Grayson Art

I'm very thankful that Grayson loves to draw or color while I'm making dinner. Some of the time at least. The other night he proudly announced "Look at my picture Mama!" Of course, I oohed and awed, and then inquired what the picture was. He snapped his head to look at me, and with a tone that gave me a preview of what the teenage years might bring he said, "Mooooom, it's a dinosaur in a boat!" I swear I saw him roll his eyes too, as if to say "Anyone could have seen that! Duh mom!"
As I was laughing hysterically that I hadn't interpreted his art as accurately as he had desired, he also pointed out that he had signed his name at the bottom...
"G, R, Grayson...that is how you spell it."

Thank you for the art and spelling lesson buddy. I obviously needed it :)

One of "those" weeks, continued

So, the week continued. There was no stopping it. Tuesday got a tad better on the sickness front, but we had one of those long boring days stuck inside because I was too terrified to attempt any kind of an outing after the whole WalMart fiasco. It's so fun feeling awful and trying to entertain a very active 2 and a half year old boy. Inside. All day long. By Wednesday, both Grayson and I were climbing the walls. (Remember, this is the kid who asks me every morning as soon as I flip on the light, "What we doin today Mama?") We needed to get out, so I decided I would brave going out in public again. We could stretch our legs and get some fresh air at a new park we had been wanting to try. Out we went.

We didn't get past the garage.

When I tried to start our car, the engine was completely dead. I figured it was the car battery, so I tried calling David but he was in a meeting and couldn't answer. A quick call to Pappy confirmed it. Again, Grayson was distraught. He kept grabbing my hand and trying to drag me inside the house saying, "Mama, in here. Battwees in dis dwawer!" I had to applaud his rationale. He had heard me say the battery was dead in the car, so why wouldn't we use the batteries in our junk drawer that we always use to fix his broken toys? It made perfect sense. If only it was that easy.

It was at this point that I had to make a decision. I could either stay at home again all day and wait for David to fix my car when he got home from work, or try to fix it myself with a toddler in tow. Looking back, I was a bit crazy in the head. I had jumper cables in my trunk so Grayson and I walked next door to ask our little sweet neighbor, Mary, if we could borrow her car in order to jump mine. She is the best neighbor and even though she is a widow and probably in her 70's, she has a busier social life than David and I could ever dream of. She cracks us up. Anyway, she was looking good this Wednesday morning with her red lipstick and all, and she told me she was on her way out with her friends who were about to pick her up. Insert grin here. However, she didn't hesitate and immediately handed over her car keys and was completely trusting that I would safely return her car. I love having great neighbors. I'm pretty sure I heard some good-natured giggles and laughter from her car of old lady friends as they were pulling out, and Grayson and I were pulling HER car into OUR garage :)

My dad walked me through how to jump the car, and I was overly cautious so as not to kill myself somehow, or let Grayson "work" on the engine like he was trying to do during this whole process. I got it jumped on the first try, ran inside, grabbed my purse and a sippy cup, googled an auto place by our house, and off we went. I remembered that David's mom was home from work that day so I called her to ask if she would stay by her phone just in case we got stranded on the side of the road. (Thank you Jen for being my safety net!) We made it to the auto place and sat on the blazing hot curb while the guy replaced the battery for us. The eye-level candy inside the air conditioned store was too much for Grayson to handle. However...we were successful in our car adventure!!! It was lunch time by this point and determined to make the day fun somehow, I called a friend and we still got to meet her and her little boy at Chick-Fil-A.
Whew. We made it another day.

One of "those" weeks

Grayson and I had one of "those" weeks a while back. You know the ones where you are so thankful when the weekend finally rolls around because it means you somewhat survived the days prior? Maybe I'm being a tad dramatic, but I've been wanting the chance to write this one down so I can go back and laugh at myself and my little munchkin helper for months and years to come. I'll try to leave out the gory details, but if you are faint of heart, or have a strong gag reflex, you may want to stop reading. Right now. However, if you want a good laugh and another reason why you sometimes see moms with frizzy hair mumbling to themselves, then read on.

