What a Difference a Year Makes!

On this day last year, my life was forever changed.  This was the day I went to my fertility doctor for our last and final procedure.  I'm sure I had positive thoughts that it would be the one that worked, but I also had those same thoughts during all of the other procedures.  I can't say things felt different that time or I had a feeling it would work, but I do remember telling myself that no matter what happened, my life would be just as God planned for it to be.  I love that this was the plan he had for us!

Not a day goes by that I do not thank God for bringing Grayson into our lives.  Grayson has made my life complete!  Shane and I would love to have more kids, but if Grayson is all that we are blessed with, I will live out the rest of my days extremely grateful for my family of 3.  Grayson has truly stolen my heart and made everyday better than the day before it.

My Amazing Family

Me and my little blessing
I can't get enough of his sweet smile!

Superbaby!

This was such a cute picture of Gray laughing at my mom
when we went to visit my grandparents.  

3 Months

My baby boy is already 3 months old!  Each month just gets better and better.  Here are some things we noticed about him this month:

• He started to grab toys and rings and hold on to them more.
• He is grabbing stuff then putting it in his mouth (especially his taggy puppy).  He'll grab both sides of its head, open his mouth real big and pull it in.  I sat him up close to Aspen's face one night and he opened his mouth and leaned forward.  I guess he needs to realize there is a difference between his puppy and Aspen!
• Last month he started "talking" but this month he began making more/different sounds alot more frequently. We hear tons of "stories" every night after we get home from work, on our way to daycare and when we are changing him.  
• He started daycare and really seems to enjoy it.  Come to find out, he is the favorite baby in the room!  He is pretty hard to resist.  The girls told me that whenever other staff comes in the room to help out, they always ask to hold or watch him.  :)  Apparently it's his smile they all seem to love.
• He discovered the "magic box" (a.k.a. the t.v.).  Lately we have had the news, Seinfeld (of course) or football on in the background while we play with him.  He'll be playing with us and then his eye will catch the t.v. and be mesmerized.  When we pick him up to turn him around or leave the room, his head turns to the t.v. and he tries to stay focused on it as long as he can.  Now we either change his position or turn the t.v. off.
• He gives kisses or what we assume are kisses.  If you go in for a kiss, he opens his mouth big and wide.  They are wet kisses but we love them anyway!
• He is sleeping over 10 hours at night. This last week we started to feed him from a bottle before he goes to bed so we know he is getting a good 5-6 oz in him.  We put him to bed around 9pm and I have to usually go in at 6:45am and wake him up to feed him and go to daycare.  He falls asleep on his own when we put him in his crib, too.  Some nights he passes right out after we lie him down.   Others he lays there sucking/chewing on his hands and then falls asleep after about 5-10 minutes. 
• He is down to eating 6 times a day.
• He just moved into size 2 diapers.
• He is still wearing 3 month clothes but moving on to 6 month clothes any day now.  Shane and I had to go buy a few more 6 month outfits for him this past week since we noticed a few of his 3 month outfits look alittle snug.  :)

Shane and I are so in love with this little boy!  Here are some more pictures from this past weekend.

He has started to "hold" his bottle when we feed him.

Superman with daddy!

Playing with daddy

This is him staring at the "magic box"

Playing with his activity gym.  It lights up and plays music.

Just a typical Saturday at our house.

Reading his book during tummy time.

He can hold his head up so well now!

Laughing while we took pictures

Gotta love a naked baby!

I love those blue eyes!

I caught him sucking his thumb

Here is a short video of him "talking" while he was lying under his activity gym.  

As you can see, there is a new look to the blog!  I decided it was a new year so I might give the blog a new look.  If you are viewing this on an iPad or phone, it may not look too fancy though.  It only shows up on a computer screen.

Photo Update

I know it has been awhile since I posted anything so I thought I would post some photos from the last couple of weeks.  Grayson is now 12 weeks old and still the happiest, healthiest baby in the world!  All he ever seems to do is smile and laugh!  He is also learning how to do so many great things (more on those will come in his 3 month post next week).  Ok, I'll stop writing and post what you really came to see....pictures!

Playing with his puppy from Crazy Aunt Shannon
Grayson pulls on his ears and brings him up to his mouth.

Aspen loves "snuggling" with Grayson on the couch

Grayson already knows mommy is the camera lady and
looks at me when I take his picture.  Good boy!

Napping with daddy

Frankenbaby!  He has been putting weight on his
legs for over a month now.

Sitting with daddy

The smile we love so much!

And the laugh that warms our hearts!

Stick'em up!

Watching The Lorax with mom and dad and learning how to operate the PS3.

Someone likes to sleep on their tummy and stick their butt in the air.

