5 months, 1 week, 5 days

Griffin likes bananas. He likes them so much that when the jar was gone, he yelled. If he could speak, I imagine him saying "Hey!! Where are my bananas??! Not fair!" They also seem to agree with his system the best out of everything we've tried, the second being sweet potatoes.

Not too much has happened with Griffin this week, aside from him being unable to take naps that last more than 10 minutes in length, leading to an increase in laundry build up, and a general housewide crankiness.

Griffin has also decided that breastmilk is too slow for him, rejecting it a lot for a bottle (which he is able to hold by himself, increasingly). It isn't just that he wants the bottle more, it's also that he'll cry hysterically, and get himself into a fit and not accept the breast as an alternative. This makes me incredibly sad. The teething situation has also escalated, and his favourite teething toy? Mommy! The teething ring we have is too large for him, but he really does love to try to seperate my knuckles from my hand using only his gums in a fierce terrier-like motion, biting down and shaking his head.

My camera has a limited movie function. It's bad quality, unedited, and very short, but I have here a link to a movie. (This you can click on, mom:) Griffin Speaks

When I review these, holding Griffin, he gets entranced by watching himself. Sometimes he answers himself back, if he's making noise in the video.

Halloween is tomorrow! We have not gotten a pumpkin on time again this year, but we will next year, when he'll be more aware of what's going on. His costume will also be the Lil' Pumpkin outfit from his aunt Amber that you see in the picture here, and last week. In some ways I'm dissapointed, but in other ways I don't mind. We're not going to a party, or trick or treating, or even staying home to give out candy. We've plans to go to my brother and sister in law's house to watch scary movies and give out candy to the three trick or treaters who come to the door dressed in their every day clothing. I hope when he's old enough to be excited by dressing up that trick or treating will still be something people do. :)

5 months and 5 days old

Griffin has started to scream at the top of his lungs when he is tired, something that's increasingly disconcerting. For a while I was concerned because he really seemed to be ignoring all his toys, uninterested in grabbing at them, or paying any attention to them. Then he started smacking at everything, and then out of the blue the smacking turned into grabbing. He still flails wildly at things, his coordination isn't so hot. He does seem to watch to learn though. He has a giraffe, given to him by his aunt Amber. It has a lot of different properties, one of which is a squeaky foot.. if you squeeze it, the noise comes. When I do that in front of him, slowly, Griffin does try to imitate me. He does it without success, but some day I'm really sure he'll understand that he needs to apply hand strength to make the squeeky noise. Then the house will be filled with squeeking. Griffin also seems to like this toy quite a bit, which is something different as well. He seemed not to really notice the toys around him too much previously. Now he actively grabs for the giraffe and his teddy bear.

Sadly, his sleep schedule this week has left something to be desired. We all desire more sleep. He doesn't sleep so well, gets cranky and overtired, and then doesn't sleep so well. It's a horrible cycle that I am hoping to break with naps.

Griffin, Eric, and I went for a ride to look at the leaves the other day. Griffin was so happy about this that he sat in his car seat giggling hysterically. It's nice to see him in a good mood more and more lately. When he giggles, if you giggle back, he giggles again. We can get into giggle loops for minutes at a time, and when that happens, it's like the sun is coming out. The best times I have with him are when we both can giggle together.

Along with noticing more around him, Griffin now actually looks at the pictures in books when I read them. I like to read to him, it keeps my mind from turning into TV mush. Since I am still restricted as to movement, Griffin and I have to amuse ourselves in one room. Reading to him is something fantastic that I know I will keep loving until the day he says "I want to read it!". And, as sad as that will be, I know that I'll still be proud to share the books I love with him.

Friday was our 5th anniversary, Eric and I. We didn't ask anyone to sit with him, and neither of us regret it. Aside from going out to eat, we all stopped into the huge Barnes and Noble here. We went into the children's section, and as soon as we did, Griffin started giggling. As we travelled around the section, he just kept looking around and laughing! When we got to this big "pooh's corner" type section, he added wiggling to it too. It was really cool. We just can't wait to get him books!

That is about it for this week. I hope to start him on pears soon. This week's picture is him in his pumpkin sleeper from Amber, on the playmat!

4 months, 4 weeks old

After doing some research, we decided to start feeding him vegtables. Everything we'd seen suggested that the timetables given in the books were really just guidelines, and that not a lot of hard data is around about feeding infants, just children 2 years old and older.

