Blueberry picking

Today, Matt, Grady and I went to Sauvie Island Farms for some berry picking. We made off with quite the loot!



Whoops, wrong picture.





You're looking at 15 pounds of blueberries there!

As per usual, Grady was a little dubious about the excursion at first.







Then, he decided he wanted to stand in the box.



But after that, he was a pretty good helper!







Although he did get pretty tired out from all that berry picking!



We all had a good time, and we've got bags and bags of frozen blueberries now to last us through the winter.

The cloth tasting continues

Today marks the end of our first week with my new schedule. I think it's gone pretty well so far. Grady seems pretty happy about it anyway!



After my friend Cat saw the blog post about Grady eating the circle of neglect chair, she suggested that we put a towel around him to prop him up a bit. Er, not sure we saw much improvement with that!



I think Alyssa is right - he is firmly in oral fixation stage!





He is also obsessed with grabbing onto things. Here are a few shots of me trying to take his picture earlier today.





He really wanted that camera!

Grady just gets more and more fun every day. He's experimenting a lot with sounds. He especially likes "AaaaAAAAAaaAAeeeEEAAaa." He is such a smiley, happy baby. It's such a treat to spend time with him! It doesn't hurt either that he's pretty easy on the eyes!

Mmmm... cloth

We haven't introduced solids into Grady's diet yet. I should clarify - we haven't introduced edible solids into Grady's diet yet. That does not stop Grady from trying - you never know what might have milk in it!

A few weeks ago we got Grady an "exersaucer," or as my friend calls it, "the circle of neglect." The baby is supposed to balance himself on his toes while pivoting around and playing with all the highly age-appropriate, developmentally sound toys. Grady saw past all that nonsense and got down to the basics.



He never quite got the hang of it! He will like this toy, though. Or at least he'd better after the amount of time that went into getting it set up!



During bath time this morning, Grady showed a similar interest in his washcloth.


What's this? It looks tasty!


Nice mouth feel


There's an underlying something... soap?


Whatever it is, I like it!


Do you mind? I'm trying to eat here

What can I say - he's a gourmet!

Yesterday was our first day with my reduced hours at work. It went pretty well! He took two short naps, and seemed in good spirits. He took some crazy naps today, so clearly he still didn't get quite enough. We will keep working on that!

Heat wave

It's been another hot weekend here in Portland, with temperatures once again reaching the 90s. We did not sign up for this! We were somewhat limited in our outdoor activities because of the heat, but we tried to get out before it got too hot. On Saturday, we decided to try to go for a run with Grady in the jogging stroller in Forest Park. I never noticed how bumpy it was until running with the stroller!



Grady was a champ and amazingly slept through most of it.



Matt and I finally gave up and got him out of the stroller and walked him down in our arms. Too bumpy for babies!



Today, Matt ran a 5K race over on the Nike campus in Beaverton. He did great, and finished in 18 minutes and some odd seconds. The field was crazy fast, with the winner finishing in just over 14 minutes. Grady and I came out and spectated. Grady did a good job holding the sign for a while.



Predicatably, the sign ended up here:



Baby: 1; Sign: 0



Most of the rest of the weekend was spent inside. We found a great new high-tech baby toy for Grady that he really enjoyed.



Tomorrow begins our new schedule with daycare, so I will be able to bring Grady home around 2:30 to eat and have a nap. I am pretty excited - I think it will make a big difference.

Phew!

I spoke to my boss and got the all-clear for a new schedule that will allow Grady to go to this fanstastic new daycare that we found. They can't take Grady until October, but until then I will be able to pick up Grady at 2:30 and work the remaining hours from home. That way Grady can get at least one good afternoon nap in, which I think will make a huge difference for our time together and for Grady's overall well-being. Grady and I were both pretty nervous going into today.



But now we are so relieved and happy!



I am so excited about this new place, I can't even begin to tell you. It's just a world of difference from Grady's current daycare. He will be one of only three babies with the teacher, they go outside every day, they have a separate room for naps, etc. etc. etc. I'm just so pleased.

My friend Mimi is in town this weekend for a wedding. We won't get to see her again until Sunday because of wedding-related activities, but it was great to see her yesterday! We quickly reverted to our old roommate days and spent time watching some quality tv while having wine and cheese. I couldn't tell you a thing we watched, though, since we spent most of the time catching up and playing with Grady.

Mimi is quite the knitter, and made Grady an adorable little Red Sox cap and a gorgeous green sweater. Here's Grady modeling the outfit:







Going by sheer volume of Red Sox paraphernalia, Grady must be in the top 10 on the list of Red Sox fans!

