Practicing his moves

This is my first week of going back to work three days a week, and Grady going to daycare for three consecutive days.  His first day back after a week off went well, although he was very clingy when I picked him up.  I think he might have been nervous I wasn't coming back after Uncle Cliff left, then my parents, then Matt, then me this morning!   It made for a cuddly evening, which was fine by me. 

At dinner tonight, Grady decided to practice his strip tease.  This started out as a game of peek-a-boo, with Grady lifting up his bib and then giving me a big smile when he put it down.  Until....

The boy's got moves! 

We both miss Daddy over here.  Grady tolerates me putting him to bed at night, but he much prefers Daddy doing it.

It will be weird not being with Grady tomorrow.  I'm lucky to only be working three days a week, but it seems like a lot all of a sudden! 

End of the holiday weekend

We were all very sad to see my dad and Dotty leave on Sunday, but we had a great time while they were here.  On Saturday, we took advantage of a break in the drizzle and went for a walk on Elk Rock Island in nearby Milwaukie.  It was nice to get out of the house and move around a bit after such a food-filled weekend!   Grady cooperated with having his photo taken.

Well, he cooperated for a while anyway!

We went for a nice dinner on the town before my parents left, and Grady was very well-behaved. 

After my parents left (very early!) on Sunday, Matt, Grady and I went to see a local musician play at a cafe.  He was very energetic and fun, and sang a lot of songs about ninjas.  Grady didn't quite know how to take it!

He warmed up to the music pretty quickly, though.

About half way through, a woman came in from the street and started tossing around balloons and making balloon animals.  I don't know whether she was affiliated with the cafe or not.  She was definitely odd.  Grady was pretty interested in the balloons!  

(Cat, thank goodness you weren't there - a dozen balloons in a room full of toddlers!)

After our fun morning out, Grady practiced getting onto all fours (no crawling still), while Matt got ready for his trip to NYC.  He left last night, much to everyone's disappointment - the cats included.

Grady and I kept busy today, though. 

I finished knitting a hat for him.  It's way too big, but he seems to enjoy it. 

He also had fun pulling it over his eyes and playing peek-a-boo.

Then we headed over to The Warehouse to do some messy art.  I traced Grady's body with a crayon and was going to let him try to draw on it, but the crayons never made it to the paper on the way to his mouth.  So instead he "painted" with mud.  Surprisingly, he didn't try to eat the mud and he had fun hitting it on the paper.

Apparently I held my phone sideways.  Sorry about that.   And yes, I stripped him down.  Don't remind him of this when he is a teenager.

Then Grady had a lot of fun bouncing up and down in his circle of neglect.  He's just recently figured out this feature.

Then I got adventurous and decided to give Grady some green beans.  Poor Grady.  Here he is, so excited for his dinner.

And then the green beans.  Why, Mommy?

He ended up throwing up a bit on the green beans as he did with the peas.  I pureed them for several minutes and didn't notice any stringy things, but Grady apparently did.  The rest will be going into the freezer for a while!

Finally, here's a shot of the kitties keeping me company after Grady went to bed tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We were all very lucky to have Uncle Cliff and the grandparents come visit for Grady's first Thanksgiving.  Grady has been putting on quite a show - he's full of smiles for everybody, and is just generally enjoying having our family around.  Uncle Cliff left tonight, but we get some more time with the grandparents before they head back to Tucson on Sunday.

Yesterday Grady had a fun time with the boys watching some football.  He stayed happy for quite a while just hanging with the boys!  He especially liked sitting on the couch with Uncle Cliff.

Grady also had fun hanging out with his grandpa.

Okay, he might not look like he's having much fun there, but he got pretty into Goopy's glasses.

And they had a lot of fun making faces at each other.

Grady had some good cuddle time with Grandma today, too.

Doesn't he look so big in that picture?

Given that it is Thanksgiving weekend, Grady did his share of face-stuffing.  First up were Cheerios.

Given Grady's love of carbs, I was pretty sure he would be pleased with them.

Yup, pretty good.

He finished them all.

Grady also had a lot of fun playing peek-a-boo with that vest he's wearing above.  He would pull his vest up over his head, then pull it down and start laughing when we said "There's Grady!"  I tried to get it on video, but missed the moment. 

He also tried turkey, which he was not so sure of.  There was a lot of chewing and grimacing, but he did manage to swallow two small pieces.

Still no crawling from Grady, although he continues to kick and really get up high.  He's been making a lot of noises lately, adding "Nnnyah" and one "Cah" to his vocabulary in honor of Uncle Cliff.  (The "nnnyah" is usually accompanied by a very odd face, which includes nose scrunching and lip curling.)  He also was apparently waving and saying "Buh bye."  I missed that, but, even as brilliant as Grady is, I'm pretty sure that was coincidence!  Buh-bye is suspiciously close to "Besa," though, which I am convinced will be his first word.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Has it been a week?

Yikes, sorry! 

Grady has been battling a bit of a virus the past few days.  He is in good spirits, but he has gone through more diapers in the past 48 hours than he has probably in the past two weeks combined.  So we've been pretty much house-bound. He is being a good sport about it, but I hope everything clears up soon. 

