4 Things

Okay, I am joining the game. I got tagged by Carrie, my TN church-going friend who is in the Russian adoption gang. I don't have many friends who blog but I will give this a try.



4 Jobs I have had

1. lead cookie decorator at Cookie Bouquet

2. hostess at John Wills BBQ

3. shift leader at Macalisters Deli

4. Speech-Language Pathologist and Mommy



4 Movies I have watched over and over

1. Pretty in Pink

2. 10 Things I Hate About You

3. Tombstone (love Val Kilmer in this one)

4. My Big Fat Greek Wedding



4 Places I have Lived

1. Germantown, TN

2. North Carolina (High Point and Durham)

3. Los Gatos, CA

4. Knoxville, TN



4 Shows I Watch

1. Days of Our Lives (my vice)

2. Project Runway

3. Grey's Anatomy

4. Samantha Who? (hasn't been on since Christmas)



4 Places I have been

1. Costa Rica

2. Bahamas

3. Kauai (honeymoon)

4. , Cinque Terre, Prague (actually lots of places in Europe from my backpacking trips)



4 People Who Email me Regularly

1. My mom

2. My mother-in-law

3. People from church

4. Heather B



4 of my Favorite Things to Eat

1. Chicken enchiladas from Andale restaurant (CA)

2. Butternut Squash Agnolotti from Pastaria restaurant (CA)

3. Spicy Tuna Rolls

4. Shrimp and Grits



4 Places I would Rather be

1. getting a massage or facial

2. traveling anywhere (my top picks are Maine, Africa, Ireland, Scandinavia, really anywhere)

3. Drinking coffee and reading a book at Starbucks

4. Taking a nap on the beach



4 Things I am Looking Forward to this year

1. My brother's wedding

2. A family vacation this summer (maybe Charleston area)

3. Gray learning to walk and talk

4. Griffin becoming more manageable





Got that done! I am tagging Jessica, Lori, Jenny, and Elaine.

Chip off the old block

For anyone who knows Brent pretty well, he always sticks his tongue out and curls it up to one side when he is concentrating hard on something. This morning I noticed that Gray had picked up a little trait from his daddy. I just had to get a picture. So cute. It is fun to start noticing which traits the boys get from each of us.

Griffin always seems to come up with things that I think are so cute. But of course, I am pretty biased. Here are the latest quotes...

1. When talking about Uncle Andy's wedding, he asked is his Papa was coming to the wedding. I said, "yes". Then he said, "Oh good, Papa is my best friend". How sweet:)

2. Mimi gave us a childrens gospel song CD recently. I played it in the car for him the other day and he really likes some of the songs. He loves "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" but he often requests the Cherrynut song (Sweet Chariot).

3. This morning as I was putting Gray to bed, I heard all kinds of noise downstairs. When I came down, Griffin was trying to move his heavy wooden stool into the kitchen. I told him that it needed to stay in the bathroom. Griffin looked at me and said, "Mom, I was just trying to be curious. I needed to be tall to reach my lego blocks for my bulldozer".

Gossip update

Because I am partial to celebrity gossip, I thought this was pretty interesting. Just a little update on the Heath Ledger situation. If this is real, that masseuse was pretty stupid.

http://perezhilton.com/2008-01-23-the-olsen-connection

Heath

Not sure why but I am kind of sad that Heath Ledger died. I know I didn't know him or anything, but I did like his movies. I watch "10 Things I Hate About You" every time it is on cable (which is often). If you haven't seen it before, it has Heath and Julia Stiles in a teeny bopper rendition of Taming of the Shrew. It is pretty good.

Liberation day

I have finally weaned Gray. I kind of avoided it for awhile now mostly out of pure laziness. It was too easy to just get up in the morning and put him in bed with me rather than get up and face the day. But we are getting a nice little routine going now where he gets his bottle in bed with me so I can still stay warm and get some snuggle time in. I just hate getting out of bed in the morning when it is so cold outside. I think Gray was definitely ready to be done with nursing, and I know it will make things a bit easier now that I can pass off feeding duties onto someone else. In some ways I keep forgetting how big he is getting, but I am quickly reminded now that he is crawling faster and getting into everything! Yesterday I was eating breakfast and he was playing with the magnets on the fridge. All of the sudden, I realized that I hadn't heard him making any noise for a minute. In the parenting world, that always means trouble! So I check and he is not in the kitchen, tv room, bathroom, or hallway. Here is where I found him....

