9 Months

[And I managed to get this up within a week!! Woot!]

How did 9 months go by so quickly? We've had a busy month! We got to go out to the movies while we had a sitter one night and saw "Now You See Me," which was really good, with an unexpected twist at the end that I really enjoyed. I've been moving forward with physical therapy for my hip, though some days it feels like it hasn't done much good. She's mostly focusing on strengthening my stomach in order to keep my hip from continuing to pull out. G and I went to story time at the library and I made a mommy friend, who set up a play date with some other moms--it was a lot of fun and I got to meet some more moms who have kids close in age. Before that, we had our frst play date with someone close in age: G's cousin, who is only 4 days younger than him! The moms had a good time too, sitting in a park and talkin while the babies played. G had his last GI appointment, where everything was pronounced OK, and it does seem like it is getting better. Hopefully, this pattern continues, though he still gets pretty red in the face sometimes and you can tell he's not comfortable. I'm hoping that will resolve itself too. Our trip to Florida was definitely the highlight of the month though, so bear with me for a longer paragraph:

The flights out there went great. Even though the TSA threw away my ice packs from his milk since they weren't frozen (seriously) and I had to use ice from a restaurant, tied into one of their gloves to keep the milk cold. G slept the entirety of the flights and had no problems. When we got to Panama City, it was raining. And it continued for the next two days. There were flash floods and they cancelled the Fourth of July fireworks for the first time anyone could remember, having them on July 6th instead, which meant G got to see them. He was so entranced. Luckily, the sun came out for the baptism and even though we were late due to a boat emergency, the baptism went well. I am so grateful to all the people who made it happen, even shuttling people over and back from the island on their boats. G dipped his head back into the water on his own and my mom's homily was lovely. The outfit she made for him was great too! I loved it and I hope it becomes an heirloom for our family. G had an absolute blast swimming: in the bay, in the Gulf, in the pool at the condo, that kid just adores being in the water. James and I got burned pretty badly, but G was greased up really well. We got to go out to the island again with my parents and I even bought something off the ice cream boat (yes it's real, and I've never even had an ice cream from a truck before!) The condo we were in the last few days was great: right on the Gulf and the pool to swim in too. I ventured back into the Gulf after my first terrible experience in 2007 with a jellyfish, but had no problems this time. The company was, of course, fantastic. It was great to see James' family and wonderful to have my parents there with us. We had plenty of people to watch G which meant we could sleep, and we did a pretty good job of exhausting him most days, even though his schedule completely went out the window (and he started sleeping in a crib!!). James' brother even watched him so we could take his parents to see Despicable Me 2 (his dad loves the minions) which was just as cute as the first one. And the food! J. Michael's, Salty Sue's, Bonefish Grill, Gracie Rae's, Newk's and fresh, fresh seafood: shrimp, baked oysters, crawfish, gumbo, etoufee, shrimp J Michael, buffalo shrimp panini, bang bang shrimp, crab soups, I could go on. I want to live there simply for the seafood. The flights home were a bit more rough: G was so exhausted that he was extremely fussy, though he did sleep a bit. The TSA agent who examined the milk didn't close up the ziploc bags properly, so milk spilled into the cooler, soaked through and saturated my diaper bag, which was a God-awful mess to clean up. There was a woman who was removed from one of our flights (thank goodness) for a yapping dog that wouldn't calm down (I feel so bad for that poor dog, he sounded terrified). But, we got home safely and that's the main thing. A big thanks to Chris and Laura for driving us out to LAX and picking us up---we really appreciate it. And another thanks to Jenn for looking after Moose and Pip, watering the plants and taking in the mail. A very successful, fun trip for sure, but it was nice to be home again.

