My Stunner

He's really starting to favor me, no?

Backyard Fun!

And now, the promised pics from Bonnie's birthday!

This is Sophia, Greyson, and Ben playing at the water table. (More on Sophia later!)


Greyson having a grand 'ol time marching around the backyard


This is Ben. Greyson has major hero worship issues here. He *loves* Ben and calls him "My Ben."


Everyone in the pool! Ben, Anika, Greyson, Sophia, and Mia


The gorgeous Anika


And my sweet G's sweet bottom!


Here are a few taken by my friends:

Taken by Tanya. I want to bite his little bottom!


These four taken by Andrea. I had to force him onto the mud - too clean like his Daddy. What a mean mommy!:








And this one taken by Bonnie. Can you tell how much he loves Ben?

Dancing on a Friday Night

We went as a family to Central Market to hear this awesome group of women (The Djembabes)who drum and sing African music. Some of the women play the djembe, which is the instrument I am (sort of) learning to play. I take classes with some of the new friends I have made in Austin and I love it so much.

Greyson and his friends danced and danced!! It makes me so happy to watch him. I really got into it, too. We had a wonderful summer night relaxing with our friends. I LOVE pictures of Greyson dancing...especially the ones where he is in motion. His friends Mia and Ava were also shakin' it big time!

Greyson and Nate

Last week (I am still so behind on pictures!), Greyson's friend Nate came over to play for a little while. It was the first time I had seen him really play WITH someone instead of just near them. They were making each other laugh and being silly. Greyson repeatedly bashed his head into the window to make Nate giggle. Takes after his mom - always after a laugh ;)
In the great tradition of boys everywhere, G and Nate discovered the pure joy of beating a tree with sticks. For like half an hour. Is it just me or is that really male?

Busy Week

This past week Greyson has been home with me all week and we had a very busy one!
Monday we went to a park playdate with Greyson's friends. G spent the whole time eating, as usual.
Tuesday we went to a free children's movie and saw the worst movie ever - Doogal. I really do usually like children's movies, and this one had tons of famous people as voices, but I am telling you it was absolutely terrible. Greyson watched it quietly enough, but I could feel my brain cells being sucked out through my pores. We went to swim lessons in the afternoon and G stayed under water for a count of one-one thousand. More scary for me than him, I think.
Wednesday we attempted to go to the Wednesday Art Park with the Austin Symphony. We decided to take public transportation to save gas money. Although it took us 90 minutes to get downtown, Greyson did pretty well. He was VERY excited to be on the bus. We walked out in the scorching heat (turned out to be 103!) and by the time we got there the music was over. We joined some friends for lunch downtown and then navigated the bus system back home. It was not as fun on the way home at all. It wasn't that he cried...it's just that he talked REALLY loud! Then he started karate chopping me and saying, "Hi-ya!" for half an hour. Sigh. Not doing that again anytime soon.
Thursday I went to see David Sedaris at Bookpeople and Daddy spent the day with G. After we did storytime at Central Market(dinosaurs!), G and Tim spent the day hanging out. They went to the comic shop, and Tim took G to swimming lessons (under duress).
Friday we went to a cool new park and Greyson ate all the food that was there for 6-8 children. I ended up having to chase him away from the table over and over. We ended the night back at Central Market for dinner with friends and a Djembabes concert. Pictures from that will follow soon.
Then came chill out day Saturday and a fun afternoon Sunday. We went to Greyson's friend Ben's house and celebrated his mom Bonnie's birthday. All the kiddos got naked and played in the pool. Pictures to follow from that, too - if mommy ever gets on the ball!
We had an awesome week, but I got NO work done and G missed his school friends, so I think we'll both be happy to get him back to school a couple of days next week.

Hooray for Summer!

My friend Cindy has started giving us swimming lessons in her home (she used to be a toddler instructor). Today some of Greyson's friends joined us and we had a real class and a great time hanging out afterwards.
On the way home G said, out of the blue, "I'm happy. I'm happy Mommy!" At first I thought I was hearing him wrong since I've never actually heard him say that he was feeling a certain emotion on his own before. But he kept shouting it and laughing. It made me so happy, too.

Mr. Follower

Greyson has started being a rule follower WHEN he wants to. He tells random people and tv/movie characters, "No No!" He follows Mojo around telling her, "No No! No poopoo Mojo!" anytime he thinks about it, even if there is no poop. If Tim and I wrestle around, he will reprimand one or the other of us and make us kiss.
The other day we were eating dinner and I had my feet up on the bottom of his chair. He looked at my feet, looked at me with what I SWEAR was a teacher look and said, "Feet on the floor. Feet on the floor, Mommy....Thank you."

Kung Fu Panda

Tim and I took G to see Kung Fu Panda today. It was his first time to go to the movies (not counting my failed attempt at a free one last summer for 10 minutes) and he did really well. We went to the Alamo so he could be snacking throughout and hopefully lat longer before he lost interest. He did yell out whenever they started fighting, "No no!" but there we kids everywhere at the 10:45 showing, so it was no big deal. We all liked it and I was very proud of him.

Clump

We have a sugar ant issue in our kitchen and the other day Greyson comes running up to me with his tongue sticking out, "Eehhhh! Eeeeeh!" I take a look and on his tongue is what appears to be a clump of ants. Of course I reach right in and get it. I'm looking at it really closely and G joins in. I start poking at it with my fingernails and as we are huddled over I ask, "Where did you get this?" Greyson says, very very seriously, "Nose."