6 months

6 month picture with the Cowboy Bear

Brothers (holding hands)

His first taste of vegetables (sweet potato)

My baby is 6 months old, half a year, really!?! Each month seems to go by faster than the last. He is really growing and changing, learning new things everyday, and very observant. He wants to be involved in everything going on around him, it seems to bother him that he can't play with the other kids he sees and that he can't eat the things we are eating. But he is trying his best to get himself involved in everything! Just today (11-12) he has started kind of crawling, an army type crawl. He made a few good attempts today that really got him moving. He is beginning to sit on his own now, too. You can kind of see that in his 6 month bear picture, he wouldn't lean back against the bed, he wanted to sit unassisted...like a big boy.

He has started eating solid foods, too. We began with sweet potatoes, which he thought were okay, but seemed to get better everyday we tried them. Then this week we added Butternut Squash, which he hated the first couple of days, he would barely open his mouth for it! Silly boy! He has started drinking water, and apparently he's been watching his big brother drink because he knew exactly what to do with the cup when we gave it to him.

He talks a lot, but is also very quiet and observant. My boy can giggle when tickled, gosh is he ticklish! I love tickling him and hearing that belly laugh! He is still a mama's boy, but is getting better at letting other people hold him. Luke really enjoys his exersaucer and hangs out in it during mealtimes, and many other times throughout the day. When he gets upset, he likes for me to sing to him, and it seems his favorite song is Wheels on the Bus. Isaac will sometimes sing to him, too, when he is crying.

He sleeps on his tummy, as soon as I lay him down (on his back) he immediately rolls to his belly. He still prefers to nap in his swing, although there have been some naps in his bed. His hair is starting to stand up straight, just like Isaac's did at this age...it is precious! Luke enjoys shopping with me, if I carry him in the Bjorn, not in the stroller. The boys have a lot of fun at the grocery store when I carry Luke and Isaac sits in the cart, they talk to each other, pull on each other, and Isaac tries to share his snacks with him. Eeek. They are happy while I shop, but I'm usually pretty worn out by the time we're done. Luke is following suit with the Griffin boys, he prefers to be outside! He rarely cries outside, and laughs so hard when he sees Isaac swing or jump on the trampoline. When I let him stand on my lap, he bounces and bounces and smiles and smiles. It is priceless!
He is growing, as I mentioned, but he is still my peanut. At his appointment he weighed in at 14.5 lbs and 26 inches. His weight is in the 5th percentile and height in the 35th!

Some funny things...

Isaac's language skills are improving daily, his sentences are becoming more complete and his words are more clear. He has also starting picking up on the things we say and is saying them to us. Here are some of the recent funnies:

• One morning he was pushing my buttons over and over, he was wearing me out, so I asked him, "Isaac what's going on with you today?" He immediately responded, "Isaac is having a rough day."
• Carl has been traveling a lot lately, and Isaac misses him terribly when he's gone (as do I). The day after one of his recent trips the boys and I went to run some errands, on the way home I told Isaac we had to go home because daddy was going to be home. He said to me, "That makes Isaac happy." (My heart melted.)
• He still sleeps in a crib, mostly because he does not sleep during nap time, but does stay in his bed and talk. So I am hesistant to put him in a toddler bed, I don't want to lose that down time. He recently climbed up on his bed and sat on the side. I, of course, got on to him and told him how dangerous that was. So now, almost daily, when I get him after "nap" time he says, "Thank you for not getting on top of the bed." Ha ha!
• He has started using the potty, and when he first started doing it he sometimes would sit on it, but nothing would come, so he'd say to me "Mama help Isaac."
• On Sunday he was happily running to me, but he tripped and fell, hitting his face on my knee. Ouch! He now has a black eye, poor guy, but he was tough about it. He doesn't even remember what happened, I think he was so tired he just forgot. Carl tells him he has a shiner...so today while at the doctor for a check up for Luke, he told the doctor, "Isaac has a shiner." The doctor asked him what happened, but he couldn't answer.
• When lifting something heavy he always says, "This HEAvy!!!" Of course he strains while picking it up, too.
• He went with Carl and Gumby to the property this past weekend, but before going he told Carl that he was going to the country to look at trees. Not sure where that came from, he's never been there. He was right though, they did look at trees.
• Yesterday Carl and I were looking online at a ride on tractor toy for the boys for Christmas. Isaac saw the pictures and got really excited...he said, "Boy get off! Isaac drive tractor!!!"

