March Madness!

Phew! This month has been crazy busy for us! Mommy turned the big 3-0! Daddy had a lot of great surprises planned including Grammie! We finally were able to make it up to Atlanta to see all of Daddy's camp friends. We had a great time and Grayson was fabulous with all of the new faces and two 6+hour car trips. We had our first playgroup playdate. We had a St. Patrick's Day photo shoot.

He is doing so many new things!

He has finally figured out how to get in a sitting position from crawling. Now all he does is crawl 2 crawls and sit. He gets a big "yea!" every time.

He is a super speed crawler now. He is so fast he even gets tripped up because his arms can't move as fast as his feet do.

We have been doing the stretching exercises that the orthopedist told us to do with his feet and they have already made a world of difference. He is pulling himself up onto EVERYTHING but now he is able to stand there and play without toppling over.

He can now even get himself into a sitting position from a standing position. He has figured out that he can just plop down on his tush. He does this action repeatedly as well.

Since he likes the fish tanks at pet stores we figured we would give the Atlanta Aquarium a whirl. Oh man- he went bonkers! He LOVED it! Each different room we went into he was making his "Heh" noise and dancing around. He would follow the fish and look with big, open eyes. While we were in the room where it was a floor to ceiling fish tank I made the discovery of some more white teeth poking out in the back. When we got back in the car I felt in his mouth and it seems that both of the molars on the top had started to pop through. Our tooth count is up to 10 now! He is getting much more vocal and has been making squealing sounds. He is too funny.

We have started doing weekly playgroups with our MyGym friends. We rotate houses and the person that hosts provides lunch for the moms. Here is our first play group at Sophie's house.

Pictured below are 4 of the 6 kids. London, Sophie, Tripp and Grayson. Where could Asher and Cooper be??

There they are! In the other room getting into trouble!
We had a St. Patrick's Day photo shoot. This did not go over well with Grayson. He apparently has no interest in this holiday. The first shots are great.

All the kids....so hard to get them all to sit still. So here is what we got! Grayson was so sad this day.

This is the wall of fish when you enter the aquarium. He saw it looked at us with a huge smile and said Heh!

Everytime there was a peep hole we put him in it and he would just bang on the glass and talk to the fish.

First time at the beach!

Today was a very special day around here. It was Grayson's first time at the beach! We met Daddy there and had a picnic lunch. It was too cold to feel the water this time, but hopefully we can do that next.
He LOVED the sand! He started just dragging his fingers over it.....then he really dug in!
Every day we walk up to the lake in our neighborhood and look at the ducks and the geese that are swimming in it. He gets so excited to see them. Needless to say, he was completely in heaven when he saw all the seagulls at the beach. He sat silently in his stroller and just watched them fly by or land on the sand and walk around.
Mommy and Grayson by the ocean.
Daddy and Grayson in the sand.
He preferred the wet, packed sand over the dry sand. But he went to town! He had it all over him! He even thought it might taste delicious, and boy is he quick! Several times he got his hand in his mouth before we could even stop him!
Our attempt at a family photo. Not too good....maybe next time will be better!

10 months old, Gramps and Grammie visit

Lots has been going on around here! Two weeks ago Gramps came to visit for the weekend. We had a great time with him! Grayson really studied every inch of his face when he first saw him. We played on the floor and had a fun trip to the zoo. Gramps was only here for a short 2 day visit. We hope he can stay longer next time!

A few days later Grammie came for a week! Grammie helped Mommy do arts and crafts for Grayson's first birthday. (Yes, I know it is still 2 months away, I am a bit of a planner.) We did a lot of fun projects while she was here. She compared her visit to a trip to camp. We also took a trip to the zoo. Grayson enjoys it so much and it is a fun outing for visitors.

Grammie was asked to try to help teach Grayson one of three things: 1) clap 2) wave 3) so big. Grammie failed her task, however she has created a basketball prodigy. Grayson is now able to pick up the basketball and put it in his little hoop (Thanks Aunt Lauren for the cool toy!). Better luck next time with the other skills I guess.

Grayson is a great crawler. He ventures off of the rug now and onto the wood floor and crawls all around the downstairs. He even found his way under the dining room table. :) He moves quickly but we are still working on getting into a sitting position from crawling. Currently, we just flop down on our belly when we have reached the toy/location we desire.

