so silly...

Dear Greyson,

Today you made me laugh and laugh and laugh. You actually do this most days, it’s hard to put into words what it is that you do that makes me giggle, because it’s just you. You’re funny and silly and goofy all wrapped into one. You’re mischievous, but not in a troublesome way, it’s more of a silly way. You love attention, and to make silly faces, you make up silly dances and silly noises and silly songs. You love to dance and stand on one foot and for me to copy you. You love to tickle and be tickled, you love to chase and be chased. You pretend to sleep and love it when I come rub your head and say “Oh look, Greyson is sleeping” and then you pop up and say boo, and I jump and act surprised. You call me back into your room at night after I’ve tucked you in and ask me to rock you like a baby, and then you’ll giggle for no reason at all until I can’t but help but giggle back, and there we are two giggling, rocking, silly fools who are not relaxing and working on falling sleep, but I love it, I love every second of it. I try to stop my giggles, I close my eyes and rest my head back and try to hum a lullaby and you just keep giggling until I give in again and again.

I love you so much sweet pea. Thanks for making me laugh.

Love,
Your Momma

(One of many silly faces!)

Pardon me while I dust off the old soapbox... ahem...

I read an interesting article the other day about behavior and punishment. It was one of the few articles I’ve read in quite some time that I whole heartily agreed with. My favorite line was this: Good behavior is not learned from punishment and time-outs but rather from ‘time-in’ and those moments that parents allow their children to practice good behavior. How true is that?!! The article went on to say that obviously punishment is needed, but punishment is and should be used as a means to stop the behavior in that moment, not to correct behavior over time. For example your child is refusing to share and snatching toys away from a playmate, a time-out is the perfect thing to stop this behavior in the moment, it removes your child from the situation and gives your kid time to cool down, and while I do believe that it will let your child know that, such behavior will result in a time-out (cause and effect), especially when a parent takes the time to have a heart-to-heart with the little offender after his time-out is over, it will not keep your child from committing the same behavior again and again (negative punishment rarely results in long time positive behavior, or so this theory went…). However, teaching your child how to share, practicing sharing and giving TONS of praise and love when he or she shows that good behavior, will result in good behavior changes overall. The article was just one of those that really resonated with Greg and my thoughts on raising Greyson. I loved too how it pointed out that children learn the most from example. I often stop myself from demanding Greyson pick up his toys or do this or that now, and remember that I expect him to say please, so why shouldn’t I? A calmly said, “Greyson, will you please pick up your toys and come to the table?” goes much farther than a yelling, “Greyson Lee pick up your toys and get to the table now!” It’s like spanking your kid because he or she hit another child? Um… Hello??

Anyway, it was in the August issue of Parents magazine and I highly recommend it.

Ok, yeah, that was my soapbox moment of the week. I’ll tuck it safely under the bed now and try my best to keep it there for awhile!!

To lighten the mood, here is a totally adorable picture of my little peanut…

Zzzzz....

My advice to all new moms….

SLEEP.

When we had Greyson our lives completely changed. We no longer stayed out late; we often turned down invitations to do things that we really wanted to do because they interfered with nap time, our lives revolved around his sleep patterns.

I know a lot of parents out there will disagree with me, and I too feel that at times, I probably was a little over obsessed with his schedule, on the other hand though, I have an almost 3 year old who still takes a 2-3 hour nap each day and sleeps 12 hours at night. (Nice right?) I also feel that because Greyson sleeps (a lot) he’s the laid back, happy child that he is. It’s not often but occasionally he’ll miss his nap, or have a few days in a row where he’s up early and get’s to bed late, and when that happens he is a completely different child. He becomes loud and cranky, into everything, fights us at every turn, his appetite for healthy food diminishes and he wants to live on junk food, and he’s moody and cries and refuses to listen. He’s like a typical 2 year old!!! I’ve also noticed that the less nap he has during the day, the less sleep he gets at night. One would think that skipping naps would make him more tired and quicker to get into bed, but just the opposite happens.

So my theory, if you’re still with me, is let your child sleep. In fact enforce that your child sleeps. There have been several times (about every 6 months or so) that Greyson goes through a week or so of trying to give up some of his sleeping time, and I’ve found that it’s those weeks that we really need to stay on schedule, that I’m putting in the time rocking him to sleep or laying down with him if need be to keep him on that sleeping schedule, because honestly we BOTH need it. He needs the rest and I know that I need the down time too! I think the terrible two’s, three’s, four’s, twelve’s! are because our kids are not getting enough sleep, our children are so busy and us parents are so busy that we’re neglecting one of the most important things our child needs. We’d never let them go all day without enough food or water, so why let them go without enough sleep?

So for us, naps are here to stay!

The things they say...

