New addition

As many of you already know, we're excited to be expecting a new addition in our house.  Yes, that's right - the big remodel is official.  We're moving out in less than a week for a few months, so there has been lots of packing, sorting, and moving going on around here.  Grady is pretty excited about all the boxes lying around.  Great for hiding in -

And great for doing Grady's favorite activity - getting into precarious positions.

Oh, and there is one other new addition we are looking forward to next year....

That belly was not there a week ago, by the way.  We're excited to be expecting a baby girl in March!   I've loved the name Tessa from back when we were picking names for Grady before we knew he was a he.  I only just realized Tessa is a little close to "Besa."  So we've taken to calling the baby Tuzz (so Fuzz doesn't feel left out) while we figure out a name.

We've had an action-packed few weeks around here.

Grady had his first trip to the Oregon zoo.  He and his old flame Rose had a playdate together, along with another little boy named Liam.  (Liam seems to have his eyes set on Rose though, even giving her a few kisses while we were there.  Luckily, Rose was nonplussed.)

As usual, Grady was pretty interested in the fish.

We also went to the circus!  Grady made it through the first half before losing interest.  He thought the camels were pretty cool!

Grady had his first playdate with playdough.  He had a lot of fun squishing it, tapping the lid to it, and, eventually, trying to eat it.

Grady seems to be growing so much these past few weeks - not just physically (although he is that too!) but emotionally and cognitively.  He is pretty much chattering non-stop at this point - especially if he thinks he's on the "phone." 

He's starting to make more and more two word sentences.  He's asking for "more" whatever it is he wants.  More cheese, more milk, etc.  He says "hi cat!" a lot, along with "that cat" while shaking his head when Besa does something wrong.  He loves to go for walks, and the other day he wanted to go "side? walk?" so I said "Sure, mommy just needs to get her shoes."  He runs off to the kitchen and I hear "Mommy?  Shoes?"  I walked in, and he was holding up my running shoes, ready to go.

He now knows the names of all his friends at school, and loves to say their names.  Today Matt got Grady up, and I heard Grady say "Mommy? Tom?"  If you ask him who he saw at school today, he will list them out.

He's started "singing" a bit, and will request the songs he wants by name.  Actually the song, it's always "toot toot" (Down by the Station).  He also loves to dance, which is basically stomping one of his feet while saying "dee! dee!"

And... he successfully used the potty today for the first time!  This was, I'm sure, complete coincidence.  At school they've started having him sit on the potty after diaper changes.  I did the same with him today, and he actually did it!  I was so surprised I'm not sure I adequately praised him, but he seemed pretty pleased.  He's quite proud of himself just for sitting up there.

It will be a busy week this week with the move - wish us luck!

Disney!

I hope you all haven't been holding your collective breath for the Disney recap.  But at long last, here it is!  We've had some other fun stuff since then, so I'll try to do another post later this weekend.  (But just in case, don't hold your breath....)

We all had an amazingly good time in Disney.  I was expecting it to be fun to see Cat and Jeff and their kids Esme (3.5), Margaux (almost 2) and Teddy (10 weeks) (and now all safely in Australia, hard to believe).  I was not sure what to expect of the rest of the trip.  My worry was that Grady would be too young to really enjoy Disney.   Well, suffice it to say, he loved it.

I was a little nervous about the flight down.  Grady and I were taking our first flight just the two of us (Matt met us in Disney the next evening).  But Grady was a complete champ.  We sang a lot of songs, read a lot of books, ate a lot of snacks, and he stayed pretty content throughout the whole flight.   We arrived too late to do anything but eat dinner, and then it was time for bed.  Although "bedtime" is not the same as "sleep time."  Grady was too jazzed from the trip, overtired, unused to the new (and uncomfortable) travel crib, and excited to have mommy in the same room with him,so he didn't fall asleep until close to 10 - about 2.5 hours past his usual sleep time.  Of course, he woke bright and early at 6 AM, but remained pretty cheery so it wasn't as bad as it could be.

On to the fun!  We met up with the Boisvert family for a breakfast at IHOP.  (The dining options within walking distance of Disney are not of the low-calorie type.)  After fueling up with waffles and eggs, we were ready to start the day.

