What goes in must come out...

Dear Greyson,

For dinner tonight you ate a chicken patty and cheesey rice and broccoli. You ate a ton! I will admit, it was pretty tasty. Well, after you finished up I grabbed a wipe to clean you up. As usual, you grabbed the wipe from me and stuffed it in your mouth. You do this to be silly and make us laugh. Well, to be even funnier you started breathing really loud out of your nose. I was laughing because you were making so much noise and making a silly face, which of course just eggs you on when all of a sudden a piece of rice shoots out your nose! It made the whole situation even funnier, which of course you just loved!

For the most part you have figured out how to climb up onto the couch. This is great for you, not so much for Mama, Dada and Jinx. Well, this afternoon you climbed up onto the couch and kept climbing over to the end by the record player, which of course had some things on top that you wanted to get. I grabbed the stuff and walked it over to set it all on the piano, which is probably only 20 feet away. When I turned around after setting the stuff on the piano you were no longer sitting on the couch. You were on top of the record player! Rotten little boy! I ran over quickly to get you down and you thought it was hysterical. We have our hands full with you, that's for sure!

Ok, one more funny story! I was sitting on the couch with Dada's computer sitting on my lap. You realized what I was doing and came over to check it out and then tried to pound on the keyboard. I put my hand up to keep you away and you kept slapping my hand and grabbing it. I thought you were trying to move it, which is typical for you. Well you kept persisting so I let you grab my hand. Lo and behold you weren't trying to move my hand, you grabbed my hand, turned it over to give me a high five! Oops!

The picture today is of you wearing Papa's motorcycle helmet. Papa left it sitting by the door and you of course had to check it out! You loved having it on your head, watching me put it on my head, and slapping the side of it.

I love you buddy, forever and longer!

Love, Mama

Holy Wow

Dear Greyson,

I have been so awful about keeping this up-to-date. Sorry, buddy! My work schedule has changed and it has been difficult finding time to write. Let's see, I have a lot to update, but funny stories about you first!

First, you were sitting on the couch playing and Mama was watching TV. A New Kids on the Block song came on and of course Mama HAD to sing along and keep the song going. When I finally stopped singing, you were looking at me like I was crazy and then started smacking yourself in the face and shaking your head no. I don't know if you were really offended by my singing NKOTB or if it was just really good timing, but it was really funny regardless!

Second, you have learned to tackle us. It is probably my favorite thing that you do right now! I will sit on the floor and you will charge at me and then lunge. I always fall over when you get to me and you always giggle! The only not so funny part is when you start head butting me, which always comes once we are on the floor. We're working on that. Earlier today, you tackled me and when we were on the floor you gave me a HUGE kiss. It made my day! I love your kisses.

Ok, now on to the big stuff. You are out of your helmet. We went last Monday for your monthly headscan and as always we go in super excited and leave upset or discouraged. This month was no different, it was actually worse. We were told this time you had a growth spurt (which is what we've been waiting for) and that almost all the growth was on the opposite side. I was dumbfounded. How could this be? Dr. Cole basically said it was one of two things, either a) he's not wearing the helmet enough or b) his sutures have closed up and the helmet is not going to change anything. We all know that you wore that stupid helmet all the flipping time so there was no possible way that was the reason. We have to schedule a CT scan in order to determine whether or not your sutures have closed. I'm not too sure how I feel about this. You cannot stand getting your 3 second head scan once a month, I can only imagine how you would react to a CT scan. We can't do anything until we get our insurance stuff figured out though. We put you on my health insurance, but now that Dada got the job at Huntington (yay!!) we decided to switch you again to be on Dada's. I would like to take you to Cleveland to Cranial Technologies and have them do an evaluation on you. They make a different type of band called a DocBand. I would like to at least get another opinion, but I am also ready to just put this all behind us, too. I just don't want to have any regrets either. Not when it comes to you!

We have to schedule the appointment with your doctor and then go from there. I am not sure when that will be though.

I love you buddy, forever and longer!
Love, Mama

Vacation!