I know there have been so many more things, but I can't remember them all, so that's just a few. I love listening to things he says because it gives me insight into what he is thinking...such a fun age and a great mind!

Victorious Day

Saturday (Oct. 30, 2010) was a big day here at the Griffin house...we celebrated 3 major victories.


1. A&M beat Texas Tech!

2. BAYLOR UNIVERSITY beat Texas! Sic 'em Bears!!!

3. Isaac pee peed on the potty for the first time! He's been trying for months, but has never been able to get any pee out. Well, Saturday night before bath time I put him on the potty becasue he'd been dry for a long time...and immediately he started! Yay!!! He was excited, and we were so proud of him! (And he did it for second time tonight, again before bath time...yay!)

Happy Halloween!

Daddy with Luke on his First Halloween!

My Sweet Boys

My Little Pumpkin

Playing on Daddy's Doo Wa Doo (aka Trailer).

Thankfully the Jeep got some use during the fun.

A special thanks to Gumby, he and Emmy stayed at the house to pass out candy.

All of the kids ready to trick or treat!

Cousins, plus Isaac's BFF

Me and my boys on the hayride (Daddy was driving)

Cameron, Leah, and Amber

Dana and Hudson on the hayride

Aw, sweet friends.

"Trick or Treat!"

Kristin, Taylor, me, and Isaac after trick or treating

Mama and Daddy with our UPS man and his special delivery package.

We had a super fun Halloween! I wasn't sure what to expect from Isaac...would he have fun, would he understand, would he care, would he be scared? These questions all ran through my head beforehand, while hoping for the best. I was pleasantly suprised, he really enjoyed it, and definitely got into it. He said, "Trick or Treat!" or "Happy Halloween!" at every house, and finished with, "Thank you!" (sometimes he had to be reminded, but he tried).

We really like Halloween in our neighborhood, everyone gets really into it, and the streets are packed with people...so we decided since we were staying here and we knew it would be fun, why not invite some friends over and have a hayride to trick or treat. Everyone came over early, we had some pizza, then let the kids play outside a while, and headed out just as it was getting dark (7:00ish). Isaac and Hudson, one of Isaac's friends, were very into the trailer, they enjoyed going to the door, but quickly asked to get back on the trailer, such boys! Luke went along for the hayride, and did awesome! It was way past his bedtime, but he didn't mind, he loved being outside and seeing all the people. One house had a haunted house set up, obviously I didn't go in it, but some of the other kids did and said it was pretty scary. I was really impressed by how much the neighborhood gets into the spirit of things, and the amount of people out trick or treating was almost overwhelming. Thankfully we didn't see many scary costumes, so none of the kids were frightened. We stayed out for about an hour, and came home with many excited, but sleepy kids. Everyone headed home after that, and we turned out the lights. It was a fun start to our days of trick or treating with the boys!

P.S. Luckily Isaac did not remember a thing about getting candy at every house, so I don't have to worry about him begging me for it. =)

THS Patriotic Show

Friday night was the Tomball High School Patriotic Show football game. It is always a big event, and something I've always loved! It also happened to be the last home game of the season, so I decided that we needed to go. Unfortunately, it was too late and too cold for Luke, so it was just me and Isaac. We had a great time! When buying our tickets to get in, we were well taken care of, she gave us a ticket on the front row of the reserved section. It was perfect, we had a great view of the game and everything else going on around us. I got to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a while, so that was fun for me. Then I ran into an old gymnastics coach/friend, who's kids I used to babysit, that daughter is now in high school! We talked through the entire first half, we had so much to catch up on! All the while, Isaac just sat there in awe, watching all of the commotion going on around us, taking it all in! We stayed late, I thought Isaac was going to fall asleep on my lap during the game, but he had perfect behavior throughout the entire time!

