The Bathtub Incident

Dear Greyson,

You little boy, are a hoot! You make us laugh every single day! Earlier this week, Dada and sneezed really loud and you stood in front of him and laughed and laughed and laughed. Literally, for about 5 minutes straight, you laughed. Towards the end it was a goofy, overly fake laugh, which made us laugh harder. This of course egged you on and you continued doing it. I loved it!

You love Milo. You also like to lick and kiss Milo. A few days ago, you were playing with (bothering) Milo and were licking Milo and kissing him. You grabbed his face like you always do and puckered up to what I thought was going to be a kiss on the nose. Instead, you surprised Milo and Mama by sticking his entire nose in your mouth! It was disgusting and hilarious all at the same time!

Now, on to the bathtub incident. We all know how much you love baths. We can say the word bath and you take off running for the bathroom. I always turn the water on and then go get your towel, and set your PJ's out. Usually you follow me around until it's time to get in. This time though, you didn't. I walked into the bathroom and there you were, standing in the tub, fully clothed. Dada and I started laughing so hard. Lesson learned, don't run the water until everything else is ready!

Last night was a little rough. Back story, you have an ear infection, which throws off your sense of balance. Couple that with an impulsive, risk-taking 18 month old and you have an accident just waiting to happen. You were playing on your slide when all of a sudden you fall off the back. Not only do you fall off, but you land face first. Dada picked you up right away and you were screaming. Blood was coming from your mouth and I freaked out! I was ready to rush you to the ER, but Dada stayed calm and collected. He applied pressure to your mouth and I ran to get the Tylenol. It took a little bit, but you finally calmed down. You were up pretty much every hour from there on out. It was a long, long night. I don't know if it was from the fall or your ear infection or both, but it sucked.

So, about that impulsive, risk-taking, 18 month old. Those words describe you better than anything. Your favorite spot to sit is on the back of the couch while flipping the light switches. You also enjoy sliding over the back of the couch. You hang for a few seconds and wave to us with a giant smile on your face before sliding down. You also like to stand on the MegaBlocks table that you got for Christmas from Grandpa. You get on top on it and once you are standing up completely you hold your hands up over your head and say "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" (ta-da). It's really cute but not at all safe!

We were going to attempt to get rid of the Bink. It didn't go so well. We thought that going cold turkey would be the best approach. We were wrong. Very, very wrong. The night we tried, we did our bedtime routine the same as we always do, laid you down, covered you up with your blankie, handed you your sippy and then started to walk away. That was when it hit you that you didn't have a bink and panic doesn't even begin to describe your reaction. You sat straight up and started saying "bink, bink!" while sliding your hands along the mattress desperately searching for a bink. You screamed and cried! Dada and I lasted 10 minutes before we came to your rescue. We gave in and gave you a bink and decided you were definitely not ready. We did poke a hole in the bink, but it hasn't seemed to make any difference to you. Dada and I have been much better though about only giving you the bink at night time though. You still go up to your crib and say bink and point to it, but then we leave the room and say, "Nigh nigh bink" and walk away.

Bedtime tonight was super easy! We were hanging out in the living room and you were running around playing. It was only about 7:30 and Grandpa had just left. You all of a sudden said, "Nigh nigh" and walked to the bedroom door and stood there. Dada and I looked at each other, shrugged and said, ok... We did a quick, abbreviated version of our bedtime routine. Dada layed you on the bed to change your diaper and you started crying and saying, 'nigh nigh" so we hurried up and laid you down. You gave us our kisses, waved and we turned out the lights. Easiest bedtime ever!

I love you buddy, forever and longer!

Love, Mama

Pictures part II

More pictures!! This is just the beginning...there are many more to come!

Pictures!!

Dear Greyson,

So much has happened! We celebrated Christmas, we went to Florida, we missed Dada bunches! I don't think words can describe it, so here are some pictures instead!!

I love you buddy, forever and longer!