Dear Greyson,

We had such a busy week this past week. We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa out in Illinois. We left Friday after Mama got off work. Dada packed up the car and boy was it packed! You could barely see out the back window. We were all so anxious to get going! We ate dinner on the road, you of course had your favorite, chicken nuggets! You did not sleep the entire ride out! That isn't necessarily a good thing, buddy. Mama had to ride in the back with you most of the way because otherwise you would get very cranky. Mama got a video of you cracking up and laughing on the way. I was trying to check your diaper, and apparently was tickling you! Of course I couldn't stop because your giggle is just too funny! We sent the video to everyone. Aunt Emmy told us that whenever she is in a bad mood she watches/listens to the video because it instantly cheers her up. She also sent it to Aunt Dana, who was having a bad day that day and she said it made her bad day much better.

Saturday we hung out and waited for Aunt Libby, Uncle Jason, and Brenden to get there. The whole family together, yay! Sunday was more hanging out and relaxing. Swimming and playing. All week you were bound and determined to make friends with Kasey, the cat. He wanted nothing to do with you, though. A few times he hurt your feelings and hissed at you.

On Monday, we all packed up the cars and headed to the Brookfield Zoo. It was an hour and a half car ride, but you had your Grandpa in the back with you so you were a happy guy. The zoo was so nice, it is a European style zoo, so there were no bars or cages around the animals. You really liked seeing the monkeys. Dada and Grandpa took turns carrying you when you weren't in the stroller. Their arms had to have been sore by the end of the day! The last thing we did at the zoo was ride the tram around. That was definitely not the best idea we had. You were exhausted (no afternoon nap) and decided that would be a great time to be Mr. Independent and not want to be held. Not by Mama, Dada, Grandma or Grandpa. You pulled some lady's hair (twice) and managed to get her to move, cried, tossed your sippy and crackers (almost losing your sippy over the edge) and were overall not a happy guy. We all dashed for the cars as soon as the tram stopped. You ate chicken nuggets from BK on the way home and fell asleep about 15 minutes from pulling into the driveway. Not the best timing! We put you straight to bed and you were out for the night.

The rest of the week was spent hanging out with the family. You spent a lot of time in the pool, which you loved! Grandma bought you some bubble bath, so at night you got to experience that. You weren't too sure about it at first, but by the end of the week you were enjoying it. Mama taught you how to put the bubbles in your hand and blow them off, and you found it very funny to put the bubbles in your hands and then clap. You would get the biggest smile on your face as the bubbles would go flying. The only problem with the bubble bath was that the bubbles made it hard for you to find your toys.

On Friday you got to do something really special. Grandma and Grandpa took you, and only you, to the Discovery Center in downtown Rockford. Mama and Dada were not invited! You got to be a weatherman, you sat in a big tractor, and you loved the balls that were floating. There was an area just for kids 18 months and younger that you played in. You and Grandma kicked off your shoes and ran all over the place. You rolled balls, climbed, and slid. Grandma and Grandpa are already looking forward to taking you again and again and again!

You were so unbelievably spoiled this week by everyone. Whoever was nearest you'd run to and put your arms up to be held, unless Grandpa was in the room, because then no one else mattered. He would take you all over the house showing you things, he'd walk you outside and you'd look at the birds, he'd tickle you, take you swimming, read to you and give you lots of hugs and kisses. Grandma made you lots of yummy dinners. You especially loved that she had grapes in the house! She'd cut them up and you would devour them. Grandma was full of kisses for you! You even returned a few of those kisses, which made her so happy! Mama and Dada are in for a treat trying to de-grandma and grandpa you.

Overall, it was an awesome trip. We were all so sad that the week went by so fast. As always, good-byes were tough, but we made it through and are counting the days before we get to see them again.

The trip home was pretty uneventful. Chicago traffic wasn't too bad, not great, but not awful. You slept for about an hour and then played, snacked, watched movies and whined. Instead of going straight home we went to Aunt Emmy and Uncle Kevin's. Uncle Kevin threw Aunt Emmy a surprise party! We missed the surprise part, but made it for the party! You loved running around the backyard. You danced a little, chased the big kids and climbed up the big hill (and then proceeded to fall down the big hill). You ate lots of frosting and cookie cake that Sami and Devin snuck you. You were full of hugs for Uncle Greg and gave Uncle Kevin high-fives. Aunt Emmy and Aunt Jenny were lucky enough to score a couple of kisses from you! Happy birthday

party day, Aunt Emmy!

You had another tooth erupt this week, you now have 4 teeth on top and 2 on the bottom! You still walk on the sides of your feet, but we are noticing they aren't as bowlegged anymore. Yay progress!

I love you buddy, forever and longer!

Love, Mama