Happy Easter!

Grayson's first Easter egg dyeing (Friday)

Looks like he is dyeing his hand instead of an egg!

Proud of my egg!

Look at my pretty eggs!

Grayson's first Easter egg hunt down at the Lake (Saturday)

Anticipating the big egg hunt!

I found my first egg!

Testing it to make sure its okay.

Easter morning.....what did the Easter Bunny bring?

There's my Easter Basket!

Lots of goodies from the Easter Bunny....garden gloves, new monkey plates, Curious George movie (the one w/ Jack Johnson soundtrack), a zoo book, coins and a couple Mini Eggs.

Easter Brunch at Papa's house

Bunnies galore!

Happy Easter everyone!

Spring has sprung!

I really love Spring....especially when the sun is out (which has been minimal lately). I just love seeing all the trees and plants start budding out and growing almost in front of your eyes. Everything seems to come back to life....I even feel more alive! My most favorite thing of all is to hear the frogs chirping....this is a sure sign that spring has sprung. Every night I make sure to listen to them and enjoy their songs. Grayson also takes notice of them every since I told him to listen quietly to the frogs singing. I'm grateful that we are right by the lake so we can hear them well. Some of my other Spring favorites include: Flowers: daffodils, hyacinths, Easter lillies, helebore, red-flowering currant and indian plum; frolicking lambs and calves; baby ducks and chicks; freshly mown lawn; reappearance of bugs; warmer temps; more sun; longer days and nesting birds.



In honor of Spring, I thought I would share my favorite poem from my favorite poet.


Daffodils


I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills
When all at once I saw a crowd, --
A host of golden daffodils
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I, at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee;
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company;
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought.

For oft, when on my couch I lie,
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

*Note: I had a difficult time typing the poem the way that Wordsworth intended....this program wouldn't allow it....quite frustrating.

Just Fine

So....Grayson is just fine. There appears to be absolutely no leg injury...he is back to being his normal self. Figures....after a bazillion xrays. Oh well, better safe than sorry. We still believe that he truly had something wrong with his leg though.

Today as we were just about to leave Kris and Tony's (just down the street)....I put Grayson in the passenger seat like I do when I drive to and from their place. This is the only time I do this....I either hold him and he "drives" or he sits in the passenger seat like a big boy. It is seriously just down the street....and we go about 15 miles an hour. Anyway, thats beside the point. After I put him in the seat, I shut the door and heard "click". The doors locked....with the keys inside. Oh great! So, Kris and I tried countless times to get him to push the unlock button, but he kept pushing the lock part. Then he got bored with that and saw a gum package (he is obsessed with gum by the way). It was empty, but he was playing around with that and not even paying attention to us. Then Tony appears.....this got Grayson's attention and we all tried again to get him to push the unlock button. Again....he didn't quite get it. He got bored and grabbed the remote for the stereo and began pushing THOSE buttons instead. He did grab the door handle and move it back and forward several times....apparently this unlocked the door, but none of us realized this. So, when he pushed the lock button again.....it locked. What!?!? It was unlocked? Finally, he pulled the handle again and opened the door. It was such a crack up! He was just chillin' and didn't even know what he did.

A day at the doctor

Yesterday afternoon Grayson came outside after his nap to help us in the yard. I put his boots on because it was wet out....even though I hesitated since he isn't the most coordinated in them. Things were fine until I turned around to him crying and lying on the ground. It had appeared that he stepped into a hole that the dogs had dug. He continued to be fussy so I brought him inside to change his boots to shoes. However, he would take a few steps....cry....then stumble a bit. So I brought Heath in and we checked his legs. Heath felt that his left knee seemed a little more loose than the right (using a drawer test). I kept trying to see if he really was injured by letting him walk a few steps....but you could definitely tell that something was wrong. Plus...he was whiney too. Heath ended up cheering him up by taking him on the backhoe to do some yard work. In the evening we went over to dad's and had him check his leg out. He also thought the left knee seemed like it had some ACL laxity. Since dad has done a bazillion cruciate repairs I trust his judgement more so than I would most doctors. He did say that he thought that a young person (or puppy) would more easily break a bone rather than tear a ligament.

