Sneak Peek

Daddy has been hard at work creating Gray's Halloween costume and it's going to be awesome! Here's a small preview of how a robot begins:

This is all you get to see for now. Daddy has big plans that started with his sketchbook and has included a trip to Radio Shack for just the right circuitry. Grayson's attention span is a bit more focused on the impending candy haul, but hopefully he'll pause long enough to appreciate all the design details.

Baby Bea

Our friends Katie and Tyler welcomed a beautiful daughter two weeks ago and I had the pleasure of meeting her over the weekend. Miss Beatrice Ann weighed in at 7 lbs. 8 oz. She also seems extra long (around 21 inches if I remember correctly) and is so precious.

She seems tiny and new right now, but we'll blink and she'll be chasing around the big kids. I can't wait to watch her grow.

Mensa boy

Grayson is going through an incredible learning stage at the moment and is soaking everything up like a sponge. Here are a few examples of the things he's obsessed with this week:

• Volcanoes, magma and lava
• The solar system (I quizzed him tonight about what rotates around the sun and what rotates around the earth and he got everything right. Thank you, OETA/NOVA. Ridiculous)
• Playing air guitar and turning EVERYTHING into a drum
• Dinosaurs
• He can spell his name, but we're now working on writing a G. I'm realizing we didn't do him any favors by giving him a seven-letter name. Just wait until he's old enough for cursive...I don't even think I can write a cursive G.
• Puzzles. He has two new puzzles that he plays constantly. They are both 35+ pieces and after the first or second time, he now places the pieces in the correct spot even before linking them together. It's like he's memorized their positions after seeing it once or twice. Kinda freaky.

Uncle Aaron

We had a special visitor this past weekend, one of Michael's best friends Aaron was in town from California (where Lightening McQueen lives as Grayson says).

The weekend was great! Aaron and Gray bonded over Legos, bedtime stories and lots of laughter. Michael and Aaron also had a chance to revisit their college glory days, doing a little bar hopping and coming home with one of my favorite new stories.

Apparently they were waiting their turn at a pool table when one of the young ladies playing at the table told Michael she recognized him from somewhere. His response was, "Yeah, probably not." to which she replied, "Aren't you Grayson's dad."

Ouch. So much for playing it cool on guys night out. Apparently she and the other twenty something are teachers in an older kid room at Gray's school. When Michael came home to tell me the story, instead of being embarrassed by being called out as a baby daddy in a bar, he was upset about the fact that some of-age teachers were out at a bar.

This was my cue to let my husband know he was officially old and needed to lighten up about a 25 year-old being in a bar.

Namaste

We hung out with friends over the weekend and were needing to entertain the three amigos indoors for a bit since it gets dark earlier these days. Michelle has a yoga video for children so we popped it in to see what would happen.

After a little fighting over the blue yoga mat, we got everyone positioned and ready to go. Look at their little hands in Anjali mudra, or prayer hands position.

The video held Gray's attention longer than I though it would. The teacher explained each of the poses in terms of animals and he was able to do a lot of the moves. 

Perhaps we have a future yogi in our midst.

Pumpkin Party Extravaganza

Last weekend Grayson and I attended the "2nd Annual Pumpkin Party" at my cousin Suzanne's house (aka mom to Luke and Jack).

We enjoyed ourselves so much last year and I was happy that Suzanne was brave enough to invite us back for more pumpkin painting and cookie decorating. It's quite a rowdy bunch of kiddos, but they kept the mess pretty much confined to the garage and their clothes.

Gray and I got stuck in several random traffic jams on the way, so we arrived about 45 minutes late and right as the pumpkin painting was finishing up. Despite our frustrating trip, Luke (aka Thor) was a gracious host and kept his cousin company while Gray took part in an abbreviated version of the fun. Here are a few of the highlights:

Thor/Luke "art directing" Grayson's pumpkin paint job

 Mama's favorite part...cookie decorating time!

Suzanne found some adorable vampire fangs for the kids and they really got a kick out of them. I love baby Jack's face in the picture below. Out of all the kids (many of which are 3-4 years older, he's the only one looking at the camera).

Hello Weekend

Oh how I love Fridays...we plan to spend the weekend just hanging around. One of Michael's long-time friends is in town from California and we have plans to relax and catch up over the next few days. Tomorrow, Gray and I are also headed over to visit cousins Luke and Jack for a pumpkin painting party. 

More updates will come soon, but for now we hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!