three generations

practicing for adolescence

we're back!

So, I'm finally back on the blog. Sorry, I know, I know. It's been a crazy week what with the holidays and last minute shopping and one crazy active baby on the loose. Hopefully, now that things have calmed down, I'll be posting more frequently.

We went on a bunch of playdates this month, and here are the best shots from the bunch.

Lorin and Dolan:



This is my friend Lorin and her son, Dolan. Big D is awesome- he is a happy, super-handsome little guy born on St Patrick's day, and he is loads of fun- how could he not be with that birthday? He's a talker, a clapper, and a dancer, and his dad and I joke that he and Gray are going to tear it up at the bars together when they're older. They have similar coloring, with big blue eyes and dark blonde hair, and neither have that chubby baby look- they both resemble little boys already. Big D is awesome, and we had a great time playing with him (and I'm not just saying that because his dad reads the blog- what up Todd! :).



The only dark cloud was Graydon, who loves other kids, but for some crazy baby reason can't resist stealing their toys and then bonking them on their heads with it. It's not cool. I hope he's not destined to be the playground bully- he's pulled this stunt a couple of times. Here's the play by play:

Here Gray is, plotting his attack:

Now the windup, and:

BAM! Total throwdown, babystyle. Thank goodness Lorin was quick on the draw:

Dolan was understandably pissed off, and didn't let Graydon get too close for a while. But eventually they seemed to forgive and forget, and I think they'll be great friends in the near future.

Later on that week, we went over to my friend Becky's house for a kiddie holiday fiesta. There were 5 or 6 babies there, and it was total anarchy and great fun.

Graydon deciding which toy to go after and claim as his own:

Hmmm, Vincent's toy looks interesting, I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I used /stole it :

Ok, maybe he does mind, who knew? But I can still have that toy, right?

The last time Grady and Ben were together, Gray bopped Ben on the head with his own rattle and made Ben cry. This time, Ben decided he'd retalliate, and grabbed Graydon by the ear, just like a catholic school nun:

Graydon was all, "Um, excuse me? What the heck is this about? Let go please?" But Ben was all about the payback and maintained his grip:

Finally, Graydon decided he had had enough, and gave me the "get me the hell out of here" face.

Which I was happy to do. But I was glad he got to experience what it's like when other babies get in his face- maybe it will make him more likely to play nicely and share, and less likely to swing his toys around like a tomahawk. But probably not.

Ok, so that's it! Sorry again for our long absence.

Next post I'll put up our Christmas pictures, but essentially this was our Christmas routine: watching the little man zing around like a pinball and then desperately trying to tackle him before he shoved something inappropriate (or glass, or poisonous) into his mouth. This was the view we saw the most:

And lest you think this blog is only about Graydon, here's our other little baby- Stella girl!! Stells was a good girl this year, with some minor exceptions, and she often acts like a little mother to the baby, when she's not running away from him, that is.. So merry Christmas, Stella!

see below

I still can't get the photos to upload, it may be our camera. I did manage to get a video on, see the post below. This is our normal form of nightly entertainment, either JC or I chases Gray around the ottoman and he laughs hysterically the entire time. Too fun.

In other news, he has FINALLY started making noises nonstop. He oohs, and ahhs, and makes the hard "p" puff sound ("puh" "puh") and just today, I think he may have said his first word- Bob. All day long, he walked around saying, "Bob bob bob bob mem mem bob bob bob membob bobmemem bob". Who knows what it means, but it sounds good! He's a card. Happy holidays to everyone, sorry for the lack of posts. Will try to figure this all out ASAP.

hysteria

technical difficulties

I am having some problems uploading photos. not sure if it's the website, the computer, or user error (surely not). At any rate, I have a bunch of things to post but am going to have to somehow figure out what's going on. You know, I was a successful IT recruiter and JC worked at AOL for ten years and even so the two of us are seriously stupid when it comes to using this thing. Keep checking back, I'll keep trying.

mishmash

Lots going on this week. First and foremost, the goose is teething AGAIN! His two bottom outer teeth are almost through, and he is a total crankmeister. This brings us to a grand total of 8 teeth, yowzers. I'm not lying when I say I will be VERY happy to see the end of this era. Teething is the worst.