Changes

Rather than continuing to complain about how unhappy I am with our current daycare situation, we've decided to do something about it. Yesterday Matt and I met with a new daycare, and it is just a world of difference. I am so excited about this place. I still need to talk to my boss because it would involve a different schedule, so I don't want to post too much now, but if it all works out I will let you know more on Friday.

Here is Grady in his dressed to impress outfit for the new daycare.

Looking studious:



Trying to hold it together:



Forget studying, it's time to party!



Such a happy baby!



Here he is having so much fun with his playmat.



In contrast to these pictures, Grady is screaming bloody murder right now. Matt and I have begun sleep training with Grady. We've been trying to make things easier for Grady to sleep at daycare by first unswaddling him at home (they don't swaddle at daycare), and now by trying to get him to learn how to fall asleep on his own. Boy, is it hard to hear him cry. But he has already made some good progress after only a day or so of implementing it. Once we start, we can't go back, but sometimes it would be so much easier to just pick him up and cuddle him until he falls asleep. He has to learn how to fall asleep on his own at some point, though, so we are sticking to our guns.

Here's a parting shot of Grady looking, in my humble opinion, adorable.

Our first family trip!

Yesterday, we decided to take a road trip to the Coast so Grady could catch his first glimpse of the ocean. Well, I can't say the trip was a total success, but we did learn a lot!

First, leave earlier. Grady got up around 8, then Matt ran, then I ran, then Grady napped, then it was time to eat.... Then it was 11. By the time we were ready to go, it was almost 11:45. Lesson learned.

Here is Grady in his fisherman's outfit.



Here we are all packed and ready.



Of the things packed, we ended up using one diaper and one wipe. Besa did not make it to the car.

Second, do not pick for your beach destination the one town that is currently hosting a biker convention. The sad thing is, we even knew going into our trip that there was a biker convention but opted to go to Seaside anyway. Needless to say, after 30 minutes of looking for a parking spot, we continued onward. We didn't even get a picture of Grady on a motorcycle, which would have changed this second "don't" into a definite "do."

Third, when going to visit the ocean, try to actually see the ocean. We ended up going to Astoria after Seaside didn't pan out. Turns out, though, Astoria, although a lovely town, looks out not on the Pacific but on the Columbia river. And by the time we got there and got Grady fed, we really only had time for lunch before turning around and going home. Lunch was lovely. We went to this place and were given a table with a great view of the... let's call it the ocean.



So anyway, three big lessons learned. We still had a great time. The weather was beautiful and we took the scenic route back along Route 30. There was a bike race going on, so we had a fun time making fun of all the crazy people who decided it was a good idea to bike from Seattle to Portland. We also got some great views of the mountains. Here's Mt. Saint Helens in the distance.



It was also good we took the trip because it gave Grady two solid stretches of napping. He has not been quite 100% these past few days. I think he's feeling a little out of sorts with his rash. The good news is it is almost completely gone now. Hopefully by tomorrow he will be back to his happy self. It sure has made me and Matt appreciate how lucky we are to normally have a non-fussy baby.

Even when not feeling that great, Grady still really enjoys his bath. He's also been enjoying grabbing onto the towel afterwards.



Finally, here's a shot of Grady in his "newborn lounger." He's definitely not a newborn anymore - he's busting out of the thing!



Compare:

Viruses, giggles, and swaddles (oh my!)

Don't worry, Grady is fine, but he did come down with his first virus today. I dropped Grady off at daycare this morning, nothing amiss, in this adorable little number.



A few hours later, I received a call from daycare that he had developed a rash. I brought him to the doctor, and he said it looked like it was viral. Of course, that makes mommy freak out, but the doctor really didn't seem concerned. You can't see it too well here, but he does have quite the little rash. It's all over his tummy and his arms and legs.



Grady has been sleeping most of the afternoon, which could be rash-related or could be swaddle-related. We decided to stop swaddling Grady yesterday in an effort to get him to nap better at daycare (where they refuse to swaddle for whatever reason). Normally his days after daycare are sleep catchup days for Grady (6+ hours of napping), so the about 3-4 hours of napping he got in yesterday didn't quite cover the deficit. He did sleep remarkably well last night - really no difference from his swaddling days of yore - and today he seems to have gotten the hang of it.
Literally!



Before he went down for his nap, he was in great spirits. So I'm hoping he's just doing catch up now. Here are some videos from this afternoon. In the first, he and his daddy are having quite the conversation!



In this one, you can hear Grady's first laughs. I'm in love!



Finally, there's really no way to adequately preface these pictures, so here you go.





I still don't know how he got in there!