Griffin's 2nd birthday~ Choo-Choo!

All aboard Griffin's party train!





















Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear GRIFFIN, happy birthday to you!





Pretty ladies~ Ms. Jenni and sweet Brea

Griffin got his first kiss from Amie. She would kiss him and he would put his head on her shoulder. Already loving the ladies.



Griffin flirting with his friend Natalie. I told him to hug her and he then signed kiss. Too cute...


Present time!







Wow, what a day! Saturday the weather was beautiful. It was the best day of the year! Griffin had over a few peeps and they celebrated his birthday Choo-choo style. I arranged for a train to come over and ride the kids around the neighborhood. Everyone, including the birthday boy loved it! I was a little iffy if Griffin would even get on it. Boy, was I wrong. He rode the train with whoever wanted to ride with him. He was such a joy and played really well with everyone. I was a little unsure if he would want to share his toys with everyone, but it was no problem. Thanks to Kenton and Big Poppa for putting Griff's swing set together in time for the party~ it was a hit! The kids loved playing on Griff's pirate fort.

When it was time for cake Griff was a little hesitant at first. Once we started singing he was in his glory.

Once everyone left and we all settled down Griffin opened his gifts. He was totally into unwrapping everything. He was very excited to play with all of his new loot!

I am so happy that everyone had fun. Thanks to everyone who came over to help the little guy celebrate his 2nd birthday! I love nothing more than to plan very special birthday parties for my little guy!

Let the BIRTHDAY begin!

I think that birthdays are very important. Everyone has one special day out of the entire year to celebrate life! When I was a child I celebrated my birthday for the month of May with celebration after celebration. Needless to say I am passing on the tradition to my children! We started singing "Happy birthday" to Griffin about a week ago. Saturday morning, the morning of his birthday party we gave him his new play kitchen. This was from MiMi and Big Poppa. Griffin loved it and has been cooking up a storm every since! It was really funny. He had on Kenton's Phillies baseball cap or "Dad-dee" or Griff calls it. All of a sudden he took off the cap and pretended in the sink to wash his hair. We were a little confused by this. We later put it all together. When Kenton fixes Griff's hair he wets it in the sink. Gotta love that boy!

Daddy's little helper

Daddy and his favorite little helper.


Dirty face from all of his hard work.

Studying his mentor's work.

Griff must have been on a break.



Just me and my dad...

Measuring on the tape measure

Griff~ king of his castle!

Finally, spring is in the air! We have many projects going on right now at our house. We are trying to get things together before the birth of our little Peanut. Currently on the agenda we are having a fence installed. Last week the brick posts were installed. Tomorrow the brick guys are coming one last time to tie up a few odds and ends. Due to the crazy snowstorms in the North our fence has been a little delayed in getting to us. It may or may not have been shipped out on Friday. The deadline for the fence project that I had in my head was this upcoming weekend. Boy, are we going to cut this one close! Tio Juan, (my brother) along with his assistant (MiMi Kat) scored and stained the concrete on the patio. This weekend Kenton started to put together Griffin's outdoor play set. We have had it since Christmas, but this was the "chosen" weekend to start the project. According to the instructional video, yes this beast comes with a VIDEO, claims that it is about 31 man hours of work to assemble. Kenton worked on it all day yesterday and Big Pop came over and was his co-captain today.

Today we spent the afternoon in the back yard. The guys worked on the project, I worked in the garden, and MiMi ran around with Griff. Griff was so excited when he realized that his new play set had a picnic table. He sat and enjoyed his juice and snacks at his new table. Once they installed the ladder to get to the 2nd floor he could not be held back. He climbed up the ladder and was SO excited. The look on his face was enough to melt all of us. He sat up there with Kenton for the longest time "helping" out.

I am so excited about our back yard. I just know exactly where we will be spending the majority of our time during the warm months!

Mardi Gras toddler style

Parade #1 2010- You are truly born with the Mardi Gras spirit

This was his expression when he saw his first float

Griff and Ma-ma



Put those hands up!

Griff and his da-dee

My beautiful baby




Success~ a tired baby. He fell asleep as soon as we got to the car.

Parade #2 2010



Our growing family

Highlight of the day~ playing with cups.

This is the one time of the year that we REALLY miss living in the blue house uptown. There was nothing like walking a few blocks and catching all of the parades. We could come and go as we pleased with a bathroom in close proximity. We didn't have to plan the day we were just smack dab in the middle of the action!

Now that we live in the suburbs Mardi Gras takes a bit more effort and planning. We made it out to 2 parades this year. We took Griffin to parades last year, but he was still really too young to "get it." I can say that this year he "got it." As soon as the first float headed our way his face lit up and his hands automatically waved in the air. I guess you are just born with the Mardi Gras spirit. He truly enjoyed the floats and bands, but HATED the fact that he was confined. He didn't want to be in his stroller and he did not want to be held. He just couldn't understand why he couldn't just run around like a wild man. Needless to say we had issues.

