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.