JustJessie

And Then We Bought a Rope

If you read the post before this, you know that this morning, my usually creative boys could think of absolutely nothing to do.  That is, until we bought a rope.  You see, Grayson has been obsessed with swinging from ropes (a'la Indiana Jones, Tarzan, pirate captains).  He's been following me around the house with a rope and a piece of packing tape insisting that the tape would hold if I would just let him attach it to the ceiling, and then he could swing all over the house.  I have found him more than once standing tip-toed on the back of the couch trying to reach high enough to attach it himself. 

I decided rather than end up with a seriously injured young'un, I would let him swing from something of MY choosing and supervise him doing it.  We stopped at the hardware store for some rope on the way to my parents' backyard (they have better trees).  Luckily my dad was there to tie a good knot in the part of the rope we attached to the tree, and the rest of the day was spent playing as hard as can be!

   

The whole thing was topped off by fresh picked blackberries from Mom's garden.

Yes, I promise there are berries in there somewhere.  They were too sour even for Grant, who will eat anything if it's fresh from the garden, so Dad went to get a "little bit of sugar" to sweeten them up.  I would hate to see his idea of a LOT of sugar!

 

He's too cute not to post it.

G-day

For the second year in a row Grayson, his Daddy, and his Poppy are on their way to the G-day game.  That's three generations of Keith men between the hedges together again.  The picture above is from last year's game.  It blows my mind how much Grayson has grown since then.  One thing is the same, though.  His favorite part about the trip is staying in a hotel room.  He called this afternoon, and our conversation went a little something like this:

Me: Hey Buddy!  Whatcha doin?

Grayson:  HEY MOM!  WE DROVE ALL THE WAY HERE THEN WE GOT TO THE HOTEL ROOM THEN I WENT PEE THEN WE PUT ON OUR SWIMSUITS AND WENT IN THE INDOOR POOL AND THEN WE CAME BACK AND I WAS JUMPING FROM BED TO BED TO BED TO BED TO BED TO BED TO FLOOR BECAUSE WE HAVE TWO BEDS AND A FLOOR BETWEEN THEM AND I WOULD  JUMP FROM ONE BED TO THE OTHER UNTIL I GOT TIRED OF IT AND THEN I JUMPED ON THE FLOOR AND DADDY DOESN'T CARE AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT POPPY THINKS ABOUT IT BECAUSE HE'S NOT IN HERE SO IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER WHAT HE THINKS BUT NOW WE HAVE TO GO EAT SUPPER MOMMA I LOVE YOU BYE!

Me: K.  Love you too. 

Gosh, I hope he's having a good time.

Seep-Ober

In all the hub-bub of Grayson starting school, I never told you guys about a big "first" in Grant's life.  Last Friday, he had his first sleepover away from home. 

To understand why this is such a big deal, you'd have to know a few things about Grant.  He is the kind of kid who loves his own bed.  He never naps on the couch, or in our bed, or anything like that.  Only his bed will do.  For this reason, and also because he is very much a momma's boy, no one has ever invited him to spend the night before. 

So Friday afternoon, I loaded up the boys and their suitcases, along with Grant's "Bears" (his blanket), his big dog shaped pillow, and his lullaby cd, and took them all to GaGa and Dado's.  Grant felt so big walking up to the door with a suitcase as big as he is, and telling everyone who would listen that he was going on a "seep-ober."

Off to school

There's my boy, all packed up and ready for his first day of school.  I'm feeling too many things to write right now.  I've been trying for the last fifteen minutes, but what I need to say just won't translate here.

Suffice it to say, I'm a proud, sad, excited, nervous momma.  Everything in me wants to go back to the school and tell them they can't have my baby.  He belongs at home with me.  But, as much as I wish it, that's just not what he needs.  He's out there, testing his wings for the first time, and I have to let him.  But I don't have to be entirely happy about it.

A walk in the woods

Before the football game on Saturday, Jeff and I decided to take the family on a walk in the woods.  We had so much fun!  The boys and I were pretending all sorts of things.  You name it, we saw it, from imaginary bears to N.A. Warriors darting from tree to tree.  Grayson fashioned himself a spear from a twig he found to protect us in case we were attacked.

