A Lot of Catching Up!!

To say these last few weeks have been crazy and hectic is an understatement. We have moved into the newly remodeled house and have been unpacking and trying to decorate. All while an occasional worker still needs to have access to finish something (like painting or today, replace our shower door for the third time). Since the house isn't completely finished we still haven't been able to convert our construction loan to a true mortgage and this is causing me a lot of stress. I hate this feeling of limbo. Hopefully that will happen soon, but really, how long does it take to replace two cabinet doors??? I mean, come on!! It's been like two months!

Grayson has been loving the new house. Lots and lots of room to run around. He also absolutely adores his dinosaur bedroom. We have had no problems with him sleeping in his "big boy bed." He is getting up a little earlier nowadays and this is causing a very grouchy toddler to emerge at about 11:00 AM, but we're surviving.

As for me, I got to spend four glorious days with my high school friends in New York City. I also got to see one of my best friends from college while there. It was a very nice, relaxing weekend and a much needed break.

This gets me ready for a very busy week. In May I started my own business with Learning is an Art. I have mentioned before that I was doing a lot of research to find something I could do that would get me out of the house while also bringing in some income. That's when I found LiA. We sell educational games and toys for kids, teens, and adults and 100% of our profits are donated to charity. For the first time I actually love my job. In the past I have loved the people I worked with or the company I worked for, but I never actually enjoyed what I did. I love the products, I love going to the parties, and I love that we actually give back to the community. This week I have three parties booked, so I'm going to be a little busy. Wish me luck!!

And Now For Some Good News!!

I can't believe I'm posting this. After five months of living in our basement, we have finally come from the underground to live in our newly remodeled home!!! I feel like I am seeing the sun for the first time. I have a lot of other stuff to talk about - Mother's Day, Memorial Day, moving (in general) - with a bunch of pictures, but today is going to be very busy and I need to get started. We've been "living" in the upstairs since Friday night (which, BTW, Grayson did an EXCELLENT job in his new big boy bed), but we really haven't moved, and that's what we plan to do today. So, off I go, but before I do, here's a picture of Grayson "helping" one of the workers in the house. They are putting up the new railing around the basement steps. Grayson has really enjoyed having all the workers here.

Sloooooow Progress

Well, we were supposed to be in our new house by the end of April, but that didn't happen. Now I'm wondering if we'll be in it by the end of this month. The subcontractors just don't seem to want to show up, when people do show up to do the work, they often mess it up, and then when the reliable people come to work, the supplies they're give are wrong. I can't even count on both hands the number of errors our supplier has made. They range from building the roof trusses wrong to ordering roping for our kitchen cabinets that I specifically requested not be ordered to putting the wrong color hinges on ALL the doors. Those are just a few that pop into my mind. I actually don't walk through the house that much right now because all I can see and think about are the things that are wrong or messed up. And then there's the stuff that's simply not complete - like our hardwood floors. So going through the house puts me in a rather bad mood. I know it will be all worth it in the end, but living in the basement is starting to take its toll on all of us. I have uploaded new pictures that show some of the progress, just click on the picture of the house below to view them.
In some good progress news, Grayson and Dominic planted grass seed on part of the yard the other day. Grayson had a blast riding on the mower with his Daddy and I had fun watching them. (I hate yard work so watching them suits me just fine.) We also bought a new play yard for Grayson this week. I've been researching them for over a year and finally found a great deal. We're now waiting for it to be delivered. I can't wait to see how excited he gets when he sees he's going to have a swingset in his yard!!

Whatta Week!!

And it's only Tuesday. On Sunday, Dominic, Grayson, me, and a few of Grayson's friends went to Baby Loves Disco at Ram's Head Live in Baltimore. We had a great time and it was a wonderful way to start out the week. If you've never gone, it's a lot of fun. They close down the bar for parents and their kids and they get to dance the day away. Grayson was a little hesitant at first, but once he warmed up to the idea, he had a blast. We definitely plan to go again.
Then things started to go a little downhill. On Monday, I was scheduled to have minor surgery. The surgery went very well, but the after effects of the anethesia and pain killers were awful. They couldn't get my blood pressure up high enough, so I was stuck in the hospital for three hours after the surgery (it was only supposed to an hour max). Then, once I got home - and the car ride was terrible - I was sick all day and the pain killers barely worked. I had never really had this kind of reaction, so it was a little frustrating for me. Thank you to Dominic for taking care of me all day, and for handling Grayson and the household chores! Luckily today I feel better, just very tired. But...

