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| Mr. Handsome on Dec 11! |
Griffin is a complete delight! He's inquisitive, determined, loving, easy-going, flexible, cute and funny, opinionated, and absolutely thriving. He loves his brothers, his dad and his mom, and he warms up quickly to visiting family and friends. He's not an attention-hog, but he sure does enjoy having one-on-one time with the important people in his life. He's a great traveler and loves being outdoors. What a perfect package this boy of ours is!
GROWTH
One Year Stats: 21lbs 7oz, 29.75" tall, and 18.5" head circumference
Griffin wears 12m pants and 18m long-sleeved shirts. I need to put away all his 12m onesies.
As of Thanksgiving Day, Griffin is officially out of the bucket car seat and is now using a rear-facing convertible car seat. What a big boy!
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| One of the last times in his bucket car seat. Thanks for letting us borrow it, Kendra and Micah!! |
GROSS MOTORSKILLS
Griffin is becoming a very proficient walker. Even as he was learning, he always preferred to walk rather than crawl, so now he's very good at it and can typically get across our entire family room without going down. In fact, the only reason he'll go down is if there's something in the way--which does happen frequently since he's probably the one who dropped toys all over the rug. :)
Thank goodness Griffin hasn't discovered climbing yet. BUT, his grip strength has always been wicked-strong for a baby, and he loves holding onto climbing holds at the climbing gym.
Griffin is very proud of the fact that he just learned how to clap. He thinks clapping is so much fun and will even take my hands and make them clap. We're still working on waving goodbye, but mostly because I forget to practice it with him!
Bathtime is also loads of fun for Griffin. He loves standing up (while I hold his arm) and exploring the tub faucet. He also loves slapping the water with his hands while I say, "Splash-splash!" We typically only bathe him once a week, and two out of every three times it's in the shower with Dan, so Griffin really loves bath time.
Griffin and I practice, "Griffin is SO BIG!" with our arms outstretched. Big smiles all around!
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| Gram loves Griffin! Gram and Gramps came to visit the week before Thanksgiving. |
Griffin's fine motorskills are great! He uses his fingers and thumb to pick up pieces of banana and other finger foods at mealtimes. He also uses his index finger to point at things in books--especially the moon! Griffin loves finding the moon in every book that has a picture of it and points to it immediately.
FRIENDS
Griffin has a few little buddies that he likes to play with.
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| Griffin and Alex at Gravity Park |
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| Evelyn and Griffin watching the big kids play outside |
PLAYING
When Griffin is rested and fed, he is happy to play and explore independently. He's had three back-to-back runny noses this month, so we've been keeping him out of the kitchen, however he's happy to explore our family room, find books to read himself, and play with different toys around the room. He just received a play kitchen for his birthday, and I think there are countless hours of fun ahead with it. :)
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| Griffy Wonder |
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| Griffin and the little fire engine |
BOOKS
Griffin has so many favorite books! He loves Little Blue Truck, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?, Hooray For Fish!, Baby Yosemite, Goodnight Moon, Big Red Barn, The Wheels on the Bus, Goodnight Gorilla, Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs!, Hey Wake Up!, Moo, Baa, La La La and so many more. I forgot what a boardbook-phile I am. We can't have enough. :)
TALKING
Griffin is a very vocal little guy. He has lots of things to say, but no vocalized words yet. He's getting close--he's made sounds that sound like Auggie: "Eye-ee!" or dog: "dogEE!" "Ma" seems to mean more, and he's referred to me as "Ah-ma" before, but none of this is consistent other than "ma" for more. I was worried that he didn't have any words yet as both big brothers did at this point, but his pediatrician isn't the least bit worried. He says Griffin does have words since he signs "all done" (which counts as a word!) and definitely communicates. Another point worth noting is that I was peeking through "The Baby Book" by Dr. Sears yesterday and noticed that lots of babies don't start talking until they have mastered walking--focusing their developmental energy on one task at a time. I think this makes complete sense as both Auggie and Eland spoke earlier and walked later, while Griffin has been our earliest walker by a long shot and is still not quite talking. According to Dr. Sears we'll have several spoken words by 15m.
