Someone's ready for baseball season!

It's that rare time of year in between seasons, sporting seasons that is, where I'm not fighting with Jared over the remote control. Needless to say, he's a bit lost when there's no sporting event to hold his attention. Thankfully, baseball is coming back soon, so he's getting excited and this explains how he chose what Greyson would wear today...


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Happy Valentine's Day!

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30?! Really?!

Well folks it's arrived! February 11th officially began my foray into the 30's. I have to say whenever I thought about being 30 one day, I always imagined how old I would feel, and be, in comparison to my 20's. But, it's been a great start to my third decade thus far!

I don't know if it's having a child that makes it seem irrelevant, what with all of the things to do as a distraction, or if I'm just so happy that I don't care. Either way, I'm a happy girl (woman?!), and that's all that matters!



I kissed my 20's goodbye in the style that our girlfriend group is accustomed to, with a glass of champagne! (Although, now I splurge more in my elderly years on my champagne of choice.) It was the perfect way to end a year/decade that has blessed me with so much.


My birthday fell on a Friday which I normally would have taken off of work, but seeing as how I'm a responsible adult these days (husband, kid, mortgage) I went to work! Haha read that with some sarcasm in your voice! It was a wonderful day though! Lots of birthday wishes, presents, and cupcakes delivered to school! Oh and Blake and Katherine even babysat so we could have dinner! Look at me getting crazy! Haha



Even baby Graham and his Mama sent greetings from NY!



Saturday night we had more willing babysitters (thanks GG and Pops!) and we went out with great friends! All in all I would have to say 30 is looking pretty good!



(thank you iPhone flash for the ghost face :)

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Snow Days!

For the last two days, and possibly tomorrow, Greyson and I have gotten to spend the days at home! There is a crazy ice and snow storm going on in North Texas, and the high for today in Denton is 17 degrees! Needless to stay he and I have been staying indoors by the fire. (The picture below is from a couple of weeks ago when Greyson experienced his first snowstorm.)

There are also rolling blackouts to conserve energy! Insanity! So far, we have somehow managed to escape this nonsense, but it is only noon as I write this, so we shall see how long this lasts for us.

The time off has been great since we have been so busy lately. I am finally getting the time to do productive things like clean bathrooms and do laundry. And, of course, give me some free time and I'm likely to bake something. Today's special was a Jared request...chocolate cupcakes. I didn't have cake mix, which he would actually prefer--kills me--so I made chocolate mayonnaise cake with chocolate frosting. If you've never had mayonnaise cake, let me tell you it is delicious! You have to make sure to use Miracle Whip for it to turn out right, but honestly, you would never know it was in there! If you use Miracle Whip Light, it will taste like chocolate cake, but it will be a lovely shade of olive green. I learned this in 6th grade when Tiffany Little and I decided to bake it one afternoon...but I digress.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
4 Tblsp. cocoa (Hershey's)
1 cup Miracle Whip
1 cup cold water
2 tsp vanilla

Directions: Mix together dry ingredients. Add next four ingredients and mix until smooth. Bake in a 9 by 13 inch cake pan at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients:
3/4 pkg powdered sugar
4 Tblsp cocoa (Hershey's)
1 stick of melted butter
approx. 1/2 cup milk

Directions: Melt butter and mix in cocoa. Add powdered sugar and milk until you reach the desired consistency.

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6 Months Old!

It's official, Greyson is 6 months old! I can't believe he has been apart of our lives for half a year! Time has flown by so quickly! I am starting to pack up his 0-3 month clothes (very thankful for the snow days we have had since I've procrastinated) and I can't believe how much he has grown! He can finally wear the cute jean diapers I bought for him before he was born! It's crazy to think that he was so small just a few months ago! We took professional photos when he was 4 months old and even in the last two months he has changed in so many ways!