Oh, it was a fabulous night for us both!

A Day of Halloween Fun!

Isaac and Tay spraying the shaving cream off of the windows...or "cleaning the windows" as Isaac said.

Two cuties...

Playing pin the mouth on the ghost.

Walking in a line at gymnastics as they moved to the next activity.

Rings!

Today was a GREAT day! It was a special day at gymnastics...bring a friend and wear your Halloween costume. Isaac was very excited to bring his friend Hudson, and also thrilled to wear his costume. It was a more relaxed class today, beginning with a little open gym time. We've never done that before, so he was a little unsure what to do. We started out by doing lots of forward rolls on the cheese mats. Then finally we moved on to the trampoline, the bar, rings, and the ladder/slide. After some play time we moved on to play some games. It was really cute watching the kids toss the bean bags and rings; they didn't really understand the concept of standing at the line and throwing. We also played "Pin the mouth on the ghost." I was shocked that he let the coach put a bandana over his eyes...he enjoyed the game! We ended the class by doing some floor time under a tent...so fun! One of the boys was dressed as a werewolf, the kids were all intrigued by this, not really sure what to think of him.

This evening we met up with Kristin and Taylor for a quick dinner and then a fall festival at church. We've never been, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a lot of fun. There were many different games set up for the kids to play, and of course they got a piece of candy after each game. There were some inflatables, and a playground. A lot of the games were too advanced for our little ones, but they still tried and had lots of fun! As we were leaving someone came walking up dressed as the Easter Bunny, a very tall Easter Bunny. I wasn't sure what Isaac would do, but I just encouraged him to say hi and acted like it was normal to see a 6 foot Easter bunny. I am so proud of my little guy, he said hi and even gave the bunny five! He was very proud of himself, too, the bunny was the main topic of conversation the entire way home...he kept saying, "Isaac see big bunny, Isaac gave big bunny five. Big bunny white, like Mama's truck." Ha! I love the way he thinks, it's always so interesting to me.

Tonight while getting ready for bed he tried to convince me to let him sleep in his costume; I'm so glad he enjoyed his costume and his day!

Brothers

The boys rolling around together, being silly.

Sweet Smiles

Playing in the Exersaucer

Saying Good Morning to Luke

Swinging SO high (Daddy's pushing him, Mama doesn't push him that high)

The boys are bonding more and more everday, I can really see it! I love how Luke's face lights up when Isaac comes over to him, and the way he laughs at him when he's being silly. I love that Isaac has to go with me to get Luke when he wakes up, and they both just smile so big when they see each other. I love that Isaac wants to watch Luke eat, get a new diaper, and the way he celebrates every time Luke rolls over is just priceless!

We have had a great day today, nothing special, just us doing normal things, but having fun. This morning started out with a trip to the library, which I knew Isaac would enjoy, but was suprised by how much Luke enjoyed story time, as well. He listened and looked at each book as they were read. Isaac was a bit apprehensive at first, but really got into it by the end. Oma came with us today, it was her first time to go to story time and she really liked being able to see Isaac in that environment. This afternoon Emmy and Gumby stopped by to visit, which was pretty unexpected for Isaac and just made his day! They stayed to feed Isaac dinner, play outside a bit, then Emmy gave him a bath...which I know he loved! Right before bed Emmy read Isaac a book while Gumby and I listened along, it was such a sweet moment, I wish I'd had my camera. We are so blessed to have the boys' grandparents living so close and being able to share in the little things with them.