Happy Valentine's Day!

Ladies' Man

This afternoon Grayson's class has a Valentine's party which meant his daddy wanted him to look extra special for school today.

Michael typically gets Grayson dressed each morning and little did they know I overheard their conversation while picking out clothes:

Daddy: "Grayson we've got to look good today to impress the ladies. What do you think they'll like?"

Grayson: "Milk"

Daddy: "Well, you're probably right."

Bed Head

You know you've had a good night's sleep when, despite not having much hair, you wake up looking like this...

Grayson at 17 months

Grayson turned 17 months last week and I'm in shock at how quickly he's approaching his 1 1/2 year mark. This month he's learned the art of facial expressions. He's had some funny ones before, but I don't think he realized he had control over the expressions and now uses them for our entertainment.

His unofficial weight is just under 25 lbs and I think he's recently had a growth spurt because the 18 month pants that used to require a roll at the bottom now fit him just right. He's still nowhere near filling out the butt or leg areas, but the length is finally fitting.

Music, puzzles and books are still his favorite pastimes, closely followed by emptying out the sippy cup cabinet, standing/climbing on any chair or surface, and taking bites off of any food someone close by may be eating at the moment. Grayson also loves to "dance" and will stomp around in place when you ask him to dance on command.

We've implemented a new strategy when it comes to Time Out, now giving a warning and then counting to three. If he doesn't obey us by the time we get to three he goes into the Time Out corner. It has been effective so far with an added benefit of helping him learn counting as well (or at least the words one, two and three).

He is very into repeating words which has made us extra careful to enunciate in an effort to prevent confusion with inappropriate words that often sound like other words.

Another recent development is self awareness when it comes to bodily functions. He's really into "blowing his nose" which basically means realizing his nose is running and then blowing air out of his mouth into a tissue. Then, last night after dinner things got interesting when he ripped a big one and then looked at me and said, "Pooh pooh." Sure enough, he was right.

Child Labor

It's about time Grayson began earning his keep around the house. He loves the toy vacuum at school and was very interested in our new real one at home as long as it's not turned on. Don't get me wrong, he's eager to flip the "On" switch, he just regrets it once the noise cranks up.

Row Row

Grayson really likes to sing and even though I'm not much of a singer, he gets a kick out of it. Of course, we have to do hand motions with each song, so that's part of the fun as well.

Lately, after he finishes his breakfast I ask him if he wants to sing. He always replies, "yes, row row," so we start by singing "Row Row Row Your Boat." He kept doing a hand sign that I didn't know so I thought maybe it was sign language for "boat" or "row" that he picked up from school. He only does it for that song and he does it every single time.

I looked up various signs online and it wasn't matching any of the words I thought it might be. Finally I tried looking up variations of boat and came across the sign for sailboat here. Finally! I had uncovered the mysterious hand motion. That was almost exactly what Grayson did every time we sang the song.

So proud of him for remembering this new sign, I went to his class and told his teachers the story. They gave me a strange look and asked me to show them the hand motion. When I did they told me they've never signed "sailboat" to the class and instead showed me rowing motions they make for that song.

I have no idea where he picked this up or why he does it only for that song, but it happens to be correct so I'm chalking it up to Grayson being brilliant. There is just no other logical explanation.

Driving School

After four days inside our snowbound house, you might expect us to get a little cabin fever. But we were in luck! It just so happened that the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona race was on TV. As the name implies, this is a race that literally lasts 24 hours (you can imagine my excitement).

We began watching it Saturday evening, then went to sleep, woke up, took showers, ate breakfast, web chatted with Michael's parents, and then watched about four more hours of the race.

Michael was in car heaven and took advantage of the opportunity to begin training Grayson on the endurance and skills of Grand Am racing.