Healthy Sleep Habits...

Yes, he was sick. But, the middle of the floor? Such a reverent boy.
A new meerkat cave

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The Fourth of July

It seems that I start the majority of my posts by stating how busy we've been and yet, I never seem to know exactly what we've been busy doing.

We did have a great 4th of July. We started out the day with a HIKE at Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield. Matts was, of course, thrilled to be "training" at an actual military site especially since the trail was littered with canons and sniper holes. It was a little awkward trying to explain the "bad" and the "good" guys of the Civil war (actually, the "war of northern aggression"). I love living in the South :). We were all exhausted after the hike (it was quite a hike) so we just relaxed the rest of the day and watched fireworks from our neighbor's deck.

The old and the new

Gray has found a new best friend

To all of you who knew Mattson at this age; does this look familiar?

Let the training begin

Mattson has received his first deployment:

Greetings from NAS Jax - hope you are enjoying your summer! The Commanding Officer of NAS Jax would like to personally invite Mattson to attend his upcoming airshow. If you could email me your mailing address, CAPT Scorby will send Mattson a VIP Invitation when he mails them out at the end of July. Invitation will include 4 passes to the CO's chalet - please have him include the name of his guests, my guess is that it will be Mom, Dad, and younger brother. Thanks!
Commander Mark C. Scott - Naval Air Station Jacksonville

How cool is that?

BU-BYE

By way of background; at his 18mth check-up we were referred to a specialist because Grayson had exactly 0 words. More specifically he only had 1 sound; "Uhh". It is a very expressive sound and can be varied to fit the situation. Where do you want to go? "Uhh" Would you like some yogurt? "Uhhh".

Theories ranged from ear infections to not needing to (we already have running commentary courtesy of Matts) to developing a new language (gruntese). Needless to say, we have been working on this with Gray. Now he points to everything and wants you to name it. It goes like this; "Banana; uhh. oatmeal; uhh. water; uhh". You get the idea. This week he finally started mimicking a few sounds although Mattson astutely noted "Gray only likes "buh" words".

But, as of today we have a word. That's right; a full-on, understandable, independently generated word. Today was Reed was leaving for work Gray raised his little hand (he does the high school, I'm too cool to really wave, wave) and said Bu-Bye!!!!!

"Bu-Bye"

The little Hun (see below)

In semi-related news; Matts has started training for the Imperial Navy. This entails diving practice (without his lifejacket but with goggles, of course), running around our house doing acrobatics and launching "firepower" at every surface. Gray alternates between being a trainee and "the little hun". Finally, all training MUST be accompanied by the "We are man" song from Disney's Mulan.

The hills are alive...

This past weekend Reed and I had the great treat of going to a costume party. The theme was "Sound of Music" and the idea of a costuming Reed and myself was truly daunting. But, never fear, my many talents came into play. And by talents I mean "outsourcing". Basically, I know people who know how to do things. This week it happened to be Ariel's mom. With her costuming skills (seriously, she does costuming for a local theatre in Denver) and my love of sequins we were set. Add to our skills the theme of "Sound of Music" and we were set.

For those of you who don't know, not only did my family watch "The Sound of Music" so many times that I can still recite the entire movie today(No, I'm not exaggerating; ask Reed about our recent movie night). But, as part our ambassadorial duties in Sweden my siblings and I were the VonTrapp family singers. I'm completely serious, we even did the actions to "So long, farewell". I guess in retrospect dressing up isn't all that bad :)

There is so much more I could say, but let me sum it up with this:

Suede pants (women's size 10): $10.00

Trim for the leiderhosen: $10.00

Tassels for the knee socks: $1.00

Reed's face on seeing his costume: priceless

The lonely goatherd and his lovely lady

It was a wonderful night full of food, friends and of course, the sound of music.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.

***A HUGE thank you to Ariel's mom who did an AMAZING job of turning Reed and I into the marionettes, complete with strings.***