Christmas and First Week Catch Up

The past week has been a whirlwind of activity. I'm sure you can imagine...with a newborn, an 18 month old and Christmas it’s been very busy! Dan has been off work too, which is so amazing and such a blessing. I’ve loved every minute and honestly wish he could somehow work from home. How great would that be?!?

On Christmas morning, Dan said he had strict instructions from Santa. He got up early, made hot cocoa and left it for me on the nightstand, got the living room and all the presents arranged and ready, turned on all the lights and decorations, lit some yummy cinnamon candles for the Christmas ambiance, and patiently waited until Grayson woke up to let chaos ensue. It was all such a great surprise, to both me and Grayson, waking up to a Santa and Dan inspired house. I love Christmas!

Santa and all our family and friends sent such awesome gifts! This house was aflutter with activity. Grayson kept going from one toy to the next with wide eyed delight. And to be honest, 4 days later he’s still treating all the toys as if they were right out of the box. So much fun to see the Christmas spirit in his eyes.
In typical Laura style, I took quite a few pictures, so make sure to check them out here.
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!
Here we come New Year!

Welcome Sweet Delaney!

Our precious blessing arrived at 8am (On the dot too! She must have inherited her mom & dad’s punctuality gene!!), Friday, December 16^th weighing 7lbs 2.7 oz and measuring 21 inches.

Everything about her is absolutely perfect and we are so lucky to have her join our happy little family!

Of course she’s already had her first minor boo-boo too…those darn baby raptor nails were able to get loose of the mittens and she got a good scratch on her beautiful face. Thank goodness it’s almost healed now but I was so worried she might have caused something permanent. Dan thought it would be a cool battle wound…Truth be told, I’m glad that wish didn’t come true!

To emphasize her arrival, Delaney and I had the pleasure and honor of being the VERY last labor and delivery patients at our hospital. Due to budget constraints, they are transforming the hospital into an orthopedic specialty location. And the nurses, despite being sad to say goodbye to their friends and coworkers, made us feel so special that we were the very last guests. They definitely rolled out the red carpet! It is sad to see that amazing facility go away but we are so excited to finally have Delaney here and I am in LOVE with all the pink, bows, ribbons and flowers. I never knew I would need a little girl, but I can’t imagine it any other way. Our perfect family…two parents, as in love as they were on their wedding day; an amazing, handsome and smart little boy and a little baby girl who is the most precious and beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!
I can’t wait to see where our path will lead us!

Make sure to check out all the pictures HERE. We've taken quite a few the past week. And I promise to do my best to keep the blog updated!

Welcome Delaney Anne Halsted!!!

Boo! ::: Giggle Giggle!! :::

Grayson loves to play hide and seek. In fact we probably play it every day around here.

Well, about three or four months ago I popped out to scare him and he absolutely LOVED it.

Kiddo takes after his mom in so many ways! :-)
Here's the latest trick, scaring Dad. As you can see, he loves it as much as being scared.

So cute!! Boy are we lucky to have this little guy in our life!

Preschool Starts with a Bang!

This morning our little boy had his first day of preschool.
I can’t tell you how excited yet anxious I was all at the same time. I know preschool is an amazing benefit for kiddos. It definitely guides them to become incredibly social kids and well adjusted students, helps build self confidence and language skills, not to mention all the wonderful things they will learn and experience too. It’s something I always knew I’d provide for Grayson.
That being said, I was so nervous to send my baby away.
Even Dan got vaklempt at the thought of Grayson running into class with his little Elmo backpack.

But I have to say, both Grayson and I did surprisingly well. The teacher had posted a “Welcome Grayson!!” sign on the door, decorated a little cubby hole especially for him and even had his very own seat ready. What a warm welcome!

The hard part was as I was saying goodbye and reassuring him I’d return, he naturally got a bit upset. And at the advice of my sister, I stayed strong in front of him but I completely lost it in the truck.
Our little man is growing up so fast!

