Bottomless Pit

Despite moments of hard core teething, Grayson is pretty much back to his old self. He's into everything and has his appetite back. In fact, we can't seem to keep him full the last few days.

Last night he ate his regular dinner and then helped Michael finish off some ham, green bean casserole, corn and mashed potatoes. He then ate a jar of applesauce before we finally refused to feed him anymore. His little belly was distended, but happy.

I'm not sure if he's having a growth spurt or just catching up from being sick. Either way, it's giving us a glimpse at what our grocery bill will be like during the teen years.

Here's a video from tonight's dinner. Michael was breaking up pieces of ham, cheese and bread about as fast as Grayson was shoveling it in. He has perfected the two-handed method for faster food intake.

Grayson has also learned a new gesture for when something is all gone...

Some Progress

This morning Grayson woke up without a fever (yay!) but is still overly sensitive and fussy. He played a little this morning, but by 10 a.m. couldn't handle being awake anymore and fussed until I laid him in his crib.

Hopefully we're on the downhill slope of this and he just needs a day or two for rebuilding his energy. Unfortunately, the timing of this illness meant we had to cancel our trip to Houston for Thanksgiving. Michael's parents are driving up here instead, but we are disappointed we won't be seeing the extended family until Christmastime.

I'm sure his Nana and Popper will enjoy the extra snuggle time Grayson is currently demanding, even if it comes with a few meltdowns in between.

The "First" We've Been Dreading

Grayson had his first trip to the ER on Sunday. We took him in around 10:30 p.m. when his fever spiked to 104 degrees. He had kept his food down all day, but his fever continually rose despite giving him Tylenol & Motrin.

The doctor checked him out and couldn't really do much. They gave us a prescription to help with his stomach if the vomiting came back and basically said all we can do is try to manage his fever. We did that all day on Monday and his fever broke briefly around 3 p.m., but came back later that evening.

This morning when I went in to get him up, he wouldn't move anything but his hands and his fever was back up to 103. When Mike tried to make him walk over to our bedroom, Grayson cried like he was achy and would only take a few steps. We got him in to the doctor at 9:30 a.m. and they recommended we get some blood work done to check his electrolyte and other levels. They put a rush on the lab work, so I am hoping to get a call by noon with the results.

In the meantime, I'm continuing to treat his fever and trying to enjoy the extra snuggle time. All he wants to do is cuddle and/or sleep. After having such an active child, it's scary to see him so lethargic. I'll keep you posted once I hear from the lab. In the meantime, here are a few shots from our ER trip. While I was rushing around trying to pack a diaper bag for Grayson, Michael managed to remember the camera for posterity.

Not a happy camper in his ER room.

Lying in the hospital bed with Daddy, waiting on the doctor.

Trying to play on Monday, but kept wearing himself out.

UPDATE: 12:54 p.m. -- Just heard back from the pediatrician's office and his lab work looked good. He woke up at noon, ate some lunch and is now back in bed. He woke up a little sweaty so hopefully his fever is starting to break. Still seems to not have much energy and sobs whenever I put him down to walk or stand on his own. Keep the little man in your prayers!

Clean Up, Aisle Grayson

This has been quite the weekend. My dad and Susan are in town for a short visit and Grayson marked the occasion by vomiting for most of Saturday and then hard-core teething from his one year molars beginning at 5 a.m. on Sunday. Nothing says Welcome! like an inconsolable, puking toddler.

Luckily today he's kept his food down (so far), but he's still running a small fever and he can't seem to get relief from his gum pain. It's such a helpless feeling to watch him get so worked up when nothing seems to soothe him.

He was super hungry for lunch since he lost all his food yesterday, but then when he ate it made his gums hurt which would send him into sobbing fits. He would barely calm down between bites of applesauce. It was so sad.

Michael has Grayson calmed down now and is trying to get him to take another nap since he's worn out and fussy. Say a little prayer that these molars break through quickly! The first one on top wasn't this bad, but I think he's getting the bottom two at the same time. Yay.