The week started off like any other except that I had gotten food poisoning the weekend before. I pretty much stayed at home on the couch while David and Grayson did boy things all weekend. When Monday rolled around I had convinced myself that I could "mind over matter" my sickness and I couldn't be sick anymore because I had too much to do. So, off to WalMart we went for our weekly grocery shopping. Glamorous I know. Anyway, I started feeling a little weird on the way there so I thought a quick stop at the nearby Sonic would be good for two reasons. A small Sprite to settle my stomach, and kid-size apple juice slush would keep Grayson nice and occupied at the store for a while. After our quick stop we made it into the store, but before we even got down the first aisle, I realized I had to go the bathroom. And quickly. Very quickly!!! I started running, actually sprinting, and pushing the cart as fast as I could toward the front of the store where the restrooms are and the whole time Grayson is squeeling in delight and saying "We go fast Mama! Weeeeeee!!!" I plucked him out of the cart, threw both of our Sonic drinks in my huge "mom purse" and make it into the stall before disaster struck. Or so I thought.

In my haste, I guess didn't get my purse hung on the door hook very well so within seconds of the stall door closing, my purse AND all it's contents, AND both our drinks go crashing to floor. All over the disgusting, sticky, cleaned once a month or less Walmart bathroom floor. My germaphobe self was hating life at this point, but I was still just thankful that we made it. Poor, sweet Grayson was so upset by the spilled-drink-purse-mess on the floor, that he started crying and grabbing handfuls of toilet paper to try and "help" clean up. I kept reassuring him that everything was okay and I would get him another drink soon. Then, all of sudden, a lady runs into the stall next to us, and very loudly starts vomiting...over and over again. Did I mention it was loud? Grayson's eyes got huge and I realized he had never heard that sound before and it was downright terrifying to him. Heck, it was downright terrifying to me too. He started wailing at the top of his lungs, with tears streaming and hands full of soggy toilet paper, "Maaaamaaaaa, I wanna go home!!!! Let's go hommmmmeeeee!!!!!" There was nothing I could do at that point except feel bad for all three of us in that bathroom.

Once the lady left and Grayson and I finally de-germed as much as we could, I decided that since we were there already, we might as well get something done. We did a super market sweep and grabbed the essential grocery items we needed for the week. Finally, we made it home and both took naps. Much needed naps. And that was Monday. I warned you it wasn't for the faint of heart. More on the rest of the week later...

One-liners, not neccessarily from the crib

I haven't blogged in awhile, but don't worry. Grayson doesn't disappoint. Here are some of his one-liners this past month that made me chuckle...

-He and Maya (our dog) were playing chase around the house. I love this game because it entertains and wears them out. At one point, he stops and says "Maya, you're crazy!" You think he's heard me say this before?

-We were riding in the car when he very matter-of-factly said "Mom, I'm Jesus." I was in shock and about to wreck the car from laughter when he piped up with "Nah, I'm God." I mean, he pretends he's certain cartoon characters sometimes, but this is taking it to a whole new level.

-Another Maya one-liner. They are pretty tight. I had just handed Maya over to the groomer one day and he kept saying "Maya, taking bath? I want Maya back!" It was cute to see him worried about her.

-I guess I forgot to blog about our fireworks experience on July 4th. We met up with my family at Lake Grapevine and watched the fireworks they shot off from The Gaylord. Grayson loved the whole thing despite the fact that it was already dark when we put the blanket down in the grass, and he started screaming only 5 minutes into the show because he was covered in ants. Leslie and I also got bitten, and I'm not sure who screamed louder, him or us? Sweet little Grayson has never once mentioned the awful ants, but stills talks about how fun the fireworks were and how they went "Boom boom boom, pop pop pop!"

-David, Grayson and I like to take walks around our neighborhood after dinner when the weather is nice. Grayson's favorite thing is to walk up to the junior high school at the end of our street, and play on all the steps, ramps, tennis courts, etc. He's calls it a "Grayson adventure!" He's easily entertained. Anyway, the other night he got to running too fast on the sidewalk and fell down pretty hard. David and I instantly knew it was bad because he usually gets right back up, dusts his hands off, and keeps going. He was screaming and blood was running out of his mouth. We rushed him back and were trying to get him to rinse his mouth out with water, so we could assess the damage. Praying it wasn't his teeth and gums that were bleeding. Thankfully I figured out it was only a busted lip. He finally calmed down enough for us to understand what he was saying over and over. He said with tears running down his cheeks "I want to go on walk again!" As soon as we said yes, he immediately stopped crying and was back to his chipper self. He could care less about the blood and the lip, there was a junior high school calling his name :)