Actually he was about 2 steps up but came back down by the time I captured this shot. I had just been thinking the other day that Griffin starting going after the steps when he was about 10 months old. So I guess I can add the steps to the list of pitfalls to watch out for just behind Elvis' food and water bowls, light bulbs and batteries in the kitchen island, the toilet, and the basement door that Griffin leaves open all the time.

I hosted bookclub last night and Griffin was so excited to have my friends over. He even helped me make a chocolate pie on Sunday. It was a really good chocolate pudding/cool whip concoction with peanut butter cups. It was so easy and a good recipe for him to help out with.

Our bookclub discussed, Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan. It was my pick and I think most people liked it. I found it in the recommended books section of People magazine, so I figured it would be a pretty easy read. Anyway it is a historical fiction account of the affair that Frank Lloyd Wright had with Mamah Cheney and it is written from her perspective. You get a lot of information about the basis of his architecture designs and some insight on his personality. It was very interesting. There is a pretty shocking ending (that is historically accurate) that really takes you by surprise. I was actually amazed that this event is not more well-known considering how famous FLW is. Anyway if you need a new book to read, then this one is a quick read and something different. I really like the historical fiction genre- I think I got hooked after the Other Boleyn Girl.

Homebound

Today was one of those days where it was cold, and we stayed inside for the most part. I think part of it was that it was such a gray day and the boys kept us up a lot last night. Griffin woke us up a few times between 1:30 and 2:30 with a bunch of lame excuses (couldn't find a stuffed animal etc) and then Gray was up by 5:30. I am pretty sure Gray's ears were bothering him so I just went ahead and got up with him. It made for two sleepy parents drinking lots of coffee this morning.

We got some more snow today. It has been pretty so far. I think we are only supposed to get about an inch so we won't be dealing with it for too long. This afternoon we took Griffin out to play in the snow. Kaleigh and Joey came over for awhile. Griffin and Kaleigh just hung out on the deck and talking about coming inside. Griffin did eat some snow and turned his trains into snow plows for a little bit. Then we were back inside again.

Foot fetish

I found a website with some really cute shoes for kids. Finding boys shoes is always hard, because there is never a big selection. And the shoes always look the same. So I really like this one. Here is the link: http://www.vincentshoestore.us/about/. I got Griffin three pairs and some of them were on a huge sale. My splurge was the yellow and blue Smith style. The ones for girls are cute too if you have any girlies in need of cute shoes.

Sick baby and home repairs

Poor Gray has been a sick little guy over the past two days. He has had a clear runny nose for awhile, but we thought it was just teething. Then on Wednesday he started acting more sick. Nothing major, just not like himself. Yesterday was much worse. We got a nice dusting of snow which was pretty but made it a cold wet day. Then he just started acting super cranky. I felt so bad for him. He had a nice fever of 102 and just slept a lot. He was willing to just sit on my lap and lay against my chest so I knew something was up. When he did try to play yesterday, it seemed like the fates were against him. He got his fingers stuck in a lunch box and the toy box lid hit him in the head. Today he is better, but I took him in to see his doctor just in case. He officially has his first ear infection! At least I can get some antibiotics in him this weekend so he will start feeling better.

Griffin got another note sent home from school yesterday Apparently he is refusing to sing during music time. It said that he says he "is tired" and doesn't even try to participate. I don't get it because he normally sings all the time (we can't keep him quiet). So we both talked with him and hopefully he will do better next week. I am saving the note so I can show it to him one day when he is all grown up.

Other happenings...we are finally getting our kitchen ceiling repaired and our front porch roof fixed. It is nice to have the work started so we don't have to think about it anymore. The plaster guy, Mr. Norman, was great. He spent a large part of his workday fielding questions from Griffin. Griffin just kept going up to him over and over and asking him questions. And he did boss him around a little in true 3-year-old fashion.

