Greys bed ramp/slide

So in the last post we showed off Grey's new Big Boy Bedroom, and this week we made one addition... a bed ramp. As much as we (and Grey) loves his new bed there's just one issue with it for him...he can't get in or out by himself. So in the interest of giving him as much Independence as we can, we had this idea of a ramp that would allow him to pull himself up and slide down whenver he wanted. Okay, admittedly its not often that hes asking us to go to bed these days, but if we introduce this to him now, he will learn early that when he's ready to go to bed, he needs to get into bed himself, and the same goes for when he's done with a nap, he can get out of his bed with out our help. As he's getting older we've been encountering more and more scenarios of times when Grey needs our help with things that typical kids don't. It's our job to think creatively about how we can adapt things to make it easier for Grey, this is just one example so far. A big thanks to my Dad for building the ramp! Lord knows if i tried to do something like this Grey would be riddled with splinters. :)

So he's not a pro at it yet, but he's got the concept down.




Oh and heres a detail of how it seamlessly attaches:

One other big discovery that Grey has made is that this also serves as a pretty cool ramp for his cars... here he is putting it to use!



love to all,

grey, leigh, andy

It's Official...

We have a big boy. A few weekends ago my mom, my sister, and my nephew took a trip out to Ikea (my nephew had a soccer tournament there so it worked out great!) and I took the plunge and bought Grey a big boy bed! This is something that I have seriously lost sleep over. I had no idea what kind of bed to get for Grey. Should it be low to the ground so he can climb onto it? Should it be higher so he can transfer over from a wheelchair? Decisions, decisions. I decided to go with this bed from Ikea. It is low, but not too low and seems to be just perfect for our Grey. :)

Before we put together the new bed, I wanted to spruce up his room a bit. We hadn't painted it since we moved in (over a year ago) and I was so excited to finally decorate Grey's room! I loved putting his nursery together in our old house, but I wasn't sure what to do here...until now. :) I had visions of colorful robots dancing through my head. We knew that we wanted Grey's room to be fun and colorful and this is what we did...




This GNG has been with Grey from the beginning. Greyson Neal Gibbs...gotta love the initials.


Grey loves his letters so I thought that this would be perfect!!


I just love these robots!!

So far, Grey loves his new room and his new bed. It was a super easy transition for all of us and I'm so happy that we did it! Although more times than not, we go in to check on him and he looks like this...
he's been wearing undies to bed for a few weeks now (yay!!) but his scrawny little booty has a hard time keeping them up!!

Here he is his first night in his new bed, still has to have his Ories!


Hope you all are enjoying your summer!!
Love,
Leigh, Andy and the big boy

Grey counts "real fast"

Lately Greys been wanting to do things "real fast" and just the other day we caught him counting real fast. He loves counting...randomly he'll just blurt out his numbers, loudly and most of the time accurately, so i guess thats good. Heres a little video of him counting real fast and playing the role of Batman/conductor of a symphony orchestra. goof.




heres just a picture o him in his Batman pj's, he likes them almost as much as his Monkey ones (curious george)

the weather's been amazing the last couple days...almost nice enough to make it worth living in Michigan. :) So we've taken advantage and greys been playin outside!



love,

the gibbs'

A Little Spring Gardening

Well the weather is getting nicer lately so the 3 of us decided to try our hand at gardening this year. Having very, very little gardening experience we decided to start simple...and followed the square foot gardening method. We built two 4'x4' garden beds, mixed our soil and last weekend bought our plants. So after one full week in the ground we are "happy" to report that only 2 green bean plants have fallen victim to that "cute" little bunny in our yard. The fence will be going up tomorrow! But yeah, its been fun and this week grey's been helping "wash the plants" as he puts it. goof.

Here i am showing him how to do it. He quickly pushed me aside and wanted to do it himself...naturally.




