Seven Months

Brody is now seven months old. I'm not sure why, but in case you haven't noticed I've been neglecting this blog for quite some time. I just seem to lack the motivation to update it, especially as my sweet boy seems to need more and more of my constant attention as he is now on the move.

Brody is growing up SO fast, and a has bunch of new tricks up his sleeve. At his six month check-up, he weighed in at 15lbs,5oz, and was 27.5" long. He has more than doubled in weight since birth, and has grown more than half a foot! He is now able to sit up on his own, pull himself up to a standing position in places like his crib, the pack n' play, and on our couches. He always prefers to be in an upright position to the sitting one. Brody mastered the "army crawl" right at six months, but now has learned to crawl up on both hands and knees. No matter how many toys he has in front of him on the floor he always seems to go for everything he is not suppose to have. Brody's favorite are the electronics.. he is always headed for the DVR/DVD players, and the remote control! From the side he looks just like his Daddy, but from the front I think he looks a lot like my Dad did when he was a baby. He has a lot of hair, and his eyes are still changing. He recently discovered solid food, and dines on oatmeal and rice cereal and his favorite purees are carrots, peas, and bananas. He also likes the "yo baby" yogurts! He is learning to self feed with Cheerios, and does a great job of gumming them up before trying to swallow. He also has one tooth, on the bottom left of the two middle teeth... I think the second tooth is on its way in soon. This age is crazy full of new milestones on an almost daily basis. I'm excited for him that he pretty much fully mobile, but its a lot more work as if I turn my head for even a moment it seems he is off down the hall. As a result he is spending a little more time each day in the pack n' play or in his walker, until we get everything baby-proofed. Brody is also very "talkative", most of it is babbling, but he does say "Dadda" and "Mama", although I'm not sure if he knows what they mean yet. He just loves the sound of his own voice! I'm so blessed to be his Mommy, and I'm still loving every moment of it.

Sean and I are doing well! We are excited to announce that we are relocating down to the San Diego area in the beginning of April. Sean is attending the University of Phoenix, working towards his Masters in Accountancy, and just accepted a new job on the naval base at Point Loma to gain experience while in school. For now, I will continue to stay at home with Brody. I am also pursuing a degree in Nursing and my RN license, and I will continue taking pre-reqs for the program at Grossmont starting in the fall. We have enjoyed the year we spent here on the central coast, and it is bittersweet that we are leaving. We are looking forward to the opportunities that we have down south, and to spending more time with friends, and Sean's family!

In other news, I started taking Brody to a Gymnastics class last week called "BabyRoo's" that is designed specifically for babies starting at his age. It is structured playtime with focus on movement and motor development, and it's a great opportunity for him to get out of the house. I've included pictures here... enjoy!

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!