This morning we had another problem. Grayson is a pretty rough and tumble kid and he's had his share of falls. Well, this morning he ran into a table corner and cut the area above his eye. I was hoping it wasn't too serious, but when I had my sister take a look, we decided he should probably get stitches. We went to the Urgent Care Center in Charles Town and didn't have to wait at all. The staff was wonderful, but the experience was terrible. It was only three stitches, but that was enough for me. I felt so bad for the poor guy, but he survived and I have a feeling this won't be the last set of stitches he'll get in his life.

Tough Guy

Just a Moment

I very rarely "just post" on my blog. Since the title is "All About Grayson" I try to stay focused on the subject - my son. Also, I simply do not have to time to log in and share thoughts or feelings randomly. But at this moment, this very peaceful, quiet, calm moment, I have some time.

Grayson and Dominic are travelling to the firehouse so Dominic can say goodbye to a co-worker who's last shift is today. My house is silent. It's strange. But I thought I would take advantage of it.

A lot is going on right now. We are about to move into our newly remodeled home. I'm excited, anxious, nervous, etc. I wish it were over and done with. I'm tired of living in the basement without any windows or a "real" bedroom. I'm tired of waiting for a worker to get something done so the next worker can come in and do his job. I'm tired of the mud that surrounds my house. I'm just...tired. I can't wait to sleep in my bed (we're on a futon right now), cook in my kitchen, work in my home office - I can't wait for all of it!!

I'm also looking into some new business opportunities. I'm trying to find a good match for me and the family. I don't want to return to work full time and I definitely don't want to go back to Human Resources or Corporate Training, but I want to find something that gets me out of the house every now and then and also will allow me to use my brain. I'm hoping my friends and family will support me in whatever I choose. I had thought I found a great opportunity last fall, but that didn't work out, so I'm hoping my research works this time. I have already spoken with the founder of the company and it sounds absolutely amazing, so as soon as I'm ready, I think I'll jump in. We'll see, and I'm sure I'll post more about it soon.

In addition, we've decided to get ready for our next adoption. We're in the middle of our homestudy process right now. I'm mentally prepared for another child, but I'm also rather nervous. Grayson and I have a pretty good routine going and a newborn is going to change all of that. That's scary, but I guess everyone goes through that when they plan to add another child to the family.

So there you have it - a few updates and a few feelings. I'm going to use the rest of my quiet moment to relax on the couch and enjoy the peace. "Talk" to you later!

Jump, Baby, Jump!!!

If you have a child who loves to climb, jump on the furniture, and has tons of energy, then buy them a bounce house! I have been debating the purchase of one of these for months. I was going to buy him one for his birthday, then Christmas, then just because we were stuck in the basement during the winter and he had nothing to do with himself, but I was afraid he wouldn't use it and it wouldn't justify the cost. I finally broke down this week because I couldn't stand it anymore, so I bought one on eBay. And he loves it!!! He's been jumping on it for the past two and a half hours and still doesn't seem to be slowing down. I have a feeling this is going to be one of my favorite purchases for a while.

Hellooooo, Toddler Bed!!

There really has been a lot going on lately - Grayson's first trip to the circus (which he really enjoyed), Easter, another egg hunt, house construction, paperwork for our next adoption, etc. - so I apologize for not posting much, but last night was a big deal for Grayson so I had to stop by and give an update.

Grayson started climbing out of his crib this past weekend. No matter how much I told him not to do it, he continued playing on the crib like a jungle gym. When the house is finished, we plan to transition him to a "big boy bed." The bed was actually my nephew's when he was little and it's a loft bed with a desk and dresser underneath. It will be perfect for Grayson but way too big to bring into the house right now. Also, since we plan to move into the addition very, very soon, it makes no sense to buy a net for over the bed or to buy a toddler bed.

