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)
Andrew and Griffin built this together with lots of patience!
“Fank ouuuu!” (Thank you)
While folding laundry, Griffin puts on a pair of my underwear and proclaims, “Look! I’m fancy!”
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.
Griffin has been into dancing to whatever music comes on the radio these days. Even the short musical interludes on NPR get a little hip jiggle from him. Today, he was really into the classical station but not so sure he wanted me watching!
I rarely post links to other websites, but I just came across this masterpiece and have to share. It’s 100 cupcakes, each dedicated to a different game (we’re talking everything from zork to spin the bottle!)  Even better, the captions are hidden so you can see how many you can guess. Click on the picture (one of my favorites) for more:
I wish I had some video to go along with this story, but the title says it all.
Griffin and I went on a walk on Tuesday down to Lakeshore Avenue to get more English muffins from our favorite bakery, Arizmendi. Naturally, as long as we were down there, we had to take a swing through my favorite store, Urban Indigo. Andrew often jokes that he could go in there with his eyes closed, pick something at random, and I’d love it. It’s pretty much true. The store may as well be named Sarah’s Favorite Things, but I digress. They have a children’s section, which I now have more of a reason to visit thanks to Mr. G, and I came across a jack-in-the-box. More specifically, it was a Jack Russell Terrier in a box that popped up to the tune “Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?”, and since Griffin has really been enjoying peek-a-boo, I thought he might like it.
I was wrong. He LOVED it. I mean, this kid would not stop laughing. I just did it over and over and over, and he kept laughing and squealing like it was the funniest thing on the face of the planet. Everyone in the store couldn’t help but hear his giggling, and it was agreed that the scene was pretty stinking cute.
Not being one to impulse buy, I didn’t take it home with us. Not only was it a little on the pricey side, but I thought ahead to what kind of trend this could turn into (“Oh, he likes it! Let’s buy it!”) and decided I’d try to find one for a Christmas present. We headed out of the store for our walk home, and over the mile or so home, he continued to laugh hysterically at random. Is it possible he was playing the scene over and over in his head, and it was continuing to make him giggle? This happens to me quite often, so I imagined it was happening to him, too.
We arrived home, and it was quite obviously nap time, but he was still in a great mood! We snuggled in the rocking chair, and he continued to giggle as he was falling asleep. Even after it was obvious that he was out and I had laid him in the crib and closed the door, I could still hear him laughing in his sleep. That pretty much clinched it. I needed to find a jack-in-the-box before Christmas.
The next day, I called around to just about every kid store I could think of (second-hand stores first), and no one had a used one or one that wasn’t a creepy clown. I decided to swallow the price tag and head back to Urban Indigo. The doggy one was way too cute to pass up, so into the bag it went. When we got home, I was really excited to show it to Griffin again, this time with video camera handy, ready to capture the laugh fest.
Unfortunately, he only found it mildly funny. I think his chuckles were pity chuckles, as in, “That wasso yesterday, Mom, but I’ll satisfy your need to hear me laugh since you spent 30 dollars on it.” Yes, that’s right. 30 dollars. There’s a lesson in here somewhere that I’ll figure out eventually. I’m still kind of new to this mom thing.
New for fall 2009, the most fashionable ladies are wearing this season’s hottest accessory: barf.
While our model doesn’t look particularly pleased with this season’s hottest accessory, it is her job as a model to look miserable.
Our model’s creative director, however, looks quite pleased with himself.
If you’d like to recreate this look, make sure to get a six month old and have him barf on you without any warning. Extra hotness points if it gets in your hair and on your face.
We have a house guest this weekend named Roger. He’s the dog of our friends Yoni and Laura, and with all due respect to Dusty (may he rest in peace) and any dogs in my life presently, he’s the best dog in the entire universe. He’s patient, gentle, comes when you call him, likes other dogs, loves a good scratch, plays fetch, chases squirrels, and curls up in the cutest little ball when he takes a nap. He also likes to lick Griffin’s face, gets concerned when Griffin cries, and lets Griffin tug his ears.
Yesterday was our first full day together. Griffin met him after waking up in the morning, and much giggling ensued. Griffin was fascinated by Roger! Simply watching him walk around the room made Griffin laugh, and Roger seemed to like getting Griffin’s attention. I could tell they were going to be friends. We went for a walk, took naps, rolled on the floor, played fetch. It was a good day.
The afternoon is when the stare-down happened. While there are many of Griffin’s toys strewn about the house, Roger seemed completely uninterested in them . . . until Griffin started playing with Mr. Mushroom and Mr. Mushroom let out a squeak. Now like I said, Roger is the best dog ever, and being the best dog ever means you have manners. I stumbled upon this scene after starting to cook dinner:
Griffin thinks Roger only has eyes for him…
But Roger really just has eyes for the squeaky toy between Griffin’s legs.
Roger resisted Mr. Mushroom all afternoon and into the evening. It was only after Griffin went to sleep that Roger dared to gingerly take it from Griffin’s play mat. He gently gave it up after I said no, but he still wanted to play with it thinking it was a toy for him. While Roger seems to understand much about the human world, he must find it rather confusing that babies get squeaky toys, too. With Mr. Mushroom out of commission, Griffin and Roger are back to finding eachother intriguing.
As of today, Griffin has six, count ’em SIX, teeth. Understandably, they are very interesting to him. He often is feeling them with his fingers or running objects over them (I try to avoid those objects being my fingers…ouch!). I think the sensation of teeth on his lips is what led to the Mick Jagger look. And oh yes, he has also been grinding them and the sound sends me straight up the wall.
Well, last night the teeth-in-the-mouth-exploration led to him repeatedly opening and closing his mouth like a guppy. It is absolutely hilarious. The line from the Pictionary scene in When Harry Met Sally jumped into my head as I watched him stare off into space and act exactly like a “baby fish mouth! baby fish mouth!” I will try to catch it on video.
