I know, it's been ages...

It's so hard to believe that Griffin is almost 5. Tomorrow he gets tested to see if he can get into the academic magnet school, which goes from Kindergarten through grade 12. How time flies!

Oy, has it been that long?

Seriously, wow. How neglectful I've been of this blog! There's no telling how long it'll be until I post again, so I guess I ought to do a fairly thorough job.

So, Griffin... he's amazing! I know that lots of parents think their kids are geniuses, and I'm not claiming that, although I wouldn't be surprised if he was, because he's WAY ahead of the curve on a lot of skills. For example, when he turned two he could already identify all the letters in the alphabet, and could count to ten. At this point, one month shy of his third birthday, he's counting to 25 on average before he starts to lose track, and that's usually because he can't find that many things lined up! He's doing 48 piece puzzles (I think he's supposed to be doing 6-9 piece ones at this point), he knows left from right, and he's been drawing faces since last May. On Christmas day, he drew this out on the sidewalk in front of our place:

Yup, that's a smile in the middle of that huge head, then arms legs hands and feet at the bottom, and hair all around the outside. For those of you not up on your childhood developmental stages,

I'll just say that it's pretty crazy for him to be doing this stuff already. He's about two years ahead of most kids. Google it!

He's also very happy and loving, and extremely funny. Granted the humor is not always intentional on his part, such as the other day when he was trying to reach something in the back seat of the car, and we couldn't figure out what. Finally we asked him "what do you need?" and he replied, while straining to reach as far as he could, "Big arm!"

He's very friendly and says hello and goodbye to everyone he sees (and plenty of locations and inanimate objects as well.) He's very into pretend play, and loves to pretend that he's a dog, and that whoever is with him is a dog as well. Hence, we're often to be found out in public saying things like "Oh wow, woof, look at that, woof!" Right now he's all about playing with duplo blocks and train stuff, he loves watching Yo Gabba Gabba, which he refers to as "Guys," and his favorite music includes Beatles, Ani Difranco, Indigo Girls, and a variety of classic funk and 80s hits.

Ok, enough bragging on the kid's brains and good taste... let's show off how cute he is! This was earlier today.

And here's a shot of tonight's pre-bed fencing lesson with Baba, who Griffin has recently decided to call "Daddy." Daddy was smart and made sure to teach Griffin two things when they first got their swords: 1. Make sure both people are holding a sword. 2. Say "On guard!" before you start swinging. I think the second rule has probably saved her glasses on multiple occasions.

Donor 6306, we hope Griffin chooses to meet you when he gets older, because we'd sure like to thank you in person for your part in helping us to bring this amazing little person into the world!

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!

Griffin needs your help!

Hi, This is Griffin!

My cousin Valerie is ten years old, and she's been on medication for arthritis almost every day since she was about my age. I think that's just crazy! I've just learned to walk, and I'm just in time to support her by participating in this year's Arthritis Walk. I was only a few days old during last year's walk, so my moms didn't get to walk last year, either. I'm trying to make up for it all by myself by raising $100 for each of us!

I don't really understand the details of Valerie's illness, so here's what her mom told me about it: Valerie’s story and her struggle with Arthritis is not unlike others. I would like to tell you her story so you can see why it is so important that we keep funding the Arthritis Foundation so they can find cures and provide support for people with arthritis. Valerie’s story begins shortly after she learned to walk. We noticed her walking with her knees straight, and she wouldn’t bend them when she got up and down from playing. Just after her first birthday, after a few different doctors and x-rays, she was finally diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. We have had many years of ups and downs. Valerie has to get a shot every week and was at one time taking six pills a day. She recently had to start taking another pill that is supposed to provide some relief from her other medicines that are making her sick to her stomach. She thought she was successful in beating the disease a couple of times only to relapse and have to start her medication all over again. Recently we tried to let her take her medicine orally instead of injecting it, but that small change made her knees swell so much she could hardly walk. Each time she comes off her medicine and relapses it is more challenging to get the arthritis under control again. We have had to get the fluid drained from one of her knees three times because medicine alone could not bring down her swelling. Her last relapse affected her range of motion in one of her knees and, we have to try to correct that. Valerie is on her fourth try with the medicine with only a combined period of about five months out of nine years not on medication. She will have to wait at least three years before we can try to be off medication again and see if we have beaten it this time. Without the research that the Arthritis Foundation does trying to find new medicines and a cure for Arthritis and other autoimmune diseases, Valerie could go through this cycle over and over her entire life.

Now you see why I want to help! I'm going to walk as far as I can (and maybe ride in my fancy backpack for a while) and make sure Valerie will always be able to run with me when I get old enough! If you can help me make my cousin healthy by donating a few dollars, or even more, that's great. I'll make sure to chase Valerie extra hard when she gets well to show my appreciation!

Your buddy Griffin

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support Arthritis Foundation.

My whole family thanks you!