Weekend at Grandma's.

The long awaited post of pictures from our time with Grammy G & Grandpa.

Unfortunately, you will see very pictures of Grammy G or Grandpa!

This is because I noticed that most of the pictures I took of them were taken on THEIR camera

*sigh*

What's to become of this world with people like myself living in it?

Not time for dilly-dallying.

First we have:

Grandpa asleep in a chair.

But this isn't just any chair.

This was Grandpa Dave's chair! And we never knew.. like father, like son.

Next,

To make up for what I just did by posting sleeping Grandpa in the chair...

Here he is coloring with Dawson:

I can now take it upon myself to embarrass Me.

I actually went home sick the day we left for Ohio to go visit Great Grandma Jean (Greg's mom)

I also had a huge canker sore on my tongue that caused me great angst and I couldn't eat.

Perhaps I was a bit cranky and displayed this for the camera.

This is Holly. G'ma Jean's bird. I am still determined beyond all reasoning to make that bird let me hold her. She is disgusted by all living creatures except for G'ma unless you are giving her popcorn.

Did I mention how cranky I was from being sick?

Well, crankiness makes me crave ice cream.

The ice cream we bought was Graeter's ice cream. The best in the world.

However, this is what what I found when I tried desperately to get my beloved chocolate chip mint ice cream from the box...Jason ended up digging it out:

Yes, I would like ice cream with my chocolate chunk please.

I would also like to add that ice cream further irritates canker sores.

But even after all that, nothing beats the sweetness of a napping Dawson:

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This actually reminds me of pictures we have of him when he was first born, asleep in his crib.

Sadly, I guess we took no other pictures with our own camera except for the following few before we left:

Great G'ma Jean & Dawson.

By the way, if she were named something like Linda, Dawson would have struggled less differentiating between G'ma Jean and Grammy G.

All picking their nose:

which made Dawson mad. Only he is allowed to pick his nose apparently.

Ahh. happy times.

Efficiency is Intelligent Laziness.

Dawson was once put on the cover of "Swim" magazine.

Well, I'm thinking someone will create the magazine and then ask for this picture for the cover.

I do have some pictures from Grammy G and Grandpa's visit but I have little time today so I'm gonna keep this one short and get those added real soon.

* I do have one quick story to tell though. *

Several weeks ago on our way to church, Jason was holding my hand and while we talked, Dawson sat silently in the back looking out the window. Minutes passed and Dawson yelled out "Mommy, I want to hold your hand!" Endeared, I quickly reached back and Dawson took my hand. About 10 seconds passed and Dawson said: "Okay, that's enough" then dropped my hand like a sack of potatoes.

Personally, I'm still taking to heart the 10 seconds I got...

Happy 3rd Birthday Dawson!!

Today we celebrate the joyous occasion of the birth of Dawson Gregory who was born at 7:11 a.m. exactly 3 years ago.

I can't believe he's 3. I mourned his 2 year old status for several days as a matter of fact. I'm not prepared for this growing up business but it seems to just keep happening without my consent. Some things, God chooses to do without my consent.

In the meantime, before I go into the festivities that took place in our home last night in honor of Dawson G, I'd like to state for the record that I took Nyquil last night. Everyone should know that it takes a dose of Dayquil the next morning in order for me to get off the Nyquil. Unfortunately, we are out of Dayquil and thefore I cannot make any promises regarding the cohesivenes of this post. Or for any spelling errors. That is my disclaimer. Thank you.

And now let the festivities begin.

First we have me in my pre-birthday baking garb:

I wanted show off my Kitchen-Aid Mixer skillz.

Then we have party peeps arriving at approximately 7:00 p.m. because the party was supposed to start at 6:30. Perhaps I've already mentioned my family's acuity for lateness? Did I totally use the word acuity out of context? Don't tell me. I have a disclaimer. I'm working off the Nyquil.

Here's the birthday boy

The birthday boy close up.

The birthday parents with the birthday boy.

One of the special items for this birthday year was the presence of Dawson's Grammy G and Grandpa Greg (his namesake).

Dawson waiting patiently for his cake to be brought out.

One of the highlights of the night was being able to include my sister Bobbie in the festivities. Because... both of my sisters have WEBCAM!

Our we a technologically advanced family or what?

We may be dysfunctional, but we have WEBCAM!

It took an insane amount of time to get the webcam to work, but once we got it going, it was well worth it. I was so thrilled I took pictures!

My sister Bobbie as we still tried figuring out how to get ourselves projected to her.

Then we figured it out and the house erupted in craziness.

Well, my sister Karen and I erupted in craziness.

The especially neat thing was the fact that it was my sister Bobbie's birthday yesterday! We planned to have her computeritacally present for the party to sing to her as well. Nyquil helps you make up all kinds of great new words like computeratically.

Time for singing and cake!

Singing to Bobbie!

Eating cake...

And time for presents...

This year since times are tough, I had asked everyone to make Dawson a homemade birthday card as a keepsake, rather than buying him b-day presents. Instead some people did both! My sister Karen made this neat scrapbook picture keepsake.

Then we hugged:

We won't event talk about the 3 days of harassing from Dawson trying to get us to give him the toy dinosaurs we bought for him for his birthday. He had to go shopping with us so he saw everything we got him. Not recommended.

And then...

There was TRASH.

Party's over.

Happy Birthday Dawson!

We LOVE YOU!

Sugar in the Morning

Is there a time in the morning that is too early to chew gum? I have been chewing gum on my way to work in the morning, because I suffer from bad coffee breath. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I feel funny about the chewing gum process being so early in the morning for me. It seems like it should be an after lunch ordeal. But here I am, in need of gum at 7:00 a.m. every day. Not that I want to equate it to people who drink too early in the morning or anything. Does gum have alcohol in it?
And while we’re on this subject, is 10:00 a.m. too early to eat potato chips? Because I was really hungry this morning and that was my only option.

