Lifestyles of the Young + Suburban

Archive for the ‘baby’ Category

Grayson turned 9 months on the 15th. He has made some serious progress and is now quite the crawler. It was amazing to see in one month how he started scooting around to sneaking across the room as soon as you turn your back on him. His favorite activity is chasing after Jackson, who has been a good sport thus far and has gotten quite the workout running back and forth through between rooms.

Lisa also was able to capture a video of him standing up on his own. Even though I missed it while I was at work, I was able to see the video minutes later. Not sure what people did before the days of video cameras and most especially YouTube!

He is all smiles and has also started clapping, sneaking in a little wave every now and then when one of us leaves the room.

After a botched home haircut (don’t ask), Lisa took Grayson to get his first professional styling. He looks pretty sharp.

As much as he wants us to be his entertainer, he is starting to evolve into quite the little clown himself. Grayson cracks us up and I am fairly certain I am in for a world of payback once he gets into school. Payback for all the classroom antics and jokes I cracked.

He is a great sleeper and with the exception of some teething pain, continues to make it through most nights with no problem. His mouth is filling up with little baby teeth and it’s pretty darn cute to see him smile.

I can’t wait to see what the next three months have in store for the little man in training.

Lisa found this and posted in on Facebook. Thought it was worthy to share here, too.

Click for full-size:

Grayson pulled off the pirate getup quite well, even if he didn’t wear it all Halloween night he seemed to enjoy himself! The best part about was that he brought a little something extra outside of the cap, patch and outfit — he has his first tooth!

We’re still working on getting a picture of it, but it is definitely making its way out of his gum. For those keeping score at home, it is his bottom left tooth as you are looking at him (lower central incisor).

On a related matter, Grayson’s cousin, Ellie, lost her first tooth in the past week or so. It just so happens that it was in the very same location as Grayson’s new tooth. As you may already be thinking — the theory that was discussed yesterday was that the Tooth Fairy may have taken Ellie’s tooth and put it in Grayson’s mouth. I’m not a doctor, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but this sounds very plausible (cue the X-Files music).

I have the great fortune to work with some incredibly talented people in my job, which allows me to have a blast 90% of the time while I am working. What I get most excited about makes me 100% of a geek according to Lisa, but if you ask me she secretly likes my nerdiness, but I digress.

My company is working on a little project for the group that put together a really fun site for Volkswagen’s new Routan mini-van: the RoutanBabyMaker 3000. I wasn’t involved with the site, but I have spent some time playing with it and wanted to share.

The basic concept is that you can make a baby or at least see what a baby could look like with the person of your choosing. All you need is a picture of you, them, and a few minutes to spare clicking away. Once you’re done you can share your baby with the world.

If you were curious on how accurate it can be, check out what I made (with the help of Lisa’s picture) this morning and how it stacks up to Grayson (he’s on the right).

What are you waiting on? Go make a baby!

That is the amount of time, of sweet, beautiful time, Grayson was able to sleep through the night. Total Sleep Time – 6:34 (thanks Itzbeen for recording such a momentous record!)

When people told me that with a newborn I would get my best sleep when I was out of town on business trips I laughed, but after a few trips out of town I was amazed how true they were. Of course that doesn’t help Lisa out, so I am especially excited that she was able to experience continuous sleep once again after almost 8 weeks, even if it is an anomaly for the time being.

Of course Lisa woke me up to tell me the exciting news which seems all too funny now. And honestly, I was pretty darn excited, too. Maybe it was all the extra energy I had?

A few minutes later, Jackson and I were able to slip out for an early morning walk and can you guess what came on my clock radio when we walked back in the door…wait for it…

Queen’s We are the Champions

Enough said.

Have a fantastic day!

No this isn’t a start of fatblogging section of the site, 211 is where Grayson ranked in the 2007 Popular Baby Name List provided by the Social Security Administration. Even though this very well may be all Lisa and I ever get out of the SSA, this is a nice way to reassure us that .0838% of ALL the boys born last year share our little guy’s name. We’ll see what 2008 holds for “Grayson,” but I would imagine its  going to move up a couple notches.

Part of me is happy that he won’t have 10 other kids in his class with the same name and part of me is feeling a little better after getting some weird responses from people over the past few weeks. The weirdness has mainly be in person, which I am guessing people are able to control their voice reactions better than their face and body language when they are standing right in front of me.

A proper response when you ask someone their baby’s name and then they tell you is not “That’s…uh…interesting!?!” Sure its 211 on the baby name list for last year, but guess what common names Grayson topped?

