A Day at the Park

We went to the park today and had a blast! It's hard to believe that tomorrow he'll be 17 months old already!

Here we are!

My good buddy Leah (Hi, Leah!) has been hassling me about being the non-blogging-est blogger ever. So here are some photographic updates so you can see what Griffin is up to these days. It's been a hot summer, so we're swimming almost every day when I get home from work. He just had his first day of daycare today, he'll be going three days a week. That way he'll get some socialization, Baba will get some time for writing and cleaning, and I'll get some "free" evenings when she helps out on the days that he has daycare, instead of me taking over when I get home every day so she can breathe.

Griffin has yet to say his first word, although he does sign "more" and waves. He's just so into thinking about stuff and studying things that I guess he's just keeping it all in his head for now. We'll see if daycare has an effect on that, but so far he's definitely the kind of kid that likes to check things out and see how they work or figure out how they're supposed to be. (Case in point, if we don't shut the baby gate when we go into the kitchen, he'll try to close it for us!)

Yep, he's a year old!

So we decided to throw caution to the wind and get him a Kid Tough digital camera for his birthday. We all love it! Here's a shot of me showing him how it works:

And here's the first "successful" photo he took of himself:

And here are some recent photos taken with a "big kid" camera:

Our Amazing Little Boy

Griffin loves to figure things out!

It's been way too long since I've posted anything about our amazing boy and what he's doing these days. It's ridiculous how fast the time goes! I know, I know, everyone says that. But it's true! He's nearly a year old, and already he can do so much. He amazes us regularly with the things he figures out!

For example, he loves my digital camera. He knows how to take the lens cap off and put it back on, and (get this!) he knows how to press the sides of the little dish-shaped button to get the pictures to change on the LCD screen. OK, so he doesn't get it every time, but he does as well as some adults I know! The point is that he figured out how to do it, just by watching me switch the pictures for him.

Not amazing enough? OK, how about this... Mombi's computer is fairly close to his play area, and there's a bit of a gap between the sections of the mesh playyard fence. The other day, she noticed that one of the cables on her computer was jiggling. She looked down, and saw that he had hooked a piece of play-mat foam (one of his favorite toys, go figure) around the cable. She marveled and wondered how he'd managed to get it caught on a cable, and un-hooked it for him and put it back in his play area. A couple minutes later (you guessed it!) the cable started jiggling again. The little bugger was doing it on purpose, trying to get something that we'd made sure was out of reach!

Need a bit more proof that we're raising an amazing kid? Well try this one... I have a graphics tablet that I use instead of a mouse. It's basically a hard mousepad that I "write" on with a stylus. (Do a search for Wacom if you can't visualize it.) Anyway, I also have a program on my computer called "Keyboard Pounder" which basically makes my keyboard and mouse (stylus) baby-proof. He can bang on them all he wants, and instead of messing with my computer, it just makes fish show up on the screen while some fairly horrible Midi classical music plays. Anyway, he sits on my lap, takes the stylus pen from me, and taps it and drags it around on the tablet to make fish show up. While looking at the monitor screen! I know, studies say we shouldn't be over-exposing him to computers and TV at his age, and truly he doesn't spend that much time watching screens (although you wouldn't think it by the way he gravitates toward them). I don't think it's doing much harm, though, and he certainly is ahead of the curve so far for computer skills!

Beyond blowing our minds daily in general, he's still a total treat to hang out with, he's nearly always in a great mood, and he has yet to get truly sick. He had a mild fever for a few days while he was teething (did I mention his 12 teeth?) but other than that he's been healthy since he came home from the hospital. He's funny, he makes great faces (he has mombi's overactive eyebrows) and he's so proud of himself every time he walks someplace by himself without a crash landing. He's even starting to get some hair! We're still waiting to identify a definite word, but it's only a matter of time.

Stay tuned for easter and birthday photos, coming soon! And if you haven't yet done so (thanks, Aradia and Ava!) please consider sponsoring Griffin in his first charity campaign. He's going to be participating in an Arthritis walk to support finding a cure for his ten-year-old cousin. See the post below for all the details!

Peek A Boo!

Slices of Life

Here are a few random videos from the past month. Warning: the first one is about five minutes long. I couldn't decide where to cut it off.



Coughing is Funny!

Swinging with Nana

That's a Lens Cap!

Griffin is 6 months old!

On Monday, Griffin will be six months old. Wow, how time flies! He got his first two teeth at around 4 months old. He's recently learned to sit by himself, and yesterday morning we saw him up on his hands and knees for the first time. He's been doing it frequently ever since, and even doing the rocking forward thing, so we wouldn't be surprised if he's crawling within the next couple weeks. He never did develop a love for rice cereal, but he just started baby oatmeal and he loves it! He's got a great personality and a wonderful sense of humor, and we're having a fabulous time being parents. It's the most amazing experience! Here are a few random photos from this weekend (the grins and the one of him sitting) and one from last weekend (with the giraffe in the background). Enjoy!






