Here Lately

Since I no longer write monthly updates about Grayson's age and milestone development, I forget to capture the things I love (and could do without) at whatever stage he's in at the moment.

Here's a list of what I hope will soon pass:

• Gray has been in trouble several times at school lately for "sword fighting" and playing Power Rangers with his buddy Kolby. When he gets in trouble, he's not allowed to watch Arthur on TV when we get home (which is what he usually does while I cook dinner and we're waiting for daddy to get home). So far the punishment has been very effective and I'm hopeful Arthur will continue to wield power in our household. 

• When we tell Gray no or not to do something, we've been met with a few dirty looks. Gray squints his eyes, crinkles his nose and shoots us a mean look. This is likely the equivalent of the teenage eye-roll that I'm sure we'll see soon enough. It annoys me so much that I've started putting him in timeout for it, but I can already tell this boy has an attitude. 

• Everywhere we go he asks, "Does this place have a bathroom?" and then we often have to visit it. I've asked Santa for more hand sanitizer because I can't seem to keep enough in my purse. 

Luckily, Gray is overall a very good and sweet boy so the list of things I love at this stage is longer than the other list.

• I love when he crawls into our bed on Saturday mornings and he puts his little arm around me and pats me, just like I do to him.

• We've taught him the "wake-up song" that Michael's parents sang to him as a child. Gray now loves singing it to daddy to get him out of bed on the weekends. I need to try and record it one of these days because he's added a big finale.

• I love how he insists on saying two prayers for blessing our dinner -- "God is Great" and "For all we eat" (my family's meal blessing). After saying the prayers at dinner one night last week, he asked us, "Who is God?" I stumbled through a response that a three-year-old could understand as daddy looked on in amusement. Thanks, daddy. I'll remember that when it's time for the birds and the bees talk.

• Good manners are becoming natural for him and he says please and thank you without prompting most of the time. We're also working on "may I" instead of "can I." 

• He spontaneously tells us how much he loves us. Out of nowhere he'll say, "I love you to the moon and back." Then it becomes a competition to see who can think of the furthest place to demonstrate our love. He comes up with some pretty funny ways to express his love.