Tag Archives: milestones

Maggie Walks!

Maggie is now 13 months, and she has crossed the threshold into walking! We have been expecting this for over a month and a half now, but she has proven to us once again that she’s on her own schedule. One of the reasons we suspect she has been waiting is that she’s been getting around quite well with knee walking (which she demonstrates at the beginning of the video. She also demonstrates her use of the sign “more” in there, too), much to the delight of strangers when we’re out in public! Today, while Griffin and I were playing a game, something just clicked for her and off she went. It’s only a matter of time before she starts running to keep up with her big brother!

http://youtu.be/CgGx25Nf3lc

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.

 

First Head Wound

We haven’t had a “first” blog entry in a while, so Griffin decided it was high time. Today as we were readying ourselves to visit the Science Museum with some new ECFE friends, Griffin’s forehead met the sticking out corner near our front door and got himself a nasty gash. It’s truly a wonder that this hasn’t happened yet as he has had plenty of head bonks, but this was the first gusher. I must say, it freaked me out a little and I was struck with mild panic as I realized that one, I was alone, two, Griffin’s car seat was actually out of the car in anticipation of carpooling to the museum, and three, my kid was howling with pain and fear, there was blood everywhere, and there was little I could do about it.

Thankfully, shortly after this happened, our friends were nearly at our house, so they came in and I was able to confirm with another adult that yes, I should take him to the clinic but it’s not an emergency, and my friend was able to watch Griffin (who had settled down by then) while I reinstalled the car seat. Whew.

His wound was definitely deep and big enough for some skin glue (which he did not enjoy in the least, but frankly, they would have had to sedate him to get any stitches in there!) and he already seems to have forgotten about it. His biggest concern after it all was getting some “fooot nack” (fruit snacks) and cheese. Onward we go!

His first major wound all glued up!
Griffin didn't want the bandaid on his head and instead insisted that it go on my forehead. Sympathy bandaids are just my style.

Latest Words

Some of Griffin’s latest words (in no particular order)

Moon. Griffin LOVES the moon. He looks for it every time he goes outside, and he often finds it. He even found it trying to shine through the snowy sky last night as we were taking a walk, and the look on his face when I saw it, too, was priceless.

Tar. Actually “star.” We have a wooden star that we took out for the holidays that he loves seeing lit up, and now he’s pointing out stars at night, too.

Bay. Translated into “play.” As in, “Don’t be changing my diaper right now, it’s time to BAY!”

Reeeeee! READ! We do so very much reading. It’s one of Griffin’s favorite activities.

Bup-eee. Puppy. One of Griffin’s favorite stuffed animals right now is a giant one-eared yellow lab who used to be in my classroom. I brought the dog home to pillage him for stuffing sewing projects (cruel, I know), and Griffin found him and fell in love with him. So he’s a little skinny and has a missing ear, and that makes Griffin’s love for him all the more adorable. Lately, Puppy has wanted to wear a diaper (Griffin hands Puppy to me and signs ‘change diaper’) and go pee-pee on Griffin’s potty.  I’m hoping Puppy will teach Griffin to go pee-pee on the potty so I don’t have to.

Ball. Oh my goodness, Griffin can spot a ball from a mile away.

Ahh-wer. Water. Used to be ahh-wah, which sure did sound like ‘agua.’ Not sure where he’s picking up the Spanish, but I’ll take it.

Cookie. Of course, he had this one down after the first cookie he ever ate. Go figure.

Bye-bye!

Un-two-fee-four. Counting! He’s a genius! Nah, but it is cool that he’s getting the hang of it, and every once in a while he’ll have two things and he excitedly say, “Twoooooo!”

Eh-bow. Elbow. He likes pointing out body parts and elbow stuck for some reason.

Paare, Ap-pul, Nana. Pear, apple, banana, three of his favorite fruits.