This past weekend we met Santa for the first time, you saw how that went. But we also had a fun first milestone, we got Gray his first official pair of shoes! We made our way to Stride Rite and got his fat little feet measured (size 4, wide- so we bought a 4 1/2 for room to grow), Then we purchased an adorable pair of sporty sneaker-ish baby shoes. I love them. They are freaking super cute. Check it out:

.


So now Graydon is appropriately shod. These shoes were on sale, but I am sure that we will be spending a small fortune on footwear until, when? How old are you before your feet stop growing? Tenth grade? Groan.


Today we went to Gymboree, and out of the 7 babies who were there, four (including mine) were named the following: Sadie, Brady, Grady, and Grant. It was a very confusing class, and made me think twice about the nickname Grady. Maybe we should just stick with Gray, as there are not likely to be as many kids with that name running around. We'll see.


Tomorrow we have to get our second round of the flu shot, which I'm sure is going to help the Goose's already miserable mood. Since our ped's office is close to JC's work office, we are going to stop there afterwards. Maybe Daddy will even buy us lunch (Hint! Hint!)


Ok, that's it for now. Tomorrow I will post pictures from our playdate on Monday with my friend Lorin and her adorable hunk of son, Dolan (AKA the Big D, Bubba, Pumpkin Loaf). He is seriously too cute and we had a great time. Stay tuned.

is anyone really surprised?

moody blues

Today has been beastly, one of those days where nothing goes right. I started off the day grouchy, the goose was fussy about eating, napped longer than normal in the morning, totally refused to sleep this afternoon, and was generally just miserable most of the day. We tried to go visit Santa today, but encountered several obstacles. First, the baby cried in the car all the way to the mall. Next, we couldn't find any parking. When we finally arrived, I realized that Graydon had fished a travel sized bottle of baby shampoo out of the diaper bag and had poured it all over himself, ruining his holiday outfit and covering himself in a thick coat of soapy slime. Arrgh. So I got him cleaned up, and we went from festive holiday clothes to a mismatched sweatsuit. But whatever, we could still visit Santa, right? WRONG. Turns out the mall website was wrong, and Santa was nowhere to be seen. And Gray was still super moody.

I ducked into a store and grabbed some shirts to try on so that I could get him into a changing room and see if he needed to eat, or a diaper change, or what. And so I unstrapped him from the stroller, put him on the floor, where he proceeded to take three steps and then fell over, hitting his head on the dressing room mirror. Aaargh. He was HOWLING. Two different store attendants came to see if we were ok- ie, can you please quiet it down in there. Great. And then he grabbed one of the shirts that I was going to "try on" and had hanging on the stroller, and he rubbed his face in it. So it was covered in tears and snot, and I felt morally obligated to purchase it. Then I lost the parking ticket so we had to pay the maximum. And then we came home and he refused to nap. So today has been extremely trying, to say the least.

To take my mind off the horror, I am drinking a glass of wine and watching videos of Gray's playdate with his girlfriend Casey earlier this week. Basically their time was spent hugging (Casey), following each other around (Graydon), and crying when they stole each other's toys (both). They were adorable and clearly enjoy hanging out with each other. Check it out.

now for something completely different

Those of you who knew my mother know that she was a woman with many attributes, but the ability to cook was certainly not one of them. We were the only three children to go to college and call home raving about the cafeteria food. As such, my culinary history is pretty bleak, consisting mainly of cereal and take out. It's only since the baby was born that I've started trying to cook, and it's been a series of ups and downs. I'm sticking with crock pot meals and casseroles, and some have been tasty, and others.... not so much. But tonight I made a chicken and spinach casserole (that I made once before) and it really is pretty alright. Here's a picture right out of the oven-

And here it is once we dove in-

Not too shabby, right? I am pretty impressed, myself. The other night I even made risotto, and it tasted great! So maybe my cooking skills aren't genetic, after all. JC is just happy that we're not having chili dogs every night.

