1 Year!

I really love how I completely drop the ball on G's FIRST BIRTHDAY. I can hit each minor monthly celebration, but I hit an actual birthday and... nothing. Awesome.

Anyway... we did, in fact, celebrate the loin fruit's day of birth. It wasn't anything crazy (and let me tell you, six months ago, I was gearing up for crazy), but we had some friends over for a bbq. There were Ugly Doll decorations and cupcakes. Here's proof:



There was also a ball pit (courtesy of my sister). Here's proof:



Unfortunately, by the time we got around to actually eating the cupcakes, it was bedtime, and G wasn't really picking up on the cupcake vibe.



Not to worry, though, being the Type-A personality that I am, I made G his own special little cake so that we could have a little cake smash when he was more awake. It took him a bit to warm up to the situation, but I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it all... including getting sprayed off in the bathtub afterwards ;)

By the end, he was explaining all of life's mysteries to us

Having a 1-year-old has been a delight. We're still working on that whole "night time is for sleeping" thing, and he's been hit be another bout of allergy insanity. Otherwise, though, this kid is absolutely hilarious, and he makes everything just a bit more fun. 

I still have every intention of writing a real update post on him soon, but right at this moment, I need to go make sure the tiny isn't destroying anything that can't be replaced.

 

11 Month Update

G and I have been enjoying a fairly mellow month. I mean, as mellow as it can be with a tiny person who can't seem to sit still or keep his hands to himself. He's emptied all of the kitchen cabinets approximately 2,678 times a day, and thinks it's hilarious to zip towards things that he knows he shouldn't touch (all the while looking back to make sure I'm chasing him and giggling until he can't breathe).

11 Months is all about growing and learning around here. G doesn't seem capable of sitting still, and can't keep his hands to himself. Everything brings with it a new adventure, and he loves inspecting things that he's never seen before (from a menu at a restaurant to a cardboard box).

He officially has five teeth (with two more on the way), and he's thrilled at the chance to eat new foods. In the past month, we've loved string cheese, ravioli, grapes, peaches, peanut butter sandwiches, and goldfish crackers.

Our 11 month photos were taken a bit late (err.. a lot late), but we got them (the ugly doll just barely fit on the chair with him).

And then he decided he was done:

9 Month Update

Whew... I'm sure I'll eventually get tired of saying this, but this month has been a whirlwind! This past week was full of car buying and selling, and we're gearing up for Josh to go to some training as well as a nice jaunt to the UK. Add in regular work and whatever else the Griff Monster can throw our way, it's been full of fun :)

I couldn't quite convince G to pay attention to the camera. Josh was sitting off to the side, and since he's the most wonderfully interesting person EVER, G was either trying to get his attention or talking to his UglyDoll.

I did manage to nab one picture of him facing me and smiling, and boy oh boy does this little person look like his daddy!

He's quite the little explorer, having finally figured out how to crawl on hands and knees instead of the slightly more difficult army crawl that he was doing for so long. His fascination with drawers doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. I'm not sure there's anything else that he'll sit and play with for 20 minutes straight, but put him in front of a drawer, and it'll be opened and closed until he realizes there are other drawers in the room to open ;)

At his 9 month well baby visit, his doctor confirmed that he has pretty intense allergies, which explains why he sounds like a little bulldog all the time. Unfortunately for him, we live in the middle of flowering trees and hay fields, so he'll probably just need to get over his aversion to handkerchiefs. I'm sure Mr. Chatty McChatterson will gladly tell you all about it ;)

Roly Poly Ollie

It's pretty common for me to look around for Griffin and find this at my feet:

I'll put him down in the middle of a room, then walk to whatever I need to work on (cooking, sewing, etc...). By the time I get settled, I have a little bug at my feet. More often than not, that little bug is also babbling and grabbing my feet (bonus points for buttons or laces on my shoes).

G's mobility seems to have exploded overnight, along with intense curiosity and a growing mastery of fine motor skills. Sometime between him destroying a grocery store display from his perch in the cart and a broken mason jar in our kitchen (no babies were injured in that incident, but it sure did startle him and get my adrenaline going), I realized that we have left behind the days of him happily playing on his playmat while I cook dinner. His jumperoo(s) has increased in value exponentially, and I will most certainly be honing my spidey-sense and reaction times :)

7 Month Update

If February wasn't so short, I DEFINITELY would have gotten this in before the month was over. 7 months seems to be a magic number for this little boy. He officially has 2 teeth (a significant upgrade over 1), he's very good at rolling to get where he wants to go, his new name is Grabby McGraberson, he sits for good chunks of time on his own, and he's popping up onto his hands and knees as much as possible. This last development has only started within the last few days, and it's completely adorable to watch as he wills himself to move forward. The coordination isn't there yet, but he KNOWS he's so close.

