Happy Birthday Grayson!

On August 13 Geeby (as he has affectionately become known in this house) turned two years old. You know how you usually say that it seems like you can't even remember a time without them . . well that is kind of true, but with him it seriously feels like he was a baby in my belly - yesterday! Time has gone by so fast with him and I can not believe he is already two years old. The doctor said he is 29 lbs (50%) and 36 inches (95%) - not that that means much for the future but he is a healthy, growing little boy and for that we are thankful. We had a family party for him on his actual birthday which almost never seems to work out.

He wasn't very sure what I was doing putting fire on his puppy cake.

But he figured it out and all the cousins actually let him blow out his own candles - such restraint :)

The puppy cake

Opening some presents with some help from brothers and cousins.

Each of the boys is their own little personality and I love seeing how each of them develop each year. Grayson is all about loving, cuddling, being playful, and trying to keep in step with his brothers. He can also be equally feisty, mischievous, and . . . . 'opinionated'. :) His sweet smile and expressions are pure joy to me.

He is saying lots of words. His first four word sentence was "I don't want to" - each word clear as a bell - not so precious. He also says 'No' in an almost Russian accent which makes me laugh when I should probably be disciplining! Even other people can understand most of what he says these days. In CA he finally starting saying "Parker" instead of calling him a version of "davis" and it is one of the cutest words he says. He calls for him all the time. He really loves both of his brothers a ton. Favorite things are still stuffed animals - preferably this huge dog, a cat that is actually Parker's from Legoland, a stuffed sheep that he calls Baaaa and some new motorized, yippy puppy things that he got in CA and for his bday. He also loves to read. He likes to be read to but also likes to look at his favorite books on his own. He usually chooses to play whatever the boys are playing but if he were choosing, I think he would want to play some time of ball game. He loves to play catch or kick a ball back and forth. He loves frozen yogurt and recognizes the Kokomo sign when we drive past (probably also a commentary to how often we frequent it:)

He asks to pray all the time and has always reached for my hand - even when he was pretty little - to 'ask' to pray with me before bed. This put it on my heart that God would grow in Grayson a dedication to Him through prayer that would shape and dominate his life - that he would be known as a prayerful man like Daniel. We love this little boy so much and will need a ton of prayer to parent him in this next year of life!!

Funny Parker . . .

Parker: I'm going call him Grayson Peace . . . like his name from the Bible.

Me: Parker, you know the Bible is saying "grace and peace" (slowly emphasizing each word)

Parker: Yeah, I know. . . Grayson Peace . . like I said.

Okay - sounds good - we'll go with it :)

This kid seriously could not be any sweeter. I think I say it all the time but he just gets sweeter and sweeter. He was so tenderhearted about his brother going to school and while it made me sad for him, I also thought it was precious how much he missed his Big Bro. He is also a great little friend. He has finally grown into really enjoying playing WITH other kids and has some little boys in his life that he loves and talks about all the time. It is so sweet to me to see him loving others. He even had his first sleep over without a brother. He and Logan had a "little boys sleep over" while the big kid stayed here. He is still talking about how much fun he had sleeping with Loges in the car movie bed. AND in true "Johnson family" fashion - Parker had to be woken up at 9:30?!?!!? What in the world? I swear my sis pumps sleeping gas through the air conditioning vents or something.

He is desperate to be in the school room with Davis and I during homeschool. It is going to be challenging to have things planned for him but he learns really quickly so it will be interesting to see what he can get out of this year. He is getting so big!

First Day of School

I've spent the last couple months of summer solemn about school and overwhelmed with the "where did the last 5 1/2 years go" feelings. When it came down to it though I was so excited to see Davis off to his first day of Kindergarten and I'm so excited to see what God will do through this next stage of his life.

The brothers have not really adjusted to the new school routine yet. Grayson has to be pulled out of bed and thrown in the car in jammies on school days and he is still not a fan.

Davis gets to attend Crossroads Community School with his cousin Eli and knowing that E is across the hall is very reassuring to him. I'm so glad that he has such a great big cousin to look up to and I know that Eli looks out for him.

I'm so proud of Davis and I'm so very, very thankful that God made him my son and has entrusted Mark and I to shepherd him. I know that God is going to use this school and this experience to work out great things in Davis' life. It is so fun to see him excited to learn new things.

He has two friends in his class from our church, Zoe and Noah.

Things from the first week of school:

-Parker was surprisingly much more tearful than me on the first day of school. He started crying when we walked out of the school hall and was solemn and tearful for much of the morning - poor sugar. He kept saying that he missed Davis and wished Davis could be with us.

-The hardest part for me about that first morning was watching Davis get very teary eyes, but trying to hide and pull back the tears to pretend he wasn't sad. It broke my heart to watch him work through that and try so hard to be brave. I'm glad for this for him at the same time. All three days of the first week he had this same type of morning, but this week on the first day he seemed so much more confidant. YEAH!

-Thursday when I picked him up (day 2) he had had music class and he was smiling from ear to ear - so excited - to tell me about music class and his music teacher Mrs. Grigg. He LOVED music and the "songs about summer" that they sang and the "funny stories about her very tall husband" (?) that the teacher had told them.

-Friday (day 3) he worked with the math tubs for the first time and he absolutely loved it. He got to work on counting and adding with beads and colored stones . . no surprise that he loved that!

-Davis is in a very unique program that allows me to partner in his learning. He completes 3 days a week in the classroom and we do two full days of school here at home. It took me 3 1 /2 hours to complete home school for the first time this week. Wasn't expecting that! I have much to learn through this process too. I LOVE to watch him learn and to see some of those things happening first hand at home is such a blessing to me.

-We read tonight before bed and Davis was already reading more words than he knew last week. Crazy how fast he is picking things up. I have learned that my son is a very good memorizer - not a bad thing.

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