Kelly in NC

Yesterday I took Grayson to Walmart for his 3 month portrait, but by the time we got there he was fussy. The poor photographer; she tried and tried an yet was only able to get one decent shot of him…and to be honest, it really wasn’t that great. I felt so bad about how hard she worked that I bought the photos even though I knew that I would never give them out. Maybe I’ll post them on this site so you can all see just how terrible the whole situation was. You’ll have to wait though. They will not be here for at least three weeks.
Once we got home from Walmart, I decided to take my own photos. Grayson had had a nap by that time and was in a much better mood. The portraits I took are the ones at the top of the screen. They turned out much better than I expected. Renee inspired me with her most recent photos of Ella! So hope you enjoy the photos. For those family members who may want a copy, click here and order them at Kodak.

Grayson,
It is hard to believe that you have already been in our lives for 91 days. The time has passed so quickly and you continue to grow right before our very eyes. You do not have a doctor’s appointment this month, so we will have to wait until August for the next official measurements. I can tell you that when I weighed you on the bathroom scale this week you were over 15 pounds. Your clothes continue to get shorter and tighter…but luckily your cousins Aidan and Grant sent bags of hand-me-downs for you to grow into. (Thanks Angie!)
You have figured out many of your toys this month. You enjoy lying under the farm yard activity center and have even figured out how to brace your toes against the side of it in order to move yourself around. You can hold onto your rattle and have been observed passing it to the other hand, although Daddy and I are not sure that you are doing this on purpose. Your favorite toy this month is the Fisher Price Jumper-Roo. Your cousin Ella had one first and once I saw it, I just knew that you had to have one…especially with the way you love to stand and jump. When you are in it, you talk constantly and bounce as if you were on a trampoline. Daddy and I love the Jumper-Roo too…it has saved our arms the past 30 days!
And so…Yes, you still love to be bounced. It is the easiest way to get you to go to sleep. I must admit that I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to decide if I should continue that pattern of putting you to bed at night. I finally reached the decision that at some point you will decide that you do not want us to rock you to sleep and so I am going to treasure every night until then. Even those nights when you cry incessantly while we bounce up and down like crazy and my legs feel as if they are going to fall off. Speaking of sleep, you usually go to sleep around 9:30 and wake up between 5 and 7 hours later for an early morning snack. You will immediately go back to sleep until you get hungry again 2.5 to 3 hours later. Then you are up for the day. I have tried giving you cereal in a bottle before bed in an attempt to encourage more sleep, but it hasn’t made much of a difference. I know that it is only a matter of time before you can go longer than 7 hours. I am just hoping that it will be soon since I am returning back to work.
In the past 30 days you have perfected your smile and have moved on to practicing your laugh. I can usually get a few giggles out of you in the afternoon on your changing table. If I alternate between kissing your chubby baby toes and your cheeks, you get so tickled that you can’t help but chuckle. What is funny is that every time I get out the video camera to record your laugh, you seem to forget how to do it. Hopefully in another month, you’ll be laughing constantly. I really can’t wait!
On the subject of laughs, I must mention a story that made me laugh so hard that I almost needed a diaper! A few weeks ago I decided that Daddy needed to have some time with you and so Daddy was put in charge of giving you a bath every night. On one of the first nights in starting this nightly “Daddy Date”, I walked out of the bathroom and was entering the kitchen when I heard your Daddy scream (like a scared little girl)! I of course think the worse and run as fast as possible into the bathroom to find Dad covered in urine. Grayson, you have since made it a ritual to urinate every time you get into your bathtub and most often you are aiming for your Dad! Now that’s my boy!
Now for the past week…With the end of my maternity leave, you have started daycare. .. Well, kind of. You won’t actually go to daycare until August 7, when a spot opens up for you. So for the past few days, Emily has come over to baby-sit and she will continue to watch you next week too! You seem to love Emily, taking naps in her arms, and talking to her throughout the day. We did figure out yesterday that you are NOT a fan of room temperature bottles. You cried for ten minutes while she tried to feed you and you gave me a fit too when I tried. I then decided to heat up the bottle and then what do you know! You drank the entire bottle down without stopping. Grayson, you definitely have a mind of your own and you are not afraid to let it be known! (That by the way is another trait you inherited from your father!) Leaving you to return to work has not been easy. I have to say that I miss you more than I ever expected. On the positive side, being away from you for 8 hours does cause me to take full advantage of the evening hours before you go to bed. (Even if it is your fussiest time of the day.)
Other highlights from this month include meeting your Aunt Jennifer for the first time, celebrating the 4th of July with your first under water dunk in the pool (Daddy’s idea, not mine!), and a visit from your Nagy where she spoiled you the whole time. You have also tried apple juice and have gotten much more tolerant of playing on your stomach. You can roll from your back to your side, but haven’t made it all the way over yet. Those are skills we will continue to practice in the 4th month.
With each passing day, your Daddy and I love you more and more. In some ways, we are sad to see you grow up and but in other ways we are excited to see you grow into your own little personality. Thank you for all the ways you have already made us proud. We know that you will continue to surprise and amaze us. Happy 3 month birthday!
Love-
Mommy

I made it through my first day. Now only 162 more work days until my next summer break. (Do you think that it is a bad sign that I know how many work days I have until next summer??)
I made it out of the house this morning without crying and even made it through my work day without tears. Of course I thought about him alot and showed off his 2 month picture to anyone who would look! (See the photos below.) Grayson’s day went well also. He even took a 3 hour nap this afternoon. As his Nagy would say “He must be growing!”

