Busy times...

Not that anything terribly exciting has happened, but life is exciting! Greyson was being pretty cute the other day...

Greyson: (picks up his Blue's Clues notebook which is shaped like the thinking chair from the show) I sit in my thinking chair!
Mommy: You're sitting in a chair...that's your thinking chair.
Greyson: (sitting in kitchen chair) This not a thinking chair Mommy...it's not red.
Mommy: Oh really....there's a red chair at your table....maybe that's a thinking chair
Greyson: Oh thank you Mommy (drags said red chair into kitchen and puts against pantry). Now I can think!

Greyson thinking...
And after almost a week away.....and me being COMPLETELY sick of hearing about it.....Greyson and his best friend......Grandma.....were finally reunited! We spent some time out at Grandma & Papa's house with some new friends.

The skelamingos....yes, those are skeleton flamingos, and what makes better sense than to stick two kids in front of them and snap pictures! Not only was Hannah showcasing her crawling abilities, but she was also showing off her uncanny ability to pick up the most minute objects within a five mile radius...
Such as this small leaf particle...I bet you can guess where that ended up. She's just getting so big.
Greyson worked up quite the sweat playing with his new eyeball light up ball with Grandma. He was going CRAZY!
After all that...you would wonder what else could top skelaflamingos, but there's more. Today, we had Greyson's first school Halloween party. Well, it's not his first school Halloween party, but it is the first one that he has been well enough to attend. I was the only Mom who dared to head up the event...I worked feverishly on a cute little craft (I'm sure you remember the forbidden craft). I ended up creating a much less creative and less carefully executed collage piece. Some of the leaves ended up looking like yellow mentally challenged Christmas trees, but guess what....they're 2 and they didn't care. Greyson kept saying, "that my Mommy....look Mommy......that my Grandma." He was pretty proud....it made me glad that I am able to go to these things, and I look forward to the many, many, many more in the future for both of them.
I broke even more rules when I provided contraband napkins and made evil favor bags with little cats and jack-o-lanterns on them. It was my way of getting back at the "man." They all ate lots of cookies, cheese, and candy. It went perfectly! Yay for school parties! I'm celebrating this one, because I am sure that most of them will go much less smoothly.

Today also happens to be Great Grandma Wilhite's 83rd birthday. While we have a fabulous family dinner planned for Sunday, we felt like we should do a small birthday lunch to commemorate the actual day. This seemed like an easy enough thing to plan except when you factor in a party right before and a little boy who decided he was too excited to nap at school. He did surprisingly well, and he even helped Great Grandma blow out her candle on the yummy red velvet cake they brought out at CPK.


I'm not sure how many more birthdays we will be able to fool him into thinking that he is actually blowing out candles (or blowing on hot food) when he blows straight up, but we'll see. It's pretty cute either way. We finished up the birthday with a charming clapping game with Grandma.
The day was long, but it all worked out great. Now if we can get Greyson to actually don his Buzz Lightyear costume for Halloween I will consider this holiday a complete success. We'll see...

A Big Day...

Today was a day for firsts....it was a day for momentous occasions!
It may not have been quite as exciting as that for all of you, but it certainly was for the Shelton Family.

First, Greyson has been peeing in the potty like a big boy for almost a week now. He's been doing a great job. Today, I heard him grunting over by his train table so I asked the obligatory...

Mommy: Do you need to go poopoo? Do you want to sit on the potty?
Greyson: Nope
Mommy: Come on Greyson....if you poopoo on the potty, you get a big prize (a prize that I purchased about 4 months ago to give to him when he finally pooped on the potty but he has never seen)
Greyson: I don't wanna!
Mommy: Fine....you wanna see it!
Greyson: Yes! I wanna see it!
Mommy: Now you can see it, but you can't touch it unless you poopoo on the potty. Okay?
Greyson: Ok, Mommy. I wanna see it!
Mommy: (brings out big Mac truck from the movie Cars) Here it is
Greyson; Oh wow! I want it! I want it!
Mommy: You have to poopoo on the potty....I'll just sit it up here until you go someday!
Greyson: (goes and starts playing with his trains acting like he doesn't care.....1 minute goes by) Ok Mommy....I ready! I go poopoo....I get a big prize!
Mommy: Ok...let's go!
Greyson: (sits on potty.....grunts 3 times....plop!) I did it! I did it!
Mommy: (checks potty and sure enough there it is) You did it! Yay! (wakes Hannah from nap)

And there you have it.....Greyson voluntarily pooped in the potty for the very first time!

