Weekend and Grady's first day

So to pick up where Matt left off - We had a very nice weekend, starting with some recovery time for Grady after his trip to see me at work.



I understand - work is tiring!

On Saturday, we had Neil and Cynthia over for dinner. Matt did basically all of it - he is really getting to be a master at the grill! We had two different kinds of paninis, garden salad (with lettuce from the garden!), and chocolate chip cookies and berries for dessert. It was really delicious!

Also on Saturday, Grady experimented with some new looks. Here he is going for punk.





On Sunday, Grady and I went for a walk with my good friend Joanna. It was so nice to catch up with her after not seeing her for what seemed like a long time!

Of course, the big news is that Grady started daycare yesterday. Here are some pictures of him in his first day of school outfit.





I thought I would be okay with it after our practice week last week. I was fine on Sunday night. I was even fine driving over there. But the second I walked in, I started crying and didn't stop for a good two hours. I still cry when I think about him being there.

Grady did much better than his mom with the whole daycare thing. All reports were that he was happy and calm, mostly just checking out all the babies and the new environment. Here he is telling me and Daddy a little about his day.



At daycare, it is very bright and noisy, and they also don't swaddle the babies for naps, so Grady only took two 30 minute naps all day. He crashed last night at 7:15 and slept straight through the night until 5:45. He went back to sleep only about an hour and a half later for his morning nap and is still sleeping from that after an hour.

We're going to give the daycare thing a bit of time and see if it gets any better. I know it's only been one day, and I think Grady is fine there - I just want him to be better than fine....

Today I am with Grady all day. We are meeting with the mommies from the birthing class today at 1. If Grady gets up in time, we may also try another jog with the jogging stroller this morning.

Boys' Week Recap

With Mommy heading back to work this past week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and the start of daycare still a week away for Grady, us guys had a chance to spend 3 fun days together.


As you know, Grady likes to stick to a familiar routine, which always includes eating, bathing and looking adorable.





A new activity that Grady and I agreed we should try was to watch some World Cup games.



And we were lucky enough to witness together Landon Donovan's winning goal against Algeria, in what surely has been the most spectacular sports highlight of Grady's young life so far!

While we weren't watching sports, we did some playing of our own. Grady was very eager to show off his new head-holding-up skills to me (and the camera):



During this same shoot we were fortuitous to capture on film another common but rarely photographed baby activity:



On Friday afternoon, Grady and I drove downtown to pick up Mommy and visit her office. Grady was a big hit with all of Mommy's coworkers. Here is a picture of him wearing his sporty summer outfit for the day:


We had a really fun few days together, but we sure missed having Mommy at home with us! Next week starts a whole new adventure with daycare!

New Schedule

Grady seems to be doing pretty well with his new schedule, although I have a feeling it will feel a little more uprooted next week once he starts at daycare. My biggest concern was that it would be difficult for him to adjust to bottles all day and then breast all the next day, but I should have known better. Grady will eat from anything! (See the video of him trying to eat Matt's nose for instance!)

Grady has gotten so good at keeping his head up. He has even started smiling during tummy time, which was unheard of a few weeks ago. Here are a couple shots of him with his head held high.





He also decided he didn't mind rolling today, after taking a few days off to consider whether it was something he wanted to continue. He always looks so pleased with himself once he's rolled, but I think it may be largely due to me being so excited when he does it!

The weather has finally turned sunny in Portland, so Grady and I went on my inaugural jog with the jogging stroller this morning. Here he is decked out and ready to go.



The stroller rolls really easily, but it is a little awkward learning how to run while pushing a baby in front of you! I was pretty exhausted after running only one mile. Grady was too!



Tomorrow marks the end of my first week back at work, and Matt's last day as a stay-at-home Dad. Rumor has it he may be guest blogging about his week with Grady, so stay tuned!

First day back

Today was my first day back at work, and I have to say, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I definitely missed little Grady a lot, but it was made manageable by pictures like these being sent to me by his daddy, who was at home taking great care of him.









As you can see, Grady was really showing off for daddy during his tummy time today! It sounds like Matt had a fun time with Grady. He managed to time his naps just right, did a lot of fun activities, and had a pretty happy baby because of it!

When I came home, Grady looked a little bit perplexed for a moment or two, and then started giving me some of his big smiles. It was nice to know he didn't totally forget about me while I was gone.

Grady has gotten much better at grasping objects, and has managed to hold on to his rattle a few times. He doesn't quite know what to do with it once he has it, but that doesn't stop him from grabbing on!



We had kind of a scary thing happen last night that is somewhat funny in retrospect. Matt finished putting Grady to bed and shut the door. About 30 minutes later there was a loud noise. Matt said, "What's that?" and I said, "Probably Besa on the kitchen counter." I started to go to see what Besa was up to when the voice-activated screen on Grady's video monitor turned on. What did I see but crazy-eyed Besa leaning over the crib! I screamed "Oh my God, Besa's in the crib" and tore up the stairs like those super-human adrenalinezed people who can pick up cars with their bare hands. Matt had accidentally locked Besa in the room instead of out! I managed to get her off the crib and out of the room without Grady even waking up! Boy, it was scary at the time. Because it was so dark in the room, the night vision on the camera was on, and all you could see was Besa's crazy glow-in-the-dark eyes. I thought it was a raccoon for a second!

Tomorrow I get to spend all day with Grady, and then back to work on Wednesday. We're planning to do our Friday walk with Rose and Jada tomorrow since I'll be working Fridays now, so that should be a lot of fun.

Happy Father's Day!

We celebrated Matt's first father's day as a father with a walk in Tryon Creek State Park. Here is Grady getting ready for it.



