Visit with Old Friends

This past Memorial Day weekend was a busy one, but a GREAT one! We were thrilled to have good friends of ours John, Diana, and their soon to be one year old son, Patrick, in town to visit. Diana and I taught together at Minglewood for 2 years and they now live in the Washington, D.C. area. It was a 4th grade teacher reunion weekend also having Nicole in town who is now in St. Louis. We had such a great time enjoying another fine time at Jazz on the Lawn (a picnic at our local winery with live music), a birthday celebration dinner in honor of Shannon, hanging out and playing games, and a nice Memorial Day brunch. Overall, we had a blast and it was so much fun to have Greyson and Patrick in the house - we definitely realized we have a lot of baby proofing in our future thanks to Patrick's walking around and being our little tester. So wonderful to have the "original teaching crew" back together - makes me realize how much I miss those girls and all the antics we would get into in and out of school.

Greyson is doing really well - getting pretty regular on his schedule and even shifted his bedtime up a bit to more like 8pm and it's nice to have some "Mom and Dad time" every evening. Kyle is preparing to head off to Ft. Lewis, Washington in early June for a month of ROTC camp training (I call it "playing war"), and I'm getting rather sad he'll be leaving us. I know Grey and I will be fine, and we're looking forward to a long visit at home in Chicago to visit with family, but it just won't be the same without Daddy. Granted I really shouldn't complain because so many people I know have their husbands deployed again and mine is only going to another state for a month - in perspective I think we can handle that. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend and as usual, enjoy the video clips and week 14 pictures!

With Love,
K, L, and G

A Week of Firsts

It's been a busy week of "firsts" in Greyson's life. We took him on his first trip to Purdue - our Alma Mater and the site where Kyle and I met and fell in love (ahhh!). We hold Purdue fondly in our hearts and thoroughly enjoyed the chance to head back, visit campus, and relive some wonderful memories. We headed up to Purdue to take Greyson to his first wedding - Kyle's college roommate Jeremy. He did great during the whole ceremony and was a hit with his cuteness and flirting ways at the reception. He even enjoyed his first dances - did a little slow dancing with Mom and Dad, participated in YMCA (check out the video below, sorry it's dark! - that one was for you Aunt Sue), and of course happily sang the Purdue fight song. Greyson also enjoyed his first hotel stay. We brought the Pack n' Play and he slept well and handled being away from home fabulously! The real exciting part of his first hotel stay was that he got to go swimming for the first time. Greyson is a BIG fan of bath time so we were excited to see how he would handle pool time. He got to wear his cool swim diaper and adorable Hawaiian print board shorts and off we went. He got a chance to hang out in the pool with both Mom and Dad and had a great time. Being a Pisces he truly is a water lover - just like his Daddy, and I think the pool will be one of his favorite places. Luckily I already got him a blow up baby pool for the backyard, so I think we'll get a lot of use out of that this summer. Overall, we had a great weekend and enjoyed Greyson's many "firsts". Hope you all are well and hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend - we're looking forward to a fun weekend with my teaching friends who moved away in town....can't wait! As usual, enjoy the video clip (again sorry it's dark) and don't forget to check out his week 13 pics.

Love,
Kyle, Lindsey, and Greyson

No Longer a Newborn

Today it's official, Greyson is 3 months old and therefore no longer in the "newborn" category. It's bittersweet....I'm thrilled to see him growing and learning so many new things all the time, but a little sad my baby boy is one day not going to be a baby anymore. He has to grow up sometime, and the truth is I'm just truly loving watching this amazing little person grow right before my eyes each day.

Some other exciting news is that I have taken a different teaching position for next school year. I was originally planning on going back next August and teaching 4th grade as I have for the past 3 years at my school, but a twist of fate stepped in. I found out there was an opening for a part-time technology teacher in my school. I interviewed for the position and got the call stating I was offered the job later that day. Therefore I will be going back to work in August as planned, but will be teaching technology (basically I'm the computer lab teacher) to all the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes once a week in the afternoon and I'll be working from 11:30-3:30. The REALLY great part of me working part-time is that I will be able to be with Greyson in the morning and Kyle is able to be with him in the afternoon with his grad school schedule, so Greyson will not need to be in daycare (something I wasn't too keen on to begin with). We're both thrilled and it just seemed like fate that this great job opportunity that will still allow me to use my teaching skills and feel the satisfaction in working (not to mention having adult interaction), but also allow me to feel I'm getting to be the kind of Mom I want to be all at the same time. What a blessing!

Speaking of blessings, both Greyson and I had our baptism this past Sunday. Everything went wonderfully and we had a great celebration at our home with many great friends and loving family there to celebrate. Thanks to all who were able to make it, and especially to our great families who came in town for the weekend. We had a GREAT time having you here and look forward to seeing you all again soon!!!

Enjoy the video down below - it's of a little goofy game called "Tank Commander" that Greyson and Kyle like to play together. Leave it to an Army man to take his child on an imaginary tank ride, but boy does Greyson seem to love it....I better watch out or he just might follow in his Daddy's solider footsteps.

Love,
K, L, and G

P.S. Check out his week 12 pics as well as 2 other links from other photos taken by family from this past weekend festivities.

Moving On Up

Well, it's official Greyson is sleeping in his crib in his nursery. Kyle and I decided now that he's consistently sleeping through the night that Greyson was ready to move into his crib, or as we call it his "big boy bed". He's done very well with the change and is sleeping wonderfully. Granted the bassinet is still setup and ready for it if he needs it in our room. We're enjoying having our bedroom back to ourselves, but miss seeing his sweet face right there - thankful he's just a click away on our video monitor, and trust me, we use it to check on him quite often.

This weekend is going to be a busy and exciting one. My mom (Joanne), step dad (Mike), sister (Lisa), Grandma Bell, and Kyle's parents will all be coming in town in honor of Mother's Day and the baptism of both Greyson and myself on Sunday. As many of you know, I was raised with a mixture of Christianity and Judiasm, and therefore wasn't baptized as a child. I'm excited to share in this experience and moment with my son, and know we'll look back on it as a special moment in both of our lives. Don't you fret my Jewish relatives - Greyson will be still be learning about his Jewish roots and I'm sure he'll enjoy the excellent matzah ball soup his Dad makes for me quite often. Should be a great time to spend time with the family and celebrate faith.

Hope you enjoy the video below - Greyson is really getting the hang of actually using his hands for things and shows that off with his trick in the video....check it out. Also posted his week 11 pictures were he is as cute as ever!

Love to you all,
Kyle, Lindsey, and Grey