Grayson's first birthday party!

 We had a very exciting weekend around here! We celebrated Grayson's 1st birthday with his friends and family.   We had a great time and only a few meltdowns. :)  We had almost 30 people here at one point, so you can't fault him for getting a bit overstimulated!   The party was initially planned for 4:00, but there was a huge storm coming through town in the afternoon.  I was so worried that the party would be rained out and we would be stuck inside, that I called up our guests and most were able to make it earlier, so party time was changed to noon.  I am so thankful for my husband, parents, and in-laws who all banded together and helped me keep my cool by getting the party all set up 4 hours earlier than we had planned.

 Here is our cute bug's party invitation.  The reason we went with bugs is that his FAVORITE show is and has always been Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends.

 The entryway to our bug party.

 I made bug antennae for all the kids to wear.

 Caterpillar with Grayson's name in green balloons!

 We thought it would be neat for Grayson to have a keepsake from his first party.  I got a Dr. Seuss book about bugs and had everyone write a note for him.

 The favors for the kids; a home for the insects they catch and all kinds of buggy stuff inside!

 For the last 12 months, I have been talking a picture on the 22nd of every month.  It was so neat to see them all strung together to see how much he has grown in just 12 short months.

 I attempted to make some of the food dishes "bugtastic."

 Grayson's smash cake is above and his cake to share is below.

 Thought it would be cool to see where the kids put their bees!
Below is a bunch of pictures of everyone having a great time outside!

 It is cake time!  Check out the video below to see more!

 Cake smashing wasn't all that successful.  We did get him to get a bit dirty by taking his baby cheetos and pushing them into the icing.  He will do whatever he needs to to get to his cheetos!

 Love this smile!

 Not everyone was able to come over at noon, so Grayson's BFF Cooper came over after a nap for another party!  The boys met when they were between 2-3 months old.   So neat to see how they have changed!

 Ahh...a love tap for Grayson!

 I thought it would be cute to have some sort of photo op at the party.   We all had a great time with this and I had a great time making it!  Here are just a few of the pictures we got.

PS.  The party went off without a hitch and it never really rained, but a small drizzle during the first party.  Better safe than sorry I guess!

http://youtu.be/91ZgFE9VYO4

Passover/almost a year old!

So crazy to think that the next blog I will be writing is about Grayson's first birthday party! Where has the year gone??!! This weekend was beautiful weather so we were outside for most of it. Today Daddy did a lot of yard work, so we kept him company. This little boy loves the outside! Big news: He has started to mimic a waving hand. He does it when he pleases, but at least he is starting to do it! We'll see how he progresses with that. He has also been clapping my hands together and looks very interested when I do it, but still doesn't want to do it with his own.
Watching Dad hedge the bushes. He loved when the chainsaw would stop. He would look at me and give me a huge smile.
We celebrated Grayson's first Passover this year. He rocked his I Love Matzah bib and enjoyed some of the real stuff. We read books and he especially loved the one called Dayenu!
This kid thinks that he should rub his hands and run his fingers all over his head on spaghetti/meatball night.
Had a great visit with Nonny and Great Grandpa Ra. We did lots of cool things together. We loved having them here!
I took Grayson up to school on a planning day and heard that one of the teachers had baby ducks in her classroom. We went to see them. Grayson crawled right over to the container on the floor and pulled himself to a standing position to see them. They look just like the ducklings in our touch and feel book so he was going crazy. Check out the video below!

11 months old

So we are 11 months old!

We have 11 teeth. Our two top molars came in and the bottom right has poked through too. We can see the white on the top of the one on the left so it should be in any day. This kid is a tooth growing machine.

We are still working hard on other skills such as "so big!" clapping and waving.

He is still crawling like a madman. We had to finally get some cabinet locks and some gates. We have one that is drilled into the wall when you first walk in so he can't get to the stairs and another moveable wooden one that we can use to keep him contained in the living room or out of the kitchen.

He is also cruising around the furniture that we have. In the living room we have 3 stand up toys lined up against our wall unit. He starts at one and works his way down the line. He also can cruise from the ottoman to the couch and walk down the couch. We got a walking toy that arrived today that he started to use. He is doing great with it, although he would prefer to play with the toys that are on the front of it and walk, but we'll get there!

We are getting things ready for his first birthday party. I can hardly believe he is going to be one!
Grayson is doing great with picking up food off of his tray! Here is our first really good spaghetti sauce face picture. He LOVES pasta. He just shovels it in. He does a good job with meatloaf too. For pancakes and grilled cheese he doesn't like for them to be cut into small pieces, he would just prefer holding the whole thing and taking bites off at his own discretion.
We started looking into big boy carseats. Here we are "trying one out" at our local store.

Just a rare shot of affection from Layla- mid-lick :) He loves pulling himself up to stand up by the couch and letting her lick his hands. He really likes to play with the tags attached to her collar.

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!