Taking bets ...

I still don't think this Little Mister is gonna be walking before his 1st birthday. Here he is standing against the wall. What do you think? Taking bets ...

Speed of light ...

Greysen decided to develop at the speed of light while we were in Mexico. YES! MEXICO! I'll post pics of the trip soon. But G learned many new tricks while we were gone...

- Says "Dat?" and points to everything. Wow, are the questions really supposed to start this early? He LOVED the birds and pointed to birds and trees every single day multiple times per day wondering what they were. There were a lot of trees and a lot of birds.

- Says "oh ohhhhh" in a concerned voice when he drops something. And he drops things often in that game where he drops, we pick up. Now he's begun to say it before he drops it. That's really fun.

- Says, "Duh dye" which means, "Buh By" while he waves backwards at himself. He tends to copy the tone of anyone who says it before him too.

- Says "hi" very enthusiastically when we walk in the room. Or when he hasn't seen his Alli (the alligator), Hero, Curious George, Teddy Bear or Cassie, Oma and Opa for at least 5 minutes.

- Crawls everywhere and on everything. Yesterday he bumped his head 5 times and has multiple red marks on his head. No, that isn't a sunburn, it's the bumps on his head. You can't see the bumps in this pic but it's sure a cute pic that is blurred from how much he's moving!

- Is being so much more social. When he objects to me putting on his snowsuit in the morning, the tried and true way to distract him is to say, "Wanna go see Bennett? And Parker? And Dylan? And Emerson? And Cassie?" He tries to say everything I say and calms right down. This is him flirting with Parker.

- Wants to be held by his Mama entirely too much. Someday I will remember back to this time and really wish I could go back. But now, I really wish he would just go to anyone like he used to do.

- Is getting mutliple teeth at one time, poor little mister. All or nothing for this kid - decides to crawl, get teeth and start talking within a few weeks of each other. I guess the bright side is that he's too distracted with crawling and talking to really react too strongly to the at least 3 teeth he's getting at once. Poor little mister.

And he's doing so many more things to show me his personality.... The other day I went to check on him during a nap because he'd been sleeping for quite some time. I found him laying face down with his butt in the air fast asleep with his arm around his Curious George doll. He loves that thing.

And last week, I got a text message from Cassie with a pic attached. She explained that she heard G say, "Oh ohhhhh" while she was in the other room. She knew it meant he'd dropped something. So when she went to look, this is what she found:

Yesterday, when G woke up from his nap a bit fussy, I knew something was bothering him. His teeth? He didn't know what he wanted (up, down, crawling, walking, toys, blanket, etc.) so I held him and tried to cuddle him. It doesn't usually work with this busy boy but nothing else was working either. As usual, he wasn't having any of my cuddles ... until Lea Michelle started singing. Then he leaned against my chest, in awe, and just watched. When she finished, he did the same awed look at Christina Aguilera while she sang the Star Spangled Banner. And when she finished and the four jets flew over the stadium, he pointed and said, "DAT?" When I responded with the explanation "airplane", the sign-language for airplane, and the noise an airplane makes, he copied my actions, my word, and my noise - three times.

It was one of those moments when I realized that my baby is growing up really REALLY fast. And I'm not sure I'm okay with it. I love the sporadic that indicate to me that he's learning so much and taking in the world around him with an individuality that will come out in some unexpected way in the near future. But I hate to miss even a moment of it. I am struggling with ways to take in more of that sweetness by spending more time with him and yet still have my own individuality. I guess it's the stuggle of every working parent. We'll make the time count that we're together and I'll still teach him the important lesson of responsiblity, individuality, and doing things for yourself ... even if I'd rather spend time with my Sweet Baby Grey.