It's June!

Dear Greyson,

I cannot believe it. Next month you will be two. It feels like your first birthday just happened! It really is amazing how fast time is flying. You are growing up so fast and it is so much fun!

We had a really busy last few weeks of May. We went to Cincinnati and now we're in Illinois visiting Grandma and Boppa. While we were in Cincinnati you of course loved on your Uncle Dave. Papa Santel set up his choo-choo for you and you LOVED it! You sat with Uncle Dave and Andy in the middle of the track and watched it. Every so often we'd hear "choo-choooo!" We went to the park also. You loved the swings and the slide!

While we went to Aunt Jessica's wedding you spent the night with Jess and her family. Emma loved on you the whole time. Mama was really nervous about leaving you, but you did awesome! When we picked you up, Jess told us that she never wants to hear the phrase, "What's that?" for a long time. Compliments of you!

The day before we left for Rockford we went out to dinner with Grandpa. We went to Easystreet and it was so yummy! You were giving Grandpa high-fives over and to be funny, you licked your hand and then gave Grandpa five. You got big laughs for that one, which is exactly what you were going for!

Obsessions as of right now are still Choo-choo's (Thomas the Train) and Toy Story. You love Woody and Woody's hat. You love counting! You can almost count to five, sometimes you need a little help and other times you don't. You will randomly just start saying numbers though, which is so funny. Most of the time it's "9 2 5" or 99 2 5" or some variation. You also know the shape, star. We've been working on shapes a lot. At dinner tonight you were saying the word circle as I was drawing them. Mama downloaded a game on Dada's phone for you that you love! It shows either colors, shapes, numbers or letters and you have to choose the one that it says. You love pushing the buttons "bought-ens" as you say.

You are getting more and more brave in the pool. Unfortunately, because of that we have had a few spills! You slipped getting out of the pool and hit the side of your face once and the second time you were chasing a ball and slipped. Mama caught you the second time luckily! Thank goodness Grandma and Boppa bought you a swimming suit with a life vest in it though. You are a fearless little boy!

We are having a great time in Rockford. You have your Grandma and Boppa right where you want them! Boppa taught you "Cheers" and then clink glasses. He is pretty proud of himself for that!

Pool pictures to come...

I love you buddy, forever and longer!

Love, Mama

Bye Mama Bye

Dear Greyson,

Tuesday's are my least favorite day of the week. I work my normal hours (6:30-3:30) and then baby-sit from 5:30-8:00, so I don't see you until I get home at 8:30-8:45ish. Dada keeps you up late so I can see you for a few minutes. Well this morning as I was saying good-bye to you (while you normally sleep) with your eyes still closed you said, "Bye, Mama Bye". I kissed your head and said bye again and then you said, "Mama, hug?" How could I refuse? So I leaned over the crib to give you a squeeze. I don't actually think you were awake for it, but it made my day!

When I got home tonight you were all about Mama! I loved it. You have me hugs and kisses and we played! You were being extra goofy and kept trying to lick my face. When Dada said it was time for nigh-nigh's you jumped in my arms. We both gave Dada our best sad faces to buy us a few extra minutes.

I love you buddy, forever and longer!

Love, Mama

XOXO

Dear Greyson,

Yay! You are giving hugs again at bedtime! We went through a short phase where you didn't want to give hugs or kisses and it made me so sad. NOT TODAY THOUGH! Both Dada and I got 2 kisses and you insisted on a family hug.

While eating dinner tonight you puckered up for no reason and gave me a kiss. I took full advantage and stole quite a few of those yummy kisses. Dada snuck a few, too!

I love you buddy, forever and longer!

Love, Mama

Happy Mother's Day!

Dear Greyson,

Because of you, this is probably my most favorite holiday, now! I love love love being your Mama. You slept in until 8 this morning. Awesome! Then you and Dada got up and played while I slept in more. Around 9 you came running into the bedroom saying, "Mama!" carrying a big bag and you said, "here you go". I lifted you up and opened up my presents! You and Dada both got me cards, which you decorated. You also got me two books about how much Mama's love their babies. PERFECT! We read through them and on the last page is a Mama with lighter hair holding a boy and you pointed to them and said, "Mama and me!" You also got me a picture frame that says I LOVE MOM. Dada printed out the picture of you and I that is at the top of this post. After we got up Dada made us yummy pancakes and cut up some strawberries.