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| Griffin is a happy hiker |
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| All bundled up in the kid backpack! |
SLEEPING/BEDTIME
Griffin is a consistently good sleeper, thank the Lord! No, he's not sleeping through the night, but that's okay. In the past month he's typically gone to sleep around 7:30p (depending on his afternoon nap) and would wake around 3:30a or 4:30a to nurse. I am so cool with that. One nurse, and at least one long stretch of sleep. I could do this for two years. (Something about having been through this before and knowing that I will sleep for 8h at a time again makes me feel pretty chill about one night waking.) The last two nights have been different. He woke around 11p to nurse, and then slept till 7:30a. This isn't so bad because we still get that long stretch of sleep, but it's a little rough on me when I've only gotten about an hour or so of sleep before waking to nurse. But it's not really a big deal.
Griffin's bedtime routine is as follows: PJs and sleepsack, sound machine on, and Tylenol (he's been miserable without it due to teething..), nurse with the light on, possibly switch to Dan, then plenty of books, lights out, singing, and into bed.
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| Playing before bedtime |
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| Griffin still loves his Giraffy |
I tried at one point this month to have him take only one morning nap for the entire day, but he had a pretty big break-down around dinnertime. So long as it is a school day, Griffin is still a two-naps-a-day kind of guy.
Both naps and bedtime are called "night-night" and Griffin understands when I tell him that it's time for night-night.
Here's a cute little bedtime story. On the night of Griffin's birthday I took Auggie and Eland to see a Peter Pan ballet, so Dan and Griffin had the evening to themselves. Dan told me that Griffin played happily and brought him lots of books to read. Eventually he walked over to the babygate and began to cry. Dan opened it, and Griffin proceeded to crawl up the stairs and go to his room. He had clearly decided that he was ready to go to bed.
EATING
Griffin has a healthy appetite, although I will say that he has been more opinionated about food than I remember Auggie or Eland being. For instance, if there's not enough flavor (imagine that!) or if he simply doesn't want to eat, he will make his wishes known. Sometimes he'll whine or cry, but if I remind him and do the "all done" sign, he'll simply sign and that's that. If he's not all done, but he doesn't like the food, he'll probably keep whining. And sometimes it feels like I have to "prime the pump" by feeding him something that he definitely likes, and then work in the other foods that I have planned for him.
I guess the difference is between table foods, pouch foods, and jarred foods. Griffin will eat most table foods that I give him. He eats toast with butter, pieces of cheese, pieces of banana, and pieces of noodles. Last time I tried peas with the skins off he only ate one or two and then declared his distaste. Griffin will eat almost anything in a pouch, however, I am not the biggest fan of baby food pouches because the texture is generally completely smooth--although not always--and the foods are almost always sweetened with apple, pear, or other fruit purées. Food is not always sweet, so I don't want Griffin to expect that it will be. I'd like him to appreciate savory foods as well. I have a little food mill that I love, and Griffin will eat most pastas and soups that go through the food mill, but doesn't like chicken, rice, and veggies through the food mill. I suspect it's the thicker texture that he's not so fond of. Griffin does enjoy steel-cut oatmeal for breakfast, especially with blueberries, bananas, or apples. With regards to the jarred foods, they tend to have less flavor, and they're generally not sweetened with apple or pear purées. However, they have more veggies. And let's face it folks, I wish I could feed Griffin all homemade baby food like I did with Auggie, and mostly with Eland, but life just doesn't work that way. There are days when we are running out the door, Griffin hasn't had lunch yet, and the necessary thing to do is to grab two pouches of food and some organic Baby Mum-Mums. This is real life. :)
Liquids are something I need to remember to offer more consistently with Griffin. It's taken me awhile to find cups that won't leak (you'd think I'd already done this with A&E), but I just forget to try. Griffin sometimes will drink water, and sometime he refuses. He tried organic whole milk for the first time a week or so ago. He sucked it out of the cup and would let it dribble down his chin and on down below his bib, haha. He kept doing that over and over again. Thankfully it was a bath night.
