Dog Walker

The handsom dog walker.

GrandMas Play!

Magic Tunnel
I mean Magic!. I bought this at KB toys on a whim knowing that G is getting more and more physical. This is not just a great rainy day toy but apparently great for visitors too!. Grandma Bev and Grandpa Frank were here and it was a hoot to see Marks mother down on the ground crawling through this tunnel over and over with G! This thing will get you in shape. It is worth more than $12.99... he hasn't tired of it yet and I know it will be part of future games and forts. I can't wait to get the mileage out of this.

First Haircut

First Haircut, about a week ago.

Before

After

Potty "Training"

So the other day Grady did all this by himself and pottied in his toilet... with his underwear still on. I was thrilled!!! He just hit 15 months old.

The Challenges of Christmas

Hey - I forgot to mention in my Christmas wish list message other likes of G's besides books. (Book are getting big). He loves cars and things with doors, switches and knobs. He loves to climb. He likes things that have big chunky interlocking parts, or where a part hides inside another.... lots of dexterity, thinking and creativity. He likes Raffi too.

For the record I kinda hate loud cartoon stuff. Where is the creativity in that? Also not a fan of things with many little parts since I can get compulsive about the cleanups. (Lincoln Logs appear to be my limit)

baking a Cake

  G helped move the flour around and mix in the buttermilk.


I tried to alter a traditional recipe for a Sally Falon style result... soaking the grain. This is s two day process. All in all it worked out well.G enjoyed eating the baked results too.

Here is the long awaited (staged) Halloween pictures of Grady.
He was a Snowman, we walked around our complex to kinda show it off, not really trick-or-treat. We came home with a little candy anyway. Oh boy now when he sees or hears a candy wrapper.... watch out.
I didn't have a pattern for this costume so it came out a bit big. I sure had a lot of fun throwing it together - reminded me of the good old SCA garbing days. Hey Mom thanks for the sewing machine.

Shameless - a link resource

Hey everybody - its that time of year where I fantasize about what toys I might buy for G the coming holidays. For those of you with kids of your own I suggest you check out some of the links I will provide in todays message. I have been collecting online toy store links for about a year now and some of them are pretty cool. One I was visiting today sells pretend cracked eggs and catagorizes toys by which country they are made in.

For those of thinking about what to get G this year I'd like to share some of his preferences here. In light of recently learning how to sign "book" he is discovering story time which has taken some effort. Until two days ago the only story he would sit through was "There is a Monster at the End of this Book - Staring lovable furry old Grover". Two nights ago he sat spell bound while I read to him From Richard Scary's "What Do People Do All Day" from the section about taking a plane trip (very interesting).

As his mommy I'm obviously concerned about "Made in China" toys, but I also feel that a lot of these smaller toy companies are able to better monitor the quality of the product coming from China. Most people I know don't seem to realize for example that although Melissa and Doug toys are really cool they are made in China. So how do we decided where to draw the line. Perhaps Melissa and Doug is becoming a mass produced product line, maybe there is room for concern. Personally I want to believe their pledge, which I've seen on their toys before this lead thing came to light. They promise a high standard of safety checks on all their toys.

Ok here are all the cool toy companies I have collected.
Oompa Toys
Willow Tree Toys My new favorite
Rosie Hippos
Earth Easy Toy list
One Step Ahead
Gummy Lump

Also I wanted to mention that my boy is wearing clothes sizes 18mo - 2T and he has big feet, I think they are as big as his lower leg!
Here are some cool kids clothing companies.
Garden Kids
EcoBaby
Sckoon
Organic Consumers Listing

For those who haven't heard, I just want to let you know that we will be spending Christmas and Bodhi Season here in Pooler.

Cameras and Dragons

Major Camera Malfunction. I can't get the camera to acknowledge the picture card is inside it and properly formatted. I was letting G take pics and then.... boom. DEAD camera.

Here is it's last picture of G man.

Here is a picture of his Rocking Dragon! This is a gift from Grandpa Bob. Aparently it was at a yardsale and he picked it up for $1. I know alot of folks out there in SCA land would happily pay twenty or more for it.



I have some pics from visiting with Jennifer but so far I haven't figured out how to shrink their file sizes so blogger will accept them. If you are someone who knows how to do this please send me a brief email.

Also G can now say "dad", "dog", and "no" and "hi" and I recently taught him to sign "book" and "thank you". He is also working on how to say sorry when he bites us. He seems to regret the impulse.

For Halloween he was a snowman! He actually got a few pieces of candy because we paraded him around the apartment complex. I think he was the only trick or treater here! All the big kids went next door to the neighborhood.