Love, Mama

Sleepless Nights

Dear Greyson,

I thought the nights of us having to get up throughout the night were past us. Your molars and other various teeth coming in plus your cold/cough had other plans. We spent about a week of not sleeping, which was awful for all of us. Thankfully you are finally back to sleeping better, but I have a feeling we aren't completely out of this yet. I will say, you now have a mouthful of teeth!

Speaking of teeth, your new favorite thing is a toothbrush! You won't let me help you brush your teeth though, which has become an issue. You need to have your teeth brushed!! Whenever I go into the bathroom, you follow me. So I set you on the toilet (lid closed) and get a toothbrush wet with water and give it to you. You will sit there are long as I let you just chewing on that toothbrush. I brush my teeth quite a few times a day now so I can model for you how to move the brush around in your mouth. You are getting much better about it. You don't just chew on the bristles anymore! We still have quite a bit of work to do on it though!

I now keep a toothbrush in the freezer. Sounds strange, but between your awful teething plus your mild obsession with toothbrushes, I figured a frozen toothbrush would be the best thing for you! Boy was I right! You can put the cold bristles right on your sore little gums. The only bad thing about it is, it doesn't stay cold for very long. You don't seem to mind too much though.

Words!! My oh my do you say a lot now! Not only are you just jibbering, but you jibber with purpose! You know where your nose is, and say "nooooooooose" while pointing. Something funny you do, we ask you where your eyes are and you would point to ears and say "iyyyyyyyys"! EVERY.SINGLE.TIME! It's really funny! Hopefully you figure out soon that your eyes are on the front of your face and your ears are on the side! You can say Sami (Mimi) and you say "eee eee eee" for a monkey. Your favorite thing to say is Big B! If you see a picture of Brenden you get so excited and say "Big B!!!" You also say eat, kitty, Digger, down, powder, what did you do, what dat (what's that), there, out and even more that I can't think of off the top of my head. It's so fun when you learn new words!

Bath time continues to be a favorite past time of yours. After dinner I'll say, "Greyson do you want to take a bath?" and you take off running for the bathtub! You love to dump water on your head, stick your face in the water and blow bubbles. You laugh so hard when we squirt you with water with the bath squirters! You have finally figured out how the bath squirters work and often get us back! But you always hand us one, too, so we can squirt each other. Getting you out of the tub is not so easy though. Literally you will play in that tub until all the water is completely gone, and then we have to wait a few more minutes while you flop around in the empty, slippery tub.

I love you buddy, forever and longer!

Love, Mama

Jibber Jabber Jibberish

Dear Greyson,

HSJdjwnodhfakjdnajkdafhejcnc;asjdfhnfnfakjsdn...This is what you sound like, all.the.time. And when you do it, you do it in the sweetest little voice. It's so cute! Dada swears you are trying to tell us something because a lot of times you will repeat yourself over and over, same random consonant- vowel combinations. This evening, Grandma was laying on the floor and you crouched down in front of her and got inches from her face and started "talking". She laughed so hard because you were so serious. When Jason and Libby took Brenden upstairs to feed him dinner, you went up to the opening from the basement and started yelling up at them. I can only assume you wanted your buddy to come back down to play.

Holy lots of teeth! On the top you have your left and right central incisors (front teeth), left and right lateral incisors (teeth next to the front teeth), and the left and right first molars. On the bottom you have the left and right incisors, the right lateral incisor is in the process of coming up and the left lateral incisor has broken through. You also have both left and right bottom first molars coming up. Poor guy! I don't know when all this happened, but it sure explains your mood swings lately. Here I was under the impression that teeth came up one at a time. You sure proved me wrong.

Hi! Hi! Hi! This is probably my favorite thing you do now. You say "Hi!" in your sweet little voice, lots of times waving when you do it, and with a big grin. We say it back and it becomes a game, saying it to each other over and over. We know when you are ready to get up from a nap or in the morning because instead of crying (which means you need to sleep longer) you give us a big grin and a "Hi!"

