niner

Ok. Today is the goose's nine month birthday. Can you even stand it! He is definitely looking and acting more like a little boy and less like a baby, in my opinion. Today he was standing near the dining room table and reached up and grabbed something off the top. True, he had to stand on his tippy toes, but STILL! One less safe place in the house to put stuff. He celebrated by having a few cocktails with his daddy:

He's not totally walking, but he does take 3-5 steps solo before he falls down. And he pulls himself up and cruises every chance he gets. On the downside, he's still a bit wobbly, so he does usually end the day fairly banged up. He's already bitten his tongue twice with his new, sharp teeth, and drawn blood. Ouch! And while an injury like that would have me curled up in the fetal position for hours, he's actually quite stoic and only cries for a few seconds. But his cry- the soundless intake of breath that is never ending until it results in an ear-shattering WAIL- that cry haunts me. It is sooooo pathetic. Poor Mr. Biggums.

Speaking of teeth, he now has six!! Four upper, two lower. Possibly more, but he won't let me near his mouth to check. He's off his food a little bit, and barely napping. And this is more information than you were probably looking for (apologies in advance to those of you reading this during lunch), but he has MAJOR diarrhea, and the smell. The SMELL! It would peel paint straight off the walls. It actually made me dry heave this morning. And I'm a NURSE! Gross smells are my bread and butter! Oh, but I tell you--the. worst. ever. Ugh.

As for talking, he pretty much has three ways of communicating: laughing; crying; and fart noises. Occasionally he will ooooh or aaaaah or some other vowel sound. But that was his whole repetoire. Until 3 days ago. When he started clucking. Like a chicken. I don't know if any of you have seen the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy"- it's a weird movie about the bushmen in Africa, and one of them finds a coke bottle that has fallen out of the sky because someone was littering from an airplane, and it turns their whole society upside down and ANYWAY. It is a strange movie but my mother loved it and more importantly? The bushmen don't speak, they just "click" at each other and that's their language. And Graydon sounds EXACTLY like them. He clicks and clucks and sounds just like the tribesmen in that movie. JC and I are terrified that this is going to be his only method of communication and we are going to have to learn how to click in order to talk to him. We are renting that movie ASAP.

Poppa T came over this past weekend and continues to surprise us with how well he interacts with el bambino. It's like they share a brain, or something. He is always offering to babysit, regardless of the fact that he is not totally sure how to change a diaper, or warm a bottle. But, details! we say. We have hired him on for this Saturday. Fingers crossed. Children's Hospital on speed dial.

Happy 9 months babycakes! It is DEFINITELY getting fun :)

got yogurt?

Today I put Gray in his high chair for a snack of teething biscuit dipped in yogurt, yum. He's getting into everything these days, and I thought that the yogurt was out of reach when I stepped into another room to grab something. But evidently, I grossly underestimated his reach, because I returned to this:

I guess the kid likes yogurt!

the older woman

Friday, Graydon and I went to Annapolis to play with his BFF Casey. Per the usual, they had a fabulous time together. First they played with Casey's exersaucer (it plays music- Graydon slapped along to the beat while Casey danced - totally hilarious):

Next, and this was totally without prompting from Kim (Casey's mom) or myself, Casey got on this little fire engine toy, and Gray crawled right up and started pushing her around the living room. It was the perfect activity for both- Casey was carted around like a little princess and Graydon was able to work out his excess energy. They seriously did this for an hour.

Who knows how long this would have gone on, but then Casey fell off:

Kim and I used the break in the action to coerce them both into eating lunch. Afterwards, we were interested to see if they would go back to playing with the fire engine. They didn't; instead, they started playing with this:

Casey climbed into her dolly stroller, and once again, Gray pushed her around the living room. And she was happy, and he was THRILLED! He's not even 9 months and already some girl has him under her thumb! :)

Seriously, though, they have such a great time playing with each other. They did have one brawl over a talking book but all was quickly forgiven and forgotten. When we were leaving, Casey started sobbing. They are such good friends. It's so stinking cute. Can't wait until next time!

month eight

Month eight is coming to an end (!!), so I need to document all of the goofy stuff el senor loosey goosey has done this past month.

-First and foremost, he is ALMOST walking. He is soooo ridiculously close but just not quite there yet. He lurches around the living room like a sailor on leave, grabbing whatever piece of furniture is in reach to keep himself upright. We have a leather ottoman in our living room, and his daddy will chase him round and round it, while Graydon laughs uproariously. Sometimes he runs around the ottoman in a sheer hilarious panic, desperate (in a good way) to get away from the chaser. Other times he is having so much fun that he forgets he is being chased, and will instead start staggering towards you, laughing all the while. It's so great. He's so much fun now.

-Sleep is still an interrupted hot mess, although nowhere near as bad as it was the first six months. He started sleeping through the night a month or two ago, but then he got sick, and then he started teething, so we are back at ground zero. Oh well. I'll get him back when he's a sullen, sleepy high schooler. I'll wake him up early and make him mow the lawn, or something else equally diabolical. :)

-Teeth! We've got four! Two up, two down. JC is worried because he thinks the two front uppers are coming in too far apart. As in, you can fit a baby carrot through the gap. But whatevs, we both had braces, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that old gap-toothed Grady is going to have to go the same route. Sorry, baby. We'll get them off before prom.

-Food- we started giving him some finger foods, and it's going ok. I've started putting some mushy bananas and carrots on his high chair tray, and although he wears most of them, he does enjoy the process of feeding himself. I'm really looking forward to the time where he is able to feed himself and get most of it into his mouth without destroying his outfit.

