Home Sweet Home

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

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!

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

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

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!

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!

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!