After we got around we met Jenn, Greg, and Kaleb at the zoo. This is becoming a tradition that we started last year. It was beautiful weather and you really seemed to enjoy the animals. We saw Baby Louie, the elephant do tricks, which was pretty neat. Aunt Jenn brought Apple Jacks, which were a HUGE hit for you. After seeing your reaction we might need to purchase some for you. I think the highlight of the trip was the aviary. You just love ducks (birds). We got your picture in the egg again, once they are up I'll post one!

One more funny word that you made up that I forgot about yesterday! You love your cousin Kaleb, but you can't say his name yet. So instead you call him Shoe. I don't know where it came from or why, but that is what you call him. Silly buddy!

I love you buddy, forever and longer!

Love, Mama

Ducks!

Dear Greyson,

Just a few quick things about you that I never ever want to forget!

I love all the silly words that you say. For instance, all birds are called "ducks" and you say "fuffle-bo" for a buffalo. Woody from Toy Story is "Wo-ee" and Jessie (from Toy Story and Grandma and Boppa's dog) is "Sassie". Elmo is "Mamo". Gabbas still all have their own names, "Mumu, Booboo, Pac, Teetee, and Fao". You call Grandma "Ma". We try all the time to get you to say bird, and you say, "yeah, duck!". "Hu-ach" is both hug and walk. We sometimes have a hard time with this one because it's the same word.

Dada bought you a hockey puck at the Wings game last night and gave it to you. You needed to sleep with it tonight. We put you to bed and after a little bit you started crying. Dada went in to check on you and you were crying, "hockey". Dada thought you heard the TV, it wasn't until Mama reminded him of the hockey puck, and lo and behold you dropped the hockey puck. Dada handed it to you and all was better!

Dada and I bought you a new sippy cup today. It has Toy Story characters on it. You were so excited that you felt it necessary to take it into the bath tub. We just went with it! LOL!

Bedtime is for the most part pretty easy. You don't really like giving us hugs and kisses anymore before bed. When it's bedtime you really just want to lay down in your bed. You always lay in the exact same spot, facing the wall on you side and you insist on things being the exact same. You get your bink while we are giving you kisses and hugs and then lay you down. Then we hand you your milk and cover you with purple blankie and then your gabba blankie. Mumu has to be laying next to you on the green pillow and you lay on your white Brobee pillow. Dada and I have found out the hard way that we have to cover you with those blankets in that order. You tell us if we did it wrong!

You have a few new obsessions. Sadly, you have moved on from Gabbas. This makes me a little sad to be completely honest. You still play with your gabba toys in the tub and sleep with them though! Elmo has entered your world. It's pretty cute! The other new obsession is Thomas the Train. You see a train and you say, "Choo-choo!" We have a Thomas movie that you watch, and one part is where there is a train chase and the bad train falls off the track into the water. The whole time it's happening you go, "Oh no! Choo-choo! Fall down!" It's pretty amusing that you actually understand. You still love your cars. We have introduced you to Matchbox Cars. You love love love them! You will bring them over to us and hand one to each of us and then the three of us have to drive them around. You insist! "Mama Car"

You still love being read to. You like not only being read to, but you love to look at books by yourself. For Easter both sets of grandparents got you lots and lots of books. When Ma and Papa are home you make both of them read to you before bed. Ma and Papa just eat it up! You also love looking at a book that Ma and Boppa got you for Easter, it's a recorded book with their voices about how much they miss you. Each time you turn the page and hear their voices you act all surprised and say, "Boppa!" or "Ma!" It's pretty cute!

You majorly surprised us the other day when we were at the park with Kaleb, Big B, Jason, Libby and Dada. An airplane flew overhead and you pointed to the sky and said, "Air pane!" We didn't even know you knew what that was! Smarty pants!

A game you and Mama play in the car is pointing out EVERYTHING! "Mama, wass dat?" You want to know what everything is. You also want to know where everyone is. "Mama, where Dada go?" Mama, where Sassie go?" "Mama, where Nannan (Camden, a friend from daycare) go?" etc, etc. After I answer over and over you will start telling me where everyone is. "Mama, Sassie nigh nigh". It's super cute. Then we point out all the cars we see!

I love you buddy, forever and longer!

Love, Mama

Lotsa Pictures!

Dear Greyson,

Bath time makes you so happy!
You are so sweet. You love to share your toys!
We had a play date at Sylvania Play Place. You had so much fun going down the slides!
Here you are swinging with your new friend Natalie!
You are fearless! Not even this huuuuuge slide scared you.


Funny story about this picture. This is after bath time and I asked you to come get your clothes on. This was your response! "Noooooo". Shortly after I snapped the picture, you pee'd on the floor.

Stuck!

