Griffin & his brothers

9 months old!

2012-01-16T21:42:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, my two little monkeys turned 9 months old. I can't believe that we'll be celebrating their first birthday in a few short months. They are growing up so quickly and changing every day! It's so fun to see them interact more and more with each other and with us and Griffin.

About Baylor

Baylor is very strong and really doesn't like to be still for long. He isn't crawling yet, but he stays up on his hands and knees for a long time and occasionally rocks hard enough to propel himself forward or backward a bit. He has just started kind of inchworming his way around a little. He loves to stand up and it's sometimes hard to make him sit down if he doesn't want to. He is getting more personality each day, smiling and talking more. I tease him and say that it's because he got tired of me always saying that Hudson was the smiley baby. Baylor has also been clapping a lot lately, and the clapping is usually accompanied by an excited "aaaahhhhh..."

About Hudson
Hudson is happy and very expressive. He has been full of smiles almost as long as he's been in the world. Everywhere we go, people always comment on what a happy baby he is. I love when he wrinkles up his nose when he smiles. And on the rare occasion when he isn't happy, singing If You're Happy and You Know It will quickly bring on the smiles. Hudson is also very talkative and a great cuddler. He also LOVES to eat! He will eat any baby food we offer him, and he always cries when it runs out. The funny thing is that he actually starts crying as soon as we start scraping the sides of the bowl, even if he still has a few bites left, because he knows that means it's almost gone. Hudson isn't making as much progress as Baylor on the crawling or standing, but he knows how to roll around to get what he wants.

Even though people are always asking us if Baylor and Hudson are identical, we really don't think they look much alike. Here is a picture of big brother Griffin when he was 9 months old--I think he looks as much like each of the babies (except chubbier and with significantly more hair!) as they do each other.

As slow as Christmas

2012-01-16T21:08:00.000-05:00

After counting down for weeks, Christmas finally arrived. When we got to December 20th, Griffin said it was a "straight line to Christmas" because he was on the bottom row of his advent calendar.

We actually started a little early when Pop and Chaz came over to give the boys their gifts on Thursday, Dec. 23. Griffin was so excited to get to open some presents and was excited to get the new Cars 2 game for Wii and some other fun gifts.

The babies were content just to be held and to get to untie Pop's shoes over and over. They got cute matching Patagonia fleece suits to keep them warm all winter. Hopefully we'll get some snow this year so they can really test them out!

On Christmas Eve, Mimi and Papaw Al stopped by our house to take pictures before heading to church. This was the first time we'd ever put the babies in any kind of nursery, but they handled it just fine. Griffin stayed with us for the service and it was so sweet to see him holding his candle and singing "Silent night, Holy night" at the beginning of each stanza.

All of Matt's family came to our house for dinner this year so that we wouldn't have to cut the celebration short in order to get home and put the babies to bed. As usual, Griffin got way too much stuff and he loved every bit of it!

The next day, we started with a relaxed morning at home. After Griffin and the babies checked out their gifts from Santa, Griffin was ready to start on the wrapped gifts under the tree. He couldn't wait to open this big one after trying to guess for weeks what was inside (a Lightning McQueen art desk set). Mimi, Papaw Al, and Weezy all stopped by at the same time to see what Santa had brought.

After the babies' naps, we went to Mimi and Papaw Al's house to continue the celebration. We attempted to take a picture with Mimi and all 5 grandchildren, but that's not an easy feat. Even though they are looking at a different camera in this one (and Baylor is looking the completely wrong direction), this is actually the best one I got. Baylor and Hudson really didn't care about having any more Christmas and both took another nap while we were there. On the other hand, Griffin was so excited about unwrapping presents that he hardly paid attention to what was in one box before he was asking for another one to open.

Later that evening, Weezy and Mamere came over for dinner and more Christmas gift giving. Griffin's big present from Weezy was a tabletop air hockey game because Griffin loves to play air hockey at the mall arcade. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get any pictures of Mamere with her great-grandchildren.

Christmas was such a full day that we never got around to letting the babies open their big gift from us so we stretched Christmas out to the next morning.  Baylor really likes to stand up so I propped him up where he could grab at the paper and bow.  Right after I took this picture, he lost his balance and fell toward Hudson. Even though Baylor was the one who fell, Hudson was the one who cried.
Knowing that Griffin would like their gift, I'd kept it a surprise from him, too. It was a ride-on Lightning McQueen car.Right now, it sits on a base that makes it a rocker.   As they get bigger, it has foot rests and a handlebar so we can push them on it. And eventually they can push themselves on it. It makes lots of fun car sounds, says "Kachow" and plays music.



As you can see, it was a hit with the babies. Griffin said he wished he was a baby so he could ride on it, too!

'Tis the Season

2011-12-31T22:52:00.006-05:00

Thursday, December 1st

Mimi came over to bring the boys each a small early Christmas gift. This was the babies first experience with unwrapping presents. They are in a very "grabby" stage so they actually did pull at the paper some. Luckily, they had their big brother there to help them finish the job.

Saturday, December 3rd

Hudson couldn't sleep...which, of course, meant that I wasn't sleeping either. I decided that since I was up I might as well be productive so I started putting lights on the Christmas tree at about 3:45am. Hudson was in his exersaucer watching me, and his eyes lit up when I plugged in the first strand of lights. I had to put the lights down and run grab the camera. He was content watching me long enough for me to get the lights finished.

I spent most of the day (at least most of my "free" time between Griffin's basketball game and all of the feedings and diaper changes for the babies) putting the ornaments on the tree. When I was finished, I sat Baylor in the floor near the tree and he kept reaching out and feeling one of the low branches. I ran to grab the camera and Griffin decided he wanted in the picture too.

Saturday, December 10th

We made a much anticipated visit to Santa. Griffin sat on his lap first and quicky rattled off the list of cars from Cars 2 that he still "needs." Then we sat both of the babies on Santa's lap. In his usual way, Baylor studied Santa intently but never cracked a smile. Hudson checked him out for a minute and then gave the photographer some smiles.

Friday, December 16th

Griffin performed in his school's Christmas concert. The kindergarten class performs the nativity pageant, but Griffin's class got to play the handbells this year as well as sing a couple of songs. Griffin was very focused when he was watching the cue cards and ringing his bell.

Saturday, December 17th
Mimi had given Griffin a gingerbread house kit earlier in the month. I had to actually "construct" the house (with some help from Mimi who happened to show up at the perfect time) and do most of the icing, but Griffin had fun putting the candy decorations on. As soon as he had put the last piece of candy on, he asked if we could eat it. Of course, I wanted to wait and let everyone see his cute creation, but I gave in the next day since he kept asking and saying, "but it just looks so yummy!"

All December long
Aunt Lacy gave me this cute Pottery Barn Kids advent calendar last year, but not before the 1st of December nor before I'd already bought one of the advent calendars with chocolate. I hung it up last year, but this was the first year we'd actually used it to count down to Christmas. I put a tissue-wrapped surprise inside each pocket of the advent calendar. I had it ready a few days early so there was a lot of anticipation for the start of December. Normally we have to practically drag Griffin out of bed in the mornings to get ready for school, but he popped out of bed (unprompted!) almost every morning from December 1st until Christmas so that he could run and grab that day's surprise.

Griffin also invented a new game called "Pretty Lights." When we would be driving at night and see houses with outdoor Christmas lights, we would yell "pretty lights!" And he really would yell it out...sometimes with such excitement that Matt and I couldn't help but laugh out loud. I love that he gets as into Christmas as I do!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-19T21:53:00.000-05:00

In years past, I have either chosen for him or strongly persuaded Griffin when it comes to choosing a Halloween costume. But this year I decided to let him be whatever he wanted to be...and it came as no surprise that he wanted to be Lightning McQueen. I decided to take off from work on Halloween so that I could attend the festivities at Griffin's school and finish the twins' "costume" (more on that in a minute...). Here are some pictures I took in Griffin's classroom before the costume parade and Halloween party. I tried to come up with a really cute costume idea for Baylor and Hudson. I didn't want them to wear the exact same costume, but I thought it would be cute if they were things that went together. Some of the ideas I had were milk & cookies, Elmo & Cookie Monster, and Tigger & Pooh. But in the end, I decided that instead of making them coordinate with each other I would have them coordinate with Griffin. And so this idea was born... I spent a good part of the weekend turning cardboard boxes and the double stroller into Mater the Tow Truck. Of course, he had to be "Race Team Mater" from Cars 2 so he needed flames and a 95 on the side as well as the headphones and mic. I ran out of time before I got him just the way I wanted him (no rust, no working headlight, etc), but my little Lightning McQueen was very excited about having his pal Mater with him for trick-or-treating.

