Perch 2!

Tom and I have recently been amazed at how big Griffin has gotten in the past few weeks (potty training, starting preschool, etc).  He has been transforming from a toddler to a boy right before our eyes, and this morning was another example of that.  We made a last minute decision early this morning to sign Griffin up for the Perch II swim class at the Y, in an effort to keep his life as "normal and routine" as possible as we prepare for the arrival of his sister. (Perch II is the first non-parent swim class for kids.)  It's for "independent and energetic 2.5-3.5 year olds who can swim alone with flotation devices." Hmm.. independent- check, energetic- check, 2.5 years old- check, swim alone with flotation devices? yeah, not so much.  Griff only swims while tightly gripping onto either Tom or I, and he has not been the most adventurous kid in the water.  We knew it was a gamble putting him into this class and things could potentially end in disaster, not to mention the fact that he was already whining/crying before we left the house saying he didn't want to swimming, or to the potty..  awesome start.

10 minutes into the class, the Hendrixeswere the last ones still sitting next to the pool, while the other 6 kids eagerly splashed around with the teachers (their parents no where in sight).. "just try it", "do you want to just put your feet in?", "let's just watch the other kids for today"- Tom and I tried saying, but Griffin wanted no part of even putting on his swim bubble.  Finally I gave in and offered a bribe, "Well, Griffin, if you get in the pool, do you want Mommy to make you cupcakes today or do you want to go to Orange Leaf?"  He was instantly enthused, mumbled something about going to Orange Leaf, went to the pool edge with Dad, and into the water our little fish went.  The teacher then gave us the suggestive nod saying, "Ok parents, get outta here..."

WHAT?!  About 3 minutes later, from across the pool, I witnessed Griff's big head bobbing around the water; Griffin was swimming ON HIS OWN (!) with a bubble and a noodle, as if he had mastered this skill months ago.  Tom and I could not have been more proud (admittedly I was a little surprised too), but wow it was a rewarding and awesome thing to see. Amazing job Griff!

Hot Dog Griffin

Griffin ate his first hot dog a few weeks ago on March 27th.. It was one of those foods that he's just never been interested in eating.  He ate it totally plain with no bun or ketchup, or utensils for that matter. 

Speaking of hot dogs.. a favorite Dad/Mom & Griff activity is wrapping Griff in a blanket like a hot dog, or wrapping him up tightly in his towel after bathtime.  Griff usually says, "I'm a hot dog; do you want to eat me with ketchup, mustard and relish?" And when either Tom or I respond, "Oh yes, I want to eat you..." and we pretend to chew on him, he freaks out and says "No, don't eat me!!!"

I love wrapping Griffin up.. It's like a giant toddler swaddle. So cute!

A First: "The BUUSSSSSS!"

Martha and I took our boys on a city bus "adventure" around Marblehead this morning (literally the ride lasted 8 minutes).  For the bargain price of $1.50, we hopped on at Starbucks and rode with the other commuters on the 441/442 into Old Town to the last stop at the Fire House.  The driver graciously let us stay on, and he circled us back to Starbucks, where we promptly got off and then enjoyed our delicious lattes while our boys shared a donut.  Since Griffin was a tiny tot, he, Dad, and I have been spotting big buses driving past "The Bucks" every time we're there, which is almost every day.  He screams "Bussssssss!!!" every time he sees one... so this was a very exciting adventure. Griff's first bus ride! 

The Light Bulb Went Off!

Today was a great day.  Other than Griffin whining A LOT in his high chair ("all done, all done, alllll donnnnnne!!") and throwing most of his breakfast and lunch on the floor, (P.S. Griffin's personal chef/slave, oh that's right, that's me, made a giant batch of cinnamon raisin french toast for bfast- 1/5 of of a slice made it into his mouth.  I made 2 types of sandwiches for lunch- grilled cheese and canadian bacon on mini croissants, and almond butter and strawberry jam on multigrain english muffins- what's not to like?), we spent almost the entire day outside playing and soaking up the summer sun.  Our day was filled with visits to 2 playgrounds, a long walk into town for coffee, driveway playtime, an afternoon playground playdate with his Stroud kid buddies, dinner outside with Greta/Charlie/Annika, leftover birthday cake for dessert, and a super long 2.5 hour nap (for Griffin, not me) somewhere in between all that fun.

