Just Some Fun Pictures

Today we had a visit from Dadoo, MorMor, Bubie and Tom (Bubie's fiance).

Cashman had a fantastic time playing and I took (not surprisingly) a record number of pictures (Buttin says that we would have gone broke months ago if we were still in the days of film).

I know I post a lot of cute and sweet pictures of the Cub, but some of my favorite pictures are the ones where he's making really silly faces, here's a combination of sweet and funny.

Here is Cash and Dadoo - it's a sweet one:


Here is MorMor and Cash - I love the expression on Cub's face, it's so full of joy. He's actually looking at Buttin:


Here's a silly face picture of Cash with Bubie:


This one is so sweet, he's looking up at his MorMor:


Here's a funny one in the pool:

A Little Poem For My Son

Sprinkle, Sprinkle little cub.
You peed a little in your tub.
Sleep in your bed till at least maybe four
and tomorrow you'll see Dadoo and MorMor.

Hook'em Horns, Cash!

Baby Free Friday - Screw It

I want to post pictures of my son and since it's MY blog, I'm saying screw it to Baby Free Friday.

WHAT?

What do you mean you didn't get any sleep last night?

Good News/Bad News

Good News: Cub can roll from his tummy to his back.

Bad News: Cub cannot roll back.

Cub learned his new trick in the middle of the night (last night). Trouble is that when he gets to his back - he thinks- oh crap, how do I get back - and then flails around like a dying bug waiting for me to come and roll him back onto his tummy (wow, how many times can I use the word "back"?)

I tried explaining to him that if he just wouldn't roll over in the first place, we would not have this issue. He didn't listen. Instead he practiced his new trick about 15 times last night.

Here is Mr. One-Way Roller waiting for a swim:

You Are My Sunshine

Buttin and I sing You Are My Sunshine to Graby every night while he's going to bed. I also sing it to him in the car whenever he gets fussy. I remember the first time I told Buttin to sing it to him - Buttin was amazed by how quickly it calmed the cub.

Here's a little picture of our sunshine today playing in his jumperoo.

Napping Strike Over

Graby finally gave up his napping strike and took a three hour nap this morning (11 - 2) and another nap from 3:30 - 4:45. He seems a little happier today although he was king grumpy-butt this morning before his nap.

Here's a cute little picture of him sneezing - I know I find everything that he does cute, but this really is cute.

Naps

We don't need no stink'in naps.

Teething Much?

I'm not sure if Graby is teething yet. However, he does seem to enjoy putting everything in his mouth, chewing on it and covering it with slobber.

Here are two of his favorite chew toys:

Mouser the cat.

Buttin the daddy.


Before little cub was born, I did a bunch of cloth diaper research (What does this have to do with teething you might ask? - I'll get there) and as you might imagine some of the cloth diaper using mamas are into other "natural" things. I ran across a lot of message board posts about amber teething necklaces and their help with teething.

Amber is also known to reduce inflammation of the throat, ear and stomach and to fight irritation, infections and respiratory disease as it dramatically improves the body’s immunity. Natural amber beaded necklaces are a completely non-invasive remedy for side effects associated with teething, such as lack of appetite, upset tummies, ear ache, fevers and colds. Baltic amber is also a natural analgesic that will calm your child and is recognized by allopathic medicine specialists as antispasmodic and anti-fever. Many adults report improvement of arthritis discomfort in their hands when wearing amber on the wrists.

Well, I thought it was worth trying (even though little cub isn't moody or feverish and doesn't seem to have any of the other teething symptoms - except the chewing and slobbering) so I bought one for Graby and we got it in the mail today.

Here's my conversation with Buttin when he got home from work:

Buttin: He looks like a caveman.

Me: No, it's cute. One of the other mamas in my group has one for her son.

Buttin: Is she a wizard?

Me: No. (For the record, Heather is an accountant.)

Buttin: When do we start buying him crystals?

That's my Buttin, the funny smart-ass.

Here's Graby modeling his necklace, I'm not quite sure how much he likes it.

Daydreaming Cash - Pillow Tester

Here is Cash dreaming (he actually IS sleeping in this picture) of being a pillow tester. I think he likes this job.

Back To School

On Facebook today, I saw so many pictures of kids headed back to school.

I know we'll be there soon enough and I can certainly wait.

I wonder if little Graby will be wearing these colors in 18 years?