Griffin really loved trick-or-treating this year. It was getting pretty late and cold, but he kept asking to go to "just a couple more houses." We covered almost all of Forest Brook and didn't get home until about 8:00. He said several times that it was a great day and "I just love Halloween!" It was past the babies' bedtime when we got home, but I wanted to get pictures of them in their Halloween outfits since they'd been bundled up in the stroller. Hudson is our smiley baby and he had this big grin in several pictures, but he looks very serious in all of the pictures I took of all three of them together.

What a week!

2011-11-19T21:47:00.000-05:00

October 10-16th

On Monday, Griffin had an appointment with the pediatric opthamologist to see if the patching we'd been doing for a few months had helped his eye that wants to drift (unfortunately, it had not). On Tuesday, he had his 6-week follow-up appointment with the ENT to make sure everything looked good from the tonsilectomy/adenoidectomy that he had in August (luckily it did).

Griffin and I both had Fall Break on Thursday and Friday, and we were excited about getting away for a night with our friends, Sarah and Bo, and their two kids. Unfortunately, the beautiful fall weather we'd been having earlier in the week didn't last and we had a dreary day. While there was a break in the rain, we all took a walk to the nearby creek. Sarah snapped this picture of me, Griffin, and Hudson on the way to the creek. I had originally told Griffin not to go far enough to get his pants wet, but that quickly went out the window. He was quickly soaked and had boots completely full of water (which he didn't want to empty before walking back because he liked the sloshing sound). I'm glad I let him just have fun being a boy and getting messy because that ended up being the highlight of the whole trip.

Back at the cabin, Baylor was napping and I was in the kitchen holding Hudson while the big kids were playing in another room. We heard one of them crying and Matt went to check on them. A minute later he was yelling my name and carrying Griffin into the kitchen with the back of his shirt covered in blood. Brody had accidentally hit Griffin in the back of the head with a candle snuffer. Matt and I left the babies with Sarah and Bo and rushed Griffin to the Blount Memorial ER. He ended up getting 3 staples in the back of his head, but he was amazingly tough during the ordeal.

The next day was the babies half birthday. It's amazing how quickly 6 months has gone! I had wanted to make cupcakes with Griffin and have a little birthday party for the babies, but we didn't get back from the mountains until that evening and we were all wiped out. But I did at least get a few pictures of them together before they went to bed.

And the babies did get a little 6-month gift--when we got home from the mountains, we found that the new double stroller we'd ordered had been delivered. It took Matt a little while to get it put together so it was Saturday before we were able to take it for a test drive. It's definitely easier to push than the double snap 'n go that we'd been using and the babies seem to like their new ride. Baylor was asleep just a few minutes into our walk and Hudson smiled the whole way. I love that I can have both babies facing me, both facing out at the world, or facing each other like they are here.

On Saturday, we went to get Griffin's glasses. He really didn't want to wear them and was self-conscious about people seeing him in them. Matt took him to Mr. Gatti's on Sunday as a treat for having a rough few days. He won some prizes playing games, and I was able to take this picture of him in his glasses when he got home (the teeth really worked in my favor since he likes to make silly faces all the time now when I try to take his picture).

Four years old!

2011-06-24T13:04:00.000-04:00

Griffin has been so excited about turning four! He has been talking about it for months, and has said so many funny things with regards to his birthday. He has told us that he'll start trying lots of things (like soup, mac & cheese, corn, and more) when he turns four. When he was sick a few weeks earlier, he said he hoped he wouldn't be sick for his birthday because he wouldn't get to have a party and then he'd be three forever!

The big day finally arrived on Thursday and he was ready! Griffin spent the first half of his special day at VBS. We had lunch at home and I had a cupcake for him so he could make his first birthday wish.

He had a swim lesson later that afternoon (only his fifth lesson). Now that he was four years old, he decided he'd be very brave jumping in, putting his face in the water, and even dog paddling a little. After his lesson, we picked up Daddy and the babies and went to dinner at Pero's on the Hill. Griffin had been begging all afternoon to open a present. We took one small present with us and let him open it while we waited for our food. After splitting a pizza, we went to Sweet CeCe's for frozen yogurt. Then it was back home to open his other presents. On Saturday afternoon, we had a pirate-themed party at The Little Gym. The kids had fun jumping on the airmat, playing Disappearing Islands, searching for treasure, playing Hide & Seek, and more. All of the kids were on the move so much that it was hard to get many cute pictures!

Griffin didn't open presents at The Little Gym so we invited our families over for a pizza party and present opening that evening. Griffin also got to make one last birthday wish.

Little Ballplayer

2011-06-24T12:58:00.000-04:00

Griffin has been playing on a "wee ball" team this spring. He's #20 on the Orioles. I'm probably a little biased, but I think he's a pretty good ballplayer for a 3 year old! These pictures were taken at his very first game. Look at that hit! And what good running form!
There are no outs and they don't keep score in wee ball. They play two innings, and each team goes through its entire roster during each inning. Despite the fact that the focus is on fun instead of competition, Griffin already takes it pretty seriously. Here he is waiting for the next batter.
He is very hard on himself when he doesn't catch every ball that comes his way...but he gets very excited when he does get to the ball first. Here he is snagging a ground ball and throwing it back to the coach.

Home Sweet Home

2011-06-01T13:24:00.000-04:00

We finally got to bring Hudson home on Friday, May 6th--the babies were 3 weeks and 1 day old. Matt, Baylor, and I spent several hours at Children's waiting for the official discharge orders. By the time we actually left, it was about 3:30 in the afternoon. We decided to go straight to Griffin's school to pick him up. Matt went in to get him while I waited in the car with the babies (and took this picture of them loaded in the car together).The look on Griffin's face was priceless when he came out and found both of his brothers there to ride home with him. I missed the ear-to-ear grin but I did get this picture of him peering over the seats to see his brothers. Once we got home, we put the babies in one of the cribs together. This was the first time they'd been together since coming into the world. Griffin had a bit of a hard time when Matt or I would be gone in the afternoons and especially at bedtime because we were visiting Hudson at the hospital. On the night we got Hudson home, he said, "Now no one has to go to the hospital...we can all be home together...happily ever after!"

Hudson came home two days before Mother's Day--that was the perfect Mother's Day gift. I hate that I didn't get someone to take a picture of me holding both babies on Mother's Day, but we did get this picture of Griffin holding a baby (Baylor) for the first time. This is one of my all-time favorite pictures now.

Boys, boys, boys

2011-06-01T13:23:00.000-04:00

I was scheduled for a c-section on May 2nd, so Matt and I were caught completely off-guard when my water broke late at night on April 13th. My mom came over to stay with Griffin while we went to the hospital. During the commotion of us trying to scramble to get some essentials thrown into a bag, Griffin woke up and called for me. I told him that Daddy and I were going to the doctor to check on the babies but that Mimi could snuggle with him. Baylor was born at 3:47am on April 14th, and Hudson followed just two minutes behind at 3:49am. Baylor was 4 pounds 15 ounces and 17.5 inches. His "little" brother Hudson was 5 pounds 7 ounces and 18.25 inches. Matt was able to hold Baylor for a few minutes, but he only got to hold Hudson for 30 seconds because he was having breathing issues. They laid Baylor on my chest briefly while they stitched me back up. Little did I know that it would be 12 hours later before I would see Baylor again and almost 18 hours later before I would see Hudson. Hudson had already been taken to Children's Hospital, and Baylor was in the nursery at Fort Sanders under the warmer. I couldn't go to the nursery since I wasn't allowed out of bed yet, but everyone else could see Baylor and take pictures to bring back and show me. Matt was able to take one visitor with him to Children's to see Hudson. In this picture, he has the nasal cpap, but it had already been removed by the time I was able to visit him.After getting the call that the babies had arrived early, Aunt Holly dropped off a Big Brother shirt for Griffin to wear to school. He was so excited to share the news that he ran down the hall to his classroom and ripped open his jacket to proudly show his shirt to his teachers. Matt picked him up early from school and brought him to the hospital. Baylor was still in the nursery under the warmer so Griffin was only able to see him through the nursery windows that first day. He could remember Hudson's name since Doc Hudson is a character in Disney's Cars, Griffin's favorite movie, but he was having trouble remembering Baylor's name. If you listen carefully to the video, you'll hear him ask more than once, "What's his name again?"

