Saturday, November 29, 2008

Santa = Scared G-man

Well as the title states, Grady had his first visit with Jolly ol' Saint Nick.
Here's how the visit unfolded.

The mall we go to has a fairly nice Santa Booth that features dancing elf's, a rotating stage, and of course a Santa who's beard and belly are the real deal. While G-man and I waited for Dan to arrive, he was very into all the hoopla and was determined to touch the elf's. When it was our turn, we walked right up to the big guy and plopped Grady down for a quick photo. Stunned, Grady looked up at Santa, looked back at us, up at Santa, back at us, and once more back at Santa. Locked in on Santa, his little lip suddenly popped out, he sucked in all his breath and just started to scream! So that was the end of that. We quickly whisked him away and back down off the stage. However, everything at that point suddenly seemed to become very scary and he no longer had any interest in even peeking at the dancing elf's. After a few minutes he recovered, and we picked up his first, very stunned looking, picture with Santa.
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Here's a picture of our not so scary little Santa!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

8.5 month update on G-man


Myself and few friends who have babies born around the same time occasionally update one another on who are babies are becoming. I thought I'd share our newest update on Grady with all my blogger readers.

Grady is just about 8 1/2 months old. He still a little charmer, and is very loved by a lot of people. He's been crawling for a while now, but he prefers to do it "army" style. He just started pulling himself up on things, and gets so proud of himself when doing so! He quite a chatty little man, and is almost constantly babbling. He says mama, hey, hi - but is still working on dada. We've noticed recently that whenever the phone rings he yells out "HEY". He also claps when he's happy or excited to see someone. His new favorite game is catch with daddy. He would toss his little football for hours if there is someone to play with!

He eats almost everything, but is very expressive in letting us know when he doesn't like something. We have a pretty funny video of a cranberry/chicken meal "miss". He's almost fully on finger food, but I still give him a little puree with every meal. This is in addition to still getting a lot of milk.

As for sleeping... he is very sporadic with sleeping through the night. More often than not, he does very well and mostly sleeps right though (around 11 hours). But just when we think he has it down, he starts waking up again. And when he wakes up, it is not often just to calmly cuddle back to sleep. He is so sleepy himself that he can be a bit hysterical. But we know him pretty well, and can usually calm him down and help him fall back asleep.

He loves to swim. We usually go once a week or so. He passed level starfish with flying colors. Not that they don't all pass ;). He also loves music - particularly when I play the guitar and sing with him. At this point he doesn't know any better than to love it.. ha ha.

He's amazing. And we are loving being his mommy and daddy. I don't think we could have predicted just how amazing he would be, or how much we would love him!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008



Another practice run with my new photoshop. And what can I say... our boy loved the leaves!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Home... err, kindof I guess.

This past weekend, Dan, Grady and I took a quick day trip to Drumheller to visit Rachelle and Alex. It was the second time I had been "home" in the past 4 years!!! Even writing that astonishing to me. Drumheller was my home. It was where I was raised, where all my friends were, and where I have a million memories from my past, and yet I haven't even been there more than twice in 4 years. Driving down into the valley was a little bit of a strange experience. Even though it has been such a long time since visiting my hometown, driving down the hill seemed like something I could do with my eyes closed. Everywhere I looked I was flooded with both good and bad memories (mostly good). We drove through the intersection where my grade 9 self crashed my car into grade 12's Mr. Popular. We drove up the street past our first house in that town. We took a quick trip past the High School. We ate at the local favorite Bernie and the Boys, which was a good as I remember. And we went swimming in the pool where I spent countless hours swimming lanes during the years I was on the swim team. Overall almost nothing has changed, and yet it is all so different.

It was good to be back, but at the same time I realized that Drumheller is not my home anymore. Dan and Grady are my family, and wherever they are is home. That is the way is should be, and the way I want it to be!

It will always be fun to go visit "Auntie" Chelle though. She is hilarious and we are constantly laughing when we are together. Grady has his first trip down the big water slide with her, which was pretty fun to watch! It was easy to go for the day, and I hope we do it more often.