The best part of my day was hearing Griffin use several brand new words.  It's like a light bulb has gone off in his head, and as of today he can and is willing to try repeat words better than ever.  When we were leaving Hobbs Playground, I asked him to, "say bye bye to Audrey" (Suzanne's 4 week old baby, who Griffin has hung out with a total of 3 times), and he promptly said "bye bye Au-drey".  It was amazing.  He's been saying "avocado", his current favorite food, more and more.  Today was also the first time I heard him say 2 (well techincally 3) very important words.  "Thank you", and "Lovie" (I unraveled a new blue lovie today which he was super attached to).  Griff has always been great at signing "thank you" when prompted, and I've always said the words aloud while he signed them in hopes this day would come. Woohoo!  It's here!  It felt so satisfying to hear him stutter through but successfully tell me thank you today, a few times!  He also muttered something that sounded really close to "yellow" when I asked him to pick out which color bandaid he wanted to wear as a sticker on his knee (I lured him into the house by offering him stickers for his barely scratched knees).  Also, tonight as I turned off his light when putting him to bed, I said my usual "good night Griffin, love you." and I swear he said "night night mama" (he says this almost every night now) and "love you" (totally a first, assuming i heard him correctly).. as I closed the door to his room.. oh my sweet boy. 

Griffin talking melts my heart.  It's just the most adorable thing to hear his little boy voice.  I know that I have to savor and appreciate days like this where I witness such amazing aspects of his development.  Today is one of those days where being Griff's Mom is the best thing in the world.  (Dear Future Vicki, Re-read this blog entry on a day you want to put Griffin up for adoption...)

Pics from Hobbs Playground:

Shit Happens (Happened)

We had a new first yesterday:  In the middle of trying to multitask (unsuccessfully), I took Griff's diaper overly soggy diaper off and let him run around inside.  (He had been playing in his baby pool, so his diaper was drooping so far down between his legs that you couldn't help but feel bad for the 2 little velcro straps holding on for dear life...)  I had my hands tied with dishes, filling ice cube trays with chicken noodle soup, and cutting up tomatoes for a pasta salad, when I glanced behind me and saw new puddle on the dining room floor I had just cleaned up.  Of course.  In the not even 2 minutes I let Griff run free, he peed on the floor.  The warm puddle barely phased me, but to add to the fun while I was cleaning that up, I found what I thought was a little piece of "meatball" (a thumb nail sized cut up piece of Jones all natural honey maple sausage link, the new form of protein that Griff will actually tolerate)... As you may have guessed, it was NOT a "meatball", though maybe it could have been at one point in time... What was even more funny/nasty, I found a surprise ball of poop (dry/hard, not runny thank God) on the 6 inch wide strip of hardwood floor in the living room, spaced perfectly between our rug and Griff's foam play mat.  Instead of laughing at the situation and taking pictures for the blog as per my usual process, I had a little too much going on, and I panicked and screamed "Tooooommmmmm!!!!!!", so sorry there are no pictures! :)

Mommy & Daddy

On Friday Griff said "Mommy" (instead of "Momma"), and yesterday he said "Daddy".  So cute.  It was totally unprompted and unexpected as we don't usually refer to each other as Mommy or Daddy...  Also, Griff said "you" when practicing "I love you" to Auntie Joyce.  He has yet to piece all 3 words together at the same time, but we are almost there...

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Griff strung 3 words together for the first time today:  "Up please Mama"!  Amazing!  (Happy 19th Month Birthday Griffin!!)

Best new words from the past week:  "meatball", "happy", "ice cream"

Griff has started saying the funniest expressions, and most of the time he uses them in the appropriate context..  "Oh man" (when he drops something), "whoa" (when he trips up or down the stairs), "Oh yeah" (when I give him a delicious snack)... 

... oops, blog entry cut short, I can hear Griffin jumping up and down in his crib, is it wrong that I want to pretend like I don't hear him so I can have a few more minutes to myself?  He's up from his nap and it's only 2pm... "oh man"

Sheep in a Jeep

Earlier tonight I asked Griffin to pick out some books to read for bedtime, and he pulled out the book "Sheep in a Jeep", a board book given to him by Gma and Gpa Hendrix, as part of their 'give-Griff-a-book-each-year-tradition'.  He pointed to the Jeep and said "da ba", and right then I totally had a Eureka moment and realized that "da ba" means "Grandpa"!  I thought I heard him mumble "da ba" a few times this weekend, but I never made the connection. 

