Friday, March 25, 2011

grayson says... OMG SO EXCITED

Grayson says,

I like to sit with my legs crossed. I do it all the time right now.

It's kinda hard to balance like that, though.

Oh, it is a camera moment, mama?

You know I don't care much for that camera thingy.

I know you're trying to get me to smile. You're trying really hard, aren't ya?

Okay, I guess that noise you're making combined with shaking your hair like a crazy lady is kinda amusing.

Oh wait, is that daddy??

OMG, it's DADDY!

Hi, Daddy!

(Yeah, I'd been trying forever to get a good gummy smile out of him, since he's about to cut his first tooth on the bottom left. The hubs walks into the room and says hi to G, and the kid was just bursting with giddy happiness. The next to last pic just slays me with cute!)

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

off to Alabama we go

We spent half of my Spring Break in Alabama, visiting my side of the family. Grayson had a blast despite being kind of unable to sleep on his stomach in his smaller pack n play. He was so comfortable around everyone - I think he's getting much more used to random people. Plus, he seemed to really remember my mom and dad, so that made me happy. I know my mom was thrilled. :)

The weather was gorgeous, so we spent a good portion of each day outside.

We spent several hours at my grandparents' house when we first got there. They love playing with G. They insisted on pulling G around in a wagon - so cute. G was more interested in playing with the quilt he was sitting on instead of being pulled around; sometimes he gets a little obsessed with something.







Baby's first Star Wars shirt!



Northwest Alabama has some gorgeous parks. One of my favorites as a kid was Spring Park. It's got everything - bridges over water, ponds with ducks, a waterfall, monuments, lots of playground equipment, expanses of grass, a kiddie train, and the best shaved ice I've ever had. Seriously, that stuff was like crack, especially when you added cream to it. I wish I'd gotten a picture of my mountain of cherry and cream shaved ice, but my hands got sticky fast.


We, of course, had to take G on the train. He got a little pouty like he was about to cry while we were sitting on it before it started up, but he was good once we got going. I think he actually wanted to play more with the seat in front of him than look around. Silly baby.

He was so cute as he kept grabbing my mom's sleeve to get her attention.




All in all, it was a fabu four days.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Bill the Cat: August 1995 - March 21, 2011

Billy the cat seemed fine last week, but we returned from Alabama yesterday, and bam, he had gone downhill fast. He had a long history of health problems, including once when he almost died from liver problems. He wasn't eating or drinking, and he had obviously lost some weight.

We took him in today, and our vet gave it to us straight: kidney failure. Not anything we could do.

Bill was an old cat. We knew his time would be coming up. But it was so sudden. On the one hand, we were glad he didn't have a long time to suffer. On the other, we didn't have a lot of time to sort our own feelings. Walking out of the vet's office with no Bill in the carrier was so difficult.

When I first moved in with Dave, Bill mainly hung out in the office. His brother was a bit of a meanie, and he would chase Bill out of the living room. I spent many months working with him, coaxing him bit by bit. Eventually, he had freedom to move about the house again. Phil, his brother, wasn't a fan of Billy's new-found independence, but Bill didn't care. He'd find any open window and lay in it for hours. Same with sun. He loved in the tiniest bit of sun on the floor.

Bill was a cuddly kitty. He'd cuddle with anyone. Even his litter mate, who lives with my mother-in-law now. He's the larger and darker of the two in this pictures, the one to the left.



When Phil (a rather grumpy cat) went to live in a house all of his own, Bill started cuddling with Simon, our younger cat. This is the most current picture of him we have.


He would dry to cuddle with anyone, even if he didn't know them well. He'd try to sleep with whomever slept on the fold out couch, including my mother. Bill just loved to curl up and cuddle, even with a chair.


But he wasn't a fan of being picked up. He'd go all stiff, stare at the floor, and howl his displeasure.


He could be so goofy. The water bowl had to be kept a good ways from the dry food because he'd try to dip the dry food in the water. So weird. He loved to lay and stretch out his little paws. The pic below looks like he's saying, "Pet meee!" Or "Feeeed me!" Or "I will eat your sooooul!"


