McGahee visit/Hanukkah 2011

Early this week we had some visitors from Cleveland, Ohio! Aunt Jennie, Uncle Bill, James, and doggie Buster came to visit on their road trip to south Florida. We had a great time. We went to the zoo and celebrated the boys' first Hanukkah.
Look how sweet....James has his hand on Grayson's shoulder. He was giving Grayson sweet kisses while he was here too.
Two cousins in the tub! Best shot I could get.
Here are the boys on the carousel. James loved it! Grayson wasn't too sure about it this time around.
Here are our baby monkeys with the gorilla statue at the zoo.
This is the only way James would come to either of us. Had to bribe him with a Cheeto.
Grayson is enthralled by the lighting of the menorah. James....not so much.
"Quit taking pictures Mom, let's open some presents!"
James didn't like the menorah lighting, but he did like the presents! Both boys liked all of their gifts! Thanks to our family and friends for thinking of our boys during the holiday season.

Holiday Happenings

Happy Holidays! Grayson was again, a great sport for Mommy's themed photo shoot.

We are getting closer to crawling everyday. He is really good at pushing his belly up now, and rocking, but it is hard for him to stay in that position for long. His thighs, due to the heavy weight they bear, tend to give out and slide to the sides before he can go anywhere. When he does keep them tucked in, he is a champ at moving backwards! Too bad the toys that he wants are in front of him which leads to a very frustrated boy!

We have tried chicken, turkey, beef, and macaroni and cheese baby food. He loved chicken, turkey, and mac and cheese and didnt really love the beef. I can tell this due to the lack of Mmmmm noises while he ate.

We are still having issues getting him to take 2 good naps a day, but he is a good sleeper at night. He is generally asleep by 730 and sleeps until 6 or later.

Not a whole lot going on around here, but here are some updated photos!
Mommy made this headpiece because shockingly she couldnt find anything like it in Jacksonville. We didnt get too many pictures of it though, Grayson seems to think it is a game when things are put on his head. The goal is to get it off as quick as possible. He wins every time!
The picture posted above and below are along the same lines. Grayson has now started to scrunch his face when he gets really excited or happy about something. Most of the pictures we get look like this. :)
The weather here in Jacksonville can't seem to make up its mind. We had a beautiful cool day in the upper 50s today. We spent most of it outdoors and had fun playing the backyard. Here are some shots with Mommy and Daddy.

A few weekends ago we went to an ugly sweater party that our friends Daphne, Casey, and Cooper had. The picture below is a staring contest between Grayson and Cooper.
PS. Grayson lost the contest when he realized there was a fan whirling above his head.
Our cutie pie in his "ugly" sweater vest.
Family photo of all of us in our ugly gear. This was at the end of the night and our little lamb was past ready to go home.
My generous friend Kelly L. has two kids that are outgrowing some of their clothes and toys. Enter Grayson. She has given us great stuff for him to use! These are two toys that he isnt ready for yet, but he had to give them a whirl. Check out the huge grins!

7 months old/Thanksgiving

I can hardly believe we are already 7 months old! He is getting so big! He is a pleasure to be around. He is full of smiles and laughter. His sleeping has gotten so much better at night, we are going to bed by 7:30 and have just started waking up between 6:45 and 7. It has only been two nights like that, but we are hopeful that it will continue!

In our last post he had gotten his first tooth. His second arrived about 2 days later. They are definitely visible now! He still looks super cute, even without his full gummy smile. :)

We now get a bath every night. It is part of our bedtime routine. Last night was the first night where we had him sitting up. We gave him toys to play with and he had a great time. We will have to get some pictures of that for our next blog.

We started going to My Gym with our friend Cooper. We get to do such cool stuff there! We swing on monkey bars, jump, use the trampoline, work on balance, and fine motor skills. I will post some pictures of that next time too. I think we will both meet good friends there. The moms and the babies there are so friendly.

Still no progress on the crawling front, but he is a great stander. He can pull himself up from my lap to a standing position, while using his stand up play toy. He thinks it's a game and he will do it and then fall back into my lap. I am hoping he never does this fall back game when nobody is behind him. He is back to his screaming phase and does it a lot when he is happy or excited.

He is a great eater. He now eats a fruit for breakfast, veggie for lunch, and 1/2 veggie for dinner. When he turns 8 months old we get to try some meats and start giving him table food. We are very excited to see how he handles that!

This Thanksgiving we spent in Hollywood beach with the Anker clan. We had a great time seeing all kinds of relatives and friends. Grayson even got to eat sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and green bean casserole. He did great with it all!

Our little boy is definitely going to be a reader. He loves being read to and his attention is totally and entirely in the book that is being read to him. He is learning how to turn the pages and always closes the book when we say "The end!"

Thanksgiving photo shoot

Check out our little turkey! He comes with all of the fixings. :) We had such a good time with our photo shoot and he was such a good sport!

Enough of this turkey business. Everyone knows the story of the Pilgrims and the Indians...so here they are! Grayson with his good friend Cooper dressed the parts to show everyone the true story of Thanksgiving and friendship. Classic!!

First trip to the zoo!

We took our first trip to the zoo in November. Grayson absolutely adored it. He had a great time looking at the all the animals and taking in all of the natural aspects that the zoo had to offer. His favorite part of the day by far was the merry-go-round. He had a blast on it, was smiling, laughing, and holding on to the pole like a big boy.

Check out the video on the bottom of my first merry-go-round ride!

We also got a visit from Poppi, Bibby Sue, and Uncle Jeremy. We had a blast with them. Grayson loves playing with them. They were so much fun!

New camera!

So we figured that with all of the pictures we take of our cute little boy, we might as well bite the bullet and buy a good camera. After 6 months of thousands of "I just missed getting the best picture" we couldn't put it off anymore! Daddy has had a great time learning how to use this new camera and all the fancy stuff it does. Mommy just snaps pictures and lo and behold, they come out adorable. :) Here are a few of our favorites over the past 2 weeks. We have had a lot of mini photo shoots both inside and in our backyard. Even got to take a few of us all dressed up before an engagement party for our friends!