What's up there?

A few months ago we bought Grant a bunk bed and some other big boy bedroom furniture (on Craigslist....imagine that!). A few weeks ago, we set up one of the twin beds (you can use them together or set them up separately). Dean opened the attic door so we could store Grant's old toddler bed up there. It's like a moth to a flame.....as soon as Dean opens the attic and brings down the ladder, Grant is always trying to climb up to see what's there. This time Drew tried to follow.

And Grant loves his new bed.  He sleeps great and actually lays in it normally (in his toddler bed, he'd curl up in the top quarter of the bed, just like he used to do in his crib).  But we're having some issues with bedtime lately.  I don't think they're related to switching beds (after all, he could get out of his toddler bed too).  But he seems to think that bedtime is optional.  Lately he's been playing for a long time after Dean leaves his room.  Dean gives him spankings when he's obviously jumping around up there......and especially when it's 9pm or later.

And sometimes he comes out of his room.  Last night Dean came upstairs after hearing him making noise 45 minutes after bedtime.  He went in Grant's room, and Grant wasn't there.  Where was he?  On top of our bed, playing with his Lightning McQueen.  Dean asked what he was doing, and Grant said something about not being able to go to sleep because his leg hurt.  Then he stood up in our bed and said, "it hurts when I stand on it."  What?!

Anyway, like I said, Grant does sleep well in his bed (once he actually goes to sleep!).  Here are a few pictures.....I still need to find a quilt or comforter for him before it gets cold outside.

Little cowboy

Every naked horseback rider needs a good pair of safety glasses!

There were a couple of cuter pictures, but they were a bit revealing. Not sure how that would be perceived on the blog (or by law enforcement.....I don't want to be dragged off to jail!).

He likes school!

Grant had a rough beginning to the school year. For the first few weeks, he cried a lot (so surprising, because he did great last year). I think it had a lot to do with his pacifier.....they're more strict this year (now that he's officially in "preschool" instead of Mother's Day Out), and his pacifier needs to stay in his bag during the day.

So on Tuesday, he was telling me he didn't want to go to school as we drove into the parking lot. He cried when we got to his room, and I was expecting it to be another bad day. But when I picked him up, his teacher Ms. Dianne said that they made a deal with him. He could keep his pacifier as long as it stayed in his pocket. And they said throughout the morning, he'd stick his hand in his pocket, just to touch it and make sure it was still there! Ms. Machelle caught him at one point pulling it out of his pocket, and he quickly put it back in! But he had a much better day and only cried for a few minutes at one point.

So on Wednesday, we saw Ms. Machelle (yes, that's how she spells her name) at Kroger. Grant had his pacifier (he usually doesn't get it in the grocery store, but it had been a bad day) and was sitting in the shopping cart. The second he saw her, he instinctively grabbed his paci out of his mouth and started putting it into his pocket, as if he was getting in trouble!

Thursday he was more excited about going to school. And no tears all day! He's been saying this weekend that he had fun at school and he wants to go back, and today he was singing a song about the days of the week (which he obviously learned there). He was SO proud of himself!

Drew and his cake

The four of us officially celebrated Drew's birthday last night.....I baked a little cake for him (and one for us too). I also had a few presents for him (and one for Grant), but I never even wrapped them! What a bad mom! But how much of his first birthday is he really going to remember anyway?

He absolutely loved his cake. He just kept eating and eating. And I was almost afraid to touch him afterwards.....every part of him was dirty and I didn't even know where to start! So straight up to the bathtub we went.....

I bought this hat for Grant's 1st birthday.....I guess it has become a tradition in our family now.

The cake!

Happy boy....

Grant wanted to wear the hat too. He loved singing happy birthday to Drew. He also sang happy birthday to the toy jeep sitting on the table with him.
He finally had enough.....(and I cannot figure out the formatting on these pictures....aahh!)

Bathtime!

Does anyone agree.....

.....that if a store charges you too much for something (and you have to come back for them to correct it), you should get the item for free?  This has happened so much lately.  I'm diligent about checking my receipt as I'm walking out of a store, or as soon as I get to the car (I try to watch as items are being scanned, but that doesn't happen much now with two kids in tow!).  And now twice in the last four days, I've had to go back into the store to have money refunded to me.

On Sunday, we all went to Bed Bath and Beyond.  Two things were priced wrong (I found out as we were getting in the car): contact solution was marked $6.99 in the store (it rang up as $7.49), and a set of contact cases were marked $2.49 in the store (they rang up $3.99).  Dean stayed with the boys while I went inside and spent another seven or eight minutes with the lady.  She had to walk back to the aisle with me, verify their price, then refund the original items and charge me the correct price.  I only got back $2.22, so it seemed silly to go back for such little money.  But it would be ridiculous to let the store overcharge like that and get away with it!

Then today, Drew and I were leaving Target when I realized we were charged $3.99 each for two packages of ground beef that were marked on sale for $2.99.  It was only $2, but that was the whole reason I bought them....because they were each a dollar off!  So we waited in line at customer service, all to get the money back that I shouldn't have paid to begin with!    

And it's especially frustrating when you've got little kids.  It's not easy to take your kids back into a store once you've gotten in the car......and it just seems wrong to have to go through the time and trouble when the store wrongly charged me 25% too much to begin with.  A couple of times I've asked if I could get the item for free (when it's something cheap), and I've always been told that it's not their policy.  If it happens again at Target, I will probably demand to get the item for free (or else I'll just grab a donut for myself and the kids on the way out!).