Grayson

There is just so many things that happen during my day where I say, oh I have to remember to blog this. Then I get here once the kids are asleep and my mind draws a blank.

I think tonight I will spend the time chroniclers Grayson.

It is amazing how much and how fast Grayson is growing. Often it is hard to remember that he is only 4. He is such a bright little kid who is constantly in pretend play. Some time it is hard to keep track of who he is at any given moment, even though he will gently remind you if you forget. Today we stopped off at a park on our Sunday walk. Grayson took off to the swings so he could get first choice. Once there he told me he was ALL of the Disney characters ("except the princesses" - our kids for some reason just can't relate to the princesses). While swinging he proceeded to have a conversation with himself, among his characters. "Hey goofy, no pushing", "But I like pushing", etc. It was too cute and fun to see how his mind work. However it was a little hard not to think that I was pushing Sybil.

He has his letter's down pat, and all their phonemes. He is sounding out words, and it has been magical to see through his eyes how the world opens when one is able to read. The first day he realized he could read. He looked at me with a shocked expression, and immediately ran to the book shelf and pulled off a random book to try and read it. Of course with in seconds after opening the cover, his face grew long and he said "I just am not ready for this one". Not yet anyway Grayson.

He can be the most loving of brother's, and it's funny because even when he is most frustrated with his sisters and the attention they get, instead of acting towards them aggressively he generally turns his attention towards them instead. I guess he learned early on that he gets more attention for giving his sister attention than any other way. Everyone is a sucker for a big brother who looks after his sister.

He still spends hours pouring through books, remembering every detail in particular he is into puzzle books right now and other educational animal books from Usborne publishers. He will do just about anything for a story, and consequently when necessary this is what we take away as punishment.

Speaking of punishment, we have had to deal with a lot more of this as of late. I read somewhere that children are generally at there worst before some big change in environment or big developmental growth. I sure hope so, and try to keep in mind that in the next few months, Grayson will be changing schools, schedules, not to mention Rosie will be having her first baby. On top of this Anna is getting more mobile and opinionated and demands more attention, which means less for Grayson. Oh I forgot to mention he is giving up naps, which he could probably still use but we don't want him going to bed at 10 like he does on the nights that he has a nap. All of this has meant a lot of teasing of Eme, defiance towards us, moodiness, and frenzy. Sometimes I wonder if he is just finally starting to go through hi terrible 2's now. He has reverted to sucking his thumb (after giving it up for 6 months) and sometimes is just really difficult to be around. Paul and I had a good talk with him yesterday morning and are trying to find him incentives for not teasing (a special outing with mommy or daddy) and it seems to be working well. We are also trying to get him to tell us best that he can what is going on. We know that he is tired, and he tells us he is concerned about all the school stuff. So we are going from there.

Other than that I could spend many pages and many hours talking about all the nuances that make Grayson who he is. We are so proud of him and love him so much, and feel lucky that for our first child (the pioneer) we got a kid with the right kind of understanding,forgiving, and patient personality that allows us the leeway to figure it all out.