Frisbee Golf sans Pants

Frisbee golf at Tom Triplet Park. G's pants are off because he fell into the pond imitating daddy who went in after a Frisbee.

Fountains and Kisses

More Fountains of Savannah.
Mommy Kisses, yea!
This one in Forsythe is green during St P's day.+
Chocolate all over the boy!

G is trying his hand at talking, but most words are in a primitive form. He recently added an adorable smacking sound to his kisses which I am just crazy about. He LOVES my chocolate chip cookies and brownies... but I notice mom and dad here keep getting belly aches from them.

Please check out YouTube if you haven't in a while. There is a great video there of G signing and stuff... more to come soon there too.

Really big slide in Forsythe Park, goes really fast! Brave!
My little Cell phone talker.

The Scorpion Story

I Killed a SCORPION in the playroom last night!!!!

Looked just like this:



I'll let you know what I learn. It was about 1 inch, maybe one and a half inches long... heebee, jeebees

http://www.venombyte.com/venom/scorpions/stripebacked_scorpion.asp

"There seems to be some varied opinions about the potential danger of the Stripebacked Scorpion. Some claim it to be harmless, while others have reported it's sting as extremely painful and potentially dangerous"

From Venombyte.com
What the heck is this thing doing in coastal Georgia!!!

althought it could have been this one:
http://www.scorpionpictureguide.com/scorpions/bark-scorpions-care/
A Bark Scorpion


this kind, however is supposed to be the only on in the state: Vaejovis carolinianus

Fountain Quest

Crash Bang Boom

G fell and banged his head on a chair and a hard floor while we were visiting in Charelston. We went to the ER and had him checked out, mostly because it looked like he had been unable to break his fall and had a bloody nose. I didn't like the cry either and since there was a trained paramedic standing there saying hospital we went. I'm relieved to know it wasn't very serious. Once he had napped for 20 mins on the way there, which scared me to death, he was his old self.
He still doesn't like strangers and you may be surprised to know a Dr. will work with you if you wanna nurse your child while they poke around, up noses, in ears...

A few days later his eye was healing nicely, sped along by some Arnica. It never became a true black-eye and remained open but swollen for a day.

It's Baby Signing Time

G is now obsessed with his new Video from Christmas. I bought him "Signing Time" and now he walks around all day saying "ien" and making the sign for Signing. It really cutes and hard to refuse him but I have the DVD playing non stop in the DVD player these days.

He also will climb into bed or grab a big pillow and say "nigh-nigh" and lay down which is again really really cute.

He is cutting his first molars too and sleeping from 11pm to 10:30 the next day, sometime till 11. Hard to fall asleep right now and hard for him to stay asleep long.

The Nephews

Visiting with the Nephews over the New Year Holiday.Ami Ben in the first picture and Tyler and Taran in the second.

Aunty Christmas

Christmas was celebrated in many stages this year. This first round of gifts were opened Sunday night while G's Aunts Jennifer and Lindsey were in town visiting.Wooden Stacking bowls. He gets many creative uses out of these already.
Harry Potter books, a full collection for the family in our very own trunk for traveling to Hogwarts.
His new jacket from Grandma... he loves the pocket.
A Chrismas eve snuggle with momma...
and a goodbye dance with his aunts the night before they drove up to Maryland.

Flossing

Ahhh flossing...

G took an interest in our flossing around 6 mo and just a few weeks ago we started giving his own peice to him (he is nearly 16mo now). He is a great flossing mimic. He also has his own toothbrush, toddler style with a big chunky handle, and no toothpaste yet. He loves getting ready for bed and flossing with mommy and daddy.

He mostly gums the toothbrush but lets me do a quick one two on top then bottom. I feel really good about it for now.

He also has started signaling with his hands that he needs the potty by pointing to his underwear. Right now it is hit or miss... he signals just after he has wet and just before he needs to go. This morning he played in bed a bit then signaled he needed to go. Since he was dry I really moved fast... and we had a success. This is just a great developement and has me thinking that definately by 2 he will be fully trained.

He is reading/saying the word "Clock" now. He is also taking small electronics apart and seeing how they go together, like the flashlight, remote control(now broken) and computer mouse.

At the dinner table - no kidding - he will sometime ask for a napkin, put it in his lap, and at times reach for it to wipe his mouth and then tuck it back in his lap!!! Too cute! Then there are the many times he throws the napkin and the rest of his uneaten dinner on the floor for Bluew :-(

Learning Tower Hurray

G's brother Nate is a fine carpenter! All I did was ask what he thought of trying to make something like what I have seen on the internet and wha-la! instant kitchen stand sutable for adventuring athletic little boys, and girls...


The chair was G's idea and he put it in place all by himself.

He is also trying his hat at reading.... "hat" and "cat", "clock" and "block". He points to these items in a reading primer and shouts out the word. I think I've also heard him attempt to say "G", "crap" :-( and "duck".

A Wew Toy

GMan now has eight teeth. Today he started to say the word "hat". He makes motor sounds whenever he sees a truck or motorcycle and when he sees the occasional loud muscle car. He has a new stand for in the kitchen which he loves - it doubles as a fort. Pictures coming. He helped daddy put it together - I accidently deleted tons of picture of G helping to stick screws into all the holes.

Dog Walker

The handsom dog walker.

GrandMas Play!

Magic Tunnel
I mean Magic!. I bought this at KB toys on a whim knowing that G is getting more and more physical. This is not just a great rainy day toy but apparently great for visitors too!. Grandma Bev and Grandpa Frank were here and it was a hoot to see Marks mother down on the ground crawling through this tunnel over and over with G! This thing will get you in shape. It is worth more than $12.99... he hasn't tired of it yet and I know it will be part of future games and forts. I can't wait to get the mileage out of this.

