Wooster & Columbus Weekend

Highlights: Griff didn't stop bouncing while playing with Grandma in the airport (she did not have any fun during the entire trip), using my free drink coupon from Starbucks on the even-more-overpriced-overpriced drink at the airport, awesome conversation, company, and food at the Toppers, playing with Shamus- best dog ever, funfetti cake with Ash & Co., seeing Shirley Foster, Griff's bonding time with G-ma, my bonding time with G-ma, seeing Tom in a tux, watching Dan marry his beautiful bride Annie, hanging out with our college friends at the wedding, Tom bringing me a McChicken, fries and sweet tea just before dinner was served, taking Griff swimming at the pool, giving Griff to Charlie to hold and him saying to Griffin "Com'on baby, do something, you're making me look stupid" (classic!), Chipotle lunch, more fun time at the Toppers, safe travel home despite the 6 hour travel delay! Some pics are below, but here is a link to the full album.

Tricks of the Trade

Griff has a whole bag of tricks these days.. he is very into waving both "hi" and "bye". He mumbles a full story while eating Cheerios; he can now pick up Cheerios with his index finger and thumb, though sometimes he still grabs a big handful and then forgets he has them in his hand. He is currently crawling backwards, getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth; he can turn on all fours and is starting to scoot forward by pushing off the sofa or one foot. He is saying something like "maaaaa" when he wants more food, and sometimes saying "ma ma".. though I'm not sure if he is actually referring to me.. The "ma ma" is getting clearer by the day. Also, Griff loves to play the game "Where is Griffin?" If I put a blanket over his face, he'll pull it down and give me a huge grin and giggle, and we'll do that over and over. He thinks it's hilarious (it kinda is)!

Humpty Dumpty

Griff's swimming classes are totally paying off. He absolutely loves the water, and he is starting to recognize parts of songs/rhymes we sing in class. It's amazing! Last week we were at the indoor pool at the Y practicing "Humpty Dumpty", a swim class classic. I hold Griffin sitting on the edge of the pool and recite, "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great Faaaaallllllllll..." and at the word "fall", Griffin started leaning forward on his own and gently pushing his feet off the wall to get in the water. I thought it was just a coincidence that he did this, so I tried it over and over (like 20 times), and he consistently did it. So cool!

A First: Rocking

Griffin was actively "rocking" today on his hands and knees. He's been sticking up his butt more and more and today was the first time I watched him rock back and forth consistently throughout the day. Man, he is so close to crawling (forward).. Must baby proof!!

Orange Poop

As many of you know, Griffin's theme color is orange.. he has an orange stroller, his room has orange accents, he wears orange almost daily, and today... even his poop made its debut in the same fabulous color. (It was from the carrots!)

Maine Weekend

The Hendrix Family had a great weekend. We went up to Maine for a quick visit to see Grandma, Grandpa, and Unkie Bri. Some highlights: Griff sported his crab shorts, Griffin's new and totally awesome moose onsie courtesy of Unkie Bri and "Hot Jaime", adding "Hot" to "Jaime" to differentiate her from "Work Jaime", family walk through Hinckley Park in South Portland, delicious BBQ dinner, a fun date with Tom (How cool are we!? We intended to play some pool and go out for drinks, but ended up buying $6 worth of treasures at the Dollar Tree, among them 2 bouncy balls for Griff as well as a pack of "grow-a-sea-creature" expandable capsules, and then we found ourselves at Chuck E Cheese where we had a ridiculously awesome time playing arcade/carnival games. $30 later, which bought us 150 tokens=150 games, Tom scored an all-time of 630,000 points in Skeeball winning him the 70 ticket jackpot, and together we accumulated 1140 tickets that we gave to an adorable curly haired boy and his sister.) P.S. These are the dates that remind me of how perfect Tom is for me.. only the 2 of us at age 28, can have an awesome Saturday night at Chuck E Cheese's.

I Blame the Hormones

Yesterday I almost broke down in tears when I watched a 30-second Office Depot commercial. It was a montage of a bunch of moms saying goodbye to their precious children who were off to their first day of school. Could I still be that hormonally imbalanced after 7 months of motherhood? Either that or I am seriously screwed if I am already dreading the day when I have to watch Griffin step onto a big yellow school bus that will drive him away from me (not that Marblehead has buses, but you know what I mean. I guess in my case, I will arm myself with a box of tissues, watch him climb out of my Simon-grey Toyota Sienna as I drop him off curbside). Well, at least I have another 4 years or so before that day will come and go. P.S. Griffin will have an adorable red backpack from L.L.Bean with his initials embroidered on the front, and I will have put an encouraging handwritten note in his lunchbox which will of course contain a heart shaped sandwich... Oh My Little Griffin-Bear, Mommy misses you already...

Griffin Rides the Lazy Susan

Tom and I shot this funny video of Griffin while we were at Grandpa's house last weekend... check it out.. here is a still shot preview..

