Moved in

Just a quick post to let you all know that we survived the move, largely in one piece.  A wine glass seems to be the only fatality.

Despite the chaos, and the inevitable no napping, Grady has, for the most part, been a trooper. We tried to prep him for the big move, with limited success.  He definitely understood that we'd be having pancakes and going to the science museum, though!  He'd also say "move back house," but again, not sure it clicked. 

 

The day before the move, I was talking to Grady about how we were moving back to our house, but we'd all go together and all his toys would be there.  He said, to quote, "Toys?  Tiger book?  Wipes?  Daddy too?"  This was made even funnier by the fact that he's never mentioned this "tiger book" before - best I can think of is his book about wild cats - but he usually calls that "wild cats book."  Anyway, at least Daddy made the list somewhere! 

Grady is a bit unsettled, which is to be expected.  I think it was a big relief for him to be back at school today, where everything is just the same.  We are trying to get things at home back to "normal" as soon possible, so his room, the living room/play area, and kitchen are largely unpacked.  (I'm not sure whether moving at 34 weeks pregnant and the height of nesting is a good or a bad idea.)  Please don't ask about the boxes in the basement, however. 

 

Grady and I had a much-anticipated special morning the day of the move.  We started the day off with orange juice and pancakes, and then went to the science museum.  He ate the whole head-sized pancake, a sausage, and even nibbled a bit of egg before deciding that pancakes were the better option. 

Carefully enjoying some OJ

Before - or more accurately, during.  There was no way Grady was posing for a "before" shot!

After - no help from Mommy

He had a great time at the science museum, mostly enjoying the sandbox and water feature, but also checking out the play dough, trucks, and so forth.  

 

The rest of the weekend was a blur of boxes, no napping, unpacking, Grady getting to go to his friend Santi's birthday party with Daddy and having cake, and playing with his newly unpacked trucks

A few other things of note - Grady said "I love you" to me for the first time on Sunday.  It was unsolicited and makes my heart melt just thinking of it.

Grady had a new choice "Besa no" - but directed to Fuzz.  Last night while reading his stories before bed, Fuzz wandered into his closet.  Grady said "Fuzzy no...."  Thought for a long moment about what it was that Fuzz was doing wrong, and finally came up with "Mine take a nap."  

 

A few random shots:

 

"Huuuge puddle!"

 Kitties helping with the move:

We will post photos of the house once we are a bit more settled.  In the meantime, here's our view from yesterday morning - a double rainbow doing a complete arch across the sky.  It's good to be home.

Movin' out

We're in our last week at our temporary house.  Although the renovation isn't quite done, we are eager to be back and it's close enough!  The big things left to be done are painting (in process), the rug in our bedroom, installation of fixtures, toilets, appliances, and basically the entire front porch.  We're optimistic that a lot of that will be done by Saturday when we get back in - except perhaps the porch.  We cannot wait!

I've been saying to Matt that I need to write a post every week, because every two weeks I know I'm forgetting tons of stuff.  But with packing for the move, jobs, Grady, pregnancy, and miscellaneous other stuff, it's hard to find the time.  So bear with me as I do my best to remember the highlights of what's happened.

Matt was gone in New York the week before last.  Grady decided that would be the perfect time to begin testing boundaries. (I'm told this phase should get better in about 20 years.)  We're trying hard to set clear boundaries, follow through, keep our patience, and do all those other things you're supposed to do. Grady has a terrible poker face, so it's very obvious when he's looking for trouble, so we can sometimes head it off at least.  We will have plenty of time to practice! 

We had snow in Portland last weekend!  Although folks got a few inches a few hundred feet higher up than we did, we didn't get much accumulation - and the one time we did was for about 30 minutes while Grady was napping.  But we did get to see some snowflakes falling, and at daycare (which is slightly higher elevation) there was enough snow to make a little snowman.  Here's Grady outside checking out the falling flakes.

My two handsome guys!

Besa was feeling a bit left out.

