g mail!

Even since I was a little girl I have always loved getting mail!
As a grown up with responsibility and bills that has only intensified, because it's so far between "fun mail". My favorite mail one of my favorite letters on the front of it...

A few days ago this came in the mail and I couldn't even get home before I ripped it open!
I was SO excited.

Who is that gorgeous kid on the front of the new wetbag package?

Grayson!!!

Jaxon is on the package for the liners. I am one proud Mama!! :)

My baby is growing up

How did it happen?! Where has the time gone? All I know is not so long ago I was hugely pregnant with a sweet little boy named Grayson, I went to the hospital and 77 hours later I gave birth to my sweet little bundle of joy. And NO that was not a typo!

Reason #1 why I am NOT a fan of induction. But I digress.

My baby is now three and a half!! He will be starting preschool 3 days a week in only a week and a half. His first day is the 17th but I get to be there with him on that day, then, after that, he is on his own. All alone. Well, not really. There is a teacher and 3 parents there at all times but he is without me. Or Zack. Most of the time.

the classroom and art room

We (I) chose a coop, which means that the a parents run the school in all ways except the teacher. Teacher Penny has been teaching at our preschool for 20 years, before that she was a parent in the school for 7 years. She is very sweet and G is very excited to be in her class. I am excited to meet new friends and watch my little boy grow and learn.

It's such a mixed blessing.

That was two weeks ago and I am just such a slouch. :( boo for delayed posting.

Teacher Penny came to visit Grayson at our home the week before school started. He asked her to help him write his name and she did, even giving him a card that had his name typed on it with a leaf next to it. She told us that the leaf is his symbol and anywhere his name is in the classroom the leaf will be too so he can easily pick out his name (everyone has a symbol, G can pick his 'G' out of a lineup and most times his name but now he can always identify it by the leaf.)

He also received a book from her. The Kissing Hand. It is a sweet book about a child raccoon who is headed to his first 'night' of school (they are nocturnal you know) and is a bit anxious to leave his mama so she puts a kiss in his hand for him to hold onto. He goes to school knowing how loved he is. :)

Tomorrow is G's first day of school without me. We had a test run first day on Friday where I stayed the whole time so he could see how things went and what was expected. I will make sure to leave him with his kiss to hold onto. He did great and picked the expectations up quickly. He loved playing with all his friends.

Grayson's 3!!! (and a half!)

When Zack and I decided to try to have a baby we talked about things we would like to have and not have. One of the things neither of us wanted for our children was to have a December or January birthdays because of the proximity of the holidays and everyone's vacations. Those birthday's just seem to get lost in the shuffle.

3 children with January birthdays later, something seems to have gotten lost in translation.

Since Grayson got a brother for his birthday (Jaxon was born 1-16, G is 1-13) we decided at the time to have a half birthday and have it at the park with some friends, doing something with just us as a family on his actual day.

Fast forward a few months and Spider-man has taken over our life, our house and our child!
It's not uncommon for Grayson to be in full SM gear. It wasn't hard to figure out what kind of party to throw.

We called it a super hero party so the other kids could wear whatever costume they wanted to.

Grayson couldn't decide on which super hero costume to wear, so he wore both!

The food! Mostly red and blue (I tried to keep the red (dye) #40 to a minimum.)

Sadly, that smile turned to a frown not long after when he was running by the picnic table and tripped on the cement. He smacked his eye/forehead so hard I heard it across the park. He cried a LOT and it ended up very swollen and purple. We ended up in Urgent Care the next day just to make sure it wasn't broken around the socket or anything.


The cupcakes I made. Did you know you can learn to frost cupcakes from YouTube? I did!

G loved them.

Helping bring the gifts over.

Ollie running around in his Super hero cape I made as the party favor.

These capes too a looong time! Pretty easy but I don't usually go easy on myself so instead of glue I sewed, All 20 capes and stars on the backs. I was up until the weeee hours of the night before the party.

Caitlyn in her Super baby diaper.

The kids, and Jax the moose!

I LOVE Josie's outfit! Her Mama and Grandma make the cutest stuff for her! Her mama is the local celeb Elle Zober, who does all of our amazing photos.

Grayson LOVED all of his fabulous gifts. He is still amazed when I pull something new out.
Thank you everyone who was able to make it. Thank you for all of his fun gifts. He loves everything and Spider-man has officially infiltrated EVERY single aspect of our lives. (he has spider-man: boo boo ice pack, kite, band aids, ball, books, coloring books, cars,
and last but not least a bicycle and helmet from his grandma and uncle.)

A stick in hand

My friend Heidi and her family used to split time between Portland and AZ but last summer they sold their house here and became mostly full-time AZ residents. (boo) They do visit for most of the summer though staying with family and not nearly as close as they were before.

We recently got a chance to meet up with her and her boys at Washington Park, where the old zoo used to be. (mentioned here) Her boys are just a bit older than G at 4 and 6. They were having a great time playing on the equipment and in the sandbox.

Heidi's youngest 'C' had a stick and was playing quite happily with it, not hurting anyone, when we notice a woman getting up and coming over to where we were watching the boys from. She walks over to us and asks in an accusing tone "Do you have rules for sticks or something because your son is jumping off the elephant with that stick and he's making us nervous... he's going to hurt himself of someone else". Heidi responded with something to the effect of "Thanks! He's ok." The woman apparently couldn't believe her ears because she just stared at us dumbfounded, shook her head and walked away.

Then she turns, looks at us and says quite exasperated "SEE!? He's pointing that STICK at that little boy!!" That little boy was G and he was being HANDED the stick by C. LOL Some people just can't let go. I said, "Thanks, that is my son and he doesn't look concerned so I am not either" They continued to play happily while she packed up her child, who was screaming at being dragged away for no reason.

We just shrugged.

Heidi asked if she should tell her "A stick in hand and all is grand!"

T is the one hiking up his shorts, C is in black track pants.

I figured it was best left alone. Though I really wanted to "poke the bear". I just love people like that. They make me laugh.

G after he face planted off the elephant.

Spiderman to the RESCUE!

Tuesday's is boob group day. I take Grayson over to my friend and neighbor, T's house for daycare then Jax and I head off to the breast feeding support group. He loves going over to T's house. Today when I was done at boob group and all our errands I arrived at T's just in time to see a real live super hero!

He had watched almost the entire Spiderman Movie, feature film not cartoon mind you, T- you're fired!
I jest.
Mostly.
Kinda.
It's Grayson's first movie that is not a cartoon other than Elmo in grouchland. And hopefully he doesn't have nightmares... guess who I am calling if he does? T let him borrow the costume, that used to be her sons when he was little(r, he's 10 now)

He spent the rest of the day shooting webs at me...

telling me he was coming to the rescue (!!)

and showing me all the cool tricks Spiderman (he) can do.
Like this gem.

and this one.

He did learn how to do a somersault by himself today. He has been relying on us to do the final "push over" for him. He still needs some work on his technique because he usually ends up sideways.

Then he walked around the house finding all the cobwebs saying that Spiderman (not he) had put them there... lovely. I never noticed many of them. Guess I need to get out the wool duster.

Later Batman came out to play when he saw that Spiderman was outside.

After dinner he decided we needed to call the real Spiderman so we can go visit and when that didn't go over he decided Spidey is coming to us. He refused to take no for an answer so he is sure the there will be a super hero here in the near future.

He never did take that costume off. In fact he is tucked in his bed safely in costume, minus the mask for obvious safety reasons.

Hotdog and Hams

My boys

I think these pretty much speak for them selves.
Photographer: Elle Zober @ zoberbabies.com