String was his favorite toy; he liked a good bout with a laser pointer, but string drove him nutso. He also loved to play with Simon before he got to where he didn't want to move around much. When he got really fat after his liver disease, he would back his butt up to Simon and sit on him. Once he could move around more and lost some weight, he would raise his front paws up and body-slam Simon. We'd get so tickled watching this giant cat. 


He was just a big ol' cat. Super fluffy. You could brush him and brush him, and hair would still come out. I loved how much he loved to be pet and brushed. He especially loved being patted on the butt, right above his tail. If you patted it just right, he would topple over with pleasure onto the carpet. I loved that.


RIP, Billy-billy. I miss you already.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

oops!

I promise I'm still alive!

No, really.

I've been on Spring Break. It wasn't much of a break, considering I spent half of it studying for the MAT, cleaning the office in preparation for moving G into that room, and grading a TON. The other half I spent in Alabama with my parents.

There's a lot to blog about, but right now I'm laying in my own comfy bed, catching up on much-needed frivolous TV and computer time.

Here's a phone pic of G to tide you over.

Yeah, he's kinda cool like that.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

The hubs and I got new phones a few weeks ago, both Androids.

I'm rather obsessed with it.

Especially because I can take photos and immediately post them to Twitter. Since my phone is usually nearby and fast, it makes for capturing moments of G that I might not otherwise.

I thought I'd post a recap of G pics here on the blog. (Also, if you're not following me on Twitter, you should head over and add @ariali!)






I'm...obsessed...with phones...




















Hahahaha, I have bedhead.




















Noooo, don't cut my nails. You're KILLING me!






Snuggles with daddy after a nap.






I think I'm gonna refuse to eat veggies now. Yup. Good luck getting me to open my mouth.






This one is off the hubs's old phone - one of G's first pics, still in the hospital. Such a cute, tiny baby!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

happy (belated) 9 months

Holy cow, G, you're only three months away from a year!

I can't believe you're nine months old. I know I say that all the time, but since we've actually started to do a little planning for your first birthday party, it's really starting to hit me how old you're getting.

We had your well baby check up a couple of days ago. You're 21 lbs, 7 ounces (40-50%) and 29.25 inches long (80-90%). Long and lean! You didn't have to have any shots, but you did get your finger pricks for a blood test. I held you in my lap and you didn't even flinch. Unfortunately, your test came back that your iron is a little low, so we've put you on a multivitamin. It tastes awful, but you don't put up too much of a fuss about it.

You're trying so hard to become mobile, but you're not crawling yet. You can lean and stretch really far forward to reach something, and you can turn in circles while sitting. You're great at trying to get to me if I sit a little bit away. I've been taking you to the zoo, just the two of us, so you can interact with other babies at the playground. You'll sit and watch the babies inside the little padded infant play area, and I'm hoping their mobility will inspire you to get those knees under your belly. You don't know what to think about those little people who grab on you and try to steal your socks.

You stand fantastically, though. Maybe you'll end up walking before you crawl.

Still no teeth! You drool up a storm and gnaw on anything within reach, but those pearly whites are stubborn.

You sleep most of the night on your tummy. When Daddy puts you in your crib after nursing, you pretty much roll over immediately. We had to buy overnight diapers for the first time because you kept peeing out the top.

Speaking of nursing, my goal is to wean you within the next month. I'm afraid I might be getting cold feet, though. It's just so much easier to feed you from the boob; plus, it's free! You nap so well when I can nurse you down, too. We'll see how much I want to wean you might override my love of breastfeeding. You're such a snuggler that I'm not too worried about losing the closeness. I really hope you're always so affectionate. I can't wait until you give hugs and kisses.

But the biggest development this month was learning how to babble. You had an awful night on sleep on a Saturday and woke up that Sunday able to babble. Now you say mama, dada, baba, um-mum, and our favorite, blah blah. You'll just sit there, playing with a toy, and say, "Blah blah blah" over and over. Hysterical. You also love to combine the babbling with the screeching. There's a fun sound.

I can't wait to see what happens in the next month, G. I have a feeling it'll be a big one in terms of mobility and teeth!

And because I'm lazy and haven't taken some 9 month photos yet, here's a cute video of G being hyper and giggly before bed.

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