month six

Today my big boy is six months old! I can hardly believe it, and yet, I can. We slogged through those first three months and they felt like forever. The last three have been substantially better. This month has been CRAZY in terms of developmental milestones. Boyfriend has gotten BUSY!

Here's the haps from month 5:

Learned to sit up all by himself:

Started crawling (he's still not full on crawling; instead, he will crawl four or five steps, then plop down on his belly and start army crawling on his elbows to his destiniation, like a very determined lizard). But no matter, he makes good time- he can cross a room in a matter of seconds. Very impressive!

Cut his first two teeth (bottom middle) at 5 months, 3 weeks. Still have only seen glimpses of said teeth; he's not a fan of opening his mouth wide. The dentist is going to be loads of fun with this kid.

Pulled himself to a standing position, twice! (no documentation, you'll just have to believe me).

Had his first metro ride (rode backwards and tried to grab the girl's ponytail in front of us. I didn't let him touch a thing and wiped him down from top to bottom afterwards. Metro germs, ugh!)

Saw the Capitol for the first time (didn't seem very impressed):

Got his diaper changed in public by his DAD for the first time (HA! This one is my favorite):

Celebrated his Grammy's birthday.

Finally discovered that hanging out with Uncle Jeff is not all that it's cracked up to be (half of Bethesda's female population can attest to this).

Started thinking deeeeeep thoughts.

Happy sixth month birthday little man!

banana bomb

We met up with two of my favorite friends from nursing school for lunch yesterday, Megan and Maridith. It was so nice to see them and they both look amazing and are doing really well. We also got to meet Megan's new daughter, the fabulous Elsie! for the first time. Elsie is suuuuuch a sweetheart. While Graydon proceeded to grab everything he could get his hands on and throw it on the floor, Elsie just lay there like a little angel and smiled beatifically at the table. She's a doll baby. And Megan is doing cloth diapers, which is so impressive to me, especially since Graydon is single-handedly destroying the environment with his prolific diaper use. Here are some pictures from our luncheon:

Gray, Megan, and Mar

Megan, now dreading the sixth month:

Holding Elsie, she's so petite compared to our monster!




Gray trying to hold Elsie's hand- I think he was smitten:

Since we met in Bethesda, Uncle Jeff wanted to stop by and see his favorite nephew. And thank goodness he did, because Grady was a total handful and refused to sit still at the table, just kept squirming and whining and trying to grab utensils and stab people with them. So in exchange for me buying him the chili special of the day, Jeff took Graydon out and about and kept him occupied while I caught up with my girlfriends. Much appreciated, Jeff!

So, the day we all knew was coming has finally arrived. After 3 days of eating oatmeal and bananas and not pooping, Gray had what can only be described as an epic bowel movement on Friday. Seriously, I'm a nurse. I can handle bowel movements. But this one was horrific even for me. It smelled sooooo freaking badly. JC and I were both doubled over on the ground, gagging and making retching noises. Seriously. It was that gross. And it totally woke him up early from his nap, ugh. Thankfully it was bath day, so he got lathered up good after all that nonsense:

I think I'm taking bananas off the menu for a while.

Edited to add: Sorry about all the poop talk lately. But honestly, these blowouts are insane. "Man-sized" is how JC describes them. Sooooo groooooss.

i do NOT want to win the lottery

So, of course, after bitching up a storm yesterday on this blog, today the baby was awesome. Woke up only once last night, napped for 2 hours at a stretch. Of course. Of course! Because I finally realized, this blog is MAGICAL. Everything I write, the next day, the opposite happens. Without fail. So, for tomorrow, I hope the baby takes short naps! And is cranky! All day long!

Thanks, magical blog!

sooooooooo tiiiiiiiiired

Ok, so I think I have to stop posting good news on this blog, because the minute I do, things take a turn for the worse. It's like the blog and the baby are conspiring against me! Things HAD been going well with the sleep training. Apparently by now we should be gravy, according to the (worthless) book I'm following. Instead, Graydon is apparently the only baby alive who actually is getting WORSE with the training, rather than better. Instead of sleeping through the night, we all got up at 4:30 this morning. Except for Stella. Stella slept in til like, 7. It's like Bizarro world over here.


Of course, he cried a ton today, but every time I reached for the camera to document it, he started smiling. He's definitely a little ham.





Part of the reason has to be that the poor little guy is teething. He has one tooth poked through and the one next to it looks to be coming through any minute now. So then I feel doubly guilty for letting him cry when he is probably in pain. This just sucks. I tried to get a pic of the new teeth but I couldn't without blinding him.





On a happier note, he is now sitting up unassisted. The first time he did it, he was really surprised, and then so pleased with himself, he just started squealing and laughing. Now he tries to do it all the time. Hilarious. And tonight, JC and I watched him pull himself up to a (very wobbly) standing position! He is clearly a kid on the move.







Ok, am exhausted. Hopefully tomorrow is better.


PS- This is kind of gross, sorry. Why is Graydon's ear wax the color of cheetos? Does anyone know? Is this normal? It's like a neon orange. I didn't even know that color existed in nature. Don't worry, I'm not posting a picture. Although I thought about it.

tired

So, Baby Boot Camp was actually not nearly as bad as we had anticipated (knock on wood!). The baby actually put himself to sleep with just a minimal amount of crying each time. Apparently he was quite ready for us to stop rocking me already and just put me in the crib, mom! Sigh. I wasn't aware he'd get this independent so fast. We were successful in much of what we tried this weekend, and still have a few kinks to work out until we find the perfect schedule for him. But I would have to declare this weekend an unqualified success. Most of the thanks goes to JC- he had to do a lot of the dirty work. Thanks, honey!

Some other firsts this weekend: We only did 3 days on sweet peas because they were clearly not a fan favorite:

Carrots, on the other hand, were very well received.