Unfortunately, Griffin came down with a fever the next day so he wasn't able to visit the hospital. For the next 5 days, I had three boys in three different places. Griffin was finally better by Wednesday and was able to meet one of his brothers.

Since Hudson was free of his IV and feeding tube, we were able to take Griffin to see him through the NICU window. Griffin was very excited about getting to see his other brother for the very first time. He was standing on his tip-toes watching and waiting for the nurse to bring Hudson over. But since Griffin could only look at him through the glass, the excitement didn't last long and he was ready to get a treat from the hospital cafeteria as promised. The next day, Baylor and I went home. It was good to get home to Griffin, but it was bittersweet since I still didn't have all of my boys together.

Merry Christmas!

2011-01-01T16:45:00.000-05:00

On December 11th, we took Griffin to see Santa at a local photography studio. We had been talking about it for a couple of weeks and Griffin was so excited to sit on Santa's lap. However, when we got into the room with Santa, Griffin acted very shy and wouldn't say a word. Luckily, we did get a couple of really cute pictures despite it all. Once we were back in the parking lot, Griffin told me what he wanted Santa to bring him. We went to a Cookies with Santa party on the 16th at Ms. Sherri's house. It was the same Santa we had seen a few days earlier, and this time he was Griffin's best friend! Griffin sat on Santa's lap several times and told him all sorts of things.

On December 21st, Griffin sang in his school's Nativity Pageant. He didn't have any stage fright, and he did a great job of singing, tapping his sticks, and waving his angel and star in the air.
Griffin was my little helper this year. When I was wrapping presents, he would pull the tape off the dispenser and then stick it on the gift where I showed him. He also helped me decorate Christmas cookies. Of course, all of his had to have blue icing...and he had to have several tastes while decorating! On Christmas Eve, we went to church with all of my family. We stopped at Mimi and Papaw Al's house first for pictures. Griffin's patience is pretty short when it comes to sitting and posing for pictures so Mimi bribed him with the promise of getting to open a couple of presents before going to church. After church, we went to Lacy's house for dinner with Matt's family. When we got home, we had to put out milk and cookies for Santa. Griffin thought Santa would like to have chocolate milk so that's what he got!On Christmas morning, Griffin was up by 5:30 despite not getting to bed until about 11:30 the night before. He checked out everything Santa had left him, and then he opened his gifts from Momma and Daddy. Mimi, Papaw Al, Aunt Heidi, Weezy, Holly, Jason, Harper & Hollins all came over for breakfast. Griffin and Harper snuck away, and I found them hanging out in Griffin's new big boy room.

After breakfast, we moved the celebration to Mimi and Papaw Al's house for gift giving. We had a little break in the afternoon, but Griffin was too excited about all of his new toys to even think about taking a nap! That evening, Weezy came over to exchange gifts and then Lacy and Bebe joined us for dinner. It was a long day, but it's so nice that we have everyone in town and don't have to travel or "take turns" with holidays.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T11:55:00.000-04:00

We started celebrating Halloween a week early with Trunk or Treat at Aunt Lacy's church. Griffin was very shy about going up to people and saying "trick or treat" so it was probably good that we got some practice. Unlike last year when I had 3 or 4 costumes for Griffin, we only had one dog costume this Halloween so we put together a makeshift cowboy costume for the Trunk or Treat. On Friday before Halloween, Griffin had a costume parade and Halloween party at school. That night, we went to the Halloween party at The Little Gym. Griffin and I carved a jack-o-lantern on Saturday. He didn't want to touch any of the "yucky" stuff inside, but he definitely wanted to be in charge of the design. He insisted on circle eyes and a triangle nose. Finally, on Sunday, we concluded the Halloween festivities with trick-or-treating at Weezy's house (that's Weezy dressed as a witch)... around Forest Brook, where he really got the hang of ringing the doorbell and saying "trick or treat" and "thank you"...
at Mimi and Papaw Al's house... and at Aunt Lacy's house with Harper. After getting their treats, Griffin and Harper played a long round of peek-a-boo around a big tree in Lacy's yard. Harper was supposed to be a princess for Halloween since she loves princesses, but she decided she wanted to be a pink poodle because Griffin was a dog.

Fall Fun

2010-10-04T19:46:00.000-04:00

On the first Saturday in October, Mimi, Harper, Griffin and I went to Oakes Farm corn maze and pumpkin patch for the afternoon. Griffin loved the slides, but Harper wasn't a big fan (she only went down once...and that was only because Griffin got behind her and pushed her). They both had fun on the tire mountain, on the "tractor" rides, and in the mazes, but their favorite thing was the huge sandbox. After hours of playing, we took our hayride to the pumpkin patch and they each picked a pumpkin to take home (after showing us how strong they were by picking up the smaller pumpkins).

Griffin and I had fall break October 14-15. For the break, we went to Cumberland Mountain State Park with our friends Sarah and Bo and their two kids, Brody and Anna. The boys had a blast throwing rocks in the lake, playing together on the playgrounds, and just being boys. Anna tried her best to keep up with them, and I think she decided Griffin was her new special friend (she gave him lots of smiles while we were there and gave him a big hug when it was time to leave). I think the highlight for the kids was the much anticipated roasting of marshmellows to make s'mores.

Party Time!

2010-06-15T14:19:00.000-04:00

Griffin was sick with adnovirus the whole weekend and the next couple of days leading up to his birthday. His birthday was the first day he was really feeling better. We let him open our presents as soon as he woke up. He had been wishing for quite some time to get the Thomas the Train roundhouse (or "station") for his birthday. He had been to If It's Paper with me the day before and even picked out some firetruck wrapping paper, telling me, "Momma, this is what I want my station to be wrapped in." Well, a little boy's wishes came true and he got the train station wrapped in firetruck paper. He got a few other little presents (and a booster seat for my car since he was now old enough and tall enough), but he was completely focused on getting the station out of the box and building a new train track with it.

We were supposed to have a family birthday dinner at Chuck E. Cheese on the night of his birthday, but we postponed it until the following night to make sure he would be fully recovered and ready to party. He definitely was! He had been asking for months to go to Chuck E. Cheese, and he got so excited when we pulled in the parking lot and he saw the sign. And the inside lived up to his expectations, too--he loved all of the rides and games! My favorite part of the night was when we were about to do cake and Griffin turned to Harper and said, "My momma made me a Lightning McQueen birthday cake!" The sweetest part was that he didn't know anyone other than Harper was listening--he was really just proud of his cake and his momma! It was a very fun and special night shared with Mimi & Papaw Al, Aunt Holly & Uncle Jason, Harper, Weezy, Mamere, Pop & Chaz, Bebe, and Aunt Lacy.

The celebrating continued with a party at the Knoxville Zoo on Saturday for Griffin and his little friends. The kids "fished" for animals, worked oversized animal puzzles, touched an alligator skin, a red panda skin, an elephant tusk, and a rhino horn, and even pet a rat (surprisingly, I did not find this completely disgusting since it was a clean white rat, not the kind of subway rat that comes to mind!). And, of course, there was more birthday cake!

After the party, the three of us, Jason and Harper, Mimi, and Weezy stayed at the zoo for a while longer. The giraffes are Griffin's very favorite so we had to make a stop there, and we checked out the penguins, butterflies, and elephants on the way to the giraffes. We also went for a carousel ride and Griffin took several trips down the slides at the Kids' Cove. We went through the gift shop on the way out, and Mimi and Weezy bought Griffin a special birthday stuffed giraffe. Griffin was wiped out by the end of the trip, and he was asleep with his giraffe before we even got out of the parking lot.

Three years old!

2010-06-12T21:52:00.000-04:00

I can't believe my sweet boy is three! His birthday was Wednesday and we celebrated from then until Saturday. I will be sure to blog about the birthday parties (yes, plural)...but first I wanted to take a little time to capture some of Griffin's favorite things right now.

Common phrases:

"I can do it all by myself!"
"Watch my silly trick."
"Do you want to see my silly face?"
"I need to give you something--a big hug and a kiss!" (this one usually starts with "Momma" but occasionally is shared with others)
"Why...?" (this is asked about everything!)

