A First: Griffin Sang the ABC Song!!!

Griffin has continued to impress me with how fast he can learn.  This morning, just for kicks, I asked him if he could sing his ABCs.. and he did!  It was completely amazing.  Granted, it was far from perfect.. lots of jumbled letters, but he made it all the way through the song.  I caught it on video:

Birds and the Bees

Ok, so we didn't exactly cover the full story on the birds and the bees, but we did hit at least the introduction and maybe a little bit of chapter 1..  It happened last night while Griffin was taking a bath, and my conversation with him went something like this:

Griff: "Hahha Griffin's balls."  (Griffin grabs his penis, not his balls)
Mom: "Oh, that is actually Griffin's penis.  These are your balls.  Can you show Mommy where your balls are?"
Griffin: "There they are!"  (Griffin grabs his balls)  "Mommy penis"
Mom: "Oh.. (awkward pause) Daddy has a penis, and Mommy does not.  Boys have penises."
Griffin: "Griffin has penises."

The end. That should cover him until his sex-ed in grade 6 right?

Asian Justin Bieber?

Our little rock star has started belting bits and pieces of songs.  He hasn't quite mastered them solo, but he sings along with Tom and I to: The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, Jingle Bells, Happy Birthday, and Go Go Thomas, some toddler classics. :) 

Farewell Kindermusik

Today was Griffin's last Kindermusik class ever in Beverly Farms, as Miss Lisa has decided to part ways with her beloved program.  It's fun to look back at how far Griff and his classmates have come in their year and a half in weekly music classes.  They've grown from pudgy drooly infants to crazy little instrument playing toddlers who clap almost to the beat, dance, jump, hold hands to walk in a circle, kick their feet, and they even help clean up when asked. (Sidebar- cleaning up was a task Griffin really struggled with when he was younger; he emotionally latched onto whatever instrument he had, and cried when he was asked to clean it up...but Miss Lisa always reminded me that "he will learn to do it in his own time, and that he could put it back when he was ready.." and sure enough, Griff is now one of the best participants in the clean up process.) 

L to R: Griffin, Sawyer, Ella, Abby, Isaiah, and Caroline. (other friends not pictured: Rowan, Joey, Charlie, Niko)

On our car ride to our final class this morning, Griffin sang bits and chunks of "Jingle Bells", some of which was actually to the right tune.  He is well on his way to musical stardom... We've loved our music classes- thank you to Miss Lisa for being such a wonderful teacher.

Daddy Too

After last night's hellish tantrum, I wanted some reassurance that Griffin still loved me... I asked him, "Griffin, do you love Mama?"  He responded, "Yeah, and Daddy too."  Awwwwww, so cute.  Thought I should blog this, since it was such an adorable moment that made up for about 30% of the ridiculous tantrum from last night.

Devil Child

Last night Griffin had his first extremely major meltdown.  I've read and heard disasterous stories about toddler tantrums, and always throught they were slightly exaggerated, but holy s@(#, they were spot on.  At 7pm, it began. Griffin irrationally threw himself around hysterically screaming, melting, wiggling around like a fish out of water.  There was no talking him off the ledge. Nothing helped.  I didn't know whether to be angry, cry, or just laugh at the situation.  I offered to cuddle, hold him, I gave him his paci, gave him Cubbie, asked if he wanted to help me put in the bath toys as a distraction, or get in the bath (which was already filled). "NO!" he'd scream.  I just sat there helplessly watching him freak out.  It was as if he was completely possessed by the devil.  I struggled to change him into his pajamas, and it took all my strength to get a diaper back on him, as he pushed me aways, arched his back, flopped around, kicked, squirmed, and screamed like a crazy person.  Talk about stressful and a crappy way to end a day.  It was unbelievable to witness, like where did my cuddly funny boy go?  After forty greuling minutes, Griff finally surrendered to fatigue; he looked as if he'd been through an emotional war and got his ass kicked.  He was still sad, but agreed to read some books.  With a little red face, and puffy eyes, he sat exahusted on my lap and rested his head on me with Cubbie as his pillow.  What a freaking nightmare. 

