Ray's blog

I've been neglecting my blog. I'm a busy kid! After our big beach trip I didn't sleep very well for a few days. Not at night, anyway. I slept OK during the day.

Since my last blog entry I've been going to my preschool with Mommy during the week, and spending time with Mommy and Daddy on the weekends. Two weekends ago they went out without me, though (to listen to some silly band) on Saturday night. I got to spend the evening with Grandma -- it was great! I had my nap in the afternoon and I was ready to play when Grandma got here. She gave me some prunes (mmmm, prunes...) and we played and then I had my bottle and went to bed. Sunday morning Mommy and Daddy were home and we went to church and then to that Italian place. I didn't get to see my friend Bea, though.

This past weekend we all went to my Grandpa and Grandma Bare's house. We rode out there with my Uncle Wayne, and I got to sit in the back with my Cousin Emily. It was great! I didn't mind the long drive (it takes about half the day to get there) since I got to hang out with Emily. Dad and Uncle Wayne and Uncle Paul helped Grandpa add a room onto his house. Mommy and Aunt Mary and Aunt Denise and I stayed inside since it was so HOT outside. But the hard-working men got a bunch of work done on the room. Grandpa said he'll have the roof finished this week.

Now it's back to the routine, except this morning we had to go to my school really early. I think someone it was my friend Holly's fault, but I'm not sure. And then some weird woman came into my classroom and scared the heck out of me. I found out later that she's Mommy's regional manager. Mommy says she's actually not scary, but at the time she seemed more like the regional lunatic!

Anyway I'm worn out now. Plus I've got Olympic fever. I'm heading to bed.

Dad broke my archives, but today he fixed them again. (He can fix anything on a computer. Now if I could just get him to put my beach pictures online....)

You're welcome Kevin.

Well the beach was fun and it was great to see my cousins, but I'm home now and it's good to be home. We left the beach early yesterday morning. Not really early like cousin Cindy, and not really, really early like cousin Donna. But early. Around 9:15 in the morning I think.

Then we drove and drove and drove. Actually Mommy did the driving part -- I had a nice long nap. When we got to this place called Cary, North Carolina, we got off the highway and went to my old friends' house and I finally got to meet them!

A long, long time ago, back in ancient times (May), I told you about my friends I hadn't even met yet, Mary and Ibrahim. Well I finally got to meet them! It turns out they are even nicer than you imagined! Can you imagine that? Well I guess you can't or you already would have. Anyway they have a giant house on a lake, with a giant deck in the back (that Ibrahim built!), and they have rain forest in their back yard! There were about 600 kinds of plants back there. It was really neat. Dad said we were going to visit the Krohn Conservatory when we got home, but after visiting Mary and Ib's house we don't need to anymore.

Anyway we all went to lunch, then Mommy and Daddy and I checked into our hotel and had a nice siesta. And a bottle. It was great! Then around 5:00 PM or so we headed back to Mary's house for a cookout. My new friends Angela and Steve also came to Mary's house (with their tall sons), and my new friends Kevin and Johanna did too. Johanna was very pregnant -- she looked like she was ready to have a baby any minute. (And it turns out she was! She had a beautiful baby girl named Andrea this morning! How cool is that?)

By the way, does Andrea have a lot of hair or what??? I thought I was born with a lot of hair! This chick has me beat by a mile!

(Maybe when I learn to talk I'll ask her for a date. Maybe we can go to Target....)

Well we all had a very nice evening. Everyone there was so great. Johanna held me even though she probably wasn't supposed to lift anything that heavy. There was lots of laughing and way too much food (thanks Mary!), and everyone seemed to have a great time. Plus my friend Angela brought me a present -- a whole set of cars and trucks to play with! (Thanks Angela!) By the end of the night I was worn out and we headed back to the hotel for some shut-eye.

This morning we didn't have to get up quite so early. We checked out of the hotel and went back to Mary and Ib's house (and there was still a ton of food there!). From there we all went to a really nice restaurant for breakfast, and Mary held me for the longest time, even after her food came -- it was great! Daddy had eggs for breakfast. Mommy had a hamburger. I had a bottle, and some prunes. Mmmm, prunes....