Yes, it rained. Yes, it has rained for 50 of the past 52 days or something obscene like that. But it was actually a lovely walk. There was a lot of tree cover, so we didn't get wet. Here are Matt and Grady.



Grady got his dad a card and some lollipops to thank him for being such a great Dad. Here is Grady's first signature, with no help from mom other than originally placing the marker in his hand, putting his hand on the card, and then cleaning up the couch after he drew on the couch too.



Grady has become more and more interested in his hands with each passing day. He is very good at getting them into his mouth - often trying to get both in at the same time - and sucking on them very loudly. He is also trying to grasp at objects, although his hand-eye coordination isn't quite there yet.

Here's an action sequence.






Grady has also expanded his love of zebras beyond the zebra decal to a little stuffed zebra toy. Here he is gazing lovingly at it on the way back from our walk.



Yesterday we met up with our fellow classmates from our birthing class at Lucky Lab pub in NW Portland. It was fun to see everyone, and to see how much the babies looked like their parents. Most of the babies definitely resembled Dad more than Mom. We're still undecided on which parent Grady looks like. Here's Grady in his outfit for the occasion.



Tomorrow I start back at work. I'm really sad about having to leave Grady all day, but luckily we have a transition week this week while Matt watches him. I think that will help with next week when he starts at daycare. I miss him already.

A day in the life

Grady and I have really settled into a routine, just in time for it all to be uprooted as I return to work on Monday.

Typically, after Grady wakes up and is fed, we give him his bath. He LOVES the bath.



After he's dried and dressed, he plays with his kick toy for a bit, does his tummy time, or plays with his playmat. He has gotten so good at his kick toy he can do it with his eyes closed!



And mommy has acquired the unfortunate new skill of being able to sing through all the songs the kick toy plays, in order.

After all this hard work, Grady is ready for his morning nap, the longest nap of the day. When he wakes up, we will usually go for a walk (sometimes with his girlfriend Rose), run errands, or make faces at each other. Yesterday, Grady worked on some impressions.

Elvis:


James Bond:


After his afternoon nap, we usually play with his playmat quietly for a bit, read a story, or snuggle and wait for Daddy to come home. Then it's quiet time with Daddy, bottle, and bed.

This afternoon we are having a reunion of our birthing class. I'm looking forward to seeing the babies with both their parents. We were hoping to have Grady walk into the reunion, but that's looking pretty unlikely. We still have 2.5 hours to go, though!

He rolls!

Grady must have been practicing rolling in his head all night, because this morning he woke up and rolled before I even had time to hit record on the camera! Don't worry, don't worry - I captured rolls two and three.





I'm not sure you can tell on the video, but he is wearing a Phllies t-shirt bought by Matt's grandma. We will be submitting this to the Phillies in case they need a new shortstop or something. Here's a better shot of Grady in the t-shirt, with his best "I'm a roller" expression.



Grady's had a bit of a setback in the sleep department these past few days. This morning he woke up at 3 ready to go, and didn't fall back to sleep until 5. He's also just awoken from his usually 2 hour morning nap after about 30 minutes, so I should go see what's going on.

Ready to roll

But not quite there.

All the ladies in the house

Last night, we had Jada, Trevor and (most importantly from Grady's perspective) Rose over for dinner. The weather finally cooperated, and we were able to eat out on the porch. Here are some pictures of the cute little couple. Rose was playing a bit hard to get.


hell-o little lady!


check out these abs

The weather stayed nice today, so we thought we'd try out a little wading pool for Grady. He loves his bath, so I thought he would love this too, but I was very wrong.



He got off his nap schedule yesterday, so it could be that he was just cranky. We did try the pool again after a quick nap, and he seemed slightly more tolerant, but still didn't seem to enjoy it like he enjoys his baths.







That last picture pretty much sums it up. We'll try again in a few weeks and see how he likes it. He changes so quickly, it could be a completely different experience for him.

Here are some shots of him putting up with me during his bath this morning.



seriously mom?


okay, I guess it's pretty funny

This is my last week before I go back to work. Next week will be very tough. We are going to really celebrate this week, and I will have to keep reminding myself that I'm only going back 3 days a week. That's not so bad.

All better

Grady woke up from his second nap yesterday recovered from his shots and in a wonderful mood. He did some world-class sleeping though to make up for those traumatic shots!

Grady has gotten more and more smiley and social these past few days. I think I may have even replaced Lion decal as the receipient of the most smiles. Glad to know Grady knows which side his bread is buttered on. Even so, he does love that lion - so much so that he knows it by name.



Did you get that?



I think he says lion pretty clearly!

Here are some shots of Grady from this morning playing with his play mat from Aunt Michelle and Uncle Michael.

First he's trying to figure out what exactly is going on, but he quickly starts to really love it!









I'll pretend that last shot is artistic, rather than a display of my inadequacy at the camera.

Here's Grady just flirting with the camera after he got tired of the play mat.







And here's a slightly better shot of Grady lifting himself up on his arms during tummy time from this morning.



Grady's just recently started to grasp objects (other than fingers) with his hands. I don't think he realizes what he's doing yet, but it's still exciting. I also think he sort of mock rolled over to his right side earlier today. I put him in his travel crib while I was getting ready to meet Jada and Rose for our walk, and when I came back to him he was definitely more to the right than when I set him down. He wasn't completely rolled over, so I'm not sure whether I can really call it a roll. I'm being extra vigilant when he's at the changing table, though. He's also become really enamored with lights recently. It's just fun to watch him start to understand the world more and more.

Tomorrow we are having Jada, Rose, and Jada's husband Trevor over for barbecue. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. The forecast looks nice, but I'm not holding my breath!