Grayson's First Golf Game

A couple of weekends ago Tony and Grayson went on their first father-son golf outing to our local public golf course.

Grayson brought his own golf clubs. He has his own golf bag and two clubs, a 9-iron and a putter, that are just his size.

Tony says he did really well and had a great time.

The hardest part was walking from hole to hole.

But Grayson was a trooper and made it 7 holes!

And he can't wait to go again - so this weekend they're off to find a driver that is the right size for him.

Max is 9 Months Old!

Today my little baby is 9 Months Old!

He is sitting up on his own really well now, and melting everyone's hearts with his big blue eyes.

He has just started "pulling up," and now all he wants to do is stand.

He loves taking baths with big brother Grayson. He also loves all of Grayson's toys. This morning they were crawling around on their tummies together chasing a Spiderman four-wheeler all over the kitchen.

He recently graduated from the Gerber "puffs" to Cheerios. His fine motor skills are amazing. He can pick up a single cheerio and put it in his mouth in about 2 seconds flat.

His two bottom teeth broke through a few weeks ago (look really closely above).

And now his top two teeth are just starting to pop through (and man is it painful!).

He likes to sleep with his little bottom up in the air.

And right after we took this picture we lowered the crib mattress (again) because he would really like to jump right out!

Future heartbreaker. Watch out girls.

Climb Every Mountain

A few weeks ago Grayson, Max, and I drove to the mountains of North Georgia to spend a few days relaxing in the cooler temperatures with my Mom (aka Nana).


There were some swings just down the mountain from our house and every morning we'd walk down so the kids could play.


Grayson likes pushing his little brother.


Max likes it too!

Pretty little church.

Grayson wanted to climb a mountain, so we found one and he climbed all the way to the top all by himself. He was quite proud of his accomplishment.

And he had a lot of fun running down.

On our way home from our walk one day he found a bug. He is always finding bugs!

One day we went down to a nearby waterfall.

Grayson thought it was great. He threw rocks in the stream for about a half hour, and would have kept going for hours more if we had let him.

We also discovered a nearby "Farmzoo"!

They had lots of interesting animals like goats, chickens, donkeys, pigs . . . and this cow (I think it's a Texas Longhorn).

And there were horses.

Max & Charlie

Max has a friend, and his name is Charlie.


Max is 4 months older then Charlie, and it's nice, for once, for Max to be the "big kid."


Charlie and Max have a lot in common, actually. Charlie's mom, Emily, and I were both pregnant with them while living in Brussels (and on the same street!).

Then we moved to Atlanta and Max was born here.

And then Charlie's family moved to Atlanta when he was just 3 months old.

We're so happy the Wingfields are here in Atlanta so that Max can have a playmate his own age and we can swap "war stories" of our time abroad.

Our Fabulous 4th

Our 4th of July only got better as the day went on. Tony took Grayson to see Ice Age 3 at the movie theater while Max took his morning nap and I rested. Then in the afternoon I made homemade potato salad and chilled balsamic asparagus and Tony prepped the grill for our family cook-out. The last time we used it was before we moved to Belgium, so we were happy that it still worked 3 years later.

After Max went to bed we grilled our burgers and turkey burgers and had a small family picnic on our front lawn.

Grayson did not want to eat the potato salad, but once he tried it he loved it (how can you beat my Aunt Pat's recipe with lots of bacon in it!).

Afterward Grayson was dying to start shooting off fireworks (actually, he'd been bugging us all day), but we made him wait until dark for the big ones.

We did let him start with these little ones.

The tanks blew each other up, and the turtles.

It was great fun for my little pyromaniac.

We also had those little black snake things which Grayson said looked like poopies (not an unusual thing for for him to say these days).

Later, as it became dusk, our neighbors came down and little Grace brought Grayson a dessert . . .

. . . and a funny hat. She said that she was the princess and Grayson was her prince.

And Tony smoked a cigar. Not my cup of tea, but he likes them on special occasions.

Finally it was time to get down to business. Our neighbor's brother arrived in Atlanta via Alabama - where the big fireworks are sold.

They lit up the sky and the kids yelped with excitement . . .

. . . and held their ears.

There were even ones that shot up high in the sky, but I couldn't manage to get a picture of those ones.

And of course we had lots of sparklers.

Grayson loved them until one skipped back and hurt him a little. That was it for sparklers for this year for him.

AND THEN . . .

AN UNEXPECTED SURPRISE . . .

The Druid Hills Country Club, which is just a few blocks away, started shooting off their fireworks and low and behold, we could see them right over our house.

They were amazing, and such a fun and unexpected surprise.

It was the perfect end to our 4th of July.

And Max slept right through it all.