Well, as of 8 am tomorrow morning my maternity leave will be officially over. I only teared up 3 times today, so I guess that I almost ready. It isn’t that I do not want to return to work. It is just that I am sad about missing over 8 hours of his day. Especially since those are usually his best hours. I love watching him when he first wakes up, stretching and yawning, tentatively smiling until he finally wakes up and then watches me as I start my day. I love drinking my coffee while we sit together watching Good Morning America and then Regis and Kelly. I’m going to miss sitting at home with him waiting for Tim to arrive for lunch and those afternoon naps with Grayson lying accross my chest. But I guess that I will survive. I always knew that I would miss him when I went back to work, I just never imagined how much.

Thanks to my friend Rana, Grayson is set to show his Gator pride for at least a few more weeks, when he reaches 16 lbs. Check out the new “digs” she sent him pictured above. How cute is that??
Grayson continues to grow like a weed. When I weighed him eariler this week, he was up to 15 lbs. I can’t believe that he is already growing out of the the 3-6 month clothes and he isn’t even 3 months old yet. And by the way…why don’t baby clothes come in standard sizes? Is anyone else really annoyed by that? One brand’s 3 month size is completely different from the next brand. It drives me NUTS!

Well, today when I went to get my hair cut I decided to try something new. I told my hair stylist that I wanted to go much shorter in the back. So what do you think? I’ll be honest and say that I do NOT think that I like it. I think that I liked my other hair style better. But as I always say when I try out something new with my hair….it will always grow out. Now I just have to wait. Maybe this hair style will grow on me. Or maybe not.

Ok, I am sure that most of you when you read the title thought to yourselves “Oh no. She had to endure a visit from her MIL!” But if you thought that, then you must not know much about me and my relationship with my MIL. The truth is that part of the reason I married Tim, is because I loved his parents so much. So a visit from Mom B was actually something that I have been looking forward to…and not just because I knew that she would be a baby hog! (Which by the way, she has been!)
Mom B came in on Thursday and is staying a week with us before going to spend a week with her other new grandson Jack. In the past 5 days, Grayson has definitely enjoyed his Nagy (pronounced like Nudge-”E”… it is Hungarian for Granny). Not a squeal can come from his mouth before she is playing with him or picking him up. She seems to have some kind of magic touch when it comes to calming him down. I have been taking some pointers. Her visit hasn’t only been good for Grayson; it has been awesome for me too! I have been able to get so much accomplished with her around. Since she is trying to maximize her time playing with him and rocking him, it has given me plenty of time to scrapbook, check e-mail, garden, etc. (By the way, my garden is NOT doing very well this summer, but I’ll blog about that later.) I am sad to think that we only have 2 more days of Mom B visiting. I wish she and GB would just retire and move up here already! NOw how many people do you know would say that about their Mother-In-Laws???

Tim,
It is hard for me to believe that 5 yers have passed since the day we said “I do”. Not a day has gone by that I haven’t felt thankful for having you in my life. As my friend, husband…and most recently as the father to our son. I feel so lucky to be married to someone that I trust so completely, to someone who makes me feel so good about myself. You have made the last five years of my life amazing. I love spending time with you….from our adventure vacations, to simply hanging out on our couch, I treasure each moment. There is no other person in the world tha I would rather be with.
I appreciate all the ways you let me know how dedicated you are to our marriage. You never complain about my insistance on “dinner” time together. You let me in on all of the details of your day and you continue to make me feel like the most important person in your life. You find so many ways to me me feel special and to let me know that our marriage is a priority to you. I hope that I make you feel the same way, beacuse you truly are my whole world. I love you more today than on the day I married you…and I had no idea that that would be possible.
Happy Anniversary!
Always,
Kelly

One of my long time friends has just started a blog. Check out her site here. Tell Angelle I sent ya!

What goes 160 miles per hour in a circle 4 times and makes you feel like you just got off the space shuttle? Oh, that must be the Richard Petty NASCAR Ride-Along Experience. For a little less than $100, you too can have the experience of seeing the Lowes Motor Speedway from the inside of a race car. And I highly recommend it! It was quite the adrenaline rush, especially when we first took off. I was amazed at the amound of G-force on my body as they took each of the turns and just how fast the stands flew by. The four laps were over before I knew it and when I got out of the car, it took me a while to stabilize myself. The whole world felt like it was on a left tilt. I can’t imagine how race car drivers can do it for HOURS with 40 other cars on the track. It defitintly gave me a new respect for thier profession!

It seems that with the 4th of July falling on a Tuesday, the past weekend lasted an extra 2 days. At least for me…since I am on maternity leave/summer vacation for the next 18 days. So what has been going on for the past 5 days…
Well, we invited everyone over on Saturday to watch the Daytona race. I hated that Tony Stewart won…but it was fun having everyone visit. Jill and Chris (my sister-in-law and her fiance) stayed the night and we were able to hang out with them on Sunday. My sister Jennifer came to visit on Monday, so Grayson and I drove over to my other sister, Renee’s, house to see her. It was Grayson’s first time meeting his Aunt Jennifer…and I think that he definitely enjoyed the visit.

On July 4th, we went over to our friends Jim and Julie’s house to grill out. We ewere ven able to take a swim in the pool at thier nieghbor’s house (Allison and Banks). Grayson took his first dip under water. He didn’t seem to mind the first dunk under the pool, but after the second dip, he cried his little head off. I was sure to remind Grayson that it was all Daddy’s idea!

So now it is Thursday. Time to start thinking about next weekend. We have plans to watch the Otriz Vs. Shamrock fight at Renee’s house. Anyone else addicted to Ultimate Fighting besides us?