how gray sleeps at 3yrs

sometimes on a mountain of stuffed animals

and always with pillows on the floor

graysonisms

In his sleep before I woke him up: "My name is Jokester."
And then the first thing upon him waking and hugging me: "I'm so, so happy that you're in my arms."
Me: "What did you just say??"
Him: "I ssaaiidd, 'I'm so, so happy you're in my arms!'"



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To his great-grandmother Lucy when he wasn't getting his way on something: "I'm just going to go home."
She questions how he'll get there and he responds, "In your car."
He then asks her if she knows where her keys are, and next tells her about the steering wheel, the tires, and other components.  Intrigued (despite his defiance... she's a grandma!), Lucy asks if he will be able to reach the brakes.
Grayson: "What are brakes??"

Later in this conversation, his great-grandmom tells him to be careful on the road because there might be a lot of deer out.
Grayson: "Oh, I won't be driving on the road!"

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Me when he was making an unprecedented amount of noise after Jack had been put to bed: "Grayson! Stop that, buddy - Jack's asleep!!"
Gray: "Nooootttt anymore!"

****

 Every five seconds: "This is really interesting, Mom."

little boy HEAVEN

Our Charlotte-area visit continued and has been talked about with great delight and longing eeeevvver since.

Nick and his brothers were quick to welcome the younger boys and put their big boy stuff aside to be the best cousins ever.

"I like this place, Mom."

 The girls were outnumbered just a bit (7 to 3 if we count Lucky!):

 

Danny and Jack on the piano:

 

Gray loved his cousins' toys, iPads, and also their... vacuum parts.  They did an awesome job of humoring him in his elaborate game of repeatedly cleaning up an imagined flood from a shoddy water pump. :)

meeting great grandmother loretta

Jack got to meet some very important family members this summer, including his Grandpa Mike's mom, his great grandma Loretta.

 

And Grayson got to meet Grandma Loretta's very cool water bed*.

 

*Those things are TOUGH. Great-grandmas & water beds.

teddy bear picnic

On one of Grayson's last days at CCDC this sumer, they had a Teddy Bear Picnic.

He brought "army bear" and enough corn-on-the-cob for the whole school.

Here are a couple of photos his wonderful teacher shared with us.

The goggles are from the workbench play area inside, so I'm not sure what to say about those except that he's three, and he's Gray!

At naptime, a classmate borrowed
Army Bear to cuddle with - we found
him on her cot at the end of the day. I
totally get the snuggle-a-soldier thing.

Ms. Donna says he keeps her in stitches.

how small do they make those special gloves?

 

After watching daddy do some crossfitting, Jack was ready to give it a try!

 

 

And a little video (the loud background noise would be big brother on a lawnmower...):