We have outlet covers in place and next on our to do list are gates and cabinet locks. He can pull up onto our small ottoman and has even gotten himself standing up at our tall couch. The problem is sometimes he doesn't get quite close enough to pull his body weight up using his arms from his tummy. He is getting pretty good at scooting his knees closer to the item he is pulling up on so he can get on his feet.

Grayson may be a master manipulator, but he is also a quick learner. He no longer cries when being laid down on the changing table. In fact, it is quite the opposite. He kicks, scrunches his face, and laughs uncontrollably. Mommy and Daddy have won this war!

Our little boy is as happy as ever. The "scrunchy face" is still in full effect. We now have 8 teeth, yes, you read that correctly. All four on the top front and all four on the bottom front. That explains why he was so snotty and whiny for a period of about 3 weeks.

He still eats everything we eat for dinner and gets pieces of food at lunch if we are out. He loves his breakfast and lunch baby food, but has started to turn down his dinner baby food. Who can blame him, when he is staring at the food on our plates! He loves all meat and has even had spaghetti and meatballs. He does not like mashed potatoes, which he made clear by gagging and exhibiting his throw up face.

He is using his sippy cup after breakfast, lunch, and dinner to quench his thirst with some water. At first he needed one of us to teach him to tilt it back so he could get water, but now he can do it all on his own! His pincer grip is refined now and he can pick up even the smallest thing, Cheerios, with ease.

He is somewhat of a quiet child, an observer, as we have said before. He has started to be more vocal and says Baaa. He is our little baby lamb. :)

He has also figured out how to click his tongue. He crawls around clicking. It is a much nicer sound than the grinding of the teeth that he is still doing.

Mommy has noticed that my right foot curves in a bit when I am standing playing so she decided to take me to a specialist to check. He was diagnosed with a mild case of metatarsus adductus. Basically just means that the muscles in his foot curve. The doctor showed us a few stretching exercises we can do with him to help correct it. He didn't seem to concerned and wanted to see us back in 3 months.

Amidst the pictures below of our recent events is a Valentine's photo shoot that we did with a few of our friends. Enjoy!

Grayson is on the move!

We are so excited to announce that Grayson FINALLY started to crawl! It all happened January 26th. He went up into a yoga pose "downward dog" and the rest is history! He is really good at crawling on his knees, but sometimes he gets lazy and moves a few times and then slumps down with his belly on the floor and does the worm. His favorite things to crawl for are the TV remote and to crawl towards his radio where his favorite CD plays. We think he is really excited to see something he wants and actually be able to go get it. It was a very exciting day in our lives and our next task at hand is baby-proofing. Be sure to catch the video of him showing his crawling skills at the bottom. They get better and better every day!

In an effort to save a few bucks, we decided to do our own photos for Grayson's 9 month shoot. We think it turned out pretty good, but how can you take a bad picture with such a gorgeous model? We used our picturesque entrance into our development as a background.

We went to the doctor today and Grayson weighed in at 20 lbs and 12 ounces. We think he probably weighed more, but his nose has been really stuffy lately so he hasn't been eating as much. Doctor told us that this runny nose that has been around for over a month goes along with teething and will probably stick around for the duration of the time he is getting new teeth. Oh, joy. What fun. The good news is, that Grayson doesn't mind it too much, that is until you go near him with a tissue or "boogie wipe." Then all hell breaks loose! We see two teeth on the top that are very close to popping through. We hope they come any day now. He is up to 28 inches in length. According to percentiles he is still in the 50th percentile for weight, and just below for height. He is already starting to slip down in the height ranks. Big surprise there.

We also learned that Grayson is a master manipulator. He has started screaming crying when he is laid down on the changing table. Evidently that is his way of saying, "No mommy I do not mind sitting in my own pee or poop, I want to keep playing with that toy you just took me away from." He is used to crying or whining and getting his own way. Not any more. Daddy and Mommy are making a huge effort to ignore the crying and not feed into it. We are hoping this is similar to the "cry it out" method that worked so well for us for bedtime. We know he is perfectly healthy, has no ear infection, so let's see who wins this war.

In this blog are our "favorites" from our 9 month photo shoot. Enjoy!

9 Months old

Grayson is doing great! He is getting bigger and bigger every day. At 9 months old the doctor said we could start giving him some table food. He eats everything! He will not turn anything down. He has had BBQ ribs, chicken, garlic bread and marinara sauce, avocado, bread, waffles, just to name a few. He has eaten meatloaf and meatballs also. But to go along with an earlier blog, evidently they were not as delicious as the other meats.