Favorite foods:

peanut butter sandwiches
applesauce
pizza
spaghetti
ice cream (and most any kind of treat)

Favorite activities:

Playing cars, trucks, and trains
Baseball and basketball (we are beginning to add soccer to that list)
Hopscotch
Puzzles
Reading books
Watching TV (hate to put that in black and white, but it definitely ranks high on the list)

Favorite books:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Griffin has this book memorized almost verbatim and regularly "reads" it to me--so precious!)
The Little Engine that Could
Pat-a-Cake book of Nursery Rhymes
Any book about Lightning McQueen

Just a few of my favorite things about Griffin right now:

All of the hugs and kisses he gives me!
How he brings me his "finds" and tells me, "Momma, I got you this rock/flower/leaf to make you feel better."
How he stretches with me when I get back from a run or walk.
That he has regained his patience for the stroller and will go on long walks with me. It's so cute how he gets so excited to see the squirrels, chipmunks, birds, bunnies, and everything else we encounter on our walks.
When he tells me, "Momma, I will cooperate."

So grown up! Griffin is 38" tall and 37 pounds! He is proud of how big and strong he is getting. He asks us pretty frequently if we want to see his muscles. And many of his "silly tricks" look remarkably similar to yoga poses so I know he's building up those muscles!

Happy Birthday Harper!

2010-04-18T10:22:00.000-04:00

Harper turned 3 on Friday and celebrated with a Princess bounce house party on Saturday. It was a rainy afternoon, but luckily the rain let up long enough for the kids to get to bounce for a little while. Griffin was ready to jump right in, but Harper wanted me to get in and hold her. (Since I was in the bounce house jumping, too, I didn't get any pics of the birthday girl jumping.)
For her princess party, I thought Harper needed a special princess cake so I made her this castle cake. Aunt Heidi sent Harper a big present from Los Angeles. It was a very neat princess castle, and even the boys were quite interested in it! We stuck around a little while after the other guests had left because Griffin wanted to play with Harper and her new toys, specifically the castle and the "blue princess" (he doesn't know any of their names, but he had no qualms about playing with a princess as long as she was wearing blue). Here's a rare photo of Griffin and Harper with Mimi and Papaw Al. It's not a perfect picture, but it's quite a feat to get two toddlers to sit still long enough to even get a picture!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-11T14:48:00.000-04:00

This Easter was so much fun! On Saturday afternoon, Griffin and I dyed Easter eggs together. He got so excited every time we pulled an egg out of the cup and it had changed colors. We had to make a lot of blue eggs since that's his favorite color! The Easter Bunny brought Griffin a couple of new race cars, some new, bigger Lightning McQueen underwear (since he's now officially potty trained!), a Thomas bathtub toy, a Dora book, and some other little treats. Griffin really enjoyed hunting for Easter eggs this year. And since he knows all about candy now, he was also excited to see what kind of treats were hiding inside each of the eggs he found. Griffin and Harper were excited to see their special Easter treats from Mimi and Papaw Al. Finally! A little boy can get comfy (i.e. "barefoot") and blow some bubbles!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-28T13:05:00.000-05:00

We began our Christmas celebration the Sunday before Christmas with dinner and presents at Pop & Chaz's house. Griffin got his own digital camera and a Lightning McQueen TV/DVD player (or, as Griffin says, a "T-teev").
On Christmas Eve, we went to church with my family and then had dinner with Pop & Chaz, Bebe, Lacy & Max, and Richard, Karen, Meredith, & Alex. Griffin got lots of presents including a bunch of movies that he can watch on his Lightning McQueen TV, a Lightning McQueen suitcase, pillow, and blankie that he can take with him when he spends the night away, and a Lightning McQueen dinner set.
On Christmas morning, Griffin went downstairs to find his presents from Santa. He had a stocking full of fun stuff and some new Thomas trains and tracks. Weezy came over with more presents including remote-controlled Lightning McQueen and Mater, a magnetic fishing rod set, and a little pair of cowboy boots!

Mimi, Papaw Al, Aunt Holly, Uncle Jason, Harper, and Aunt Heidi came over for brunch a little while later. After brunch, we all went to Mimi and Papaw Al's house for even more presents. Griffin got more Lightning McQueen stuff, some Thomas books and stickers, cute clothes, and all sorts of fun little boy things!
It was about 2:30--well into Griffin's nap time--when we got home,but he just wouldn't stop and settle down. He just wanted to keep playing with all of his new things. Since he wouldn't take a nap, we made our last stop of the day at Mamere and Grandad's late that afternoon. We didn't make it over there with the camera so, unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Griffin with his great-grandparents.

When we got back home, Griffin opened his presents from us. He was most excited about the box full of Thomas track and trains. With all of the festivities and unwrapping behind us, he finally got to just enjoy being home and playing with all of his fun new toys.

Visiting Santa

2009-12-27T08:16:00.000-05:00

We made a couple of visits to see Santa this year. We were invited to a Cookies with Santa party on December 14th at Ms. Sherri's house. I wasn't sure how Griffin would react to Santa this year. We had been warned last year that a lot of toddlers don't do well. Last year, he didn't cry but he was very hesistant about sitting on Santa's lap. At the party this year, he walked right up to Santa and then turned his back to him so that Santa could lift him up on his lap. When Santa asked him how old he was, he said "two," then he paused for a second and added, "two and a half." When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas he said Lightning McQueen and Thomas.
Ms. Sherri had lots of toys set out for the kids to play with and even had a bounce house outside. And of course there were cookies since it was a Cookies with Santa party. It was such a cute, fun event for the kids!

On December 18th, we went to the same little portrait studio that we have used the last couple of years to get more pictures with Santa. Once again, Griffin went right up to Santa and let him lift him onto his lap. And when asked what he wanted for Christmas, Griffin's responses were the same (good thing!).

What a big boy!

2009-11-28T19:28:00.000-05:00

Griffin turned 2 1/2 on December 9th. It's amazing how much he has changed in the last 6 months, and he's so proud to be doing so much all by himself these days.

The night before Thanksgiving, we converted Griffin's crib into a "big boy bed." It's really like a little daybed, and he was very excited about being able to get in and out of his bed all by himself. Of course, he got out a lot of times when he didn't mean to. In the first few days, between 3 nights and 2 naps he only managed to stay out of the floor one time. The good news is that rolling out of his bed and onto the pallette (and sometimes even off the pallette and onto the rug or hardwood floor) didn't seem to really interrupt his sleep! And he very rarely rolls out of bed these days, but that is at least partly due to the fact that I have made a barrier with a rolled up sheet and stuffed animals along the length of the bed.

We're also making a lot of progress with potty training. We've been letting Griffin take the lead so far, but we're trying to get more serious about it now (although he's still ahead of my expectations since I'd always heard that boys are harder to train). He wears Lightning McQueen Pull-ups to school every day. We have bought Lightning McQueen, Mickey Mouse, and some other underwear, but we aren't quite ready for that yet. Here he is showing off his "big boy pull-up."

Here he is a couple of months ago modeling his "big boy underwear" over his diaper!

And yes, he's a huge Lightning McQueen and Cars fan! Anytime we talk about him growing up, he asks, "I'm growing up? I'll be bigger than Lightning McQueen?" And he really is growing up--he's about 35.5 inches tall now.

Football Fan

2009-11-08T20:29:00.000-05:00

Last year, we took Griffin to one football tailgate, and then he and I went home and Daddy went to the game. This year, we decided he was ready to go to his first UT game. Matt and the teachers at his school have already done a pretty good job on him--every time he sees anything with a Power T on it he says "Tennessee!" and he knows the chorus to Rocky Top. So when we told him that he was going to get to go to the game with us, he was very excited and talked about it for days.

We decked him out in his Tennessee clothes and headed up to campus. He's usually a little chatter box, but he barely said a word on the walk from our parking spot to Aunt Holly and Uncle Jason's tailgate spot. I think he was just taking it all in.

A man we passed on the walk over had given him a little plastic football. As soon as he got out of his stroller at the tailgate, he started running circles around us and kept spiking his football on the ground.

He was having so much fun tailgating that he really didn't want to leave to go into the stadium. But once we were inside, he was enthralled with all of the action...and the fact that he could go up and down the couple of steps right next to my seat. He clapped along with the crowd and gave Daddy high fives every time the Vols scored.
But to my fellow Georgia fans, don't worry--I haven't let Matt completely brainwash him. At one point during the game, I said to Griffin "Go Vols!" and he responded, "Sic 'em! Woof, woof!"

