I can't believe I have gone this long without blogging! I feel like I've hardly documented Grayson's second year at all. :( How sad that makes me. I have, however, been capturing his life and the oh-so-many changes in photos at least.
My kids are awesome. They always have been, and I'm pretty sure they always will be.
Joshua is about a month away from graduating from the 5th grade. This kills me. KILLS me. He's only months away from being a middle schooler. I look at Grayson and I just think of Joshua, and how he was at this age. I still feel like Joshua should be so little. He crawls up into my lap and there's hardly any room. "What are you going to do when you don't fit anymore?" I asked him sadly the other night. "I'll always fit mom, and if I don't, when I'm big enough, I can hold you." Talk about tear-jerker! I just wish I had a time machine. I would get more hugs and cuddles and kisses in. I would just soak up more of him. Time goes by too quickly. We spend too much time worrying about things that don't matter. I want time back that I will never have.
He's still young enough that he likes me to lay down with him at bedtime. We talk, and he plays with my hair. {Just as he has done since he was an infant, nursing.} I asked him last night if he would always want me to lay with him. For the first time he put a time limit on our little tradition. He said when he's 15 or 16 he probably won't want to me lay down with him anymore. I fear that time will come sooner. But I hope that time NEVER comes. I can honestly see myself driving to his house one day, and curling up next to him. I guess only time will tell! lol
Hailey has started gymnastics and is just amazing. I knew she was a natural. She just has a little gymnast body. But I never really had anything to compare her to. Now I do. And now I truly know how awesome and amazing she is and can see an awesome and amazing future in this sport for her! Her VERY first class, she blew me out of the water. She was SECOND BEST in her class. Second only to a girl several years older with experience. And there was even a move my Hailey could do that the older student couldn't quite yet do! Talk about proud. I called everyone I knew on the way home and just beamed. I love watching her every week learn more, do more, and get better and better. She loves to show people her "tricks". She has mastered the back bend into a bridge and can flip over. I'm so excited to see where she takes this!
She is growing up so much too. I discovered this year that I can no longer buy her clothes. She's reached the age where she prefers to pick out her own clothes. Even though she likes my input, and for the most part like my style, she likes being able to pick the colors, etc. of what she wears. Sometimes I feel like she's 8 going 16. She can be so sassy. But then a sweet side to her comes out. Especially with her baby brother. They still have a special bond that melts my heart. I don't think it will ever go away. I certainly hope not.
Leah, oh my sweet Leah. She absolutely loves preschool! I only have one more year with my sweet Leah before she starts kindergarten. :( I will still have her Monday and Fridays anyway. I don't think I'm ready for her to be gone all 5 days. I don't see how I will ever be ready for that. :( She's my sweet baby. She's so sensitive, loving, and caring. She can bring out the sass at times, but really, she's just sweetness. She's my little mama for sure. She has an Itty Bitty Baby Doll that she's named "Lisa", and she takes care of that baby so well! Every time we go anywhere she buckles her in. It's precious. She "feeds" her and "nurses" her and changes her little diaper. She says when she grows up she wants to be a mommy like me. She wants 5 or 6 kids. lol I hope she is blessed as I have been! I can certainly see her being a wonderful mama!
Leah has gotten the gymnastics bug as well and I HATE that we can't put her in until she's older. I feel like she has so much potential that we are wasting by not getting her in. She is SO insanely flexible and talented! She can already do a perfect cartwheel, and is very close to perfecting a back bend into a bridge! She can lay on her belly and bend her head back and touch her toes! It's crazy! This summer we're going to work on riding a bike without training wheels, and reading. I feel like she's behind in reading because she misses the cut off by 8 days, she's older than everyone in her class and always will be. :( She's not able to identify all of her letters and I really want to work on that. She's so smart I know once we start working on it she'll have it in no time!
Grayson is growing too fast for my liking, just like all my kiddos. I find it so hard to believe he's so close to two. I'm not ready for him to be two. I'm not even fully able to accept that he's ONE! I've delayed so many things, feeling like it's keeping him a baby, but I know it's all going to come to and end eventually whether I want it to, or not. He's still nursing. I know that shocks a lot of people. But believe me when I say, I COULD NOT CARE LESS. I won't even go into the health and emotional benefits of it all. But it's been an amazing adventure for us. I worry it's going to be so hard on the both of us when the end comes. I've always been holding off on his first haircut. Some days he has a beautiful head of blonde curls. But most days he looks like a little surfer toddler. Some days he looks like Einstein. I love his hair. I LOVE it. I'm so not ready to cut it. But sometimes I see boys his age looking all sharp with their big boy cuts and I wonder if I'm depriving him of a cool hairdo! But then I remember he's a toddler and doesn't care. And also, he's freaking ADORABLE. With, or without a hair cut.
His birthday is just two short months away. For a couple months I began collecting ideas and planning a "Book" birthday. This kid LOVES books. We read ALL day. And night. All the time. He just loves to read and listen to stories! But recently, he's become obsessed with monsters. His favorite app on the iPad is a book called "Even Monsters Get Sick", he loves a book we have about hungry little monsters, and also he loves Monster's Inc., so now I'm torn. I don't know if I should do Monsters or Book! I'm running out of time to make a decision!
G is crazy smart. He is a little parrot and repeats any and everything. He can talk SO WELL and pronounces even hard words well. He's so funny too! He can say all of his ABCs, and can count to ten with help. We're working on counting to 20, and also working on his colors. He's had his first serious boo boo that needed glue, and it was so funny listening to him tell the story. "Running, kitchen, drawer, hit it, OW." He's working so hard on putting sentences together! He's still a crazy picker eater. It's hard to get food in the guy. But when he likes something he can eat SO MUCH! Technically he can start preschool next year. So I could have middle schooler and my BABY in preschool. But he's my last, so he's staying home with mommy until pre-K! {I want him to go at least one year to get ready for kindergarten.} I will have fun teaching at home until then.
So there's a little update on my babies! Time just flies by and they grow and change so fast! I need to do this more. Thank goodness for cameras!
