Snow!

Today we had snow on the ground for the first time ever for Grady!  Shockingly, this first snow experience was well documented.

For the most part, he seemed to like it, although he definitely didn't quite know what to make of it.  That stuff is cold!

Of course, he tried to eat it a few times.  Not bad!

 

And done, stink face and all.  Good shot of those upper teeth, though!

When we came back inside, Grady had a great time pulling a catalog off the table, ripping it, eating it, and getting ink all over his face. 

He also had fun playing with Besa - although Besa was torn between playing and avoiding the little tormentor.

I'm also including one last video here.  Michelle and Michael sent us some stacking cups.  Grady loves them, and I think it's funny how he likes to take them apart one by one.  He's very methodical about it!

Grady has been practicing his waves, high fives, and clapping in anticipation of some upcoming family visits.  We can't wait!

Recovered

I am happy to report that we are all healthy and back to business in the Wilkinson household.  Phew!  I know one thing:  I am never going to get sick again.  It stinks.

Since we are all recovered now, we had a fun and action-packed weekend.  We started by going to the opening of the Curious George exhibit at the Children's Museum.  It was the first time I got to do the "I'm with the media" thing and get in for free.  It was pretty cool.

We started by getting to see Curious George himself!  We weren't sure how Grady would react since we skipped the Santa Claus thing this year.  He was typically pretty complacent about it and even got a good nose-pat in.

The exhibit itself was for bigger kids, but we had a great time exploring the more age-appropriate parts of the museum.  

Here, Grady explores a mattress filled with water - not sure what to make of it at first, and then pretty overjoyed by the whole experience!

Grady also enjoyed exploring a water table (doesn't he look dashing in his smock?)

the large padded stairs,

the light table,

and - best of all - a little ball pit surrounded by mirrors.  He immediately tried to make out with himself.

It was a really fun time, and I'm glad we finally managed to make it out to the museum!

On Saturday, we went to see a local musician perform at our library.  Grady is so funny when he sees live music - he gets really mellow and just sort of sits and stares.  I think it would be a bit disconcerting if I were the musician!  Despite the stony exterior, I'm pretty sure he had a good time.

The weather was nice enough this weekend that we were able to spend quite a bit of time outside.  I just threw a blanket on the ground and let Grady crawl around.  Other than gagging on a piece of grass, he had a lot of fun.  Here he is showing off a branch that he found (and looking quite coy about it).

We also managed to make it out to Powell Butte for the first time - a cool park with great views of the city and the mountains beyond.  Grady had a fabulous time!

To finish off a busy weekend, yesterday Matt and I had some new friends over for snacks and drinks.  They are the parents of a 4-month old.  It's amazing to remember how little Grady used to be and how much more he can do now!  Besa of course was in rare form.  She especially enjoyed climbing in one of Grady's boxes and playing with Grady's toys.

Grady continues to be a lot of fun, and he gets more and more of a personality every day.  He has been a total ham lately, doing lots of laughing - sometimes fake laughing.  His new thing is to clap whenever Daddy walks in the room.  Which is fine, as long as Matt doesn't expect me to follow suit.  Grady has also inconsistently been doing some waving.

So that's it for our action-packed weekend!  We are definitely glad to be well again!

What a week!

Sorry for how long it's been, but it's been quite a week.  And not in a good way!  (Don't worry, we are all fine.) 

Things started out great after the last blog post.  The weather turned beautiful, and Matt, Grady and I went for a nice walk through the neighborhood.

Then things turned sour.

On Wednesday when I picked Grady up at daycare, Briana was taking his temperature.  Not a good sign.  No fever, but he was feeling off.  Just as we were getting ready to leave - his first throw up all over the floor.  I felt bad that he threw up at daycare, but it was actually helpful to have Amy and Briana talk me through how to handle his first throw up.  Poor guy.  He actually seemed in pretty good spirits by the time we got home.  He had one small throw up during the night, and that was pretty much it.  Kind of tired and not much of an appetite for the next day or two.  We skipped swimming and our other planned activities, but had a nice quiet time at home. Here are some shots of him on the mend before we get to the weekend part.

Here, Grady found his way into the tv room.

Perusing the DVDs....

Perusing the contents of the trash bin....

 

 Perusing the contents of the trash bin once again, after mommy so unhelpfully filled it back up and moved it.

Grady also really enjoyed playing with this penguin that his Auntie Noel got for him.

So with Grady on the mend, we were looking forward to a fun weekend.  Then Friday night hit.  Without getting into too much detail, I will summarize by saying I have lost 8 pounds since Friday.  I'm still not close to 100%, but am at least able to get up off the floor.  Matt also battled with Grady's bug, but luckily he kicked it much faster than I did.  I honestly do not know how we would have gotten through Saturday if we had both been as sick as I was.   