We knew he wouldn't make it through the whole game, especially since it didn't start until 7pm. But it wasn't until a few minutes were left in the half that he started wearing down and asking about going home. He also asked to watch something (meaning something other than football) on the TVs that are mounted above our seats. Too cute!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-08T20:17:00.000-05:00

We managed to stretch the Halloween celebrations out for more than 2 weeks! We started with Boo at the Zoo on October 16th. Griffin dressed up like a tiger that night, and it took him no time at all to get the hang of holding his treat bag up at all of the treat stations set up along the walkway so someone could stick a treat inside.
On October 30th, Matt took Griffin to the Halloween party at The Little Gym. After the party, they went to Pop & Chaz's to Trick-or-Treat a little early. Griffin was dressed up like a fireman, and he completed the look with his little battery-powered fire truck. My little sister graduated from college in Orlando that morning so I hadn't made it home yet.
I flew home on Halloween morning. I left it up to Griffin to decide what he wanted to be on Halloween night and he chose the giraffe costume. Unfortunately (in my opinion at least), UT had a home game that night so Matt was at the game. Since it was also a drizzly night, I decided to take Griffin to the mall for some indoor Trick-or-Treating. He had fun seeing all of the other kids dressed up and filling up his treat bag.
After we had a treat bag full of candy, we went to Weezy's house to visit with her and her friend Connie.
Since Mimi and Papaw Al hadn't made it back from Orlando by Halloween, Griffin dressed up as a fireman one more time on Nov. 1st.

Weekend Getaway

2009-08-03T19:17:00.001-04:00

We decided to make one last trip before summer ends (and ours is about to end since I start student teaching this coming Monday). We had a wonderful weekend in Gatlinburg and the surrounding area.

We went up Friday afternoon, checked into our hotel, walked all around Gatlinburg, and then grabbed some dinner. After dinner, we went to the Smoky Mountain National Park visitor's center and did a little hike to a waterfall behind the visitor's center. Griffin walked almost all of it by himself and he loved walking on the railroad ties like they were balance beams. (Unfortunately, we didn't get the camera out of the car before we set off on our hike...so no pictures of this one.)

On Saturday, we started the day with a hike at Laurel Falls. This is a relatively short, easy hike and it is paved the whole way so we were able to take the stroller. This isn't usually a very impressive waterfall, but we had a lot of rain Thursday and Friday so it turned out to be great timing on our part. In fact, the waterfall was so loud that it scared Griffin when we got too close.

After our hike, Matt wanted to drive over to Cherokee, NC for lunch (about 30 miles from Gatlinburg). After lunch, we decided to do another hike and stopped at the visitor's center on that side of the park to find out what trails would be options for a 2-year old. The ranger gave us 2 options and we chose Deep Creek trail in Bryson City, NC. We were driving through downtown Bryson City in search of the turn-off to Deep Creek when I noticed some cute Thomas the Train shirts hanging outside a little shop. I told Matt that we would have to stop there on the way back. We passed another store and a little train depot...and then all of a sudden I saw a BIG Thomas engine on the train tracks! We found a place to park and got out to go see Thomas and take some pictures. Then we found out that it was a whole event called "A Day Out with Thomas." We bagged the second hike and bought tickets for the next train ride.

After the train ride, we visited the other attractions that were part of the event--the train tables, Thomas made entirely out of Legos, the bounce train...and the sno-cone vendor at the storytelling tent.

I was planning to buy Griffin a Thomas shirt anyway, but he ended up having to wear it home because he was soaking wet from spilling his sno-cone on himself. We also couldn't resist buying him a couple of new trains for his Thomas train set at home. Here he is wearing his new shirt and proudly showing off his new trains.

There was also a Lionel electric train museum (a permanent fixture in Bryson City) that we were able to tour as part of the event. Griffin was awestruck by all of the trains lining the walls in the display cases and by the HUGE train set that took up an entire room.

This was such a fun afternoon...especially since we had no idea what was going on until we just happened to run right into it! After all of that excitement, we headed back to Gatlinburg for dinner and a round of putt-putt.

We finished our action-packed weekend with a visit to the Ripley's Aquarium. Matt and I had been once before when it first opened, but this was Griffin's first visit. It is a great aquarium--definitely worth a visit if you're in the area. The best part is the long tunnel that goes through the tank so that the fish and sharks are swimming right over your head.

Family Fun

2009-07-26T10:52:00.000-04:00

A bunch of Griffin's cousins were in town from Nashville and Port St. Lucie, FL this weekend. We all got together at Aunt Patricia and Uncle Ralph's house for a fun afternoon. Patricia and Ralph had a big blow-up water slide set up in their backyard. Griffin couldn't climb up all by himself and I couldn' lift him all the way to the top, so I kept hoisting him up as high as I could and letting him slide down. He loved it! He went down on his bottom, on his tummy with his feet first, and even on his tummy head-first.

In a family with so many girls, the boys have to stick together! Chance wanted to play with Griffin just as much as Griffin wanted to try to keep up with Chance. Griffin had a blast and kept asking me the whole way home, "Where are cousins?" and "What cousins doing?" He was so worn out from playing that he didn't get up until 8:15 this morning (about an hour later than usual)!

Slumber Party!

2009-07-25T21:58:00.001-04:00

Aunt Holly, Uncle Jason and Harper were in between houses for a little while after their old house sold and they hadn't yet closed on their new house. That presented the perfect opportunity for Griffin's first "slumber party."

Aunt Holly read them bedtime stories and they were really enjoying their slumber party until it came to the actual "slumber" part. Harper was in bed almost asleep, but I had to read and sing to Griffin a little bit longer to get him to settle down. That disturbed Harper, so by the time I got Griffin in bed Harper was tossing, turning, and grunting which, in turn, disturbed Griffin. It took quite a while to finally get them both to sleep...and it confirmed that I would not know what to do if I ever had twins!

The best thing about a slumber party? Your friend is still there when you wake up and you can have another day of fun together! After Holly and I took the tots for a walk around the neighborhood, we all went to the playground together (Daddies, too).

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-06T20:04:00.001-04:00

We started the day with the trip home from Florida. Griffin and I were traveling alone since Matt had gone home in the middle of the week for work. Griffin mostly entertained himself while we waited for our flight. He kept trying to "catch" a fish on this big flat screen, and he loved pushing the stroller all over the terminal.

Matt picked us up from the airport and we went straight to the lake house to see Pop & Chaz.

This was the first time this summer that Griffin rode on the Sea-Doo. He was definitely more into it this year than last--he was even telling Daddy which way to go!

A week full of firsts

2009-07-06T19:50:00.001-04:00

Once again, I have gotten behind on my blogging. We spent the week of June 27-July 4 in Cocoa Beach with Mimi, Papaw Al, and Aunt Heidi. The flight to Orlando was Griffin's first plane ride. I wasn't sure how he would do flying, but he liked it from the very start. He was very entertained by the raised A/C vent that went all around the perimeter of the airport. He enjoyed walking all across it and letting it blow his shorts and hair. Then he figured out that he could sit down and lean over it so it would blow more in his face. Then he decided he wanted to "drink" the air!
Once on the plane, he was still enjoying himself. When we took off, he said "going up" and then "high in the sky."

Griffin enjoyed digging in the sand and splashing in the ocean again, but he really loved the pool.

Griffin also made his first visit to Disney World. I knew he was a little young (the only characters he even knows are Mickey and Goofy), but I hated to be so close and not go. He had fun riding in the race car and on the tram, the train, and the ferry. The best ride was the Jungle Cruise since it had lots of animals--elephants, giraffes, hippos, lions, alligators, and more. Of course, they weren't real animals but Griffin didn't know the difference...and we were able to get a lot closer look at them than we do at the zoo!

Griffin has been practicing "tennis" with a little badminton raquet I bought him at Target and with the paddleball racquet on the beach, but this was his first time playing on the tennis court and he loved it.

Papaw Al gave Griffin his first golf lesson on the little putting green at our condo. He also played his first round of Putt-Putt. Most of the time, Papaw Al or I helped him putt, but one time he totally whacked it all by himself from about 6 or 7 feet away and it went straight in the hole!