Not to be outdone....the little girl decided she wanted to have her own moment in the spotlight. She is a whopping 9 months old today, and while Mommy was getting Greyson ready for bed, Daddy was playing with Hannah in the playroom. Out of nowhere....she CRAWLED! James ran into the bedroom to tell, and we got it on video! She's a big girl crawler. It was hard to get video, because Greyson kept jumping in front of it, but it's there....she did it! The house will never be safe again! Well...that's all of the excitement I can handle for one day! What will tomorrow bring? I don't know, but I'm ready!

Lots to talk about...

It's only been a few days, but there have been so many new developments...where to start? Well it's not exciting for most, but it was a highlight for us. Greyson actually pooped on the potty....albeit accidentally, but we're still counting it!

Greyson: I go peepee on the potty, Mommy (grunting while sitting on the potty so he can get more candy)
Mommy: Ok....
Greyson: I did it....I did it!
Mommy: (checks potty for proof only to see a small little green turd) Yay! You pooped in the potty you big boy!
Greyson: I not poop in the potty, Mommy. That green....poop brown. That not poop.
Mommy: Greyson....poop can be different colors. You did poop in the potty!
Greyson: Yay! I poop in the potty.

Our potty trials and tribulations continue. He is doing better at peeing in the potty. Now, he will go about 3 or 4 different times a day...we are by no means done with the diaper, but it's a step in the right direction. Go Greyson!

I also had a chance to meet up with one of my oldest friends, Carolina Merino on Thursday. We had such a great time....it had been far too long! We will not wait that long to talk again! The best part of the night was the old guy with a highlighted shoulder length mullet checking us out...he was super hot!
Hannah has been pulling out all the stops...she officially has her first tooth. It's the front upper right one, and she looks adorable. It will be followed closely by the upper left, and she looks so cute when she smiles her gummy (well...now semi-toothy) smile!

When I went in to get Greyson the other day in the morning, he wanted me to lie down again on the bed (this is becoming a new routine for us). He proceeded to get down....

Greyson: (gathering up trains and cars in the room and laying them down on the bed next to me on their sides) The trains are tired Mommy...they go night night. Nigh-nigh trains. Sweet dreams

He's so clever! He never ceases to amaze me or surprise me.

We had the opportunity to go to our first kid Halloween party on Saturday, and it was a blast. It was unseasonable warm (big surprise here in TX) so it was great weather for outdoor fun. It was hosted by our Mommy group, and it was too cute. Greyson refused to put on his costume, and we decided it wasn't a battle worth fighting. Hannah loved wearing her bee costume, and she was a little social butterfly with her boyfriend (aka - PJ) and the other adorable babies. They drummed...
Greyson met Super Girl
Hannah rolled around with some of the other babies...
Definitely the cutest bugs I've ever seen....Pierce was just enjoying the view :-)
We left the Halloween party to go to a special birthday celebration for Toby! It was so much fun with the kids together (both the little ones and we big ones). Hannah was showing Uncle Trevor some of her walking tricks...
They did some serious dancing.....boom boom boom!
Trevor was being tackled by the boys...
Hannah was getting her groove on......drop it like it's hot!
Then...we couldn't find the boys. They weren't in the living room, they weren't in the kitchen, we couldn't see them in Cody's room. Where did we find them....
They were in Cody's bed camoflaged by the blanket that was hanging over the side. Greyson kept saying it's time to go night night, and Cody would act like he was snoring. It was hilarious! They were trying to act like they were sleeping, but it was pretty hard for them to stop smiling.
The live band...we pretty lucky to even book them for such a small gathering, but we're VIP....what can we say!
Hannah even sat in for the drummer for a few songs...she's a natural!
We went to another special birthday on Sunday for Avery's 2nd birthday! We had a great time....
What a fun and busy weekend! Can't wait to start another fabulous week together...lots of fun things planned so we'll see how it goes!

