Grady's Crawling!

I can't believe it, my boy is crawling. I waited and waited for the day when he would achieve this monumental developmental stage. But now that it's here, I want everything to slow down...maybe even stop, at least for awhile. He's growing up too fast! But then again, I'm secretly so proud.

The dogs have another opinion about this milestone. I'm pretty sure this is the moment they hoped would never come. On his first day of successful crawling, Grady managed to crawl back and forth across the room between the two dogs and try to take their bones away. At one point, I watched Cooper and Grady duke it out over a Nylabone. Grady took it, Cooper took it back, Grady took it again, Cooper took it back. Luckily that dog loves that little boy so I was never worried things would turn ugly. Cooper looked more annoyed than anything, as if to say...'Quit it!' Laramie put up with less before just getting up and completely walking away. She must realize Grady is not that quick at the crawling thing.
I have a feeling they are going to wish they could open and close baby gates soon to be able to completely get away from G.
Speaking of baby gates, I realized I am completely unprepared for 'Mobile Grady'. Yes, we have latches on our bottom kitchen cabinets. But we don't have gates, nor do I have any idea where we plan to put them. Think quickly, right?

Who looks at this??

I've decided that all of my friends seem to keep up with my facebook page much more than my blog. Apparently Facebook is the new fad--or probably has been but I'm always behind the times it seems.

April was insanely busy for us. First it was Mark's big fishing expo--quite successful...again. Then we took a trip to Pittsburgh to visit my family. Grady's first plane ride. It wasn't too bad actually. The flight back was worse because he was REALLY awake. Which these days translates to jumping up and down and reaching and grabbing everything he can and putting it in his mouth. At one point he tried to grab the hair on the guy sitting in front of us. It felt like a VERY long three hours. But of course Grady got loved on nearly continuously by his Grandma and Pappy and Aunt Beth and Aunt Amy and Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Greg. I think I barely held him for 4 days. Which is sort of good now that he's nearly 17 lbs!



He's doing great now though--eating all kinds of real food. His favorites so far appear to be my birthday cake and blueberries. And he's working on crawling. All the motions are there but he can't quite figure out how to coordinate them all together at the right times. He's really a crack-up! I'm pretty sure my life was awfully dull before he came along.

We also finally celebrated his baptism in April. We all breathed a sign of relief on that one. He will go to heaven--well, at least so far. My best friend who is Grady's Godmother and her daughter came out for a visit and for the baptism. It was SO wonderful to have her here. We discussed this and came up with the fact that this was the first time she came to visit me in a place I lived in about 10 years. I wish we did not live so far away.



And so now it's May which means Mark starts working Saturdays again. :( Guess it's just me and G hanging out for half the weekend. We will miss Daddy a lot!

Is March really half over already??

See, I knew this blog thing would not work well for me. I spend 40 hrs a week in front of my computer. I have no desire to spend my non-work time there as well. Which is why I clearly cannot consider myself a 'blogger'. Even my latest fad with Facebook is waning already only a few weeks after finally joining.



Grady is 6 months old now! I can't believe how fast those 6 months went. He is PERFECT! (at least so says his pediatrician every time we go in) There are definitely some days where I have trouble seeing my angel through the screaming cries. Luckily, all in all, he's a pretty happy kid. He definitely has developed some good instant mood swings as of late. I am not prepared for that. He can go from being a babbling funnyman to a screaming idiot in a matter of seconds. I think I'm going to end up taking blood pressure meds before too long. Is this the real reason why they say do NOT wait till you're over 35 to have a baby?? I may have more wisdom and knowledge and financial stability (well, then again, in this economy...) but I think my patience is definitely less.

We are getting ready to finalize the adoption process--YIPPEE!! March 26 is the day that Grady officially becomes a Caughlan. It seems like just yesterday he was born and I sat in the hospital holding him and completely unable to take my eyes off him. I miss the days when he was so small and fragile. He's 15 pounds now and well over 2 feet long. But he gets more fun by the day. He's sitting up now (and getting better at it every day) and reaching for EVERYTHING. He also started solid food now and so far, apples appear to be his favorite. Better than carrots, which seem to make an extraordinary mess. And I was worried that some of his bibs were just too big... HA!



We are celebrating Mark's first contracted job with his business as well this month. I know they are going to do great! But don't worry, he still has time to play with his son. Like this photo I took of them playing trucks one evening in Grady's room. It was so endearing!

Black & Gold Forever!!

WooHoo! My Steelers won their second Super Bowl in 4 years! We went all out for the Super Bowl this year with a party complete with black and gold streamers, Steelers plates, cups and napkins, black and gold beads and Terrible Towels galore. Even Grady got a new pimped-out track suit from his Aunt Beth in support of his favorite football team. I know our blog is not the place to air my comments about the team BUT if Tomlin even thinks of starting Ike Taylor again next year, I might have to speak up. It was all I could do in our mixed company with children to not scream at the top of my lungs MANY times during the game how much Ike Taylor sucks. But my boys Hines and Heath sure did look good! In any case, it ended up a very good day indeed, the first day of February.

And yes, I realize my last blog was over a month ago and so, so much for that new determination. January was a month filled with a lot of stress over jobs in our house. With Mark's department re-org and the lack of my supervisor to be the buffer between me and my boss, ugh, we've been struggling. I am continuing to pursue other opportunities and Mark is hanging tough. It's all about timing. (maybe I should go back and read that post I wrote about timing) On the up-side, Mark's side business is going well, even though they are not making money yet. They're getting some good starting security opportunities and I actually like helping him put together documents and make templates.