Cranky

At some point during December, Griffin's class must have done a clay model of a manger with baby Jesus in it. About a week ago, I was digging through Griffin's backpack and there at the bottom was a clay manger, plastic naked baby Jesus, and a little scrap of blanket all inside a ziplock bag. Griffin has been playing with this for the past few days. One time he was changing baby Jesus' diaper and putting him back to bed. Last night was a classic comment. He looked up at me and said, "Mom, I think baby Jesus is cranky".

Upcoming wedding

As many of you know, my brother, Andy, is getting married on March 29th. We have been talking about it a bit more at home now that the time is getting closer. So yesterday, Griffin was asking if he could go to the wedding. When we told him "yes", he got so excited and was jumping up and down. Then we had to explain that during the wedding he would need to be very quiet just like when he is in church. But afterwards there would be a big party and he could be louder at the party. He immediately asked if there would be cake, since what kind of party doesn't have a cake in the mind of a 3 year old. Anyway today he has been talking about how he needs to be quiet at Uncle Andy's wedding but that later he can "be really loud and eat cake at the big party". It should be fun to see what he thinks of everything. Every once in awhile he talks about how you have to get a diamond ring to get married. He is starting to put some of it together I guess.

All For One

So Griffin is obsessed with the 3 Musketeers and sword fighting. It kind of became a bigger deal when he saw some older kids playing with light sabers at the playground in our neighborhood. It was too cute. He marched right up to these 4 boys (who were about a head taller than him) and kept asking to play with them. One of them put his arm around him and patted his back. But then Griffin marched back to me in defeat and said, "I asked him to play and I asked him to play. And he said no no no". The older kid may have turned him down but he was very sweet about it. So when we got home today, creative mommy turned two old wrapping paper rolls into two swords. We colored on them and decorated them with stickers. It was too cute. Brent and he played swords for awhile. Griffin keeps saying the Musketeers motto, "All for One and One for Two". Well almost....

Regression

It seems we may be having some potty training regression for some unknown reason. Yesterday we were at the Children's Garden and he was grabbing himself. I must have asked him 10 times if he needed to go potty. He denied it. But when we hit the sandbox area, he suddenly just stood up and peed everywhere. He didn't even mind that he sat in his wet clothes for another hour. He hadn't had an accident in forever so I stopped carrying around extra clothes. Then again today we came home from school and he peed all over our living room floor. I made him clean it up (which he hates) and he was slightly more upset about it but not by much. I hope this doesn't become a pattern, he was doing so well....

Different strokes

I know all kids are different. But when it comes to our two boys, their eating habits couldn't be more different. As most of you know, Griffin is our skinny kid and Gray is our sturdy little fellow. Based on that alone, I guess I shouldn't be surprised at how they eat. Griffin could easily be a vegetarian and loves all fruits and veggies. When he was little, we would go to Outback Steakhouse for dinner and he would eat a huge bowl of plain steamed broccoli in its entirety. Not much has changed. Gray on the other hand will eat almost anything and seems to be a carb man. He starts to shriek when he sees bananas, waffles, bread, pasta, and let's not forget...meatballs. It is funny to watch him just attack his food. So tonight I made green beans, swedish meatballs, and salad. Griffin ate his yellow peppers off his salad first and gobbled up his green beans. I finally talked him into eating his meatballs but he would not even consider touching the pasta. I think the only reason he tried the meatballs is because I was jokingly calling Gray, "meatball head". Gray was swiping huge handfulls of pasta and meatballs in his mouth as fast as he could and left all the green beans behind. Funny how different they are!

Starry Night

On Sunday our family finally made it to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens for the lights. We had planned on going before Christmas but it was too hectic. Sunday ended up being a perfect night since it was not too cold outside. The lights are really cool. They have some elaborate ones of a peacock and a unicorn. Then they had not one BUT TWO train displays. For those of you with boys and/or train lovers, this was a huge draw.

