Stuff Griffin Says

No one's sitting next to me mommy,  I'm only sitting next to myself. Isn't that funny?
 

Gymnastics Bday Party at the Y

We celebrated Griffin's 3rd birthday with a gymnastics party at the Y.  It was 2 jam packed hours of foam pit fun, freeze dancing, rope swinging, parachute games, an abundance of pizza, snacks, funfetti and chocolate cupcakes, and lots of merriment.  Griff only melted down 5 times (yes, 5..)!  It was awesome.  Guests included: Fiona, Charlie, Greta, Will (neighbor friends), Charlie Max, Holden, Lily, Mary Francis (local friends), Amelia, Sebastian, Henry, Wyla (friends from school), JiJi and Audrey (Stroud kid friends- Toby, Harry and Connor were sick).  A highlight was watching the joy on Griffin's face when we all started singing Happy Birthday to him.  He really enjoyed being the center of attention.  It was also hilarious watching him blow out his candles.  It took him several breaths before he finally got 'em, which is exactly what happened last year. Here's the video as well as some pictures from the day...

The Girl Next Door

Fiona is one of Griffin's best buds.  She is the girl next door, literally, and the two have been playing together since they could sit up. They are 3 months apart in age and have a very brother-sister type of relationship.  Griff occasionally makes Fi cry, but they get along super well for the most part. 

A few shots from the early days that I just dug up:

Fast forward almost 3 years...Fiona and Ben (Fi's Dad) joined Griff, Vera and I this past week at the Marblehead Community Center to play, and the two kiddos ended up 'playing' (wedged) between the wall and a bench for a good 20 minutes. (At least I didn't have to chase him.) 

Griff invited Fiona to his big boy room and they hung out in his bed together... with parental supervision of course.. It's almost time for their first co-ed sleepover!

Here's a video from 12/30 of them sledding down Willow rd.  Our road was essentially paved in ice... so it was more like an ice luge ride.

"We're Monsters Incorporated!"

We took Griff to see this movie today; it was playing in 3D.  He'd seen it at home a few times, but man oh man what a different experience it is to go to the theater.  Highlights:

1. Popcorn.  (FYI and for time capsule sake:  the small bag at our AMC Loews theater was $6).
2. Giving the ticket taker his ticket.
3. Previews.  Holy Pete the kids movies are kinda scary these days.
4. 3D glasses.  He kept them on and didn't ask many questions.  Come to think of it, he might think 2D movies are weird if we ever go see one.
5. He made it all the way through the movie sitting in his seat with a little plastic booster on it.  Well, a little time on Mom's lap and a little time on Dad's.  But not much.  And his eyes were glued to the screen. 
6. The scene where the supervisor counts down from seven - on ONE HAND!  I love that movie.  I think Griff did, too.  

Griff turns Three

Happy Birthday Griffin.  Three years has been amazingly fast - we're so proud of our little man and can't think of how we could love him more.

We got to plan a special family day for Mr. Birthday himself.  In no particular order except chronological throughout the day, here's the highlights:

1. Good morning singing of "happy Birthday" upon wake-up in Griffin's old room (the nursery) before we got him out of his crib.

2. Special day swim lesson at the YMCA.  He usually goes Saturdays.  Today was Friday, and we're stockpiling lessons on since we'll be away in a few weeks.

3. MUNCHKINS!  Vicki got him 4 of them (1 for luck?  well, 4 is his favorite number...) at Dunkin' donuts.  She had a bagel.  Dad had iced coffee and the delicious new turkey sausage breakfast sandwich.

4. TRAIN!  We arrived at Liberty tree mall a little early, so had time for Griff to take a train ride before we went to the....

5. MOVIE!  Monsters Inc. was playing in 3D.  Technically, this is Griff's second movie in a real movie theater.  See "MacGruber" sometime during his first 4-6 months - he actually slept all the way through that one.   Separate post for monsters Inc.

6. Nap.

7. Big boy room assembly.  When I started moving things, he said from his room where he was waking up from his nap: "What's that noise?"  We went from drop-cloth over the bed to move-in-ready in 1.5 hours-ish.

8. FIVE GUYS.  By request.  I couldn't be more proud as a Dad.  Well, we actually got him some Mac-and-cheese from Panera Bread, which is his favorite.  But he loves Five Guys because of the peanuts and french fries and its good Dad/Son bonding.  He doesn't even eat Burgers.

9. Bath with color, courtesy of H2O La La bath tablets.  Holy pete (or is it peat?  I never knew that one...).  Uncle Alex and Aunt Anny got him these colored bead dye things that turn the bath water any combination of Red/Yellow/Blue that you can imagine.  SO cool.

10. Stories and bed time in his new big boy bunk beds.  - see separate post.

Big Boy Bunk Beds

We just put the newly 3 year old Griff to sleep in his big boy bed.  Specifiically, the top bunk of his bunk beds.  In his new room.  But I'm getting ahead of myself....

