Big News.

Dear Jo,

Grayson took his first three shuffle steps right before our eyes last night.  It was pretty cool.  (No, we did not get it on video – or film)

-J

Happy Baby.

Today we have one happy boy.

Lately, this is harder to come by (darn teething) so I went ahead and took a short video.  Here it is:

1)  I love that when he fell, he wouldn’t take his hand off of the cart handle, and therefore could not right himself.  He finally did let it go and got out of that little predicament.

2)  He is so cute when he waves.  He is finally starting to do it more often.

3)  His hair is getting so curly as it is getting longer.  If you notice at the end, the right side of his head of hair is sticking straight out to the side.  I see this every time I get him out of his crib…and I love it.  Don’t you?

4)  While I was reviewing the clip, as it got to the end and you could hear my voice asking Grayson to wave,  I looked down at him on the floor by the computer and he was staring up at me, waving really BIG.  He must have been paying attention.

For the Fun of It.

I think he was imagining himself in 9th grade and pretending the chair was a tree.

Practicing?

Maybe.

Catching up.

Ok, its been a while (again) since I posted anything about the little one.  I keep thinking that I am busy, that I will do it tomorrow, then tomorrow turns into two months, and still there is nothing.  So, here goes:

Grayson turned 10 months old yesterday.  Yikes!  I can’t believe how fast this has all gone.  I think he is in the upper 17 pound range at this point.  Wearing size 3 diapers when he isn’t in his cloth.  He crawls at lightning speed around the whole house, scales over us like he is going to climb Mount Everest before he turns 16, and is cruising along the bed, cupboards, chairs, and between our pant legs like he was born to do so.  Among other things, he has started waving, enjoys playing peek-a-boo, tilts his head from side to side just so he can get you to mimic him, and has started to place things in cups (or the bathtub).  He is still not saying ‘da da’ or ‘ma ma’ like his doctor would like him to, but he squeals and hollers all of the time.

I love that he goes to bed at 7:30 without a fight, takes his naps like a man, and sleeps until morning.  That is our saving grace.

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This past weekend my grandparents, Graysons great grandparents, were in town and we were lucky enough (since I am not working) to be able to see them for the three days they were here.  I know that they enjoyed being able to spend that time with him, and I enjoyed being able to visit and talk with them.  All in all, it was a whole lot of fun.  Great grandpa Mitchell even got to babysit the little buggar for 15 minutes when I took Dean to pick up his car!  True to form, Grayson was entertaining and happy for him.  Such a little sport.

We are very lucky that his content attitude is still going strong.  He has become slightly more clingy – getting a little bit of separation anxiety – but we were prepared for that from his Doctor at our last visit there.  Hopefully it doesn’t get any worse (it really is not bad right now) because I love that he is so easy to take care of and that he doesn’t seem to know a stranger.

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We went on our first trip to the grocery store this week without his pumpkin seat.  We had to switch him out of it as he was getting a little too tall.  And, though it was nice to be able to carry him around, he was getting a tad bit heavy in that thing too!  I was worried that he would climb out of the cart, or throw a little fit because he was constrained, but he did wonderfully.  The trip took forever and he kept it together the whole time.  (we pretty much had to get everything – the last time that I went to the store was at least 5 weeks ago, yikes)

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Pretty much, our little babe is all boy.  He enjoys playing with his toys for approximately 20 minutes a day, and the rest of the time he is on the move.  Moving, exploring, moving, banging pan lids, chasing the dog, screeching, climbing, trying to eat dirt, trying to eat chalk, trying to eat my face, smiling, laughing, and having fun.  Just the way I want it.

Happily Birthday!

Today marks the end of my favorite person’s 29th year and the start of her (gasp!) 30th. I have been blessed to know her for 11 of those years and married to her for 7. She is the mother of my son and the best part of me. She hides an extreme intelligence and humor behind her humility and cares for people more than they will ever know. In short, she is the cornerstone of our family and if any of you enjoy our company, it’s probably because of her.

Happy Birthday Jennifer!

Update

Ok, so Grayson went to the Pedi yesterday for his 9 month wellness exam.  Everything looked good.  He weighs 17 pounds, 6 ounces (5th percentile), is 28 inches tall (50th percentile) and his head is 18.5 inches around (80th percentile).   As far as the facial swelling from last week, it has gone down, and his doctor informed me that the mumps test takes 3-4 weeks, and not the one week that the nurse had mentioned at the time.  So, we will be waiting for a while.  He did not think that it was mumps because his amylase and lipase levels were normal, plus of course, he doesn’t have much outside/stranger contact.  So, overall, everything is going beautifully, and we are all looking forward to next week!

Two Hours Later…

It only took two hours to get this two minute video up.  Certainly there is a more efficient way to do this….

But trust me, it was well worth it.  Ok, fine, see for yourself.

Scary Stuff.

Our little boy woke up with a super puffy chin, firm to the touch, just in front of his ear. No fever. We went to his pediatrician and got some tests done, and now I am in the wait mode. I refuse to be overly worried, that is, until they give me something to worry about. I never thought I would have hoped that my babe had an ear infection as much as I did this morning on the way to see the doctor.

He is in high spirits though, and does not seem as bothered as I do at this new addition to his face. What are the differentials you ask? Well, it could be a clogged salivary duct that will just have to work itself out, with some encouragement from me and Grayson’s willingness to eat the crystal coating off of some Sour Pat.ch Kids. An abundance of lemon slices, and lemonade are on his dietary list as well. All of this is in hopes that stimulating salivary secretions will unplug the duct if that is indeed what is causing this. Other possibilities include the mumps- which I cannot say I am that familiar with, though I have NO IDEA how he would have come across that virus. You know, with him being at home and rarely going into the public and all. And of course, unlikely but possible is … well, I won’t even talk about that.

Here is a pic of our little one from this morning.

And then another from just about 10 minutes ago. The swelling is worsening, quickly.

And no, they do not suspect a bug bite or allergic reaction, or anything of that nature.

Humph.

I’m no good at keeping this thing up.  I wrote a post when Grayson turned 8 months old and was just waiting to post it until I got the pic I wanted loaded.  And, here it is two weeks later, still not posted.  Leave it to me…

Grayson is changing so quickly these past two days.  He decided that he was going to stand up in his crib on his own, then he started getting his second bottom tooth, which explains his fussiness, and this morning he started crawling across the floor.  A real crawl this time, he appears to be done with his army training.  I was surprised because he hasn’t shown an interest in it, and there he was staring at Diesel from across the room, then he decided he wanted to be over there, and crawled the whole way.  No faultering…  Strange.

Really, he is a monkey.  Yesterday he decided to stand up using the dresser- then promptly fell and hit his eye on the little knobbies.  I do believe that he will get many, many bruises in the next couple of months.  Especially if he keeps scaling over us like an eighteen year old boy jumps over a four foot fence.  Geesh.

Well, here is a pic of our crazy boy.  This is his good side:

Late Night Visitor

As a new(er) father, I am still surprised at all the little secrets that older parents haven’t let me in on. This is especially true when it comes to many of the childhood myths.

A few nights ago, we had a late night visitor. And trust me, nothing is more disturbing than going to check on your child and finding a sprightly woman in tights and wings standing over his crib. No one had ever told me that the 25¢ you get under your pillow when you lose a tooth is really just getting your parents’ deposit back.