Handwriting, Horses & Harmonicas

Grady can now write all of his letters from the alphabet and spell his name. As you can see, the letters are very long for "Y" and "T". He can also spell a few words like Ball, Grady and tells us the time every morning when he wakes up.

This week was filled with activities. Grady attended a birthday party for his friend Ellie. She loves horses, so he dressed up like a cowboy for her. Cowboy hat, horse necklace from mom and rubber "cowboy" boots. Yee-Haw!

We spent a day in Petaluma with my mom (Gigi) and rode Champion, the mechanical horse on Kentucky Street. This is a ritual for us when spending time in Petaluma.

This is a rather disturbing photo of Grady and his Grandma posing as Madonna and a boy-toy? We also went bowling and had a great time! Grady wants to win a trophy (aka Piston Cup) for his skill at rolling a bowling ball. The boy dreams big...



Grady is studying the artist Joseph Cornell at his preschool. He was a self-taught artist who relied mostly exclusively on found materials. He has an exhibit at SF Museum of Modern Art and we're going to take Grady there next month. Above is a picture of Grady's found objects that he converted into a window box to display his "treasures". He goes on walks with his Gigi and collects items that strike his fancy (bottle caps, feathers, broken wire, etc.) and saves them to create his art. This artist is right up his alley!

Steve gave Grady one of his Christmas presents early this year. A real harmonica. Grady had received a bunch of plastic toys from China and we had to throw them all away. He was so sad that Steve felt the need to give him a small token to help him forget about all of the other things in the trash. With Grady's love of music and his good rhythm, off we went to the Valley Ford Hotel to listen to a real, live singer/harmonica player. He invited Grady to play on one of the songs and so a very dark video clip is attached below with Grady helping out with the song "Me and Bobby McGee".

Bees, Books & Bad Behavior

Last week started off with a sick little boy and a report about his bad behavior at preschool. Apparently, still not listening to his teacher (who is a Goddess in my eyes) and spitting on other kids. Real cute. We're working on consequences with Grady and taking away any of his beloved stuffed animal dogs or horses seems to do the trick...temporarily. The terrible-twos seem to have set in late, as he's been an angel from two until present. I know this is normal, but it's hard to get used to. Let the games begin.

We went to take him to see the "Bee Movie" later in the week and it was really good. He was recently stung by a yellow jacket and really afraid of "bees". He didn't know the difference and how important bees are to the world. When he left the movie he asked Steve if he would stop killing flies. Steve did not acquiesce, but I promised Grady the killing spree at our home on flies would stop with me. When you live in the country where cows and llamas surround your house, flies can be a bit of a challenge. Wish me luck. The photo to the left is of Grady posing by dead fly...

The highlight of last week was taking Grady to get his first library card. He was so proud and only wanted to check out books that had "animals with fur" on the front covers. He is such a dog fanatic and made our book browsing really easy. Stepping into the Sebastopol Library was like stepping back in time. It reminded me so much of the library I went to as a kid. I loved going to the library and escaping for a few hours on the weekend. Since Grady loves books so much, I thought this would be a great way to take him to town to get something, without buying him some thing.

Auctions, Accordians & Acoustic Guitars

We attended the Bodega Land Trust Auction recently and bid on all sorts of savory items. This is a small town fundraising event that takes place at the Bodega Fire Hall in the next town over and where Grady attends preschool. Last year was my first year attending and there was great food, wine and bidding wars all over the place with my good friends, Jill Davidson & Linda Mahley. This year the food was not as good, I didn't drink any wine and the worthy items were scarce to bid on. I couldn't even outbid Jill on anything and that just took the fun out of it. All monies still went towards a worthy cause, but I just wasn't up for it this year. Grady hung out front with a few local characters who taught him how to play hopscotch, so all was not lost.

We went to our weekly Sunday music night at the Valley Ford Hotel (VFH) and listened to Amber Lee & the Anomalies who played a sparkly red accordian and sang soft, beautiful music. She invited Grady to play the slide whistle and a little percussion. His musical timing and rhythm is really good and I'd like to get him involved in some kind of lessons in the near future for piano, violin or guitar.

Halloween with Friends

We went to Southern California for our annual Halloween trip to the Christiansen household. It was also Kacy's birthday and we had a slumber party and stayed up until all hours of the morning. Somehow I don't recover as quickly as I did in my teens and 20's after a slumber party...hmmmm. We had a great trip, but traveling with a toddler is always challenging. By the time you check in, get through security and to the gate - you're exhausted. Grady has been quite the trooper this last month, as we've had a lot going on and he's been hanging in there. However, we have been getting reports from his school the last few weeks of attitude issues and we're working on those with a series of consequences. Wish us luck.



Grady was Scooby Dooby Doo, Jack was Young Darth Vader (I don't know the proper name) and Harry was Yoda (this was the greatest costume on him). The boys went to a neighborhood Halloween party and played games, broke a pinata and ate very creative Halloween food like hot dog mummies, peanut butter and jelly headstone sandwiches, spider deviled eggs, blood punch, etc. By the time we went trick-or-treating the kids were ready to go. The first year we went Grady didn't quite know what to do. He knocked on the first door and when they opened it up, he just walked right on in. The second year he knew what was about to happen and went from door-to-door asking "Trick or Treat" and admiring all his loot in his pumpkin basket. This year was a whole new game for him, as he ran from house-to-house yelling trick-or-treat and then running down the street and advising the pack lagging behind that "there's no light on, we're going to keep going to the next house!". The most memorable moment for me was when he went up to one door and she was handing out full-size Snickers bars. Grady turned around and said "I got a Whooooo-Hooooooo Bar Mom!" and bounced down the driveway. She asked me if he said he had to go poo? I'm not sure how it was lost in translation, but it was really funny.

Next year Grady will be in kindergarten and we'll most likely be home. I haven't had a trick-or-treater in the last six years out here on the coast. We are isolated and there are not many children, so that's why we've always gone to Kacy's house to share the day with her boys. We will miss it, but know that every year holds something new and fun for him. Depending on where we send him to school, I'm sure we will find a new Halloween tradition. Halloween is actually my favorite holiday with him - just dressing up, pretending and getting candy that he doesn't really want to eat has been great (he opted for dessert this year instead of any candy).

Tips & Ted Nugent

Well, it all started off innocently enough. We went to the Sunday night music at the Valley Ford Hotel and it was our favorite band Dgiin (pronounced "Gin"). French, funk, gypsy, folk. This band is so sweet to Grady and they let him play in between their sets. He brought his guitar and played "Cat Scratch Fever" by Ted Nugent, as well as "Beans, Beans the Musical Fruit". The band manager passed around a bucket and he made $12 in tips. His smile was infectious and was so proud.

Of note, was the fact that the band manager also pulled me aside and started tearing up and telling me what a presence Grady has and that she is in "awe of him". This made me a little uncomfortable, but she didn't stop there. She told me that he was a great inter-galactic leader and that he was going to do great things. Consequently, we kept her away from him after that! Oh, Sonoma County. Gotta love it.