I've had a pretty good month aside from our vacation too. James and I had our 3 year anniversary, which is hard to believe. I got my hair done after 6 months of having not done it. It was so nice to relax at the salon, and it felt great to have my hair looking right: no split ends and finally the correct red again. I also got to reconnect with some of my sorority sisters at Mimi's one night which was a blast! Better than therapy, I'm telling you! I'm starting to wean off pumping. While we were in Florida, I dropped to pumping twice a day, which is making life a lot easier. I had one blocked duct one morning, but no problem since I resolved that. I'm slowly weaning down my time too. I dropped from 20 minutes to 17, now I'm down to 15, the I'll drop to 12, 10, 8 and finally 5 minutes, which I'll do for a week. But in a little more than two weeks, I should be completely done pumping! It's exciting and I'm thrilled since pumping has always been painful, but it's also causing some anxiety about whether I have enough milk saved up, etc. I've already dipped into my December stash and used up all of November's, though there was very little frozen from those months. I'm trying not to worry since it's so silly, and I'm so grateful I was able to have such a freezer stash and make more than enough milk to feed my boy, but sometimes it still makes me worry.

The rundown: Grayson:
-"jumped" off the side of the pool into it
-had his first real play date with his cousin, who is only 4 days younger than him
-has his two upper front teeth coming in
-saw his first fireworks, had his first boat ride and swam in the bay and the Gulf
-was baptised on Shell Island in Florida on July 7
-scootches himself around on his butt, all over the floor
-said "Dada" on July 8
-said "Mama" on July 9
          (I am sure that he doesn't realize he was calling either of us by name, but he is saying them nonetheless!)
-loves to eat: green beans (unpureed), peas, toast, soup, yogurt, pancakes, eggs (just a bite when we were out), rice, potatoes (includes french fries occasionally), red bell peppers, zucchini (mixed with oatmeal since it is very watery), apples, pears and blueberries (especially mixed with yogurt).

Little Moments:
-Scootched himself over to the clean laundry basket and started pulling all of James' clean, folded boxers out, one by one.
-He figured out how to show his whale bath toy in the drain to plug it up to "save" the water. He then proceeded to start messing with the actual toggle for the drain. Smart boy!
-Instead of using his hands, he decided to go bobbing for toast on his placemat.
-Falling asleep propped up on my legs. My legs were extremely sore by the time he woke up, but he was just too darn cute
-Waking up from his nap on daddy, looking over at me with a giant smile and then conking his head back into dad's chest
-We took ourselves out to lunch and G woke up, so we gave him a french fry since we had no "real" baby food handy. He proceeded to squish it into his hand and tried to rub it all over the seat, the back of the booth and into daddy's shirt/beard.
-Baby breath. It's the most amazing smell ever.

Still won't sit up for a photo! 7/14

Trying to crawl on the couch! 7/14

8 Months

It's been a pretty good month. I know I haven't updated for a while, but I am horrible about uploading pictures. In fact, we didn't even get the official 7 month picture on the couch. Whoops. It's been busy though. My mom came and visited after Mother's Day, and she was able to see his first food, which he had after his doctor's appointment exactly on his 7 month birthday. It's been going ok, but there have been some challenges. Hopefully this will clear up. I'm trying to make all our own food, and thanks to a shower gift, it is so simple! We just cut up the veggies, add water, press the timer button and the machine steams and purees the food. Then we put it in a silicone brownie mold and freeze it into cubes. So far, he likes his oatmeal, carrots and sweet potatoes. Rice cereal is snubbed, as are green beans (I think it's the texture) and peas. I'm going to try the peas again, pureeing them smoother. He liked the broccoli but it gave him horrible gas and resulted in some sleepless, painful nights, so we'll avoid that. Up next are fruits, so I'm hoping those go better.

After G's swim class on the 24th, we drove up to Walnut Creek to surprise my mom as a late birthday present. Dad was my co-conspirator and the drive went pretty well. We left around noon and got there at 7:40. Dad said he'd make sure they were home by 8, but they got held up, so we ended up waiting for them in the house. Dad didn't see my creepy text of "We're in the house," so he was freaked out when he saw us hiding, but we were able to really surprise mom!! She screamed, she was so surprised. Unfortunately, it was waaay past G's bedtime and he'd been stuck in a car all day, so he started crying at that point. It was so nice to be up there and see them, and because of Memorial Day, we didn't have to leave until Monday.