Earlier in the week, I started taking off the front piece of his crib so he no longer would have to climb over it and he loved it during the day when he's playing in his room, but refused to sleep in it that way. Well, last night I had had it. I just knew that if he continued to climb in and out of the crib that he was going to fall and break an arm, or worse. I decided to take it off and it was going to stay off. He put up a big fight when it was bed time, but finally fell asleep and then only woke up once in the middle of the night and came out of his room. He did really, really well!! One more milestone to check off the list.

Grayson's New Tool Bench

Well, he did it! Grayson filled his "potty chart" with stars when he successfully made it for five days without any accidents. As a result, we took him to Toys R US to pick out a new toy. We gave him the choice between a tool bench or a drum set and he immediately wanted the tool bench. Unfortunately, they were sold out of the one we wanted. So we checked the store in Hagerstown - and they were sold out as well. We finally found some in Gaithersburg. We called in advance to make sure we didn't drive all the way down there to find they were sold out. They assured us that they had four on the floor and three in the back. When we got there (about 20 minutes later), they had one left on the floor and we grabbed it. Grayson hasn't stopped playing with it since!

A Trip to Chuck E. Cheese's

Grayson has only been to Chuck E. Cheese's once and that was when he was about 11 months old for one of his friend's birthday parties. I don't have any problem with the place, we've just never gone.

Well, this week we held our playgroup there and Grayson really enjoyed himself. I had hoped he would have played in the "jungle gym" a little more, but he had fun playing with the rides and the games. He even ended up with enough tickets to get two lollipops, a sticker, and a plastic ant. Pure gold to him!

In other news, he's doing very, very well with the potty. We ditched pull-ups and diapers completely (except when he's sleeping) two weeks ago, and he's handling real underwear like a champ. He still has accidents, but usually only when we're home and I finally am not too nervous about taking him out and about (but I always have backups!). Each day that he goes accident-free he gets a star on his chart and when he reaches a certain number, he'll get a new tool bench. I don't know if he really grasps the concept yet, but I'm hoping it will help a little.

Also, we're making some progress with the house remodel. We finally have some brick on the outside, although thanks to the extremely cold weather during the previous two weeks and then tons of rain on other days, we aren't as far along as I would like. The drywall was hung this week and is supposed to be sanded by Monday so the painting can start on Tuesday. Our contractor is still shooting for April, so let's hope that still works out. It hasn't been too bad living in the basement, but I'm starting to get a little tired of not having any sunlight in the house.

Keeping Busy in the Basement

All the Way to 10!

I apologize for another month of limited posting. I feel like we're constantly running around in circles as we get closer and closer to finishing the house. Speaking of which, our front door went in last week, our brick is going up this week, and next week the drywall is being installed. All great news, but this also meant that I had to get our light fixtures, appliances, and miscellaneous other items picked because I was running out of time. And that's pretty much what I've been doing.

As for Grayson, he's doing very well. He still loves tools and thanks to toys we received from his cousin Brooks, Grayson has discovered Bob the Builder. I recorded it the other day and let him watch it (we usually only watch Sesame Street when we watch TV) and he was mesmorized. He also still loves dinosaurs and the bedding we ordered for his new bedroom came yesterday. He wanted to open it right away, of course. He is now also counting to 10 all by himself, without missing any numbers. He's been counting for a while, but would often skip a number, but now he does it without error. He counts to 20, but once we get past 11, he's not quite getting all the teens in order, but we'll get there!!

Here's a picture from this morning. Our contractor is working on the stairs that come into our basement, so whenever someone is working downstairs, Grayson has to put on his toolbelt and "build a house" on his slide (one of the places he's allowed to bang his hammer) while he watches them work. As you can also see, he's wearing dinosaur pajamas. I ordered these because they were on sale, even though they are too big for him to wear right now, but that didn't stop him. He HAD to wear them to bed last night and really, they weren't that big on him. (which is scary because I fear he'll be in 4T's for the summer).

Third Time's A Charm

Last year Grayson was having some problem with his white blood cell count. Each time we had his bloodwork done, it was elevated. We always found the results amazing because other than colds and an occasional fever, the kid is never sick. He's never had an ear infection, has only had to take antibiotics once (just before he turned one), and he only just recently had his first stomach virus.

