Party #3

Gymnastics-themed birthday party for Grafton, in photographs.

III

Yup, Grafton turned three. If you ask him now, he'll still say he's two, but we're working on that with him. In order to remember what the little guy looked like after three years of life, Dad took a few photos of him on his big day. To save you from having to click on that link, here are a few of those photos now:

On the morning of Grafton's birthday, Dad had put on his fleece pants and sweatshirt after getting out of bed. Grafton sees Dad's attire and says, "We don't wear comfies on birthdays!"

The Deal with Bananas

I made a deal with Grafton this morning. I told him that if he tried one bite of a banana, I wouldn't put any banana slices in his cereal. You see, he always refuses banana slices in his cereal, and so I never dare lace his cereal with this most offensive produce. But I offer this to him at least once a week anyway, in hopes he will have a change of heart. It has been this way for maybe a year. He simply wouldn't eat bananas--in any form (unless I secretly minced them up and threw them in our waffle batter). But he hates the idea of banana slices in his cereal so much that he agreed to the deal. He would eat one bite. After taking this one bite, he said "hmmm...this is pretty good!".  I couldn't believe it. Mom couldn't believe it. He proceeded to gobble up the half banana I had given him. And then he even agreed to having banana slices in his cereal. And he eat them all up. Bananas are back!

Accident-Free Sunday

No diapers today, just underwear. And no accidents!

Also, another bike ride around the neighborhood. And no accidents!

And we flew a balsa-wood, wind-up propeller model plane in the pumpkin patch behind our house. Oh wait, actually there were a few accidents there...

Street Pedaler

Grafton had not been showing any interest in riding his bicycle this summer, and the bike we bought him has been gathering dust. The last time we were at Nana and PopPop's house, they gave us another toddler bike to bring home that was sitting around in their garage. So this morning, which was bright and sunny, we reminded Grafton about the new bike with the hope that he would want to get outside and enjoy the day. To our surprise, he was uncharacteristically excited about taking it out for a ride. So Dad slapped on the training wheels, filled up the tires, and told Grafton to take it for spin. And Grafton was pulling it out of the garage as soon as Dad opened the garage door. Mom took her bike out too, to help encourage Grafton. Dad decided to walk along with Grafton to help out, as necessary. Well, Grafton did great! He got going with no trouble, and except for careening out-of-control toward the curb on a few of the downhills, he rode flawlessly through the streets of our neighborhood. And he was motivated too! He rode the entire 0.9 mile loop without looking back. And when we got back to our home, he wanted to keep going. And we did. 1.3 miles in all.

Halloween at Home

We didn't think we'd be able to have Halloween at home this year, since we lost power early Sunday morning (due to the record-breaking October snow storm). But power came back on Monday morning, and we were able to carry through with our trick-or-treating plans. Grafton had a great time dressing up as Frank Sinatra, and gave us a number of fine vocal performances throughout the evening. He was less interested in the candy-related aspects of Halloween, and wasn't thrilled with the idea of picking up treats at our neighbors' homes. But once he got the hang of giving out candy, he ran to the door every time trick-or-treaters stopped by. Plenty of photos here.

S is for Summit!

We took Grafton out for a hike on the Skinner State Park trails, with the hope of reaching the Summit House on Mt. Holyoke. This was a low probability outcome, considering our past hiking experiences with him. He's being doing much better on hikes lately, but the last time we were out on these trails we only made it about a third of the way up. So dad brought the backpack along, just in case Grafton did not cooperate. But our little guy pushed all the way to the top, without complaint! We held his hands most of the way up, but he did all the "heavy lifting", stepping up the trail over big rocks and roots. He was propelled in part, by the reward of seeing the Summit House, which we told him all about as we headed up the trail: how it had been used as a hotel and resort many decades ago, and more recently, how it was a museum, and finally how it will reopen next year after being closed for the past few seasons. We were both very proud of our little guy and we could tell he was quite proud of himself as well! As it was getting rather blustery and cold at the top, we decided (with his complete approval) to head down with him in the pack. We treated ourselves to a nice lunch at Barstows, which included hot chocolate and an assortment of mini-cupcakes. And while we were eating it started snowing--big heavy flakes. We could tell the storm was coming, having seen a hundred or more birds sitting up high in a tree nearby, tweeting about the impending weather change. We drove home in thick snow (though, not yet sticking), and predictably, with his tired legs and a full belly, Grafton feel into a deep sleep. He didn't wake up at all, as we brought in him inside the house.

Two-thirds of the way to the summit--and "Little Guy" (see hat) was still going strong.