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!!

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!)