Grady

Apriil 27th, 2008

Grady had his first "accident" this past week. It all happended in the Red Robin parking lot, where we were in the process of switching cars and loading up after having dinner with my family. Todd was ahead of me with the stroller, and when he reached the truck he stood Grady up on the back seat of his truck while he turned to fold up the stoller. I was about 30 feet behind them, lugging Grady's 90 pound car seat (it is so big and annoying to have to move). As soon as Todd stepped away to fold up the stroller, Grady started after him. I watched the whole thing in slow motion. Grady went diving out of the back of the truck head first and hit the pavement. As it was happening, I screamed and was thinking to myself that my son's head was going to crack open. I was seriously scared to death. I ran over to pick him up to find that his face was scratched up and he had a big goose egg on his head (very minimal injuries compared to what I was expecting). He cried for a minute or so and then was fine. It is so amazing how babies' bodies are built to withstand just about anything! By the next morning, his goose egg was gone and now, a few days later, his scratches are healing well too. So everything turned out okay even though it was seriously such a scary moment. Todd, however, has been banned forever from loading Grady up in the car. :)

Eric, Carrie, and baby Lillie were in town this past week. It was our first time to see 3 month old Lillie! She is adorable! Being with her this past week made me realize how hard Grady really was as a baby. I don't know why it was so hard to finally admit or realize that, but as I watched Lillie lay on the floor under the Happy Hippo Gym for hours (the same gym that Grady NEVER used b/c he basically wouldn't even let me lay him down) I came to that realization. I partly blame his traumatic delivery--9 lb. 10 oz. babies should never be birthed out of the birth canal! Poor little guy. And poor me. Anyway, Grady has become MUCH easier over the past year...even with the messes that he now makes and the fits he tries to throw when he doesn't get his way. I can't believe we are coming up on his first birthday! Todd and I both look at him everyday and are basically in awe at how big he is. We have no concerns about him being picked on as a child--he is not a scrawny little boy and Todd has basically already given him permission to beat up anyone who has something to say about his red hair.

Softball Season

Grady continues to get closer and closer to walking for real! He has been doing the few steps at a time for like two weeks now so I'm thinking that any day he'll just take off. I'm thinking that there's no possible way he could make any more messes when he's walking than he already does right now. I've basically just given up as far as keeping my house clean goes. He goes from room to room emptying drawers, unfolding clothes, and playing with any electronic equipment he can find (luckily we only have like 2 rooms in our house). He seriously has some sort of obsession with electronics which I'm not sure is normal for an 11 month old or not. He doesn't care for any of the million toys we have taking up most of our square footage...instead he'd rather pound on the computer keyboard, make calls on the cell phones, or turn the TV and Xbox on and off and on and off. The only thing that might steer him away from one of those is a freshly folded pile of laundry. Grady also has switched to whole milk which is going to save us hundreds a month I think. I haven't really noticed the gas prices hiking up this past year because it seems like nothing compared to formula. Anyway, Grady has also started to do some really cute things like he has this really fake laugh that he's been doing constantly for the past week. And tonight we went out to dinner and when we paid the man gave Grady a little dum dum sucker. We loaded him up in his car seat and drove home without even thinking about the sucker again. When we got home, however, we turned to unbuckle him and there he was twirlling the half-eaten butterscotch sucker in his mouth like he was a lollipop pro. Softball season has officially started for Todd...so that is his life now. He is already playing in his second tournament this weekend and had his first regular season league game yesterday. He basically already spent all of our stimulus money (which like the rest of you we have not yet received) on all of his softball paraphenelia. For some reason all of the stuff we bought for him last year wasn't good enough. It was quite the experience to take Grady to the ball park for 2 1/2 hours last night...I could only keep him in the stroller for the first 10 minutes or so and that was because I was shoving goldfish crackers in his mouth the whole time. After that he had to be out of the stroller, and sitting in my lap wasn't good enough. So, I let him crawl around and he was seriously covered in dirt by the time we left...there were some who didn't approve of my parenting methods but it was either let him crawl around or listen to him throw fits all night.

Spring Break is here!

Spring break is here...hallelujah! I can't even tell you how nice it was on Saturday and Sunday to think that I didn't have anywhere to go or anything to do on Monday morning. Grady had a bit of a rough week but is almost back to 100%. Somehow he catches every sickness that comes within a mile of him. Last Monday or so he had a little cough that over the next few days turned into a nasty, explosive, hacking cough. The cough of course led to nose problems. Well, by Wednesday I could tell he was in a lot of pain so on Thursday we visited the doctor, and sure enough both ears were infected and he had chest congestion. We had some sleepless nights but we're back on track now. Grady's first Easter last Sunday was fun. He woke up to a few new board books, lots of new bibs (a daily necessity now that he is teething for real), and lots of empty plastic eggs! If only Easter would always be that easy for me. He did get a new church outfit too...a very casual green polo and khakis. So yes, he has one tooth...actually it's more like 1/2 a tooth right now...I'm assuming it will keep coming up. The unfortunate news...it's crooked. Darn!!! He's got red hair from who knows where and a crooked tooth from me I suppose. Actually, the red hair has grown on me and I think he might be the one to bring back red hair as a cool thing! Don't laugh...I'm being quite serious. I think it will be really cute when he regains his tan this summer.

Drooling for those (empty) Easter eggs!

Easter 2008