That's all I can think of right now... I worked yesterday at the hospital and then spent all day tending to this little nut so i am tiiiiiiiiired....

Very excited for month nine. Thanks for a great month 8, munchkin!

time-fillers

We found the greatest place the other day in Capitol Hill- it's called the Family Room. It's like an indoor playspace for kids. Basically, it's a big room with padded floors, tons of toys and tons of babies. It is without a doubt a HUGE germ factory but beggars can't be choosers and besides, it keeps the goose occupied for like, HOURS. A risk worth taking, in my beleaguered opinion.

We showed up with friends Candace and Kim, and Kim's adorable toddler, Miss Casey Elizabeth. Casey is at the age where she likes to give hugs, and it is just so sweet. She and Graydon get on like a house afire, and they both had an awesome time playing:

Later, we came home so that Graydon could play his new favorite game: reorganizing the refrigerator.

We let him play around for a few minutes, but we had to pull the plug on this attraction when he kept trying to climb INTO the fridge:

Oh, well, whatever keeps him occupied. This kid is not so easily entertained. If he wants to spend a few minutes chilling in the refrigerator, well then, be my guest. Pass the margarita mix, Graydon!

sicko

Well, I'm sick and old Blue Eyes here seems to have developed a wicked ear infection, complete with appetite loss, sleepless nights and pretty nasty diarrhea. It is total Casa de Grossness over here. I have heard that ear infections can go hand in hand with teething, and since Biggums Wiggums has two new front teeth, I am pretty sure his pearly whites are the cause of said infection. It's crazy, teething is barbaric enough without throwing ear/eye/nose infections into the mix. Poor kid. We are trying to get into see the doctor tomm, but it's a new doc, not sure how the process goes. Total ugh. Babies should just be born with all their teeth already, this process is too brutal.

splashdance

Bathtime just got a whole lot messier.

baby bonanza

Today was such fun! We went over to our friend Ben's house for a playdate.

Ben was a gracious host, letting Graydon and the twins Gianna and Vincent crawl around his house and play with his toys.

Vincent and Gianna (nicknamed Gigi, so freaking cute) are fifteen months and I can't wait until the goose is that age. They were so much fun.

Vincent has two top teeth and two bottom teeth and looks like the cutest chipmunk ever. He says thank you ("Dank ew") to everything, even as he was grabbing toys away from Ben and Grady. He's a polite thief :)

Gianna is so happy and sweet. She giggled and talked on her fake cell phone and is a totally adorable snuggle bunny.

Ben sat there placidly and soaked it all in. He's such a laid back baby! He's not crawling yet, but he does roll around at a very leisurely pace and gets where he needs to be. He is two weeks younger than Graydon but he outweighs him by a good five pounds! Everyone played nicely together, and at the end of our time together, Ben ever so subtlely let us know it was time for us to leave:

Such fun! The best part was, Graydon was so excited to be interacting with other babies that he came home and took his longest nap ever, over two hours! If only every day could be playdate day.

current mood: grateful for good friends, tall and small.

catch up

I'm trying to figure out how to post videos on this blog. We have a couple of videos that are fun, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to upload them. I am not what you would call computer savvy. In fact, it's a tribute to this webhost that I am able to blog at all.. if they hadn't spelled out the directions for me in VERY SIMPLE TERMS there's no way I would have figured it out on my own. thanks, blogger!

So, Monday I went back to work. I was cautiously optimistic, hoping that going back to work would be a nice change of pace, I would get to see alot of my coworker friends, I would enjoy using my brain and hanging out with adults. And the verdict is..... not so much. Work sucked. True, it was nice to see my friends. But WOW, that job is hard. When you work as a nurse on the ICU, you really have to show up and give a hundred percent, physically, emotionally, mentally. There's no phoning it in. Which is totally doable when it's your only job. But combined with sleep deprivation, stress over the baby's development, and the fact that I haven't had any downtime in 8 months, I was nowhere near 100 percent. I was probably closer to 30 percent, and that's being generous. So it was tough. One of my patients was circling the drain and the other spent the day vomiting into his neck brace and trying to climb out of bed. I bounced between the two like a ping pong ball. A brain-dead, overwhelmed ping pong ball. In between caring for them I tried to squeeze in pumping sessions, calls to check on the baby, and finally, lunch. No fun. I'm going to try and suck it up but I'm not sure I'm capable of managing two energy-sapping careers. Call me wussy, I know. Oh well.

As per daycare (aka my mother in law- thanks again!) it seems the baby didn't even know I was gone. Is that the thanks I get after 8 months of slaving away for him. Sheesh. But seriously, I am very grateful that he was well taken care of and enjoyed the day. I now realize that even when he's being a miserable cuss, it's still SO MUCH MORE FUN THAN WORK! If my one day back at work did anything, it made me totally appreciate my time at home with el bambino. No more complaining! Ok, well maybe a little. But WAY LESS.

current mood- home and happy

testing

i'm trying to see if i can post video. is this working?

heartbreak

Today is the last day of my maternity leave. And while I am extremely grateful and happy to have been able to stay at home so long with the little guy, I am just devastated at the thought of leaving him on Monday. I get physically ill just thinking about it. I know he'll be fine, I know he'll be well taken care of. But I also know that at some point on Monday, he is going to be looking around the house, searching for his mama, and for the first time I won't be there, and it just sucks.

Sigh.