At his 6 month appointment we found out that Grey has doubled his birth weight! He is weighing in at 17 pounds 6 ounces (50th %) and he is 27 inches long (50th %). We knew that his head was big because none of his age range hats fit him, and that is because he is in the 75th percentile for noggin size! Again, I keep telling people it's because he has a big brain! Haha

This last month has been pretty interesting for us. First, the poor thing got the dreaded RSV! We had been passing around a cold here at our house, but had been pretty fortunate that Greyson hadn't really gotten it too bad. We knew our time was coming though because the doctor kept telling us that RSV was going around. Unfortunately, there was another little boy at daycare who got it from his brothers, and he kindly passed it around to EVERY single child at daycare! They were dropping like flies, and then we woke up one morning and Greyson wasn't looking so hot! The good news is that he didn't have to have breathing treatments, and he got over it in about a week and half. We were so happy that it didn't effect him like we were afraid it might. With our super fun (sarcasm) trip to the hospital in October, we were afraid his little lungs would have a tougher time. But, the doctor even made a comment at his 6 month appointment that she was surprised at how great he sounds. No wheezing whatsoever!

Another big development, as you can see from his picture, is that Greyson is sitting up on his own now! He's pretty good for the most part, but when he wants a toy that is just out of reach, he falls over and rolls for it. It's pretty amusing to watch. He also thinks that it is great fun to throw himself backwards which completely freaks me out! So, we have a fortress of cushions on the floor in the living room when he is down there playing. On a side note, I've got to figure out this toy situation because I know it's only going to get worse! They are everywhere!

He will also get into the crawling stance, but he just rocks back and forth until he either gets tired and lays down, or gets over it and rolls to whatever he wants. We are in so much trouble when he starts crawling because he already rolls everywhere, so I can't imagine what will happen when he is even more mobile. He can also stand up when you hold his hands, and he thinks that is super exciting!

We have also ventured into the world of solid foods! Well, mushy versions of solid foods :). So far, he has only been eating breast milk and rice cereal, so we were really excited to test out baby food. The doctor told us to begin with orange vegetables and then work our way into the green varieties, and then eventually introduce him to fruit. We started with squash, and it was a huge success! He was literally lunging at the spoon! It was so funny!


We are supposed to wait 3 days before introducing a new food just in case he is allergic to anything. The doctor told us that from 6-9 months it isn't about nutrition so much, as it is more about getting him to get used to different tastes. Well, because he is our kid, I think we will have no problem with this phase. Haha After we finish the squash we are going to test out some sweet potatoes. So we'll see what he thinks about all of this new stuff!

Eventually he will work his way to eating solids twice a day, but for now he is just eating this at his lunchtime feeding. I mention this because it means I can FINALLY back off on pumping at work so much! Yea! If you know anything about breastfeeding you know this means there is light at the end of the tunnel, and I can taste a tiny bit more freedom. I can't wait to leave the house without having to think about the feeding/pumping situation. I should take a picture of our freezer because it is ridiculous how much milk I have frozen! I am a bit of an overachiever, and when it comes to Grey I seem to take this to the extreme in the Mommy department. Our entire freezer in the kitchen fridge is completely full! I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I may have to throw some of it out because we are running out of room. I refuse to fill the outside fridge as well since we won't have any room for food of the non-baby variety!

In other news, Greyson is growing leaps and bounds everyday, especially mentally. He is just beginning to mimic us a bit. Scary, I know!!! He started tilting his head side to side, and at first I thought maybe his ears were bothering him, but we finally figured out that whenever we talk to him we tilt our heads (ear to shoulder, like "oh how cute" style). So now he will look at us and tilt his head back and forth! It's pretty cute now that I get what he is doing. I think this means that I am finally going to have to watch my mouth and filter my language...if you know me, you know that I have a bit of a potty mouth when I'm not at school. But, I'm pretty sure I won't think it's too cute when Greyson's first word begins with an 'f' and ends in a 'k'! haha

He is still babbling and "talking" to us, but thankfully we have limited our growling to just every once in a while (read the previous month's entry). He is using some new combinations of babble language, so I'm excited for him to figure out our names eventually.

One last thing to mention is Grey's eye color. Right now as I type this, I'm looking at a brown eyed boy! Yesterday, I was looking at a green eyed boy. So, the jury is still out on this one!

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