At his two-year-old doctor appointment, we knew we were going to have to have the bloodwork done again, but Grayson got his flu shot that day, so we were told to wait until the following week. Well, that week came and went, and then the holidays arrived, and then Grayson was really sick (that stomach virus I mentioned), etc., etc., so we didn't have the blood drawn.

Tuesday Dominic was off work. Since getting the blood drawn requires one of us to hold him still, we decided to do it that day and have Dominic hold him. When we arrived in the room, the technician had planned to do it herself with Dominic holding him. The look on my face must have convinced her to get some help because she asked someone to come in with her. They blew his vein with the first stick and Grayson was screaming. He's not only crying, but also yelling that it's hurting him. Ugh. The other technician tried it on his other arm and they were able to get the blood.

The next day Grayson woke up with a stuffy nose, so I just knew he was going to have another elevated white blood cell count. When we got home today after visiting a preschool, there was a message from the doctor's office to discuss his results. I was dreading it. Once the doctor got on the phone I was waiting for the bad news again, "His white blood cell count is high, you're going to have to have the blood drawn again. Blah, blah, blah." But to my surprise, that's not what he said at all. He told me everything looked great!! EVERYTHING!! This was great news. So, we finally have that behind us and I'm very glad it's a happy ending.

Preschools, Ack!!

I'm hoping to get Grayson into an excellent preschool that will then get him on the fast track straight to Harvard, Princeton, or Yale and boy, is this quite an ordeal.

Just kidding. All I'm looking for is a nice place where he can learn how to count to 100 and how to play with other children, while also discovering that there are viewpoints in the world other than mine. You would think I was asking for a million dollars to fall into my lap (although that would be nice right about now, too).

I have seen the parents on television who are eagerly trying to get their child into the best of the best preschool. This requires numerous interviews with the parents and the child, enormous application fees which don't even guarantee a spot in the school and are non-refundable, and then a wait for an acceptance letter. Yes, an acceptance letter!!! If these poor kids are already under this much pressure at three, I can't even imagine how much worse it is going to get.

Luckily, I have discovered there are quite a few schools in our area that seem to meet my and Grayson's needs. And getting into them isn't going to require any of what I mentioned above nor will I have to stand in line at 4:00 AM hoping to get in quick enough to get him a spot or sit on a waiting list for months. Don't get me wrong, education is very, very important to me and I look forward to Grayson's school days, but the kid isn't even three yet. Do I really need to begin pressuring him already?

Appreciating My Son

These past couple weeks have been pretty rough on Grayson and me. Not only because we have both been sick, but also thanks to the holidays, our routine was completely off kilter since most of our normal events like playgroups and gym class have been canceled. As a result, we have been stuck in the house, which means the basement since that’s where we are living right now. Since Grayson is a very social kid, just like me, we’ve been going a little stir crazy.

During this time, I was emailing one of my friends back and forth. They have also been pretty sick over the holidays and we were exchanging battle stories. While we were discussing our holidays she wrote something interesting, “Two is such a fun age.” As I read it, I laughed out loud and then I told her how amusing I found the statement. She then pointed out how funny her daughter is now and how she is able to reason with her, unlike when she was one.

I thought a little more about this and then started to reflect back on the past couple weeks and how really great Grayson had been. Sure, we had our tough moments, but overall we really enjoyed our time together. This prompted me to think more about why I love my son and why I am going to try even harder to appreciate him as a two-year-old. Here’s my list:

He’s hilarious and he tells you so. Now that he speaks in sentences, he says the funniest things and he tells me all the time, “I funny, Mommy, I funny.” Perfect.

He says please and thank you. And very rarely needs to be prompted. This is something I take pride in because manners seem to be disappearing a bit nowadays. He's also really big on saying "bless you" after you sneeze. And after you cough. At first I was trying to distinguish between the two, but then a friend of mine said, "sometimes coughs need blessing too," and I realized she was completely right.

He loves to go to church. Pretty much every day he asks to go to church. I’m sure he doesn’t understand why we go to church at this point, but I’m also sure that when he’s 16-years-old, he’ll probably be fighting me rather than begging to go, so I’m going to appreciate it while it lasts.

