Already? Really?

My sweet two year old got sent to the office yesterday at daycare. Long story short - he hit another toddler (apparently a favorite toy was involved and chaos followed), then the standard practice of time-out failed because he is (and I quote the daycare owner) "one of the most stubborn children we've seen." I prefer the word defiant, I think.

Counting

Grayson is learning to count now. On most days we count on the drive home from daycare. Here's how it goes:

Kelly: "OK, Grayson, let's count." One...
Grayson: Silence.
Kelly: "Say 1."
Grayson: 2
Kelly: (Thinking - OK, we'll take turns.) So I say, "3"
Grayson: "4"
Kelly: "5"
Grayson: "5"
Kelly: (Not sure what happened, but OK, you can repeat.) So I say, "6"
Grayson: "6"
Kelly: "7"
Grayson: "8"
Kelly: (OK, so it looks like we're back to taking turns) "9"
Grayson: Silence.
Kelly: "What comes after 9?"
Grayson: 10

And it's this same routine almost every time without fail. Odd.


And another note to mothers:
Don't make my mistake and try to teach letters by associating them with words. Now when I hold up the T and ask him what letter it is he says, "tractor." M is "Mommy." G is "Mine." So we have to do a little remediation in this area! Live and learn.

Dear Lord, Please grant me patience.

It's quite possible that my sister deserves sainthood. Peyton came with my Mom this past weekend to stay with me while Steve was out of town. How can one child have so much energy? Not just energy - how can one child talk so, so, so very much? And don't get me wrong. She was good - she really was. And she's cute as a button. But I have never seen a child who could talk - and go - as much as she did. I really think the only time her mouth wasn't moving the entire weekend was when she was asleep. She didn't let eating keep her from talking. She didn't let TV keep her from talking. She didn't let not having anything to say keep her from talking. Once Grayson went to bed and my Mom went up to shower I suggested that Peyton sing me a few songs. Not knowing the words didn't keep her from talking either. One song went something like this..."chair on the floor, fork, leaves up in the tree, light of mine, sleep in the bed, Nana, pink skirt, shopping, etc." I swear she says whatever thought flashes through her head just to be speaking. She makes me tired. I don't know how my sister does it. Oh wait - Kim was just like this. Perhaps that explains it.

So silence and rest were not a part of the weekend, but we did have fun at the park. Here's Peyton on the rope escape with Grayson in awe above.

My Mom with Grayson and Peyton.

Peyton and Grayson decorated and baked cookies! Of course, Grayson wouldn't eat any once they were cooked but he still had fun making them!

Swimming Lessons

I lucked out that my student worker also happens to teach private swim lessons for children! Not only is Kim a great friend and huge help in the office, Grayson also loves her! He had so much fun at his first swim lesson at the VT pool.

Grayson's 2 Year Portraits

We're a little late posting these, but here are Grayson's 2 Year portraits. Grayson used to be such a ham for the camera. He loved entertaining the photographer and we would end up having too many cute shots to choose between. Then the terrible 2's arrived. Grayson wouldn't sit still for anything! She must have tried to take 20 shots of him, and only these 3 were remotely acceptable. I was SHOCKED when I saw that she even got these given how it was taking 3 of us to wrangle him around the studio! For those with kids a bit younger than Grayson - enjoy those pictures now becuase I have a feeling that good pictures between the ages of 2 and 4 might be few and far between!

Halloween Fun!

We had so much fun on Halloween this year! Grayson wore his tractor costume - my attempt at being a crafty Mom. In good sport, Luke was the cow to round out the theme. Luke even stayed up late that night to serve as Grayson's prop in his wagon for the Trick-or-Treat outing. We managed to make it to 5 houses, 2 of which Grayson actually wore his tractor for. He went to his Mimi and Papaw's house where he got a bag of candy, but also an apple cut up so he could eat it. Grayson, who doesn't care for sweets but loves fruit, went to the next house and asked for "apple?" when the nice man held out the bowl of candy. Finally, though, Grayson did decide that he liked plain Hershey's chocolate so he is approaching normalcy!

Here is our little cow, Luke:

And Grayson in his tractor:Our whole getup...

Post-Hershey chocolates:

After trick-or-treating Rich and Jolene and Steve and I all stayed up late playing cards and eating plenty of chocolate and polishing off some wine ourselves. It was definitely a fun night for everyone!