A Few Good Pics

I spent time the other day organizing Penny and Simon's food (how OCD of me)... here are 2 funny pictures of Penny standing guard behind her Fancy Feast fortress. Also, does anyone want to buy a baby? This one is apparently for sale...

Back Up!

"Beeeeep, beeeeep, beeeeep"... that's me imitating the sound of a large truck going in reverse, or come to think of it, my good ole Cintas van backin' up. Griffin has started ever so slightly scooting backwards, and I jokingly make the "beep beep" sounds whenever he does it.

(Thank you Tom for providing me the opportunity to stay home to take care of our son. I love you so much!) It really seems like everyday there is something amazing and new to witness. Griffin's newest trick of the trade is scooting in reverse. Yesterday I watched him back himself up until his legs were under the tv stand and he got his butt wedged underneath. Instead of helping him out, I made him laugh and took a picture. (One of my proud Mom-of-the-Year moments)

First: Holding His Bottle

Today as the official first day that Griffin held his own bottle and successfully drank more than just a few sips of milk from it. Granted, he was laying down, so it was a bit easier for him to keep his bottle vertical and his dinner flowing (rather than sitting upright and trying to keep the it tipped at an angle), but we'll give it to him and mark it as official. Nice work, Griff!

I Love NY

A few pictures are posted below as a preview, but CLICK HERE to be directed to my picasa web album for more..

This past weekend the Hendrix Family of 3 went on a road trip to New York. Our destination was Albany, but we took a quick 5 hour detour through the Big Apple on our way, to bring Griffin to his first gig. It was the first audition we'd gotten a call for, so we thought we'd give it a shot- Griff was handpicked by BabyGap to attend a casting for their holiday shoot. All very exciting, though ridiculously slim chances he'd get chosen of course. But hey, as Tom put it, "you gotta roll the dice". We used it as an excuse to go on a fun family adventure to the city before we headed north to Albany to visit Grandpa, Uncle Alex and Aunt Anny.

NYC highlights: beautiful weather for a picturesque morning drive on the parkways to NYC, Griff was a champ in the car, our picnic stop at a playground along Riverside Drive on the Upper West Side, Tom got to drive in Manhattan for the first time, Griff did great at his audition, we got to visit Ashley and play/walk/laugh for a bit, Tom ogled at snowboards at the Burton NYC store, Jamba Juice,

Albany highlights: 11pm scallion pancakes that my family had put in the freezer just for me, dim sum with all the usual favorite dishes, seeing Alex & Anny's new amazing house, meeting Brownie the cat, making birthday cupcakes for Grandpa with Anny, singing "Happy Birthday" to Grandpa and at the end when we cheered, Griffin burst into tears from the loud sudden noise (hysterical), catching up with Lisa & Nora at Barnes and Noble, delicious sushi buffet dinner, white rice cake dessert (a childhood favorite), family photo shoot, a stop at the cemetery in the morning for a few quiet moments to bring Griffin to "meet" his Grandma (though he slept through it), visiting Grandpa at work on Monday so he could proudly show off his grandson to Dr. Pierce and Dr. Champa (P.S. Growing up, my dad was so not a fan of me visiting him at work, but I think he loved that all of his kids and grandson stopped by), eating a "1/2 pint clams and large French" at Bob & Ron's Fish Fry (my favorite!)

The Mystery of the Lost Poop

Just a quick story that makes me laugh: The transition from breastmilk poop to solids has been funny. Texture wise, we've gone from "Nutella" to "clay". The other day I was changing Griffin's cloth diaper and there was just a tiny piece of poop. As per the usual process, I took the diaper off, set it aside, gave Griffin a toy to distract him so he wouldn't roll to the wall to repeatedly knock the family tree picture with his foot (one of these days, it's going to fall off the wall onto him), I wiped him, put a new diaper on, squeezed his little butt to make him giggle, then put him into his crib while I went to the bathroom to knock the poop piece into the toilet. Off I went, soiled diaper in hand. I got to the toilet, opened the diaper and there was no poop to be found. Omg, too funny. I lost the piece of poop. Where the heck did it go? Had I stepped on it? Did it fall on the floor? Needless to say, I had a frantic, but hilarious 15 seconds of searching. I discovered the little brown treasure on the floor under the changing table...

Grumpy Griffin

Griffin's latest way to show his frustration/anger is to groan until he's red in the face. "GrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRrr!" I initially mistook this as the noise he'd make when working on a solid poop, but alas it's an expression of shear frustration. Griff started doing this about 2 weeks ago, and translated it means, "Mom, get me the h#@& out of this seat", or "Grrrr, I'm uncomfortable, please do something NOW!", or "Noooooo, I'm tired and I hate this..." Unfortunately, it's slightly annoying for me endure; it's very nails-on-a-chalkboard-esque. My precious sweet little angel is starting to know how to precisely press my buttons to prompt the response he desires... that's so not good! The one and only endearing thing about Griff's new form of frustration is that it's a mini version of the same angry noise his dad makes when a home improvement project has gone awry. :)