NURSING
Our nursing relationship is a steady, happy, and healthy one. I honestly think Griffin might go much longer than his brothers as he's really given no indication towards cutting back or stopping. We have cut out one feeding in every 24h period, so we're down to five times a day instead of six. Not a huge difference there. I think it's a night feeding that got cut. That, or he can simply drink the same amount of milk in less feedings? I have no idea. Either way, we're both very happy with the arrangement.
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| Mama and Griffin |
Griffin loves his daddy. :)
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| Wrestling on Dan's birthday |
BROTHERS
Griffin loves his brothers and Auggie and Eland love Griffin! They're so much fun. Auggie and Eland have different ways of communicating with Griffin, but both are very tender and sweet. I have to encourage Auggie to talk to Griffin in words, because he gravitates towards wanting to talk in baby-babble. But with that encouragement, Auggie communicates very well with Griffin, although what he really wants to do is tackle him and roll around and hug him. Haha. Poor Griffin gets a very confused "what is going on?!" look on his face when Auggie gets ahold of him, but it won't be long before Griffin is the one tackling Auggie. Eland, on the other hand, has a very natural way with talking to Griffin. His voice gets very high-pitched, but he uses actual words. Eland loves playing with toys with Griffin, and both boys love reading him his baby books.
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| Brother hugs! |
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| Bundled up for school drop-off |
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| At the zoo with brothers! |
BIRTHDAY PARTY
We had a little pizza and cake birthday for Griffin. He was relaxed and social the whole time, and I think he really enjoyed having everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to him. :)
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| Inspired by his favorite book, Hooray for Fish! by Lucy Cousins, Griffin had a "Hooray for Griffin" birthday party |
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| Kid table, and Carrie :) |
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| Pizza? |
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| This kids were pretty excited about cake time |
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| "What is this thing??" |
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| All done, Cake! |
MONTHLY NOTES
11.11 - Griffin had a red bum yesterday and today. So much so that I had him in disposables and kept him good and covered in diaper rash cream. He's not raw, but it looks as if he has a sunburn. :( He woke up tonight with mucousy poop at 10:15p. Poor guy. :( This is not the first time he's pooped at a strange time or it's been mucousy in the past three days. He's teething pretty hard again, so I'm wondering if it's related. He was pretty miserable when he woke tonight and took a long time to calm down. Poor guy. :(
11.15 - Griffin finally cut his sixth tooth! His bottom second from the center to his right. Before church I could see the white bump but couldn't feel it, and then by bedtime it was definitely cut. Yay! Better sleeping baby.
His mucousy poop thing and diaper rash are finally over. I wonder if they were teething related. Auggie had a teething-related diaper rash thing happen around 13m.
This kid is everywhere! Griffin has been getting more and more brave with walking, and he now knows how to open every cabinet in the kitchen with the exception of the drawers next to the stove. This is a problem since we keep our tupperware in a lazy-susan corner cabinet. I don't mind Griffin playing with pots and pans, but we keep glass things in the tupperware cabinet, so I will need to find a way to lock it.
11.26 - I *think* Griffin cut his upper left eye/canine tooth today. It's been swollen and pointy for several days now and while I can't see any tooth, I can feel a sharp bit as of two hours ago. This is a first for our boys--no one has cut teeth "out of order" yet.
Griffin just had his first Thanksgiving. We celebrated with our good friends the Howards and Griffin thoroughly enjoyed his dinner of mashed potatoes, turkey, green beans, and stuffing through the food mill along with sourdough bread bits, sweet potato casserole and whipped cream on the side. He may have eaten too much, but he was content to sit at the table with us.
Boy wonder walker! He's definitely a toddler.
Loves buttons and doors--toys with moving parts.
Outgrows his sleeves first--18m shirts 12m pants. Pj fleece sleeper feet way too long, arms just right.