His energy is unstoppable. I am amazed at how he can continue to go and go and go. Because of this, he motivates me to do the same. Then again, do I really have a choice??

He enjoys music. He would much rather listen to music than watch television. He also loves to sing and when his Daddy and I practice singing with our group at church for our contemporary services, he really has a blast. Just today I saw him mimicking our drummer as he tapped his drumsticks together, counted, and then started playing his drum. We had always planned on starting him with guitar lessons, but we may have to rethink that!!

He has a mind of his own. This one is hard to appreciate as he pushes my buttons, argues with me, and fights me on almost everything; however, if I take a moment and really think about it, I know I’m raising a strong, independent thinker and that will serve him well as he becomes an adult. And also, all those challenging moments are making me a better person and mother.

This year at Christmas, he got more excited over the tree lights than the gifts themselves. I had mentioned in my previous post about how hard I had worked to have the gifts under the tree for him to see when he awoke on Christmas morning. I did this because his face lit up the first time we turned on the tree lights and it continued to do so the entire month before Christmas. I really thought he would be incredibly excited over seeing the gifts and couldn’t believe he didn’t seem to care at the time. At first I was disappointed, but the more I thought about it, the greater it became. He found appreciation more in the “spirit” rather than just getting toys. I hope he always feels that way.

He tells me he loves me all the time. I remember the first time he said I love you and it has only become better each time. I don’t think I will ever be tired of hearing it. The best sentence someone could ever say!

The Holidays Are Behind Us Once Again

Even though Dominic and I are in the middle of construction, we chose to still host our family on Christmas Day. As my brother said, this was the 50th consecutive year Christmas has been hosted in this house. The house may not be the same as it was 50 years ago, but it’s nice to know we were able to keep up the tradition. Luckily it hadn’t rained in a few days, so the mud had turned to dirt for the day and it made it much easier for people to get in. I’ve started posting construction photos for you to view if you’re interested. You can click here to view them and the link is also listed on the side of the blog.

As for the rest of the holiday week, we had kicked it off by visiting Dominic’s sister Maria in Baltimore and had dinner with his family. Grayson had a blast playing with his cousin Paul that day. I survived singing in the Christmas Eve cantata at church. I was very worried I was going to get sick, but that actually came later in the week, luckily.

Grayson enjoyed opening his gifts on Christmas, but I think he was more excited about tearing the paper rather than the gifts themselves. He had been so excited when we put up the tree I thought he would really love to see all the gifts Christmas morning, but the first words out of his mouth after he woke were “I wanna eat.” Go figure.

His favorite gifts were definitely his ride-on gator (which we bought from my sister), his football helmet (he hasn’t wanted to remove it), and his iPod player that is a stuffed elephant.
Unfortunately, Grayson got rather sick the next day at my mother’s house during her open house. This started a very rough week for us. Although I survived our first stomach virus, I’m still sick today and it made New Year’s Eve a little harder for me to handle (but I was still up until 1:00 AM), I’m still very miserable and we missed our gym class today because I just didn’t feel up to leaving the house. Hopefully this will pass soon and we’ll be back to normal.

Discovering Playdough

I'm not sure of where to even begin since it has been so long since my last post. December has turned out to be even more hectic than November, although I guess I shouldn't be surprised. We are, after all, not only preparing for the holiday season but also remodeling our house.

This past Saturday Grayson went to a birthday party for two of his friends (they're twins) and while there he played with playdough for the first time. We actually have plenty of playdough which we have accumulated over time but we have never actually sat down and played with it. It was fun to watch him form it into shapes and then smash them just to start all over again.

As I watched him I discovered I need to be more like playdough right now. Life is crazy. The week prior to the party we were told by our contractor to plan to move to our basement by the weekend. We then spent the entire week packing and moving. At the end of the week I found myself very sick, so sick that had to ask my mother to come help me with Grayson for a little while. The night of the party, Dominic and I went to dinner to celebrate our seven-year anniversary and at one of my favorite restaurants, I couldn't enjoy the meal because I still wasn't feeling quite right. When we got home that night we found that it was raining in our house. I should clarify...it was pouring down rain in our house. There were so many leaks through the roof (or lack thereof) we didn't have enough buckets or trash cans to catch them all. And this continued all night long. After a rough night, I still made it to church and then to cantata practice afterwards. When I got home, our power went out for about 12 hours. So within a week's time, I found myself over and over again feeling good about the progress I was making only to be smashed down once again to face another challenge. I was being remolded, just like playdough.