After breakfast we said our goodbyes and got back on the highway for home. Oh man it was a loooong way. We drove and drove and drove and drove. Of course I slept most of the time because, well, that's what I do. :-) We stopped in West Virginia for dinner at that Australian place, and walked around the city block to stretch our legs. (OK I rode in the stroller, but it was still nice to be out of the car.) Then we got back in the car and drove and drove and drove some more.

We finally got home tonight just after 11:00 PM, and even though my bedtime is normally around 10:00 or 10:30, guess what -- I'm wide awake! I think Mommy wants to go to bed but I'm ready to play! Woo hoo!

Today I went into the ocean! Well, first I sat on the beach and the ocean came to me. It was pretty neat -- Mommy and I were just sitting there on the sand, and then a big wave came crashing towards us and a little trickle of water rolled right up the beach to where we were sitting. Then it turned around and rolled back out.

Yesterday I sat on the beach and felt the sand. I even tasted a little bit of it. (It's not very good.) But today was the first time I went into the water. (I tasted the water, too. Very salty!)

After we sat on the beach for awhile, Dad brought my little inflatable seat down to us and we all went out into the ocean. At first Dad was just carrying me, and I was just watching the waves crashing around his feet. That was pretty cool. Then Dad put me in my little raft, and the waves started crashing over me, and that just wasn't any fun. We tried going out a little farther, but the waves were just too strong today and we decided to head back to shore.

After our big adventure in the waves we went back up to the beach house and got in the pool! Yes, our house is so nice that it even has a pool just for me! Well Mommy got in with me even though it's really not for grown-ups. I guess she didn't want me to drown. That seems like a good goal.

I liked playing in the pool. The only waves in there were the ones I made when I smacked the water with both hands. (I'll show that water who's boss!)

Tonight the grown-ups had some kind of lunch meat sandwiches and potato chips for dinner. (That sounds more like lunch to me.) I had some squash and then some prunes -- they were both very good. And a bottle, of course.

I'm one-half today! Man this is great. I was so sick of being zero. I feel like I've been zero my entire life. Finally I've reached a major milestone: one-half.

For my (half) birthday Mommy and Daddy packed up everything and drove me halfway across North America. I went to sleep in my new carseat on the Fourth of July, and when I woke up this morning we were in Virginia! (The birthplace of Democracy, Dad says. Whatever that means.)

We left Virginia this morning and drove to my Great Aunt Judy's house for her wedding. She lives on a mountainside somewhere in the middle of North Carolina, and her wedding was nothing like any wedding I've ever been to. Of course I've only been to one before today, but I'm telling you the one today was nothing like that one.

For starters, at my cousin Erin's wedding, Erin was wearing shoes. Also her wedding was in a church, not a yard. And the guests were dressed nicer (well, except the photographer). But I suppose the end result was the same: The bride and groom ended up married. And that's the main thing.

It was great to see my Great Aunt again. She came all the way from North Carolina to my house to visit me. (Now I know just how far that was!!!) And my cousin Alicia was there (I was glad to see her again, she is so sweet), and my Great Aunt Darlene, and my Grandpa and Grandma Driever. Plus I got to meet my cousins Jalina, Jeremy, Dallas and John. They are all very nice but they need to quit smoking. We left early because there were so many people smoking all around us, and my little lungs aren't ready for that.

From there we drove forever and we're still in North Carolina! But now we're at the beach! I can't wait to see the ocean in the daylight -- it sure sounds neat. I can kinda see the waves but it's dark now.

Our big beach house is really nice. A bunch of my cousins from northern Ohio are here -- even my cousin Erin and her new husband Josh! (They just got married last weekend and now here they are again!) My other cousins who are here are Cindy and Rick, Steve and Donna, Ashleigh and Cass, Erin and Josh, and Lynsey and Leah. It seems like someone is missing... but that's the whole list.