So, no baby pics today. We went to gymboree class today and I was too busy trying to keep up with Gray to stop and take any pictures. Although, one awkward thing did happen. Today there were only two other babies in class, Duchess and a new baby, Sadie. Duchess was with her dad, and Sadie with her mom. I was excited that there was another mom there, but truth be told, she wasn't super friendly. At any rate- at one point, Sadie became fussy, and her mom (just sitting against the wall), called her over and then pulled down her shirt and pulled out her boob to breastfeed! Now, I am a pretty free-to-be-me chicky, and I am breastfeeding too, but I try to be a little discreet about it. Not so in this case. Which would have been fine, albeit a little awkward, if someone else had not spied Sadie's mom's exposed boob. And no, I am not talking about Duchess' dad. Graydon saw her lift her shirt from across the room, and I literally saw his eyes light up. The next thing I know, my son was toddling determinedly across the room, with his eyes on the prize. I had to tackle him and distract him with a new toy before he was persuaded to abandon his quest. I mean, seriously. Weaning may be a little harder than I previously thought.

On a final note, thanks to Carrie and friends for the girls night out last night! It was great fun. Can't wait to do it again :)

Ok, fine, one baby pic. He really is too cute not to showcase as much as possible:

christmas outtakes, part deux

I just realized that I have now written over a hundred posts. Who knew there was so much to say about one crazy little baby?

Last night JC and I went out to dinner to celebrate our three year anniversary (well, the actual date is this coming Wednesday, but it's easier to snag a sitter on the weekend). Candace was kind enough to make her babysitting debut, and JC and I went to Bobby Van's and had a fabulous dinner. The baby went down right on schedule and slept like a dream, so Candace didn't have to contend with any late night meltdowns. It was great. Thanks again, Auntie Candace! :)

However, today was rough. Neither JC nor I can hang like we used to, apparently. We probably should have gotten a babysitter today, too. Poor Graydon had to deal with two tired, grumpy caretakers today. Ugh, we are definitely getting old.

We did manage to come out of our slump long enough to get some better Christmas pics, so there just may be Christmas cards after all! Here are some of the shots we got today:

We tried to get Gray and Stella in the picture, but getting them both to behave was never gonna happen. So poor Stells is getting the shaft once again and not making an appearance on the Christmas card. You'll just have to trust us that she is wishing everyone a happy holidays, as well.

poseur

Look at this ham. It's like he's auditioning for the cover of Men's Fitness magazine. I love it.

* Excuse the outfit, I was trying to dress him up in holiday gear so that I could get a cute pic for Christmas cards, but no such luck. He never even let me get his shirt on. Here are the best of the rest:

I was trying to get him to stay in one place so I could get a solid background but who was I kidding. Still not sure what we're going to do for the Christmas cards. Oh well.

pga, mlb, or abc?

JC is convinced that Grady is going to grow up to be a ringer on the PGA tour. He says he's going to start taking Graydon golfing as soon as he can stand upright without assistance and swing a club. However, I think the goose may have a different plan:

He literally carried this bat around for an hour and half yesterday. And besides, 3 separate people have told me that Grady Byrne sounds like a baseball player's name. So I guess we'll have to see! Although, as I repeatedly tell his father, even if he wants to dance ballet, that will be fine with us. As long as he is healthy and happy (and it pays well ;)!

