On the Move!

I just can't wait until next month to tell everyone that Grady started rolling over today so here is a second post from Grady and I. Now that he is started he just can't seem stop! Our little baby boy is now a big boy! It was just before 8am this morning that he rolled over for the first time on the activity mat. I thought it may be a fluke as the mat is kinda slippery. He was reaching over his left hand shoulder to reach for a toy with his right had and right over he went.

Then.... I could hear grunting from his room when he woke up for his afternoon nap and sure enough I went up to check on him and he was on his tummy making noices beacause he couldn't get his arm out from under him.

I brought him downstairs and put him on his activity mat again in hopes of catching him rolling over on video to show James at work and within a minute he was at it again! I am just so proud of him I am beaming. I have called James, Grandma, and Nana multiple times today to share my excitement. I can't wait for James to see him rollover in real life tonite when he gets home from work.

Enjoy the video! I'm sure you can hear the excitement in my voice on it!

Grady is 4 Months!

Another month... another blog. i still can not believe how quickly our little man is growing and changing and how fast this year off with him is going to go. I get sad when ever I think of it. I keep reminding myself I am not even halfway through my mat leave yet...

So on to the events of Grady's 4th month!

We have confirmed a date for Grady's baptism... Saturday, December 6th. My brother and sisters, James, Kolby, and Blaire, will be Grady's Godparents and all of them (plus our parents) will be making the trip to Calgary to witness the baptism along with the R side of the family. So should be a very busy weekend. Grady will be baptized at St. Micheal's which is the church James and I were married. It will be nice to have both events happen at the same place. We have a preparation class in early November which will tell us all the specifics of the baptism so I will know more after that.

We have officially booked our trip back to Prince Albert so Grady can meet the rest of his family - most importantly his Great Grandma Rita (G.G.) and other great aunts and uncles that he hasn't yet had a chance to meet. We will be away for 4 nights. I figure after our trip to NYC, this trip should be a walk in the park. Thankfully James is coming with us to as it is always nice to have an extra set of hands at the airport! I don't think I am quite ready to conquer the trip on my own!

This week we met with the Canadian Scholarship Trust Fund to see if this is the route we will be taking with Grady's RESPs. There always seems to be so much to do and my list keeps getting longer and longer. Before we can start the RESP we need to first get a SIN card for him. Imagine that... a SIN card at 4 months! We have not made a decision where we will set this up yet - but we hope to have this done sometime this year!

We also had a great visit with Grandma Paulette earlier this month. She was very excited to see Grady as it had been almost 6 weeks - the longest she had gone without seeing him! She was pleasantly surprised that the pictures made him look bigger than he actually was although she did notice a tremendous change. While she was here we spent most of our time trying to get Grady on a schedule as we have been having some issues in the sleep department. By the time she left we had him napping 3times a day by bouncing on the exercise ball with a blanket over his head to block out the stimulation. I tell you... if there is any activity going on this kid wants to be a part of it. I have a feeling this will be something we will struggle with well into his toddler years... I think the farthest Grandma Paulette went was to Zellers to pick up a few things. Besides that we spent the whole time at home with Grady.

We also went to see the family doctor for the very first time. The visit was a success. Grady is continuing to grow and weighed 12 pounds 8 ounces at the time. I expect that he is well over 13 pounds now. We will have this verified at his 4 month vaccinations on Friday :(

Monday Grady and I started a class called Baby and You. The timing of it was great as Gardy is at his best in the morning. The class is from 1030 to 1230 for 4 Mondays. It is put on by the Calgary Health Region and is to get information and to socialize with other moms. The first class was mostly introductions and meeting the others in the class. It turns out that one of my former co-workers and her daughter were there. So very nice to see a familiar face!

Now looking forward we are hosting baby group here Halloween so look for some pictures of that day posted after the fact. We have invited close to 15 moms and babies so I am anxious to see what the turnout is like. All babies will be in costumes so it should be super cute! Grady is going to be a Caterpillar - pictures of his costume trial run are saved in the picassa link.

Also this month, we are looking forward to the birth of 2 of Grady's new friends! We are expecting the births of Baby Matthews at the beginning of November and Baby Herzog at the end of the month. So here's hoping for fast and easy labours to you both... Can't wait to hear about babies arrivals!

As always - I have been updating the picture link on a regular basis - hope you are enjoying watching Grady grow and change as much as I have!

The Big Apple!

So it is official... we have survived our first trip with Grady! And what a feat that is. After bringing a 3 month old baby to New York for a week and making it back in one piece I think we should be confident that we can do anything!

Bo and Dave picked us up very early on Monday morning and off to the airport we went for Grady's first flight. Thankfully we did not have any problems getting through security with our bottles and stroller. Having many sets of hands was very helpful. Grady surprised us all - especially me - when he slept through the entire flight. Having a baby who never sleeps, I was super surprised and pleased that we didn't hear a peep from him for the duration of the flight. Actually I lied. About 45 minutes before landing we heard a little something from his bottom and boy did we smell it. James and I were eager to wait it out and change him at the airport... but Nana Marla pulled through and changed his diaper in airplane bathroom. Brave soul...

We brought our own carseat to load in the car that picked us up from the airport, James strapped it in and off we went to the hotel. We stayed at the Sheraton in Times Square (the billboard in the picture was not far from our hotel). I loved it! And so did Grady as it was the biggest 'mobile' he has ever seen. He absolutely loved the lights and they seemed to keep him in a rather good mood.

We took in all the sites (or as many as we could squeeze in) over the 6ish days that we were there. We did a 2 day bus tour where you can hop on and hop off at any stop, a boat tour that circled the Statue of Liberty, visited ground zero, explored Times Square nightly, did a carriage ride through central park, went to a mets game, and saw the musical Avenue Q (which I highly recommend - it was hilarious!). As you can tell, our days were packed with activities but I still managed to get a little shopping in. Mostly for myself though....

Grady exceeded my exceptions as he was quite content to be lugged around in the stroller or baby bjorn. I am not going to lie to you... there were rough days and moments I wanted to go back to the hotel and cry. But these were very few and far between. My mood depended 100% on Grady's mood and behavior. There was really only once morning he was really cranky and we got through it without shedding any tears (well I did anyhow, Grady had plenty of tears).

Overall it was a great trip and I think that Grady loved New York and was sad to come back home where he is stuck alone with me all day!

I hate to admit that since we got back Grady has not been a very good sleeper. We had him up to 6 hour sleeping in his crib at night before we left and now I am lucky if I get 3. I hope he gets over this soon as I am becoming a walking zombie! The thing with babies is just when you start to get used to something it changes. And so here we are with a sleepless baby once again and trying to work through it and figure our little man out. On the brighter side... he is napping really well during the day. You know me - always the optimist!

As most of you have likely already seen... I have posted some pics from the vacation on the photo link. Enjoy!