Forbidden Crafts, New Words, and such...

We had such a fab time at Toby's 36th birthday dinner at OTB....Hannah had a lot of fun bouncing on Tammy. She's a regular cowgirl!
Greyson is learning such fun things at MDO....his favorite so far is the story of Zacchueus.

Greyson: (picks up picture of tree with Zacchueus sitting in it) Zacchueus climb up the tree to see Jesus..
Mommy: Oh really? Wow!
Greyson: Zacchueus climb up the tree to see Jesus. They eat coffee and cake....
Mommy: What? (what are they teaching him at this school?)
Greyson: Jesus eat cake and coffee
Mommy: What? (wondering if maybe my child is needing some tutoring)

So I had a talk with Ms. Tammy (MDO teacher) to see if maybe I had learned this story a different way or something. Apparently the kids wanted to know what Zacchueus and Jesus did together so that's what they said so they would be happy...too funny!

We put in some solid craft hours working diligently on our contraband MDO Halloween craft. I am the lone Mom in charge of the class party so I thought it would be really cute to make a little Jack-o-lantern mask for each kiddo. Apparently I was wrong, because when I ran it by the teachers, they informed me that you could not have any pumpkins with faces on them....okay? Guess it's something with the whole church thing. Anywho...we decided to make said contraband craft at the house! A work in progress...
The finished product...he did a great job!
Hannah has officially moved on from "Ba-ba" to "Da-da!" We're so proud....now she has 2 words in her vocabulary! She's getting so big. On top of that, she has started doing a half-pull up/standing at the coffee table. She gets so mad when she falls.

She is going to walk before she crawls....when she tried to crawl...sadness and all out patheticness ensues. Crawling is not her special gift.
Greyson had his first peanut butter cup today...it was from Great Grandpa. His exact words..."I like this, Mommy! I like this!" Grandma would be so proud!

Great Day in Shelton Land

This morning when Greyson got up he decided he wanted me to lie down in his big boy bed with him so we brought Hannah in to watch from the floor....here is what happened after Hannah started to get sad.

Greyson: (jumps down from bed and lies next to her, patting her back) It's ok baby, I'm right here. You're a big girl. You can crawl....watch me (crawls across floor). Ok...now it's your turn. You can do it. You're a big girl. Watch me (crawls across floor again).

I just sat back and watched while my little boy was the perfect little coach. He was so positive and encouraging.....what a great big brother!

I was busy changing a poopy diaper and he decided:

Greyson: I wanna see it! I wanna see it!
Me: What? The poop? Yuck!
Greyson: I wanna see it! I wanna see it Mommy!
Me: Whatever.....here (shows him disgusting poopy diaper)
Greyson: Oooo...that's yucky Mommy!
Me: That's why poopy should go in the potty and not on your bottom in your diaper.
Greyson: Yeah Mommy....that's stinky, it goes in the potty (light goes off on top of head)

Now don't start celebrating just yet, because we didn't actually get a poop in the potty today, but we also didn't get a poop in the diaper after that. I am hoping it will be a step in the right direction...perhaps I should show him all of his poopy diapers as a lesson. He did promptly pee in the potty after that so we had a daytime potty success! Yippee!!

His fav song right now is Boom Boom Pow by Black Eyed Peas, and we have listened to it a hundred times it seems. He LOVES to dance to it and ask over and over for "boom boom boom" song! Love it!

Our day in pictures...

