Thursday, November 22, 2007

Up, up, up they go....


Down they go!


One, two, three...


The boys stacking the blocks up and knocking them down.

Tall stacks


Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving 2007 !

Okay, so the greeting is a little premature, but still...

All is quiet at our house (finally). Griff went down about 8, roused again at 9 and has been asleep since. Big Al and Dad played and watched the ballgame until God knows when while I made rolls for Tgiving dinner. The next thing I knew Jay was asking me questions about Project Runway and Allan was passed out. Then, for a blissful hour, rolls baked, filling the house with the smell of yeast and we watched PR. It doesn't get much better than that.

Dad has retired upstairs while I wait for the rolls to cool and drink SleepyTime tea while listening to the rain hit the windows. It is supposed to dip in to the 40's and stay there. It was nearly 70 this afternoon.

I need to make Jay do his own blog entry tomorrow, but I have been trying to reflect on what I am thankful for.

Baby boys who are no longer babies.
Big Al who can now pull himself up and walk around furniture. (And who wants to.)
For the fact that we are able to sleep through most nights. For the fact that even when we don't sleep through, it isn't because of some medical crisis.
Big Al who can now spend most of the day time at least off of his oxygen.
For Griffith who has the best, tightest blonde curls.
For Allan who had the best mullet of any kid in the U.S.
For Bailey who has "white hair" like Griffith. And who can put him in time out because she is at least an inch taller than he is.
For our snug house with bright lively colors every where.
That we have amazing, perfect boys who are completely and totally distinct.
That when we look at Griffith and Allan, we see ourselves and our brothers and sister and parents.
That Griff has the world's most infectious giggle.
That Allan has very nearly as silly a giggle as his brother.
That Griffith has such a perfect bottom and legs. Even if they are a little on the short side (his Dad's are too and it doesn't seem to have slowed him down at all.)
That Allan has such impossibly long eyelashes.
That our boys are such happy little guys.
That we have so many good friends and family who have made it possible for us to be where we are today.
Happy Thanksgiving!

High-kicking


working his way around


Allan heading for the baby gate.


Big Al cruisin'


Allan working his way around the activity table.

Cruising Allan


Big Al standing at the baby gate, just like his brother.

Curly top Griff


Tug o' alligator



They really were getting along pretty well playing "together" with the alligator.

Very busy boys


Working at cross purposes -- Allan wants to push it down to make the alligator make noise. Griffith wants to open the alligator up so that he can put blocks in his belly.

Allan smashing Griffith's hand


Cooperation between the beans


Sunday, November 18, 2007

Good morning, sunshine.

Mom and Dad went out last night and had a good time. And a bit of wine. It was my turn with Griffith and so when he woke up at 2:30, I got up and brought him downstairs. He was pretty good and we fell asleep on the couch. When I woke up about 5, I put Griff in the nursery and got in the bed in the guest room. He roused about 6 and I put him in bed beside me (oh, judge not, lest you be tired and a little hung-over). At 7, he started flipping. And flopping. And twisting. And turning. Great. Maybe if I lay really, really still, he'll settle down and go back to sleep. It could happen. So there I lay, playing possum when I feel something. I open my eyes to find my pride and joy about 3 inches from my nose, peeping over me and grinning like he knew that I was pretending.
Hard to be mad at him when he seems so delighted to see me. Not his fault that I over-indulged. "Griff will wake at seven regardless of how you feel." I think I'll write that on my drinking hand.

All boy

So Allan was sitting in front of the couch playing with something. Griffith was behind him on the couch. I don't remember why I wanted Griff to come over to me, but I called him and he slid down and started walking in my direction. As he passed his brother, he reached out and completely, perfectly, nonchalantly and without pausing in his step, smacked him on the back of the head. Just what you do when you walk past your brother. As natural as breathing.

Locomotion

Big Al has finally figured out why we wanted him to learn to crawl and what all of this walking nonsense is about. You can see him looking at things in the distance and trying to figure out how best to get over there to get it. He knows there is a way, but sometimes the execution is off as when he got his head stuck under the coffee table. Tonight he kept going backwards and becoming increasingly frustrated at being farther and farther away from his goal. A lot of times we have to help him get himself up and prompt him to take steps or whatever, but, left to his own devices, he can do it himself -- he can do more than we realize. This morning, for instance, Jay was off doing the grocery shopping (God bless him for that) and Griff was in the nursery in the pack-n-play asleep. Allan and I were practicing walking with the activity table which he love, love, loves to do. We had practiced pulling up to his knees from sitting and then pushing on up in to walking. We had been doing it for about 10 minutes when Griffith woke up and howled. Now, Griff had not had enough of a nap to be through so I sat Allan down on his bottom next to the table and headed in to try to calm the beast. I was gone maybe ten minutes, rocking and soothing Griff when I heard Allan's alarm going off. So I had to head back in the living room. Allan had managed to get himself up on his knees and was balancing on the table. He was apparently holding his breath from all of the effort which is why the alarm went off. But he did it all his own self.

Tonight Allan worked his way around in a circle on his bottom to get around to a toy that was too far behind for him to just turn and reach. Like I said, he is really starting to get the idea.

Hair and now...

Well, we did it. Allan got his hair cut on Saturday morning. Griff did, too, but his was more symbolic than anything. Allan fell asleep on the way to Jeanne's and stayed that way throughout the cut which probably worked as well as any thing else would have. He sat, limp as a noodle in my lap while Jeanne worked around one side to the other. Then we flopped him on my shoulder so that we could get to the back. He is still as cute as a button, but he doesn't look like a baby any more. He looks like a little boy.

Griffith was quite intrigued by the whole process and wanted to make sure he didn't miss a bit of it. He even climbed up in my lap to see what exactly was going on with his brother. When it came for his turn, though, he refused to cooperate. I got one curl off the top for the scrapbook and then we called it a day. He was not going to go along with it and since he didn't really need one, there really didn't seem to be any reason to antagonize him.

Still have the lashes.


I kept trying to get a picture of Allan looking at the camera, but he hates the flash and won't look up. You can kind of see the hair-cut, though. And you can clearly see his long lashes.

Look, Heather, no mullet!


Allan's new 'do


Still a curly top.

Just like his brother...


Allan has now decided that drinking bath water is great fun and leans forward and tries to catch it on his tongue just like Griffith. Monkey see, monkey do.

Giving his brother a shove


Allan giving Griff a push.

Griff trying to push his brother off of his dad's lap.


Not his best look


Allan's hair was a little lopsided this afternoon.

Holding on for dear life


Allan getting kicked in the back by Griffith.

Griffith and Cousin Jennifer

Checking out the video on her phone.

Allan with his big boy haircut.


Ready for his cut


Big Al right before his hair cut.

Allan's hair pre-cut


Griff's curls pre-cut


Sprawled out on the couch.


Allan was not exactly atwitter with excitement.

Waiting my turn.


Allan enjoying the couch at Jeanne's salon.

Allan was a limp as a noodle the whole time.


Smile for the camera


Snoozy


A little off of the sides


Allan slept through it all.

The curls have to go.


Getting a litle off of the back


Griffith supervising


Griffith could not stand not being in the center and had to climb up in my lap to see what was going on.

The finished product


Allan sans mullet.

I'm not sure about this.


Griffith in the chair ready for his turn.

A little off the top


Jeanne got exactly one curl off the top before Griff objected.

Get off !