2 For the Price of 1

Today I got the opportunity to experience life as a mom of 2. The JCC was closed today, so Fiona, our adorable 1 year old neighbor came over to play for the day. I made it through the day and managed to keep both babies alive. Both babies were total champs! We even ventured out of the house to music class, and at one point by some miracle, I actually had both babies asleep at the same time (granted, it was only for 20 minutes, but still it was quite the achievement...) The experience made me believe (or tricked me into thinking) that having 2 babies (eventually) will be very doable, assuming our second kid isn't a complete "colicky" nut case. Also, there is a HUGE difference between having a girl and a boy. Granted, Fi is 4 months older than Griff, but she actually sits still to read a book for more than 15 seconds, doesn't immediately roll onto her stomach to play with any toy in sight during a diaper change, and she can actually finger paint without just trying to rip/eat the paper. Griffin just never stops! This is a total generalization based on my single experience babysitting a girl, but girls do seem easier than boys (as babies)... Hopefully we have "Charlotte" next. Am I crazy? What am I doing already talking about having more babies.. silly Vicki!

Brooksby Farm #2

Yesterday Lily, April, Griffin, and I had an adventure at Brooksby Farm. What a great (and free) place to take the babies. We visited all of the animals (again), and got really up close and personal with all of them! I think Griffin's favorite was the goat- can't beat that long white beard. The two fat pigs rolling around in mud were also hilarious to watch.

Labor Day Weekend Pics

A belated post... here are some pics from the Gleason Wedding Weekend in Victor, NY. Thank you to Rose for watching our little Sack o' Potatoes while we enjoyed the wedding sans baby. A link to the full album..

Brooksby Farm

Griffin and I had some time to kill while we were out near the North Shore Mall yesterday, so I swung us up to the Brooksby Farm where we had a blast walking around in the beautiful fall sunshine. We saw 2 ostriches, a goat with a long white beard, a llama with bad teeth chewing on corn, a bunch of sheep, some chickens, and 2 big fat pigs. The weather was just a little crisp, but the sun was out and it was a perfect fall afternoon. After checking out the animals, Griff wanted to play a bit in the grass. He looked like a dog on all fours burying a bone, scratching at the dirt digging a hole, ripping up the grass as he went. I watched him to see how long he'd go until he put the grass in his mouth. He left his mark on the ground with a bare dirt rut. He took home dirty hands and bits of grass as souvenirs from our outing.

Apple Picking with Megan, Ryan, & Johnny

We invited Megan, Ryan, and Johnny up to Tom's parents' house in Maine for a fun family weekend. We had picnics, went apple picking, took naps, and even had a double date without the babies. (Thanks Grandma for watching the boys!). Here are a few pictures, and a link to the full album:

Not Scared Anymore

Griffin is growing out of his "I hysterically cry when I hear a loud noise like toilets flushing or people cheering" phase, and moving into the "I'm a crazy baby and I squeal with joy when people cheer around me..." Griff is starting to develop a fun personality. In swim class he bounces when we start reciting "Humpty Dumpty" and then he screams and squeals when he "falls" into the water while everyone chants "falllllllllll"... It's hilarious that my baby is the one who makes a scene and all of the other parents watch us and laugh. Silly Griffin!

Dracula Baby Very Danger

Griffin just got his next 2 teeth, which gives him a total of 4! It's a bit hard to tell but it looks like his canines came in on top, or maybe they could be his lateral incisors. (Just in time for Halloween- he looks like a little Asian Dracula) No wonder he has been biting me more than usual and acting a bit crazy with his new devilish laughter..

A First: "Bah Bah", aka "Bye Bye"

Amazing! At dance earlier this evening, Auntie Joyce was giving Griff his usual dose of love and kisses, and after being admired by about 9 sweaty ladies, we were ready to head home. Auntie Joyce did her usual wave and said "bye bye" to Griffin. After a few seconds of her waving and blowing kisses, he began waving back and he very clearly uttered the words "Bah bah", which was definitely him saying "Bye Bye". I stopped and looked at Joyce in utter amazement and said "Amazing!" It was the best moment of the day.

GROSS!

After kissing my angel goodnight and laying him into his crib for the night, I fumbled around with a dirty diaper in the dark, trying to get the pocket insert out and the wipes into the diaper pail. I accidentally got a piece of gooey poop stuck under my fingernail. It was definitely one of my top 3 most disgusting Mom moments to date; it's right up there with the huge spit up that coated the seat of the car and the entire back of my shirt as I was feeding Griffin in the parking lot of Logan airport as we were headed to our first flight. So gross, but all worth it.

First Word: "Mama"

Griffin's first word was "Mama". He said it when he was just over 7 months old. Pretty classic first word, no surprises, though I secretly hoped it'd be "Dada".

It's been about 3 weeks now that he's been mumbling this, but I never knew when to call it official. There just wasn't that one distinctly magical moment, like I had always pictured in my mind. I imagined that my baby boy would look up at me with his big brown eyes, and in his adorably innocent voice, he'd perfectly pronounce the word, "Mama". And once my virgin ears were exposed to that sweet first word, my scarred memory of 36 hours of horrendous labor would suddenly disappear leaving a pile of magical fairy dust sparkling in sunshine... Unfortunately, that didn't happen-

About 3 weeks ago, I started hearing Griff mumble "mama ma". I wasn't sure if he was really referring to me when he said it, or if that counted, or what!? Sometimes he would just talk to himself and would describe everything in sight as "Mama mamammama", but sometimes it would really seem like he was saying it to me. There have also been a few times where he's actually said "Mom". On recent mornings I've heard him in his crib call out "Mama" and I've been interpreting that as "Hey Mom, get out of bed and come see me, I'm awake!!" So, it's official: Griffin said his first word and is now on his path to full on verbal communication. We're working hard on mastering "Da da" and the closest I've gotten is "Ba ba", so stay tuned.

Smoker's Laugh

Griffin is hilarious. He has now developed his third style of laughter. The first was his "heh heh heh", that sounded deep and from the gut, which he has since retired, but Tom still does a great impression of. His second is the cutest squealy giggle that I'd consider his primary form of laughter- the one he does when I squeeze all of his prime tickle zones. Then out of the blue last week, Griff started making these ridiculous sharp inhale noises; I call it smoker's laugh. I'll post a video of it shortly, as my description doesn't do the hilarity justice. Too funny!!