Lifestyles of the Young + Suburban

Archive for May, 2008

Big news from the Manchee fam.

Grayson is really starting to get interested in his mobiles and toys that move in front of his face. This may sound goofy (or maybe it just reads back goofy), but this is pretty exciting.

He will focus on his toys and will occasionally look over at Lisa or me when we walk into (or out of) the room. His eyes lock in on the movement and he is doing a good job of hearing a sound and looking towards where the sound came from. Now that he’s got the eye thing down, we are going to start working on his hands and next up we need to decide what professional sport he will dominate.

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!

We’ve been really surprised/relieved with how well Jackson has adapted to the addition of Grayson to our family. Over the past couple of weeks we have tried getting them closer together so they can feel more comfortable with each other.

To get Jackson familiar with Grayson before we brought him home we let him smell one of the outfits he wore in the hospital. Now that they are together, what better way than to let Jackson get a good lick of baby foot.

Because this went so well, Jackson offered to give a Grayson a ride around the apartment (just kidding Mom!).

DISCLAIMER: No babies or animals were harmed in the making of this post.

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!