Griffn’s musical stylings, Christmas edition.
All posts by Sarah
Big Kid Bed
We’ve been talking for a few weeks now with Griffin about moving to a big kid bed (partly in preparation for the baby in April). First we introduced the big kid comforter and pillow a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday Grandpa Jeff came up to build Griffin his first ever big kid loft bed. Griffin didn’t quite know what to expect other than that Grandpa Jeff was going to build him a new bed, and we think the results exceeded his expectations; when he was on the phone with Grandma Pam last night, he told her that “Grandpa built me my own new house, Grandma!” This morning after his shower, he excitedly went back into his room, “to look at my special new bed” and exclaimed, “Oh, it’s GREAT!”
We think he likes it.
Griffin’s room before.
Grandpa measures for the railing.
Griffin gets in on the action.
He loves the new perspective!
Griffin and Mama lay down the carpet.
Griffin demonstrates the proper ladder technique.
Tired and happy family!
Grandpa and Griffin say goodnight.
Griffin’s brand new loft bed!
Haircut
As a child, I remember brushing my mom’s hair and imagined someday that I would have a child of my own who would want to brush my hair, too. Today, out of the blue, Griffin decided he needed to give me a “haircut” with the scooper from a backhoe loader. He carefully combed my hair and made spritzing sounds as he said, “Givin’ you a haircut!” I think that’s as close as I’m going to get with him, and I’ll take it.
Christmas Crafts
We put up our first family Christmas tree last night. It’s sparsely adorned with ornaments from Andrew’s past, a few we have collected together over the years, and ones I recently took from my grandmother’s collection. Today Griffin added his first handmade ornament, made from buttons my grandmother collected from her days working in a coat factory. It turned out super cute, and it was just the right level of coordination for his two and a half year old hands.
Heart Breaking Honesty
Griffin and I just returned from a nearly two week trip to California (which we’ll post more about soon). Andrew came, too, but only for about five days of it. We returned in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, and Andrew took off for a conference Wednesday afternoon. He’ll be returning Saturday. Needless to say, it’s been a major disruption to our normal routines, and in particular, our sense of togetherness as a family. Griffin is definitely missing his daddy.
This morning after our shower/bath, Griffin was all snuggled up in his towel on my lap, and he put his head on my shoulder and said, “I have a sad face.” I asked him why, and he said after a long pause, “I need Daddy,” and let out a big sigh. It nearly cracked me in half.
I think we’re all looking forward to some family time starting Saturday night. Come home to us safely and soon, love!
Baby
As I hope you know by now, we will be welcoming another baby into our family in April. Griffin knows there’s a baby growing in my tummy, but it’s still a little abstract for him (it kind of is for me, too, for that matter). He’s heard the heartbeat at the doctor’s office a couple of times, and since then, he enjoys laying on my chest and listening to my heartbeat. It’s a sweet snuggle time for us. I have a pregnancy book next to my bed that he likes to page through to look at the illustrations and ask, “What’s that baby doin’?” to which the answer is usually, “Well, that baby’s getting bigger and waiting to be born.” We’ve talked about umbilical cords and belly buttons, and how he grew in my tummy and I had to go to the hospital to give birth to him, how he took his first breath of air and cried and cried, and how he hasn’t always had words, or been able to walk and jump. He’s seen pictures of himself as a baby, but I don’t think he’s made that much of a connection until today, when we spent about 20 minutes watching videos of him as an infant. He was absolutely fascinated, and admittedly, so was I. The earliest one I easily found was of him rolling over, and he requested to watch it at least eight times. Each time, I marveled at how very, very much he has developed in two and a half years. I see who he is now in those videos of him as an infant; he has the same laugh and expressions, and I feel like I have a better sense of what he may have been thinking then. But most of all, it made me so grateful to have this kid in my life who delights me and frustrates me and makes me laugh and cry and overall, makes me a better person (even though his behavior pushes me into my own tantrums some days). What a miracle it is that this child, who came into the world completely helpless, now zooms on his bike down the sidewalk “like a rocketship!”, recognizes letters and numbers, sings songs, and does many, many things “all by myself.” I think it was a gift to both of us to take the time to sit and watch those videos today; it deepened both of our understandings of who Griffin has become, and I think today, I really needed that.
Wedgies
Things to remember:
- Griffin lately has been telling a story and then saying, “‘Member that?” (“Remember that?”) and then cracking up. If you say, “No, I don’t remember that,” he’ll say, “No…yes, I do!” Today at lunch, Griffin was telling a story, “‘Member that?” and then proceeded to say, “No sit! No sit! No sit!” over and over again, which, with his pronunciation sounded a lot more like, “No shit! No shit!” His story was just so dramatic and full of animation, Andrew and I couldn’t help but crack up.
- On his way up to bed, Griffin pulls at the back of his underwear and says, “Look! I made a wedgie!”
- Calling up from playing alone in the basement: “Daddy! I want to play Legos with my son Griffin!”
- Spotting a nearly full moon: “Look! The moon! I can see a whole world in there!”
- A little unclear on the pronouns: “Daddy come play with you?” (when he means me)
- “Fank ouuuu!” (Thank you)
- While folding laundry, Griffin puts on a pair of my underwear and proclaims, “Look! I’m fancy!”
The People Who Used to Blog A Lot
Hey. What happened to us over here? We used to write so much more than we have in the last few months. Heck, we didn’t even get the third leg of our huge trip to Europe *in June* properly documented, and it’s just snowballed from there. We’re feeling a little like slackers in the blogging department these days, but the lack of posts has been for an overarching big reason: we’ve been busy and life is full. We’ve been documenting lots of events with photos, but we haven’t even taken much time to sort through those…sigh. Andrew and I both really like to devote time to writing posts and making them fun for our friends and family to read, and time has seemed to be in shorter supply this autumn.