I guess I can learn a lot from the new discoveries Grayson makes each day. I have learned to be more flexible and roll with the obstacles thrown my way. I'm going to do my best to look at each situation as a valuable experience. Hopefully, with each remolding I'll become a better person.

Whining!!!

Grayson is a pretty tough kid. When he falls down, he usually gets up without even a whimper and if he is crying, I know that means it must have hurt. A lot. But lately I've had to put up with a different type of cry, something I knew was coming, but I guess I wasn't prepared for it - the whining.

Oh. My. Gosh. I don't know if I'm more annoyed by the whining itself or the fact that it's coming from my son who is normally so verbally expressive. I'm reading up on the ways to deal with it and how to hopefully make it stop, but it's taking a lot of patience. Something I've been short on these days.

On a much happier note, Dominic and I decided to start decorating for Christmas yesterday. I really didn't think Grayson would "get into it" that much, but I was very wrong. He loved decorating the tree and his face would light up when we pulled out a new ornament. I just wish I had recorded it because it was so much fun to watch. Oh, well. Hopefully next year he'll enjoy it just as much.

Being Thankful

November is a rather important month in our family for obvious reasons. Two years ago at this time, Dominic and I were in New Jersey learning how to take care of our new baby while waiting for the phone call telling us we could head home. It was a crazy time since we hadn’t been prepared for a baby because we thought the process would take a long time – little did we know that our son would be in our arms less than a month after officially switching to domestic adoption – and we had no clue what we were doing. Everything we had with us to take care of Grayson was borrowed and we knew we were coming home to a house that was not ready for a baby.

So, when we reflect on Thanksgiving, not only do we think about the delicious turkey dinner we had eaten in the hospital two years ago, but we also are thankful for the family and friends who were, and continue to be, so supportive in our lives. We wouldn’t have been able to survive without them during those first insane months of adjusting to a newborn in our otherwise party-like lifestyle (at the time) and we know we continue to be lucky to have them in our lives now.

Now Grayson is two. He is a thriving little boy who we find incredibly intelligent and beautiful (or should I say handsome). At his doctor’s appointment last week, he has landed in the 92nd percentile for height and the 89th percentile for weight. The scale at the office said he was 31 pounds, but at the vet’s a couple weeks ago, he stood on their scale and was 32.5 pounds, so we’re thinking he’s realistically somewhere in between. He talks non-stop and is learning something new every day. I also enjoy watching him interact with his friends. It reminds me that he really is a little man with his own emotions, ideas, and personality and I thank God for him every day.

November is also important to us because it is National Adoption Awareness Month and November 17th (Grayson’s birthday) was National Adoption Day. I know I don’t often blog about adoption specifically, but it is obviously a key part of our lives. I try to stay active with our local adoption group, Adoptive Families and Friends, and I am always very willing to answer questions about adoption and/or the process we went through. So if you’re ever thinking about it or are just curious, let me know and I would love to talk about it.

I Will Catch Up Soon!!

This has been one crazy month!! I will post all the details very soon, but since it has been almost a full month since my last post, I wanted to go ahead and share Grayson's birthday party pictures. He actually had two parties again this year - one with his playgroup friends and one with our families. You can see the pictures from the family party here. The theme for both parties was dinosaurs and Grayson had a blast. I'm amazed at his interest in dinosaurs and we're going to continue to roll with it as we decorate his new room when the house is finished.

His two-year doctor's appointment went very well. Once again, he's very tall for his age. I'll be back soon with more information and more pictures.

So Very, Very Tired

I have now realized that the end of October and most of November is my busiest time of year. I remember last year, I was very stressed while trying to stay on top of things, and it has only gotten worse this year. It's all stuff I bring onto myself - planning Grayson's birthday parties, handling the publicity for my adoption group's National Adoption Day event, doing dictation for my sister, singing with the praise and worship group at church, dealing with house building stuff, keeping up with Grayson's schedule (which includes toddler time at the library, gym class, playgroups, parties, etc.), potty training, assisting with a baby shower, and trying to balance my own pathetic social schedule in the middle of all of it - but it still takes its toll. I'm not complaining, just sharing. I love my life. I love being busy. I'm just amazed at how busy I actually am sometimes and I'm now very, very tired.