For Christmas, Griffin was very excitedly asking for a big boy bed.  We had considered asking Santa for a trundle style bed, but Santa's elves like Ikea and the day they went, the trundle bed wasn't in stock.  However, there was a really nice set of pine bunk beds right next to the floor model trundle bed.  Vicki and I had been thinking about eventually putting both kids together in one room and using the other room as a playroom and/or guest room - so this seemed to make sense.   Plus, consider the sleep-over potential.

In the dark of night on Chirstmas eve, Santa delivered Griffin's beautiful bunk beds direct to his new Big Boy room, which was still covered in spackle and not really in "move in" condition.  Interestingly, there are 64 plastic pegs (2 per slat) that require hammering in to complete the assembly.  Not sure how the elves did that so quitetly all between 8:30pm and 12:00 midnight on Christmas eve.  Magic, I guess.

When Griffin woke on Chirstmas morning, he repeatedly said "I CAN NOT believe it!" about his beds.  Even though this is a quote from Quincy, a character on Little Einsteins (a TV show he likes), it was very rewarding to see the wide eyes and have to coax him down off of the mattress-only top bunk to go open the rest of the presents.

We painted the room a few days later.  "Cloudless" - which is effectively neon blue.  Think Lisa Turtle's tights from Saved by the Bell.  We didn't like it for the walls in Griffin's room.  L.T. pulled it off, though, especially with her yellow leg warmers.  But I digress.

So we painted it again last weekend.  Argyle blue.  (Thanks Dan Baker!)  This time we liked it.  So did Griff.  The VOC's wore off this week so the room is paint-stink free.  Today (Griff's 3rd Birthday) we put the light switch and outlets back together, pushed in his dresser (on its side to fit through the doors), moved his crib into his big boy room (just in case) and made both beds.

Griff chose the top bunk.  Like father like son.

Did you know that the big boy beds have the same set of rules at Griffin's sleeping bag which he got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Hendrix?  The rules are simple:
1.  No getting out of bed/sleeping bag once you get in
2.  No whining in bed/sleeping bag
3.  The third rule of bunk beds is you DO NOT talk about bunk beds.  Just kidding - that's not one of the rules.  But you can imagine it would be a pretty good joke with Griffin if he had seen fight club.  But he hasn't, silly - he's only 3!  Jeez.

So we read stories in the chair: Mixed up chameleon, "Good for you (a sesame street manners book about new foods), and Dragons love Tacos (a favorite of mine and Griffin's - worthy of its own post).  Then he climbed up the ladder with me spotting him.  Then we tucked in our sweet sweet little man and rubbed his back for 30 seconds.

The view in the monitor is classic:  since its pointing at the top bunk from the foot-end, Griff looks even smaller in there than he actually is.  I estimate he is about 1/3 the length of the beds in normal sleeping position.  1/2 if he stretches out.

But we know our little man is getting less little by the day - so we're trying to cherish every moment we get with him.  "Two" is gone.  Hello "Three"!

Pics of Griff's Ol' Nursery

Just for prosperity sake...  I took these last few pictures as Tom was busy setting up Griffin's big boy room.  This is what Griffin's nursery looked like:

Cousin Audrey is on her way...

I just asked Griffin to share the news to Vera that their cousin Audrey was on her way out... he said to Vera, "Aunt Anny's door is hatching on her belly, and the baby is gonna fall out."  My brother Alex texted me around 3am and said that Anny's water broke and that they were at the hospital.  When I texted with him a few minutes ago, he said she was pushing. Holy cow, fastest labor ever...  We are so excited for cousin Audrey's arrival.

As a follow up to this post:  here is my brother's announcement email about Audrey, sent out on January 9th as well as a few pictures:

"Dear all,

January 2, 2013 was a special day for my family, and I would like to share the news with you all.  Our daughter, Audrey Yin Liang, was born at 7:46 AM at Bellevue Woman’s Center, which was actually the same hospital I was born in.  She is healthy and weighed 6 lbs. 8 oz. at birth.  We chose Yin as her middle name because it’s Anny’s family name.  We still haven’t picked out a Chinese name for Audrey yet, but that will come shortly. 

Labor started very suddenly at 1:00 AM, and we got to the hospital at about 2:45 AM.  The epidural was in at about 5:00 AM, and then pushing starting around 7:15 AM.  We are fortunate that labor lasted under 7 hours, which is fairly quick for a first child, but I cannot say it was painless.  During the pushing phase, I got to hold back one of Anny’s legs, so I had a front-row seat for the delivery.  It was amazing to be a part of the delivery, although I only played a very small role.

Anny and I are still very excited, but quite tired at the same time.  We hope that it’s going to get easier as time goes by.  Perhaps that is only wishful thinking.  The only major issue we are having is that she feeds rather slowly.  Other than that, everything else is going “smoothly”, especially pooping.  She’s like a machine. 

I hope all is well with you all!

Best,

Alex, Anny & Audrey"