Yesterday, Greyson and I were eating at Moe's (his most favorite restaurant of all) and I was telling him that in a few weeks we were heading back to Disney, to which he replied, "Are you kidding me?!" It totally cracked me up. When those majorly 'adult' phrases come out of my little sweet babe who just a few short months ago was hardly stringing 2 words together, it just amazes me. It's amazing to be able to sit in a restaurant or in the car or anywhere, and have full blown conversations with my son, it's... well, it's fantastic!

"Happiness, and then some"

Friday's Fashion Feature

(and we're back...)

Just one picture of today's fashion (more from this session to come though...) Greyson and I have had a busy week and are super glad the weekend is here!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Greyson is wearing:

2 piece outfit by B.E. Kids from Belk's Department Store

(it's one of his new outfits and we LOVE it!)

*** A special announcement!!***

Greyson is very happy to announce that the baby has finally come out of Aunt Rachel's bellybutton!! Little Ariel was welcomed to the world this morning at 10:24 a.m., weighing in at a perfect 7lbs 13oz, 19.5 inches long and enough hair to already wear bows and barrettes (her daddy's says)!! We love you all and can't wait to see her (yeah, that's right, you no longer matter - just her!!) Lots and lots and lots of love and kisses!!

Gone Fishin’

A couple of weeks ago, we were in Wal-Mart (better known as my least favorite place in the world), as we cruised down the isles (which for me is as quickly as possible with a look of sheer determination intended to ward off random people who think it’s just peachy keen to stop and chat me up at Wal-Mart and touch my kid and offer unsolicited advice, ugh!! It’s Wal-Mart people, not a ‘get-to-know-you party’!!) Greyson happened to spy fishing poles in the sporting goods department. “Mommy, Mommy Looky – fishin’ poles! Fishin’ POLES!!” I quickly veered to the right (on 2 wheels mind you) and came to stop in front of the beloved fishing poles. His eyes began to sparkle as we surveyed the many different styles and finally settled on a Disney Cars (the movie) pole, “Mommy” he exclaimed, “A Mater (character from the movie) fishin’ pole, pleeeeeeaaaaasssssseeeee?” Seriously, how could I say no? The kid has been pretend fishing with his Daddy’s belt for months off the edge of the bed. So the pole went into the cart and we were off.

This week we were finally able to give the fishing pole a proper trip to a place where real fish swim!! Not that our living room floor and neighbors pool have not been exciting, but we were going out on a real dock in a real river!! WOO HOO!!

Of course he couldn’t really catch anything because his one and only lure has no hooks (a big thanks to our wonderful neighbor Jim!!) but luckily the kid who could use his imagination to fish with a belt can use his imagination to catch us many a fish (trout, salmon and even a shark or two!!).

Enjoy the pictures of our little Greyson – Gone Fishin’

Um... yeah.

Once again time (and weeks) have slipped by me!

So please forgive my lack of updates and interesting posts (and this non-post post too!). We are all doing very well, we've just been experiencing the busy days of summer.

I promise to get my act in gear and post on a more regular basis soon (you know sometime this year...)

Much Love,
Greyson and Heather

Sun Splash!!

Water fountains + Greyson = FUN!

We went to a local (well sorta local) park today that I've been meaning to check out for oh... a year or so. Greyson had a lot of fun, there were a ton of kids (and I mean a ton) so the mommy in me was a little nervous that the older kids were going to plow Greyson over, but he didn't seem to mind as he crouched by his bubbling water spray and laughed and squealed and got himself drenched. We'll definitely be checking this place out again soon (like in September when the kids go back to school but it's still like 172 degrees outside!).

Here are a few snap shots of the little guy in his soggy wet glory!

Art...

Greyson loves to have any type of writing utensil in his hand and paper to scribble upon. Up until recently his art work consisted of lots of scribbles and his love of coloring (well, scribbling) over faces in coloring books. The past few weeks though he's shown interest in shapes and attempting to draw them. He knows by sight: circle, square, diamond, rectangle, triangle, heart, star and oval. After weeks and weeks of showing him how to draw happy faces yesterday he drew his first very recognizable face! I was so excited and even more thrilled that I was able to get a picture of it before he erased it!



Enjoy the first works of our budding little artist!

("Daddy", by Greyson Lee)

(here he is with his masterpiece, refusing to smile at me and the camera!! Typical artist, once they have fans adoring their work they get all snooty!)

Friday's Fashion Feature (The GRUMPY edition)

Sorry we are a couple days late! It's been a busy weekend of just laying around doing nothing!

As you can tell from the pictures, Greyson was in NO mood to have his pictures taken on Friday. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Greyson is wearing:

Shorts - Okie Dokie by: JC Penny

Tank Top - Faded Glory by Wal Mart