This past weekend while we were up in Maine, Tom and I had taken Griff for a ride in Grandpa's black Jeep Wrangler with the top down.  It's amazing to me that Griffin can ride in a Jeep for the first time on Sunday and then recognize that it's the same car in a book on Tuesday night- maybe this is part of his Hendrix genes?)

Also, a side note: Griff made a bunch of fake sad/crying sounds when we got to the page where the sheep are all sad because they accidentally crashed their jeep, "Jeep in a heap. Sheep weep." (and Griffin fake weeps...)

10 Great Things:

Finally getting back to posting... man, it's tough staying diligent and posting regularly, and I catch myself thinking "oh, I need to blog about that", whenever I witness Griffin do something new and amazing, which is happening more and more these days.  It's hard enough to remember to get the camera to capture the moment, so I usually allow myself a "free pass" and I slide the memory into my back pocket for future blogging.. but with my severely unreliable Mommy-brains, this is not a good plan.  He's growing up so quickly and I don't want to forget all of these great things:

1. Griffin has been 'blowing' his nose.  This has actually been happening for a while now, maybe like 2 months.  Sure enough, he can blow his own sticky yellow boogers onto a tissue on command (most of the time).  Sometimes he makes the nose-blowing sound to indicate he needs a tissue, and usually by this point there is snot almost dripping into his mouth (classic!), and once in a blue moon Griff will get his own tissue and blow his nose himself, amazing!

2. Griff's verbal vocabulary has recently increased by 3 words: "rock", "baby", and "man".  Rock and baby are fairly understandable and accurate, and man sort of sounds like "Maneuhman".  He figured out the word "man" because we recently bought a big bag of plastic animals off of Craigslist, and there were 2 little firemen inside amongst the zoo of pigs, giraffe, myriad of dinosaurs, horse, etc. (bonus!).  Anyway, Griff was really interested in the firemen, or as I call each of them "man".. and he quickly adopted that new word.

3. Speaking of the huge bag of plastic animals, Griffin has also started pretend-playing.  It seems so imaginative for a 17 month old.  He will lay his animals down and make snoring/sleeping sounds, and when he's eating, he will also feed his animals and "maneuhman", and by "feed" I mean he will dunk the animals' heads into his yogurt bowl, or put them near the Cheerios and make a munching sound.  Yesterday he had the horse and the giraffe kiss, which was adorable.

4.  In the last few weeks I've noticed a really positive change in Griffin's behavior.  The amount of aggressive behavior with friends, hitting Mommy, refusing to clean up in music class, and having time outs every day has really decreased.  I'm no longer on total edge during playdates, feeling like I have to hover over Griff to shield his friends from his whacks, pushes, and swiping of their toys.  There's less apologizing to other Moms.  In fact, Griffin has become the best cleaner-upper in his entire music class.  As of 2 weeks ago, he'd hear Miss Lisa sing "clean up", and he'd run over with whatever instrument or toy and throw it right into the bucket- of course he claps proudly of himself (and so does the rest of the class for that matter as they are all familiar with Griffin's "I-refuse-to-clean-up-so-I-will-whine-until-the-teacher-lets-me-keep-the-toy-until-I'm-ready" antics..  It's been an amazing transformation, like someone pulled a switcheroo on my little Asian devil baby.

5.  That said, I've fully jumped on board the September Baby Train.  ChooChoo!  After months of protest, I'm feeling somewhat inspired by how cool and fun Griff has become, that I may officially be over my, as Lindsay puts it "PTSD" from Griffin's labor and delivery (my stomach stretchmarks/flab/screwed up belly button might say otherwise).  Though it's a stressful prospect, I feel more ready to be a Mom of 2, though I can't really picture Griffin as an older brother. He's such a sweet little guy who loves to play with older kids, and wow does he get jealous when I hold any other baby.

What's the "September Baby Train" you ask?  Well, Megan, Martha, and I all made a pact to all "try" starting this September (oh how very Gloucester high school of us).  We rationalized that we'd enjoy the summer and start working on Baby #2 come Fall.  I wasn't exactly "ready" when I initially agreed to the pact, unless by "ready" we meant "totally mortified of the thought of the next birth process"...  Anyway, last week I caught myself looking up baby #2's predicted gender on the ever so reliable Chinese Birth Calendar.  (P.S.  If we get prego in September, I think it will be a girl!)  Game on.

6. Griffin successfully locked himself in the bathroom recently.  Of course I ran out of my room to grab the bathroom door knob literally 1 second too late.  No worries, it was an easy rescue mission, nothing a bobby pin and an Asian Macgyver couldn't handle. 