So...this morning we went into Grayson's doctor to see what she had to say. She said that it was almost unheard of for a kid his age to injur ligaments or tendons....it is common for broken bones. She called it a toddler fracture. She had him walk and kind of run down the hall....and he was still showing some favoring and a little limp. So, she sent us to radiology. Grayson did really well with his xrays....but was scared and kept saying meme mommy meme mommy (even though I was right there with him). This is what he says when he is sick or scared.

After radiology we drove back over to our doctor. She reviewed the films and saw no fractures (I also checked them out in the car and didn't see anything either). Even though there weren't anything showing on the films doesn't neccessarily mean that he doesn't still have a fracture (sometimes will show up a couple days later). Our doctor said that he just needs to take it easy for a bit....if no improvement by Wednesday we need to go back in.

He seems to be doing better with walking....only limping occasionally. Heath and I joked with him saying "you are really milking this aren't you".....to his reply "yes". We died laughing! I think he will be just fine considering he is almost back to all of his antics.

On a side note: his cough has completely disappeared....and did so shortly after our chimney sweep.

Side note #2: Heath also went to the doctor today to get his ankle looked at. He has been bothered by it ever since one of his runs about 1 1/2 weeks ago. Turns out that he may have a stress fracture and has been referred to an orthopedic dr. So....no Capital City 1/2 marathon for him...hopefully he will still be able to do the triathlon in June at Sunriver (he should be fine by then).

Well, that wraps up my lengthy post!

Zoo trip

Grayson and I stopped by the zoo today after dropping Aunt Ruthy and cousin Lee off at the airport. I've been wanting to take him there but just haven't found the time to drive up to Tacoma. So....since we were in the neighborhood, I thought today would be a good day. The weather held out and we had temperatures in the mid to higher 50's. I didn't get many pictures, but we did get plenty of the peacocks....and their fancy courting rituals. One peacock came right up to us....which scared Grayson a little. Overall, we had a good time and enjoyed the outside time. Grayson's favorite animals were the fish, the tiger, the penguins, the elephants and the peacocks. The male tiger kept "talking" to us....Grayson kept telling me that he wanted more of that (the tiger's growly noise).

Happy 60th Birthday Dad!

For dad's 60th birthday, I wanted to do something a little different than the normal family party (at dad's house). I was originally looking into booking Bar Cinco on one of their off days....but it was getting way too expensive and overwhelming. So, we decided that we would reserve a bunch of tables there that would seat 30 people. The tough part was getting the guest list to fit with that number. With our huge, close family....it gets a little crazy when planning events. We all had such a great time....great food, great drinks (mojitos), great music and great service. Everyone that hadn't been there before was really impressed that Yelm had such a fun place with great atmosphere. Ruthy flew up to surprise dad and did a little number as "Mrs. Fancy Pants". Unfortunately, dad had a hunch that it was going to be Ruthy. It was still fun though! Lee was able to come as well because he ended up having a layover from Bozeman that landed him in Seattle....and ended up getting a free ticket and 2 day layover (to his request) because the original flight was overbooked.
One of the best things about having the party at Bar Cinco is that we didn't have to make the food or clean up! Dad loved his party and had lots of fun.

Dad and Aunt Judy, ca 1952

Nice legs! Dad and his friend, Mike (not sure of the year)

Funny little boy

As I start writing this post....Grayson is running around with a ball in his hands....while sniffing the ball. Silly.

A funny word game he likes to play with us is when we say "I love you" or "Do you love mama?", etc.....
He will say "I" .... which means that he wants us to say "I Love You" slowly (in sign language as well). Then he will proceed with random words like "backhoe", "dada", "mama", "pop", "meow", "dogs", "jeps (for Jeopardy)", etc.....
After he says one of these words, he wants us to say "backhoe loves you", or "jeps loves you", etc. Its pretty funny because you see his little brain thinking really hard about a new word to come up with.

It seems like there is a new word or phrase everyday now. A couple new words are "jimmies" (for jammies) "jeps" (for his favorite show to watch....as well as mom's) "boontz" (for balloons).

Just now he was throwing all of his crayons and markers out of their basket onto the floor. He then got down off his chair and stood there perplexed and said "hmmpf"....as if he couldn't figure out what to do with the mess. Then decided to put them back (love that!).

The other day he was looking at himself in the mirror in our room and I said "who is that". He says (I swear it) "stinky". I cracked up so hard...which made him start laughing hard causing him to get the hiccups. Funny kid!

Every day brings us some new funny and entertaining thing....its never a dull day!