Dreaming of a White Christmas?

If so, this post may change your mind. We're currently experiencing the Blizzard of 2009, something that Oklahoma rarely ever sees.

Oklahoma City is the crossroads of three major interstates and numerous turnpikes, all of which are currently shut down. There are multi-car pile-ups around every bend, people stranded in the cold and the National Guard has been working since this morning to assist drivers.

Meanwhile, we're passing the time by opening a few gifts early, making arts and crafts, cooking and dancing to Christmas music. The timing of this storm just happens to coincide with the week that Michael has decided to train Roxy to potty outside. She's been pad trained her entire life, and is now refusing to pee outside during the blizzard. I don't blame her one bit, but I must say Michael's patience in continuing the training is admirable. Here they were this morning on one of several failed attempts to potty in the backyard:

Notice Roxy's ears. That's from the crazy blizzard wind.

Despite her doggy coat, Roxy is not excited for some outside time.

My dad and Susan are housebound with us and brought an ornament making kit with Grayson's hand print. That kept us entertained for a good portion of the morning.

By 3:30 Mike and Grayson couldn't stand it anymore and they decided to venture out.

It took about 10 minutes to get him dressed and about 45 seconds to decide he didn't want to be outside anymore.

Here's the view down our street a few hours ago.

Our house which currently has 2+ foot snow drifts surrounding it.

The accumulation by the garage door.

Party time

Last Friday Grayson's school had their Christmas party. For one-year-olds this basically means singing a few songs and then eating a bunch of junk food. I took a few party pics to mark the occasion.

Here they are singing and waiting on their plates of junk food to be delivered. Notice the girl next to Gray sucking her thumb. Her daddy cut her bangs a few weeks back and now she has a full-on mullet. Her mom was not a happy camper, as they had yet to take their holiday picture.

Now do you see what I mean about junk food? Cheese puffs, cookies, marshmallows and cupcakes just to name a few. Grayson enjoyed the cheese puffs, sliced cheese and juice box, but didn't care much for the sweets. I was in shock that he could even maneuver the juice box straw, but he managed quite well.

Roxy at 5 years

Today is Roxy's fifth birthday! She may be a little grayer and a little more crotchety, but she's still as spunky as the day we brought her home. I remember trying to pick out a name with Michael the day we got her (which was actually in February once she could be weaned from her mom). I was dead set on naming our dog Bella (that was well before the Twilight series character phenomenon), but when we met her it just didn't fit. I don't remember how we came up with Roxy, but it suits her well.

This little lady has been through a lot over the last five years. She's lived in two states, three houses and gone from being the queen of her domain to low woman on the totem pole. She's had a hip joint removed, survived Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and dutifully makes car trips to Houston despite her auto anxiety.

Roxy is a great cover stealer and for being such a little thing, manages to take up just as much bed space as a human. But despite these nuances, she's a snugly companion who is fiercely loyal (as long as you rub her belly from time to time).

Roxy's reign may have officially ended 15 months ago, but she still gets to be queen for today.

Merry Christmas from the Three Amigos

We recently got together with two of the couples who were part of the 2009 baby boom you may recall from last summer. Baby Liam and Baby Cora are now around six months old and as adorable as ever.

To mark their first Christmas together, we wanted a nice picture of the trio that we could look back on over the years. Here's a glimpse at how the brief photo shoot went.

Don't worry, Grayson wasn't really punching Liam in the eye, it just looks like it from the angle.

The rivalry over Cora's affection has begun!

And, we're done.

I must say, Liam was quite the trooper during the entire thing. I think he's going to be laid back like his parents.

Here's a link to our Flickr site where I've uploaded the rest of the pictures.

Our Little Explorer

This week, Grayson discovered the toilet. I don't mean in a "I need to go potty" kind of way, more like he wants to put his hands and toys in the water kind of way.

We've been keeping the lid down, but were trying to avoid using a baby proofer strap on the lid since the bathroom he plays near is also our guest bathroom.

Instead, we've been trying to keep the doors closed as much as possible, but this week he managed to get past us and not only drop a small plastic bowl in the toilet, but then stick his own hand in to fish it out.

He's also enamored with the shiny silver flush knob and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he discovers the toilet paper roll as well.

Ah, the fun times we have ahead. Guess we should locate our plunger for quick recovery of Little People figurines and small toy cars. Fingers crossed our cell phones or iPods don't land in there as well.