Go? This is also a recent thing you do. When someone leaves the room or you can't find something, you hold your hands out with your palms up and say, "go?" We are trying to get you to fill in the blanks by saying for you, "where did Dada go?" or "where did sippy go?" to help give you the words you need. You are learning so much so fast! It's so fun and exciting when you learn new things. We decided that you are ready to learn more signs, so we are going to teach you eat, which you are already starting to pick up. I think the next sign will be please.

Ohhh the bink. I cannot get rid of that darn bink. You want the darn thing all the time. You have even started getting into the diaper bag, where we have a paci pod, open it up to get one. When it's diaper time, as soon as we walk into your room you say, "beeeeenk!" I have no idea how we are going to stop using one.

Oh, something really exciting happened today! 2 out of the 3 times you pooped, as soon as it happened you pointed to your diaper and said, "uh-oh". Yes, recognizing poop is very exciting! Dada and I are toying around with possibly getting you a potty chair for Christmas. Not that we have ANY expectations of you using it yet, but we can have it around and you can practice sitting on it.

Cute story, you have been so goofy lately! Thanks to Dada, you think (and so does Dada) it's hysterical when you smack the sides of your head saying "ow ow ow". Awesome, I know. You also make us laugh when you walk around, waving your hands in the air, shaking your head from side to side, jabbering and yelling "baaabwaaaabwaaabwaaaa"! It's pretty cute!

I love you buddy, forever and longer!

Love, Mama

Belly!!!

Dear Greyson,

"Where's your belly!?" This is a new game we play and it is hysterical! We will say to you, "Where is your belly?" and you will get a huge grin on your face and lift up your shirt. Often times you want us to tickle, kiss or blow raspberries your tummy. I think the picture pretty much sums up how much you love this game!

I have officially accepted your sweet little head. It looks so much better than when we started. Some days I look at it and think it looks perfect and that there is nothing different about it. Other times, I still notice the slight irregular shape. Everyone tells me they don't notice anything, that I'm over-analyzing. So, I have decided to do my best to stop focusing on your head shape. I have decided to accept you just the way you are, which is absolutely perfect!

"NO" is still your favorite word. We can ask you pretty much anything and we always get the same response, which is no. Sometimes you mix it up and say, 'uh-uh". Regardless, it's pretty much 'no' to everything, be it a bath, snack, kiss, or drink.

We bought you an actual toothbrush. We couldn't use the one that fits over my finger any longer because you kept biting me. You love having your teeth brushed. Well, it's more you love holding and sucking on the toothbrush. You always follow me into the bathroom and demand a toothbrush. I gave you an extra toothbrush for you to play with in the bath tub, which you thought was terrific. You played with that more than you did your actual bath toys. You don't like it much when I take the toothbrush to actually brush your teeth, though. You got pretty upset with me this morning, but I will say, it was much easier to brush your teeth when you were yelling at me! I could actually see your teeth and what I was doing. I try and brush your teeth pretty quickly because I want you to enjoy this good habit. I definitely don't want to discourage your enjoyment in brushing, which is why I usually give you a toothbrush when we are in the bathroom. I let you watch me brush my teeth, too, while you are playing with your toothbrush. I'm hoping you'll mimic me the more you watch me.

You become pretty frustrated when you can't do something and when we can't understand what you want/need. I feel so bad, because I can tell you know what you want, but you don't have the words to say it. We try our best to help you out and give you the words, but sometimes we just can't help you. When this happens you get so mad. You throw things, hit, and cry. It's so sad. Luckily for us, you don't dwell on things, so most times we can put you in a good mood fairly quickly.

I love you buddy, forever and longer!

Love,

Mama

Holy Moly!

Dear Greyson,

Holy moly am I really bad at keeping this up to date. I think about topics and things I want to add all the time, but then I don't! Sorry bud!

Anyways, let's see...you have a whole host of new words! You can now say, go, hi, bye, ball, no, yeah, banana, more, done, milk, gone, bink, nigh nigh, woof, meow, peep peep (chick), snort (pig), mmmmm (cow), mama, dada, papa, and a few more that I just can't think of right now. It's so exciting and fun when you learn a new word. Gramma and I taught you peep peep just the other day, and when you say it, it's in this really high pitched voice. Sooo cute! Not only are you talking more, but you understand some sign language and use it yourself. Granted, you didn't really start using it until you were saying the words, but still! You know the signs for more, done, and milk. We use milk and any drink interchangeably. I don't know if that if correct, but it works for us.