Technologically Savvy by Age 2

We purchased an iPod Touch back in February to keep Griffin entertained on long flights and car rides.. His current favorite apps are the Caillou books, Zoo Train, Peekaboo Barn, flashcards, and Memory.  He can swipe through pictures, and is starting to know how to find/open some of his apps.  He's just figured out that if he presses the big button, the app closes (Prior to making this connection, Griff's love for random button pressing proved to be extremely annoying when using the iPod).  Also, this makes me sound like an old lady, but it really is amazing how fast kids learn, and how technologically savvy Griffin already is at the age of almost-2.

Columbus Day was a While Ago

Griff and I spent the day together and mostly swam. It was gorgeous weather and good Dad-Griff bonding time.

• Coffee run with Mom to Starbucks (we left her there for a few hours...)
• Gashouse beach to search for sea glass and periwinkles. There had been a flood a few days before, so the sand was all cut with funky ruts. We saw a few rowers land their shells after a trip from Gloucester. And Griff tripped while wading and fell bum-first into the cold water.
• Car wash! Drive through, followed by vacuuming and even floor-mat hose-off.
  
• Pick up Mom and then home for lunch and nap time.
• Swimming at the Y. Griff was way into going up and down the wade-in ramp on his belly, and was blowing lots of bubbles and confidently standing on my knees in the deeper water to stay up. The lifeguards said "Its so cool that you just let him do his own thing," and I agree. I think he's getting my love of water.

-Dad

A few pictures added by Mom... here is Dad and Griff around 3pm... Griff wore Dad out. :)

Mama Dada Mo-ter-shycle Awe-shum

Griffin said this to me on Sunday morning when we were heading down to the aquarium for a family fun morning. I couldn't be more proud to be a two-wheeling Dad.

Snow in October?!!

Griff woke up on 10/29/11 to a light coating of snow... 

13

Griffin can count to 13, well he doesn't really count actual objects.. but he can say the numbers in order from 1-13.. Here's what he says, "Oneb-two-free-fowar-nine-sick-seben-eight-nine-ten-eleben-twelve-sirteen..."

Also, he thinks that 3 is the new 2.. Anytime Griffin sees or is holding 2 of the same item, he exclaims, "three _____s!"  Three shoes, three balls, three strawberries..  oh dear.  sometimes I think he does it just to mess with me.

"Mar-ble-head"

Griffin and I were driving around town earlier this evening when I heard him from the backseat utter "Mar-ble-head" .  (I think he must have heard me tell Tom on the phone that we were driving around Marblehead, waiting to pick him up from work).  So I told Griffin that whenever I ask him, 'Where does Griffin live?", that he should say "Marblehead".. so we practiced that a few times: "Gri-shm Mar-ble-head... Mommy Mar-ble-head.. Daddy Mar-ble-head.. Bashy Mar-ble-head.." (Sebastian, his buddy from school, aka Bashy, actually lives in Salem..)  Then I asked him, "Where do Grandma and Grandpa live?", and he responded, " playground".. Apparently according to Griffin, Gma and Gpa live at the playground on the corner of West Shore and 114..Gerry Park, which is where we last hung out with them during their visit last weekend. :)



It's so funny what toddlers think/remember.

Haircut #3

Father-son haircuts.

Topsfield Fair

We finally made it to the Topsfield Fair this year... here are some pictures from our morning adventure:

"See Penguins and Sharks"

Griffin and I made it to the Aquarium yesterday for exactly an hour before Griff had a major meltdown over me not allowing him to dump a bucket of fish puzzle pieces (and not cleaning them up) in the kiddie play area as I already cleaned them up 3 times... He was literally on the floor screaming/crying/rolling around/making a scene.  I was about 10% embarassed and about 90% entertained by the situation. 

