Wordless Wednesday - Sept. 11

Dr. P

The day after Grayson had tubes put in his ears, The Hubs defended his dissertation.  P worked the last 4 years in a lab doing research on staph (umm...there was a lot more to it...right...) and it all culminated with his dissertation and its defense.  P's parents and I were able to attend his presentation (in a room with about 30-35 people) and then we had to leave while his committee drilled him with questions. 

During that time, we picked Grayson up from school and then got back to the building in time for P's dissertation reception.  The good news?  He PASSED!  One Doctor down...one to go!!

Oh so relaxed

Let the champagne flow!

Silly, silly boy

P's prof giving a lovely toast

Wishing he could treat himself to a beverage

It has been FAR too long!

Well, I never really intended to take a 3 month hiatus from this blog, but I hope to be back!  I am so sad that I don't have the last 3 months of Grayson's development documented in some manner.  He  has changed so much since my last post - our lives have changed a lot since that last post! 

We moved to Dallas at the beginning of June, and that was a story all on its own.  Let's just say that after initially only renting one Uhaul, we ended up with an additional one which was also packed to capacity and a caravan of 4 cars/trucks got us to Dallas safely.  On our way into Dallas, (our plan was to move in with my parents until we were able to find a rental home) we stopped by a rental house at 11pm to view it with our realtor.  We couldn't actually get in to see the house - turns out those lock boxes won't open at all hours of the night - so our realtor gave us a tour through the windows.  I'm sure the neighbors thought we were casing the joint!  We came back the next day, liked it, and by the end of the day, we had the keys to the house.  The next morning, the movers unloaded our Uhaul trucks into this house.  Craziest 3 days ever. 

I started my new job 10 days after we moved to Dallas.  I am enjoying corporate accounting so far!  Hopefully I'll still be saying that at year end! 

When I started my own job, Grayson needed a new school.  We didn't feel like we saw that many schools close to us, so we signed him up for one that we weren't 100% happy with because we didn't have any options.  Grayson had a very difficult time at first, but after about a month, he was doing much better at drop-off.  Unfortunately, a combination of things made us decide to look for a different school.  He started at a Montessori school near my office this week, and although we are going through the rough drop-offs again, I really think this will be a great place for him.  They even have show and tell on Fridays!!

G's first day of Montessori School 9/3/13

Gray has been pretty fussy and had a low-grade fever for the last month, and we have his 2 year molars to thank for that!  As of now, his two bottom molars are in, but it seems his top ones must be coming soon.  We have not had to give him "me-sen" (medicine) for the top ones yet, but I think they are going to start coming through soon.

Our move to Dallas means a new step in P's schooling.  He completed his PhD(!!) and is now back into the medical school groove.  He joined back up as a 3rd year medical student, so he is in the hospital or doctor offices on a daily basis and studying when he gets home.  This is a crazy new schedule for the whole family, so we are trying to become used to Daddy either being at work late, or studying instead of playing with us in the evenings/weekends.  It is challenging, but we're making it work, and it is precisely why we are happy to be near family!

Grayson's vocabulary/speech has been improving by the day it seems.  We have started working on 2-3 word sentences with him, and he is really getting the concept.  A funny story from last week:  I had put all of the dinner plates on the table and Grayson was in his highchair and P was still at his desk.  Suddenly Grayson said: "Daddy, eat, NOW!"  Needless to say...Daddy came right to the dinner table after that!  

Another reason that I want to get back to this blog is that I have barely taken any pictures of G since we moved up here.  With the exception of one day and some cellphone pics - this is basically it!  Sorry that they're all blurry.

Double-fisting cellphones - toddlers these days!

Tubes

This morning I woke up at the normal time (5:27...yikes) and got ready for the day even though yesterday was my last day of work.  Today I had to take Gray to get tubes put in his ears, and he had to be at the hospital at 7:30.  And, although we live right next to the freaking medical center in Houston, we had to drive 30 miles away to the other hospital that his ENT performs surgeries at because of her schedule (and the fact that we couldn't wait a few weeks due to our move).  Since the surgery was scheduled for the day before The Hubs defends his dissertation, he was not able to come with us.  I kept him informed of the events of the morning through picture texts though. 
When we got to the first waiting room, Gray made himself at home with the toys.

When we were called back, he was weighed, measured, and then given some pajamas to change into.  After that, we were told that he could go play in a different area until the Anesthesiologist and Doctor came to talk with us. 