I’ve been in the pet peeve mood lately. Making a mental list of all my pet peeves as I encounter them. If you’ll allow me to vent for just a moment and share a few:1.shopping carts with broken wheels

2. toast crumbs in my butter

3. people who don't use turn signals

4. Clutter

5. socks with no mates

Should I stop at 5? I don't want to be too dramatic.

What are some of your pet peeves?

On Sunday we had a small birthday party for my mom who turned 72!

My sister Bobbie was unable to celebrate with us as she was traveling and my sister Anita was sick. So that left us, my mom and my sister Karen. But boy can we party! Just watch!:

Let me tell you something, that orange cake had the best cream cheese icing. I ate enough to make my belly sag. Oh wait. It already does. Never mind.

My sister Karen gave me the white pull over shirt she has on. Because I really really liked it. I didn't even have to beg for it. She had us help her make valentine's day card boxes for some of her coworkers because she is a sweetie and I had to cut out small pieces until my my thumb was numb from the little kid scissors I had to use. Besides, she has another one exactly like it only pink. I wore it to work on Monday and I looked rather cute. Thanks K.

Not sure what Dawson was doing in this picture. But he wanted to be on grandma KK's lap because it got him closer to the presents.

Speaking of presents..

My own sweet precious little boy's birthday is coming up - one week from today!

Key word = "WAS"

Over the weekend I had grand and lofty ideas that I would be kicking my exercise butt back into gear. To do this, I knew I needed to set my alarm clock for at least a half an hour earlier during the week days and get myself out of bed to do one of my many workout DVDs I have stashed in the living room. Jason and I actually have a membership to the Y, but that membership doesn't get me to the Y, Jason does. And he hasn't been feeling like working out lately. All that to say:

I WAS going to set my alarm clock to 5:00 a.m. to get out of bed this morning to workout. But I didn't. I woke up at 5:00 on my own though. And contemplated the fact that perhaps God woke me up since I WAS going to set my alarm clock anyway but didn't do it. So I laid there. In my bed. Hmm. should I get up? Or shouldn't I. And I didn't. because I'm flat out LAZY. But I WAS going to. Initially.

Other than that...

Dawson has a few new sayings:

#1. Mommy, GEEZ.

#2. . Mommy, I have to tell you someping.

#3. EXCUSE ME!

I know there's others but I can't think of them off the top of my head. Maybe I'll try thinking from the bottom of my head and come up with them that way.

A few weekends ago, my sister Bobbie and her husband David came over. After a very long day, Dawson was still fighting sleep. He wanted to be out in the living room with us. But the time eventually came where he could fight it no longer:

He fell asleep in my lap while we all talked. And if my shirt weren't any longer, my gut would have been hanging out just like his was.

Finally it was time for me to move him

And he slept right in the middle of the living room floor for about 2 hours.

Yes. I make him sleep with 3 different blankets because I don't want him to freeze in our 19 degree house.

The next day, Jason and Dawson played Wii Jeep:

Only Dawson kept thinking his Jeep was the one Jason was driving...

I Lost My Title

Guess what.

I have in my possession the paperwork needed to prove that Dawson had his very first "Accident Free" day at daycare yesterday.

Someone please call Harvard. He will be applying there this afternoon.

He went potty in the big boy potty the whole day and to reward him they let him play with the big kids in the 3 year olds room. Whom they said he was immediately afraid of because they were being very LOUD.

In the midst of this potty training business, I had a new revelation on an old verse. Take a look at it with me:

"Train up a child in the way he should "GO" and when he is old he shall not depart from it."

Proverbs 22:6

Aha.

You can also see by that papwork that Dawson ate all of his lunch, had cereal bars for his a.m. snack AND his classroom eats WHALES. A very mighty snack for such small people. He also had a "playful" day. Lucky for him, playful is the #1 requirement on a Harvard application.

I'm posting 2 very cute pictures from this past summer when we had the "Janke Family Reunion" in Ohio. (Jason's side of the family).

I think they play croquet at Harvard.

Owen is Dawson's cousin. Apparently Owen was sharing a brief moment of sympathy for Dawson, who was stuck in a pack-n-play while Owen got to be "on the outside". That's true brotherhood.

On Sunday Dawson got another haircut. His hair was beginning to look a bit soccer player shaggy, so we felt it was time. I thought ahead of the game and brought along a snack for him to enjoy and to keep him busy during the cutting process. The only problem was, the fruit snacks I gave him got filled with the hair that was being cut and he kept getting hair on his tongue the more he tried eating them. So I had to take a baby wipe and clean off his tongue for him and then throw the contaminated fruit snacks away. I also wanted to have something special for him to get so that he could be absolutely proud of himself for being so good while he got his hair cut. I packed him a sucker. (He NEVER gets suckers.)

Once he was finished I told him I had a surprise for him and told him several times WOW! You did a GREAT JOB! And after an ample amount of praise and adoration, I gave him his sucker which he found extremely wonderful.

Then we headed home.

On his way home, he was completely quiet while he enjoyed his sucker. The moment his sucker was done, he said "Mommy, I got a haircut. I did a great job. I got a sucker". And I said "Yes, that's right Dawson!

This whole week, he has told everyone who would listen:

"I got a haircut. I did a great job. I got a sucker."

So apparently my form of reward has done its deed...

Here he is before:

And After:

 

Yes, you can see by the television that we were watching the Superbowl. I'm making no comment about the stupid Steeler's.

And I'm not even sure what to say about this picture of Dawson playing with the cardboard center to the paper towel roll... but it's stinking cute.