Shade

Did you know Shade has returned?  It makes me SO happy because I loved their tanks the most.  I guess they got bought out by another company so now they're online, and they have a store in University Mall.  I like this:

and this:

and this:

There!  NOT a post about Griffin.  I also almost didn't even mention him, but I couldn't handle it.

Apology.

I used to hate it when people had blogs and only ever blogged about their children.  Whoops, now it's me.  Sorry :)

Pulling up...

For a few weeks now, Baby Boy has been pulling up on things.  I mentioned it in an earlier post, but I had to give it it's own place because it's so exciting and has changed our lives so profoundly.  I REALLY found out my house wasn't baby proofed when he started doing all this.  He loves to get into the pantry and pull things off, and go from furniture piece to furniture piece.  He likes to stick his hands inside the VCR, and pull up onto the washer and dryer and bang on it as hard as possible.  OH!  He also loves to stand up in his crib.  This is great and all, except that he's supposed to be sleeping.  We were going in there a lot at first to lay him back down, but we eventually figured that if we left him in there, he'd either pass out or figure out how to get himself down.  We were right!  Great parents, I know :)  Anyway, here's the little stander-upper:

9 months!!!

Sorry about the grainy picture, but our camera pretty much stinks.  Anyways, Griffin's 9th month!  Here's what's been going on:

• Tons of crawling all over the place, and getting into stuff.  I thought my house was pretty well baby-proofed, but I was so wrong.
• Eating more things - pieces of cheese, bread, meat, bananas, yogurt drops - his favorite, puffs, mum mums, and also still a lot of baby food.
• Walking around, as long as he's holding on to someone's fingers.
• Pulling up on anything and everything, and "cruising" around the furniture.
• Babbling that actually sounds like he's saying something, instead of just repeating one syllable over and over.
• Still taking two naps, each one and a half to two hours, and sleeping 10-12 hours at night.
• Being so interactive.  He loves to see how what he does affects the people he's around.
• Still hates having his diaper changed, being put in his car seat (though he does fine once he's in there), and being put to sleep.
• Loves playing with anything that's not a real toy - the remote, movie cases, coasters, you name it.

We love this guy so much!  He makes life so much more fun.  I can't wait to see what he does next month!

Crawly Wally

Near the end of October, right before Halloween...Griffin started CRAWLING!  He's so smart I can't even stand it.  One minute he was doing his little creep-pull, creep-pull thing, and the next thing we knew he was cruising along.  I wish I knew how to post videos on here ( I tried, it was taking forever), because I've got some pretty cute footage of it.  Pretty much right when he started crawling, he also started to take steps as long as he was holding onto our hands.  Why is it that when MY baby does something that babies have been doing since the beginning of time, it's so amazing?  I don't know, but it was pretty exciting for everyone. 

Baby's First Halloween!

We've had Griffin's Halloween costume picked out ever since we found out we were having a boy.  It was so fun to see him finally get to wear it!  We opted out of trick-or-treating this year since he was too little too appreciate it, but we took him around to see some friends of ours, and then we went up to a Halloween party at Grandma and Grandpa Fellows' house.  He was a big hit, but then again, he always is :)

Our little dragon is taking steps :)

I sure love this little beast :)

He LOVES this little Halloween snow globe that Grandma got for him.

Happy Halloween!

Farm Country

Since the warm weather is on it's way out for the year, my mother-in-law Julie and I decided to take Griffin to Thanksgiving Point's Farm Country petting zoo.  Griffin was pretty enthralled with the animals at first, but then he decided that they were old news and he wanted to play with all of the fall leaves lying around.  The boy had no fear when it came to getting close to the animals, and he even got licked by a goat!  Mommy was a little more afraid of him being touched by animals than he was :)

 Grandma had been wanting to take Griffin to see Farm Country for awhile, so we decided to go do it during the day since I'm no longer working.  I still don't always remember that I'm able to go do whatever I want now that I don't have my days all planned out!  It was really nice weather and it wasn't busy at all.

Griffin has such a sweet little disposition.  He's always good whenever we go anywhere.  He's content to sit in the stroller and watch the world go by, or he's happy to get up close and personal with anyone or anything new that comes along.  I love that he's never had a hard time being held by new people.  He's not shy at all!  I guess he's not shy with the animals either :)

He loved to play with all the leaves, and wanted to take our stickers from the wagon ride.  He's will not be dissuaded from his leaves to take a picture :)

Happy Fall everyone!  I hope you all had a great one, I know we did!