• Drew (212)
• Gregory (223)
• Pedro (229)
• Frank (262)
• Emilio (275)
• Trey (285)
• Phillip (295)
• Russell (408)
• Carl (450)

We’re not even halfway through 2008, but all I have to say is lookout Jeffrey (190), and watch your back Spencer (174), and hey Timothy (100) this may be your year to drop out of the top 100 cause Grayson is moving up the ranks!

• 1997 – 369
• 1998 – 359
• 1999 – 333
• 2000 – 313
• 2001 – 321
• 2002 – 308
• 2003 – 297
• 2004 – 272
• 2005 – 254
• 2006 – 218
• 2007 – 211
• 2008 – ???

With Mother’s Day quickly approaching, I have been reflecting on the past 10 or so months and how Lisa has developed superhero-like powers that allow her to be such a great mom. Kermit wisely once said “It ain’t easy being green,” but I think all moms at one point or another have said “It ain’t easy being a mom.”

And I have to agree with both Kermit and the moms.

So much of what appears to be natural motherly instinct takes a great deal of selflessness and dedication to provide all the necessities in life and just enough extra guide them in hopes of the best life possible for their child. Lisa has been doing an incredible job over the past almost four weeks and this not only makes me a proud dad, but a very proud husband.

I would be remiss to not mention my own mom and the guidance she has given us since we welcomed Grayson into this world, and of course the amazing job she has done over the past 27+ years with me. I am eternally grateful for all her sacrifices and acts to provide an incredibly loving environment, and being so understanding whenever I made mistakes.

A few honorable mentions:

• not recognizing her when she picked me up from school, after she had gotten a perm, and telling the teacher a stranger was trying to pick me up (age 6)
• essentially requiring that the radio be turned off, because of headaches and general weirdness (ages 7-11
• detentions and a few Saturday schools for an assortment of immaturity at school (ages 13-16)
• accidentally throwing a lacrosse ball through the window where she was on the computer (age 15)
• wrecking her car only months after getting my license (age 16)

Lisa used to joke that I was a mama’s boy while we were dating and just married after I would retell stories about how my mom would do something, or what should would always say, or how she would cook a meal. It wasn’t to say that her way was better, but rather what I had grown accustomed to through the years.

Even though Lisa and I have gotten into a pretty good routine of our own now, I do have to bite my tongue every once in a while now with Lisa, though I admit it is easier, because we live so close I can hear Mom say it or watch her do it the way that she has always done it.

Does that make me a mama’s boy? I don’t know — but I do know I love my mom.

Thanks Mom and Lisa for being such wonderful moms! Happy Mother’s Day!

It always amazes me how simple inventions seem to be the most useful. What do you get when you combine a stop watch, alarm clock, flashlight, and a clip? A little gem called the itzbeen.

Much like the near daily questions where I ask myself rhetorically how we survived without cell phones or email, I have been asking myself how Lisa and I could have maintained our sanity in those wee hours of the morning without our itzbeen.

Looking over the company’s website, it appears that a few years ago a new dad and his wife were trying to figure out how long it had been since their new baby boy had been fed, gotten a diaper change, and been asleep.

Its been a lifesaver for us as we attempt to guess why Grayson may be fussy. A couple hours since the last diaper change — break out the baby wipes, almost three hours since his last feeding — I get to go back to sleep and Lisa gets some mommy time. There is even a miscelleneous timer for medications or something else altogether. We were using this to see when we had last slept, but the four-a-day Nystatin doses for his thrush have taken over.

Anyways, if you are a soon-to-be mom or dad (or know one), I highly recommend the itzbeen even if you have a couple young ones running around.

UPDATE: Thanks again to Stacy and the rest of the Koch clan for the wonderful gift!

Here is a pic my Mom took last night while we were over for dinner.

Now that Lisa and I have nearly mastered the art of the quick diaper change and Lisa had Grayson’s feedings deeply ingrained in her internal clock, we kinda feel like we are getting the hang of this mom and dad thing.

I continue to ask Grayson for an informal evaluation, but the faces and grunts he makes are still a foreign language to me. Though he does seem to be happy baby and enjoying his surroundings and our affection for him.

On Friday, to celebrate his 10 day birthday, we  ventured out of the apartment over to my parents for dinner. It was great to get out and with the weather looking so gorgeous this Saturday morning, we may just take a stroll out to the nearby lake.