Things I have Learned Since Becoming a Dad

Whoa - Another Dan Post!

I have learned many things since July when Grayson came into my life.  I never knew that there were so many more things to learn in life.  Here I have compiled a list of some of my favorite things that my son has helped to teach me that I never expected to know.

About Toys....
-It's only fun if you push things without wheels and tip things that have wheels.
-If you can touch it, then you can play with it, and so it has become a toy.  This theory works for anything you can touch.
-If there are no toys available (nothing within reach) than you can entertain yourself for hours (seriously) by either screaming loudly or blowing raspberries.  Raspberries are more fun because they are messier.

About Food...
-If you can touch it, then it can go into your mouth, and so it has potentially become food.  Yes this is very similar to the same theory of toys.
-The knuckles of adult humans appear to be extremely delicious, but never seem to live up to expectations.
-Peas will make babies shudder.
-Any string that you can find (on the ground, on a sweater, on a hoodie, etc.) are amazing pallet cleansers at all times during the day.  They are highly desired objects and should be sought after at all costs.

About Drool...
-Babies can drool up to 5 gallons a day, 10 gallons if they are teething.
-Drool does not clean carpets, but will actually make them feel crusty.
-Adults will only find hidden drool marks on their clothes during the day, usually before going into important meetings.  Please note: These drool marks may inexplicably appear on clothes that have just been cleaned and have not been within 50 yards of a baby.
-It is very good manners to share your drool by transferring it from your mouth to your parent's mouth via hand.  This should only be done when parents are not paying attention as it gets the best reaction.
-There are no words to describe the taste of baby drool.

About things that Hurt...
-A head-but from a baby being held in your arms is more powerful than a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick.
-Face plants on hardwood floors are very painful (I already knew this), however, a face plant on carpet is hilarious.

About Facial Expressions...
-Jutting out your lower lip really will get you whatever you want.
-You are never to young to look at someone (usually your parents) like they are the stupidest person in the world.

About Gross Things...
-Vomit will stain but poop will not.
-It is totally possible to pee on your own face while lying down.
-The amount of wiggling during a diaper change increases drastically the messier the diaper is.

About Scary Things...
-Running water is terrifying.
-A parent's sneeze is cause for alarm.
-Waking up in a car seat in the living room is possibly the most terrifying thing in life.

About Sleeping...
-Sleeping is very easy to do while upright (in a backpack, carrier, jumperoo, held etc.).
-Sleeping is very hard in your own crib.

About things that are Funny...
-A parent's wide open mouth is funny.
-A parent's hair is hysterical.
-Getting dressed can be funny.
-Sometimes just sitting on the floor is funny.

About Smiling...
-No matter how happy you were, as soon as you see a camera you should immediately stop smiling and look as grumpy as possible.  This makes your parents do some really weird and funny things, but no matter what they do, you should hold in your smiles as much as possible, otherwise the show will stop. The only reason you should be caught smiling on a camera is if you were tricked,
-The most important thing I learned: There is no better feeling than watching your child smile at you.  It means that for that one moment in life you have done everything absolutely perfect, and it made one person in the world the happiest they have ever been.

Miles Apart

So first off - I'm an AUNT!

My nephew, Felix Anthony, was born 4 weeks early this past Tuesday. He's had a tough first week of life, but seems to be doing well and on the road to recovery:) We're hoping mom and dad can take him home this week - he needs to see his new home and all the cool stuff he has!

Even though G and Felix will live 11 hours apart, I'm hoping they can become good friends.  I'm sure we'll be doing lots of fun family vacations together, seeing as the boys will only be 8 months apart:)

Second off - Remember I told you that Aunt Heder was coming to visit? Well. I got the best surprise EVER, when Aunt Rachie showed up too! I was soo excited, that when I called Dan to tell him the news, I started tearing up. It was one of the best surprises I've ever had. 

Rachael made G's super cute hat below

Just love it. 

The weekend literally FLEW by. It makes me so sad that I can't see my sisters EVERY weekend. But I am SO grateful they made the long trip down, even if it was for such a short time. Sometimes, those couple days make all the difference.

The best friendship I can ask for <3

It's been one of those weeks. The ones where I feel homesick. A trip back to CT is calling:) 

"We'll be miles apart. I'll keep you deep inside, your always in my HEART"

  -Yellowcard

Grayson = WINNING

Sorry. HAD TO

A lot happened this weekend in our little world.

Grayson decided that he did, indeed, want to crawl. 

Grayson also surprised us by sitting up in his bed for the first time. UMMMM. I've never witnessed Grayson roll over. SO, either he rolled over (which I'm assuming he did), or he has some SERIOUS ab muscles and sat himself up. I just can't imagine him just sitting himself up. So, I assume he rolled. ha. Either way, it was seriously funny Sunday morning to go grab him from his crib and he's just sitting there. Smiling. Just hanging out. 

Onto other Saturday things:

We started the process of getting our dining room ready to be "played" in. And here are Grayson and I hard at work! (CLEARLY)

Look at those rosy cheeks!

"Momma, I would like to see out that window"

"your not gonna help me, are you?"

After all the hard work downstairs, Grayson and I decided to do a photo shoot, upstairs.

Flying drool!

I'm SO HAPPPYYY!!!