Mommy and Daddy and I have our own bedroom upstairs, and all four of the newlyweds are in the big master bedroom across the hall. Everyone else is in the three bedrooms downstairs. There is also a kitchen, dining room and living room all in one big area downstairs. Plus we have a big deck, a walkway right out to the beach, a three-car garage and a hot tub!

We are staying here a week. I am hoping to write a little something in my blog several times during our stay. And maybe I can get Mommy to put some more pictures on my website, too. This is going to be great!

Happy Fourth of July! Dad says today is the day our country was born. But it wasn't really TODAY, it was something like 230 years ago on the Fourth. I think that was even before Grandpa Graybill was born! (And Dad says my Grandpa is so old that when he was little like me he had a pet dinosaur!)

So my dad was reading to me about the recent elections in Zimbabwe. (He has to read it to me because, well, for one thing I haven't learned to read yet, and for another I haven't figured out how to work the Google.) Listen to this: They have this guy who is in charge down there, and he's evil. Anyone who disagrees with him gets put in jail, or beaten up, or worse. Well another man stood up and said, "If you vote for me in the next election, I will make things better." So then the guy in charge threatened to hurt him and his family and scared him so much that he stood up again and said, "Um, never mind -- I'm not going to run for office after all."

So then the guy in charge went ahead and held the election anyway. Both his name and the other guy were on the ballot, but he had these thugs who stood over people as they voted to make sure they only voted for him. And if people didn't vote at all, they got in trouble for that too!

Now the people who live in Zimbabwe have basically given up hope.

These are poor people, too. They don't have enough food to eat, and when they go to Kroger's to get more, all the shelves are empty. Can you imagine if you went to the store and there wasn't any food there you could buy?

Out of every 100 baby boys born in Zimbabwe, eight will die while they are still a baby. (That's 127 baby boys who die for every one in America.) The rest, on average, will only live to be 37 years old -- the shortest time of any country in the world.

In America, most people are overweight. In fact we have so much food here that we sell our extras to other countries. We have great doctors and hospitals (like mine!), and babies can expect to live to be 78 years old (on average).

America is not perfect, but today I say "Happy Birthday America!"

And boy am I glad that I was born here!

I went to my first wedding this weekend. Grandma and Grandpa Graybill came to our house Saturday morning and they rode with Mommy, Daddy and me all the way to northern Ohio. It was a long drive but I slept most of the way. Of course we had to stop at Chipotle because we had my Grandpa with us and he always wants to eat there.

We stayed in a nice hotel in Findlay, Ohio. We checked in Saturday afternoon and unloaded the car and changed our clothes for the wedding. I wore my new suit and I looked good. Then we drove out into the country to the church.

The wedding was very nice. My cousin Erin looked so beautiful in her white gown. My cousin Leah was the maid of honor, and my cousins Ashleigh and Lynsey were bridesmaids. The ceremony was a little long for my taste -- I got a little bored toward the end. But it was nice and it seemed to be effective: By the end of it Erin and Josh were married.

After the wedding there was a big party called a "reception." I had never been to one of those before but it was very nice too. My cousin Steve gave a very good toast to his daughter and new son-in-law. Then my cousin Leah gave them a toast and I think it was even better than her dad's! After all the talking everybody ate dinner and cake and all that (I had a bottle). Then there was lots of dancing, and I even got to dance with the bride! (I had to let her lead.) My cousin Leah held me for quite awhile, too, which was great!

Then it was back to the hotel for the night, and Sunday morning we went to cousin Steve's house. Josh and Erin were there, too, and they opened all their gifts (a bunch of them!). Around Noon we were back on the road for the long drive home. Mommy started feeling really sick, and she had a fever and everything. By the time we got home she was feeling terrible. Dad and I tried to take care of her but I wasn't much help and Dad wasn't much better.

Yesterday Mommy was still very sick and she and I stayed home from school. Around 5:00 we went to Grandpa Driever's office and got chiropractic adjustments, and after that Mommy started feeling much better.

Today Mommy is feeling much better, but tonight Dad is sick. I hope he feels better tomorrow.