And just for fun, here's a video from a few weeks ago:

Happy End-of-August!

Wow, next week Griffin will be five months old. Where has the time gone?!? Well, a lot of time has gone to changing and washing diapers, cleaning and prepping bottles, and loading and unloading the washer/dryer. A lot more time has gone to smiling, laughing, tickling, bragging, yawning, and a fair bit of crying (by all three of us.) Griffin is absolutely enchanting. He's very happy and easy going, and apart from some dry skin issues, the worst health scare we've had from him since he left the hospital was a big spit-up in bed followed by a day of wanting to be held the whole time. He has two (count 'em, two!) teeth already, both on the bottom. He's even balder than when he was born, and his eyes have brightened to a lustrous light blue. He squeals and coos with joy, and is developing quite the vocabulary of sounds. It's so wonderful to watch him learning and growing. We love our baby boy!

Here are some recent pictures:

Well hello there!

Thanks to all those who posted harassing comments to remind me how long it's been since I posted!

Things are great here in the land of Griffin. We're all head-over-heals in love with the little guy. He's still a very alert and cheerful baby. He's been sleeping through the night since around two months. Since our last post, he's probably only woken us up once in the night. Of course, I'm still up to pump breast milk each night at around 1:30am (no longer twice during the night.) In the past few days, we've also started changing him and giving him a bottle in the middle of the night. He pretty much sleeps through it, but we were growing concerned that he wasn't getting enough food. We have his 4 month check-up soon, so we'll ask the pediatrician for her recommendation then.

Our schedule is still pretty much the same as it was. Mombi, for her part, is very tired in the evenings because she's such an interactive caregiver. The poor girl actually had a hoarse voice the other day from singing and talking with him so much! For me, the tiredness stems from not getting many breaks. I come home from work and assume baby duties pretty much immediately, until I put him to bed and colapse into sleep myself. I don't mind because I love the time with Griffin, and my day job is much less tiring (most days) than Mombi's is, but it doesn't leave much time for other stuff (including posting on the blog!) It's really horrible and I can't quite believe I'm sharing it, but I've actually gone a full week without a shower a few times. Luckily, I can wear corporate branded baseball caps at the office!

Ah! Griffin is taking a late nap this evening! I think I'll join him!

2.5 Month Routine

Wow, I'm actually posting! Must be the weekend!

Life is great here in Griffin Land. We've definitely settled into a good routine with him, and we're all very happy most of the time. Our day starts at around 4:30AM, when Mombi gets up to prep for the day. She washes the breast pumps that I've used during the night, and gets Griffin's breakfast ready for him. He usually wakes up between 4:30 and 5:30, and Mombi changes and feeds him and does his morning exercises. Around 6:00 I get up, pump, and start getting ready for work. I leave around 7:10 after some baby cuddles, and Griffin settles down for a morning nap. He usually sleeps for 1-3 hours, and then wakes up hungry again. After that, the day varies depending on how tired he is, but around 5:00PM I return from work. I entertain the babe while Mombi makes dinner, we spend some family time together, and then Mombi heads to bed around 8 or 9. I start Griffin's bedtime routine (clothes/diaper change, swaddle, 4 oz of milk, and snuggle until comatose) around 8:45, and he usually falls asleep right around 9:30. I pump while I watch him on the monitor to see if he loses his pacifier (pluggie) and replace it as necessary, usually one to three times before he's deeply asleep and/or doesn't notice when he's lost it. I finish pumping, wash any pumps and parts that are dirty so that I'll have them ready to go at 12:30 and 3:30, then head to bed. We all sleep through the night (apart from my nighttime pumpings) and then we start all over the next day.

It really is quite a lovely existance. Busy, but so very worth while!

What a day!

It's an amazing day to be a parent!

I know there will be days that Griffin will be frustrated and fussy which in turn will make me frustated and fussy (though I doubt I'll pout as much), but days like this are really just perfect.


Mr. Griffin has been happy all morning, and no doubt he actually slept all though the night, and so did Momai (woot!). We did our exersises and he had a lot of fun and I think he's starting to get the idea that when he makes those sounds when he's happy it matches the laughing sounds I make when he does something funny.

We played with the cat, Basil is our calico cat who is usually very skittish of strangers, but damn she's no stranger to Griffin she layed on him for 9 months and he knows her purr I swear it's like old buddies. They had some play time today when she jumped up into my lap when I was burping him and made sure that his new little blue socks had enough cat hair on them before giving him a head butt on the nose and jumping down.

Then we played with Orange our dog who is wary of Griffin but very protective. I think that is why Orange is so wary is that she knows she's a hell of a lot bigger than little Griffin and he could get hurt easily. Anyway, back to playing Orange nosed Griffin made lots of excited noises and reached out with his little mitted hands and managed to bop the dog a good on in the nose. I think after that they'll be friends for life, Orange is still really careful but I think Griffin proved himself part of the team.

