Six and a Quarter

If you ask Gray how old he is, he'll tell you, "I'm six and a quarter!" Apparently every quarter counts when you're six and I love seeing people react to his answer. A man at church recently asked him and after getting a chuckle at Grayson's response, he turned to me and said, "Well that's one way to learn fractions."

Six and a quarter is a really fun age. Gray wants so badly to be grown up and wants to be with his parents all the time. It can make bedtime challenging and we're working through another round of him coming into our bed at night just because he "wants to be with the rest of the family." I try to remind myself that soon enough he won't think we're cool, so I'm trying to soak up this time while I can. Most mornings, I wake up and look over to find Michael and Grayson laying the exact same way -- on their backs, shirtless and with both arms up over their heads.

He's just so much fun and I want to be with him all the time too. A few of his current interests include:

• "Working out" so he can have "huge" arm muscles like Mr. Mike (the OU gymnast that volunteers at Gray's school and he adores)
• Dressing like a cowboy
• Wearing a "house coat" (aka the robe that Nana & Popper gave him for Christmas that reminds him of Home Alone)
• Singing constantly -- I often feel like I live in a musical because he bursts into silly songs all the time. He's been asking to go to children's choir at church which starts back up next Sunday, so hopefully we'll have an outlet for all of this singing! 
• Asking to turn the radio up in the car. This goes along with his love of singing, but Gray can't get enough music, air guitar or air drumming
• Reading like a champ! We can no longer spell out words in front of him, he's too quick to sound them out. 
• Playing baseball -- Gray tells me he's going to play baseball for Norman North (the local high school) and is counting the days until the spring T-ball season starts. I should probably look that up. 

A boy in his beloved spiderman house coat

This is how Gray dressed himself to run errands with us last Saturday. He's got the heart and soul of a cowboy. When I asked to take his picture after lunch, he struck this pose all on his own which made me smile even more. Such a cute little dude. 

Proudly showing off his first chapter book from the school library. He's really excited and told Michael that the cover is "so cool!" I'm glad he loves to read and can't believe my baby is bringing home chapter books! 

Overzealous Tooth Fairy Strikes Again

Grayson lost his second bottom tooth last week. He pulled on it right before bedtime and was then so ecstatic when it came out that he could barely go to sleep.

This time the tooth didn't go missing, so he was able to put it under his pillow for the tooth fairy. He also got to use the little plastic tooth box that he got from school, but couldn't use on his first tooth.

Once again, the tooth fairy outdid himself...leaving behind a small fossil sitting inside a dollar bill folded into a box. I'm interested to see how this pans out for the 18 remaining teeth left to fall out!

Is Anybody Home?

We're two weeks into the New Year and I'm just now sitting down to write a blog post. Apologies! We really haven't been up to much lately. The weather has been insanely cold and drizzly more often than not, so we're craving outside time and I'm running out of ideas for entertaining a little boy indoors. This seems to do the trick most days...

Gray loves hot chocolate, the more marshmallows the better!

After a lot of trial and error, Grayson has finally learned how to blow bubbles. Santa brought him a stash of bubble gum and he's been practicing his new skill daily. He's now able to show off to every store checkout person or random passerby. They are very impressed. 

We've also been working on painting a bird house that Nana gave us a while back. It has taken several coats of paint which is great for keeping us busy on dreary winter days. Gray has pained all the base coats and is now ready to assemble it and paint the finishing touches. I'll try to remember to take a picture when it's complete.

My Buddy

I'm off work this week and have been enjoying some quality time with Grayson. I've completed some serious closet purging (mine and Gray's), caught up on laundry (finally!) and am fitting in some fun with my boy.

Grayson received his first video game from Santa (Minecraft), so I'm trying to balance screen time with good 'ol fashioned play time. I'm sure this is a battle we'll fight from now until he moves out of the house, but so far, it's been a great motivator for getting other chores done before he can play his video game.

Iron Man ready for some Minecraft

Showing me all his tricks on the playground before the weather turns bad this week

We've also watched a few movies, had lunch with daddy, baked pumpkin cookies and played with all of Gray's new Christmas toys. I'm very thankful for this time together and our everyday moments of fun. 

Party Hoppers

Merry Christmas everyone! Between school, work and family celebrations, we've had two weeks of holiday parties. We're now gearing up to ring in 2015, but before that happens, I figured I should post pictures from a few of our Christmas parties.

Here's Grayson's class after their gingerbread building holiday party. He's about five kids over from the left side. These kids were so amped up when we took this picture, I'm shocked that they are all looking toward the camera. When I walked in to the party, I caught Gray piping icing directly into his mouth...that gives you an idea of the sugar consumption happening at this event. Yikes!

We hosted my dad's side of the family on Christmas Eve. Here are Jack, Gray and Luke hanging out at the cousins' table. 

Besties

Aunt Amy sent the boys matching Star Wars Storm Trooper pjs. So cute!

Putting cookies out for Santa

This has been a Lego Christmas! Gray has enjoyed hours (and days!) of Lego building. Here he is working on a 753 piece firehouse set. It took him three days to build the entire thing, but he did it almost entirely himself and plays with it daily. 

The Saturday after Christmas we met up with the Solomon side. Here's a shot with those cousins: Ladd, Cooper, Van, Gray, Ella, Charlotte and Nora. 

Here's my generation of cousins. We were missing about half of the group, but I always enjoy catching up with the gang. 

We are blessed to have so much family! It's been a full couple of weeks, but I couldn't imagine it any other way. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!

Happy Birthday Roxy!

This is a belated note to celebrate Roxy turning 10 on Dec. 20th. She enjoyed her day with a few extra treats and, of course, several naps all around the house.

I can't believe it's been a decade since this little fur ball entered our lives. She was big enough to fit inside a shoe and when we took her outside to potty, she'd just sit on your foot and shiver. To her defense, it was February in St. Louis and awfully chilly for a dog who only weighed a couple of pounds.

Since then, she's evolved into a full-on diva, but we still love her enough to put up with her "quirks." Michael and I have also learned a few parenting tricks along the way.

Happy 10th birthday Miss Roxy!

Giving to others is a gift to yourself

This time of year, we talk to Grayson a lot about the non-material gifts of the holiday season. He's still pretty young to connect all the dots, but every year I see him understand more of our lessons and even initiate acts of kindness for others. 

We had a teachable moment today when we donated a truckload of stuff to Goodwill. Gray had helped me fill a huge box with toys from his room that he has either outgrown or no longer plays with. Most are still in great shape, so we talked a lot about how the toys can bring happiness to other kids (thank you Toy Story 3 for illustrating this point as well). 

I was prepared to see a few tears during this purging process as in years past, but he surprised me with a wonderful, understanding attitude and even went above the amount of stuff I thought he would put in the box. 

When we got to Goodwill, I thought he might get upset by the physical act of handing everything over, but instead he jumped out of the truck and wanted to help us carry in all the boxes. I showed him the items mommy and daddy were donating as well, so he would see we weren't asking him to do anything we weren't doing ourselves. 

After everything was unloaded we were back in the truck and he said how happy donating the toys made him feel. We learned about joy this morning at church for Advent and he was happy because he knew those toys would bring joy to other kids. 

Little did he know that his generous spirit and feelings of happiness brought so much joy to his parents. It's these everyday moments I need to hold on to when he's asking to open the presents with his name on them under the tree for the 1,000th time.