?

Lazy Sunday

Following our busy Saturday, we had a lazy Sunday.

Here is the evidence.



Even with all this laziness, we still had time for a swim.

One Busy Saturday

First - last night little cub slept from 7:30 PM - 5 AM!! I doubt this performance will be repeated, but at least we KNOW it is POSSIBLE.

5 AM - Wake up & Feed the little cub
5:30 AM - I go for a run while Buttin plays with Graby
6:30 AM - I return home, Graby is back asleep and Buttin is soon to follow
6:50 AM - After a quick shower, I'm out the door to the grocery store
7:45 AM - Return home to an awake Graby and Buttin
7:50 AM - Feed Graby while Buttin puts the groceries away
8:00 AM - Make breakfast
9:00 AM - Graby back to sleep for a nap
10:30 AM - Get email from my mama's group friend, Bethany, who lives down the street - they're having a pool (plastic) party and we're invited.
10:45 AM - Graby wakes up (that's right it's an almost 2 hour nap) and we head to the pool party.
11:00 AM - Buttin leaves the party to go see Piranha 3D.
Noon - Cub and I walk back home (he's getting hungry and a little tired)
12:05 PM - Cub and I realize we've been locked out by Buttin/Daddy
12:10 PM - We walk back to Bethany's and ask if we can stay at their house until Buttin is done with the movie
12:10 - 1:15 PM - Cub eats, Bethany's sweet husband gets us some food and we all hang out and have a good time. On a side note, her darling daughter, Violet (age four), told me that one of my teeth looked like it was about to come out - I had to explain to her that it was just crooked. Makes me think about one day when silly things will come out of Cash's mouth.
1:15 PM - Buttin returns!
1:20 PM - My friend Suzin arrives (she had texted me, but I didn't have my phone - it was locked in the house) bearing slightly used toys and car seats!
1:30 PM - Suzin leaves and I head to my friend Liz's house while Cub and Buttin spend some quality father/son time together.
1:45 PM - 4:30 PM - Liz and hang out and watch Mummy 2. I eat again (I can always eat).
4:45 PM - I'm at home. Graby napped from 1:30 - 3:00, but I can tell he's tired again. He refuses to take a quick nap, so we just play together as a family.
6:00 PM - Bathtime
6:30 PM - Cub is crashed in his bed.
6:50 PM - Buttin walks through the front door with sushi. Yum. Yes, I'm eating again (actually starving).

7:04 PM - Sushi eaten, time to relax on the couch.

A Good Thing?

The past two nights Graby has slept from 7 PM - 3:30AM and then back to sleep around 4 AM for a couple of hours. This is certainly a very good thing.

On Wednesday morning, I gleefully went back to bed for another two hours and I think it was the first time since Graby was born that I got a good seven hours of sleep in one night. This morning was a running morning, so instead of going back to sleep at 4 AM, I went for a run. I didn't think I'd be able to go back to bed for just one hour and then wake back up to run. I would have either been very groggy or talked myself out of running.

So Graby slept well and I went for a run, but I've still been awake since 3:30 AM.

Here's the cub picture of the day - we were laying on the bed practicing our rolling.

My Heart

Tonight, when I got home from dinner with my friend Liz, my heart almost burst with joy.

This is what I saw when I walked into my bedroom (picture was taken with an iPhone so is a little blurry):


It was the first night EVER that Buttin was able to feed and get Graby to bed without help from the magic boob.

It was just so sweet to see the two of them cuddled up on the bed together and the way Graby held his bottle was adorable (I know, I drank the parent kool-aid).

I'd be lying if I didn't admit that it made me just the teenie-weeniest bit sad to know that Graby doesn't really need me to go to sleep (although mostly it made me extremely proud and happy). This means that I can now go places in the evening and the little cub CAN (happily) go to sleep without me.

Little boy is growing up.

Brains

Buttin and I were talking about our brains earlier today. I had already been planning this post, but our discussion prompted tonight's posting.

We were talking about how our brains are sometimes very foggy, forgetful and often dumb. We both have a lot on our minds, but I think Graby takes up a huge portion of our brain power.

I made a pie chart of the thoughts in my brain:


Just for fun, I also did one for what I think Graby thinks about:

Graby wants to put everything in his mouth. In fact, his swing now frustrates him because he can touch the little stuffed toy thingies, but he cannot eat them.

