Happy Birthday Harper!

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!

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!

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

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!

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

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!

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.