I can tell I'm in trouble as this little person gets more mobile. He's adorable, but he's more than happy to distract you with his babble and dimple as his little hands reach out to snag whatever you've left within arms reach (glasses, bowl of food, pens, diaper...). Goodness, he's lucky I like him so much ;) 

On second thought, I'm pretty sure I'm the lucky one in this relationship.

6 Month Update

See that smile up there? That's for J, who was standing behind me for this little photo op ;)

So this update is a bit late. We were actual on holiday for G's 6 month birthday. I'm pretty sure he had fun anyway:

Since we were gone, we didn't have G's 6 month check up until last Monday. He seems to have slowed down growing a bit (according to the charts), but J and I still think he's HUGE!. As far as what he's up to... G has become quite proficient at rolling over, and he's realized that rolling can actually be used to get from place to place (eep!). He's also EXTREMELY vocal and is so excited to babble back to anyone willing to talk to him. We haven't seen any hint of him not liking strangers. In fact, he's quite a huge flirt! Everywhere we go, he smiles and watches everyone, hoping to find someone who will smile back. Though he's still overall very mellow, he's been a tad sick the last week and a half, and he's teething, so we've seen a fussier/clingier side of him than ever before. The fun side of that, though, is that he has one little tooth:

5 Month Update

I promise this post was actually started in December... it just took a few days to finish :)

The past month has been a bit of a whirlwind, as the holidays often are. I was able to grab G for a few minutes to take some shots with his Ugly Doll, though.

We're really starting to see his personality more and more. He continues to be a wonderfully mellow, social baby. In fact, he's pretty much happy as long as he's with people. Alone play time is not something he enjoys just yet. He rarely cries when we're out and about (even though we have definitely dragged him ALL OVER in his short little life), but it's not uncommon for him to cry the whole way home once we leave wherever we've been (a party, the bx, a market). He's quite giggly, and is already showing signs of being quite a ham to get a laugh.

Sleeping through the night still isn't happening, but we're getting closer!

The biggest milestone for this month was starting "solids." He's had carrots, oatmeal with blueberries and pears, broccoli and spinach with apples, peas with pears and spinach, and squash with bananas. So far, once he adjusts to the odd sensation, he'll happily gobble up whatever you give him.

Here's hoping the next month brings some hair!!!

Merry Christmas!

5 Month post to come, but for now... MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

4 Months

This week has gotten away from me a bit, so I'm a few days off on posting G's 4 month update.
He went in for his check-up and immunization shots on Monday. He weighs in at 14.8 lb, and he's growing fast at 24". He's working on his balance while sitting up on his own, and he's SO CLOSE to being able to put his Nuk in his mouth correctly. Overall, he's still a very happy mellow baby, but he's started fighting naptime more and more. To make up for it, though, he laughs easily and can be quite the giggler once he gets started.

Quilt Time

Well, it took me a little while (read: about 8 months) to finally finish G's "baby" quilt, but I took care of all the final details a month or so ago. Though I'm *sure* nothing would ever happen to it being loved by a baby boy, I thought I'd go ahead an document the final project here.

It all started when I found the perfect striped minky for the back. From there, I pulled together some various fabrics used for other projects throughout his nursery. Once I had all my fabric pieces, I played around a bit before finally deciding on the final monster-themed design.

I sketched the monsters out then took them apart (in my head) to figure out what pieces I would need. After sewing together the fat stripes for the top, I appliqued the monsters on (the blue one is my favorite). Once it was quilted, I assumed the hard part was done. Unfortunately, I botched the binding (twice) before deciding to just go with it and add little monster buttons and tabs to each corner (good thing I happened to find the cutest monster buttons ever while I was in Virginia!).

I'm so very pleased with how it turned out. Since it's large(ish) at about 5' by 5', I'm hoping that G can love it and use it for quite a while :)

Obligatory Halloween Post

I've been requested to post a snipit about Halloween. So here it is:

Seeing as how Halloween landed on a Wednesday this year, it was the perfect opportunity for me to make G a little costume since that's my day to go into the office for some on-site work time. It was a bit down to the wire, but I managed to finish in time to take him in. Now, without further adieu, his costume...