Yeah so I'm not feeling the writing bug, but I feel I should at least post the fun pics from today's photo shoot. Greyson is 3 for 3 with pee-peeing in the potty at bath time. Yay for our big boy! Greyson was at MDO so he was not here most of the day...it was so beautiful that we decided to have an impromptu photo session. It was pretty special since we used a quilt that was handmade by Great Grandma Roberts and a rose from Grandma Shelton's special rose garden. What a great moment! Hannah decided that 5am was a great time to get up and get happy! This is seeming like a trend.....

The only thing that would appease this girl at lunch was her own piece of bread....she is her mother's daughter :-). And thus....the photo shoot begins!






This outfit was too cute not to wear to Uncle Toby's special family birthday dinner at OTB!

TA-DA!

Hannah was busy playing all day long....she is feeling much better. She loved getting into her brother's toys while he was not in the room.


We had a yummy dinner of grilled honey glazed kabobs that Daddy made! They were mighty tasty!

Greyson was helping with "yard work." I'm not sure what he was doing. He found this tree branch and was stirring it in the water bucket followed by scratching it on the concrete. Yes....he's got a green thumb, folks! He's just like his Papa...lol....Papa actually is pretty good with plants, and Greyson thinks he is so that will have to be enough for right now.


Then it was bath time, and something glorious happened......that's right.....that's two nights in a row, folks! Look at all of those stars....what a big boy!

He was being super goofy after that playing peekaboo with his fireman hat in his fireman jammies. They are both growing up so fast....where does the time go?

Great morning...

Hannah decided that 6am was a great time to start the day today so there we were....it's hard to be cranky when this is all you see...


She tuckered out around 7:45 so she took a nap. It was just in time for Greyson to get up so we could make special potty celebration pancakes together. First we mixed the batter...


Then we cooked them up.....yummy!

He was such a big helper, and he sure does love to cook! He kept saying, "I love these pancakes, Mommy! They're yummy!" Precious...doesn't get much better than that.

It's another beautiful day so Daddy took him to another park where he was extra good. He got to pick out a new rock and bring it home. It's actually a phone if you ask him.

THE BIG MOMENT!

I was finishing up Greyson's bath this evening when all of the sudden:

Greyson: My peepee big....peepee come out of the hole.
Me: Let's just go on the potty
Greyon: I go on the potty
Me: Let's dry off before we sit down really fast (drying off as fast as is humanly possible)
Greyson: (sits down on potty) It's comin' Mommy! I goin'!
Me: Wow! (checks potty for actual urine) YAY!!! (jumping up and down) YAY!!!!
Greyson: I get candy Mommy! I get a sticker!
Me: You sure do, buddy! You are such a big boy!

Yes.....it is official.....my boy is big. My boy peed in the potty for the first time! Not only did he pee in the potty for his first time, he peed in the potty for a 2nd and 3rd time as well! Tonight was magical! It was wonderous, and I don't think I have ever been this proud in all of my life! I feel like I could burst! I love you my big boy! YIPPEE!!!!!

More Fun...

I've decided I need to have more fun with this blogging thing. First of all, the day has been a busy one as always. James took Greyson to the park to play since it's a beautiful day. While they were gone, I decided it was time to make Hannah truly reflect her diagnosis. She is our little oinker... Life is too short to be serious all the time. Here's to trying to have a bit more fun!



To update on a few things....Greyson just moved to his first big boy bed last week.


It's been a learning experience for all of us, and he is doing remarkably well. It takes about 3 times as long to fall asleep, but that's life. He is now taking his first successful nap in it so YIPPEE!!! Next up....

Yup...that's right folks.....toilet training! Whoopee! We have had little success so far, but if he can sleep in a big boy bed....gosh darnet, he can go on the potty. We'll give it another week before we go hardcore into full training mode, but I'm ready for just one diaper wearer in the house! What an exciting day so far....we are still home bound due to...

Hannah's continuing disease-pitness, but we're making the most of it. Hopefully, we can get out of the house in a few days. Supposedly she is not as contagious now, but I don't want to take any chances. Let's hope for a smooth afternoon and more fun with this blogging thing!