Reflections

Michael took this sweet picture of Grayson at our friend Liam's 2nd birthday party. He's so focused and content...and did I mention beautiful?

Sorry to get sentimental on you, but I've been on a work trip for several days and am missing my boys. Fingers crossed I'll get home in time to kiss them goodnight tomorrow.

Art from the Heart

As a working mom there are times when I get a pang of guilt when it comes to sending my child to daycare (aka "school"). That said, he loves going there and I love all the random art projects his brave teachers take on with their class full of two-year-olds.

One recent example is Grayson's Father's Day gifts for Michael. He brought home a plastic mug which includes a photo of Gray and some crayon artwork tucked inside the clear mug liner. That was enough to make Michael happy while drinking his morning coffee, but then he got to open a briefcase full of artwork that Gray had created as well.

Here's a look at everything that was inside the construction paper briefcase:

There are oversized writing utensils that say, "Cool Dad," "You Rock," and "Love You." Plus some sort of over sized shirt pocket thingy, a card with a poem inside and (my favorite) the keys to Grayson's heart.

Each of the keys have a message that to Daddy from Grayson. They say, "I promise to..."

• Clean up my toys
• Give hugs and kisses
• Play bob the builder with you
• Go poo poo in the potty

These are all promises that I know warm Daddy's heart. Michael isn't one to save cards or get sentimental, but I did see him tuck the keys away for safe keeping.

Lounging on the Lake

We just got back from a relaxing weekend at the lake and instead of tackling the piles of laundry I should be doing, I would much rather upload some pictures and procrastinate.

Like last year, Grayson loved driving the boat. When we were anchored, he pretended he was driving us to the moon. Not sure where he got that idea, but his imagination was in overdrive playing with the steering wheel, horn and all the dash buttons.

Our captains...Pappa & Gray

 My cousin Billy and his wife Tina

Daddy & Pappa enjoying Father's Day in the cabin's reclining sofa

My favorite nephew Holten

Gray enjoying the other boat

Daddy & Gray...the perfect Father's Day!

What a Day

On Tuesday I ran over an unavoidable sharp piece of metal while leaving a work meeting and ended up busting two tires and putting some nice gashes in my passenger side wheels.

After dealing with a tow truck and tire replacements, Michael and I headed over to meet up with my dad and family for dinner since he had just arrived from Mississippi. Both the tow truck driver and a random stranger in the restaurant parking lot drooled over Michael's car, so he was in great spirits despite my stressful afternoon.

Then, on the way home we got stuck in a torrential downpour which included hail and seriously crazy winds that snapped down power lines over the interstate in front of us.

Michael was stressed out enough trying to maintain visibility to get us home safely, coupled with the fact that his precious baby car was getting pummeled with hail. Luckily, it looks like his car didn't have any damage.

I was thankful to be home safely and for the day to be over. I thought the whole ordeal was behind us, but now every time we get in my car Grayson is obsessed with talking about flat tires. If we pass a car parked on the side of the highway he asks, "Does that car have a flat tire? Does that car have a boo boo?" and on and on and on.

Resilience

I'm not sure if it's a boy thing or a (nearly) three-year-old thing, but Grayson has been an injury magnet lately. He's still sporting the faded remnants of a scar from his Easter weekend scrape on his face, and added a few more facial injuries over the weekend.

A literal run-in with his cousin Holt's forehead left Gray with a pale black eye and bruised cheek, and then his life jacket rubbed a mark under his chin after jumping in the pool no less than 50 times in a row.

The injuries, combined with an unexplainable 24-hour fever and eczema flare ups on the back sides of both legs, have left our son looking and feeling like quite a mess these days.

In the grand scheme of things I'm sure the worst is probably not over when it comes to little boy injuries, but I must admit I'm looking forward to the day when Grayson's face doesn't have some sort of battle wound. For now perhaps I should dress him in a shirt that says something like, "You should see the other guy."

More Cousins!

So by now you know I'm kind of sentimental when it comes to cousins. Since Grayson is an only child I really want him to grow up close with our extended family and it's nice to have so many cousins close in age to Gray.

While my sister and nephew are in town, we took the opportunity to gather my dad's side of the family for a swim party over the weekend. This time I managed to get a picture of baby Jack and his bib says it all...

I also managed to wrangle the older boys in the pool long enough snap a picture. Getting them to all look at the camera simultaneously was way too much to ask. Out of about 10 pictures, this was the best I could get. 

With all the energetic children running about, Mike took the opportunity to get in a little manual labor by tapping into their "helper" attitudes.

Yes, this is Luke & Gray happily scrubbing the pool tiles with two tile brushes. They had a blast while Mike just sat back and smiled. Someday soon we'll have to open our wallets to motivate this kind of hard work.

Next up was a lasagna dinner. That's my kid eating at the table without a shirt on. Classy!

Toward the end of the evening, the boys were a little rambunctious (imagine that), so we made a pallet on the floor and turned on the movie Cars.

Jack even joined in the fun briefly and Grayson really wanted to hold him. He's not quite big enough for that yet, so Aunt Suzanne suggested Gray hold Jack's foot (a responsibility Gray took extremely seriously).

 

Family Fun

My sister Amy is in town from North Carolina with her son Holten and we have enjoyed spending a lot of time catching up. The boys have a mutual love of cars and they've kept busy bonding over cars of all kinds.

Holt just turned two in May, but you wouldn't tell that by looking at him next to Grayson. The two are in the same size clothes and nearly the same height. So much for getting hand-me-down clothes from his "big" cousin Grayson...

Graysonisms

A few of Gray's recent laughable quotes:

One evening as we were sitting with our feet in the pool when out of nowhere he stated, "It's plenty hot out here." What two-year-old says that?! Now I hear him using variations of this almost daily. When he got in the bathtub tonight he said, "The water is plenty warm." Why yes old man Grayson, it is.


49.3 or "forty-nine three." This is Grayson's answer for anything you ask that has a numerical answer. For example, what time is it? Forty-nine three. What's the pool temperature? Forty-nine three. He's had a fever today and every time I take his temperature he takes mine and I'll give you one guess what mine is every time.


Here's a conversation we've been having a lot lately:
Gray (riding on his toy car): I'm going to bad guys' work. 
Me: Where do the bad guys work?
Gray: At the bad guys' office.
Me: What do they do there?
Gray: Um, they push.  

Water Babies

Cora came over for a swim last weekend and afterward I couldn't help but snap a picture of their cute little bottoms as we were getting ready to head back inside. This is probably another one of those pictures they'll regret us taking later in life, but for now it's too adorable not to share.

I also snapped a picture of Gray in his "eyegles" aka goggles. The words this boy comes up with keep us smiling.

Undies and sandals...it's the summer's must-have look.