Extreme Sports

Tucker will plow through huge waves in Lake Michigan to fetch his tennis ball. He will fetch in over 100 degree heat in the summer. He will attempt to fight giant dogs who steal his beloved tennis ball. And, apparently, Tucker will brave a foot of snow (that was continually growing last week and kept covering him) for hours to chew on a prime rib bone.....

While, on the other hand, it's fairly clear that Dobber will NOT! :)

Christmas Day

On Christmas afternoon we headed over to Uncle Bill and Auntie Lisa's for some more celebrating with family. We ate great food, had a fun white elephant gift exchange (but, sadly, lost the reindeer hat we wanted), played some games, and laughed a lot. Griffin also came home with some gifts that he loves. All in all a very succesful Christmas!

Griffin LOVED his new Cubs shirt and pj's from Auntie Honey (and yes, loved the paper, too....apparently it was quite tasty)

Family Pic

Griff was very excited for his transitioning Coupe -- first, a walk-behind, and then it changes to a ride-on. Definitely a good pick for Griff who likes to be upright 24/7!

Uncle Bill and Sam getting ready for some bingo

This pic was taken as evidence that Uncle Bill is a card-switcher (i.e. a cheater, as it was mid-game). Unfortunately for him, it didn't help him win. Cheaters never prosper!

Ben and I, however, did win (actually at the same time, on the same number). Ben scored a deck of cards...

While I was far luckier and got this cooling (or warm!) gel eye mask...

And when we got home, Griffin was OUT.

Christmas is a lot of work for a little guy!

Farmer Griffin

Here's the video of Griffin farming away on Christmas morning. Once he figures out how to move it on his own with his feet...look out!

Christmas Morning

Well. because he went back to sleep early Friday morning...Santa left a lot of surprises for Griffin! And so did quite a few others...Grandmas, Grandpas, Great Grandmas, Great Grandpas, Uncles, and Mommy and Daddy. Ben and I had the video camera ready...we envisioned sitting Griffin down and watching him crawl toward all of the fun stuff Santa left and immediately playing with all of it. Reality was a bit different...Griffin was pretty overwhelmed by everything, and after we sat him down he looked back...looked at the tree/gifts again...and turned around and headed straight for my lap, where he spent the rest of the morning opening gifts. He really didn't budge from my lap for quite some time...though he finally got brave enough to head out and investigate some new stuff. We sat him in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ball pit that Santa brought...and tears were immediate. We soon figured out that Griff took to his toys much better when we introduced them one by one. Bite size pieces! Griff has a TON of new stuff to play with...and was very spoiled by family! Thanks everyone.

Santa came...

Griffin...pretty apprehensive about all of the new toys


Mama's lap is a much better place to open gifts!

And ribbon, often, is much better than the new toy it wrapped up!

One of Griffin's favorite toys...RIBBON!

Part of the aftermath

Don't know what we would have done without Daddy to put everything together...Griffin's new ride-on John Deere tractor and Learn n' Laugh farm from Grandma Cathy and Grandpa Bill...among others! I gave it a try, but immediately gave up on the task.

Griffin loved one of the new books Santa brought..."Merry Christmas, Stinky Face." Santa must have known that one of our favorite books is "I Love You, Stinky Face" and so it was very appropriate!

Even more fun than ribbon? The bag with all of the paper!

After Griff became more comfortable with everything, he finally realized that I had the camera out, so he decided to ham it up, and he had to get as close as possible

Encroachment

The tractor took some screws...and a LOT of elbow grease to get together!

New toys are great, but so is the old standby: Tucker!

Loving his new farm (this was a BIG hit)...one of Mommy and Daddy's favorites, too,,,along with the remote control car from Grandma Kris and Grandpa Tom (obviously a daddy fav)

Eating some of the veggies that grow on the farm. It's not too far from real life, as Griffin likes veggies more than fruit.

Okay, maybe this ball pit isn't so bad after all.

Griffin doing some farming. He definitely stands on the GREEN side of the red vs. green farm debate. I took some great video of him on the tractor, too (lots of laughs from him) and will post that when I learn how to transfer from my new video camera

This is hard work!

Griff's new Robeez shoes from Mommy and Daddy appear more like flippers. If the size of Daddy's feet are any indication, he'll grow into them soon enough.

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve...we celebrated at our house; Auntie Lisa, Uncle Bill, Sam and Nick came over for dinner (lasagna, prime rib, salad and snacks) and we had a great time. Griffin hung pretty well until bedtime...though he woke at 4am (this has become a pattern the past few nights -- pretty sure we have a growing little boy on our hands!) but we told him that Santa can't come unless he is asleep! I think that did the trick. Here are some pics from our day/evening!

The day started off fairly icy -- so here is Ben on the driveway...finally using the tractor for our intended purpose -- plowing!!!!

Family picture by the tree

Hanging out on the couch..Griffin really loves Uncle Bill (he crawled to him and Uncle Bill always gets smiles!)

Sam enjoyed drinking out of the MARTY MOOSE cups (as we watched Christmas Vacation, of course)

Self photo! Always classic.

Nick and Sam...Nick had to work but drove over after despite the not-so-great roads

Auntie Lisa relaxing before dinner

We successfully prepared lasagna and prime rib...it tasted quite good, actually (and to our knowledge, no one got sick)! Ben and I were very proud of ourselves.

And, of course, Griffin left cookies and milk out for Santa...and a carrot for Rudolph. Looks like Santa had already came, from this picture!

And he left a note!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas...from our family (and Elvis Santa) to yours! Have a safe, happy, blessed holiday!

Organization!

Here are the pics of Griffin's organized play space. Organized, that is, for the time being! Given the number and size of the packages under the tree with his name on them....and our suspicion that Santa will be leaving some fun (large) items, as well, I doubt it will stay organized (or neat, or anything along those lines) for long!

We will post some video....because Ben let me open a gift early (let me? maybe more like told me...) and it is a tiny, awesome, HD video camera. Now I can record more of Griffin's first Christmas!!!! I am more than elated (nice work, Pooch)! Here's hoping I get my voice back so I can communicate with him and others over the holiday (fingers crossed).