We also visited Universal Studio's City Walk to celebrate Aunt Heidi's birthday. After dinner at Margaritaville, we walked around a while and then let Griffin ride the carousel. He really wanted to get in the splash area, but I only let him stick a hand in since he wasn't exactly dressed for it.

This was on our last night at the beach. Griffin and I had been sitting at the bar eating dinner. All of a sudden he wrapped his arm around my neck, pulled me really close to him, and said "cute!"..."picture." When no one instantly came running over with the camera, he said "picture" again and Mimi captured this one.

Beach Fun

2009-06-22T07:07:00.000-04:00

We spent last week in Isle of Palms, SC with Pop, Chaz, Katie, Connor, and Connor's friend Cody. Griffin had a fun time digging in the sand...

jumping the waves...swimming... playing "tennis" on the beach...

flying his kite, riding in the bike trailer, and more.

One overcast morning we went into Charleston to visit the South Carolina Aquarium. Griffin giggled at the little fish and turtles, but the 2-story tall tank that had fish (and a few sharks) even bigger than him freaked him out a little bit!

He discovered a new favorite treat last week--candy necklaces--but ice cream is still high on the list, too!

Pop & Chaz, thanks for another great beach trip!

Happy Birthday to Griffin!

2009-06-08T17:53:00.000-04:00

Today is Griffin's 2nd birthday. We started celebrating on Saturday with a "splash party" at our house. All of our family and four little friends--cousin Harper, Brody, Haley, and Chase--joined in the fun. Griffin and his friends had fun splashing in the little pool, running through the sprinkler, digging in the sandbox, and blowing bubbles.

At the end of the party, Harper gave Griffin a birthday kiss--aren't they precious?!

Since he was officially old enough today, Griffin started his day with a "workout"--he went to Toddlercize, an exercise class for 2-3 year olds at my work. After that, he played at the kiddie pool and then he and I swam together in the big pool. After exercising and swimming, he was ready for a special birthday lunch. We went to Chick-fil-a where he got his very first kid's meal. He got yogurt as his side item, but he thought it was ice cream and was very excited to eat every bite!

After Griffin's nap, Daddy came home early from work so we could all go to the zoo. It was a great zoo trip--it wasn't crowded at all and a lot of the animals came up really close to the fence or glass. Griffin loved watching this Gibbon...and I think the Gibbon must have enjoyed watching Griffin because he stayed right there at the glass for the longest time.

This white Bengal tiger also got very close, and Griffin was very interested in it until it roared at us a couple of times. The first roar was a small one and it just startled Griffin a bit. The second time he roared very loudly and it scared all 3 of us. Unfortunately, I just missed getting that one on video.

After the zoo, we went to Mr. Gatti's for a pizza birthday dinner. Yum, yum!

When we got back home, we gave Griffin his presents from us. We had gotten him some movies, books, and cars, but his big gift was a Kettler trike. He didn't want to wear the Thomas helmet at first, but once he saw the trike he forgot all about it. (Weezy--thanks for the "Driveway Guard" so Griffin can safely ride his trike and other riding toys...and so I don't have to chase any more balls down the driveway!)

After a full day of fun, Aunt Holly, Uncle Jason, and Harper came over to join us for birthday cake. Griffin blew out the candles (it took a couple of tries to get them both out) on the beach ball cake that had sat on top of a sheet cake for his party.

What a fun day! And I bet Griffin sleeps well tonight! Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Happy Birthday Harper!

2009-04-25T14:44:00.000-04:00

We celebrated Harper's 2nd birthday on Saturday. She was a precious little birthday girl! She didn't really care too much about opening her presents, but she liked what was inside all of them. Griffin was also very interested in some of her gifts--he was very excited when he saw that she'd gotten some Barney videos and the two of them almost had a little fight over the dog Harper is holding in the picture above!

While Harper was posing for pictures with her Mommy & Daddy and her birthday cake, Griffin was "sneaking" his little finger into the icing for a taste (see him in the bottom left corner of this picture!).

Cake and ice cream make for sweet, happy tots! Here are the two of them giving each other a little love at the end of the party.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T14:33:00.000-04:00

Griffin has been celebrating Easter for a full week now. He went to his first Easter egg hunt last Saturday with "Chaz" (his new name for Chan) and Great-Aunt Lacy.

He went to another egg hunt last Sunday afternoon with Daddy, Weezy, Aunt Holly, Uncle Jason, and Harper. He and Harper found a couple of tennis balls, and they were more interested in those than the eggs.

He has also had an egg hunt at school every day this past week. Each day, his teachers wrote on his "report card" that he found most or all of the eggs!

Before church this morning, Griffin got his treats that the Easter Bunny left him. He liked the Elmo eggs, the different sports eggs, and his backpack full of art supplies...and then he saw his new Barney video!

After church, we went to Mimi and Papaw Al's house for another egg hunt and lunch. Griffin and Harper were too cute carrying around their big baskets and picking up eggs. Griffin thought he was supposed to throw the eggs that looked like footballs, basketballs, and baseballs.

Basketball Game

2009-03-15T07:28:00.000-04:00

Griffin loves basketball! He loves to play basketball, watch other kids play basketball, watch basketball on TV, and wear anything that has a basketball on it. Sunday before last was the last home UT basketball game so we took Griffin. The game was at noon which meant that it would be going into nap time. We didn't expect to stay for the whole game, but Griffin hung in until the very end. He had a great time clapping with the crowd and dancing to the music from the band. He was also excited to see the "Mokey" mascot (his pronounciation of Smokey).

Park Fun

2009-03-15T07:26:00.000-04:00

We had a perfect spring day here Saturday before last, so Mimi and Harper went to the park with us. Griffin and Harper are so cute together now that they're really interacting with each other.

Griffin loved the big spiral slide and went down it over and over.

He also loved the pole that spiraled around to create rungs for climbing. After watching Griffin do it several times, Harper decided she wanted to try it too. Here's a picture of the two of them at the top.We also had fun with bubbles. Griffin prefers blowing the bubbles to trying to catch them.

Snow Day!

2009-02-06T21:30:00.001-05:00

We have crazy weather here in East Tennessee! After 60 degree temps on Sunday, we had a decent amount of snow on Monday. We took Griffin to a field in the neighborhood to go sledding. We started out on a pretty big hill and Matt & I took turns riding with him. Then we decided to let him try it by himself on a much smaller hill. He loved it! Uncle Jason and Harper were with us, and Harper wanted to try sledding by herself after she saw Griffin do it by himself. Then we let the two of them ride together--this was apparently the best of all because they both squealed with delight all the way down. They took several more trips down the hill together before we called it a day.

Griffin also had fun throwing snowballs and climbing on the "snowmen" that the big kids didn't finish.

After all of that fun, we stopped by Weezy's house so she could see Griffin in the snow. Griffin hadn't tried to eat any snow when we were at the field, but he suddenly got the idea as soon as we got to Weezy's house. He decided he liked it--he ate quite a bit himself and then wanted to feed some to Weezy.

Fun at the Zoo

2009-02-06T21:22:00.000-05:00

We had an unseasonably warm day last Sunday, so we took Griffin to the zoo. We hadn't been since the fall, and Griffin knows a lot more of the animals now. Some of the animals weren't out since it's winter (even though it felt like spring), but it was still a fun trip.

The zebras were right next to the fence so we were able to see them really well. When we were at the chimps' house, one chimp came right up to the glass and got nose-to-nose with Griffin. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the camera out fast enough to get a shot of it.

There is a whole kids' section at the Knoxville Zoo, but we have always skipped that part since Griffin hadn't really been big enough for it. But this time we let him go in the petting zoo and ride the slide by himself. He wasn't really sure what to do with the sheep and goats, but he loved the slide and wanted to do it over and over!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

2009-01-12T21:44:00.000-05:00

We have been getting a ton of rain lately! I kept saying that I needed to let Griffin go out and stomp in the puddles, but it was either too cold or we had somewhere else to go that I didn't want him getting all wet. One day last week when we had some really good puddles and no where else to go that afternoon, I let him put on his raincoat and fireman rain boots and stomp all around in the driveway. As you can tell from the big smile (with a chocolate milk mustache), he had fun splashing around!

Happy New Year!

