Our Little Boy

Brody is looking more and more like a little boy to me than an "infant". I still can't believe how quickly time has passed since his birth. Everyday has been filled with such precious moments, I am truly blessed. I am SO in love with this little boy, he brings such joy to my heart. He is almost five months old now! At his last check-up (4 months), he was 13 lbs, 6 oz, and 25 inches long. That puts him back in the 25th percentile for weight, and the 90th for length... I was excited to see that his growth had slowed some in terms of length- he was pretty much off the charts for his 2 month visit. But the doctor would like to see him gaining a little more weight. The boy loves to eat, so I'm not sure why he's not chunk enough yet. The doctor gave the okay for us to start him out on some baby food, first cereal then slowly adding in veggies and fruits depending on how he did. We found some Rice Rusks, which have been fantastic for him. They dissolve in his mouth so he won't choke, he enjoys holding them while eating, and they aren't really all that messy- so that's been a good little snack. As far as the cereal goes, well he doesn't seem to like it much yet. He kind of spits it back out after he eats it. So we are going to try that again after the new year. It's so much fun to watch the new development that happens with him on a daily basis. His newest game is Peek-A-Boo! He loves to play this, usually laying on my chest. When I say "Peek-A-Boo" he puts his little head down to hide, and then lifts it back up with a huge grin on his face. He is now rolling over both front to back, and back to front on a pretty regular basis as well. He is starting to enjoy being on his tummy more as he is learning to scoot- and I'm sure will soon be crawling. He has also become very talkative over the recent few weeks, and that always puts a smile on my face to hear his sweet voice as he tries so hard to communicate with us. He is such a happy, sweet little boy... and I am thankful for him everyday. We are so looking forward to his first Christmas, and sharing with him all the wonderful holiday traditions that we grew up with!

As far as Sean and I go, life has thrown us a few curve balls. Sean recently got laid off, and is now looking for work again. I am so proud of him as he has also decided to go back to school to earn his Master's degree in Accountancy. The program he is doing is through the University of Phoenix online, so it will give him time to still hold a full time job as soon as he can find something. I am staying home with Brody during the days, and have taken on a few babysitting jobs. I have a 10 month old little girl that comes over every afternoon to play with Brody, and now that he is getting a little older it is fun to watch them interact. I also will be babysitting at a local church, during one of their weekly morning bible studies. There is about 4-5 kids on a regular basis, and Brody will also be coming along- so I'm excited for him to have the chance to make a few new friends. Starting in late January I will also be going back to school in the evenings at Cuesta to tackle my pre-requisites for the Nursing program. Depending on Sean's job situation, it's possible we will be relocating to the San Diego area after the spring semester. We know that God is in control, and that he will provide for our needs. We are trusting in him during the difficult times to lead us, and open and close doors according to his will. We are blessed to have such wonderful family support during this time, and we continue to count our blessings daily! We wish you a very Merry Christmas, and the happiest New Year!

Catching Up ...

Seems we have a bit of catching up to do... I will probably do this over a few posts so as not to write an entire book at once. Hmmmmm, where did we last leave off? I think it was the 2 month update! That's pretty bad being that Brody is now almost 4 months old. His 2 month appointment was a rough one for Mom. He got his shots... 4 of them at once. I cried, after hearing him scream, it was SO hard. I am dreading his next appointment at the 4 month mark, where he has to get 4 more shots. He started sleeping through the night completely right at 2 months also, that has been SO nice. Now if he would just learn to do it in his own bed, we'd be good... he currently prefers my arms as his sleeping place of choice. At his appointment we found out that he is in the 95th percentile for length at 24 inches long, and the 50th percentile for weight at 11 pounds, 11 ounces. He didn't have an appointment at the three month mark, so I know he's grown a lot.. but I'm curious to see by how much. In clothing he pretty much skipped the 0-3 month size. I would try clothes on him from that size range when he was still wearing newborn, and everything was so wide. Then all of the sudden none of the newborn onesies would snap anymore and neither would the 0-3... pretty much the same day. Luckily for us, 3-6 month is pretty much the same in width as the 0-3, just a few inches longer which helps. So for now he's in mostly 3-6 month clothes, although we have a few 0-3 outfits which fit him okay thankfully. I was really bummed we blew right through that size, because he had a lot of really cute stuff that he only got to wear once! We are enjoying every moment with him, but I already think he's growing up too fast.

Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition

Yes, thats right! There are some changes around here. We got ourselves a colorful new layout, now we just need a new blog name. That's where you come in, because "Sean & Sarah Griffin" is kind of boring! While this blog started as a way to update all my friends and family throughout my pregnancy, I realized things are more and more exciting on day to day basis now that Brody is here! I promise more frequent updates, but I do need help with a name. I lack creativity... so if you have any idea's, please post them here as a comment! Thanks in advance. I'm also considering making this blog private, just for safety reasons. According to my sitemeter this blog gets about 100 hits per week, and while I'm pretty sure thats mostly family and friends I'd still be more comfortable knowing who's reading. SO if you do read this blog, and you'd like to continue reading this blog... do one of two things. The first option, is to "follow" this blog. That lets me know your reading, and I can send you an invitation to keep reading. It is also a great new feature that Blogger rolled out that I love. I am able to "follow" all the blogs that I read, and rather than having to go through my blog list one by one, I get a list of all new updates in order of recent posts from all the different blogs I enjoy reading... and then I don't waste time checking blogs that haven't been updated. So that's my plug on the following feature! The other option is to just send me an email (sarahgriffin1@gmail.com), or leave me a comment with your email address and I will make sure to add you to the list of readers to invite when I do make this private. Thank you, and "Stay Tuned"... there will be more updates, more frequently very very soon!

Peppermint Pooties!

Last night I was kissing Brody's cute little feet and telling him that I was gonna eat him all up because he is just so yummy! And that he smelled so good like a freshly bathed baby peppermint!?! I kept sniffing and there was a very strong peppermint smell coming from my baby boy. I couldn't figure it out, I kept sniffing and the only thing I could come up with is that someone had spilled peppermint extract somewhere and we must have set him down it it? It didn't make sense. I started freaking out, like is there some disease that makes a body give off a weird pepperminty smell? I feared the worse! And then I found it.. in the diaper, the dirty diaper no less... Peppermint Pooties! The diaper was what was giving off the peppermint smell, and well we later figured it got that way because I left a pack of doublemint gum in the diaper bag. And so my fellow mommies, if you ever want to cover up a smelly diaper... you know what to do!

Six Week Smiles!

So this morning at exactly six weeks of age, I was finally able to capture his adorable little smile on camera! Brody has been smiling a lot lately. He's so much more awake and alert these days... it's so much fun that he can interact with us more now. He likes to try and imitate faces that we make, he likes to make faces at himself in the mirror above his swing, its really cute and so much fun to watch.... I am really enjoying the stage he's at now, where most of his smiles are now a result of us talking to him and playing little games with him, rather than in the beginning when usually a smile meant some gas or a present in the diaper!

One Month

Today my sweet baby boy is one month old! I can't believe how much more quickly the time has passed now that he's actually here. The above picture is my best attempt at catching his smile on camera. We get to see little smiles daily, but I never have my camera ready in time to capture them. Brody has me wrapped around his tiny little fingers. I love every little bit of him, and I feel so blessed to get to be his Mommy! I beg him everyday to please not grow up too fast, but I have a feeling he won't listen to me there. At his four week check-up he was weighing in at 9lbs, 2oz and is now 22 inches long. He's pretty close to growing out of those newborn outfits and will soon be able to wear some of his 0-3 month stuff! To everyone who ever said: "babies are a lot of work", I've found it to be much more true than I could have ever prepared myself for. But its worth every moment of it, even the ones at 3:00am. Although I'm quite thankful to report we don't see much of each other at 3:00am anymore... a few nights ago, he slept through the night for the first time! We got almost a full seven hours out of him, which I think is amazing for a four week old. For the most part he's been keeping on this routine ever since, so we are hoping it continues. I love the little parts of his personality we are able to see. He seems very alert for his age. I call him my "little man", because a lot of times when he's awake he has a very serious look on his face... He makes lots of cute faces already, and its kind of hard to tell who he looks like more at this point. My first impression when he was born was that he looked just like his Daddy, but now I can see a lot of resemblence to both of us. It's funny how quickly they grow and change. I'm so thankful for the invention of the digital camera because without it, it would be much more difficult to capture this precious time in his life. I'm much more thankful that God has blessed us with such a perfect baby boy. I still can't believe that he's ours sometimes... but I couldn't be happier that he is!