And last but not least by any means, my boy is growing and getting to be SO much fun! He got another 'perfect' at his 4-month pediatrician appt. He babbles like a fool now and loves to talk to both of his mobile friends--the puppies above his crib and the fish above his swing. I think they are his new best friends. But wait, maybe his new best friends are our dogs. He has taken a big liking to petting them. And getting a big giant kiss from them right across the face makes him smile in a heartbeat. Laramie does better in just letting him pet her without all the slobbery kisses. Cooper, well, if you know Cooper, there's no need for explanation. The dog is just a kisser. Grady gets a visit from Grandma Linda and Aunt Beth this weekend and they are going to be amazed at how much he has changed from the last time they saw him at just 10 days old! Aunt Beth is dying to start feeding Grady real food so it appears this weekend we will finally try some rice cereal. Can't wait for those poopy diapers!

New Determination

Yes, it's been on my mind that I haven't done a blog posting in over a month. But after talking to Alison last night and hearing about her friend who re-did her blog, while being the mother to 8 young children, I have new determination to blog. If SHE can find time, surely I can too!

The month of December was definitely busy with getting ready for Grady's first Christmas and all the preparation and festivities that surround my favorite holiday of the year. Though he didn't really understand what was going on, he sure seemed to like watching Cooper opening gifts on Christmas morning. Cooper is the master of unwrapping like no dog I've ever seen. Laramie used to be that way but now she'd prefer for somebody (or some other dog) to do the dirty work. Just give her the goods inside after you've removed all packaging, thank you. It was nice to not have to travel this year but I missed my family a lot--probably more than usual now that we have the boy. Still, it was really awesome to spend our first Christmas as a real family. I know next year will only get better as Grady will be over 1.

We had several photo opportunities with Grady this month--what experiences! His first was on Santa's knee and he did awesome. He just hung out with Santa like he was chillin' with his new best friend. And he looked darn cute doing it! Next up was the 3-month old professional portraits requested by Grammy Carol. What a process that is--I never realized. But the photographer at the JCPenney studio did a great job and got my pretty laid-back son smiling for a few good photos. I think he gets cuter every day. Okay, maybe I'm a little bit biased.

It's been really fun to watch Grady's development over the last month or so. He's really starting to grab for things and hold on. He loves to look around at EVERYTHING! He seems to especially love to people watch at church. That is, until the sermon gets underway--then he usually falls asleep. At 14 lbs now, he's a load to hold for an hour for sure. We are celebrating his routine of sleeping 10 hrs each night! He's been on that schedule for a couple weeks now and it's been wonderful. I know he's not out of the SIDS risk yet but I really don't worry about him so much anymore, even when he sleeps for those long stretches. Now, lengthy naps during the day are another story! He's turning into a big-time catnapper--taking 4 or so short naps during the day. But hey, if he can sleep from 9:30 PM - 7:30 AM, I really don't care what he does during the day. He's a happy kid, very laid-back and we are immeasurably grateful.

So the next question begs...do we chance our good luck and have another one???

Has it really been almost 11 weeks?

Grady will be 11 weeks old on Tuesday (25th). It's really crazy to think about. Seems like he's always been a part of our lives. He is growing so quickly. At his 2-month pediatrician appointment, he weighed in a 10 lbs, 10 oz! He's also now sleeping typically at least in 5 to 6 hour stretches at night which has been awesome! One night he slept from 9:30PM-5:00AM. I thought he was dead. Thankfully, he just had a REALLY good night's sleep. This was after 3 straight days of no lengthy naps during the day. Guess it caught up with him! He's also smiling now and laughing now and again. It's so much fun to interact with him now. He loves his playmat and bouncy seat even more these days since he's figuring out that controlled movement with his arms actually produces something fun. Oh, the simple life!
Mark took him for his first trip to Sportsman's Warehouse last week. Of course little Grady was appropriately dressed head to toe in camoflage for the outing and Mark was the proudest Dad.
We have also proud parents in church recently, as Grady has been awake during Mass but never screaming. I'm sure our luck will run out one of these days. But so far, he's just been quietly watching everything and not making too much noise. He does typically seem to fall asleep once Father starts the homily. Guess he's practicing for when he gets older! :)
I return to work full time this week. Luckily it's a short week with the holiday. Nanny Kali starts next week. I think she is going to be great--at least I hope it works out well. I'm looking forward to not trying to take care of a 2.5 month old and work simultaneously. It has been increasingly harder to do in recent weeks for sure.

Aunt Amy's Visit

Before I let too much time pass, I must blog about Grady's Aunt Amy and Aunt Stephanie's visit back on the first of this month. It was so awesome to have them here--first time Amy has been here to visit in like 4 years! But what better reason to make a trip now than to see her new nephew. We are forever grateful to them for the Notre Dame football uniform (Grady's Halloween costume) and the cutest dog ever that Amy free-painted on the wall in Grady's room. She is so talented! I wish I had a tenth of that amount of artistic ability. Wonder if Grady will be artistic... Well, we had tons of fun showing them all around this great place we live and they stepped in and just hung out and took care of Grady like he was their own. Pretty cool to see! We hope they come back to visit soon!