Thank goodness, upon picking him up, I heard (and read on his little report card! How cute!) that he did fantastic! He was a bit shy and observing (shocker, just like his Dad) but all in all, it went great and they don’t expect the adjustment period to last long. Yay!
Here’s to a great opportunity for our little….er, er, our BIG boy!

Here's the only picture I have. I was so busy making sure Grayson was ok that I didn't pull the camera out.
I sure wish I'd taken a picture of Grayson and all the welcome items, but alas, I was a bit sidetracked. :-)

Christmas Parade With An Awesome View

Grayson got to enjoy Columbia’s Christmas parade in complete comfort yesterday. And he absolutely enjoyed every second!

From the police dogs (aka “PUP!!!!” in Grayson’s language), to the marching bands, sparkly floats, all the police/fire truck sirens and of course the choo choo trains (“tchooo-tchooo!”), he relaxed, danced, and laughed in the lap of luxury on Dad’s back.

Thanks Uncle Regan and Aunt Karley! The backpack is a great addition to all our cool Grayson gear. Makes our life so much easier and he LOVES it!

And to make the day even better, he was able to spend some time with some of his best friends.
He loves those kiddos.

Such a great day!

Holding hands with his 2 favorite girls...

Gorilla! Or was that Go-lilllllla?

As previously mentioned, Grayson loves everything about animals right now. He probably knows a good 25-30 animals and can mimic all their corresponding Roars, Who-Whos, Cluck Clucks, etc.

It's so much fun to get him going! Such a Chatty Charlie.

Well 3 months ago he said "Gorilla" but slowly and surely it's transformed into THE cutest version of the word.

Of course when he said the word in front of our great friend Kira, she immediately told me to record it.
Sooo smart! Why am I not recording these things more?

Well, it's been a few weeks and I keep forgetting, but Super Dad Dan remembered. Here it is. Go-lilllllla! So cute!

We'll work on his Woo-Pig Sooie this week. :-)

Fun with Dyed Rice

My great friend Kira tried this activity with little Lily Grace and it was such a fantastic hit she suggested that I give it a try.

There are 2 things that threw me a curve ball with this activity 1) taking a picture to capture the moment and 2) my fear of messes.
First of all, I’m not good about taking pictures during Grayson’s craft/art/fun time. I think the activities are not only fun for Grayson, but for me as well…and he enjoys it so much more that I get involved too. We honestly have such a hoot together, giggling, playing and bonding that having a camera handy never even enters my brain. But this time I decided to take a picture, knowing Kira had taken a picture so we could compare messes.

That brings me to item #2. No one reading this will gasp when I say I am a neat freak. To be fair, I used to be a lot worse before Grayson arrived and I’ve relaxed a bit (though I've hired a maid to fill in my gaps).
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE dirty activities for Grayson and he likes them too. But there’s a time and a place for everything and for me, that’s outside for messy activities. Even though he’s only 17 months, I want him to be raised in a clean environment and when he’s 3 (or 5 or 10) I want him to understand from the beginning that it’s not ok to throw the kidney beans from our bucket any which way he wants or smash playdoh into the wood floors. So because the weather has turned chilly, I cautiously ventured into the realm of potentially messy activities, inside the house.

Here he is, playing with the dyed rice (such an easy recipe too! Email me and I’ll let you know what Kira and I used). Grayson really enjoyed the sorting and scooping and the rice was a great colorful contrast to our usual items like sand, kidney beans, pasta, etc.

And as if I didn’t know my child at all….make sure to look at the last picture. It’s Grayson, grabbing a huge handful and throwing it. Notice this was the last picture too, because after that, I put my dumb camera down and decided to have fun with him like usual, commencing our giggles and enjoyment together. All in all, it was pretty fun and a great alternative but I’ll save the winter water balloon activities for the bath. :-) Thanks again for the great idea Kira and Lily!

Getting it all prepped...

Let the fun begin!