First Food Flop

I thought I'd be a good and domestic little Mommy and make Griffin some baby food.  I've made peaches, sweet potatoes, summer squash, and carrots!  I thought that Griff would love it, being so fresh and all, but the only one he likes is the peaches.  He will also tolerate the squash, but when I fed him the sweet potatoes he gagged and threw up!  I think my little guy is a tad bit texture sensitive.  So much for that!  For now it will stay in my freezer and we can try again in a few months.  Oh well, I guess that's why so many people buy it :)

8 Month Wonder!!

My little man is 8 months old.  In his 8th month, he's been:

• LOVING solids, except the ones Mommy makes - post to come about that.
• Eating less and less formula, which has been driving us crazy
• Sleeping like a champ - 10 to 12 hours at night, and two naps!
• Creeping along on his tummy; he gets around pretty well.
• Getting on all fours and rocking back and forth - crawling is imminent!
• Growing more brown hair.
• "Talking" and screaming a ton - ma ma ma, da da da, etc.
• Eating some finger foods, like Mum Mums and yogurt bites.
• Loving outings in his stroller and being SO good in public.
• Standing up for long periods of time while holding onto things.

We adore this guy!  He's so sweet and adorable.   I can't wait to see what he does next!

Halloween!

I absolutely love Halloween!  It's the best time of the year - not too hot or too cold, and the leaves changing on the trees, not to mention that it's also my birthday :)  I pull out my best pumpkin smelling candles and all my sweaters and boots.  Last year I was pregnant and busy so we never quite got our decorations up.  This year I was determined to have the house decked out for Griff's first Halloween.  I have a ton of decorations - I'm having to get creative about places to put them.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Every year Ty's mom gets us a new decoration.  This is 2011.  You can put a candle inside.

My mom got me these witches' feet and I love to pull them out each year.  I have yet to see anything quite like them :)

These are my absolute favorite.  They remind me of The Nightmare Before Christmas.  I also love that I've had these for years and there was a little boy :)  We're all represented this year.

I just love making everything look like fall

Happy Halloween everyone! 

Book worm

I read a lot.  I've been going to the library recently because it's free, it gets us out of the house, and Griffin likes to look at all the colorful books and have people tell him how cute he is :)  I like a lot of different things, but favorites are historical fiction, best sellers, and YA if I'm feeling like I want an easy read.  Some things I've been reading lately are:

I read the 5 of these, and then I read the 5 sequels.  I don't usually read a lot of LDS literature, but I really liked these books.  The first 5 are set during WWII, and the last 5 are set during the Vietnam War.  They're great for the history and I really enjoyed the plot and following all the different characters' stories.

This book rocked.  It's like the Hunger Games, but I think it's even better.  Ty read it and liked it a lot too.

This was a fun, quick read.  Very high school, very easy, but I actually really liked it.

This book and it's sequel take place in Poland in the eighteenth century.  It follows this really brave noblewoman who keeps having horrible things happen to her, but she overcomes a lot and winds up the better for it.  I really liked it for the history, but the plot was good too.

Piggy

My kid is going to eat us out of house and home.  He still nurses four times per day, and he's also been eating a 2 or 3 oz. bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, two 4 oz. bottles of baby food for lunch, and two more for dinner!  At bedtime we give him a bottle and he drinks 6 or 8 oz.  He loves baby food with meat in it, and he loves anything with fruit.  Maybe he's just growing, but this boy can sure put it away.

We've been giving him fruit in a feeder thing and he loves that.  Here he is with some bananas:

We sure love this guy!  When we go to restaurants he sits in the little highchair and tries to grab whatever he can.  He loves to play with spoons and straws the best, and he will "talk" for the entire meal.  He's so funny :)

Sitter upper...

We have a sitter!  Actually, he's been sitting up since we went to visit Tyson and Laura in St. George, so over a month now, but I'm only just posting about it.  He doesn't even fall down anymore, unless he does it on purpose to reach a toy.  He's pretty proud of himself:

This giraffe makes lots of soothing noises - he loves it.

He's also doing a totally awesome army crawl type thing, but I haven't learned how to post videos yet, so you don't get to see that.  I don't know how long crawling will last, because he already tries to reach up and grab things, and I'm pretty sure he'll be pulling himself up in no time.

He's going for a little light reading.

SERIOUSLY?!

OK people...you'll never guess what was in my mail when I brought it into the house today.

THIS:



AGAIN!!!! 

Why me?  By the way, I killed it with a flyswatter - yay!