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.