So we decided to start with sweet potatoes. A small bit, on a spoon. He paused. Got a philisophical look on his face, and then grinned. So we kept giving him more. He lunged for each spoonful with a look of joy and greed on his cute little face. We finished the amount we'd brought out, and then sat back to wait. After a few days, he seemed fine. So we gave him the rest. He'd forgotten it, plainly, but once he tasted it again he ate with abandon.

Soon after, we decided to give him peas. Peas were an interesting experience. Seeing the spoon, he readily and happily opened his mouth, and then paused. The look of betrayal gave way to thoughtfulness and then acceptance. This was okay. It wasn't sweet potatoes, but it was okay. I made sure that when he ate a spoonful he knew I was happy with him, and that made everything better. The peas were thicker, so they didn't go through him with quite the speed that the sweet potatoes did, so we'll have to water them down a little, when we repeat the experience.

Griffin has learnt to turn himself onto his stomach from his back. He does it almost automatically now, which would be okay, except that he hates being on his stomach. So, as soon as he does it, he starts crying and rocking back and forth on his stomach. Unable to turn back onto his back, it becomes a game for us. I flip him over, he turns on his side like a little shrimp, and then flips onto his belly, and immediately starts screaming. What fun for me.

Griffin has discovered some new noises. One of them is like the laugh of that guy on Revenge of the Nerds, a sharp intake rather like gasping for air, which was very disconcerting the first time but is now funny. Combined with the big grin afterwards, even better. Another noise is a sharp, shrill shrieking, which isn't anything to indicate that he's upset.. it's just another noise he can make which he's discovered. We can make him do these by doing them to him first.. along with sticking out our tongue. We can get him to stick it out at us by doing it first, or by imitating him after he's done it. It's so incredibly cute that I've included a picture of it this time.

Luckily, Griffin has his father to take him outside. Griffin is fascinated with the leaves on the trees moving in the wind, traffic, wind on his face, ducks, and grass. He also seems to like the weather much better now that it's beginning to be cold. Just like his father! 

10/12 4 months, 3 weeks, 3 days

I apologize for missing a post, again. It is my intention to post every Sunday, but the past two have been unkind to me.

Griffin is "talking" more and more. The sounds he makes are more like singing, though. Pleasant to listen to, and amusing to watch. You can keep him going by repeating the sounds back to him, or by simply talking back to him. I've only used English, but I guess French or another language would work too. He loves having people talk to him, or sing to him. I want to start using sign language, but I'm going to have to refresh my memory, I haven't used it in so long I'm rusty.

He is starting to understand the principles of crawling. Previously, when put on his belly, he would curl himself up with his legs pointed towards the ceiling, and rock back and forth on his stomach. This makes him angry, and after a minute, he would be shouting in frustration. Lately though, he has been making some leaps in how crawling is actually accomplished, and is trying to get his knees up underneath him.

A lot of this I attribute to the playmat his Grandma Maryanne got for him. Instead of immediately hating being on his belly, he now has a mirror and some other fun things to look at while he is on his tummy, giving him time to get up on his arms and look around. When we encourage him at that, he gets bold, and tries other things with his legs. He has a lot of leg strength, too. He can stand for a short time with minimal support.

He eats his rice cereal like a champ. Some things we've looked into suggest that he doesn't really need to wait on this time table for things like vegetables and fruit. So we're thinking of squash, early.

We need to get him a new carseat, because he is rushing towards 20 pounds. Grandmoo (my mother), has said she'll get him one for Christmas, early (when she comes for Thanksgiving). That will be fantastic. He is so incredibly large.

Griffin Tales - Baby Blog.

I apologize for this being a day late, I did not feel well on Sunday.

Griffin likes eating his hands. When we first brought him home, eating his hands was the first sign of hunger, but no longer. Even though he is just beginning to be able to grasp his rattle, it pales at the sheer entertainment value of his knuckles. He's also producing drool in buckets, which might mean teething, or it might mean he's trying to learn how to bathe himself naturally, like cats. We were finally able to introduce rice cereal without rejection this week, but with a good deal of mess. I can't wait until we can introduce him to vegetables, which will happen right around thanksgiving, so we're thinking about giving him sweet potatoes. We're going to avoid fruit until he's experienced vegetables, because we fear he might reject anything that wasn't fruit after he tastes how yummy and sweet they are.

Saturday, we went to the park, and he loved it. He loved being outside, and watching the other kids playing. Eric took him around, and showed him the trees, too. Griffin still isn't sure what to make of the sun, but he likes the other aspects of being outdoors. I don't blame him, he spends entirely too much time indoors. I can't wait for the day when I can take actual walks with him.

As promised, here is a picture. I was torn between this and one of Griffin in the park, but this one won.