A year passes....

Back again after a year of not saying anything about our boy. When Greer reads this, he'll probably wonder what was up. The usual, I'll say.

Early in the morning on the eve of Memorial Day weekend - after having fallen asleep early after bathing Greer. He crawled into our bed at midnight....just as I was waking from my 'nap'. No luck sleeping after that, as the boy likes to kick and squirm.

The last year has been a busy one for our boy. In the span of things, he has learned how to poop in the potty, has caught his first fish, held court with dinosaurs and learned how to better manipulate his parents. It's the natural course of things.

Today, he spent the day at the YMCA while Mom and Dad worked the fields. Back at home, he continued his impassioned inquires into the coming weekend - and when he would see his Papa and Baba. "When I go see Papa and Baba?", he says. Tomorrow. We'll go see them in Hood River with the camper.

Memorial Day weekend is here.

Turtle Man to the Rescue!

Typical weekend afternoon at the house.

Alex upstairs taking a nap - while I entertain the Greermonster in the basement. On this Saturday, The Incredibles DVD was blasting the background for the umpteenth time....and Greer erupted from his viewing position and ran into his playroom - slamming the door behind him. Now usually, the door closing signals that he's preparing to poop, but there was more activity this time - and a great deal of animated conversation along with the occasional shriek. I continued to peck away at my computer, wondering if a diaper change was in my future - and whether it was mommy's turn or not.

Suddenly, the boy flung open the door and bounded out – stark naked – with the exception of some costume nylon cowboy chaps fluttering behind him. Coming to a stop in front of me, he announced that he was “Turtle Man” – and ran off up the stairs to present himself to Mom.

Suffice it to say, I followed up with a camera – and the event has been documented for posterity and the requisite amount of adolescent embarrassment.

Ants...

So we're going to try this again....Greer's blog has been offline for over a year now, with most of his stories finding there way into my blog...which has also been in various states of hybernation.

Mr. Greer has grown like a weed (of course) and continues to suprise us with new things every day. As his personality starts to take shape, we see aspects of ourselves...

As the weather starts to warm up - the presence of ants (and the occasional fly) have driven Greer into a series of minor panics. Alex has the same feeling about the little beasties - and it seems to have grafted itself onto Greer. I have problems understanding this unless there is a cascading colony pouring out of the wall, but then again, I don't have a issue with bugs, either....except for deadly house spiders.

Of course, it could just be the notion of having something alien crawling inbetween you and your Hot Wheels, but the fear aspect - followed by much pointing at thin air - makes me wonder what he's seeing sometimes.

Occasionally, an actual live ant is the root of all the hubub....and depending on the urgency of the circumstance (and whether it's in conjuction with a diaper change), will determine the fate of Mr. Ant. Lately, I've been pretty coldhearted - and have taken to eliminating the threat in Greer's presence - to which he usually exclaims, "It got away!"

Yes...to ant heaven, son.

Halloween - Thanksgiving and more...

Something about the end of the year....crazy.

Greer has been growing by leaps and bounds during the past two months. Since his accident, his collarbone has healed up nicely, and we're back to chasing him around.

Halloween was fairly low-key this year. Greer sported a mommy-crafted black spider costume that he wore to his friend Duncan's 3rd birthday party at the Oaks Park. Although his extra arms were a little much for him to wander around in, he made a fine showing....eating ice cream and attempting to wander out onto the roller rink. On Halloween proper...we decided to hang up the extra arms - and sent him to daycare dressed as a cat burglar. Keeping it simple was much easier...

Greer and I had some good one on one time early in November...Mom headed back to Maryland to visit Aunt Cameron and Uncle Seth - and so the two of us had a "guys only" week together. Somehow, we survived - although we did call Mom almost every night to check in.

On Thanksgiving, he spent some good time in Portland at Uncle Dave and Aunt Dianne's house. Marcia, Travis & Kira - Papa and Baba (Greg's folks) - Great-GrandPapa and Great GrandNana were also there to help with the turkey and all the holiday fixin's. After that celebration, we all traveled up to The Dalles to spend the weekend with the grandparents. Greer even got to see the Starlight parade through downtown - and spent some quality time with the family.

Broken bird

The things you learn in 24 hours...

Turns out we were a little too optimistic about Greer's changing table accident. After Alex dropped him off, we receieved an afternoon call from daycare that Greer was moving slowly with some pain - not wholly suprising - but enough to send us to the emergency room to check things out.

A couple hours later we confirmed he had a broken collarbone on his left side.

The Doc said that there isn't much that can be done as far as stabilization is concerned....his toddler status precludes him from slings, so we just have to keep him away from certain activities - and take care in how we handle him.

He isn't exhibiting much in the way of pain or bruising, but it's still unnerving to know that he is broken...and we couldn't tell.

The big fall...

Nothing like a little drama for your morning...

While getting ready for daycare this morning, Greer managed to pitch himself off his changing table and onto the carpet - a good three foot drop - to much howling and bewhilderment. He's come close to the big fall a few times, but this was the first time we didn't catch him. Suffice it to say, he was not amused.

After a close examination and about a half-hour of dual parent consoling, he appeared to be ok to go to daycare. He's bound to be tender and a little bruised this evening, but nothing was broken thankfully. He'll be a gimpy bird for a while thought.

I just hope he'll let us use that table in the future....or else we may have to resort to something a little closer to the ground.

Springwater bike adventure..

My wonderful dad managed to score a used Burley bike trailer for Greer last month...and it's been sitting in our garage for the past couple of weeks, the victim of business and the usual nonsense.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon, we managed to hook the thing up to my Cannondale - and the three of us had an inagural bike ride together. For Alexis, it had been over 15 years since she'd ridden, so I was watching Greer in the back and Alex in the front....hoping that no one cracked up as we attempted part of the Springwater Corridor, near our house.

Aside from the usual scary tweekers lurking in the bushes along the trail (formerly a set of railroad tracks), the ride was an exhasutive success. I think Greer was more entranced with our bikes than his trailer....a point that was magnified whenever we stopped to let him out. He immediately would walk up to the bikes and tried to get on board with some assistance from Dad. His enthusiasm waned a little over half-way through the journey - after he bonked himself on a chain-link fence - and started to lose patience with the amount of time it was taking to get home.

Although he was definately done for the day, I think the trailer will be a hit for future outings. Just got to get back in the saddle....