I did make him a little mask, but he disagreed with me about how cute it was ;)

3 Month Update

This is the first in what will (hopefully) become a series of update posts on the life and times of the Griff Monster. Thus begins my stint as a "mom blogger"...

Griffin turned 3 months old last Wednesday. Overall, he's been one of the sweetest, happiest, easiest babies I've encountered. Everybody loves him, and I'm pretty sure he knows it. He doesn't get upset easily, and he (usually) calms down quickly once his problem is solved. It would appear that he inherited his dad's temperament :)

He's been hitting some pretty obvious milestones recently, including:

• reaching for and grabbing various objects and toys
• mimicking voices and mouth movements
• laughing and interacting more
• getting stronger and working on sitting up
• (very occasionally) sleeping through the night

Magic

So it's a new year, the time when all delinquent bloggers write a post vowing to blog more in the coming year.

This is not that post.

I simply want to log a moment of magic from last night, and I figure this is as good a place as any to do so.

My New Year's Eve plans consisted of a sweet party involving Netflix and Sloppy Joes followed by a bedtime of 10:00.

While snug in my bed, I was awoken at about 20 till midnight by a crazy raucous happening outside. I lay there for a while, listening to the noise, thinking it would soon die down again. The last thing I wanted to do was get out of my warm nest. At midnight, I decided to check out what was happening outside, so I put my slippers on, opened our rouladens, and stepped out onto our balcony where I was greeted with a sky full of fireworks and the sound of church bells being rung quite intensely.

Here I need to add a couple notes. (1) We do not live in a large city. In fact, what we live in is much more village-like than anything else. (2) We do not live in the center of town. We are definitely on the outskirts.

That being said, I was extremely amused by the exuberance with which my neighbors were celebrating. I counted at least four houses in our little neighborhood shooting off all kinds of fireworks. Added to that were some campers in the mountains with their own pyrotechnic display as well as (what I imagine) was our village's own sparkling celebration.

I stood out on the cold balcony in the misting drizzle for a solid 20 minutes, soaking in the celebration, and sending out my own New Year's happy thoughts. When I did crawl back into bed, it was with a smile. Those moments out on my balcony were magic, and I want to hold on to that feeling of complete, loud, uncontrollable excitement that I was a part of last night.

Here's to 2012 and many new delightful adventures.

Wordless Wednesday

Look, there's a Colonial!

Last Friday after work, I jumped in a car with five lovely ladies (ok, we had two cars) for a weekend full of awesome.



We got a really great rate on a fantastic condo just outside Williamsburg



Saturday morning was spent in Colonial Williamsburg followed by a relaxing afternoon and an awesome dinner.




There were many photographs taken between the six of us, and tons of laughter.

 

It was definitely a fantastic breath of fresh air before the holiday madness begins :)

I Heart Faces Contest // Silhouettes

This past weekend, I hopped in a car with my friends, and we took off for Williamsburg. While there, I just so happened to shoot this silhouette photo...

just in time for this week's I Heart Faces challenge. Hop on over there and check out the rest of this week's awesome entries :)

Crab Cakes and Boogie Boards

To get out of the city for a bit, to shake things up, to enjoy the end of the summer, to check somewhere off of our list of places to go, and to celebrate our impending 3rd anniversary, Josh and I took off early on Friday afternoon and hit the beach this weekend.

We stayed Friday and Saturday, and headed back after lunch and a movie on Sunday.

Between the awesome food and the gorgeous weather, it was a fantastic weekend.

We whipped out Yelp for every meal, and I for one was never disappointed.

Our hotel was situated right on the boardwalk. We could literally walk out of the lobby and onto the beach. It was WONDERFUL.

I think that we both needed a weekend away.

With Josh on a rotating night schedule, we often end up missing each other, and it's tough for us to spend real time together.

I'm pretty sure the only downside was the traffic... but it's definitely a price that I'm willing to pay ;)

National Harbor

Have any of y'all ever been to National Harbor? It's on the Maryland side of the Potomac, just south of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. I would definitely recommend checking it out if you're in the area and have a little time to kill.

I mean, there's still construction going on, and it's completely and totally created for tourists (in a city with a huge tourist draw to begin with), but there're definitely some fun things to see.

You can check out some gorgeous mosaics along the walls of the stairs leading down to the docks

There're some fun animals

Good cupcakes (though if you're in the DC area, Georgetown Cupcake is really the place to go for cupcakes)

And there's this guy

I love him

Every time I pass by the National Harbor exit, I think about him and smile

I love how huge he is.

I think he's simply wonderful :)

So tell me, what delights are you currently loving?