Christmas Consequences

This was my conversation with Grayson in the car on the way home from his school a few nights back:

Gray: Does that house still have its Christmas light on it?

Me: Yes, sometimes people leave their lights on even when Christmas is over.

Gray: They need to take them down or the firemen will get them.

Me: The firemen? Like Uncle Levi?

Gray: Yes, Uncle Levi will come in a BIG fire truck and get them. And he'll wear a hat.

Me: Did you know he has a fireman's hat with his name on it?

Gray: Yes, his hat says Uncle Levi.

I didn't have the heart to tell him that the fire department doesn't call him Uncle Levi. He can figure that out some other day.

For those of you with Christmas lights still on the house...consider yourself warned. The fire department may be paying you a visit. There will be big trucks and hats. It won't be pretty.

Hitting the Trail

Last Saturday, I attended an all-day board retreat so the boys were left to their own devices. It was a gorgeous day, so Michael decided to take Grayson out to Lake Thunderbird State Park for a little fresh air and some "off-road" bicycling.

Lake Thunderbird has a great system of trails which Michael has spent many an hour mountain biking over the years. This time it was Gray's turn to ride and Daddy was armed with his camera.

Entering the trail head Daddy's already having a hard time keeping up on foot with our little speed racer. 

Evaluating the course ahead 

 And we're off!

 Stopping to smell the roses...I mean check out the birds.

Time to focus on shredding some trail 

As you can see from the bike wheels at the top of this picture, there were a lot of other cyclists out that day. All of them got a huge kick out of seeing Gray ride up from the trail. And Daddy was happy.

Tour de Driveway

Grayson has been doing well learning how to balance on his bike without pedals or training wheels. I can't remember if I've posted before about strider bikes, but it's a really neat concept for teaching young kids how to balance so they can ride without training wheels.

We took Gray's pedals and training wheels off a few months back and I think he'll be ready to put the pedals back on sometime this spring or summer. As you can see, he loves his bike which makes his daddy happy to no end.

(Disclaimer: I took these videos with Michael's phone and should have turned it horizontal. Apologies for the operator malfunction!)

Wholehearted Gratefulness

When I was pregnant, Michael and I would daydream about what our child would be like and wonder about everything from his hair color to hobbies to disposition. Now that he's here, we know he has my eyes and everything else of Michael's, likes music, cars and sports and may end up being a lefty.

But more than his looks and interests, we wanted our son to be kind, considerate, affectionate and thoughtful. As any parent will tell you, manners are a journey, not a destination, but I had a proud mama moment yesterday evening during our regular after-school routine.

When Gray and I arrive home, we check the mailbox together and he looks forward to opening the envelopes. Yesterday we came home to a surprise. He spotted a padded envelope sticking out of the mailbox and got very excited to see what it was. Gray immediately asked if it was car parts for daddy (what does that tell you), but I showed him the front of the envelope and he recognized his name and got even more excited.

He asked who it was from and I said, "Aunt Karen and Uncle Steve from Houston, Texas." To which he replied, "Ohhh! We'll have to tell them thank you the next time we're in Houston, Texas."

He didn't even know what was inside, yet he was immediately thankful. He kept talking about how we needed to be sure and thank our aunt and uncle, it made my heart happy. Then he opened the package and discovered Lightening McQueen!

Thank you Aunt Karen and Uncle Steve for the sweet surprise! I for one am thankful to have such thoughtful relatives!

Random Updates

• The picture above is from Gray's music class at the library. Not only does he love learning words and hand motions to new songs, he also gets a super-cool name tag. Who knew a piece of paper and tape could make someone so happy?

• Great-grandmama gave Gray a toy dog for Christmas that walks, sits and responds to commands. When I asked what his puppy's name was, he said "Rudolph." I asked if Rudolph was a boy or a girl and he told me "dog." Duh, mom.

• After much consideration, Michael has decided he's going to sell Blauhai. He broke the news to his BMW car club at a meet-up last week and is working on posting it online. I know he has mixed emotions about selling it, so we'll see what happens. 

Cooking up some fun

We spent some time at our friend Cora's house this weekend and I'm always amazed at how much Gray plays with her toy kitchen. He has one in his bedroom that doesn't see a lot of action, but the second we step in Cora's house, he starts cooking up a storm.

It helps that she recently added a toy microwave which was a Christmas gift and she has a lot more pretend condiments, spices and food accessories than Gray's kitchen set-up. Oh, and did I mention fairy wings? I guess that's the girl version of a superhero cape...a must for any gourmet chef.

Happy Birthday Jack!

I can't believe baby Jack is one! We celebrated with him this weekend at his Elmo-themed birthday bash.

While opening his presents, Jack stood up on his own several times and looked around at all of us cheering like, "What's the big deal?" Of course, I didn't have my camera ready. He'll be walking (and running!) in the blink of an eye.

Big brother Luke will celebrate his 5th birthday next month.

Suzanne had the cutest table decorations and party bags, complete with candy necklaces which were a mega hit! The sugar took about 4.5 seconds to kick in. Luckily, it was a gorgeous day so we could send the kiddos outside to burn off their sugar highs.