He was called back to surgery around 8:45 and I was shown to the waiting room.  About 25 minutes later, his Doctor came and found me and said that everything went well!  She had to drain some fluid from his ears, but it went well.  About 5 minutes later I was called back to be with him as he woke up.  The nurse handed him to me and he and I sat in the rocking chair.  He slowly started to open his eyes and he took some water when we offered.  The nurse observed him (as he fell in and out of sleep) for another 20 minutes or so and then discharged us.  During those 20 minutes she couldn't stop saying how cute G was and called her friends over to see him - ha.  They all said that he was really good and one of their first patients who didn't wake up crying after getting tubes.  He was so still and quiet the whole time we were waiting to be released - he really fooled them! ;)

Since he was so still, they thought it would be fun to see if he would ride in a wheelchair by himself down to the car (it was either that or a nurse would just walk with us while I held him).  He did a great job and held onto the little puppy that the nurse gave him after surgery.  

It was a short and sweet surgery, but I feel much better now that it is over and done with.  I am hopeful that the slight hearing loss that he has will be remedied by getting all of the fluid out of his ears.  We were home by 10:30 and Gray got his energy back the second we walked in the door.  The nurse had said he might be a little shaky on his feet today, but he was running just fine 20 minutes after we got home.  I got him down for a nap after lunch, and we'll see how he is doing when he wakes up!  Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes today!

Mother's Day

The day started off with a gift that only Grayson could give - he slept until 8!!  Once he and I were up, we snuggled on the couch for a little while, read some books, and started a load of laundry.  Next I thought it might be fun to bake some cookies with Gray.  We started out with unwrapping some chocolates and melting it down with some butter for our brownie cookies.  Grayson decided to sample the chocolate chips that did not get poured into the pot.

 Can you believe that he is tall enough to reach the counter tops with the help of the ottoman!?

 After we started melting our chocolate and measured out the dry ingredients, Daddy woke up.  He has been up until the wee hours of the morning lately working on his thesis, so I didn't want to wake him up this morning.  He couldn't get enough of how helpful Gray was, so he took some pictures.

 Notice the chocolate on his face?  He thought it was delicious.

He helped me measure out and pour in the vanilla extract.

 And set a timer...we didn't need the timer... ;)

 The Hubs did a top notch gift wrapping job!

 The two of them got me an immersion blender, and I can't wait to test it out!  One of the recipes in the booklet is for a frozen coffee drink.  Yes, please!

 We were able to go out for brunch before P had to get back to his writing.  We went to the same restaurant that we went last year and found another great patio spot.  Grayson played with some rocks while we waited for our food and then shared some good cuddles and kisses before we left. 

 We stopped to smell the flowers as we walked out.

 Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful Mom!  Thank you for all of your help over the last few weeks - we couldn't do this move without you! 

Stress

So, admittedly it has been a while since I have updated this here blog.  We have so much going on right now that any spare time is spent focusing on looking for a house or finding a job for our big move to Dallas.  Unfortunately, neither of those things have been "found" yet, and we are 21 days away from our lease ending.  Stress is the name of the game in our house right now, especially since P is finishing up his thesis and has a defense date set.  Whew.  That is a lot for a 21 day period.  We are now talking contingency plans - and I hate having to talk contingency plans!
I have not taken as many pictures of Grayson as I would like over the last few weeks, but P sent me some good ones from his phone yesterday.  Here are a few things he's been up to:

I made pancakes with fresh blueberries for breakfast one Saturday morning that we were at home.  

 Then we let him have some pancake with syrup on it (for the first time) and he most definitely loved that!

 Cutie boy eating a lemon wedge - his Daddy gave it to him in hopes of keeping him awake until we could get on the road to Dallas one Thursday afternoon.  It worked!

 When we were in Dallas, Grandaddy let Grayson do all of the chores to take care of Jack.  From carrying the bag of food to his bowls to scooping it out and putting it in the bowl.  He did a great job, and loved doing it!

My Dad has always said that the Blue Goose on Greenville is better than the one they put in near his house north of Dallas, and we were able to taste the original's food while doing some house hunting in Dallas.  Grayson and Grandaddy found these dogs outside of the patio while the rest of us were finishing up our lunch.  My Dad said that Gray would get really close to the dogs, but would never pet them. 

When Gray and my Dad came back to the table, Grayson told us all about the "ruff ruff's" outside.  As we were leaving P took a couple of pictures with Gray and the dogs. 

P took this picture on a Friday morning while I was still at work.  Grayson takes the blankets out of the ottoman and then climbs inside.  If he's lucky, we'll push him around the house in it.  On Friday mornings, he is usually that lucky.  There are lots of shenanigans that go on while I'm at work ;)