I thought I felt well enough on Sunday to go for a walk at Kelley Point Park in North Portland.  It's a cool park, looking over where the Willamette and Columbia rivers meet.  I overestimated how well I was feeling and how long Grady could go without a snack, but we still had a good time for the most part.  Here are some pictures. 

I'm not sure if I've ever been in a grove of cottonwood trees before.  It felt like we were very far away from Portland.  

Grady had his own plans for what he wanted to look at for most of the trip (hint: not the camera), so most of the pictures are out.  Here are a few shots though.  The first one is the point where the Willamette and Columbia rivers actually converge.

 

Add to Sunday that Grady is either teething or is just going through a fussy stage right now and has been doing a lot of yelling (not good for headaches!) and tantrum-ing - and it made for a pretty challenging weekend.  We made it to the other side, though!   I took a very needed sick day today with Grady at daycare, and am feeling closer to human. 

Luckily, Grady still is a charmer despite the grumpiness and continues to make us laugh.  

Here Grady and the kitties did some role playing.

Besa at Grady's new musical table (which is AWESOME):

She's quite musical!  

And Grady at Besa's scratching post:

He gets a little flustered when he hits the pompom on top! 

Grady's favorite game - pulling up.  Can anyone spot Grady?

Although we haven't witnessed it yet, reports from daycare today were that Grady pulled up to standing for the first time! 

And since this post was a bit of a downer, I'll throw in some pictures of Fuzz from the past week.  Here she is helping me finally put away my maternity clothes. 

And some cuddles with Besa. 

The promised dancing video, and some other odds and ends

I was going to log on just to share this video from daycare, but I've got quite a bit of stuff lined up already from the week, so this post will be a bit longer.

First, here is that video I mentioned last post of Grady dancing at daycare. 

Last Thursday, Matt, Grady & I met with the urologist about next steps.  All is pretty much as I said before.  We have a follow-up ultrasound on March 10 to check to see if the doctor popping the ureterocele in his bladder during the latest procedure is relieving pressure.  If not, the first surgery may get moved up a bit from the 5-6 month timeframe.  The second surgery will follow 5-6 months after that. 

Here we are leaving - Grady is so relieved to be outta there!

Grady has been really enjoying playing peek-a-boo.  He takes any opportunity to cover himself up and pop out.  I took a box out from the basement and covered it with a cloth to see if he would be interested in hiding in the box.  He wasn't really, but Besa was, and he liked playing peek-a-boo with her!

Here are some photos Matt took just experimenting with his new zoom lens.  I like these, because they are pretty representative of every interaction Grady has with his toys - try to eat it, play (usually this involves shaking the object over his head, which he isn't doing here), make noises at it, look for the next thing, then move on. 

And then, this picture just cracks me up:

I took Grady for a jog in the jogging stroller on Friday.  On the way out, he grabbed one of his shoes from the mat, so I let him take it to the jogging stroller.  He held onto it like that the whole ride!  He's an odd one, that Grady!

Dancing machine

Every week that goes by, Grady changes so much.  One week he can't do something, the next week he can.  The speed with which that's happening seems to increase every week.  I can't keep up with him! 

Some of the things that have happened this week.

He got in some new teeth, as he is modeling here -

(That white stuff on his top far right is bagel, not tooth.) His four top middle teeth basically all came in at once, and he finally got the 4th on the bottom to make a set.  His two favorite things to do with these new teeth?

Eat bagels!  We had brunch with our friends Jay and Joanna last weekend, and he ate an entire half a bagel!  Here he is today repeating the feat.

Er, not quite Grady

Wassup, I eat bagels for breakfast!

Unfortunately, his other favorite thing to do is grind his teeth.  The noise is AWFUL but I've been told they don't do it for long.  Here's hoping. 

Grady also learned how to get to a sitting position from his tummy.  He basically does a split and then emerges - it's pretty amazing to watch.  I'll have to get a video.  You can kind of see here, although in this one he is using the stair for leverage. 



What I was actually trying to capture in that video was how he can pull himself up on the steps.  He ALMOST made it to the second step earlier by basically climbing on the first step so that he was lying flat on it, and then reaching up again.  He didn't feel like doing that again in that video, obviously, preferring to scream DADADA at the top of his lungs before lunging after the cats.  He certainly has his own ideas! 

He's been climbing up on everything still, and is now also trying to climb OVER things, sometimes to comic effect.  This video is sort of long, but I continue to find it amusing.

Grady is also now dancing to anything.  There's a great video from daycare I've asked them to send of him dancing to In the Jungle.  But he's not picky.  Here he is dancing to the Angry Birds theme song - an iPhone game.

The other big thing Grady did this week was sit in the supermarket cart for the first time!  Here he is, looking quite pleased with himself.

Of course, in my opinion, he also continues to get cuter every day.  Here's some evidence.

I think those are the highlights of the week for Grady.  We have his follow-up urology appointment in a few hours.  If anything changes from what I said last week, I'll let you know.