I went to physical therapy for my hip this month too. Apparently, my hips are tilted out of alignment. My therapist said this is common with young, "hypermobile" women who have given birth/been pregnant. She was able to give me some exercises and is confident we can fix it. It's still hurting a bit every now and then, but going well. I'm not allowed to go to dance for a while though, and I have to wait for my therapist to give me the ok to go to the gym. I am over 10 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight though so I'm thrilled (only about 10 more to go!) I've also been dealing with a bout of kidney stones, but can't take any pain medications for it since I'm still pumping. In other health-related news, I had a rough weekend in terms of clumsiness: I bonked my head on the table when picking something up off the floor, slammed my hip into the bedframe, stubbed both my feet into the playard at different times breaking my left pinky toe, slammed my finger down on an open staple and ran both knees into the door of the dog kennel, scraping them up. This was followed up by running into a door frame and scratching my arm, and stubbing my broken toe 3 more times during the week. Oy vey.

My birthday was this month too. I'm now officially in my late 20's, having hit 26 this year. Eeek. James took me trampolining and we went out for drinks and appetizers and a sushi dinner. It was fantastic, and a good friend of ours watched G. It was great. However, he has not been sleeping too well lately. I don't know if it's his tummy or that he's just used to getting up multiple times at night, but there have been a few nights that I've stayed up with him on the couch and he (meaning I) has (have) only slept about an hour, all in 10 minute spurts. Luckily, the past two nights have been great, so I'm hoping it's the beginning of a trend. Though I hope he goes down a little easier than last night, which was an absolute fight. I think he gets more tired now since he's started going to the Infant Center all day when I work now. He's just too active and gets bored at work with me, and this results in screaming, which is not conducive to working on the phone. But he loves it there, and now that he's going all day, he's actually happy to see us when we pick him up and reaches out for me *heart melts*!

In other news, I just have to share the weirdest thing from yesterday. I was driving to work, and as I came up on an intersection, there was a car crawling through it. I figured it was an older person driving super slow (happens a lot here), but when the car just stopped in the middle of the intersection, I decided to go around it. There was no one in the car!! So I pulled over and called the police to report it since it was causing a fair bit of confusion at the intersection. Chapman's wonderful Public Safety came up and knocked on my window when I was pulled over; I can only assume that since I had my flashers on, they thought I was involved, but I was on the phone reporting it at the time. It was gone by lunchtime, but I'm super curious about what it was all about.

G:
-Has had rice cereal, oatmeal, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, broccoli and peas. He does not like the green veggies.
-Is starting to paddle with his arms at swim class and doing great with putting his head under. One teacher told me he's really advanced for his age (this simply means he's not screaming when I take him in the water). He's now a "guppy" and in the intermediate level
-Is really starting to "walk" when supported. Actually, it's more like a waddle
-Watches Sprout while I pump. He really likes Story Train and Poppy Cat and Caillou (such a whiny voice...). It actually lets me pump without tantrum-level screaming. Or at least for the most part...
-Is starting to lift his belly off the ground, get on his hands and knees and scoot backward! This usually results in crying because he really wants to go forward.
-Held his bottle, tipping it up enough to actually drink from it on his own!
-Loves a wooden spoon and a box more than any other toy
-Loves the puffs and baby mum mums
-Shakes his head no all the time! Sassy boy.

Little Moments:
-James will hold G on his shoulders, which allows G perfect access to suck on his hair. Since we're pretty sure he's teething again, this results in a lot of drool and James having to wash his head :)
-May 28: An hour and a half long nap in the recliner with G asleep on my chest. Best nap ever
-G trying to play "Boo!" with James by hiding his face in James' chest,then popping up too look at him, after James boos him first
-James asked G if he wanted James to come visit at daycare before he left for lunch, and G shook his head emphatically!
-Bathing him in the sink in Coronado, and watching him try to catch the water from the faucet, or save it from going down the drain
-When he's tired and "conks" his head against you. This is the adorable head drop/snuggle, not the screaming headbutt that almost splits your lip.
-This might be horrible, but I feel a little leap of happiness when he fusses when I leave him at daycare. He used to not even notice that I was gone, but now he notices and he reaches out for me when I pick him up. So sweet.
-He pushes himself up onto his knees, lifting his tummy off the floor and kinda rocks back and forth. He ends up going backwards, but it's so cute!

Won't hold still for a photo anymore :)