He is still eating a fruit with oatmeal for breakfast, a veggie for lunch, and now a meat/veggie mixture for dinner. We also make sure we eat dinner at the same time so he can get scraps of whatever we are eating. He has some snacks after each meal also. After breakfast he gets yogurt melts and cheerios. After lunch he gets kale/spinach/collard greens puffs or sweet potato puffs (they taste like air). After dinner he gets any of the above mentioned snacks as well as some "mild cheddar crunchies" AKA cheetos. We put them on his tray and he is awesome at picking them up with his pincer grip.

We now have five teeth. The second one of the top came in right after the first one. So far he has been a great teether. Such a good teether, that we didn't even realize that tooth number 5 came in to the right of the bottom two until our friend Daphne pointed it out to us. :)

We did get sick again this month. We had about a 2 week rest and then right back with the same runny nose and cough. This time wasn't nearly as bad as last so we still had our happy boy. Now that we are thinking about it, it might have just been his teething.

We are still going to MyGym every Wednesday which he adores, for the most part. :) Still working on getting some pictures of that.

Our routine for the day:

6:30-6:45-Wake up and get first bottle

8:00- Eat breakfast

9:00- First nap (naps are getting better and better lasting from between 1-2 hours now)

11:00- Bottle

1:00- Lunch

2:00- Nap

3:15-3:30/whenever he wakes up- Bottle

5:00- Dinner

6:45- Books, bath, bottle, bed

You could set your watches by this kid. I can tell exactly what time it is depending on whether he is fussing and rubbing his eyes or crying because he is hungry.

He was up to drinking about 7.5 ounces at a time until he got sick and couldn't take that much at a time due to a stuffy nose. We are slowly but surely getting him back up there.

He is still a giggly, fun boy! He is super ticklish and has continued to make his scrunchy face when he is really excited. Another thing he is doing is flapping his arms like a little bird. It is when he is sad, mad, happy, excited. We can't quite figure out why he started doing that, but for now he is our little birdie. :)

We have had a very mild winter here in Jacksonville. There have been only a few cold days where we have had to bundle him up to go on one of our many daily walks.

Here we are snuggling and watching what else, Miss Spider! Still does his "chilling" position any chance he gets!
The scrunchy face is still in full effect! He does it all the time.
Yesterday Mommy ran with her friend Daphne in their first race, a 5 mile run. Daddy and Grayson were waiting at the finish line with this sign. What a great cheerleader!
A photo op at MyGym with Cooper.
Here is Grayson sporting his mohawk. His hair on the top is getting longer and longer and it has started to stick straight up.
I know there is snot dripping down his face in this one, but I couldnt resist posting. What a cutie!
This was after Grayson went to his first friend's birthday party. It was a Sesame Street theme and we got a cool Cookie Monster goody bag. Happy Birthday Connor!
Mommy's friend Tracey was in town for work so she came over and we hung out and went out to lunch. He was flirting with her, of course.
Mommy met a really nice girl at the park and she gave us this cool car for free! I love driving around in it honking the horn.
On our last trip to Publix I got a balloon. I love them! I am also showing off one of my favorite snacks, yogurt melts. Mom let me hold them. She is so nice.

Laugh

Laugh #2 (I know it is dark, but hard to resist posting this one)

Genius

8 months old

Here he is.....our smiling 8 month old boy! Not much to report on this blog, but figured I would post our monthly birthday. We do have our third tooth. It is the top, right one. The fourth one should be on its way shortly, we are told. We are doing tummy time more and more and hoping that we get closer to crawling. He is getting much better at it and will actually play on his stomach now instead of whining to be flipped over. The doctor also called him a "toe stander" because when he stands up and plays, he does so on his tippy toes. Grayson would probably beat anyone in a "calf contest."

Along with being 8 months old, we have our first illness. I guess we can't complain, it has been a good run. A nasty cold with a horrible cough. It is so painfully sad to see our sweet, happy baby wince and cry every time he coughs. Hoping we are at the tail end of it as it has been almost a week of this mess. The doctor also told us to start vitamins so we are doing that daily now also. When we went to the doctor to get him checked out, he weighed in at 19 lbs and 14 oz. Our New Years planned trip to Atlanta was cancelled due to a sick baby. Hopefully we will get up there before Grayson is 18 years old!

Below is another prized photo of the "scrunchy face." We are beginning to like these more than the regular smile ones. :)