Dads Do Things Differently

Say for instance your son's pants seem to be slipping off due to his itty bitty waist. Most moms would swap out the pants for a different pair or even take them off all together. Not dads. Instead, they do things like this:

I'm surprised duct tape was not involved somehow. Kinda makes his Cool Beyond My Years shirt ironic, don't ya think?

Jesus Loves Buses

Tonight we met up with my dad and his side of the family for dinner after work. My cousin's nearly three-year-old son Luke was there too and spent some quality time with his little cousin Grayson chasing him around.

Luke was entertaining us with several songs and started singing Jesus Loves Me in the most adorable little boy voice. After a couple of lines, he got distracted and it went something like this:

Jesus loves me this I know.

For the bible tells me so.

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

So hilarious! I told him it was an interesting remix to an old classic. He just smiled and handed me one of his blue M&Ms.

Building Life Skills

Some dads teach their children how to tie their shoes, throw a ball, or burp the alphabet. Not Grayson's dad. Instead, he teaches his son the golden rules of racing cars:

1. Accelerate into turns
2. Learn how to change your own oil and flat tires
3. And finally, the most important skill...how to make engine revving noises with your mouth

Our son may not be able to tell you what sound a cow makes, but he can mimic car shifting noises while pushing his toy cars around all day long.

[Video disclaimer: the red mark you'll see on the middle of his forehead is Gray's first official bite mark from a toddler classmate. The girl left quite a mark, but he's doing okay.]

Zombie Boy

I think we may have a sleep walker on our hands. I found out this morning that during yesterday's naptime Grayson got up from his cot halfway through his nap, walked around the toddler room and then laid back down and slept some more.

The teachers said his eyes were open, but they could tell he wasn't fully awake. Spooky!

Since he still sleeps in his crib at home, we've never known him to sleep walk. I guess he could walk around in his crib in the middle of the night and we'd never know.

Neither Michael or I have ever been known to sleep walk, but my little sister Emily used to do it when she was younger. She was several years older than Grayson is now, but from what I've read it can run in families.

I also read that 15 percent of toddlers experience a sleep walking episode. It's often caused by sleeping in a strange place, lack of sleep or having a high fever. The toddler room is a new place for him to sleep and he's also been more tired lately due to officially dropping his second nap, so maybe that's what caused the incident.

At any rate, it will be interesting to see if anything more comes of it. My sister eventually grew out of it with no harm done, so I guess we'll just watch and see.

It can't be this easy

Grayson has been successfully pacifier-free since Friday. I'm still quite shocked by the entire thing.

He fussed briefly on Saturday and we gave him a teether which satisfied him and he moved on. Then the true test was school today. I was afraid he'd digress once he saw babies in the nursery using their pacis, but apparently he thinks that's such a baby thing to do, and he's moved on to toddler status.

Surprisingly, he seems to miss it more when we're commuting in the car than he does for sleeping. I wouldn't of predicted that, but then again I've been blind-sided by this entire milestone.

Knock on wood this cold turkey bit keeps up. I'm kinda liking it!

The Great Paci Debate

There are many parts of child rearing that can spark debate among parents (and even opinionated non-parents), but one that seems to open the flood gates is the use of a pacifier.

As you know from this blog, Grayson uses a pacifier for sleeping and typically car rides, and has been quite addicted to it at times. As a child, I was a long-term thumb sucker and would prefer my child use a paci instead of going straight for the thumb which is more difficult to take away.

But now that he's one, it's getting to be time to break the pacifier habit. We've known this was coming for a while, but this week at school I found out that the toddler room will only give Grayson his paci for naptime over a three week transition period. After that, no more paci.

Once I heard that, I though about just putting all the work on the teachers' shoulders, but this weekend things took an interesting turn. Mike put Grayson down for bed last night and he didn't ask for his paci so Mike didn't offer it. Then, for his nap today he also went down without a paci.

I've scoured the house and hidden all the pacifiers I could find, so we'll see how long we can go. I find it hard to believe breaking this habit will be this easy, but if we can do it twice we might as well keep going. Wish us luck!

Rough & Tumble

Grayson is finally making a permanent transition into the toddler room at school due to other kids aging up to the next class. He's been ready for this for a while now, but after a few run-ins with the big kids today, he may be rethinking if he really wants to be in the toddler room.