A Day in the Life

Lately we've had several family members ask what Grayson is in to these days so they can search out a Christmas gift he'd like. The problem is it's difficult to describe to people some of his favorite activities, much less buy things to go along with those pastimes. Here's a short list of Grayson's current hobbies of choice:

Opening up boxes of his Gerber Graduate Entree meals and also stacking them on his highchair

Wearing hats and gloves and pulling them on and off himself

Opening and closing the door to our laundry room

Playing in the cabinet where we keep his Gerber entrees and his sippy cups (there's also a lazy susan in there which is all kinds of fun to spin around)

Giving hugs and kisses

A Kodak Moment

Last year for Grayson's first Christmas, Michael and I decided we were not going to take him to see Santa at the mall until he was old enough to ask for it. We didn't want him to be traumatized by the big red guy.

Then this year, Grayson's school decided to have Santa come to them so all bets were off. After forking over ten bucks, we got this wonderful keepsake photo of Grayson's first visit with Mr. Claus.

Not only is Grayson quite the disheveled looking boy with pants riding up and holding some random toy to distract him from crying, but to top it off, Santa isn't even looking at the camera and his belt is held together with a paperclip. Ah, the joy of the holidays.

I hope Grayson asked for a refund for Christmas.

Happy Hanukkah!

Tonight we celebrated the start of Hanukkah with our friends the Brooks family. They host an annual Latke Fest which involves a house FULL of people and enough latkes (a sort of potato fritter pancake thing) and food to feed an army.

I believe host Adam said they peeled and shredded 20 lbs. of potatoes this year. Wowser!

We always enjoy attending this annual tradition and were excited that Grayson could partake of the wonderful party and food this year as well. He ate this entire plate of food all by himself:

It was unbelievable. Here's his first bite of latke:

He then immediately wanted more:

I did snap a quick picture of our hostess Lori manning the stove and turning out latkes like nobody's business. (Random side note: Isn't her apron adorable?!)

I hope your holiday season is as festive and fun as this tradition was for us.

Happy Friday!

Ho Ho Ho

Santa comes to visit Grayson's school tomorrow so we've been practicing what Santa says.

I have a stuffed Santa from my childhood that we've been using to explain the whole white beard, red suit, bowl full of jelly thing.

When Grayson finally meets a live Santa he'll probably freak out and start crying, but for now he knows that Santa says, "Ho Ho Ho."

[Video disclaimer: apologies for the dark footage. It looked like there was more light when I was viewing him through the camera.]

Must. Get. Sleep.

When you have a newborn, you get used to functioning off of only a few hours of sleep. Unfortunately, that skill is quickly lost once your child consistently begins sleeping through the night.

Grayson has been past the night waking stage for nearly a year, but recently has had several bouts of sleep issues. Last night was the latest occurrence. He woke up at 3:30 a.m. and I finally crawled back into my own bed around 6 a.m. I debated about going back to sleep at all since the alarm was close to going off, but I needed sleep so badly, I really didn't care.

He's waking like this because of his terrible teething, but even though we immediately give him a pain reliever when he wakes, he insists on crying hysterically if you do anything besides hold him. If you put him back in the crib before he's totally asleep the crying cycle starts all over again until you pick him up. We've tried letting him cry it out (which worked well in the past), but he just stands in his crib and gets himself so worked up that I'm afraid he'll make himself sick from all the crying.

Luckily it's not happening every night right now (knock on wood), so I've been able to catch up on sleep again before the next round of sleep deprivation hits. The bad news is his final three molars still have not cut through, which I'm afraid means we've got many more sleepless nights in our future.

At this point, I'm open to any and all suggestions. We've tried teething tablets, gum gel, teethers, motrin, tylenol, biting on cold washcloths and on and on and on.

While you fill up the comments section with your brilliant ideas, I'm going to go put my pajamas on. Who cares if it isn't even 8:30 p.m. yet?

Grayson at 15 months

Today Grayson turns 15 months old and we marked the occasion with a well baby check up and three vaccinations (not so much fun).

In dramatic fashion, Grayson began crying early on in the appointment when we went to weigh him and take his height and head circumference measurements. The nurse put the measuring tape around his head and he began sobbing like she was somehow hurting him.

Little did he know she was really going to hurt him a short while later when he got three shots in his thighs. Maybe he had a sixth sense about her.

At any rate, the rest of the appointment went well. Gray enjoyed displaying all of his mobility tricks and new teeth for the pediatrician and even managed to demonstrate some of his vocabulary on cue.

He weighed in at 22 lbs. 6.4 oz and is 32 inches long. He's still measuring tall and skinny, around 25th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. His head size is right at the average 50th percentile.

What the statistics don't show is that these days our boy enjoys puzzles, shape blocks, riding on his truck/car toys, and talking up a storm. He talks non-stop, but only really knows a handful of words. It's amazing to see how much he understands beyond his spoken vocabulary.

He's been practicing using a spoon all by himself and is working very hard on growing hair. His wispy hair is getting long enough to flip out in the back, but is still pretty thin on top.

Overall, Grayson is a happy and outgoing little boy. And let's face it, who wouldn't love having this in their life?