Play Kitchen

Kitchens are facinating places. There are sights, smells and noises. Who wouldn't want to play in a kitchen? Grayson has enjoyed playing in play kitchens every time he visits a friend who has one. The search began to get Grayson just the right kitchen. There are large ones, there are interactive ones, plastic ones and wood ones. We went with the Little Tikes model that includes a grill, how cool! (thanks to Granma) Sunday we bring this massive box home and began the preparation to build this thing. About an hour and a slight black eye later, we did it! Isn't he cute, he loves this thing!

Attempted Big Boy Bed

Ok, So I have done what most Moms tell you not to do since the day Grayson was born, wish for the next stage. As a baby I longed for that neck to hold itself up, for him to hold his own bottle, next came sitting, then crawling, then walking. At nearly twenty months old I wished for my little man to move out of his crib! Here is my story......

Tuesday September 9th Jeremy decides to go out after work and dove hunt. I think to myself, that is ok I dont need his help anyway. I had already decided I was going to convert Graysons crib to a big boy bed to see if he was ready. Taking the bed apart was a snap, the front panel just slide right off. Putting on the lame excuse of a part on the front was easy too. I was assuming it would be more like a rail that kept the kid from falling out but mainly it was for show or to keep the mattress in place (see the pic). Grayson was having a ball. He was helping with the tools, not really but it was cute that he thought he was being helpful. We even managed to rearrange his room. A lot of big changes for just one day. He easily slid into and out of his "new" bed and he was loving it. Night night time came a little later than normal, at nearly 9:30 I laid him down with a sippy of warm milk and read him a book. Poof he was asleep. I was worried about him falling out so I lined the floor below his crib with a mass of pillows and headed to sleep myself. With an open ear I slept waiting for that moment when I'd hear him cry out from falling out of bed, but it never came. Instead at 2:30 in the morning I hear a tiny voice say one word "up". I turn to get out of bed to go check on him and I am greeted with his little face staring up at me from my bedside. "Up, Mommy!" Oh crap, this kid has gotten out of bed walked to his bedroom door, opened and closed his bedroom door and meandered through the dark house to my bedside. I did not see that one coming. What to do now but pull him into bed with us and see if he can sleep the rest of the night with Mommy and Daddy. Nope! After about 10 minutes he sits up with an announcement, "juice?" No, Mommy is not giving a wide awake child sugar in the middle of the night, we settled for another sippy of warm milk. I take him to his room, lay him down with his milk to see if it really could be just that easy. Nope! "Mommy, Books?" I give in (my mistake) let's read a book. Next came let's play with this and so on. I dealt with him for two hours and realized he was officially confused and I saw no end insight. It was at 4:30 in the morning that I knew I had to reassemble his crib in order to get both of us back to sleep. Putting the crib back together wasn't as easy to handle all by myself so I woke up Jeremy. It took both of us until 5 am it took another 30 minutes to calm Grayson down (he didn't want to go back to bed) so at 5:30 I slip back into bed. Ok, Ok I admit at 20 months Grayson is still too young but at least now I know it'll be still a couple months away before I attempt that again.

Hunter's 2nd Birthday

Sunday we partied with the Fike's and celebrated their son, Hunter's 2nd Birthday. Due to the impending Ike Friday we received an email informing us that the evite had changed from Austin Zoo to the Fike's casa. Unfortunately Ike never dropped a single ounce of water on Austin so the Zoo would have been great. As we walk in the door we were greeted with a noise decibel that only a parent can tolerate and about 20 kids plus parents, what a zoo it ended up being. To our left was a wall of pizza boxes (which was calling my name) and a large bright green and red cake that had a motorized dinosaur terrorizing the kids. All I could think was I can't wait for Grayson's 2nd birthday and what theme should I do? Grayson went into shy mode but spied Hunter's play kitchen and went to town grilling fake plastic hamburgers and hot dogs. This house had miniature moon bounces and ball pits what else could a kid want. Funniest moment was when Grayson found the bowl of party gifts and pulled out a pair of lime green star shaped sunglasses and put them on and kept them on for well over 30 minutes. I cant get this kid to wear sunglasses when it counts but here he is running around the Fike's house pushing a toy lawn mower with these glasses on. Classic!

Angel's Icehouse

So last Friday I finally got to experience the Angels' Icehouse I've heard so much about. You head west on Hwy 71 almost to Pace Pend and on the left on a hill you see it like a beacon. You pull in and are immediately amazed at the amount of cars in the middle of nowhere. I see standing next to the play scape my friend Shannon and know this was a great idea. Shannon's daughter Payton at all of 16 months old is climbing the stairs all by herself and trying to go down the slide head first. Way to go girl! My son of course has to go through his shy phase so we stand there on the side lines and soak it all in. I manage to coax him to the main stairs and the rest is history. When we managed to pull the two kids off the play scape we both agreed we needed to get as far away from it as possible or we wouldn't be able to get any dinner eaten. I cant wait until the kids are older and we don't have to be three steps behind them so we can sit and have dinner by one of the convenient tables located right next to the play scape. But until then behind the band on the back deck is where we will be. We order mini corn dogs for the kids (with a side of jello) and help our selves to fried pickles, yum! As the band warms up we relax with a beer and wish we had tried this place long before now. What a great night!

Grayson's Words

This post will include all the words I've heard Grayson say. Here goes....
Mommy, Daddy, Baby, Abbie, Jango, Sunny, Sandy, Socks, Shoes, Shirt, Hair, Eyes, Nose, Ice, Nannie, Nana, G, Papa, Missy, Nick, Jake, Luke, Owen, Payton, Juice, Eat, Alligator, Duck, Bubbles, Hat, Water, Book, Dog, Ball, Baseball, Swing, ilk (milk), No, Up, Down, Uh Oh, More, All Done, Snack, Outside, Night Night, Stinky, Bath, Bike, Truck, Tractor, Bouncy, Ashley, Dawson, Alec, Katie, Kelly, Devon, Duane, Momo, Dirty, Hot, Please

I'm sure this list should be much longer, send me some comments to add words you know Grayson has said.

Welcome

I'm a little late in starting a Blog for my family. With Grayson at almost 20 months, it's time. He is getting so big and learning so many new things I have a hard time keeping the family informed. Hopefully this Blog will be my saviour and I can keep up with it. You can go on and view my posts and feel like you are experiencing the wonderful world of Grayson right along with us. So welcome to our family blog, "Day in the Life of a Blair".