Here's a picture of him in the swing today (also, just for fun I included a picture of Graby at two weeks old in his swing - if you can't tell which is which, your brain is worse off than mine).


Here is another picture of Graby today - he's trying to reach for the camera lens and eat it!

Daydreaming Cash & The Houston Marathon

Continuing my quest to be creative like this mother, here is my picture of Cash daydreaming today.

I call it, Daydreaming of Being Back in Utero

In other (totally unrelated) news, my mom and I both got into the Houston Half-Marathon! They had a lottery and we both made it. If you live in Houston watch for two slow joggers to invade your city come January!

Four Month Dr. Sharpie Appointment

Today was Cash's four month check-up.

I've been having some pretty high anxiety regarding his vaccines, but my mama's group gals said the four month shots were better than the two month ones. So I sucked it up and decided to be a brave mama and go with Cash and Buttin.

When I went to pick up the little Cash cub from daycare I noticed on his "report card" that he hadn't slept or eaten in about two hours (he can only go about 2 hours without a nap before the cranky monster pays us a visit). I thought, oh great . . .sleepy and hungry and now I'm going to stick him with needles . . . gosh, I'm a good mom.

Buttin met us at the office and Graby was super happy when Daddy walked through the waiting room door. They spent the five minutes in the office laughing at each other - it was pretty freaking cute.

When we got into the room, Cash was all smiles for the nurse. I didn't give her smiles. Instead I played 20 questions with her about how good (gentle and fast) she was at giving shots. When I was convinced of her competence - I smiled, a little.

Here are the stats:

• Height : 26.5 inches - 92nd percentile
• Weight: 15 lbs 13 oz - 70th percentile
• His head circumference was in the 45th percentile, so I wonder if that means he's going to be like one of those large people with tiny heads. I hope not.

When Dr. Sharpie came in we talked briefly about what to expect at this age. She mentioned that we could start rice cereal whenever we wanted, but I think we'll wait till about 6 months. We can also start giving Graby a little water (up to 2 oz) everyday so that he gets used to the taste. We'll probably wait a little while on this too. I guess there are some parents who are very anxious to start doing these things - but I'm in no hurry.

Next she examined Graby. She put her little doctoring tool to his chest and he started crying. I'm thinking, oh shitsville if he's already this grumpy with a smiling doctor putting a cold object on his chest, what is he going to do with needles???!!!

He calmed down quickly when Buttin and I started making fools of ourselves for his benefit. Everything checked out great - ears, nose, eyes, chest and penis!

Dr. Sharpie said she would see us at the 6 month visit. Now we just had to wait for the nurse to come back in to give Graby his shots.

Tick-tock . . . the nurse was taking what seemed like forever to come back in the office. I impatiently decided to go looking for her - well, not really but I did stick my head out the door (I think Buttin was a little mortified) and asked Dr. Sharpie how long the nurse will be (because Graby is getting VERY hungry at this point). She said the nurse would be back in about seven minutes - SEVEN MINUTES - Graby could eat two meals in seven minutes. I decided to feed him a snack. He ate and burped before the nurse came back in - even though it was less than seven minutes.

First she gives him the oral crap, which must taste gross because Graby didn't seem to like it and it took her a few times to get all of it in his mouth. Next, two shots . . . one in each leg. Buttin laid Graby down and made silly faces at him. The first one was over without a peep and he just started fussing when shot two went in his leg. By the time shot two was finished he was making small, "eh, eh, eh" noises, but Buttin picked him up and he startsed to smile within about five seconds. No tears, no turning purple, no nothing! Sweet precious baby - he must have known his mama really couldn't take too much this afternoon.

He fell asleep the instant the car started moving.

Now we're just waiting at home for Gigi and Nana to get here.

Oh Happy Sleep Dance!

Last night, Graby slept from 6:45 PM - 4 AM. Once he woke up at 4, he was ready to party (but took a morning nap from 6 - 7:30). I'm doubtful it can happen two nights in a row, but at least we know it is possible!

I know that I take an obscene number of Graby swimming pictures. I'm sure no one else can tell the difference day by day, but here he is today.


He is such a happy, joyful kid. I'm one lucky mama.

Swimming Movie

I'm working on a few blog posts right now (including my 4 month letter to Cash).

I'll be posting them shortly, but in the meantime - here is a video of Cash swimming.