You also got two molars in. Those were fun! You were a drool-y, crabby, feverish, mess. My last post was about having to pick you up from Cindy's because you were sick. I thought you had the flu, but the next day you were perfectly fine and that was when we noticed the new molars. I think you might be teething again, because you have been really drool-y again this week. Luckily there haven't been any fevers for you this time around.

We went down to Cincinnati for one weekend. We baby-sat cousin Brenden while Aunt Libby and Uncle Jason went to a wedding. That was lots of fun! You and B took a bath together. It was the first of many, I'm sure. We also got to spend some time with Uncle Dave and Andy. You just love them! They couldn't get enough of your cute little, "bye" and kisses. We'll get to see them again next week! The trip down and back from Cinci was probably the best road trip we've ever had. You watched Yo Gabba Gabba the entire time. I don't think we heard a peep out of you! Mama and Dada got pretty sick of listening to it, but you were so happy so we just dealt with it.

Gramma and Papa were gone most of October visiting Aunt Lindsey and baby Isaac. You missed them very much while they were gone. When they got home you were so excited and did a little happy dance and squealed when you saw them. You are very much a Papa's boy (sorry Gramma). Yesterday Papa was raking leaves out back when we got home from Cindy'sand you saw him and made a bee-line for him. I picked you up and carried you to the front steps and once I set you down you turned around and booked it towards him. I gave in and followed you to him. You kept picking up leaves and throwing them in the air. It was cute, but of course I couldn't get a cute picture because every time I would try you would stop.

Grandma and Gampa came to visit 2 weeks ago. They picked you up from Cindy's, at first you were a little unsure but you warmed up pretty quick. Once you did, you were Gampa's little sidekick. He would take you for walks, pick you up whenever you wanted and overall spoiled you rotten. Grandma tried to spoil you too, but unfortunately you pretty much only wanted one person.

You went through a phase of being terrified of the bath tub. It came about because you were in the tub with KB one night and he pooped in the tub. Of course it happened right after I had already lathered you all up, so Dada took you into Gramma and Papa's bathroom and put you in their shower. Bad idea. It was apparently a very traumatic experience with you because we went about 2-3 weeks of being terrified of the bath tub. That was a long 2 weeks because we still had to bathe you. Bath time went from being the most fun part of our nights to the most dreaded. We finally got you over it by Dada literally getting into the tub with you a few different times. It was so cute and I of course had to take pictures (don't worry, Dada was clothed, he just knelt down while wearing shorts). You still glance at the shower head sometimes with a weary look on your face, but overall you are back to enjoying the tub.

Halloween came and went. You looked so cute in your little lion costume. Grandpa Jon came trick or treating with us, which was really special. Dada and Grandpa took turns taking you up to the houses with your bucket. Lots of people commented on how cute you were and many many times you would wave bye and blow kisses as you were walking away from the houses. We also went to a Halloween parade in Rossford with Aunt Jenn and KB. That was just OK. It was right in the middle of your nap, in hindsight, we'd have skipped the parade and let you finish your nap, but what can you do? Needless to say, you did not enjoy the parade as much as I had hoped, but at least you got to wear your costume more than once!

Roar! That's also a new word/animal sound you do. We thought that since you were going to be a lion for Halloween you needed to be able to roar. You caught on really quick and love doing it. You laugh so hard at the exaggerated scared expressions we give you after you roar. Often you and I go back and forth, just roaring and giggling at each other.

One more quick story! Last night, you, Dada and I were playing on the bed before bedtime. You kept jumping on Milo and hugging and kissing him, which was adorable. At one point you reached out to kiss Milo on the nose and Milo sneezed right in your face as you were leaning in. You laughed so hard! It was disgusting and hilarious at the same time!

I love you buddy, forever and longer!

Love, Mama