Eleven Months Old...and still my baby

My baby....

10 Month Milestones and Memories:

• Griffin is about 22 pounds (we think!), but TALL!  He is outgrowing his one piece 18 month stuff and moving on to some 24 month...yes, the 24 month is a little big, but looks much more comfy than the 18 month stuff.  18 month shirt and shorts fit Griffin perfectly.

• I think we just bought our last box of 186 size 3 diapers....They fit, but look like we might could give a size 4 a try. 
•  Griffin is absolutely LOVING this new world of table foods.  He still loves cheddar cheese any time of day, but also really likes spaghetti and lasagna.  He likes mexican food, too!  The food with just a little mild spice doesn’t seem to bother him at all!
• Griffin really likes broccoli and spinach.  I but those little fruit and vegetable pouches and he probably eats two a day.  He loves the ones with strawberries in them, too.
•  Griffin is really starting to drink out of his cups very well on his own.  He’s been doing this for a while, but it’s like he really enjoys a good swig of the watered down apple juice I give him in between his bites of spaghetti or chicken.  It’s cute.
•  Griffin wallers himself to sleep.  I don’t know how else to describe it.  While I’m sitting with him in the rocking chair, he and his blanket just waller all around until he finally falls asleep.  Sometimes it’s painful, but always sweet. ;)
•  Griffin started WALKING this month!  Just four days after he turned 10 months, he surprised Chris and I and took 3-4 steps on his own.  He’s been slowly, but surely getting more and more brave and walking more as the month has gone on.
•  Griffin got his first pair of walking shoes!  They are so cute - read sneakers with Elmo on them. :)
•  Griffin LOVES books right now.  I can almost always guarantee a moment to get something done if I put a book in front of him.  I love that he loves them.
•  Griffin has started playing peek a boo on his own - I mean he starts the game.  He holds his blanket or a curtain in front of his face and pulls it back quickly waiting for someone to shout “Peek a boo!”  It is so cute!
•  Griffin has lots of sounds now.  He says “ma ma ma ma,” “da da da da,” “ba ba ba,” “la la la,” “ta ta ta,” “ssssss,” “ga ga,” and even a “ka ka” every now and then.  The sounds he makes the most are the M’s, D’s, B’s, and L’s.
•  I call Griffin “G,” “Baby,” “Champ,” “G Force,” and “Griffin.”
•  Griffin is still pretty good at riding in the car.  He makes himself busy watching out of the sun roof or playing with a book.
•  Griffin is getting better and better about making it all the way through church - mostly because he getting better about eating and drinking and looking at books!
•  Griffin moves all. of. the. time.  He LOVES to crawl or walk.  If he’s being held, the holder should be moving.  He loves to swing.  He’s getting scarily good at climbing...into the toy box, into the cabinet, onto the toilet, up the stairs...
•  Griffin loves to play with balls and cars.  He rolls them on our concrete floor, and then chases after them.
•  Griffin is a super early riser.  He wakes up between 5:00 and 5:30 EVERY morning...I’m thankful he sleeps without waking until then, but I’m not gonna deny that I’m tired.
•  Have I mentioned that Griffin loves, really loves loves loves, his daddy?  It’s so true.  You oughta see the speed that this then month old can muster when his daddy walks in the room.

•  Griffin has started clapping, too!  It’s wonderful and beautiful.  Aunt Rachel takes him to story time at the library, and when they play a song, she says that he stands and claps sometimes...oh how my heart longs to see that for myself...the lament of a working mom...
•  Griffin has started dancing, too.  But he’s a bit of a bad boy and only dances to music that we try not to listen to!  It’s kinda funny!
•  Griffin is still loving Mickey Mouse, the Toy Story movies, and Backyardigans...I gave Yo Gabba Gabba a try the other day.  He seems to like it - he sat still - but I don’t know if I can handle it!
•  Griffin had his first stomach bug this month and threw up all over mommy a couple of times and then was sick for almost a week!  He a tough kid though, and after he passed it to Chris and I, he was much better. ;)
• Griffin's PaPa came to visit this month and stayed the night.  He chased Papa down the hall everytime he got up!  I know Griffin's Nana can't wait until Chris and I leave for San Diego in a few week.  She and Papa are gonna come down and keep Griffin for the whole weekend!
•  Griffin's new favorite toy is his toothbrush...I know...nerdy kid.  But think about who his parents are.... 

• Okay - and here’s the mom’s lament.  On August 15th, I started back to work.  It’s been hard.  The work is good, but my time home with Griffin flies by.  Chris keeps telling me it won’t be like this forever....Griffin, we are doing everything we possibly can to make sure you are being raised in the safest, most loving environment possible!   Sooooo, August 16th was Griffin’s first day of “school.”  He goes to Circle of Life Learning Center, and he actually seems to really love it.  I know the people there seem to love him.  Chris drops him off at about 8:30 and picks him up around 4:30 so they can go home and eat dinner together.  It’s kind of the daddy and Griffin day - good times. ;)
•  Griffin was a hospital cutie this month, too, when he went to Graham a couple of times to visit my mom while she was there having her knees - yes both - replaced.  We got some cute, cute pictures of this.