We have two more days of carrots and then we'll be starting bananas on wednesday.

We discovered that Gray's hair is now long enough to shape into the coveted faux hawk (that's fake mohawk for the more, uh, mature readers). We had a great time in the pool fashioning him into a baby punk rocker:

And, best of all, Aunt Kate came for a visit! Unfortunately, we timed it wrong, and Graydon had just gone down for a nap when she arrived. But he woke up in the nick of time, and he was clearly very happy to see his aunt. Kate also had the misfortune of getting her hand chomped on by Graydon's new TOOTH! Yes, we've now got teeth over here! JC and I didn't even realize it (how I could breastfeed and not feel it is beyond me!) and I feel slightly bad that we have been sleep training him through this traumatic time. But he seems to be doing ok, no crankier than usual, so I guess we'll just keep on doing what we've been doing.

All in all, a busy, tiring, but productive weekend.

schedules, swings, and souveniers

So, we had a decent week over here at Casa de Byrne, aka Casa de Crazy Baby. We are trying to get el bebe on a schedule (ha! right!) which is going to involve some tears (baby), alcohol (me), and more tears (also me. maybe JC as well). We have officially dubbed this weekend baby bootcamp, so if you don't hear from us (or worse- if you do hear from us and we are unintelligible), you'll know why.

Things we did this week:

Played with the ever-popular Aunt Candace at a new playground:

Went to visit our BFF Bobby (who, btw, is only EIGHT weeks old! and is almost FIFTEEN pounds! He's huge!!) I meant to get a picture of the two of them side by side, but I forgot. Trust, this is one baby that Grady will not tower over. Look at these cheeks!

Swam in the big boy pool (and didn't poop! hooray!!!):

Sat around and looked foxy:

ALSO: I always mean to post this, but keep forgetting. Remember a few weeks ago when JC left me home alone with the baby while he partied it up on the Gulf of Mexico with all of our friends for an extended weekend? Hmmm, trust me, I have not forgotten it! Especially since the babe picked that weekend to be particularly ornery. Well, JC did bring back some super cute stuffed animals and t-shirts for the baby. And he managed to buy himself a pretty sweet bottle of top shelf tequila. But for me, you ask? The mother of his son, the forlorn caretaker left behind? What was MY souvenier?

Feast your eyes on this lovely:

Yes, my friends, it's the ugliest t-shirt of all time. First of all it is a T-SHIRT. Not, as you may have been expecting, and by you I mean me, mexican jewelry. Or perhaps a nice silver bowl, or some fine mexican ceramics. I hear one can find all of the above for very reasonable prices, if one is so inclined to actually, you know, LOOK. However, if one would rather purchase all gifts last minute at the mexican airport for muchos, muchos pesos, then I imagine the above is what you would get. Just in case the shirt's ugly factor is not radiating through your computer, this shirt is olive green/brown (always a flattering color)- highlighted with gold and neon green. It is, as the mexicans themselves might say, MUY FEO. Normally JC gets the gift giving thing right (my birthday presents in particular were FABULOUS) but this time he went wrong, wrong, wrong. MUCHAS GRACIAS, JC. Next time you stay home with the baby and I'll go buy the ugly t-shirts to bring home :)

PS- just to clarify- I am not a spoiled biotch, I am just giving JC a little bit of a hard time. How can I complain about a husband who cooks AND does the dishes? But this t-shirt is too ugly not to share :) And if you can't roast your husband on your own blog, then when can you?

awkward phase

So after writing the last post, I was looking through the rest of Graydon's 8 week old pictures, and I just had to laugh, because seriously? He was looking a little rough back then. Example:

Balding

Pimply

And, this one is the best: cross-eyed

Yowza. And the funny thing is, this stage was where we thought he was looking really handsome. Thank goodness he seems to have turned a corner! :)

then and now

8 weeks old:

Same outfit, 3 months later:

Is it just me, or do these two babies not even look RELATED, never mind being the same baby! Such major changes! Craziness!

craptastic

I don't normally post in the middle of the day, but this was too gross not to share. This morning, after Graydon woke up from his (second) morning nap, I brought him downstairs and put him in his favorite toy, the jumperoo. Then I went into the kitchen to clean up some stuff. AFter a few minutes, I noticed Graydon wasn't jumping and was instead looking at me with a peculiar expression on his face. So then I came to take a closer look, and saw this :

Hmmm... What'st that on his leg? At first I thought it was just sweet potatoes, until I realized we had started sweet peas this morning. So I did a double take:

And then I realized.... ewwwwwwww. Thanks, Graydon.

PS- after his unscheduled, mid-morning bath, while I was drying him off, Graydon first peed on himself and then managed to unscrew the cap to the lotion bottle and smeared lotion all over his face and neck. Baby for sale!

casanova

Ladies, ladies, finally, at last! all your dreams are about to come true. This 26 inch, 17 lb SWM is on the market and looking for looooooooooove.

I enjoy long walks, short naps, and only the finest 2008 breastmilk, straight from the tap. I can be found perfecting my olympic form in the baby pool, and not to brag, but have been known to fit my entire foot in my mouth. I'm extremely family oriented, and prefer to stay close to home.

Have I piqued your interest yet? Please, allow me to continue.

My great loves include my dog Stella, plastic bottles, and my jumperoo. I have a great disdain for car rides, wet diapers, and sitting still.

I am looking for a SF, race unimportant, between the ages of 0 and 1, to share playdates, toys, and possibly more. If you think you might be interested, (and I'm sure you are), please have your people (Mommy) call my people (Mommy) and let's make magic together.

Ladies, ladies, not so fast! One at a time, please! There is plenty of me to go around!

PS- Very interested in crawlers and walkers. Ladies who like to nap need not apply.