Orange is an amazing dog, she knows what toys she can and can't play with. We've given her lots of stuffed animals to disembowel (after easter sales are great for cheep dog toys, bunny ears rock) but she does not touch Griffin's toys even though Mombi keeps leaving around the stuffed ducks.

We ate lots today in solid chunks, 3 and 4 oz at a time instead of 1 or 2 every hour or so which was nice, and I think makes his little stomach feel much better.

Anyway, lots of rambling but I wanted to share my thoughts of the day and my first week as a stay at home mother.

From a child who refused to play with dolls as a child, hated to play house, refused to be the damsel in distess when we played superheros on the play ground, dislikes housework in general but loves to teach kids I would like to say I think this is going to work. I like being a Lesbian Mom, I feel like something has been completed in my life that I didn't know was missing before.

Tee hee never would have guessed it would have been a little baby Griffin.

Love you Momai and Griffin.

Mombi

Six Weeks Old!

It's so hard to believe that Griffin is six weeks old already. Where has the time gone?!? Tomorrow morning is my first day back to work. I'm excited and nervous and a tiny bit heartbroken. I think it will all be great, as long as I can stay awake!

Here's a picture of Griffin from earlier today:

Family Portrait

Finally, a picture of all of us together! This is the first photo of all three of us since I had an oxygen mask on in the hospital!

Griffin's First Bath

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo with Griffin's first bath. Here are some pictures, plus a bonus video of Griffin making faces in his sleep last night.

Video of Griffin in the tub!

Here's a video of Griffin making faces in his sleep.

Busy, busy, busy!

People are starting to ask if all is well, so I figured I'd better check in to let you all know that things are great. Busy, a bit frentic at times, and sometimes issued when there isn't enough milk (he gets burps from the formula so we're trying to reduce our use of it), but great.

Tomorrow we're going to Nana and Grandpa Jake's house for lunch and an afternoon of visiting with some relatives who are visiting from out of town, including my Aunt Terri and Uncle Jim, and my sister Jeanne, who also hasn't met him yet. We're all excited!

Here are a couple more photos of our little man:

Taking a moment

Griffin's napping and I'm actually awake, so I figured I'd take the chance to post. Maternity leave is such a blur. I generally have no idea what day it is, and half the time I don't even know if the time on the clock is AM or PM. As tiring and random as it is, I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. I think Mombi and Griffin are, too.

It's so sweet to wake up to Mombi bringing Griffin into our room for a random snuggle when he's fresh and clean from a sponge bath, or when we're playing on his play mat, or just checking out the light fixtures. Watching Mombi talking to him and playing with him is amazing.

I'm doing about half of Griffin's feedings by pumping for Mombi to bottle feed, and half by nursing. He also gets a few ounces a day of formula, since I'm not quite up to speed with him yet after all the formula he got while in the NICU. I've stopped stressing about it, though, so it's all good. Mombi keeps me well fed and rested, and I try to do the same for her. Last night I actually woke up right before my three hour alarm twice in a row, so my body is definitely adjusting to sleeping in short bursts. Thank goodness for that!

We're also making plans for our first big trip with Griffin. A cousin of mine is getting married in Michigan in a month, and we're going to go up for the wedding. (Amanda, are you going to be there? Any othe relatives lurking on the blog?) We're looking forward to showing him off a bit, and seeing everyone. It's been so long since I've seen that side of the family that I'm sure I won't even recognize most of my cousins. There are over 40 cousins on that side of the family, and I'm the oldest, so I won't be able to figure it out easily! I'm sure we'll also have some sort of get-together with the other side of the family while we're in town. It'll be an adventure, to be sure!


Here's a photo I took of Griffin yesterday. Doesn't it make you just want to curl up with him and take a nap?

Two Pictures

Nana probably won't want to wear these earrings when we visit in a couple months.




Griffin doesn't cry often, but when he does, watch out!

Happiness is...

...posting a blog (or doing pretty much anything) with a baby sleeping on your chest.

Life is grand. Apart from some sleep deprevation, we're all doing great. The first couple days with Griffin home were definitely rough, particularly in terms of sleep (us not getting enough) and food (me not producing enough) but we seem to be much improved on both fronts. I'm coming to realize just how short a six week maternity leave is, though. He's already over two weeks old! I know that anyone else will laugh to hear it, but he seems so grown up! He had his first well baby visit at 12 days old, and had already gained an inch of length. Wow!

We took him to my brother's house on Saturday for a bar-b-que, and had a great time. They have three little girls, ages 7, 3, and 2. Sydney, the two year old, seemed so tiny and young just a few weeks ago. It's amazing how time and perspective can change so quickly.

I'll post more photos soon, I promise. Right now I've got an adorable baby snoozing on my lap, and the camera is on the other side of the room.