7. Our little engineer in training has learned to turn light switches on and off as well as faucets. 

8. "Boo!"  Griffin thinks it's completely hysterical when I jump out from behind a corner and scare the crap out of him shouting "boo!!"  He loves it and laughs and laughs.  Now he shouts "boo" to me, but he is usually just standing near me or sitting right in front of me... not very scary, but quite funny.

9. Griffin makes siren noises every time he sees a fire truck, police car, ambulance, etc.  (We bought him some emergency vehicle magnets that he's really into)  The thing is, he now also makes siren noises for big vans, some trucks, and all sorts of general non-siren vehicles.  Gotta give him kudos for trying...

10. This morning at Starbucks, Bren said to Griff, "Where's Bren?", and Griffin pointed right at her.  It literally made her year.  Also, about an hour ago, Auntie Joyce stopped by for some a quick living room dance party.  As part of her departure routine, she and Griff exchange blown kisses and Joyce always says "I love you".  Today, Griff responded by signing "love" (he crosses his arms over his heart, which is a sign he regularly does), and then he pointed at her (totally a first!)!!  So cute!

Bad Boy, Good Boy, Bath Time Fun

Griffin is 16.5 months old today.  Whoohoo! 

At school pickup today, guess who was sitting all by himself at the table for a time-out that they call "sit-by-yourself-and-watch-other-kids-play-time"?  That's right, you guessed it... it was Griffin!  I'm so proud of him, but not because of the multiple repeat time-out offenses (which by the way I think he averages about 3 times a day at school for whacking other kids), I'm beyond over the moon proud of him for what he did after bath time just about an hour ago...

Our bath time process goes something like this:  First I help carry or chase Griffin up the stairs enthusiastically chanting "bath time! bath time!"  He gets all excited when he reaches the top of the stairs and he runs into the bathroom.  I have to run in there after him or he will forcefully close the door behind him, press the little circle lock button and accidentally lock me out.  (He hasn't succeeded at this yet, but we've definitely had a few close calls.)  I check his pants for a poop, and assuming a wet-only diaper, I strip him down and leave his dirtied clothes in a pile on the bathroom floor.  I let the tub fill while he helps me empty toys into the bath, and lately he's gotten really into sticking his hands under the running faucet.  This is really nice and convenient because Griff always manages to splash water all over the floor by his feet, and I'm never quite sure if it's just water or piss.  I then help him into the bath and he splashes around, attempts to stand up a few times, which is he not allowed to do, yada yada, I wash the baby, etc.  It's pretty much a guarantee that Griff will unplug the drain at least 3 times during the course of a 5 minute bath, and we inevitably play tug-of-war on the bath plug, which is a ghetto suction cup soap holder I use to plug the drain hole since our drain plug thingy is broken.  By the time there's less than an inch of water left due to premature drainage, Griff likes to lay flat on his belly and either pretends to go to sleep (he makes a snoring sound, but is smiling with his eyes wide open), or he splashes like a flailing crazy fish out of water.  When there's basically no water left in the tub, he will blow fart noises with his mouth face down, and then he proceeds to repeatedly slide himself forward and back on the slippery tub floor.. it's a pretty ridiculous sight.  So.  Back to why I'm so over the moon proud him tonight... Once we were done with tonight's bath, I dried Griffin off and brushed his teeth (which is like torture to him because I have to wrap his arms into his towel and hold him down with a little force to get any of his little teeth remotely clean, and by "clean" I mean, I made teeth to bristle contact).  Then, I put a diaper on him and (get ready, it's finally about to get good..) I handed him his dirty onsie and pants and said, "Griffin, will you please put these dirty clothes into the laundry basket in your room?" And just like that, off he went running.  He ran so fast he almost bit it slipping on his rug when rounding the corner, but thankfully he regained his balance, made it to the laundry basket, and excitedly flung his clothes right in.  Shot.... Score!!!  The crowd (aka I) went wild!!  It was literally the most amazing thing he's ever done.  I cheered and gave him five high fives and big hugs and kisses, and we celebrated that great moment.  Now, all I have to do is get Tom to get his dirty clothes off the bathroom floor and into the laundry too, and I will literally be the champion of the entire world. :)

Some other basic instructions Griff has successfully followed so far: 

- Can you please go get a book to read?

- Griff, can you go get the car? (me pointing to a toy car on the floor)

- Please sit down/stand up.