Having a photo shoot with a crawling baby is seriously hilarious. Like AVF funny. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna flip video the next session and send it in. 

"Enough with the photos, are you my stalker or something. sheesh!"

After a busy Satur-DAY. Saturday night, we stayed in and watched UCONN men beat Louisville. OH. SO. Exciting. G has a little UCONN outfit, which he'll sport this weekend. That is, if his Aunt Heather doesn't dress him in something else. 

Yep! Aunt HEDER is coming to visit for the weekend. It'll be short, sweet, and exactly what we need. Spring is on it's way!

Back and Forth

This is what G thinks is "crawling". Crawl, sit back, crawl, sit back. It's how he gets around now. This was taken basically around his bedtime, so he was crank. Maybe this weekend we'll get some better video.

And guess who learned to say "MAMAMAMAMA" Yep, my boy. I know he doesn't really know what he's saying, but it nearly brings me to tears. Of course, he's been saying "DADADADAA" for a little while now, but I'll take what I get:)

So here's the little man and how we do our "crawl"  

Video-ing

For some reason the version of blogger I had wasn't able to upload videos (at least not easily) and the new one now does. Much easier. 

This post is really just a trial in uploading a video. For the most part, I upload video's to Facebook for my family, but ONE of my sisters doesn't use Facebook anymore and soley follows the blog for updates.

So along with pictures, she can now see video's of the little dude. 

This video isn't too exciting..we bought G a new toy, and he was showing some excitement. 

On the move...Almost

G crawled for his Godmother and Grandmother friday night. For the first time.

Not sure he's going to do it again. Ok, I'm being dramatic. 

It was so exciting to watch, though. I couldn't believe my eyes, it was happening so quick. He'd been getting on all fours and rocking back and forth for a week, so I wasn't sure when he'd actually attempt to move forward. Well, when I got on the computer to skype with my mom (Grandma) he kept lurching for the laptop. So, I kept pulling him away...and he would crawl back to the laptop! So cute. I died a little. 

But, since them....He's done the get onto all fours and crawl once, then rock back into a sitting position. Stinker. 

 I'm a crawler..maybe..

But I sure do like to stand!

I mean really, Dan. 

Saturday was littered with all busy stuff. Like going to swim lessons - which he smiled at this time! 

Afterwards, we had a consultation with a designer at Pottery Barn kids to help layout our playroom. If you didn't know, which I didn't until last weekend, Pottery Barn does complimentary room designs. I brought them the dimensions of the room, pictures, and some ideas of what I wanted. 

They were SO helpful. Basically we can take what they gave us and kind of price shop to see if we can find similar ideas that may be more economical. 

The good thing is that we don't need anything crazy right now. We just need a place to put all G's toys and books. So we'll most likely get some bins, big pillows for a reading area, bookshelves for his books..and that's it. Meeting with the consultant nice to just get ideas from someone on what we eventually will need, and what to look for in pieces for a playroom. 

Oh, and Grayson got to meet Peter Cottontail at Pottery Barn Kids. He was pretty cool about it.

After the PB consult, we headed on over to the parents house to visit for a bit. And maybe show them G's crawling skills? He did crawl a little for them:)

We got a cute family pic before we headed out to our friend Zach's 1st Birthday party!

 I'm thinking G is looking more like Dan now. 

This was an honest shot at trying to get all three babes in ONE picture. We sat them down and QUICKLY tried to take a pic...one started to crawl away and the other two aren't paying attention so much.

Christina saying "hi" to G 

 Playing with Z's toys

and of course - the Birthday boy!!

CAKE!

And here is my child. Overly happy with his new toy.

7 Months

This pic was taken .02 seconds before G went to bed last night. 

I remembered that we had to get a 7 Month pic - so we threw a {way too big} onesie on and snapped some pics. VOILA! 

 He's still cute. 

G's 7 Month Updates:

*he eats carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, avocadoes, apples, peaches, pears, nectarines.

*He's a pretty big eater. Right now, he eats two meals a day.

 2oz of fruit with 2oz of oatmeal for breakfast

4oz of vegetables with 1-2oz of oatmeal for dinner

roughly 25oz of formula throughout the day

*started swim lessons this month - he's done just as we thought - loves to kick (big surprise)

*Increased him to size 3 diaper

*Says -dadadadadadada...all.the.time.

*Grabs his own toys out of his toy box to play with them

*Gets on all fours from sitting position - just doesn't know what to do after that.

*He demands more of our attention - he screams RAWR if we aren't looking at him...and smiles when we do. such a little ham.

*Still gets up 2x a night to eat.

This month we're continuing with Swim Lessons and celebrating our friend Zach's FIRST birthday party! 

This isn't helpful to crawling..the frog. (this is the position he gets into when he tries to crawl/move from sitting)

 Just because it's cute

 This was pretty much sums up the facial expression G had during swim lessons

 You can see Dan holding G in the pool...I didn't really want to be "that mom" who got all up in the swim class to take pictures. 

This was from Gatlinburg - remember, the pic I forgot to post. Sleepy babe in a backpack. Precious

oh, and this was my little monster this morning. He refused to play on the floor like usual.  He wanted to be with Momma. So, with Momma he was. Parenting at it's finest.