Third runny nose starting tonight in four or five weeks. :(
11.28 - Took Griffin to the doctor today. His left eye was pinkish so I was afraid he had pink eye. He's been rubbing mucous from his nose all over his face and into his eyes. Grif had a ton of earwax (second time) and so the nurse really had to work to get a look at his ears. (They were fine!) Nurse/doc were unconcerned with his eye. She said it would likely clear up in another day or two, but wrote a rx just in case. Warm compress on his eye to keep the blood flowing and clear up the redness. Steamy bathroom or cupped hand clapped on his chest to relieve congestion.
11.30 - Griffin claps with open hands! He's such a big boy! And he's walking so well--he can make it across our family room rug, it's amazing!
12.01 - We tried one nap today, but it didn't work out so well. Last week for Thanksgiving break Griffin was able to sleep in till 8am most days and so he only took one long nap around 1 or 2p each day. I thought we'd give that a try today, but I don't think he can handle it when he wakes at 6:30 or 7a. He slept from 11a-12:40p, and had a breakdown at our (exceptionally early!) dinner. He went to bed early tonight at 6:15p. Seems like Grif can't handle things without two naps, but when he does get two naps he is awake pretty late. He'll lay in bed awake babbling and hanging out until 8p or later. I feel bad that he's awake and alone that long, but he doesn't seem to mind at all. Such is the dilemma at this age!!
Griffin is really enjoying his playtime and reading books. His attention span is growing, and he definitely has favorites. The more familiar he is with a book the more likely he is to happily sit through the entire thing. It takes awhile to gain said familiarity, but the benefits are huge. :)
Now that the weather is cold and Griffin is no longer in his bucket seat (it went home to the Howards on Thanksgiving Day), I am faced with the challenge of keeping this dude warm as we are constantly in and out of the car carting big brothers to and from school. It seems tricky and too hectic to put a coat on once we're at school, so this morning he rode to Auggie's school in his snowsuit. I think he's a little on the warm side, but it's so much easier than trying to squeeze him into it in school traffic and cold weather. Alternatively, I usually just wrap him in a thick blanket when we do Eland's drop-off and pick-up. Gosh, it's not even that cold yet!
We have a little 1st birthday party planned for Grif on the evening before his birthday. We'll have some friends over for pizza and cake. :) And I ordered his play kitchen! He's going to have to grow into it, but I think it will be lots of fun.
He's still working through this third cold, but I feel like we're so used to colds with him right now that it's not too big of a deal. Benedryl at night to dry out his nose helps tremendously.
And he's teething. Poor guy. I think his other upper canine tooth is starting to cause pain, plus the upper second-from-center teeth along with his lower canines. Baby. :(
12.07 - Griffin "drove" a toy fire engine for the first time today. It's a bigger Red from Cars engine. Griffin drove it around our family room and seemed to really enjoy it.
Griffin also said "Ah Ma!" when I came in the room at one point today.
12.08 - Griffin has taken a keen interest in a Thomas the Train wooden fire engine. He loves "driving" it, looking at it, and chewing on it--which I have to be careful about because of the magnet.
12.09 - Griffin has been having a tough time with me leaving lately. Dan said he was upset off and on while I was climbing at the gym. When I leave (or leave him somewhere like the church nursery), I typically sneak out, but I think it's time to try saying goodbye so he knows I'm leaving--and hopefully then knows I'll be coming back. Worth a try anyway. :)
12.10 - Seemed to say "doggie" when a dog walked by after dropping Auggie off at school this morning. Has said "Eye-Eee!" before, which sounds a lot like "Auggie."
Rides in the shopping cart (strapped in!) at grocery stores now.
We had Griffin's bday party tonight--so much fun celebrating our big boy! The Howards, Martinezes, Garners, and Larges joined us. :) Griffin really seemed interested in why everyone was surrounding him and singing to him when it was "Happy Birthday" time, and he clearly enjoyed it, too. :) The kids helped him blow out his candle, and when I gave him his cake ("Hooray For Fish" themed "Hooray For Griffin" party :), he was very suspicious. He started pulling his finger though the frosting and wiping it on his chair. He was completely uninterested in trying it--maybe he thought the cake wasn't food? Eventually I dipped my finger in the frosting and--with resistance!--stuck it in his mouth. The rest is history! :)
THE OUTTAKES