We went to Disneyworld as a kid, but I don't think we'd ever been to Disneyland.  It's a crazy place. After you enter, you arrive in an old-fashioned looking town.  After you walk through that, you get to different themed areas, like the frontier, a jungle area, and so on.  This morning, we stayed just beyond the town, which allowed us to take a boat ride for It's a Small World (lots of dats and pointing, mom forgot to bring the camera) and then a train ride.

I did not realize before we got on, but this was actual a train ride back in time.  WAY back!

As you can see, Grady loved it.

Then it was time for nap (another battle) before another quick trip back.  Grady took his first carousel ride.  Hard to tell if he liked it or not - he was pretty intense about it.

(This is before the ride started moving, by the way.)

We also took a boat ride, which was not the most exciting thing ever, but it was still cool to be on the boat.

Then time to go back to the hotel and make some calls before Daddy arrived!

Grady in the diaper drawer making some calls with the tv remote

We were both so happy to see Matt, and then it was time for another normal bedtime/very late sleeptime, followed by a 4 AM wake up.  After 2 hours of trying to get Grady back to sleep, we were up and at 'em.


Margaux and Esme are both big Disney fans.  They know all the characters and were excited to see them around Disney.  Cat arranged for us all to have a "character" breakfast, which entailed a buffet breakfast and appearances by Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Stitch.  We posed for pictures with Mickey on the way in, and Grady was interested in his ear, but otherwise seemed sort of unconcerned.  We got Grady stocked up with waffles (shaped like Mickey of course).  Soon after, Pluto arrived.  Grady was not sure what to do with Pluto.

He ended up going with slight consternation.

Before turning back to breakfast.

Then...  the dreaded Minnie.

He had no patience for any of the other characters after that.

After being thoroughly traumatized, he took a short nap before we saw the rest of the sites.

Activities for the day included a jungle boat ride (forward, then in reverse, forward, in reverse, and finally forward while they experienced some technical difficulties)

 and Grady's favorite - the petting zoo!

I have this great video where Grady is saying "maaa" and "hi!" to the goats, but it's not uploading.  Argh.  I'll try updating later.

Then we went on the dumbo ride

and checked out Toon Town before heading back for a nap.

After nap, we saw the Disney parade, which was truly amazing.  Lots of bright colors and music.  Grady really enjoyed it - and didn't even mind when Minnie came by on a float.

And our one picture of almost the whole crew (minus Matt)

Unfortunately, that's the best we got! 

After a somewhat normal night's sleep, we were on a plane back to the kitties.  Grady had less patience this plane trip, but he must have been pretty tired with all his disrupted sleeping. 

It was a really fun trip - I'm glad we did it and I would even consider doing it again - although not for a few years!

Countdown to Disney

The big news of the week was our visitor from the East Coast - my great and oldest friend Amy.  It was wonderful to have her here, and I think she really took to Mr. Grady - and he to her.  He even said her name (sort of - Mamy).  Unfortunately it was a quick trip as she was just making a stopover before heading off to Seattle for a conference.  But it was still such a treat to see her, even if for just a day or so.  Here is the cute couple.

You may notice Grady's a bit scraped up.  He had a little tumble but, after the initial shock and indignity of having a mouth full of dirt (he fell down against an embankment), he is doing fine.

The rest of the week was pretty tame.  No hurricanes, no earthquakes.  We are basically saving up energy for our trip to Disneyland next week.  Grady and I will be making our first plane trip with just the two of us, which I am not exactly looking forward to.  Matt will meet us later so as not to miss too much work.  Although the traveling is making me nervous, it will be worth it.  We will get to see our good friends Cat and Jeff and their daughter Esme again, and meet Marguax and Teddy for the first time.  It has been a LONG time since we've seen each other, and it may be a while until the next time too, since they are stopping in Disney on their way to a permanent move to Australia!  We're hoping Uncle Cliff may be able to stop up for a quick visit to see Grady while we're there.

So, stay tuned for lots of pictures and stories next week.  In the meantime, here are a few cute pictures of Grady playing at the playground and in the yard. 

Enjoying a quick drink at the park

How do I get out of this one?

Exploring the cart some more

Our latest gift from our neighbors - Grady's very own playhouse!

We've been harvesting our garden crops lately too.  Grady likes to help out by putting the vegetables in a bowl.  He also likes to pick the cherry tomatoes.  Can you tell which ones he picked and which ones Mommy picked?  Hopefully the kid's not colorblind. 

More after our big trip!