Irk-le. Circle. To our surprise, he can identify a circle, square, oval, rectangle, star, crescent (moon), and triangle! It must be all of the reeeeeeeee-ing we do!

His language and communication is developing rapidly and it’s so cool to see the expression on his face when we acknowledge we understand what he’s saying. He’s also trying to use that communication to figure out the world. He likes to point out body parts and show that each of us has them. For example, he’ll point to his ears and then say “Mama” and point to my ears. The other day, we were taking a bath together and he pointed at my breast. I said, “Those are Mama’s breasts. They used to make milk for you when you were a baby. But the milk is all gone!” He seemed to think about it, signed ‘milk all gone.’ Later when we were downstairs in the kitchen, he pointed at my breast again (I was fully clothed this time, just to be clear) and said “Mama!” and signed ‘milk all gone.’ I said, “Yes! Mama’s milk is all gone!” Then he pointed at the refrigerator and signed ‘milk.’ I said, “Yes. There’s milk in the refrigerator.” Then he pointed to the refrigerator and signed ‘milk all gone’ with a questioning look on his face. And I said, “Nope! The milk in the refrigerator is still there!” At which point he looked rather relieved. Then just to be sure, he said, “Ba-ba bye-bye?” (we made him give up bottles cold turkey over a week ago), and I said, “Yes, ba-bas are bye-bye, but you can still have milk in a cup!” More relief.

This kiddo is getting more and more fun with each passing day!

First Bouncy House!

This weekend we were at Gustavus for Grandma Pam’s birthday (and the homecoming football game) and Griffin got to enjoy his first bouncy house.  He was definitely the youngest kid going into it, and Sarah and I were both worried that he wouldn’t be able to handle it.  (Lots of bigger kids were freaked out.)  But never ones to shy away from experimenting with our child, we tossed him in and watched.

He was in hog heaven!  It was such a joy to see… he could barely stand up, but every time he fell down he just laughed and laughed.  He eventually made it to the side where he could hold on and jump, shrieking with glee, but then he would head back into the central mosh-pit to be pummeled by larger kids, still cracking up hysterically.  We weren’t sure if he would be able to find his way out (the entrance was covered by a flap), but after about 15 minutes he bounced over to the flap and slid right out, still grinning.  We’re definitely going to do this again!

Gleeful Griffin
Notice his Gustavus regalia

First Leech!

Griffin had his first encounter with a leech this weekend at the Stocco cabin. He liked wading in the shallows which, as this photo attests, is not without peril. The sucker (ha ha) didn’t actually get a good bite, so Griffin’s little foot was unscathed. (And, once you get beyond the ick factor, leeches are pretty harmless.)

Leech!
Griffn's first leech

More photos will follow in due course (most of which aren’t gross). Tomorrow we’re moving into the new apartment which doesn’t have internet yet, so there will be more of a delay than we’d like. We’re pretty excited to finally settle into the new place!

MILK!!

Griffin took an early, three hour long nap today and so was getting irritable earlier than usual in the evening. He was signing for milk (which is part of our bedtime routine), but I wanted to try to keep him engaged a little longer since 5:30 would likely get us a very early wake up tomorrow. So I told him he could have milk a little later and “wouldn’t you rather play with the lincoln logs?” That worked for about a minute before he led me to the kitchen, pointed at the refrigerator and signed “milk” again. I repeated that he’d have to wait and tried to distract him with some books in the other room. He quickly lost interest in those, padded off to the kitchen and returned, laboriously lugging an unopened container of soy milk from the lower cabinet with this look on his face like, “PEOPLE! Knock it off and pay attention to me: I am trying to tell you, I want MILK!” I could not believe his tenacity and willingness to work with my apparent inability to understand his very simple request. His efforts did not go unnoticed and I quickly poured him a bottle of soy milk. We sat down in the chair and he happily listened to several stories before going to bed at his normal hour. It is seriously such a delight to watch this little toddler discover how to navigate and communicate his way through his world.