•  And Griffin still love, love, loves his cousins...it’s a party EVERY Monday and Wednesday when Griffin gets there....poor Aunt Rachel!

Griffin is a CLIMBER!  He climbed into his toy box by himself!

"I'm not sure bubbles are all they are cracked up to be..."

Dare Devil

my pride and joy!

Did I mention he climbs?  All the way to the top of the stairs?

Would someone please get the neglected child some toys?

Griffin, you’ll never know the absolute delight you are to your dad and me.  We love to see you smile and laugh and we pray continually that we will be the best parents we can be to you.  We love you forever, baby, and are so proud of you... and you will always be my baby, whether you are 11 months, 111 months, or 1111 months old.

A Working Mom’s Lament

I wrote this one night right before I started working full time.  Now that I've been at it a month, I figure I'm gonna put it on my blog.  I think it will be important for me to be able to look back and see my feelings.  So, here ya go, Lydia's Memory.  One more time:

Oh sweet Baby, how I miss you already  -
You stay on my mind all day and weigh on my heart every second.
Your sparkling eyes and captivating grin have no idea that they won’t be met with mine for the rest of the day, and then all day tomorrow, and then all day the next...
And my teary eyes and forced smile are heavy with my burden of guilt as I hug you goodbye this morning.

You are growing every hour, changing every second. 
You are a perfect design, so malleable to any and all forces of good and evil anywhere your are.
Your perfect and divine design cries out for it to be your mother who nurtures you to the forces of good and protects you from the evil, who trains you in the Lord, who loves you with touch and treasures memories of your blessed innocence through the day...
But our world is not perfect and neither is your mother -
Your perfect design is being forced to adapt, and because it is divine, it will do so beautifully, and because it is divine, it will do so only at the cost of your mother’s tears -
Because mothers, too, are divine designs, connected so intimately to their young, that her baby’s pain is ever so much more intense than personal pain... that mothers go hungry long before their young hungers.... that mothers are exhausted in order for their babies to be rested...
And though mothers are a divine design, she is human.
And the humanity brings the flaw of guilt ... the tears of missing her baby.

Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of family to help raise babies.  Thank you family (Rachel) for being so dear to us and being likely the only reason I stay sane through this.

Griffin.  I miss you sweet baby.  I won’t be like this forever.

My little walker...err...wobbler

On Friday, August 19 - just four days after Griffin turned ten months old - he took his first steps.  This was right in the middle of a mean stomach bug, but Griffin took 3-4 steps and just took the breath right out of Chris and I.  It was AWESOME.  Since then, he has been teetering here and there a few times a day, getting braver and braver.  Here is the first good video we have gotten of him walking.

AND, because I am his mom and I believe in things like "new job earrings" and "first day of school shoes" and "I'm a college graduate purses" - Griffin got a pair of "I can walk now shoes."  If I don't say so myself, they are darling.

Griffin doesn't even know who Elmo is, but I love that Elmo hugs his little feet while he walks around church, or the zoo, or Aunt Rachel's house, or our yard....

Of course, Griffin thinks they are also good for snacking on.  There isn't much that isn't good for snacking on these days. :)

Griffin - our lives changed forever when you were born, and we pray every night for you to grow healthy and strong.  So, in our faith, we knew this day would come.  We knew this day of your Independent Mobility would also change our lives forever.  And, Baby, in all of our naivety (I had to look up how to spell that), we can't wait and are thrilled to literally walk with you as you continue to explore this wonderful world God has given us.

the blanket boo boo built

how do ya like that alliteration! (all the b's in the title)

My mom and I went shopping for minky dot and satin fabric to make a replica of a blanket Griffin has grown particularly fond of several months ago.  The blanket he loves, was a gift - a sweet, sweet hand-me-down gift - from his big cousin, Micah.

Micah has a blanket almost exactly like the one he gave away, minus the embroidery.   That blanket is his Softie.  A very, very, very special security-type blanket for him.  It is the sweetest thing that he wanted to give his baby cousin a piece of his protection from this crazy world.

Micah brought this blanket to Lake Granbury Medical Center on October 15th in anticipation of meeting his first cousin on his momma's side...A lot of you who read my blog know the story of Griffin's birth, and know that Griffin was taking a helicopter ride to Cook's and Micah didn't get to give Griffin his present.  So, I took it and gave it to Griffin when I got to go see him the next day.

And, wouldn't you know it?  These boys know what they like.  Griffin fell in love with this blanket.  Of all the blankets a baby gets, Griffin fell in love with the one that nobody makes anymore, so we don't have a back up when it gets pooped on or thrown up on or left somewhere....

SOOOO, BooBoo to the rescue!  My mom and I found the fabric we needed.  I had noticed that Griffin really likes tags and textures, so I picked out several different types of ribbon, and asked her to sew them on like tags (like the Taggies blankets).  She brought the finished product to Griffin at church one Sunday a month or so agao and it was a hit!  He went straight for the grosgrain football taggie and then buried his face in the soft satin just like he does his other blanket.

So far, he doesn't seem to notice the difference.  He just finds the taggies as bonuses when he has that blanket.  Mom is working on another one for his back up.  Thanks, BooBoo, for this special, special gift!!  We love you!