I was pretty impressed with Copper, too.  He already does well on a leash, yet he had a hard time keeping up with us.  He wanted to sniff every leaf and twig, and taste every nut or piece of bark.

I hope this becomes a regular thing for us on weekends.  Alabama is full of forests, caverns, and parks.  It would take us ages to visit them all, and what fun we could have. 

Next time, though, we'll all be wearing hats and the dog will be dosed with Frontline.  He seems to have come home with a couple of six-legged friends clamped down behind his ears. :(

What a weekend!

This weekend was the kind that boyhood dreams are made of.  Dreams of firing guns, shooting arrows, campfire songs, and hayrides; Grayson got to live them all.  To quote him on Saturday, just before he fell asleep, "This day was fun non-stop all day long." 

My whole family (ten total) was invited to spend the weekend at Lightnin's house and attend his family's annual hayride and bonfire.  Miss Judi put us all up for the weekend and fed us so well she's lucky we didn't decide to move in permanently.  It's a brave soul that invites ten people into her home to begin with, but considering that nine of those are married to or came from a Compton, I think she deserves some kind of a medal!

I couldn't have had a better weekend.  I love to watch my boys experience new things.  I love spending time with my family.  I love getting to know these people who have known and loved my dad since he was a kid.  I love that I got to spend time with my brother's new girlfriend, and she is just as great as he made her out to be.  I love road trips when the kids are asleep, and Jeff and I get to talk quietly with no interruptions.  I'm a happy Momma right now, as long as I don't think of all that laundry waiting in our suitcase...

The Dig

Deep in the deserts of North Alabama, archaeologists Grayson and Grant Keith are set to begin their first dig.  They have spent time in careful preparation of the dig site, and are beginning to turn the earth in pursuit of ancient artifacts and fossils.

After minutes in the unforgiving desert heat, it seems that archaeologist Grayson may have found something interesting.  Oh my... Could it be? Yes, he's done it!  He has unearthed the first ever complete prehistoric turtle fossil!  What a find... What an archaeologist!  When asked for comment, Mr. Keith had only this to say,"I just can't help it.  I'm that good!"

A Long Time Coming

Grayson has overcome a lot of fears with the swimming pool this summer.  We've lived in this house for three years, and until a couple of weeks ago Grayson never jumped in.  He took swim lessons last year and got where he could swim like a little fish, but he was just always too afraid to jump in.

One day a couple of weeks ago, I told him we were going to have diving lessons.  We started out sitting on the edge and leaning in until we "dove" into the water. When he got used to that, we did it squatting, then standing.  Then we started the whole process over on the diving board.  He was sooo scared, but he overcame it, and now he loves to jump in!  It makes my heart skip every time he does it, because I realize how hard it was to learn.  I'm proud of my big boy!

River rats

We had ourselves a little adventure today with our buds.  My best friend found this little public mudhole beach where she wanted to take her dog, and we decided it would be fun to take the whole crew.  She and I grew up in the river, but the boys have never been in it as far as I know, so they were soo excited to go.  It was great.  They loved being in the water and playing in the sand.  We even brought our pirate gear, thinking they could hunt for some buried treasure (that lasted all of five minutes, but the doo-rags stayed).

It's nice to have a bestie with a good sense of direction who can take us along on her adventures.  If I tried to go by myself, I would very likely end up at the real beach.  five hours away.  Oh yeah, I'm that bad.  I once got lost in Memphis for two hours on a major highway ( I still say that one was the map's fault.  Who knew you couldn't rely on the map on the back of a zoo brochure for accuracy?)  Grayson was only six months old and cried for most of the two hours, while I frantically checked and rechecked my zoo brochure for directions to my hotel.  Ugh.  Umm... What was I talking about?  Oh yeah!  The river.

We were all ready to crash when we got home.  I hope we can do it again sometime soon, maybe even find a different spot to check out.  We are within miles of a river, a national forest, and a wildlife refuge, and somehow we almost never take advantage of it.  I know why I don't do it by myself (remember Memphis, anyone?), but I don't know why we don't go more with our friends.  I guess now's a good time to start, huh?