Jog-a-thon

Last week, Grayson's elementary school hosted their annual Jog-a-thon fundraiser. The kids raise money for each lap they run/walk over a span of 20 minutes. Luckily, the pre-K class only runs for 10 minutes and even that proved to be a challenge for holding some of the kids' attention spans.

It was interesting to see Gray interact with the rest of the kids in his class, especially since he's the youngest by far. As they lined up for the start, Gray wanted to be at the front of the line. I noticed that afterward when they lined up to go back to class, he always maneuvered himself to be right next to the teacher in front.

The race started out well, with all of the kids sprinting from the start. Of course, most petered out quickly but there was one girl and one boy who looked like early prospects for the track team.

Lap one...everybody is excited and going strong!

Lap two...reality set in. This is tiring! Luckily there was a drink station close by.  

By the time he came around for lap three it was apparent that daddy was going to have to join in and show Gray how it's done.  

They ran a few more laps together and finished strong. When it was over, we asked Gray if it was fun and he replied, "I'm really hungry!" Luckily, it was snack time next. 

While we definitely don't have the fastest athlete in the bunch, he was so excited to see us cheering him on and he stayed on the course through the finish. 

Guest post: The Mommyhood

My former client-turned-friend Heather just launched her first book called Secrets of The Mommyhood. I am beyond excited for her and can't read excerpts from her book or blog without laughing uncontrollably. She's such a wonderful storyteller.

She asked me to write a guest post for her blog, The Mommyhood, as part of a series called "What I wish I'd known." My post went up today and I hope you take a minute to not only read it, but check out the rest of Heather's hilarious blog.

They say it takes a village to raise a child, but it's having a group of inspiring mom friends like Heather that help raise me as a mother.

All About Grayson

Grayson recently brought home the first book that he has ever written (and by written I mean he drew the pictures and his teacher recorded what he told her on each page). It's called All About Me! I thought I'd give you a recap of the facts listed inside:

• Watermelon is my favorite food
• I like giraffes
• My favorite friend is Holten
• Green is my favorite color
• I am four years old
• I like to stay at home

I'd say this sums him up nicely. Except for his favorite food (which I would have said is strawberries or spaghetti), this first book accurately captures some of our son's favorite things. 

Take a hike

Last Saturday, we started getting cabin fever after a few rainy days and decided to head over to Sutton Wilderness, which has a small lake and hiking trails near where we live.

Michael and Gray have ridden on the trails before by bike, but we hadn't hiked them since Grayson was small enough to fit in a baby carrier on daddy's back.

We walked over a mile, but if Gray was wearing a pedometer it would probably be twice that with the amount of running back and forth he did the entire time. That boy has some energy to burn!

We saw a lot of pretty flowers along the trail. Not sure what's up with Gray's smile lately in pictures. He's discovered how to move his bite around and I can't get him to smile normally to save my life.  

 We had an impromptu lesson in sunflower seeds

Gray decided that this would be Nana's favorite flower since it's purple 

We also saw some really cool, creepy trees like this one. 

Not sure what exactly is happening here, but it's all part of discovering nature, right? I think shortly after this picture Gray discovered he had stickers all down his pant leg. That was fun. 

We also skipped some rocks in the small lake that's there and then decided to head home and order a pizza. Isn't that what you're supposed to do after hiking?

Charlie video

Here's the video Michael captured of Charlie shedding his skin and unveiling the chrysalis. Fair warning: it's about seven minutes long, but really cool.



Charlie & Scooter from Michael Vidrine on Vimeo.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

Our time with Charlie and Scooter has come to an end. Yesterday evening we released them in our backyard so they could begin their adventure as monarch butterflies. 

All three of us really enjoyed watching this whole process and Grayson was so excited to get home from school so he could immediately run over to see Charlie out of his chrysalis. 

Once they emerged as butterflies, we learned that Scooter was a girl and Charlie was a boy. Michael's research uncovered some wing patterns that helped us tell them apart. I think they are siblings, but Grayson is convinced they are mommy and son. 

Either way, we had all agreed that we needed to wait until Charlie was out to release both butterflies at the same time so they wouldn't be separated. Here are a few shots from their last few days with us:

Right before the butterfly emerges, the chrysalis turns translucent and you can see the black and orange wings inside. This is Scooter just minutes before she came out. As you can see, Charlie's chrysalis was still green and he came out a day later.  

 This is Scooter the moment she emerged and started spreading and drying her wings. It takes several hours for the butterfly wings to fully open and dry out. It's simply breathtaking how striking their wing patterns are and how much beauty is in nature. 

This is Charlie right before we released him in the backyard.  

Here's the final picture of Scooter. She flew out first (classic female, always one step ahead). 

As we were eating dinner, I asked Gray what he thought the butterflies might be doing. He said he thought they were eating dinner too, on our roof. Wherever they are, I hope they are enjoying the open air and their beautiful new wings. 

Happy birthday Grandma!

Today marks 92 years young for my amazing Grandma. I am so lucky to have all four of my grandmothers not only be a part of my adult life, but Grayson's life as well. We celebrated Grandma's birthday yesterday at her favorite Chinese restaurant, where my Aunt Karen snapped this photo which is now one of my favorites. Aren't they a happy, good-looking bunch?