Loophole

OK, Emily called me on my promise today... and the honest truth is that I took video this weekend of Greyson walking - I just haven't posted it yet! So I win on a technicality, but I also vow to post the video soooooon. Then I just have to take photos on Halloween and get those uploaded in a timely fashion. Thank goodness it's almost the weekend!

UPDATE: I posted the video on flickr, plus Greyson's "school photos" that I was suckered into purchasing yesterday. Greyson did the suckering with his awesome good looks and personality, as evidenced in the photos.

Long Weekend

I'm back at work after a nice long weekend. We had tons to do, and we actually got most of it done! Greyson's grandparents arrived on Wednesday and stayed until Sunday - a nice long visit for a change. We had a semi-successful garage sale on Friday and Saturday (rain rain go away!), ate lots of good food as usual, and enjoyed playing with Greyson.

G finally learned to wave this weekend. He has taken forever to catch on and I've been a little paranoid about it. On his pediatrician's web page, it says to mention to the doctor if he can't wave or point by his first birthday. Mike told me not to worry, he still has a few weeks, but I was already concerned. I guess I have not been terribly pro-active about the waving, but I figured he'd pick it up on his own. I tried to wave around him, picked up his little arm and tried to get him to wave, etc. But he still didn't go for it. Until Saturday, he finally waved goodbye to some of our customers at the garage sale! I was so excited and hollering about it, and the customers played along nicely :-)

Sunday after my folks left, we headed out for our favorite pumpkin patch. Once there, we set Greyson down amongst the pumpkins, hoping he'd enjoy climbing around. He started crying almost immediately and his Dad had to carry him around while we made our choices. I guess he was just in a clingy mood, or he was overwhelmed by all of the people and all of the orange. We had forgotten our camera anyways, so we recreated the pumpkin patch in our front yard with our three meager pumpkins. He was much happier there!

Walky Walkerson

For weeks we've been straddling that line between First Steps and Walking. Moms know what I mean. He takes a few steps to get from the couch to me, but he's not yet fully walking across the room. Well, he's still not using walking as his primary means of locomotion, but Greyson is offically walking (or so his father and I have decided!). He now takes six to eight steps, and doesn't always have a destination in mind. Thus begins the wandering, the toddling, the new era of Grey.

I vow to take video this weekend!

A Day at the Beach

Greyson visited his Grandparents this weekend (and his great-grandparents, too!)

We drove to Venice on Saturday morning, and Greyson had a good car ride. He squawked and sang and talked for an hour, then slept for an hour. Once at the folks house, he got settled, met the cat and the bird, and explored a bit. He really enjoyed the animals, especially the bird.

In the past two weeks Greyson has become quite vocal and "talkative," even testing out his screeching now and again, just to gauge our reaction. It's hard not to laugh sometimes, but I hate to encourage those loud noises. He's also become more social and interactive, and this made his weekend sooooo much fun with his doting Grandma and Grandpops. It's really nice to see them together enjoying each other so much. Greyson didn't have an afternoon nap Saturday, but he spent about a half hour relaxing on his grandma's lap, not worried at all about where his mom was. Whew! I enjoyed the weekend just watching him play.

We went to the playground and Greyson enjoyed the bucket swings, the slide, and the little toy car. Then we had a nice meal with Nana and Great Grampa Bob, and a quiet evening. Sunday after breakfast we went to the beach, and Greyson got in the ocean for the second time. He doesn't cry or fuss, but he doesn't act excited either - it's hard to tell what he thinks of the water. He was the same way in Jimmy's pool a few weeks ago.

We saw a HUGE dead goliath grouper that had washed ashore, and then watched the water police tow it out to sea, we got our bathing suits all full of sand from sitting at the shore, and we watched Greyson try to eat the sand. He didn't seem to mind the grit!

Sunday after another nice meal we headed home and Greyson slept the whole way. We've got a good little traveler, I think he'll be even better in a month when we can turn his car seat around to face forward!

The moment we knew he was gifted

Our mornings in bed together are so sweet. Sometimes I'll bring Greyson into bed for an early morning snack and he'll doze off with us. I love when he wakes up, sits up, looks at us and smiles. It's just the sweetest moment, to see his little face first thing in the morning.

Last weekend we were enjoying this special family time when someone, ahem, tooted. Greyson looked in the direction of the noise, looked back at us, and blew a nice raspberry. We're so proud of our boy.

Tantrums

I can see the terrible two's already heading my way. Greyson has started to have tantrums. They're mild and he's easily distractable, but they're tantrums nonetheless.

It starts when his toys won't do what he wants them to. He'll be pushing his musical activity table or a laundry basket around the house, and he'll get stuck in a corner. Then the meltdown begins. He'll huff and he'll puff. He cries and sits down abruptly. If you give him a toy to play with, he'll toss it aside. It's quite cute, but a tantrum nonetheless. A sure sign of things to come.

Smiley

Our boy is becoming more social.

He has always stared at people with interest. Without fail he will lure in an older shopper while we're at the grocery store. They will start to fawn over him, his blond hair, his big blue eyes, and he will stare. Stare at them. Sometimes open mouthed. He wouldn't even crack a smile - until recently! My last trip to the grocery store was much more exciting. Greyson stared with deep interest at one gentleman. I commented that he exercised caution with new people, but when the man waved Greyson broke out into a big grin. His silly, gap-toothed, squinty-eyed grin. And he did that with about 5 other customers and employees at Publix.

When I leave him at daycare in the mornings, he no longer cries. He'd rather sit in his high chair, wait for his cereal, and watch the big kids. He hung out in Kristy's arms this weekend for a while before whining to come back to mom. I got to eat some birthday cake in peace :-) And while he's still totally a mama's boy, he's also becoming quite attached to his da. I have noticed quite a few times recently when he has held onto the nceck of his dad's shirt and put his head down on his chest. So sweet.

Shoes

Greyson got his big kid shoes, expensive fancy ones. They recommend that he get new shoes every 3 months. Ha, that's fine but they will not be expensive fancy ones! We got him sized and fitted at Stride Rite and got a really cute pair of brown suede early-walker shoes. Then we bought a few cheap skater sneakers at Babies R Us for him to grow into. I'll be shopping online for deals once he outgrows these, 'cause we certainly can't afford to spend this much every three months. I figure the first pair is important as he's learning to walk, so we'll splurge.