Grady's had a couple choice "Besa Nos!" My two favorites were: "Besa no!  Mine poop a toilet!"  and "Besa no!  Mine take a shower!"  He had another funny "no!" yesterday when Matt and I went to pick out light fixtures.  Could be incredibly boring (for all involved, but especially Grady I suppose), but at the store they have a little play structure with benches and toys.  It's pretty wonderful, really.  Anyway, Grady was sitting on the bench and I was reading him a story.  An older boy came over and sat right next to him, really invading his space.  Grady looks at him and says "No! Mine bench! ...  Boy!"  The "boy" was so derisive.  I tried very hard not to laugh - especially since the boy's mom was within earshot.

Grady has been cracking us up with his pretending.  He loves to play "football," which means lying down on the floor and saying "I got it!"  He also likes to pretend various blocks or trucks are filled with drinks - usually coffee.  Grady is actually quite the coffee fiend. Don't worry -this is empty.

That story that he and Matt are so thoughtfully recounting is the time - earlier on the day Grady got sick back in December, so like 6 weeks ago - that I was trying to load Grady and a bunch of bags into the car and spilled my entire cup of decaf all over the car and the ground.  They sure love to tell that story, those two....  I guess it is slightly preferable to recounting the story of Thomas throwing up.

Grady's also been singing a lot lately.  He still remembers and sings his first composition - "Tractor, huge tractor, garbage truck song," and is starting to add more of a melody to it.  He's VERY into a local band called the Alphabeticians, and refuses to sing the real version of ABCs now, preferring to sing their version of the alphabet set to the tune of "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf."

Grady's trying really hard to learn to jump.  He practices a lot, but it still looks suspiciously like his dance move - stomping one foot.  I'll post a video once I can capture it.

And finally - wow!  Tessa/Tess is the overwhelming winner with about 63% of the vote!  Clara and Paige tie for second at 18%.  Doesn't the Besa/Tessa thing bother anyone else?  We are still working on a name, but it's helpful to hear what you all think!  I've been feeling okay.  I had a rough week when Matt was gone with various pregnancy-related discomforts, but am feeling pretty much back to pregnant-normal now.  I'm getting some insomnia, and am usually up for at least an hour somewhere in the 4 AM range, but am not yet feeling too worn out from it.  I'm starting to get really excited to meet her, whatever her name is.

Christmas Part II

It has been an eventful two weeks, starting back with our airplane ride to Tucson just after Christmas.  We had been prepping Grady for the plane ride for a few days, and even practiced a few times with Grady going on Daddy's lap--which didn't always go too well since Grady is in a definite mommy phase at the moment.  However, on the trip itself, he was a champion. Thank goodness for bunny crackers - that ate up a lot of time!
We arrived in Tucson without incident.  Grady greeted Grandpa enthusiastically, and then told him that Thomas threw up.  (He still talks about it, but less and less frequently.)  We had a wonderful trip.  Matt, Uncle Cliff, and Dad went on an adventurous hike.

Matt and Cliff ganged up on Gav to beat him in golf - despite Gavin shooting a 75 on a very challenging course.

And Matt, Grady, Dad, and I got to go to the Desert Museum.  Grady was particularly impressed with the snakes and iguanas.  (He still pretends to be a snake hiding in a tree - it had quite an effect.)  He also liked seeing the mountain lions.  He likes to talk still about how he and Grandpa saw them, they were sleeping, and they had big tongues.  He lost steam a bit towards the end, I think because of the heat, but otherwise really enjoyed it.

The highlights for Grady were probably the opening of, and subsequent playing with, the concrete mixer that Uncle Cliff got for him for Christmas.  Upon opening it, Grady squealed "Oh boy!  Big concrete mixer!"

It was so big in fact that it didn't fit in our suitcase - even when empty.  Grady notes frequently that "nana shipped it" and we are looking forward to its arrival.  Grady was also extremely pleased with the gifts of pompoms, trucks, trains, little people, more trucks, books, and so forth.  Thank you notes are coming - sorry for the delay.