The first train display was really cool. There were buttons at the kids' level for them to push and the buttons activated little people and vehicles that were set up. One of them made a firetruck come out of a fire station and another made a house look like it caught on fire with real smoke. The second train display was smaller but pretty cool. This one had a large black engine leading the train. Griffin immediately pointed out that it was "Great Grandpa's train"! (Background info- back in September, he had received an old black train that was once his Great Grandpa's train when he was a little boy). After we made the boys leave the trains (Griffin kicking and screaming), we went into the Children's Garden for the rest of the lights. We had such a good time. They had a bonfire going and were selling S'Mores Packages (how convenient!) for $2 a pack. So of course we got some hot chocolate and made some S'mores at the campfire.

Then we went up to the treehouse and ran around some more. It was a great time although a bit too short. We forgot to feed the kids ahead of time, so Gray let us know when his tummy was empty. This kid does NOT mess around when it comes to food.

Curly

The week is slowly starting to get better as we get into our normal routine again. Griffin is in school and Gray is sleeping again. I am getting a bit better about sleeping without my friend, Ambien, but it is still hard some nights because Brent has an annoying dry cough that keeps me up until he falls asleep. Oh well we will figure it out.

I enrolled Griffin in a gymnastics class that started on Friday. It is pretty much a beginner class, but supposedly they let the kids work on all the equipment at some point. Friday was a little different from how it should go because they only had one instructor show up. So the class consisted of A LOT of stretching and hopping along a trampoline runway. Griffin loved it, and it was probably good that it was so easy. I have a friend whose daughter is in the class and she said that they hoisted her up in a harness 20 feet into the air and also let her jump onto and over a pommel horse. So I think he will really like it and burn off some energy. This is a pic of him showing the stamp he got on his hand after class.

Both boys have been enjoying their Christmas presents now that we are home. (Thanks grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins!) Gray got a really adorable animal train (read: annoying music playing all the time), and yes, Griffin barely lets him get his hands on it. Griffin is getting into his Lite Brite. Lite Brite is actually kind of educational now that he is matching up the letters on the grids with the colored pegs. He is also practicing the beginning sounds for all the letters. This may have something to do with his Leap Frog Word Factory DVD. He asks to watch it almost every day. The other morning when he was watching it, I overheard him talking to himself. G: "Do frogs wear pants? I don't think so".

Tonight we gave the boys their bath together. Man, does this save some time for us. Anyway I was in charge of getting Gray in his jammies so I decided to let his hair go au natural. He definitely has some curl. Not sure what it will look like tomorrow but it was cute tonight. Check out these curls!

Recovery week

I know we always go through this, but it still sucks. We are in the middle of what I will call "recovery week". It is when we try to get Griffin back to normal expectations after being on vacation which also includes some heavy duty spoiling by the grandparents. I think Griffin is also going through a rebellious phase where he tests everything out. I WISH reverse psychology would work. It is very predictible. If I say, "come here", then he runs away. If I say, "share that toy with your brother", then he takes the toy as far away from Gray as possible. He basically runs away from us when he need to help him get dressed, brush teeth, etc. We have tried different strategies and none are working very well. The best case is to put him in his room in time out and not let him out for awhile. Or occasionally we can tell him to go to his room and he actually does it. But both of these are so time consuming especially in light of how often his disobeying us. Gray is the easy one right now. That will soon change. He is trying to cruise already but falls over and hits his head on the hardwoods 90% of the time. One cute thing is that he is kind of dancing to music and doing a little squat butt-shake kind of thing.

This afternoon we went furniture shopping, and by the end, it was such a mess. Griffin used to just drive a little train on a table, but now he is full on jumping and climbing on furniture. He is all over the place. I guess we know better for next time.

I can't believe it is already 2008. No new years resolutions yet, but we have some plans for the house. Lots of little repairs and home maintenance items (necessary) and a few fun things. Brent bought himself a new tv. He loves comparing the HD channels with the regular channels. I am trying to find a bombe chest for our foyer. The other desired item on my list is a Bissell Heatpro steam vac. Very exciting, I know.