Dear Greyson,

Happy February! In this first picture you and I posed for a V-day picture! I shared my chocolates with you, which you loved!!

Smooooch! This is a new face that you make! I love it! After we give you our bedtime kisses and lay you down, you say, "Mama" and then make this face. Irresistible! Another cute bedtime thing you do, we always get kisses from you and now, you grab onto both our heads to give us a hug together. A family hug! I love it. You also then run our hair afterwards, which is weird. Silly buddy! I love our bedtime hugs and kisses.
Speaking of hugs, Hug is your new word! Except when you say it, you say it with a -ach at the end! Hu-ach, (think Ach-med the Dead Terrorist). So cute! When you give hugs you squeeze super tight, too. Right around the neck. Takes my breath away literally and figuratively!
Valentine's Day you sent cards to your far away grandparents. You made them each a hand-print page and colored a card for them. You loved coloring the cards and got so mad at me when I took the cards away so we could send them in the mail. Both grandparents loved the cards and painting you did though.

We have had such a fun February so far! Mama and Dada both got sick early this month, (that was not so much fun) but because of that, you and Mama had our first cooking experience together. You were so helpful making chicken noodle soup! You helped put the celery and carrots into the crock pot, helped add the spices (you loved that part) and stirred the soup throughout the day. You kept trying to lick the spoon after stirring, which I had to put a stop to because there was uncooked chicken in the soup. Overall, it was a lot of fun for both of us.

The Bink Saga. You love your bink so unbelievably much. It is getting better, but we still aren't quite ready to be completely done with it. We just have to shake the bink, so the handle makes a noise and you come running with a smile on your face. You only use it now to help you fall asleep, once you are asleep it falls out and you don't use it the rest of the night. You have no problem telling your bink 'nigh nigh' and then throwing it into bed once you are up.

You were digging around in the diaper bag one night and out you pulled a spare bink. You got a huge smile on your face and stuck it in your mouth. When I went to get it from you, you took off running! You headed straight for Milo's bed and climbed inside. I tried to get it from you and you actually swatted my hand away saying "NO!" and then closed Milo's door. What could I do? I laughed and grabbed the camera, of course!

Stuck! This is your new favorite word. You put a huuuuuge emphasis on the -ck at the end (again, think Ach-med the Dead Terrorist). It's hilarious. You like to get yourself in a tight spot and say it. If you can't get something, you say it. When you want out of your highchair, you say it! It pretty much applies to everything anymore!

Let's see, you have more new words! You keep surprising me with your words! You say sock, shoe and coat. My favorite phrase you say is, "what did you do?" A lot of times you say it, "what di di di di di doooooooo?" So cute! Dada and I like to say it now, too. You call Cindy, Yaya. We aren't really sure where that came from, but it works. Although, when I was taking you to Cindy's today, you said, "Ninny". So who knows. You call goldfish crackers 'yi yos'. That one I cannot figure out at all. I keep thinking maybe cheerios, but we never give you cheerios anymore.

I'm pretty sad because you are getting so big. You don't sign as much anymore and when you say more, you actually say 'more' not 'mo'. You are losing your baby giggle and are sounding more and more like a big boy. Today, I noticed that you are also beginning to say "Milo". I'm gonna miss you calling him "Mimo". Stop growing so quick baby!

I can't remember if I mentioned your awesome manners in the last blog post. Even if I did, they are worth mentioning again! You say "Thank You" to everything! It's so cute. You actually say "tane choo". LOVE IT! When you pair it with, "tane choo mama" it makes me smile every time. The great thing is, you understand what it means and say it unprompted! If we give you crackers, 'tane choo dada', if we give you a sippy, "tane choo mama", if we get you or a toy unstuck, 'tane choo mada'. Even bedtime you remember your manners. We give you your kisses and hugs, lay you down, cover you up and hand you your sippy. Once you are down, you say, "tane choo". My favorite is when we say "I love you" you say, 'Tane choo". I look forward to when you say I love you back, but for now I love that you say "Tane choo".

Mada-this cracks me up when you say this. When you talk to both of us, you call us Mada. Or if you are talking to one of us and start to call us the wrong name, you call us Mada. Hilarious!I'll have to get a video of it sometime!

You have started calling Dada, Daddy. Made Dada and I both really sad. We don't ever call each other Mommy or Daddy. We have just always been Mama and Dada. I will be devastated when you call me anything other than mama. I know Dada was pretty upset. It hasn't been a consistent thing, so we're hoping it doesn't stick!

I love you buddy, forever and longer!

Love, Mama