First Haircut

First Haircut, about a week ago.

Before

After

Potty "Training"

So the other day Grady did all this by himself and pottied in his toilet... with his underwear still on. I was thrilled!!! He just hit 15 months old.

The Challenges of Christmas

Hey - I forgot to mention in my Christmas wish list message other likes of G's besides books. (Book are getting big). He loves cars and things with doors, switches and knobs. He loves to climb. He likes things that have big chunky interlocking parts, or where a part hides inside another.... lots of dexterity, thinking and creativity. He likes Raffi too.

For the record I kinda hate loud cartoon stuff. Where is the creativity in that? Also not a fan of things with many little parts since I can get compulsive about the cleanups. (Lincoln Logs appear to be my limit)

baking a Cake

  G helped move the flour around and mix in the buttermilk.


I tried to alter a traditional recipe for a Sally Falon style result... soaking the grain. This is s two day process. All in all it worked out well.G enjoyed eating the baked results too.

Here is the long awaited (staged) Halloween pictures of Grady.
He was a Snowman, we walked around our complex to kinda show it off, not really trick-or-treat. We came home with a little candy anyway. Oh boy now when he sees or hears a candy wrapper.... watch out.
I didn't have a pattern for this costume so it came out a bit big. I sure had a lot of fun throwing it together - reminded me of the good old SCA garbing days. Hey Mom thanks for the sewing machine.

Shameless - a link resource

Hey everybody - its that time of year where I fantasize about what toys I might buy for G the coming holidays. For those of you with kids of your own I suggest you check out some of the links I will provide in todays message. I have been collecting online toy store links for about a year now and some of them are pretty cool. One I was visiting today sells pretend cracked eggs and catagorizes toys by which country they are made in.

For those of thinking about what to get G this year I'd like to share some of his preferences here. In light of recently learning how to sign "book" he is discovering story time which has taken some effort. Until two days ago the only story he would sit through was "There is a Monster at the End of this Book - Staring lovable furry old Grover". Two nights ago he sat spell bound while I read to him From Richard Scary's "What Do People Do All Day" from the section about taking a plane trip (very interesting).

As his mommy I'm obviously concerned about "Made in China" toys, but I also feel that a lot of these smaller toy companies are able to better monitor the quality of the product coming from China. Most people I know don't seem to realize for example that although Melissa and Doug toys are really cool they are made in China. So how do we decided where to draw the line. Perhaps Melissa and Doug is becoming a mass produced product line, maybe there is room for concern. Personally I want to believe their pledge, which I've seen on their toys before this lead thing came to light. They promise a high standard of safety checks on all their toys.

Ok here are all the cool toy companies I have collected.
Oompa Toys
Willow Tree Toys My new favorite
Rosie Hippos
Earth Easy Toy list
One Step Ahead
Gummy Lump

Also I wanted to mention that my boy is wearing clothes sizes 18mo - 2T and he has big feet, I think they are as big as his lower leg!
Here are some cool kids clothing companies.
Garden Kids
EcoBaby
Sckoon
Organic Consumers Listing

For those who haven't heard, I just want to let you know that we will be spending Christmas and Bodhi Season here in Pooler.

Cameras and Dragons

Major Camera Malfunction. I can't get the camera to acknowledge the picture card is inside it and properly formatted. I was letting G take pics and then.... boom. DEAD camera.

Here is it's last picture of G man.

Here is a picture of his Rocking Dragon! This is a gift from Grandpa Bob. Aparently it was at a yardsale and he picked it up for $1. I know alot of folks out there in SCA land would happily pay twenty or more for it.



I have some pics from visiting with Jennifer but so far I haven't figured out how to shrink their file sizes so blogger will accept them. If you are someone who knows how to do this please send me a brief email.

Also G can now say "dad", "dog", and "no" and "hi" and I recently taught him to sign "book" and "thank you". He is also working on how to say sorry when he bites us. He seems to regret the impulse.

For Halloween he was a snowman! He actually got a few pieces of candy because we paraded him around the apartment complex. I think he was the only trick or treater here! All the big kids went next door to the neighborhood.

Relocation

Wow! Sooo much has happened. Sorry for the long delay. Many have encouraged me to keep this up and so I shall.G holding Tys hand. We stayed with Tyler and his mommas, bro and Dad as part of our big move. G had a wonderful time. While we were there we packed up and went to Emerald Isle and took some great five generation photos and vacationed with Gs brothers.

A lot has changed in G in the last month. He broke through 3 teeth during our move, he started saying "uh ooh!' all the time and then he had his first plane flight to Maryland. He was a dream passenger thanks to chewing on lots of raisins and nursing.

While in Maryland he perfected saying "mama" and tried out "dog" and "anna" for aunt Lindsey. When we got back home he started using sign language and now asks to "eat", "nurse" and for "more" in addition to "bye bye" and his own special sign for "music". We also visited with Aunt Jennifer, who sang with the Army Chorus of Germany. We almost suprised her... oh well.


G also had a few playdates with some of Mommas friends babies. Hi Sabina and Rebecca.... Hi Mel and Madeline!


He has now taken up an interest in walking the dogs and insisted several times that he be given the leash and he should hold them and take the dogs out, which isn't easy since he wants to hold the leash and walk upright going down the stairs. He has also tackled 8 ft tall slides and readily climbs up to them and goes down no problem, no fears.

This last weekend we took him to Tybee Island, "the" beach near Savannah where he enjoyed playing in the surf while holding daddy's pant leg. We all also visited the UU Church on Sunday and found a great park with some big slides right around the corner from the church. Boy oh Boy is the city a beautiful place - ya gotta come see us!

Picture of the beach trip soon comming.