

Oh, and TMI alert, for those who aren’t as comfortable hearing about boobs and their natural uses — you might not find this funny, but I did — mostly.

Driving home from the sitter’s house:

Grayson: “Mama has boobies!”

Me: “Um, yep. That’s true. Mama does have boobies.”

Grayson: “Grayson eats Mama’s boobies!”

Now, mind you, he hasn’t nursed at all since October 1, 2007. That seems to be a pretty long memory for such a little guy.

I said: “Grayson doesn’t drink milk from Mama’s boobies any more. All gone.”

Grayson: “Grayson no eat boobies anymore!”

And now, for some pictures.

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