2008-12-28T21:17:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that 2008 has come and gone. It was an exciting year full of changes for us. Of course, Griffin has changed in every way over the past year. At the end of last year, he had just begun sitting up by himself. Now he is walking, running, trying his best to jump, and climbing absolutely everything in sight. Last year, he was only babbling. Now he is learning new words every day and is really starting to communicate with us. And my favorite thing--this year he is able to really give hugs and kisses! I can only imagine how many new things he will learn in 2009!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-28T20:59:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful (and busy) Christmas. We started the celebration on Sunday evening with dinner and presents at Pop and Chan's house.

On Christmas Eve, we went to church with my family and then to dinner with Matt's dad's side of the family. Here is Griffin on Great-grandmother Bebe's lap and reading with Great-Aunt Lacy.On Christmas morning, we stayed home and played with everything that Santa had brought. Griffin loves his new chair that Santa brought him.Then Weezy, Mamere, and Great-Grandad came over with more presents. A little while later, Mimi, Papaw Al, Aunt Holly, Uncle Jason, Harper, and Aunt Heidi also joined us for Christmas brunch. Griffin and Harper took a time out from the festivities and sat down in the hallway together.

After naps for Griffin and Harper, we went to Mimi's house for more presents. Griffin enjoyed climbing over the gift boxes almost as much as he enjoyed opening them to find out what was inside.

It was a full (but fun) couple of days. We are so lucky to have all of our family so close by that we are all able to get together without traveling (with the exception of Aunt Heidi who came in from Orlando where she is going to school).

Pictures with Santa

2008-12-22T21:24:00.001-05:00

I'm behind on my blogging again--we actually took these on December 10th, the day after Griffin turned 18 months. He didn't cry when I sat him on Santa's lap, but he did have to check him out and make sure that he was okay.

Santa won him over with the book and he was content to stay in his lap...but he wouldn't smile for anything.

He never did smile while he was on Santa's lap. This is the only picture that captured a smile...and he didn't know Santa was peeking around the tree behind him.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-28T13:36:00.000-05:00

This was another big day for Griffin. We went to Mimi's in the morning to have breakfast and watch the Macy's parade. The little ones had a ball playing together, especially with a rabbit pull-toy. Griffin would run in circles from the den, through the kitchen and dining room, and down the hallway, around and around and around, pulling the rabbit behind him. Harper kept chasing after him, squealing the entire time.

Our next stop was Aunt Patricia and Uncle Ralph's. Maya and Chance, two of Griffin's cousins, were there. Griffin loves to play with "big kids" so he was loving all of the attention from them.

Then we went to Weezy's house for dinner. Griffin's great-grandparents, Mamere and Grandad (Matt's names for them), spent the evening with us. Griffin enjoyed his first real Thanksgiving meal. He had a couple of deviled eggs (he loved scooping the yellow part out with his spoon, but he didn't want anything to do with the white part) and some sweet potatoes. He started out eating the sweet potatoes with a spoon but quickly decided that they were more of a "finger food."

It was a busy day, but we're thankful that all of our family is close so that we're all able to get together!

Thanksgiving Eve

2008-11-28T13:19:00.001-05:00

I had the day off work, so Griffin and I spent the whole day together on Wednesday. We went to Long's Drugstore with Aunt Holly and Harper for a pancake breakfast. After we had finished eating and put the babies coats back on, Holly and I were paying the tip and gathering up our bags. I knew Griffin had gone over to the door and was looking out the window. The next time I looked over, he and Harper were sitting in opposite corners of the doorway. It was so funny that I had to run out to the car and grab the camera.

After breakfast, we took Griffin and Harper to class at The Little Gym. It was nap time after that so we headed home for a while. Once Griffin got up from his nap, he and I picked Mimi up from work and went to the Fantasy of Trees. Griffin's eyes got huge as soon as we entered the convention center and he saw all of the lights. I let him get out of his stroller and he climbed into a couple of the display areas--the ones with trains and stuffed animals were just too much to resist! I heard a couple of other parents comment to their kids that "you're not supposed to do that" but he was so cute that I couldn't help but smile (and take pictures!).

He went on his first carousel ride and was quite in awe when his horse started going up and down.

He did have a little meltdown while we were there, but having a cookie with Mimi fixed that.

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-04T07:53:00.000-05:00

I know I'm a bit behind on my blogging, but life has been more than a little hectic lately. And even though I'm sure you're all out of Halloween mode and have moved on to thoughts of Thanksgiving and Christmas by now, I just had to share these pictures. Isn't this the cutest little pumpkin you've ever seen? Griffin's friend Wyatt (the jester) came over to trick-or-treat. We went to Aunt Holly and Uncle Jason's house so we could see Harper (the cow). On the walk over to Harper's house, we met up with Weezy who had a box of Teddy Grahams for Griffin.

After we left Harper's house, we stopped by to see Pop and Channa. Griffin is checking out the treats that "Chan" put in his treat bag.
Pop is acting like he's going to get Griffin--I doubt Pop could tickle him too well through the pumpkin costume, but it still made Griffin giggle.
Our final stop was at Mimi and Papaw Al's house. Griffin had fun sitting on the porch and watching all of the big kids who stopped by for treats. He also had fun riding his firetruck up and down the sidewalk and all around the house. Mimi also had some special treats for him--animal crackers and goldfish. What a night for a toddler!

Halloween Party

2008-10-25T22:47:00.000-04:00

Griffin dressed up as a frog for the Halloween party at The Little Gym tonight.

He had a blast playing with "Weezy" (formerly Grandmother Debbie). I couldn't get a great picture because he wouldn't stay still long enough, but he was a very cute little frog!

Pumpkin Picking

2008-10-25T22:39:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday night, we took Griffin to pick out pumpkins. Once he had his little pumpkin, he carried it all around while we looked for bigger ones to use for our jack-o-lanterns.

Go Dawgs! Sic 'em!

2008-10-06T18:25:00.000-04:00

Griffin wore his red and black to school yesterday in anticipation of the UT-UGA game this weekend. Matt and I will be going down to Athens for the game, and Griffin will be spending the weekend with Pop and Channa.

Although his vocabulary is pretty limited right now, he can say "dawg" (and yes, he actually pronounces it with the "aw"). In fact, it's probably the word he says most often after "momma." Of course, that's because we have two dogs that he loves...but he did get excited when he saw Uga VII on TV so I'm hopeful that I'll be able to turn him into a Dawg fan even though he is surrounded by Vol fans most of the time.

Griffin's 1st Tailgate

2008-10-06T17:51:00.000-04:00

Griffin had fun tailgating this past Saturday before the UT-Northern Illinois football game. Here he is enjoying some raisins. Animal crackers and juice were also on the toddler tailgating menu. The planes flying overhead provided endless entertainment throughout the afternoon.
Griffin took his Daddy on a walk around G10 to see who else was tailgating.

15 Months Old

2008-09-09T19:34:00.000-04:00

Griffin turned 15 months old today and we had his well check-up this morning. At his 12-month visit he was 23 lbs. 10 oz. (61%) and 29 1/4 inches (30%). Today he was 25 lbs. 5 oz. (62%) and 31 inches (48%). Certainly no one would call him "thin," but he is starting to even out a little bit! (He also isn't wanting to sit still for pictures these days so I had to catch him on the move.)

Griffin got a boo-boo

2008-08-27T08:11:00.000-04:00

I knew with a boy that we were going to have plenty of bumps and bruises, lots of skinned knees, and probably a broken bone or two along the way...but I wasn't expecting Griffin's first black eye at 14 1/2 months!

Griffin always wants to stand up in the bathtub, and I am constantly sitting him back down and saying "Griffin, please put your bottom down." Well, last night he started to stand up and before he got all the way up (and before I could grab him and sit him back down) he slipped and fell into the side of the tub. He quickly got a bruised puffy spot on the corner of his eye. I was afraid that by this morning his whole eye might be swollen shut. Luckily, it isn't nearly that bad...and it obviously doesn't seem to be bothering him that much!

First Haircut

2008-08-23T07:06:00.000-04:00

I've been debating for a few weeks whether or not it was time for Griffin's first haircut. His hair had gotten quite long over his ears and was starting to flip out at the ends. I didn't want him to be the only boy in school with a "bob" so I decided it was time.

Here's a picture of the "before"...We took him to a barber shop where they have a little tractor for kids to sit in during their haircuts and they give them animal crackers. Griffin was so good--I wouldn't say he sat perfectly still for Natasha (the lady barber), but he was quite content to sit there and let her do whatever she wanted to do to him.

Here's a picture of the "after"--he definitely looks like a little boy, not a baby. It's a little shorter over the ears than I'd like but, as Matt keeps reminding me, it will grow back!