I think Grady is getting really close to crawling.  He can get his chest all the way off the ground, and can scooch his bum way up, but he hasn't figured out how to combine the two together yet.  He is getting SO frustrated, so the motivation is there.  I took about 20 minutes of video, but the amount of editing it would take to show you what I mean is probably not worth it - I will try again today.  I'm hoping he starts crawling at Thanksgiving, when Grandma, Goopy and Uncle Cliff are all here. to witness it 

Yesterday I took some photos of Grady for our Christmas card, using the old Santa hat from Michelle & Michael.   Here are some of them:

I had all my Barefoot Contessa cookbooks out yesterday trying to figure out what to make for Thanksgiving (can you believe it's next week?!?).  As most of you probably know, I am completely obsessed with the Barefoot Contessa.  Seems to run in the family!

If Grady's up for it, we're having a baby class reunion tomorrow afternoon, and then his swimming lesson.  Should be a fun day!

Jam-packed weekend

We started out our weekend by heading to the Llewellyn Elementary School craft fair.  We got this fun t-shirt for Grady, which he is kindly modeling for you all here.

And because it's Portland, you'll be happy to know the t-shirt is made of recycled t-shirts.

I made a new version of the tag toy that Grady so handily rejected as documented in the last post.  This one is actually a hit.  I got some bolder fabric and made it in the shape of a star, so he has more edges to grab onto and bite.

Guess who else likes it:

Besa also enjoyed this little chair I got for Grady for when he's a bit older.

(Fuzz does still exist, by the way. She just chooses to stay well out of Grady's way.)

I got enough fabric to make at least 10 of these, so if anyone wants one, send me an email or post a comment and I'll be happy to send one your way.  Be warned: I don't know how to sew so no promises on durability.

Grady was also quite taken with a little plastic step stool I got for him.  He likes to use it as a drum.

And as a teething tool.

Speaking of teething, Grady now has two rather large teeth on the bottom, as evidenced here:

I mentioned previously that a third tooth cut through on the bottom as well, with another one not far behind to even it out.  I think he has two more coming in on top, too.  That kid is going to have a mouthful of teeth in no time!

Last night, Matt and I left Grady with a babysitter for the first time and had a fun night out.  We saw Megamind (recommend it) and went to a nice romantic dinner.  It was great to have an undistracted night with my husband.  We realized we need to have proper dates more often.  We had Andrea, Grady's old daycare provider, watch him, and he actually seemed to remember her.  He went to sleep with her easily and didn't wake up until after we got home.

Today we went to Grady's girlfriend's house for dinner.  Rose has gotten so big - she claps, waves, and even crawls a bit - it was fun to see how much she has grown.  Grady and Rose enjoyed eating each other's faces, and Grady enjoyed swallowing an entire piece of avocado, pooping twice, and then peeing on their changing table.  I'm sure we will be invited back soon.

One last picture before I go to bed - just want to show everyone how much Grady loves his daddy.

He may have even scootched forward an inch or two to reach him.

Amazing love of Toy, plus a high chair (finally!)

Grady really likes tags on toys.  Toys are okay, but the tags - the tags are pretty darn cool.  Thinking I was being such a crafty mom, I decided to make a toy for Grady that is basically all tags.  It's a little square filled with parchment paper so it makes crinkly noises, lined with tags on every side.  The result?  Can you guess?

For those who couldn't get through the video - he doesn't like it.

I finally got up the courage to head over to Ikea to pick up a high chair for Grady.  I panicked last minute and changed my mind to get this one:

I think I picked poorly for a number of reasons, but Grady seems happy, and it was cheap enough that I can get another one without feeling too bad.

Grady broke another tooth yesterday.  He has been drooling, biting (ouch!) and just generally teething, so I had been expecting it.  I was expecting it to break through on the top, though, which is where the next round usually starts.  Instead it broke through on the bottom - so he is going to have three bottom teeth and none on top for a while!  Should look pretty funny.  I think a fourth is about to poke up on the bottom too, which will even it out a bit.

It just hit me today that Thanksgiving is coming up soon!  Dad, Dotty and Cliff will all be heading up to PDX.  We can't wait to see them, and have them see how much Grady has grown!

Weekend Recap

Grady's daddy here, to catch everyone up on the past few days.  (We use "weekend" somewhat loosely around here - Grady only goes to school on Tues. & Thurs. after all.)

On Friday, Mommy attended a conference for work, so I took the day off to hang out with Grady.  It was a beautiful day, and we made the most of it with a 2+ hour excursion to run/picnic/swing/walk.  The only thing we forgot was the camera! 

Later in the afternoon, Grady ate close to 1/2 an avocado while staying very neat & tidy (which Daddy really appreciates).  Here are a few pictures of him after he moved on to his favorite food, rice crackers:

 
On Saturday, we all attended Book Babies at a neighborhood library.  We sang a lot of fun songs, heard a story and played with some toys with a lot of other little babies.

The Sunday swimming lesson went really well.  Grady is getting really good at going under the water, something they do more and more frequently as the class progresses.  It's been really neat to see him learning how to do it!  At the end of this week's class the "noodle" made another appearance, and Grady did not let the opportunity pass him by:

 Today, Grady and Mommy took part in "Messy Art" at a nearby cafe.  Although advertised for ages 0-6, Grady was the only 0-year-old in attendance.  Undeterred by the age difference (and perhaps inspired by it), he threw himself into his work:

Last but not least, here is a picture from a couple of weeks ago that we took to demonstrate for Grandma W. how Grady likes to reach out for things that you are carrying when he is in the bjorn: