5 Months Old

I'm a little late with this post, but as I always say....better late than never. On Tuesday Griffin turned 5 months old - and he shared his special day with his Abby, whose birthday is also August 31st - Happy Belated Birthday Abby!

Hmmm....what does this taste like?

Yummmmm....

I really can't believe how fast the Little Man is growing...and how much he's changed this past month. He's starting to sit up now and loves playing with all kinds of toys. He's trying all kinds of new foods, with varying amounts of success...so far, we've experimented with apples, bananas, avocado, carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, peas and yellow squash. The favorites right now are apples and sweet potatoes.

Griffin's laughing alot now, still sleeping like a champ, grabbing anything he can get his hands on (earrings, hair, noses, lips), and taking a big interest in our dog Dixie (she hasn't returned his sentiments yet). He loves to play airplane, kicking his rubber duckies in the bathtub, growling, and blowing raspberries. And we've nicknamed him "The Wingman" because of the way he throws his arms back behind him like wings all the time.

And I have to brag on him a little bit...the church nursery workers have already been telling us that he's one of their favorites. I'm sure we're the only parents hearing that, right? :) It's such a privilege to be a parent and witness his growth and development. God's handiwork is truly miraculous!

Visit with Aunt Amy and Philip....Griff looks sad because Aunt Amy is going all the way to Virginia for law school :(

We've had some fun visits with all the grandparents the past few weeks - including a trip to Poppa and Gigi's house for a dip in the pool, and we're looking forward to more family fun with the beginning of football season.

We also got to take some fun pictures at a local studio - G was a fantastic model...all smiles and patience :)

It's Been a While

So I've been a bad blogger lately, but honestly, it's not my fault. We just haven't had that much going on this month. I think it's the extreme heat we're experiencing in Texas.....how many straight days over 100 degrees can one girl handle?? Blah...I'm ready for fall!

So this month we've been keeping cool by staying indoors...but that doesn't make for very exciting blog posts. So I'll just share some of the everyday humdrum things that have been going on in our lives, peppered with a few exciting celebrations.

First, we've decided to refinance our house. It's hard to resist the uber-low interest rates floating around out there, plus with my job switch from attorney to stay at home mom, our cash flow situation isn't quite what it used to be. And really, who couldn't use a few hundred extra dollars a month? So, Ryan and I were frantically taming the jungle that was threatening to take over the yard (who has time for yard work with a baby in the house??) so that the appraiser would not run screaming for the hills. Hopefully, we'll get everything finalized before too long. Bring on those lower house payments!

Second....Griff had his 4 month check-up and is doing great. He was 15 lbs 2 oz (60%) and 25 inches (60%). He's also started eating solids this month (I know....try to contain your excitement). So far, we've mastered baby oatmeal, and we're moving on to veggies. After 3 days of carrots (including one sneezing incident that sent me running for a shower), he's not really a fan, but we'll give it a few more tries and then move to something else. I'm trying the whole make-your-own-baby-food thing and it seems pretty easy so far (not to mention less expensive than buying it at the store). We'll see if I can keep it up.

And finally....big praise to the Lord...Ryan celebrated 3 years of being cancer free this month! He's still going in for regular check-ups, but everything is perfectly normal. Always good news in our house. It's hard to believe that it's already been 3 years since that frightening experience. So many have prayed for healing and continued good health....we're constantly reminded of the Lord's faithfulness and love.

So there's your peek into our lives this month. Like I said, not too exciting, but I feel better now that I've added a post to the August column...it was looking very lonely over there :)

Four Months Old

Griffin is four months old today! He just gets cuter all the time...and more vocal about what he likes and doesn't like (hence the growling mentioned earlier). He's also started reaching out for things lately. In fact, we had a really sweet mother/son moment last night. I'm not sure what it is, but the last few nights Little Man has not wanted to go to bed easily. Normally, he just goes right to sleep, but the past three nights he's screamed and cried for at least 30 minutes when we put him to bed. Last night I'd had enough and went into his room to settle him down. While I was rocking him and trying to soothe him to sleep, he looked at me and reached up to touch my face....just melted my heart :) He got the sweetest little smile on his face as he touched my nose, cheek and lips. That little gesture made a difficult night so much better for both of us. After that, he was ready to sleep without further protest.

At four months, Griffin is rolling over quite a bit more, loves playing in his bouncer seat, and seems to spend more time just looking around and observing. He's discovered our dog Dixie and enjoys watching her walk around and play. He's started laughing a little and might be starting to teeth too. He gnaws on his thumb quite a bit and tries to put blankets and toys in his mouth all the time. No teeth peeking through yet, but I have a feeling they might be right around the corner. All in all, he's a happy boy and Ryan and I are really enjoying him these days.

Here are a few pictures from our recent visit at Poppa and Gigi's house. Aunt Amy will be leaving soon to start law school in Virginia, so we got together with the rest of the family for a bon voyage dinner. Unfortunately, Amy was sick, so she didn't really get to play with Griffin and I didn't get any pictures of them together that night. But Little Man had a good time showing off his new growling trick for the whole family. It was a fun night and I have a feeling we might be planning a road trip to Virginia before too long.

Waitress.....bring me another mai tai!!

Are you my hula dancer?

First Trip to Longview

This weekend we took a little trip to visit Ryan's parents in Longview. It's only 2.5 hours from Dallas, and we departed just before prime nap time, which should have meant an easy drive, but the Little Man was anything but happy on the ride out there. Napping was apparently not on his itinerary. We stopped for a diaper change, I sat in the back with him, played with the slightly annoying carseat toy, played lots of peek-a-boo, and he finally fell asleep about 20 minutes before we arrived. I finally figured out that he wanted to look at me, but not have me look at him. If he could just stare at me without me staring back, he could drift off to sleep and I guess have pleasant dreams about the beauty of Momma's chin?? After all that, I was glad to have a relaxing weekend with Griffin's Abby and Zayde.

We got to eat food from some of our favorite Longview spots (Pizza King and Bodacious BBQ), Griffin showed off his new growling skill (adorable and slightly disturbing at the same time...see video below), and he got to play in the smallest, cutest baby pool I've ever seen. Plus Ryan and I got to have a date night while the grandparents babysat. We had a great visit and happily, the ride home was much easier. Griff must have been worn out from all the fun because he slept the entire way back.

Whew! Time for a break from all that fun :)

The amazing Growling Baby...

The Sweetest Sound

So the Little Man has been making all kinds of new sounds lately....but my favorite by far was his first laugh. Until today, he'd been giving us big, big smiles and accidental laughs (probably more like hiccups that I wanted to think were little laughs), but this morning we were playing in his nursery and I was rewarded with real laughing! The sweetest sound a mom can hear :)

Of course, I didn't have my camera with me, but I tried to recreate the moment and capture it on video. Below is the result. Mostly you just hear me laughing and making a whooshing noise, but there's a brief moment where you can hear Griff laugh too. Hopefully, it's just the first of many :)

I've also included a video of him rolling over since he's doing it much more consistently these days. He's starting to really get mad in this video....he'd already rolled over three times and was a little tired of the game. But I continued the torture so we'd have it on camera....I know, I can practically hear you sending in your nominations for Mother-of-the-Year right now :)

Summer

So far, this summer has been a fun season for us. I'm a little behind, so here's a catch-up post.

The last weekend in June, Ryan, Griffin and I packed up and took a mini road trip to South Texas for a family wedding. Ryan's cousin, Emily was getting married in Seguin and we thought it would be a great opportunity for Griffin to meet part of the Fitzhugh family. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding on the river, a little hot (read I was sweating like a pig and desperately trying to keep the baby cool), but very sweet.

Snuggle time with Zayde

Hangin' with Aunt B

Such a good little boy!

Griffin got to spend the night with his Abby and Zayde at the hotel...it was so nice to have a little time to ourselves!

The fun continued on the 4th of July, which we celebrated with the Parker clan at the lake house. I don't have too many pictures....the weather wasn't really cooperating on Saturday, so we stayed indoors most of the day. Then the boys put on their own fireworks show (unfortunately, it was past G's bedtime, so he stayed home with Aunt Jen). On Sunday, the big kids rode jet skis for a while, before we all packed up and headed home for some family time. It was a great, relaxing weekend!

Red, white and blue...all-American baby

Cute Mavs onesie Ben gave us...look how blonde that new hair is!!

Griffin did get to try his first few bites of rice cereal with GiGi...not really a fan yet, so we'll hold off a little longer. He just seems so hungry all the time, I was hoping something more substantial might tide him over. Oh well....all in good time. It was worth a shot.

Congratulations!

My sister-in-law got engaged this week! Congratulations Blair and Stephen!! Looking forward to a beautiful wedding.