Happy Birthday Brody!

2008-08-16T21:31:00.000-04:00

We went to Brody's 2nd birthday party tonight. I never got a great picture of Griffin with the birthday boy, but here are a few pictures of the little ones enjoying the festivities...

This is Griffin with Wyatt, Ben and Marnie's little boy. They were having fun checking out all of Brody's toys. Griffin was having fun playing "balloon volleyball" with some of the bigger kids. That's the birthday boy in the red shirt in the background.
Brody was showing Haley, Griffin, and Wyatt the bubble machine that he got for his birthday.
It doesn't happy very often, but we did actually manage to get a picture of the three of us together. Griffin is showing a little shoulder in this picture--his outfit was a little too big, but he had to wear it for the party since it had a firetruck on the front and Brody LOVES trucks!

Road Trip

2008-08-05T07:20:00.000-04:00

We spent this past weekend in Atlanta visiting friends. On Friday night, we went to dinner with Drew, Heidi, TR, Liz, Ryan, and Heather. It was Griffin's first time at a hibachi restaurant and I don't think he knew quite what to think about all of the flames. He wasn't scared, but he wasn't really excited either--he was just very wide-eyed the whole time.

On Saturday, Griffin and I met Mimi, Aunt Holly, and Harper for a baby shower for my mom's goddaughter Betsy. (pictures are coming soon)

We spent Saturday night at Greer and Jonathan's house. It was Griffin's first time meeting their 8-month old son Myers. Griffin was excited to have so many new toys to play with, and Myers was entertained just watching Griffin crawling and cruising everywhere.

Our Little Munchkin

2008-06-21T05:52:00.000-04:00

Griffin had his 1-year checkup earlier this week. He had been at the doctor the week before with a little virus, so we knew how much he weighed, but I was anxious to know his length. I kept commenting on how tall he was looking...but he measured in at only 29 1/4 inches. That puts him at only the 30th percentile on height, while his weight (23 pounds, 10 ounces) is at the 61st percentile. I'm hoping for a big growth spurt soon because I'd hate to think that I gave him my short genes!

Father's Day

2008-06-21T05:45:00.000-04:00

We spent Father's Day at the lake house with Pop, Chan, and Katie. Griffin had a big day--he took his first SeaDoo ride and spent a lot of time in his float.

After some fun in the sun, he took a nap in the hammock with his Pop.

One Year Old!

2008-06-10T17:54:00.000-04:00

I'm a bit behind on my blogging, but I couldn't let a milestone like this go unmentioned...

Griffin is one! He got a lot of new toys at his birthday party, so we spent the morning playing with them.
After his afternoon nap, Matt and I took him to Sprout Studio, an indoor play center. He had fun playing the piano, riding on a bumble bee, and playing with all of the different toys. His favorite play area had a little fort with stairs, a tunnel, a ramp, and a slide. He went up the stairs, through the tunnel, and down the ramp over and over again.

After dinner, we went to Ben & Jerry's with Mimi and Aunt Heidi to get a birthday ice cream.

We didn't know that Ben & Jerry's had a "Birthday Wall," but when we saw it we knew we had to put Griffin's little handprint on it.

First Birthday Party

2008-06-09T06:43:00.000-04:00

Griffin's birthday was yesterday, June 9. We celebrated at home with family and friends on Sunday afternoon. We managed to get all of the little ones to wear birthday hats long enough to get a few quick pictures. Here is the birthday boy with his cousin Harper (13.5 months), friend Brody (22 months), and friend Wyatt (6 months).

Griffin really likes to eat, but he didn't dig into his cake the way I expected. He did get a couple of handfuls of icing and mashed them into his mouth, but he never tore into the actual cake.

He was worn out by the time it was all over and crashed in his Mimi's lap as soon as everyone left.

Beach Baby

2008-06-09T06:37:00.000-04:00

We spent all last week in Isle of Palms, SC with Matt's dad ("Pop"), Channa ("Chan"), Channa's two kids and their friends, and Griffin's great-aunt Lacy. This was Griffin's first trip to the beach and he loved it! I took about a 1000 pictures over the course of the week, but here are some of my favorites:

The picture above is from our first day on the beach. It didn't take much time at all for Griffin to take a little taste of sand.Here are a couple of pictures from the pool. We ended most of our afternoons at the pool because it was a good way to get some of the sand off of Griffin before going inside (but we still took plenty into the bath tub every day).

He's holding on in the picture above, but Griffin stood unassisted for the first time while we were at the beach (but I actually missed seeing him the first time). He also learned another new trick while we were gone--blowing kisses. Not only did I witness this one, I got a picture of it as you can see below.

Pop & Chan, Griffin says "Thank You!" for the wonderful vacation!

A Day at the Lake

2008-05-26T09:16:00.000-04:00

Griffin and I joined Aunt Holly, Uncle Jason, and cousin Harper on their boat yesterday afternoon while Daddy was out of town. Griffin and Harper enjoyed a little snack before swimming.

We bought this life jacket last summer so Griffin could go on the boat, but he was too little to actually go swimming last year. So yesterday was the first time that he wore his life jacket and he really filled it up! Griffin was so worn out after swimming that he took a nap in the floor of the boat still wearing his water-logged diaper and life jacket.

An early birthday gift

2008-05-18T18:00:00.000-04:00

Griffin's birthday is still a few weeks away, but he got an early birthday present this weekend. His Grandmother Debbie and great-grandparents gave him a Little Tikes playset.

Griffin tested it out as soon as Matt finished putting it together. He needs help going down the slides, but he loves having his very own swing!

Mother's Day

2008-05-18T17:52:00.001-04:00

Yes, I am just now getting around to blogging about Mother's Day...

This was my first "real" Mother's Day. Last year I was very, very pregnant on Mother's Day but that didn't really count. While it was a special day, things didn't quite go as planned. The original plan was to have a picnic at the park with the three of us, Holly and her family, Heidi, all of our moms, and Matt's grandparents. The idea was to have lunch and then let the babies swing, but unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with us. So instead, everyone came to our house for lunch. Griffin was running a fever and slept most of the day. It wasn't until Tuesday that we figured out what was wrong--he had hand-foot-mouth disease (it's not nearly as serious as it sounds, but it definitely made him feel rotten). Anyway, we did manage to take a few pictures in between all of his naps.

Dinner Time!

2008-05-01T16:52:00.000-04:00

Griffin has always been a good eater (as you can probably tell just by looking at him!) but he has recently started asserting his independence at dinnertime. After a few bites, he will shut his mouth, turn away from the spoon, and start whining until I let him hold the spoon.
He actually does a pretty good job of holding the spoon and getting it into the bowl, however the other hand usually ends up in the bowl too.

Harper's Birthday

2008-05-01T14:52:00.000-04:00

On Sunday afternoon, we celebrated Griffin's cousin Harper's 1st birthday. They were both clapping about all of the pretty presents.

Griffin had to check out the toy that he gave Harper. He loves his train and car that he can ride on and his mail cart that he can walk behind, so he thought this Walk & Ride toy would be a good gift for his cousin.
Apparently he hasn't yet figured out that pink is for girls and blue is for boys, because he was very intrigued by the Cinderella riding toy that Mimi gave Harper.

A Trip to the Zoo

2008-04-06T00:11:00.000-04:00

We took Griffin to the Knoxville Zoo for the first time today. I expected him to get really excited about the animals the way he does with our two Golden Retrievers at home. However, he was indifferent to most of them.

The camels did get a little reaction, but the red pandas were his favorite.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T17:00:00.000-04:00

Griffin had a happy first Easter. We didn't have an Easter egg hunt, but he did get lots of Easter treats including this big bunny and a Peter Rabbit bowl.

Swinging Fun

2008-03-23T16:58:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, we met Griffin's Mimi, Aunt Holly, and cousin Harper at the playground. Griffin loves to swing!

9 Months and Counting!

2008-03-20T23:18:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that Griffin is already nearly 9 1/2 months old. At his 9-month check-up, he was 28.5 inches long (60%) and 21 lbs. 10.5 oz. (69%). While this probably sounds big to some of you, he's actually moving down on the weight chart! He is definitely becoming less of a baby and more of a "little boy." He's pulling up on his own, and he can walk all the way across the room just holding onto my fingers. As soon as he gets the hang of balancing, he's going to take off!