What a little stud!

jamboree

Today we had our first play class at the local Gymboree studio, and hoo boy, was it ever a hit. Graydon was in hog heaven- there was so much to do and see! Gymboree is a huge,colorfully padded room filled with climbing stairs, tunnels, bridges, and toys- perfectly suited to this crazy baby. Here's a picture of the room, kind of blurry, but you get the gist of the set up:

There were 4 other little babies in his class, all girls, ranging from 11-14 months old, all walking, so it's a good match for him, age and activity-wise. The other babies had all been there before and were all over the place. Gray stood by my side for the first few minutes, soaking it all in- I think he was a little shell-shocked. But after five minutes he was good to go. He climbed through tunnels:

Helped to push this giant padded log across the room (this was a little tricky):

(By the way, that is NOT my butt. Just an FYI.)

Grabbed as many wiffle balls as he could fit in his sweaty little paws:

Was literally mesmerized by the blowing bubbles- all the other babies sat around peaceably, while he ran around like a loon trying to grab them (the bubbles, not the babies- well, sometimes the babies):

Sat around putting all the other babies to shame with his smoldering good looks:

The only awkward part of the class was when all the babies sat on a parachute in the middle of the room, and then all the parents scooted the parachute around the room, and made it wiggle, etc. Well, the goose, who thus far had embraced every task with gusto, was NOT pleased with this activity, and immediately started to cry and look for the exit (there was none). So I had to pick him up for a minute or two and he just watched the rest of the munchkins. But other than that, he was aces. I'm stoked to go back.

* The only disappointment was that I had hoped to meet some other moms there. So far I have not had much luck in that department- meeting moms is harder than dating! For real! And today there wasn't a single other mom- just a dad, a nanny, and two sets of grandparents. Sigh. Oh well. If only some of my local friends would just get pregnant so that Graydon could have some more playdates, that would be awesome. Hint, hint.*

soooo sorry

Wow, it's been over two weeks since I updated this blog! It hasn't seemed like that long. Sorry for the long absence, but the goose and I were seriously ailing week before last. I think I caught a virus that spiraled into a wicked sinus infection, and the goose must have caught the virus from me, as he started spiking fevers and acting super clingy. Ugh, and I quickly learned that the only thing worse than a sick baby is a sick MOM with a sick baby. It seriously sucked. JC helped out as much as possible, but it was really just a rough week.

In more bad news. last week was also the two year anniversary of my mom's passing, and boy did I feel her absence keenly. I miss her on a daily basis, but never more so than last week when I needed her to take care of me so I could take care of the baby! It was such a rough week.

And of course, the illness/anniversary dovetailed right into our Thanksgiving travel. We did our annual trek up to Philly. It was fun, but Graydon is just not a good sleeper when he's not in his own room, so we had a bunch of wake-ups each night. We've been back since Friday and I am still trying to get his sleeping back on track. He is definitely a baby that needs routine.

So there's my sob story! I'll stop now before this blog gets too depressing (probably too late for that!). In brighter news, Gray is now ten months old and keeps getting cuter. Here are some of his antics from the past month:

Sat around looking smug:

Attempted to physically silence Poppa T (has yet to learn that it's impossible):

Hung out with his girlfriend, Casey (with a parental chaperone, of course):

Cheered unsuccessfully for the Maryland Terrapins- between the Terps and his daddy's favorite pro-team, the Detroit Lions, this kid may be in for a lifetime of serious sports disappointment :

But the hat does look good on him, no? Maybe time to stop dressing him in that unflattering maroon and orange... hmmmm? :)

Hiked Mt Everest with his daddy (or maybe just hiked around the block- he's ready for either with this outfit! It keeps him suuuuper toasty. The only drawback is that it's so thick, it seriously hinders mobility and once he's in it, he can't move. He'll just lie on the floor, sweating and steaming, until someone scoops him up and plunks him into the baby bjorn).

And finally, out to dinner with his Uncle Jeff, where it looks like Jeff is either cleaning out Graydon's ear wax or giving him a wet willy:

Either way, the baby doesn't seem to mind.

Sorry about the long hiatus. More posts to come this week, I promise.