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.

Another reason for a vacation ...

The Little Mister is having a tough time lately; and thus, Mama is having a tough time lately. Greysen has reached the separation anxiety stage. And while I know that every baby goes through this, it's so rare that G cries or does anything but smile that I'm finding myself scrambling to figure out what to do next. Yeah, I know. Waaah waaaahhhh; everyone feels sorry for me. If anyone who reads this has suggestions for how to get through this stage - DO TELL. And until then, this too shall pass, right?

G playing music for us!

The Stork FINALLY landed ...

My nephew Samuel Quinn Tierney joined this world yesterday at 7 lbs, 1 oz, 21 inches long to very proud parents, my sister Jessie and her husband Dave. I already have a profound love for this sweet sweet baby. I can't wait to hold him for 5 hours straight and smell his head, kiss his cheeks, and then hand him back to his Mama and Papa when he poops (which will be often). Greysen can't wait to give him those open-mouthed, sloppy wet kisses. (Don't worry J & D, I really won't let him do that - though he really will want to).

Jessie is recovering now which might take a little longer than we'd all hoped. But the good news is that she gets to be waited on hand and foot at the hospital while she enjoys every waking (and very little sleeping) moment of that little guy. And Jessie is the strongest woman I know, so the recovery will go smoothly and she will soon be back on her feet and running after Sam. As for now, they are drinking in every moment.

Sweet Baby Sam.

Snow Day

Greysen LOVES the snow. While he's on my back on a walk in the snow, he'll stick his tongue out to lap up the snowflakes. If you give him a piece of snow, it goes straight into his mouth - naturally - but he repeats it over and over even after he feels how cold it is. Today at Cassie-care, he got up close and personal with a snowbank when he inspected it in front of his face and lost balance and faceplanted 2-3 times and never got upset. Greysen loves the snow days ...

Picture Perfect Christmas

Before I open my mouth and ruin it all, here are a thousand words worth seeing....

Christmas and all that crap

In order to aid my recovery from Christmas bah-humbuggery, we hiked with Greysen for a Christmas tree in the forrest outside of Helena. I put Greysen on my back, Andrew pulled the sled to bring our tree back once we cut it down and Cassie carried the camera (naturally). We found a tree not far from the parking lot. And because it wasn't far from the parking lot and we just wanted to hike around in the snow, we took a pic of it and moved on. It was the back-up tree. And a great back-up tree, I must say.

We hiked in for a good 30 mins and then we spotted the One. I spotted it from across the vast expanse and could tell it was the One without even seeing it up close. Greysen agreed with squeals of joy and laughter. Or he was laughing at the dogs running around. But we think he loved the tree. Cassie and Andrew cut down the tree. Luckily we had Cassie there to hold it up or surely we would have perished under the weight of it.

On the way back to the car, I walked gingerly through the slippery downhill snow. Cassie had a better idea.

And then another better idea.

Greysen just went along for the ride and enjoyed every minute he was outside.

We had a great time.

And we got a beautiful tree for $5 which is the cost of the permit. Check it out...