Fleur de Aleta

Sometimes two spoons are better than one.  Especially when 'sharing' chocolate pudding with Daddy: Picture with Mommy after she had her hair done :) At the restaurant, Ground Patti, Gregory and Daddy like to walk around after eating.  Here is Daddy playing hide and seek with his son. Gregory is getting better about sleeping in his toddler bed.  He's had a few nights where he has slept the entire night in his bed. 

Gregory is getting really skilled with the iPad Mini...  He can swipe the pages.  He knows to choose an app that is his.  And he plays with the children's apps, especially the animal sounds one - he can turn the pages and pick various animals. Just recently he took his first selfie... all by himself.  He turned the camera on and Daddy put it to show the person.  Gregory saw himself and snapped a picture :)  Here's his first selfie:

My husband says our son gets to see the wild animal kingdom right from our French doors that lead to the backyard patio. I'm not sure how we got adopted by Smokey, named for her soft grey color.  She started coming to our back patio door and meowing for food.  We thought it was just one grey cat that was eating a LOT.  Come to find out it was TWO grey cats.  A Smokey He and a Smokey She. And then.... there were three kittens.  Two all grey kittens and one striped kitten.  Cute as buttons. But here's the problem.  We don't mind feeding the cats and kittens.  But they are all feral, running at the first step towards them. Plus, we have an indoor cat, Tigger, who doesn't get along well with other cats.  We also didn't want under our shed to become a cat population. We called the SPCA.  It was interesting to find out that if we catch a cat, they will adopt it out.  That is.... ONLY if the cat isn't feral.  If the ca...

We went to visit with Gregory's great-grandmother.  I think sometimes that Mawmaw's cane makes Gregory a little nervous, because he gets shy about it.   Gregory and his grandmother, Oma: Gregory and his great-grandmother, Mawmaw: We had lunch at a restaurant that Mawmaw enjoys, close by her home.  It was cute the way the waiters flirted with Mawmaw.  The restaurant was small and had a large open area.  Gregory loved it, because he walked up and down the restaurant, smiling at everyone. Gregory has never been given candy, but when he saw the candy machine, he was attracted to the colors.  Funny how candy companies know what will hook a child!  No, he didn't eat any.  But it was neat to see him stretching to move the parts of the machine. Mawmaw was tickled when Gregory gave her a "high five."  Daddy taught him how to do that :) Gregory mostly wanted crackers, ate a little bit of a grilled cheese sandwich, bu...

When I was a little girl, my parents signed up for membership at the Green Acres Country Club.  The club had a large swimming pool and tennis courts.  We had a lot of great memories there and it's where I learned to swim.  Skip a few years later and my parents decided to put a pool in their backyard.  I think I swam through my summers.  My Dad used to call me a dolphin. I don't go swimming as often, but I want to change that.  Especially with having a little boy.  I want Gregory to enjoy the water as much as I do.  We have a small baby pool at our home, but it's not the same thing as a large pool.   So it was a treat to go to Oma's and Opa's house and see Greg's smiles and joy of the water. After we took our son out of the pool, he stayed by the door, wanting to go back to the pool, crying.

The article I wrote about temper tantrums was published.  If you have any suggestions on handling temper tantrums, please share :) Here's the link to the article - click here .

Gregory loves to visit with his grandparents and we are very fortunate that both sets of his grandparents live close by.  We're also fortunate that our families love to spend time with our son and believe in date night time for us :)  Sometimes it's a movie, sometimes it's just a nice restaurant meal, sometimes it's a trip to Walmart (so romantic, right?  But a lot easier when you don't have your son reaching for everything and then getting annoyed because he'd rather walk than sit in a cart.) The other night, it was a meal night out :)

When I was pregnant, I was so worried about our cat, Tigger, and our son.  Tigger is an old man cat, very chill, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't have a reaction to a child.  The cat was the first one to leave a scar on our child... when the cat jumped into the baby's stroller; he accidentally scratched Gregory's nose. My husband saved the cat's life, that's all I'm going to say about that. But as Gregory has grown, their bond has strengthened.  Tigger loves the attention from Gregory.  The cat will swish his tail for Gregory to catch.  When Gregory was learning how to walk slowly, Tigger would walk a step and wait, walk a step and wait, so that Gregory could reach him. When we bathe Gregory, Tigger is there, meowing away, as if to say, "It's water!  Get the baby out of the water!"  And when Gregory cries.... the cat is RIGHT THERE!  Tigger wants to make sure our son is ok. The other day, Tigger walked, Gregory followed him quickl...

My husband and I are trying to teach our son how to play "hide and seek."  We alternate who counts (either me or Greg) and who holds Gregory and hides.  The problem is that Gregory doesn't understand the concept of quiet in the game for the 'hiding' part.  When it's my turn to count, I'm laughing between counts, because I hear Gregory squealing and then, when I go looking for them, I'm laughing so hard I have to cross my legs not to pee, because when I call out to them, Gregory is giggling and calling back.  It's hilarious. Gregory might not understand, but he sure gets a kick out of the game.  My husband is teaching our son how to play ball, well.. "fetch" more like it.  I shouldn't right that.  Gregory also likes to kick big balls.  Maybe he will play soccer one day? So far I've managed to stop my husband from cutting our son's hair.  It's getting a little long, but I want to wait until Gregory is 2 years old, to mak...