On a (kind of) lighter note

I miss my boys.

Like when the little guy puts his coat on over his pajamas just for the fun of wearing it around the house.

Even though they take my catalogs and rip them to shreds for their morning entertainment.

I mean come on, how can I not miss these big brown eyes?

A Complete Detour

This blog is all about our life with Grayson, but since I'm currently on a work trip and have no updates to share about our crazy boy, you're stuck with my recent ponderings.

I am attending an interactive/social media conference where you'll find everything from independent bloggers to web programmers to video & computer gamers to brand managers for worldwide corporations like Coca Cola, Adobe, Dell and many, many others.

These people's jobs are so very different from one another and from what I do every day, yet we're all connected through the power of communication. This very blog is part of the social media phenomenon and is a communication tool that connects my life with yours.

I find it interesting how easy it is to keep up with friends, family, even perfect strangers through social media tools now and to think about what it will be like in the future. One of the speakers today spent years researching the digital impact on youth. He started by asking if all of this information and technology overload is making our youth anti-social. The results actually showed quite the opposite, they are becoming hyper-social -- always connected, always in touch with their network of friends -- which has caused them to expect news, information and other things on-demand. And, just because they are hyper-social doesn't necessarily mean they are social in the traditional ways we may be thinking.

Another session talked about how the line between an individual's online persona and their employer's online brand is blurring and soon they will be one and the same. I've intentionally not written much about my employer on this blog, not because it's a big secret, but because that's not the focus of this blog. I think as the recent generations of college grads infiltrate the workforce and move up the corporate ladder, they are not only building their individual online personas, but intertwining it with the brands for which they work or represent.

There are so many implications for both employees and employers that it will be interesting to watch this relationship evolve over the next few years, decades and longer. It keeps causing me to think about passion. Whether you love or hate your job, work is a very personal thing and where you spend a significant part of your day. If you aren't passionate about what you do, it makes for a vicious cycle of discontent.

If today's speaker is right and the line between personal and company online personas is erased, I'd hate to see what happens to companies currently employing unhappy or even disgruntled employees. No company and no job is perfect, but at the end of the day there needs to be passion on a personal and professional level for all parties to succeed. That's not a result of social media coming into the mix, it's been a reality forever, but social media is amplifying the need by providing a worldwide forum to expose the good, the bad and the just plain ugly.

I realize this is way off topic from my usual posts, and if you've made it this far without moving on to another site I appreciate you humoring me. I guess the moral of the story is to find a job that makes you happy, even if it takes a leap of faith, and encourage your children to do the same. Their generation's workforce and work environment will be completely different from the current one and (in my humble opinion) will be centered on staying true to yourself and your employer since, to the outer world at least, they will be closely linked. If you can't be a whole-hearted ambassador for your employer, that should (and will) speak volumes.

The Adventures of Mr. Mom

I am gearing up for a six day work trip and on top of checking off the to do list at work, I'm also trying to get things in order on the home front. I leave Thursday morning and Michael turns into Mr. Mom.

He's a very hands-on dad, so I'm not worried about Grayson's care, I just want to make it as easy as possible because six days is a long time to be without your partner when you're used to tag-team parenting. We've stocked up on diapers, milk, human food, dog food and even scheduled a mid-trip break since my mom agreed to keep Grayson Saturday night and give Michael some relief.

We have a gift for a friend's birthday party over the weekend, the laundry is nearly done, the bills have been paid and Roxy also got freshly groomed, so the household should be in good shape for my departure.

I would ask Mike to post some blog updates in my absence, but we all know that's not going to happen so I haven't even asked. I'll try to at least update you through what I hear by phone. Last time I was gone the boys went cruising in Blauhai (the name for Mike's classic BMW) and he texted me pictures of he and Grayson out at a nearby lake. I told them no wild parties or wild girls allowed, so hopefully they'll keep the craziness to a minimum.

Duck, Duck, Goose

This afternoon we took Grayson to feed the ducks at the OU duck pond. It was windy and had been raining off and on, but we managed to have a good time.

He loved watching the ducks eat up the bread, make quacking sounds and even chase after him a bit.





I almost got goosed myself:

Happy Birthday Luke!

Grayson's big cousin Luke just turned three and we helped celebrate his birthday last night. It was an evening full of pizza, cupcakes, balloons, bouncy moonwalks and all kinds of fun.

Grayson showing Luke his cool balloon.

Hugs for the birthday boy!

The best part about birthdays is getting to lick the candles!

I think Luke liked the cupcake!

A little Mike trivia: he was a hula hoop contest champ back in the day. His skills were a bit rusty, but we blamed it on the hoop.

Here are a couple of videos of Grayson trying to figure out what to do in the moonwalk. The little girl in there with him is Marlow and they are only two weeks apart! She preferred the sit and bounce method, while I tried to keep Grayson from falling on top of her.

New Tricks

Grayson has picked up three new tricks this week which he gets a kick out of each and every time he does them:

1. Walking on his tip toes
2. Discovering the flashlight (and that he has a shadow)
3. Walking quickly backwards until he purposely bumps into something

Grayson at 18 months

Grayson is officially a year-and-a-half! We marked the occasion with another check-up with the pediatrician. Luckily there were no shots this time, but after digging out a clump of wax the doctor did find another ear infection, this time in his left ear.

Gray weighted in at 24 lbs and 12.8 oz. The skinny little man just can't quite seem to break the 25 lb. mark. He's also 33 1/2 inches tall which puts him around the 75ish percentile in height and 30 something percentile in weight (I can't keep up with all the numbers).

Developmentally he seems to be on track and reminds us everyday that he's now an independent little boy instead of a baby. From using the fork and spoon himself to undressing himself and learning more words, Grayson continues to flex his independent muscles.

The doctor ran through the normal round of questions and we talked about things like when to move from a crib to a toddler bed and (gasp) timelines to begin potty training. How can we already be thinking about this stuff?!? We're still a ways off from both of those milestones, but it's crazy to be talking about them.

When asked about Grayson's daycare setting, Michael volunteered the information that he thinks our son is a bully. No sugar coating, no context, just that he's a bully. I was completely blindsided by it and in total disagreement, so I quickly offered up the fact that there are mostly older kids in Gray's room (2+ when he first started) and that he holds his own turf but isn't a bully. The doctor made a few notes on Grayson's chart, so I'm sure he dismissed my "excuses" and recorded the fact that Grayson is aggressive on his permanent record.

As we dropped Grayson off at school I asked his two teachers if they thought he was a bully. They both agreed that he wasn't any more aggressive than the others and that he just stood his ground when kids tried to take his toys, bite, etc.

I'm not sure why I'm so sensitive about the whole issue, but I think Mike finds the situation amusing which aggravates me even a little bit more.

In other news, Gray is about to have a full set of toddler teeth. He has three out of the four one-year molars and is cutting several eye teeth as well. There are three more teeth still to cut through (counting the molar) and then he will be done until the two-year molars. Seeing him with a mouthful of teeth really changes his looks. A full head of hair will be completely shocking, but we still have a while before his wispy hair fills in.

Our next check up isn't until Grayson's two year birthday and then after that he won't need any vaccinations until he's ready for school. Man how time flies!