Mother's Day Tea!

Today Griff's school had a Mother's Day Tea...so Grandma Cathy (who is visiting for the weekend) and I were able to go visit Griffin at school. We had a great time!

Mommy, Griff, Ty and Nicole

An attempt to get a shot of the boys together...when I dropped Griff off this morning, I noticed that he and Ty were almost wearing the exact same outfit...khakis, stride rite tennies, and a gap polo with the bear -- just in differing shades of green. Classic! Great minds think alike....

Grandma and Griffin

Motoring around the classroom - all all fours - Griff has no desire to walk at this point. Why, when he's such a fast crawler, and when he's not crawling he gets carried?!?!? He loves walking behind toys, and will do laps on the playground behind the play shopping cart; any more effort than that, he's not into!

Griff decided the pretty pink tableclothes must go (as well as the snacks and drinks sitting on top)

Ty ALWAYS smiles for the camera! Such a ham!

Griff had some major 'tude today. Funny, I hear the 'tude only shows up when MOMMY is there. When I mention his newfound 'tude to his teachers they say, "Griffin? No way!" YES way -- Gramma Cathy can attest after spending the evening with the little man..he knows what he wants and does not mind letting you know when he feels like he's not getting his way. Yikes, we are in for it...then when I told him today "No thank you for the attitude, Griffin", he looked at me and said "at-tude!"

Lovin' snacktime.

12 Month Onesie & Update

As you can see from the pictures below, Griffin loves to smile for the camera...but seemingly just for mommy or daddy. We might have to make Amy a "mommy mask" for the next photo shoot! To round off one whole year of numbered-month onesie shots, here is Griff in his 12-month onesie (however due to Griffin's height, this onesie (or any other onesie we own) no longer snaps....so it's really a 12-month shirt-with-tails shot).

We had a fun-filled weekend -- Ben played in the CLCC Welcome Back Scramble on Saturday, and we went up and met him and some friends afterwards on the screened-in porch for some late lunch and drinks. It was a popular event, and so the Club was packed. Griffin enjoyed getting loved-on and noticed by all of mommy and daddy's friends (and also a lot of attention came his way from several of Grandma Kris and Grandpa Tom's friends, too!) Griff enjoyed the feel of motoring around the 9th green, fairway and even a little sand play. Saturday evening we headed over to the Gladson's for some sushi, hot tubbing, and pool time...that's right, May 1st we were doing some night-swimming in Illinois! Though the consensus was that the hot tub felt better than the pool, we did spend some quality time likely being too loud for the Gladson's neighbors and judging a diving (creative jumping) contest that the girls put on for us. I think my fav "dive" of the night was the 360-degree nose-plug. I give it a 10!

We rounded off the weekend by going to church with the Lackes this morning and then a big breakfast out -- since Ben had to head to a conference this afternoon for a few days (in Vegas...poor, poor Daddy!). Griffin and I spent a lot of time in the yard watering our new azaleas that we planted yesterday (we took out a few of the disgustingly ugly bushes from one of our beds yesterday and I replaced them with beautiful flowering azaleas). Two ugly bushes down....about 15?? more to go! I honestly wonder what they were thinking when they planted them: "look, honey, there's the wiriest, sparsest, trashiest looking bush I've ever seen! Let's plant THIRTY of them in our yard! Yay!" Griffin loved watching the golfers and eating an entire dirt clod when I turned my back for a moment; he seemed to enjoy crunching on it until I was able to get him inside and hold him over the sink and flush his mouth out with the faucet.

And just for a general update on G man: he is finally becoming more comfortable in his new classroom; there was quite a bit of a transitional period (for both of us) where Griff would melt down when I left -- which happened rarely in his former classroom, so it ripped me apart...but I am happy to report that though he still might shed a tear when I leave, it's nowhere near the spectacle that it was, and when I come get him he is so excited to show off in his new room. His teachers: Ms. Sue, Ms. Cindy, and Ms. Sherrie are so awesome and his new room is SO busy -- it's nonstop activity in there (art, sensory table/experiences, outside play, and LOTS of music and dancing, which is Griffin's absolute favorite). Griff is talking more and more each day and now will repeat most words we say...though his favorites lately are "uh oh," "BOOM" and "whooooooaaa!". ("Boom" and "whooooaaa" probably make the list because that's what we say when undertaking another absolute favorite activity: going over the speed humps by our house! Griffin breaks down in laughter every time). He is the happiest little boy around! He's also loving his animal sounds: when I pointed to a monkey in a book this morning and asked him what a monkey says, he looked at me and said "ooo, ooo, ooo, ahhhhhhhhahhh". Love it.

First Year Pictures

Here are a few of the shots we got at Griffin's one year photo shoot. Amy got some good ones...unfortunately, Griff doesn't like getting his pic taken outside and he usually takes a little bit to warm up to new people, so we didn't get too many smiles. But, mommy will make up for that at all informal shoots throughout the year! :)

More First Birthday Pics…

There were a lot of cameras going at the party, and thus lots of different sets of pictures for me to integrate and I forgot to add some from this set…so here’s some more!

Griff’s very own Mickey cake!

Making silly faces with Grandpa Bill and Grandma Cathy

  

   

This Birthday thing?  Griff’s just not so sure what to think about it!

Griffin’s First Birthday Party

One week ago today our house was full of family and friends, all there to celebrate Griffin’s first birthday.  Because Griffin is entirely enchanted with Mickey Mouse, the theme was inevitable.  We had Mickey-roni, lot of Mouseka-Treats and Mouseka-Snacks, and of course Hot-Dog-Hot-Dog-Hot-Diggity-Dogs!

Thank you to everyone who helped make the party happen, and thanks to all who came – though Griffin was a bit overwhelmed and needed a few days to recover, I know he loved seeing everyone.  AND, the amount of gifts we opened that day was nothing short of silly – thanks also to everyone for spoiling our little man.

The Mickey-themed centerpiece and M&Ms

                   Daddy and Grandpa Tom blew up lots of balloons!!!

Personalized cupcakes!Mickey. Mickey Everywhere…

           Griff hanging out (still in pjs before the party) in the chair that Grandma Kris and Grandpa Tom got him for his bday

Shoes!  Griff is becoming quite the shoe horse…the other day driving home after school he was getting a little fussy, so I opened the new box of shoes I’d gotten him (cute little Nike tennies and cute little Nike sandals for this summer at the pool) and handed him one…his face lit up, he grabbed it, held it up, and exlaimed “Sooooooos!”

 Griff and his cousin Connor…Griff crawled over and started to open a gift before the party began…we gave the okay for one to be opened early, and Connor helped. And it just happened to be a Little People train that he immediately wanted to play with.

     He sure got messy, but I’m not so sure much made it into his mouth!

Griff and his very best buddy Tyler.  Since Ty turned One a few weeks before Griff, somehow they got matching shirts!  Thanks, Ty for my great Mickey shirt!

Ben, Kevin, Connor, Jack, and Luke played a little ball in the yard       

And a quick pic of mommy and daddy all ready for the wedding that we headed to in the City the night before Griff’s party!