I’ve actually been thinking a lot about time and Facebook lately. As a stay-at-home parent, it has been a wonderful way for me to feel connected to people I love, to share the little daily things Griffin says or does, and sometimes (oftentimes) get immediate feedback (read: sympathy) for days that are less-than stellar. But Facebook goes away hourly. Things I write or read there are surely logged, but it’s not like a journal or this blog. I can’t really go back and reflect, and when it comes to my development as a parent and things I want to remember about Griffin’s rapid growing up, Facebook is no substitute for what we have here. This blog is absolutely for sharing with family and friends what we’ve been up to; but it is also, in many ways, taking the place of a memory book or journal that we will treasure for years. I feel like my time on Facebook has taken away some of the recording I would like to do with this blog, and I’m starting to rethink how I record our daily lives. Some of those little things that get put as status updates on Facebook are actually things I’d like to remember: Like the other day, I was in the basement doing laundry, and Griffin had stripped down naked and ran through the hall with maracas yelling, “It’s music time! It’s music time!” Or how he’s lately taken to flushing the toilet by saying, “Bye bye pee pees! Bye bye poo poos! I’m going to Griffin’s house! See ya tomorrow! Bye bye!” Or at breakfast on Friday, he asked for “more juice please? Hey Mama! I’m a good polite-er!” Those things are ending up as little anecdotes on Facebook, not being recorded for all of us to remember. I have visions of Griffin going back through our blog and reading about his life in his early years, and if I write it all down on Facebook, he’ll have nothing to read!
The point is not to give up Facebook. I think it helps me feel connected to adults in a life that is mainly devoted to toddlerhood, and I’m grateful for that. But I am going to try to change the way I blog. I’m trying something different where, instead of immediately recording little daily things on Facebook, I write them down as “Things to Remember” posts every once in a while on the blog. They won’t be the most eloquent or cohesive posts, but I think they’ll satisfy my need to record a few more memories.
And here’s one to start me off: Today, after he tried on the dragon costume I made him for Halloween, Griffin said, “I’m not a dragon anymore. I’m just a real boy.”
Alitalia Loses Our Luggage
We arrived in Toulouse, France, on Thursday to discover we only had two of our three checked bags.
“But we have on file that you have only two checked suitcases. Where are your stubs?”
It was then that we realized we were in trouble. We had not received our luggage stubs from the ticket agent in Rome, and without them, there was no record of us having a third bag.
“We will do our best to find your suitcase. With no tag, it will be difficult, plus…you know…it’s Italy,” says the French agent.
She hands us three “sorry-we-lost-your-luggage” kits (which each include one white t-shirt and a meager toiletry kit) and sends us out the door with a case number and hopes that the suitcase will be found within two days. We are not optimistic.
Did I mention that every stitch of clothing Andrew and I packed for the trip, besides what we were wearing, was in that lost bag? Including the white clothing we had searched high and low for to wear to the wedding that would be taking place two days from that very day?
We counted our blessings: at least it wasn’t Griffin’s clothes and supplies; at least it wasn’t the camera we forgot to take out of the suitcase before checking it; at least we had our toiletry kits; at least we had our swimsuits; at least it included many articles of clothing we had receipts for so we could get reimbursed.
And like stereotypical Americans, we asked how to get to the nearest mall. Right. Now. Seriously, we didn’t even have a change of underwear.
The visit to the Toulouse mall was an adventure. Neither of us speak French, there were no familiar stores, the sizes are completely different, and we were treading on thin ice with our tired toddler. But we went about it with as much grace and humility as possible, found ourselves some Euro-fabulous clothes, and laughed about how we’d be wearing the same thing in all of our pictures for the next week and a half.
After many calls to the airline to check on the situation with little hope of recovery, we fortunately received a call on Friday night saying they had found our luggage and would be delivering it between 9am and 12 noon on Saturday, mere hours before the ceremony. We were cautiously optimistic. By noon on Saturday, we were called by the delivery person to say he couldn’t find where we were staying, so we hopped in the car and met him on the highway. It wasn’t until he opened the back of the van and I saw our suitcase that I actually believed that they had it. We were ridiculously excited.
And low and behold, it DID have a tag. We received our white clothing just in the knick of time for James and Eliza’s wedding AND we ended up with some oui-oui French clothing. Win-win, in my book.
Parrot
Griffin has become quite the little mimic lately. We’re starting to really watch what we say for fear it will be repeated in his sweet tiny voice. Here are some highlights:
Careful honey! – Griffin says this to himself whenever he’s in a precarious position or doing something I’ve told him is dangerous. It’s adorable (except for the doing dangerous things part).
‘Scuse me! – He’s gotten in the habit of saying “excuse me” to people when they are in the way of his desired path or if he accidentally steps on someone, but he’s also been saying it to plants, beds, toys, etc., as in, “Scuse me, tulip!”
Come on! – I’m not exactly proud of this one as I know it comes directly from me and my big mouth when I’m frustrated. He even uses the exact intonation and context, like when he’s trying to open a container of play dough and the lid isn’t coming off, out flies, “Come on!!” Ah, well. At least it isn’t “mother-trucker-asphalt.”
Orange sun, Mama! Good morning, Mama/Daddy! – We bought a night light for Griffin a while back that is a moon when he’s supposed to be sleeping/in his room and a sun when it’s ok to get up. It’s worked really well for us, and even the mornings when he opens his door too early and I have to remind him to wait until the orange sun appears and then he can say, “Orange sun, Mama!”, he just says, “Ok. Bye-bye!” It is just about the sweetest thing in the world to hear him exclaim in his little voice “ORANGE SUN, MAMA! GOOD MORNING!” from behind his bedroom door. He is just so happy and excited, it’s hard not to start the day with a smile.