Just to prove he is not always perfect; there is record of him crying!  :)

Daycare

Grayson is at his third day of daycare and he seems to be doing great!  There are two younger girls and one older lady in his room.  They are all super nice.  Each morning when I drop him off they tell me how happy he is all the time.  That makes me feel so much better.  I had this fear he would be crying all day.  When we pick him up in the afternoon there does seem to be this look on his face like "what the hell just happened and where have you been".  It is pretty funny.  We know the noises and sounds are all new to him so he is still adjusting.  The first night we brought him home, we could barely keep him awake.  I had to wake him up to feed him a couple of times and then he slept 8 hours.  Last night he was alittle more alert but went to sleep at 9pm and did not wake up until 6:15am.  I know he will eventually adjust and possibly not sleep as long, but we miss the evening playtime we used to get with him.  It will make us appreciate the weekend more and try to get as much face time with him as we can since the nights are so short.

How did I handle his first couple of days at daycare, you ask?  I am a rock!  Not one tear.  I ask myself if that makes me a bad mother for not crying when I dropped him off that first day.  (Side note: My mother did go with me so I had reinforcements.)  But even with the presence of my mother I didn't feel the need to cry because I did not feel like I was doing a bad thing.  The people there have not given me a reason to be worried about leaving him in their care so I fully trust them.  Plus he is happy, go lucky baby all the time so I figure he must keep that same demeanor with other people (apparently he does).  But I do miss him during the day and can't wait to see him after work.

It helps that his daycare has video cameras in the room so we can check in on him. I think Shane checks in on him more than I do.  :)  Yesterday was my first day back to work so I was only able to log-in 2-3 times to see where he was.  I don't plan on being obsessive with it because I figure it can only make missing him worse.  As long as I can just "pop" in to see him and see he is doing ok, I am happy.

Hopefully we can keep this up and the full week next week goes just as well!

Back to the Real World

Well, the time has come for me to go back to the real world.  Grayson starts daycare on Wednesday and I go back to work on Thursday.  I can't believe it has already been 10 weeks.  Technically I could take another week off work, but I am ready to get back.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE being home with Grayson, but I also love my job.  Last week I was feeling sort of anxious about taking him to daycare, but we went to drop off his paperwork and meet his teachers last Wednesday.  They are really nice ladies so it put me alittle more at ease.  I figure I will take him to daycare Wednesday and spend that day running errands, cleaning house and taking care of any last minute things I need to do while I have some free time.  It will be a day of transition for me. 

A friend told me this will be the hardest time to part with him.  Over the last couple of days, I see what they meant.  He has just started to get a personality and we have found a comfortable routine with one another.  If you know me, you know I love a good routine and consistency.  That is all going to change this week.  It is going to be tough spending just a few hours with him each day but I know he will be in good hands at daycare.  Plus they have video cameras so I can look in on him whenever I want to see how he is doing.

Shane and I went on our first date yesterday since Grayson was born.  My mom was in town so she came over and watched him for a couple of hours.  We went to see Les Miserables.  It was SO GOOD!  I am not a big musical person (although my friends Jackie and Kristie did take me to see Wicked which I loved).  This was truly a great film and even more amazing was how they recorded all of the songs live.  If you have not seen it, you need to go see it in the theater.  I doubt watching it at home would do it justice.  When Shane and I were leaving the movie, I realized I had been away from Grayson for about 4 hours.  That is the longest amount of time we have been apart and I missed him.  Wednesday could be harder than I think, but I will do my best to stay strong!

Here are a few recent pictures of baby G!

Grayson is starting to hold on to things!

Reading his book during tummy time.

Grayson and Buckley doing the "dead cockroach" pose

Playtime

Napping in daddy's arms

Watching Johnny Football take it to the Sooners.
He was fascinated with how amazing Johnny is!

Aggies win!

I thought I would share my latest project.  I saw this really cute magnetic fabric alphabet set on Pinterest (that website is the death of me).  I downloaded the instructions from a girl's blog.  After a few hours over the course of a couple of days, I finished it!  I was surprised how easy it was.  The hardest part was cutting out all of the letters to get the stencils.  Sewing the pieces did not take long at all.  I know Gray is a year or so away from playing with them on the fridge, but I thought it was cute and that I should make it while I had the time off from work.  Yet another successful project from Pinterest!

Magnetic Fabric alphabet set

Close up of the letters

On The Day I Was Born...

I wrote a book!  Well, sort of.  I saw this book template on the internet that I could purchase but decided it was something I could create on my own in photoshop.  It is a book for Grayson titled "On The Day I Was Born..".  I thought it would be something he could read as he got older and have as a memory.  Once I created all of the pages, I loaded them onto a website called Blurb and had it printed.  I think it turned out really great!