Dear Grayson: Month Thirty

Dear Grayson,

We have officially transitioned you to the "big boy bed" and you are loving it. Your room is your lair, and you are always trying to lure us in there to hang out and play with you. You didn't have any issues moving from your crib, which totally surprised me. You love to have us cuddle with you in your bed and you are always asking if one of the dogs can sleep in there with you. Tonight you asked if I would sleep with you:

"Mama, will you sleep with me tonight?"
"Well, perhaps I will cuddle with you a little bit." (Gets in bed.)
"Mama, you have your pink shirt on?"
"Yes..."
"Not your jammies?"
"No... do you want me to get my jammies on?"
"YES!" (I go get my jammies on and crawl back into bed.)
We snuggle for about ten minutes. By snuggle I mean we are curled up together: you, me, "Mac" from the movie Cars, and also Lightening McQueen. They are sitting on your chest about 0.5 inches away from our faces. You see nothing wrong with this.
"Gray, I'm going to go clean up the kitchen, but I will be back to cuddle later."
"Okay. You're going to clean the kitchen? Are you going to use a broom?"
"... um. Yes?"
"Okay, Mama. You clean the kitchen. I see you later."

Some other recent Gray-isms:
"goodnightstand" instead of "nightstand"
"I don't like costumes. They're too loud."
"Look, there are two dalmation-es!"

You and Eli are getting over croup, which hit our house hard over the past few days. It started when I was in Montana and your dad spent a very miserable night with two very sick little boys. It was heartbreaking to hear you crying "Mama, Mama" when I called in the morning to see how you were. I flew home right away and we all got through a pretty hard weekend. You lost your voice and now that you're getting it back you sound a bit like a cartoon character. It's pretty funny.

We are still struggling with how you treat the dogs and other typical two-year-old tantrum stuff. You have a new thing you do when you cry: you sob "mamamama" and make bubbles with your mouth. It drives us totally bananas- and I'm sure this is why you do it. Over the past few days I have employed a new method when trying to discipline you. I ask you to take a deep breath and give you two choices. When I count to three you have to tell me your decision. It's been effective so far- even though while I'm counting you are always wailing, "NO MAMA, DON'T COUNT!" For whatever reason, by the time I get to three you can snap out of it.

You work so hard to make Eli happy. You guys are interacting so much more lately and I just take videos of you two making each other laugh. Tonight you kept asking us if you could play with Eli on the bed and by "play" I mostly mean "wrestle." He loves it though and you two just giggle your little heads off.

You are a huge fan of your dada, and you missed him terribly when he went to Australia for ten days this month. You'd tell other kids that you'd see at the park "My dada is in Aus-trail-ee-ah and he is coming home!" or "I can go to Aus-trail-ee-ah when I'm a BIG boy!" This month I also went to Chicago for a reunion and brought you back a book about the city. We are going there in a couple of weeks for a vacation and you keep talking about all the things you'll see when we're there. You keep telling me "YOU live in the Hancock, Mama!" and I'm not quite sure where you got that idea. It's going to be so fun to show you the city!

I think I'm going to sneak into your bed and snuggle with you a little more before I go to bed myself. I love you, funny little boy.

love,
Mama