Up until the meltdown, we had a great time.  We saw sea lions, stingrays (i touched a stingray!), sharks, penguins, a goosefish, jelly fish, anemones, a huge lobster, starfish, and lots of fish. Adventures to places like the aquarium are becoming extremely fun, as Griff gets excited to walk around and explore, and he can talk about the animals he sees (he talked about the penguins and sharks all the way home).  That said, it's also becoming difficult to take him places, as Griffin wants so badly to be independent.  He refuses to hold my hand when we walk; he physically protests by becoming totally limp and sitting down wherever we are to avoid holding my hand... it's quite clever, actually.

Funny Boy

Griffin has Tom and I laughing a lot (and proud!) these days with all of the new things he says.  He can count perfectly to 3, and a few times we've heard him go from 5 to 9, or 1 to 4, or 7 to 11.. he's getting there!  He has been putting together phrases (this morning he said "nice song"), and he totally mimicks us like a lil' asian parrot.  Yesterday he said "ready, set, go" (we have no idea where he learned that), and he also said "up pie", instead of "up high". Griff also points to Dad's masterpiece (our new deck) and says "nice deck, Daddy".  Tom loves that. Griff has gotten to the point where we can pretty much teach him to say anything..."bulldozer, helicopter, tampon ("tam-pom"), penguin fall down, nice multi tool daddy, bless you, boobs, daddy farted, excuse me".  It's both hilarious and dangerous at the same time.  Also, Griff decided that he occasionally wants to be on a first name basis with his Daddy and I, as he has called us "Tom" and "Bicki"...

Chores

We make Griffin clean at least 30 minutes a day., you know, start 'em young on chores.. just kidding.. here he is being a silly "bucket head"!  I just love the last picture..

Goodbye Slide

Griffin now says goodbye to everything.. including inanimate objects.  "Goodbye outside, goodbye slide, goodbye socks, goodbye PJs..."

Touch A Truck, Marblehead







Everlasting Hug :)

We had a great weekend. Megan and Ryan flew up here from Philly for a wedding (sans Johnny!).   It was a super quick trip, but it was awesome to get to hang out a little bit.  Two of our three amigos (Charlie and Griffin) had a few wild rides in Martha's ("Ma-Sa") parents' backyard in the Radio Flyer, and they took a fieldtrip up the street to visit the plastic "flamingos" in a neighbor's yard (another new word for Griff). Charlie gets the award for best hugger ever, as he has the hilariously cute tendency to hug and linger...The boys shared the cutest minute long hug ever during their lunch together.  Speaking of sharing, Griffin has a loonnnng way to go on this skill.  While in the wagon the boys were eating graham bunnies out of the cup holders, and when they got down to 5 remaining bunnies, Griff took one and ate it, then Charlie took one and ate it, and then Griffin saw that there were 3 left, so he snagged them up in a big handful and quickly shoved them into his mouth.  Classic Griffin... 

Starbucks Addicts

As of this week, Griffin can officially say "Starbucks".  It makes sense that it's made it into his limited vocabulary considering we've been there 1-2 times a week basically since he was born... He requested yesterday that we go to Starbucks, and he yells with excitement, "yaaaaay!" whenever I say we are going  there.  Now if I can just train him to say my order, "venti vanilla soy no foam latte", that would literally be amazing...

P.S. They started giving out stickers.. here is a picture from breakfast this morning.  I didn't want him to feel left out since Daddy and I were both enjoying our caffeine.

Pee-Ewww

Yesterday Griffin farted a few times in the bathtub.  He laughed and said "pee-eww". (I can't even take credit for teaching him that.) So hilarious.

A Kiss for Mom

Griffin, I hope you never get too old or too embarassed to give your Mom kisses.

My Happy Boy

 It's morning greetings like these that make every moment of motherhood worth it.  Oh my sweet and happy boy... I love you Griffin!