He spent the better part of the day there, eating lunch at the table instead of a highchair, napping on a cot and establishing himself as a non-pushover when it comes to toddler turf wars. Apparently there's a girl named Shelby that tends to be a scratcher when she doesn't get her way. She got Grayson on the forehead today, but it didn't do much damage and he managed to shove her down a time or two. After that there were some biting incidents with a different kid, where he was both bitten and then bit back, but again, not enough to even leave a mark.

Before things got too rowdy, Grayson was sent back to the nursery for the last hour of the day. I think they wanted to separate him from some of the bigger kids before the real initiation began. As his teacher was explaining how Grayson's day went, I imagined a mini-toddler gang, scoping out the fresh meat and testing him to see if he was going to be weak or stand his ground.

Of course, it thrills Michael to no end knowing that Grayson "defended" himself with the scratcher and the biter, but I just hope it doesn't go too far. Guess time will tell.

And if transitioning rooms wasn't enough change for one kid, this is also the week another tooth decided to pop up. He's been slightly fussy the last day or so and I just noticed tonight that a tooth on the bottom left has barely broken through the gum line. Oh what perfect timing.

Grayson at 14 months

I'm technically a few days late with this post, so you'll have to forgive me.

It's difficult to sum Grayson up these days. He's quite the busy bee, walking and talking non-stop. It seems like his brain is working overtime and he's mastering new skills or figuring out new ways to push the boundaries every day.

For example, he's always been infatuated with the wall of built-in cabinets in our living room, but has learned new ways to get into them. All of the cabinet doors are child-proofed except for the one where we store his toys. He's learned that his little arm can still fit in the child-proofed cabinets and find mischief. He particularly likes the cabinet that holds the stereo.

By squeezing his arm into the cracked cabinet door, Gray manages to push buttons on the stereo, making it light up, change CDs and play music. So much for child proofing.

For all his mischievous ways, I will say that he is pretty good about minding when you tell him no. Usually this is in reference to touching a breakable object or plugged-in cord. Most times he'll stop doing whatever you want, but if he's tired he'll throw his body on the ground, get red-faced and sob. This is the point where Michael and I walk away and as soon as we're gone he gets up and acts normal again.

Despite the occasional pre-terrible twos drama, Grayson is overall a very cheerful kiddo. He loves making objects into phones, frequently holding the TV remote, blocks and even his hand up to his ear to "talk." Of course, when we hold the real phone up to have him talk to one of his grandparents he immediately goes mute.

At school he's become quite the soother and has frequently been seen patting crying babies or his BFF Baxter after a tantrum. His teachers tell us that he'll go over to Baxter or any of the other kids and squat or lay down next to them and pat them when they are upset. So sweet. A definite improvement over biting them.

I don't know his height and weight stats since we won't go back to the doctor until next month, but I'd say he's still right around 22-23 lbs. Even though he's getting longer, Grayson keeps thinning out from all the mobility and one of these days I'm determined to plant a pedometer on him and see how far he walks. It has to be a staggering amount.

So busy

Thought you might enjoy this recent video of Grayson moving around our living room pillows. Some of them are bigger than he is, but he muscles them around until he's satisfied with their placement. It may be hard work, but once he gets tired they provide a convenient place to take a brief rest.

Happy Fall

After weeks and weeks of overcast and rainy weather, we finally had a perfect fall day here in Norman. We celebrated by taking a drive and checking out the gorgeous mums on the south oval of OU's campus.

Grayson is very inquisitive when it comes to the outdoors. He loves picking up fallen leaves, but not the bright yellow or red ones. He prefers the crunchy dead brown ones. Lucky for us, leaves of all shapes and colors are in abundance around our house.

I tried taking Grayson's picture next to one of our Japanese maples that's currently a fiery red, but instead of posing, he was way more interested in picking off the leaves and then showing them to me.

Once we arrived at the south oval, Grayson enjoyed running through the rows of mums and "balancing" on the garden border.

He also discovered that picking grass is just as much fun as picking up dead leaves. Of course, he had to show us each blade as well since they are all so interesting.