Oh, and Grady pulled himself up to full standing today for the first time. He's been able to get up to his knees for a while, but never his feet until today. He did it while he was playing with a box of cheerios. When he finally struggled to his feet he looked at me with a big silly grin as if to say "Wow mom, look at me go!!" Gone are the days that we can hide things on the couch...

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Done and done

For the past week or so, I've been playing around with my blog layout. I used a new (and free) background, and have been working with photoshop to create the banner. I'm happy with it, so for now its done and done. Maybe I'll change it again around Christmas time.

Speaking of Christmas. We are getting pretty excited for our first year as a family of 3! Now that Grady is so into everything, I'm wondering how we are going to manage with our Christmas tree. I'm thinking of tying the tree to the wall somehow so that G-man can't pull it over on top of himself. As for gifts, we are thinking of getting him a few boxes and bags as these are the things he will be the most excited for. Kidding, but I do think that this year will be more exciting for us than him.

As for everything else; Nothing huge has happened lately. Grady has started waving, and clapping. And yes, it is as cute as you imagine. He has started to kind of pull himself up on things, so we've had to lower the crib mattress. I'll post a few new pictures of our handsome little man.



Bring on the snow!



Go Flames Go!

Monday, November 3, 2008

More Than Enough

This past Sunday at church the pastor said something that really struck me. He said "If everyone met a need when they could there would be much less need in our world". He is so right.

I truly don't think I am a selfish person, but I think that living a life that meets needs whenever you can calls for a new level of generosity and humility that I don't think most of us naturally have. Looking back, I remember how growing up I constantly had some type of collection on the go. I remember having a collection of mini-erasers that never got used, more rocks than were in the driveway, and foreign coins from country after country. Basically, I realize that it is in my nature to hoard things. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who has a house full of junk and other than the coins, these collections have long been gone. But, I do tend to hold my cards close so to speak both with possessions and my emotions.

I guess sometimes it feels like there will always be someone else who will step up, or that it doesn't really matter if we do nice things or not. But as the message implied, single actions add up to equal one big change. One of my favorite quotes is by Edward Everett Hale "I am only one. But I am one. I cannot do everything, but I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can" . I guess this is all just to say, that I realized that I have a duty keep the bigger picture in perspective knowing that my little part in the overall story matters. My view of God has radically changed over the past few years, but I do believe with my whole being that God would be happy to see his children loving one another with the kind of heart it takes to live up to the quote I sited from our pastors sermon last Sunday.

I sincerely hope that Dan and I can be examples of this kind of love in the world to our little man. It does matter more than any of us know.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Trick or Treat

Well, our first Halloween with a kiddo has come and gone. Our little Dragon didn't experience very much tricking or treating, but did look very cute in his costume. Here's a pic of our fierce little fire breather.



Halloween was a fun night. As we have for the past few years, we got together with Jeff, Shannelle and the Bumble bee also known as Jackson for supper while we handed out candy. As per usual, Uncle Dr. Jeff brought along some tooth brushes to hand out with the candy. And we are pleased to report that our house did not get egged for this little tradition! We ended up having around 45 trick or treaters visit our door. I'd venture to guess that we supplied half the high school with tasty treats (and of course their very own tooth brush). Whatever, I say if they take the time to dress up then they can have a mini O'Henry from me.

I think the best costume that came to our door was a 13 year oldish girl who looked JUST like the middle child from the Incredibles! It was amazing. She got extra candy. We got a chuckle out of her buddy who was apparently feeling very Fan-cee in her mothers too large high heals. I believe she was dressed as a dead bride...

We also had a few other visitors, including Grandparents, and the mix family. Little Dragon Grady seemed to gain courage from his new persona and enjoyed the evening with "Unicorn" Carly without even shedding one tear! He's so brave.



For whatever reason I love Halloween. I enjoy the costumes and love giving out candy. Dan and I know that there are teachable moments regarding some aspects that come with Halloween, but for now it is simple innocent fun. I'm already thinking about his getup for next year....