As you can tell, parenting has become a pretty time-intensive practice! I guess the best we can hope for at this point will be monthly updates. Grayson is doing great — holding his head up like a pro, kicking anything he can reach (repeatedly), and vocalizing as much as possible. We’re not sure what he’s saying yet, but it sounds very important.
Above all, Grayson is growing! Right now our cheapo digital scale says that he is between 15-1/2 and 16lbs. He has worn out his first set of clothes and is now feeling pretty snug in 6-9 month outfits. Don’t take our word for it, here are some pictures to prove it:
Here are a few more of our little guy over the past month:
Ok, Christmas vacation is over and it’s time to catch everyone up on a little Grayson news. I could probably write a lot but I’m going to let the pictures do most of the talking.
Grayson had his first round of shots at 2 months. There were 5 total immunizations he had to have, and he didn’t enjoy them too much… these were his first big ‘ol tears, and it was heartbreaking for mommy!
Before: After:
Over the holidays Grayson also upgrades to big boy size 2 diapers! They were at the tighest setting for about a week and then we needed to loosen them a little bit. Here’s Grayson trying them out:
Grayson was much more dressed up (and clean) during the holidays, however:
Hope everyone had a great holiday, because now it’s back to the daily grind. This year has started off a little strangely for me, as Blair is visiting friends/family in Ft. Worth with Grayson… that means no late nights, but I’ve also missed a few things:
Last week was pretty busy for Blair and I, but the payoff this weekend was great! First, Grayson showed off a few new tricks! His play mat is equipped with a few rattles, plush dolls and other devices that hang from the top and give him something to look at. He started batting at a few of the rattles last week, and even managed to grab them a few times but we were never fast enough to get it on video — until now.
As a bonus, Grayson noticed that he has feet, and he’s been using them to great effect. He found out there was a plastic circle with a picture of a duck on it on his play mat, and he went to town kicking it for about 10 minutes solid. We’ll have to rotate him every once in a while so his left leg doesn’t outgrow his right because of all that action.
Next, we enjoyed the annual Christmas Party over at the Mullins house. All of our closest friends were there, and somehow everyone managed to one-up the white elephant gift exchange from last year. Somehow I managed to lose my golden angel candelstick holder though… I wonder where that went…
We’ll post a link to the pictures as soon as Aaron posts them on his website.
It took me about a week but I finally managed to convert the HD video from our camcorder into… some terrible quality Youtube video. Hopefully you can still tell what’s going on!
It’s a sad state of affairs when you read an article like this and expect at any minute that the next paragraph will dash everyone’s hopes in the way that we’re all used to reading about. Instead, this is a good story.
*Snip*: Dave Tiderman wondered if the decimal point was in the wrong place when he opened his $35,000 company bonus. Jose Rojas saw his $10,000 check and thought, “That can’t be right.”
A total of $6.6 million is being shared by just 230 employees of Waukegan-based Peer Bearing Co., with facilities in England and the United States. Amounts varied and were based on years of service.
[The owner] and other family members signed, by hand, two thank-you cards to each employee, one in Spanish and one in English. Each card was printed with all the workers’ names and the years they were hired. The text expressed gratitude for “the loyalty and hard work of our employees over the years.”
The new owners intend to operate Peer as a wholly owned subsidiary. Workers have been told that most will keep their jobs, and life at the company hasn’t changed much since the party in mid-September when the bonuses were distributed.
Bypassing the normal narrative style, here’s what we haven’t blogged about recently:
- Grayson’s first Thanksgiving! Grayson got to play with his three-week old cousin while the rest of the family chowed down on some Greenberg smoked turkey AND Honey-Baked ham. We’ll have about 100 pictures of the boys coming soon with some action shots of Grayson hitting Jackson, Grayson pulling Jackson’s hair, and Grayson trying to eat Jackson’s hair. I can see this will be the start of a beautiful friendship.
- Grayson turned one month old (and tomorrow it’ll be 5 weeks)! He weighed in at a healthy 9lbs 10oz right around his one month birthday. We’re waiting for that magic 10lbs that everyone says makes babies sleep through the night (even though I think that’s meant for encouragement more than actual sleep).
- We took Grayson to his first photo sitting last weekend. We should get the proofs in a week or two and we will either post the pics or at the very least a link. Other than adding a little “flair” to some of the props, Grayson did great!
- Grayson’s new favorite uncle, Rane, visited from Lubbock! Here’s proof:
Man, time passes so quickly. We’ve both in disbelief that Grayson will be one month old next Saturday! We had some daily routine/schedule changes lately, so blogging has taken a back seat to catching up on sleep.
Here are some pictures from weeks 1-3:
I like to call this one “Parenting” or “Balancing Act”:
Here’s Blair and Grayson asleep — mommy passed out while helping Grayson keep his pacifier in:
As we’ve mentioned, the first week of parenthood was pretty rough. There was very little sleep to be had, especially not during the first two or three days. I mentioned to a couple of people that even when I left the hospital for the specific purpose of catching up on some sleep, I had trouble because even in the empty house I kept hearing a baby crying. Crazy, eh?
This may have been partly my psychosis, but not completely. I’m at work with my awesome super-detailed headphones in, listening to some Travis, and what did I hear? A baby crying. On further inspection and much rewinding, I noticed that this particular baby is part of the backing ambience of Travis’ “Humpty Dumpty Love Song”.
Coincidentally, I was playing some Travis while trying to sleep on my short vacation from the hospital. So, at least in this one respect I am not, in fact, losing my mind.
