Gobble Gobble

This is the first year that John Grayson has showed any interest in holidays, probably because now he understands that they involve yummy food and fun songs. Oh yeah, and Mommy will still let him have dessert, even if he doesn't eat much of anything else :-)

We were able to teach JGray to say "Happy Thanksgiving" but he preferred saying "Gobble Gobble" while shaking his hips. Gotta love the stuff they teach kids in preschool!

We had dinner at MaMa and Pop's house and succeeded in making far too much food for 4.5 people to consume. Yay for leftovers! John Grayson's favorites were the mashed potatoes, corn pudding and lime jello salad. Daddy convinced him to have a few bites of turkey, but the kid knows what he likes and stuck with the side dishes.

Mommy, Daddy and John Grayson eating Thanksgiving Dinner

Mommy did cave in on her threat to withhold dessert if he didn't eat more turkey or apples, so JGray made the most of the situation and tried both the pumpkin and cheese pies. In typical Schmitt fashion, he asked for extra Cool Whip on both!

Yummy!!!

We are very thankful to have such wonderful friends and family! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

You Don't Need Me

You may have noticed we haven't mentioned much about out little girl lately... other than the occasional kick, we don't have that much interaction. Well, a couple months ago our little girl decided to show us a Choroid Plexus Cyst. While I still have trouble explaining what it is, it was not what we considered to be a good thing.

Over the past couple months we had the joy of being thrown into the 'high-risk' pregnancy category. While Dr. Erica told us it was nothing to worry about, we still had to go for extra visits to get ultrasounds of the baby to see what the cyst thing was doing. (on a side note... when your doctor tells you not to go to the internet, listen to her. There is just a bunch of stuff that will scare you without proper context).

Anyhow, on to the good news. On Tuesday Morning we met with our 'High-Risk' prenatal doctor, Dr. Head. After doing a quick check of our little girl she let us know the great news. She said, 'You don't need me, your baby is doing great. Have a wonderful remainder of your pregnancy'.

And with that, Allison and I both exhale.....

Our Big Boy

Today is a monumental day in the Schmitt household. John Grayson is currently napping in his big boy bed for the first time!!!!!!! Woo Hoo! Yipee! Hoorah! Three cheers for JGray!

Although it took 20 minutes of crying to get to this point (which was so much harder than sleep training as an infant because Mommy could hear "I want my Mommy!" through the door), I couldn't be prouder. This is definitely a cause for celebration after he wakes up! Mommy is thinking about a special trip to Chuck E Cheese.......

UPDATE Sunday Morning: Progressing much quicker than we thought, JGray spent last night in the big boy bed! Yes, he was awake at 5:30am, but it's still a huge accomplishment. We are very proud of our little boy.

A New Coat, the Chuck E Cheese PD, and Pocahontas

Allison headed out of town this weekend to spend some time with her college friends, so once again it was time for John Grayson and I to have a guys weekend. Allison had asked us to do only one thing over the weekend, find JGray a winter coat. After stopping by a few stores, we hit paydirt at the Old Navy.

If you think he looks unhappy in this coat you should have seen the reaction that he gave some of the other coats that I put on him.
With our mission for the weekend completed, we went over to the Chuck-E-Cheese for what seems to be turning into a tradition when Allison leaves us alone. We spent a lot of time with Bob the Builder and the School Bus... but this time we found a new machine that had Daddy just as excited (if not more) as JGray. For the price of just one token, John Grayson was made a member* of the CECPD (Chuck-E-Cheese Police Department). If you don't believe me, check out the membership card that made up for him.

*I don't know exactly what being an 'Extreme Member' of the CECPD will bring to JGray's future, although I am confident that it has to be better than just being a regular member.

On Sunday morning JGray and I decided to headed down to Pocahontas State Park for a little adventure. I figured that the trees would be pretty to look at and it would be a good opportunity for us to enjoy the outdoors.

We came to find that not many people go to Pocahontas State Park on weekends. In fact, based on the number of untouched leaves covering the paved trails, most people don't go there at all during the fall. It is really a shame because it was quite a nice park. It was a great hike for the first mile out into the woods, although when John Grayson became tired there was only one way back; on Daddy's shoulders.

If all that you read above didn't already have you thinking that this was a great weekend...there was one more thing that made it spectacular. On Sunday morning John Grayson came to me and said, 'Daddy, John Grayson needs to Poop'. Not wasting any time I took him right over to the bathroom (I will do anything, I mean anything, to avoid changing a nasty diaper). Long story short, we had success! I apologize, but I did not capture any photos of that special moment.

A Lightbulb and Three Jackets

Funny story for a Wednesday night. John Grayson was reading books with his MaMa before bed while Mommy and Daddy were at Lamaze class. Yes, we're taking a Lamaze class :-) Anyway, JGray was looking at Where the Sidewalk Ends and MaMa mentioned that there was a book jacket on the book. He got a funny look on his face and then said, "MaMa's jacket!" and ran over to grab her jacket and made her wear it. Then he said, "John Grayson's jacket!" and grabbed his coat and put it on.

So everybody--John Grayson, MaMa, and Where the Sidewalk Ends--wore their jackets.

40 lbs of Pink Ladies

Being a beautiful morning in early November, we decided to take advantage with an outdoor activity this morning. We took a quick drive out to Carter Mountain just outside of Charlottesville. They have quite a nice orchard set up on the side of a mountain overlooking the town. After having a few Apple Cider donuts (highly recommended) to build some energy, we headed down the hill to pick some apples. They have different sections of the orchard that have specific types of apples. Allison being a big fan of the Pink Ladies, chose our destination.


John Grayson took a substantial amount of time picking out the very best apples. Not those that would taste good, just the ones that seemed to be low enough for him to grab... that made for a good apple.


I don't know if this was sanctioned, but we chose to have snack while picking the apples. We didn't pay for this one, but I figure they have to have some sort of 'Buy 40 Pounds, Get 1 Apple Free' kind of deal. Remember how I said earlier there we were at the bottom of the hill, there is only one way to get back up......taking a ride on Daddy's shoulders (still eating the free apple). After buying our 40 lbs of Apples and a couple gallons of Cider, we headed into town to the Take it Away Sandwich Shop. For those of you from UVA, you will recognize this as a good sandwich shop. For those of you from William and Mary, you now know of this as a knock off of the Cheese Shop. For better or worse, the highlight of JGray's day was his sandwich... so much for the apples :)