When the Mouse is Away......

Eric left for Chicago for the week. He is in -2 degree weather. Snow. Brrrrrr. 

I'm here with these two cuties, single momming it. I got the better deal! 

Grady loves Jessie. He cuddled her tight while we watched a little Toy Story 2 on Sunday. I'll go into Grady's improved health in another post, but this little dude used to sit through entire movies without moving. Now, he rarely watches more than 5 minutes at a time. He loves the songs and music in Disney movies and cuddled Jessie tight when the sad song played 😃 

They attacked me with kisses and hugs this morning! The. Best!! 

A few weeks ago, Whitney asked to sleep in our bed. I told her she could sleep in our bed when Eric goes to Chicago. The weeks passed and we told her Daddy was getting his suitcase out to go to Chicago. She shouted, "Yeah! I get to sleep in Mommy's bed!!!!" So I delivered. We watched Frozen on the laptop, ate snacks, and cuddled. This morning she told me, "Mommy, did you know that I hugged you when you were sleeping last night, and you didn't even move."  Love. 

Whitney had the day off today so she joined me and Grady at our chiropractor appointments. 😃 

And when Grady napped, Whitney and I got to work on her 100th Day of School project! 

Silly one first! 

We made her a necklace with 100 fruit loops! 

I got some post-nap cuddles before we headed to Mac and Gramps' house for some pizza! 

I paid the registration few for this Dide to start preschool in August. But he might be starting even sooner since his speech therapy isn't covered until we meet our insurance deductible. Preschool might help his speech 😃 

And I was reminded just how much this Dude looooves bulldozers. He's always pointing out the "Doh!" in books 😃 and apparently hoarding them in his crib!

And he was completely fascinated with me as I blew bubbles with my gum tonight lol

I loooove watching these two at chapel together! 

Grady's personality continues to grow every day, and the things that used to make us scratch our heads are quickly disappearing. He used to despise PlayDoh. Yuck. Wouldn't even touch it. Wiped his hands on his shirt and never wanted to touch it again when we tried PlayDoh a few months ago. But one day last week he grabbed the PlayDoh from the pantry and said "pea? Pea?" for please. I figured I'd get one little tub of the stuff on his high chair tray and hed lose his mind again. Nope. 

Dude loved it! He mushed it in his hands and stacked the containers. He smushed it in between his fingers and laughed hysterically. He had zero sensory issues with the PlayDoh that made him recoil in disgust just a few months ago!

What? All kids don't hug PlayDoh?!

And when Whitney got home from school we tried to play outside for a bit, but the wind made that 55 degree day even colder. Brrrr! 

It was a really chilly week here, so we dressed accordingly:

But I think Eric had it rough in -2 degree weather!

Whitney was really missing her Daddy midweek, so we facetimed with him!

She was cheered up when he went outside his hotel to make her a snowball!

On Thursday, my parents watched Hrady so I could get my hair done. I went in like this:

And came out feeling much better:

I stopped by to pick Grady up at my parents' house, and as I was getting ready to head out the door to get Whitney from school, Grady fell and chipped his front tooth:

So my dad ran to get W while G and I headed to the pediatric dentist with the chip of tooth in a cup of milk. Sigh. 

It was nap time but he was a champ! It could have been soooooo much worse! XRays showed he didn't damage the root and that the tooth would no longer wiggle once the swelling went down. They couldn't do anything to fix the tooth without knocking him out, and Grady had a transient tick after the twilight anesthesia in October (stitches in his chin), so I didn't want to risk anesthesia related issues for a cosmetic issue. Plus, Eric was still out of town and I wasn't gonna take our baby to the hospital for a tooth without some teamwork. 

So our "All Boy" is now a snaggle tooth until that bsby tooth falls out (hopefully five or six more years!)

But he's still as cute as can be, and you'd never know he had facial trauma again. 

Eric finally got home Friday afternoon, and we were all excited!

We had some of our favorites over for wine and cookies and couch time Friday night, and Whitney's BFF Natalia spent the night last night!

Cutest. Sleepover. Ever. 

They sang the entire Frozen soundtrack all night and played "Anna and Elsa" til that crashed!

It was do fun tousten to them play SO nicely together!

And this morning we all headed to church and to return Natalia to her rightful owners 😃

After church and lunch and listening to Whitney read is books (!! Sooo cool!!)a certain happy lite girl counted her allowance money and after weeks of hard work cleaning the table, picking up the playroom, and taking out the recyclables, Whitney is now at Toys R Us buying a new My Little Pony to love forever. 

She's getting the habit of saving (10%), donating to the church offering each week (10%), and earning her own spending money. She gets check marks for chores on a chart on the fridge, and she can earn bonuses for great behavior, or lose money for poor choices. It's worked out really well so far! 

So as we start another busy week full of kindergarten Open House (whaaaaat?!?) and preschool hunting for G (again, whaaaaat??!?) to start this week, I am hopeful that I will finally wrap up the blog posts about Christmas, and write a special detailed post about Gluten-Free Grady! I make no promises but I really want Christmas wrapped up before Valentines Day arrives!