Here's a little video of grey washing the garden.


love,

the gibbs'

"I go OUTSIDE"

This is the phrase that Andy and I hear...A LOT!! Grey wants to be outside all. the. time. The past few weeks have been difficult trying to find things that he can actually do outside. He isn't crawling on all fours yet so if he is on the pavement or the deck he gets so dirty and I am super paranoid that he is going to get all scraped up. He rides on his 4-wheeler, rides his amtryke on the deck, and loves to rip out grass and throw it...other than that, we were at a loss, not wanting Grey to be stuck inside all summer, but really having a tough time finding things for him to do outside..until today. :) This past month (thanks to 1+1 therapy) Grey has made some amazing progress with his walker. His balance is great, he is taking steps and moving the walker all on his own, and his confidence in his ability has soared. So, I decided to take the walker outside and let Grey stand at it while we played catch...he had other plans. :) He was walking all over the place!


He walked (really fast because it's sloped downward) down the driveway, he walked on the grass, he walked on the deck. He walked all over! It wasn't pretty and it wasn't fast...but he did it. I was so proud as our neighbors walked by and saw my little boy doing what little boys do. And amongst all the walking/playing he had time to give his mommy a kiss :)


Today, Grey showed me (yet again) that I need to stop worrying about the future and just focus on all of the amazing things that he is doing today!

love,

Leigh, Andy, Grey.

ABCDEaster

This past weekend we headed down to Indiana to celebrate Easter with Leigh's family. We knew there'd be an Easter egg hunt so we packed grey's 4-wheeler to help give him an edge on his competition. :) Grey could "take or leave" the Easter egg hunt, however as soon as he discovered what was inside his interest grew.

Here he is on the prowl, with mommy has his official "egg picker-upper"




Here he is with his cousins, enjoying his findings.



In other news, Grey's been saying his Alphabet more and more these days and is getting pretty good at it. Here he is just the other day.




love to all,

Andy, Leigh, Grey

Spring Break!

Last week friday we packed up and headed to Florida with Leigh's whole family, eleven of us in all. Lets just say we were more than ready for some warmer weather as the end of march can get very depressing here in Michigan. So we were off! Thankfully we were able to fly...I feel for those families that make the 20+ hour drive south from Michigan, its brutal. Trust me i've been in that back seat a few times riding down and it takes forever!!! Even with a fully charged walkman and DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince Summertime album blaring through your headphones, it's tough. Anyway, we were lucky enjoy to fly (thanks Mark) and our very first flight Grey got some special attention. He was able to sit in the cockpit! Here he is...being amazed.


After a few minutes of amazement we left to find our seats, but not before the pilot gave us a spare set of wings! no, not the plastic ones they give to every other kid, the real deal! Grey didn't care, but i thought it was pretty cool. :) Anyway, the flights went great, Aside from Grey jubilantly shouting at takeoff, he did wonderfully. AMazing what a bowl of goldfish, and a Curious George movie can do. :)

We made it, and the weather was incredible! Imediately we hit the beach. Last year the sound of the waves put grey to sleep...this year he wanted to "ride" them.


Here he is with pop, ridin. he loved it.

When Grey gets excited he wiggles his hands. Anyone thats met him has probably seen him do this. You can imagine what his little hands were doing here. :)
He loved the sand as well. But hasn't learned the proper beach/sand etiquette yet...he threw it around a lot.

The house we stayed at was great and actually worked out very well for Grey. It was open, had a lot of flat surfaces to roll around. (we brought his ride, he's really good at gettin around in that thing) they had a pool and spa. Grey loved it.
But it wasn't all just play...Leigh made sure that he worked on his walking and the tennis court made for a perfect place. Admittedly, we were both a little lax on therapy related stuff this trip, but as always, Leigh made it happen and worked him good.

Towards the end of the week the boys (except for Grey) took a charter and did some fishing. Given our collective fishing record in the past, we were simply hoping not to get skunked. Well, turned out we hit the right spot and we were slayin King Mackerel from the moment our first line went in. Here i am, hooked into a big one.

Here's my father-in-law with a shark! yeah, a real shark! so cool!
And finally the whole crew with our limit for the day.

So yes, we had a warm, relaxing, wonderful time in Florida!

One more thing...For those of you livin in colder States, you might relate to this. Have you ever had some one say before you leave for a warm place say "have a good time, bring back the warm weather." and you always respond with a "you bet i will!" haha. Well this year we kinda did. This Sunday it was like 82 in MI! incredible. So the 3 of us took a bike ride!
Grey loved it!

WE can't wait for summer!!!


P.S. props to Leigh for taking video and riding the bike :)

love to all,

Andy, Leigh, Grey