Things he is into:
Singing
He is so into singing the "ensy wensy spider" formally known as the itsy bitsy spider....He does hand movements to all the key parts. He is adorable. He also loves when I sing "5 little speckled frogs" he says the yum yum and the rippit rippit part. Another song he likes, is the "wheels on the bus". He especially loves the horn and saying beep beep beep.
We are finishing our first 9 week music class. Grayson absolutely loves it. We sing the same Hello song and goodbye song and they do a lot of different clapping and movements to music. It is a 45 mins class and we go once a week. It is a little pricey, but has been so worth it because he loves it so much!
I cant figure out how to flip it. Here are some pics from Music class
Swinging
We spent our summers on playdates which include going to the park. G loves to swing but only if he is sitting on his mama's lap in a big kid swing. He use to like the baby swings last year, and now he refuses. He holds onto me while we swing and says weee the whole time. He has also started sitting on the big boy swing and I push him!
Dancing
Whenever this boy hears a good beat he starts to wiggle his whole body. He is always a good gauge on whether a Zumba song will be a success :) He loves to dance to some of his favorite shows and music in general. His favorites now are All About that Bass, Cupid Shuffle and Happy from the Despicable Me 2 movie.
Talking
His vocabulary has really exploded since he was 18 months. He talks in complete sentences now and definitely has a huge opinion on anything and everything. Some of the cutest things he says is adding the word too to things. "I want some oranges, too mama". I want to go, too. He recently started saying a little bit. "Mama watch minions a little bit". We usually let him watch a little tv when he is drinking his milk or about to get ready to take a nap or go to bed. He doesn't watch tv all the time, but in moderation. When people sneeze he says "Bless you" and when he sneezes he says, "Bless you Grayson". He is quite the little joker!
Here are some silly pics:
I plan on getting a membership to the children's museum or science museum, because Grayson seems to love it. Both are a little far, but G loves it. The science museum (OMSI) is closer so I may do that. They have a room for kids 5 and under only. Here are pics from OMSI with a friend.
Reading
He loves to read books. He is so good at identifying different things in books and even "reads to us". He can summarize the "Little Blue Truck" book page by page, using some words verbatim. He also says bumped his head and the Doctor said no more monkeys jumping on the bed in "5 little monkeys" book. He also loves his search and find Elmo and Clifford book. He just loves to read before nap and bed and sometimes throughout the day.
Thomas ABC book has also helped him learn a lot of his letters. He says A is for all aboard, b for Bertie Bus, C for coaches all the way through H for Henry. His best buddy is named Henry so he calls it Henry choo choo. He can also identify the letters M, and sometimes W. He also says G is for Grayson and points to himself.
Feeding himself
Grayson continues to insist on feeding himself. This is why he continues to eat in only a diaper. I feel like I have helped his clothes by not allowing him to clothed :) When we are in public, he does eat with clothes, but also a full body bib. He has gotten very good with a spoon and loves to eat greek yogurt and cereal for breakfast.
Throwing Tantrums
Grayson is still a very sweet and loving boy, but he is also 2. When he does not get his way he gets very upset. He can communicate so well, so I think this has prevented him having those frustration tantrums, but not getting want when you know your parents understand you, do not make things any less frustrating. He has been doing well with not hitting his friends anymore when he is angry, but he continues to hit us. He will hit sometimes on purpose to get a "timeout". He tries very hard nightly and before nap, to delay bedtime. He asks for milk, to brush his teeth again, to watch a little bit of tv, etc. When nothing works, he has been trying to hit. He asks for a timeout, which is frustrating. Lately, if he hits, we do not give him a timeout but instead lay him in his crib and say night night and walk out, without a story. Hopefully, this will curb this hitting before sleepy time.
Matt Update
Matt had a week of vacation for mine and Grayson's birthdays. We did not do too much except play with G and run errands as a family. Matt took him to music class and that gave me a silent house for a little over an hour. I spent it cleaning. Matt is about to start nights for a week, and then he is on to clinic and then working clinic like hours at Kaiser. Kaiser is a separate hospital from OHSU but they rotate through them. They have a branch located less than 10 minutes from our house versus Matt's normal 30-45 minute commute. He will not be there everyday and at times has to go to different locations, but we are hoping he spends the majority of his time there. After these rotations, Matt will have a rough few months, but he always has a week of clinic as a little breather, which includes a guaranteed weekend off. He does not feel like this is too nice, because he loathes clinic, but the hours are typically better. He usually has to work from home, which always bothers him because he does not like to work at home, but it is nice to have him home at a decent hour and have dinner with us and put G to bed.
Birthday pics from Grayson's and mine
Tammy Update
I have been busy with playdates for G, music class for G, trying to keep our house and clothes cleaned, teaching Zumba, and grocery shopping. These all seemed to keep me pretty busy. I teach Zumba 4 times a week and I occasionally teach a mommy and me class in addition to those four. It is for ages 5-10. I look forward to Grayson being able to come to this class because he loves music and to dance. I think he will be quite the sidekick!
Here are some pics from when my friend Brandi from Lubbock, Texas came to visit. She is a Zumba jammer and throws jams for instructors like me to go to in order to get new routines and ideas on how to incorporate new choregraphy in classes. She has had a huge class. I invited a lot of my zumba people to come too. Here are some pics from that!
I plan on updating the daily pics of Grayson so check that out soon!
For Thanksgiving, we will be spending it with our great friends here the Larsons. This is Henry's family and I think I have written about them before. I met the mom, Stacie, in my Zumba class almost a year ago. I noticed she was picking up a boy around the same age as G, so I asked her if she wanted to get together. We have grown to be amazing friends and I am thankful daily for her friendship. The boys usually play well together, as well as two little two year olds can play. Anyways, Stacie had the genius idea to get Thanksgiving catered! I thought this was genius, and before all of you guys give me crap about not cooking, I did not suggest this, but do think it is a great idea. If the food is good, we will likely cater it every year with the Larsons or just with our family. We are getting it catered through Whole foods and the cost is just about the same if not cheaper than buying it ourselves. Matt and I both love the idea of playing games and doing family activities all day and then having food delivered. I do plan on making Matt's favorite turtle pumpkin pie (my aunt Amy's recipe) and some green beans.
Here are a few pics with them:
I will be sending out holiday cards and will likely have to ask for addresses, because my computer with everyone's addresses crashed. I think I might have backed it up on my external hard drive, but I may not have! If you read this maybe send me a text or email with your address, just in case!
Thanks and Happy Holidays!
I will try and write a recap of our holidays in January! Take care xoxo~