- Griffin, let's take your shoes off/put your shoes on? (He knows to sit on the bottom stair and he holds up his foot...)

Nice Touches Please

I'm embarrassed to say that I am raising a cuddly bully.  I'm not sure how my parenting has gone wrong, or where Griffin learned his behavior, but sadly, he is the kid at daycare/playdates/home who occasionally whacks his friends.  His go-to moves are either pushing their faces away or grabbing at their hair/eyes.  I will give him credit however for being one of the most affectionate huggers known to man, though I've seen Griff accidentally knock down several of his friends with his overly aggressive hugs, uh not to mention he also has a thing for hugging strangers. (not actions we pride ourselves in teaching him at home of course)

Today I chuckled as I walked into the infant room to pick up Griffin from daycare.  Griff was sitting by himself at the lunch table (trapped in the seat that is built into the center of the table used for communal eating).  Whether he realized it or not, he was learning one of his first lessons in consequences and serving a brief "time out" sentence for hitting one of his friends.  Not my most proud Mom moment ever, but one that I can certainly laugh a little at.  I am constantly telling Griff "Nice touches", or "Gentle please" every time his strong little arm/hand gets a little too rowdy, and I do all I can to be consistent with my responses- redirect his behavior, tell him 'no' each time he crosses the line, and I try to positively reinforce his "nice touches", which are becoming more frequent.  It's progress, but a frustratingly slow snail's pace. Ugh. He'll learn eventually, right?

Carnival @ Devereux Beach, Griffin's First Ride!

 

Ohhhh boy.  Each year as a fundraiser, the MHS senior class transforms the Devereux Beach parking lot into a fun little amusement park complete with rides, games, and deliciously unhealthy food stands.  This was a "must do" on our weekend bucket list, so we managed to make an appearance today just minutes before it started raining.  Tom and I are totally amusement park people, so we were psyched to bring Griff on his first ride: the Merry-Go-Round!  I think Griff was a little confused by all of the hard plastic colorful horses, but he made a few horse noises and rode happily.  I also took him on the only other ride he was tall enough for, the car ride with old classic cars, motorcycles, buses and trucks where every rider has an extraordinarily obnoxious horn button to press, which Griffin loved and I got dizzy on!  He asked for "more" when the ride stopped, so after we walked around a bit, Tom who had just downed a plate of fried dough went on it with Griff a second time.

Scraped Knees

Poor little Griffin scraped his knee for the first time yesterday, and then again today for the second time. I guess it's the price he pays for learning to walk!  It's so sad to see his cute little knees made imperfect with light scratches, but it's just another reminder of how big (and adventurous) he is becoming. 

It's Official: Griffin is a Walker!

Yes folks, he's done it!  Alert the press...  Just 3 days shy of turning 15 months old, Griffin Hendrix is now officially a walker.  (Holy S@#&!  That's crazy.)

For the past 3 months, I've been asked several times by various people (neighbors, coworkers, relatives, strange old ladies at Market Basket), "Is he walking yet?", and I always have to give my long-winded spiel (babble/excuses/justification for why it's ok that my toddler aged son is not yet toddling) of "Well, almost, I mean, he cruises and stands, and likes walking while holding my fingers, but he's cautious, like he doesn't want to do it on his own until he's perfected his skills which is totally how I am..  yeah, and all of his friends are walking and he's the last one, but he will soon.. any day now.."  Now, I'm finally able to confidently just say "yes", as if Griff's a total veteran, like he's flawlessly walks miles and miles, but let's be real, the kid has taken a total of 5 steps in a row (as of this morning at Aryn's house), just before an almost face plant/stumble.

The progression from "Total Amateur/Never Taken A Step Ever" until "Slightly More Natural 5 Step Walker" went something like this:

3/20/11: Our last morning in Hawaii, I held Griff by the shoulders while he stood up (so he couldn't grab my hands) and Tom coaxed him to walk toward him... Griffin took 2-3 steps.  We celebrated and cheered.  He did another 2 steps from Tom to me, with a lot of encouragement.  (All of this was caught on video too!)

(and click HERE for video #2..)

3/21/11-4/2/11: Not much action at all, other than some random sleep disturbances, and a few times where Griff maybe took 1 or 2 steps (with active encouragement) before reverting back to the crawl.. and who can blame him, as it's so much more efficient.

