Grady tries beef

Grady is still not quite four months, but if the man wants cow, he gets cow.









As you can see, Grady still hasn't quite gotten over his oral stage!

Here are some more pictures from today's photo shoot.









Grady has really been working on his sleeping these past few days. He had an unprecedented 2+ hours of sleep at daycare today. I'm not sure if he's finally getting used to it, or if he's having a growth spurt, or what. Whatever it is, I'll take it! We've also started imposing a slightly earlier bedtime (closer to 7 now), and he has adjusted to that nicely.

Grady has also been continuing to roll, so he may be firmly into this stage now. I guess we will know for sure in a few more days!

I wish everyone were closer so they could see how much Grady has changed and how much he is learning. He is also just a lot of fun to be around! It's hard to believe he'll be four months on Sunday!

Oh! One other thing I almost forgot to mention. Grady finally took interest in Besa yesterday. Grady was on my lap facing me, and Besa came up to get some lap too. Grady reached over and grabbed for her with both hands! Besa was not pleased, but refrained from biting. She jumped off in a hurry! Here's an unrelated shot of Bes from earlier today.



Fuzz is a little more camera shy, but, just for Matt's Dad, I'll try to get a few good shots of her soon.

Moving along

After taking a few weeks off to think about it, Grady decided he liked rolling after all today!







I'll be curious to see if he's firmly into rolling now, or if this is another "eh, I'll try again later" moment.

Grady also showed some good improvement with his circle of neglect today. He actually was reaching for the objects instead of just trying to eat the towel (although he hasn't given up on that either).



On Sunday, Grady had his first up-close encounter with a dog. My friend Joanna has a little dog about the size of our kitties named Wally. He and Grady were both extremely taken with each other!



It's funny, because he still couldn't care less about the cats.

Grady and I are still adjusting to our new schedule. It's still tough getting Grady to get a solid afternoon nap in because he's so overtired by the time I pick him up from daycare. We will keep working on it, though. Even the 30-60 minutes of extra napping he's getting on our new schedule seems to make a difference.

Finally, here's a cute picture of Grady from the weekend.

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!