At any rate, I mentioned that I would hopefully have some good pictures to share because this past week offered up some great photo opportunities. Of course Grayson was his normal "non-photogenic" self in that he refuses to look at the camera, let alone smile for me, but hopefully I think I was able to capture the moment in most cases.

Our first event was a birthday party for one of Grayson's friends. It was at a pumpkin patch and unfortunately, after many months of a drought, it decided to rain most of last week which resulted in some rather miserable weather for an outside party. Luckily the first hour was fairly clear, so the kids got to play outside. Grayson's favorite thing to do was climb on the haystack and here you can see his reflective look as he sits atop a hay bail.

Since the kids couldn't go out to the pumpkin patch on the hayride, they brought the pumpkins to them and allowed the kids to paint them. Grayson definitely enjoyed this and I had a blast just watching his concentration. His final masterpiece is proudly displayed on our porch.

Last Friday Grayson was invited to a Halloween party with his playgroup friends. This year Grayson dressed as a firefighter for Halloween. This was for practical reasons in that I purchased one of those fancy dress up outfits at an expensive kid's boutique a few months ago. The plan was to give it to him for either his birthday or Christmas, but when I started looking for Halloween costumes, it seemed rather stupid to spend the money on something else when I already had this. He loved wearing his costume and his friend Griffin gave him an early birthday present to go with it - firefighter boots - so he now likes to wear his boots all around the house. (The picture is from before we left for the party, so he's wearing his Chucks since he didn't have the boots yet.)

This past Tuesday we went to another pumpkin patch. We took Grayson's cousin, Brooks, and we also met up with a few of Grayson's friends there. The weather was much, much better than the previous week, so the kids truly enjoyed themselves. Grayson loved the giant "pillow" and he also loved going down the slides and through the tunnels.

On Halloween, we went Trick or Treating with his cousins, Tevyn and Trevor. This was not only Grayson's first time Trick or Treating, but also mine. We went to the local "neighborhoods" so the boys could be seen by people we know. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work. Since we live out in the middle of nowhere, the houses are not very close together, so we did a lot of walking and after about an hour, Grayson was getting pretty tired and wanted to be held, which made it even harder on me. But we had a blast and Grayson brought home a ton of loot. And contrary to popular belief, I am allowing him to have some of it on occasion, but only after he eats all of his fruits and vegetables!!

Accident-Free

Yesterday we finally closed on the loan to remodel our house. It has been a very, very long road to get the loan thanks to all the recent changes in the market, but we finally succeeded. There weren't any "accidents" but it wasn't without some serious last minute kinks, but we were able to handle them and walk away with the construction loan we needed.

The contractor dropped off his equipment this morning and when Grayson and I got back from playgroup today, it looked as if he had already started working on tearing down the shed. The shed is going to be replaced with a two-car garage. This is where we'll keep Dominic's Jeep and all our yard equipment. It will also have a second floor for storage. Here's a picture of the original shed:
The house will also include a two-car garage, plus we are building off the back and adding a second story. Here's a picture of the current house:
I will start adding pictures to dotphoto soon just like I did for the basement, so people who are interested can watch the progress. I'm excited, but I'm also very nervous. This house was built by my parents 50 years ago. All of us grew up here and now I'm making some major changes. I know it is going to be worth it and we're also trying hard to include parts of the original house in the final plans, but I'm still anxious about the whole thing.

In other "accident-free" news, Grayson went without any potty accidents on Sunday - this was even with us going to church. He's doing a really great job so I guess he was definitely ready! Yesterday we were out on the road most of the day and the poor boy asked to go to the bathroom a couple times while we were in the car, but there was no place to go, so I'm going to invest in one of those portable potties for kids. Hopefully that will help with our long car rides. We have a pretty busy week ahead of us, which will allow for some great pictures (as long as Grayson cooperates), so I should have a decent update sometime soon.