4/3/11:  Griff took 4 steps at our neighbor Annika's house with a slight bit of coaxing.  I'm convinced it was because he was wearing his new magical walking shoes.  

4/6/11: When I picked Griff up from daycare yesterday, he was standing up a few feet away from me.  I held out my hands and said, "Come to Momma", and he just casually took the 2 steps to me, like it was no big deal.  (FYI: In all of the prior instances Griffin would take some steps, and then have this proud smile on this face that says "I'm the shiz, you should be clapping your butt off for what I just did."

4/7/11:  Today I called it official.  I tested Griff's walking skills this morning just to make sure his few casual steps at daycare weren't just a fluke.  Sure enough, he walked some more this morning, and walked his 5-step marathon at Aryn's...  

Great job Griffin!  Mom and Dad are so proud of you, and we love you so much.

Shoe Shopping

Today we took Griffin to lunch at Chipotle with Unkie Bri, then shoe shopping at the North Shore Mall. You'd think that being a Stride Rite model, Griff would get some type of discount, but nope, we paid the small mortgage payment price of $39.90 for Griffin's first pair of walking shoes.

We also stopped into Lens Crafters and put some cute Dad-style glasses on Griff (just for fun).  He looked exactly like a mini-Tom.  It was adorable.

Other than when Griffin made a total scene screaming bloody murder in the tiny and overcrowded Stride Rite store when the clerk attempted to measure his feet (size 5 1/2W!!), the trip was a success. Here is a closeup shot of Griff's first shoes, as well as a family shoe pic!

First: It's A One Nap Day

Well it's official.  Griffin has transitioned into taking just one nap a day.  It's 2:19pm and he's been passed out in his crib since just before noon.  In spite of my efforts to cling to our 2 nap routine (in my head 2 naps = 2 opportunities a day to have some quiet time to myself...), Griff has natually shifted himself to a new found schedule: 6:30am awake, whining for his morning bottle, 8am breakfast, 10am milk/small snack, 11:30am lunch, 12pm nap, 3pm snack, milk, 5:30pm dinner, 7pm bedtime (hopefully an earlier bedtime!?)  This is yet another reminder that my baby is turning into a big boy... oh crap, I see him waking up...

First: Pizza & Fries

Griffin ate a french fry at The Tides 2 weeks ago on 1/2/11 (he had a few more today at Greenland Cafe)... and we fed him his first pizza (it was take out from Little Caesars) on 1/8/11.  He loved pizza (takes after his Mom), and only liked french fries (must take after the milk man).

Griffin's First Hair Cut

Our adventure of yesterday (1/15/11) was taking Griffin out to Snip-Its in Danvers for his very first haircut.  We've been wanting to hold out to bring Griff up to Maine, where all of the Hendrix men get their hair cut by Ann, but the almost braid-able tail growing on the back of Griff's head told us it was time... Oh the hilarity!  For $14.99 + tip, Griff got a hair makeover in the Disneyworld of north shore barber shops that transformed him from baby to little boy, and we got a certificate documenting the experience along with a mini ziplock full of his little dark brown locks.  All it took was a slightly undersized barber chair with straps, Lovie in hand, 7 minutes of fast snipping and buzzing by Christine, some kid moose and hair spray, and about 10 animal crackers to keep Griff distracted.  He survived the experience with just a few tears.

 

 

A First: No Tears at School

January 4th was the first day that Griffin did not cry when I dropped him off at school. It was awesome to see; I literally strutted out the door with a huge smile on my face and walked proudly to my car. (On his drop-offs since that miraculous day, he's done the 1-second whimper, and the other morning, he cried a little bit when I put him down in the pit..)

A First: Squeeky Clean Teeth

Griffin's newest activity has been learning to brush his teeth (Griff's dentist, aka Grandpa Victor would be very proud!).  We started out with one of those rubbery gum brushes you wear on your finger, which I only managed to use a handful (ha, pun intended) of times before I gave up due to the various Griffin sized bite marks I was acquiring on my index finger.  So I upgraded Griff to his very first toothbrush- an Oral-B lime green baby brush with a picture of a cartoon giraffe with 2 big crooked front teeth on it.  Griffin quickly caught on to whole "brushing" thing- and by the term "brushing" I mean, Griffin eagerly snatches the toothbrush from my hand, maybe skims the bristles along the surface of like 3 of his teeth, and he makes an "eehhhhhhhhhh" noise with his mouth open to mimic the vibration sound of my Sonicare electronic toothbrush.  It's hilarious.