Happy Mother's Day!

We are working on getting Grady down to one nap a day, which means jam-packed mornings as we try to keep him occupied to avoid the cranky meltdown.  I think our work is paying off, as he's been much happier all around, and has settled pretty nicely into one 2-hour nap from around 11:30-1:30 typically.  Of course, now I've jinxed it.

On Thursday, Grady and I went to the Children's Museum.  We were supposed to meet a friend from one of our baby groups there, but her son was playing with her keys the night before and she couldn't find them!  They later turned up in her shoes.  Ah well. 

Grady and I still had a fabulous time.  Grady spent most of his time in the room meant for kids 3 and under.  There, he dominated the slide.

And here is the successful summit.

Later that day, Grady tried out his new skills on the big slide at the playground.

And back down again.

We had quite a lot planned for Mother's Day weekend.  Yesterday we went to a bird celebration at Sellwood park.  (Wow, that sounds very Portland-y when I write it down.)  We had fun making a name tag for Grady on a wood chip, and then making a Native American raven mask.  (Not sounding any less Portland-y, is it?)  As you can see, he was thrilled by the arts and crafts activities.

Afterwards, we went to the Sellwood library to listen to some Russian folk songs.  Grady was very well behaved for about 25 minutes, and then it was time to go.  

Today, Matt and Grady treated me to a wonderful Mother's Day.  Grady got up around 6, and Matt let me sleep in (even though he also let me sleep in yesterday!) until around 7, when it was time to race the Run Like a Mother 5K.  (The extra sleep was especially appreciated as I ate something that disagreed with me last night, and spent part of the early morning throwing up.  Not the best start to Mother's Day - or any day for that matter!)

The race went well.  The results haven't been posted yet, but I think I came in around 7th at around 23:25.  I felt like death, but was happy with the results.  Grady was very excited to see me cross the finish line according to Matt - he clapped and just lit up!  

After the race, I got a present of a very appreciated pedicure, we had chocolate croissants, I took a nap, we went for a walk, and had a very nice, quiet day.  

Some other fun things not caught on tape. 

On Friday, Grady was "petting" (a.k.a. "tormenting") Besa.  Besa had enough, and did a few warning swats, claws in, to get Grady to back off.  Grady laughed and waved back!  

Grady has started saying the word "cow" - not to me, luckily.  Today I was talking to Grandma Dotty on the phone on speaker, and I asked Grady to say cow for Grandma.  He looked at me, pulled out the book that had a picture of a cow in it, and started saying "coooowww, coooowwww."  Brilliant! 

The biggest news of the week is that Matt is now off for NYC for work.  We will both miss him so much and can't wait for him to get back!