Another big hit were the uncles.  Grady greeted Gavin with "Hey dude" for no apparent reason.  I had been working on "dude" with him because he started saying "Go for it, man" when I asked if he wanted to flush the toilet.  But the first time it came out of his mouth was when seeing Gav.  Gavin and Cliff also practiced fist bumps with Grady, and taught him to say "Whaaaaat?"  Here's a video from today of Grady reliving the trip in his cool dude sunglasses.

Another favorite for Grady was swimming in the hot tub (before the temperature got turned up of course).  Unfortunately for Grady, Nana was coming off a stomach bug, and Mommy is - well - extremely pregnant.  So we didn't have the stamina to stay in there as long as he would have liked.  Here are a couple shots of him enjoying himself in the tub before we cut it short.

It was a great trip.  We all ate incredibly well and enjoyed spending time with the family.  Grady, as is par for the course, did not sleep well while we were there, but that was expected and he stayed in a pretty good mood despite his sleep-deprivedness.  The trip back went remarkably well too.  Grady was quite pleased to get some "wings."  He even slept for a little bit on the plane.  He then made up for some of his sleepless nights by sleeping 15 hours that night!  It's good to be in your own bed!

Although the trip was the highlight, a few other things to note this past week.

Grady has become pretty stylish.  He likes to pick out his own outfits in the morning.  They aren't conventional, but they are quite fetching.  Here's an example.

Grady wearing his doggy pj bottoms, guitar shirt, and "Carebear shirt" (Grateful Dead shirt) for his back-to-school outfit

He likes to accessorize as well.  One of his new favorite hobbies is to "pick a necklace."

This activity usually goes along with "Cuddle a bed?," which, although it sounds sweet, actually consists of me trying to keep him from launching himself off the bed as he thrashes around, demands to be put under the blanket, searches for the stuffed animals, then just generally makes a ruckus.

Grady is starting to get pretty good at "singing."  He can't quite carry a melody yet, but he knows many of the words to the Alphabet Song (although not in order), Baa Baa Black Sheep, and many others.  He made up his first song this past week.  It goes "Huge tractor, huge tractor, garbage truck... song."

He is also playing on his own more and more.  He loves to make car transporters - he'll take a big car and then pile other cars on top of it.  This one he made the other night is, by Grady's own description, "amazing."

Grady's "amazing" car transporter

There have been lots of other small, funny things these past few weeks.  A couple highlights.  Seconds after Grady woke up from his nap this afternoon I heard him say "Awake!  Grady awake!" and then "How's the swing?" - a phrase I taught him to say to Daddy after he's been practicing his golf swing.

A continuing favorite is when Grady says "I burped" (sounds more like "uh buhrp").  I know I should begin teaching him manners, but it's too funny to have him stop.

Grady has also begun fake laughing and then declaring "Grady funny!"

Yesterday he was walking around with a shopping bag saying "See you later alligator."  I asked him if he was going to the store.  When he said he was, I asked what he was going to get: "Muffins, seeds, bagels."

Muffins are a big hit right now - he was very excited by our offer to take him to ice cream yesterday.  When I asked what flavor he wanted, he thought for a moment and then said "blueberry muffin ice cream."  A tall order, but amazingly they had blueberry pancake ice cream - close enough.

Bessy and Grady continue to have a love/hate relationship.  Today Besa was looking out the door, and Grady said to her "Besa no!  Mine outside!"

Baby news.  I'm at 31 weeks now, and starting to get pretty uncomfortable.  The baby is much higher up than Grady was, which means I can still "jog" without feeling like my bladder is going to explode.  It also means that the unfortunate heartburn and breathlessness, which I never really got with Grady, have set in.  We are still deciding on names.  Maybe you can help?  I'll put up a poll on the right and you can vote for your favorite.  The big news on the baby front is that I got some great news at work that my very understanding and kind boss is letting me take an extended leave.  I'll have off March 1 through August 20, rather than the 12 weeks allowed under our policy.  I'm very grateful and excited for the extra time with the little girl.

I think we're pretty much caught up!  Hope everyone had wonderful holidays.