We tried it again and took him out to another parade. We wanted to get out of the house for a couple of hours and didn't intent to stay out very long. The day started out great. We parked at Kenton's office building and walked 2 blocks to St. Charles Ave. Griffin started out great in his stroller. The parade was delayed and he got a little restless. Once we took him out of the stroller it was much like our first parade experience. He just wanted to run around unattended. After a little tough love we got him back into his stroller and he stayed there for the majority of the parade. It was kinda cute. You could tell that he was made at us and he wouldn't look at us when we talked to him.

Next year G will be a little older and I think will enjoy himself to the fullest and the baby will still be little enough to be held. We are looking forward to it!

23 months plus a few....

Cheese!

I asked Griff to put away his clothes. This is where he put it.

Helping out around the house.

Mr. I can cut my own food.


Big boy breakfast at his table.

Here are a few pictures from an afternoon at the park.




Yeah, yeah, I know. Griffin will be turning 2 in about a week or so so this post is quite late. What can I say folks in 66 days or less I am having a baby. My creative juices are NOT at an all time high, I am in survival mode!

Now let's get to Griffin. This month was pretty rough. As I referenced in my last post we were pretty down and out for half of the month. I am happy to say that everyone seems to be feeling better. Once Griffin started feeling better he was a bit of a handful. He didn't go to school for almost 3 weeks because he was sick and also because MiMi was staying with us. Needless to say our first day back to the "real world" was quite traumatic for all parties involved. He refused to get dressed and also refused to get into his car seat. By the time we were driving away from the house I had tears in my eye and sweat rolling down my face. We have always held to a pretty tight schedule with Griffin and now I see the benefits of routine. It took a few days to get back on track.

This month Griff really improved in the speech department. I was not the only one to notice. His speech teacher Ms. S is also so proud of him! She called me after a few of their sessions and is so excited about his progress. A few new words: please (peas), guitar (tar), Liam (his favorite friend from school) and go away. Actually he just told me to go away because I tried to take something away from him. I guess you can say that is also his first word combination. I guess sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. :)

This month came with many challenges. Griffin is now into showing his independence. This of course is such a tricky situation for a parent. You never want to crush the child's spirit, but you also don't want "that kid." He now regularly throws full blown tantrums. These are never fun and we are learning ways to deal with it. Griff also believe that he too big for a high chair and HATES to be confined. He now has breakfast daily at his little table. Last weekend he went out with Kenton for a haircut and lunch. Kenton told me that he refused the high chair in the restaurant and sat in a big chair just like his Daddy. We have since gone out to dinner as a family and he did the same thing again. It is funny to watch because he mimics everything that we do. He goes for the utensils and tries to cut up his food like I do. He also insists on having a napkin and putting it on his own lap. Good manners truly starts at a young age.

I can't believe that my baby will be 2 years old in 10 days and will be a big brother in 66 or so days. We are just trying to soak in our last days with him as an only child.

Mysterious "illness" strong enough to take down a small army?

I honestly had the worst week that I can remember in a VERY long time. Last Saturday Kenton came down with "something" and just didn't feel well. This mysterious illness took him down for a week and also took down the entire house! Kenton went to the Dr. and tested negative for the flu, bronchitis, and pneumonia. I just know that he had the flu and the test didn't catch it. He went to work one day this week and the rest of the week was spent in bed. That seems a little extreme for a little cold, not to mention he had all of the symptoms of the flu.

Griffin also stayed out of school all but one day. The one day that he went to school I talked to the director during the day and she said that he was just fine. When I went to pick him up that day he was crying at the gate calling for "Mommy." Truly, that was the most heart wrenching moment that I have experienced as a parent. On Friday morning when he woke up MiMi went to get him out of bed he told her "no, no, no" and went back to bed. We brought him into the Dr. and he tested POSITIVE for the flu. He started taking Tami-flu and things seem to be looking up!

I have also been down since Tuesday. I started with major congestion in my head. I was having trouble breathing. Nothing was passing through my nose and I was using my inhaler because of wheezing in my lungs. I did not have the luxury of using my sick days because I am saving them to have a baby in a few months, so....... I had to work through this beast. Like I said it was a really bad week. Luckily MiMi was staying with us so she was able to man the ship. I honestly do not know we would have survived otherwise. I would go to work and come home to sleep. Considering my precious state I was very limited on what I could take, but I was willing to do anything to feel better. I was able to take Tylenol cold, vicks vapor rub in the nose and under the feet for the cough, gargled with warm water and salt, and I even tried a Netti Pot. I was desperate! As of today I feel much better and praying for a week better than last.

MiMi felt a little under the weather all week, but nothing too serious. Well, no one is safe in this house! This morning she woke up and has whatever it is 100%. She has been in bed all day. Big Pop came home from a trip today and was sent away. We don't need to infect anyone else with these evil germs. Hopefully after another round of disinfecting we will be on the mend.

Because we are still in quarantine we are home during one of the most exciting weekends EVERY to hit NOLA. Not only is it the kick off of Mardi Gras, but the Saints are playing in the Superbowl. This is never how I imagined that we would spend Superbowl Sunday with our beloved Saints in that number, but what are you going to do? Who Dat!

PS~ this is the first post that is not accompanied by pics, but I feel that pics are not necessary!