Brody's First Road Trip

As most of you know, last time I updated we were down in Southern California giving Brody the opportunity to meet some of his extended family. Overall it was a pretty easy trip for having a newborn in tow. We ended up making a ninety minute stop in Camarillo on the way down to El Cajon, and then we hit some traffic through LA and Orange county.. so in the end it took us eight hours to get there! We spent the first week in El Cajon with Sean's family, a bunch of pictures from that part of the trip are below in my last update, titled "Catching Up...". Most of the week was pretty relaxing, we really didn't have an agenda, and we got to spend a lot of quality time with Sean's family. I celebrated my twenty-sixth birthday while we were there, and my Mother-in-Law made one of my favorite dinners and some Creme Brulee for dessert (I'm soooo not a cake person, unless of course its made by Judy... who did our wedding & baby shower cakes)!
On Saturday morning we got in the car and headed up to Orange County. We had planned to be on the road by 7:00am, and had mostly packed the night before. We ended up making it out of there by 7:15am which I thought was pretty good having a 3 week old! That was the beginning of a very busy weekend! We arrived at my parents hotel around 9:00am and waited there until my sister Amy called and told us to head over to Disneyland. Yes, Brody went to Disneyland for the first time at 3 weeks and 1 day old!
We had planned on spending a few hours there so my other little sister Chanel could ride on California Screamin' aka "the upside-down ride". She had finally become tall enough right at the beginning of my pregnancy! She almost chickened out, but in the end LOVED it and begged to go again and again. Lucky for her, we had Brody with us... and since he's not quite old enough to ride they gave us a rider switch pass so Sean could wait with him while we went on the ride, and then Sean could ride with one additional person without having to wait in line. So Chanel got to ride twice and only waited in line once, lucky kid!
Brody did great, and it wasn't really that difficult to have him there at such a young age. He made friends with the little green men from Toy Story... it was a plush stuffed animal that danced and vibrated when you pushed the button on it's hand. I put it in the infant carrier with Brody and he'd instantly relax. I was tempted to buy it for him, but he has lots of stuffed animals already and he can't really do much with them at this point anyways.

We also bought him his first Mickey Mouse Ears, with his name embroidered on the back! I got these super cute pics of him... being a good sport while I made him wear them!

Just as we were getting ready to leave, Chanel ended up getting chosen by Merlin to pull the sword out of the stone! I got to do this when I was in 4th grade, so I thought it was a pretty special end to her day at the park.




At 5:00pm we packed it up and headed over to our hotel to get checked in and ready to go out again. We stayed at the Ayres in Anahiem, I have to say I highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Southern California. We were able to get a great rate, just booking directly through their website, using our AAA discount. We got great service, the rooms were very comfortable, there is free high-speed internet access, and a full hot delicious breakfast included! We couldn't have gotten better value for our money anywhere else. After we got all settled-in at the hotel we headed down to my aunts house Balboa to meet up with my parents, and a bunch of family. They were having a potluck and movie night out in the alley with all the neighbors, most of whom where childhood friends of my Dad! It was pretty fun to see everyone, and everyone really enjoyed getting to see Brody! We didn't end up staying for the movie, because we were pretty exhausted at that point. So we headed back to the hotel to get some rest! Sunday seemed just as eventful as we had a little "Welcome Brody" party for my OC friends & family. It turned out to be kind of last minute in terms of date, so a lot of our friends weren't able to come. But we did have a great time visiting with all of my Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins on my Dad's side of the family!

After Brody's party we were on the road.. stopping in Fullerton for dinner with our friends Ray & Jenna who we hadn't seen in a while. Once we left we ended up having to make two more stops on the way back. These were a lot quicker than our original stop on the way down. The first was in Carpenteria, where I thought I could get away with feeding him less than normal... but what I thought would be enough to knock him out for the rest of the trip. WRONG! So 20 minutes later we stopped again in Goleta and fed him a little more and that did the trick. I guess that's what I get for trying to take short cuts, but it was late and we really just wanted to get home... and he tends to be somewhat of a slow eater. We made it home safe and sound in time for Sean to get a decent nights sleep before his first day at his new job... I'll write more on that later. Brody is now four weeks old! I can't believe how fast that went by, I'll be posting a one month update pretty soon as well... stay tuned!

Catching Up...

Just in case your wondering we haven't dropped off the face of the planet. Our lives now revolve around 7lbs and 21in of baby, and we couldn't be happier! We are a little sleep deprived, but adjusting well and little by little he seems to be awake more during the day and asleep a little more at night. Here's what we've been up to since the last update...

Ready to Leave the Hospital First Picture as a Family of Three Hanging Out with Daddy Meeting Grandma AnnHanging Out in the Swing
First Bath
Afternoon Naps with Mommy
Hanging Out with Grandpa Larry
Meeting Auntie Amy

Making Funny Faces
Nap Time with Daddy Meeting Auntie Marghee & Cousin Eliann

Eliann Likes to Help Out

Meeting Uncle Brian
Learning How to Sit Up
Playing on Eliann's Jungle Gym with Mama

Happy Family of Three


Mama Loves Her Baby Boy!

Making Cute Faces



... So as you can see, we've been having all kinds of fun! Right now we are visiting Sean's family down in San Diego. On Saturday we are headed up to Orange County to introduce Brody to my extended family! Brody will also be taking his first trip to Disneyland... he's a little too young to enjoy it, but for the most part he's a pretty easy baby and he loves being outside so we think it will be alright. We are actually going with my little sister Chanel, who is finally tall enough to go on "the upside-down ride" or California Screamin' as most people know it. She finally became tall enough to ride just about the time we found out we were expecting and I've been promising I'd take her on it once I wasn't pregnant anymore. So it should be a pretty fun weekend, and hopefully not too interesting with the baby in tow! I'll have more time to keep things a little more updated once we get home and back into a routine.