Finding the Gator Ball

So I posted in his 9 month post about finding the Gator ball amongst all the other ones! Well, we got it on video today. Of course, we think he's the smartest 9 month around ;-)

Griffin Andrew is 9 Months Old!

How is it that in LESS than 3 months We will have a ONE year old?! I always begin my monthly blog posts with how fast time is flying and it just keeps going faster and faster. I still remember the 1st 2-3 weeks of him first being home like it was yesterday. The amount of love we feel for this little guy grows and grows everyday! This month, I am happy to report that we have NO new teeth!! Haha. He has 6, we can work with that for now. I just feel so bad when they have teeth popping thru...he's been going at the teeth thing since July, he deserves a break. He's still eating everything under the sun. Except for strawberries and blueberries. I thought since he's been doing so great at breaking food down in his mouth that strawberries and blueberries would be a HUGE hit. Not so much. He had the one-eyed, sour-lipped, look on his face as soon as I popped them in his mouth. For Bri and I, it was about the funniest face we'd seen him make. Of course, by the time I got the flip video out he was gagging, and from there on out it just wasn't pretty! So...a little longer on those fruits. It is UH-MAZING how quickly he is picking up on things. He had a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal, dressed as Santa, under the tree all Christmas. He was sitting on my lap on the couch and I said, "Griffin, where is Mickey?" He turned, pointed to Mickey, I put him down and he crawled over to him and pulled him out from under the tree. I was like, "Oh MY!!!" Also, he's a huge fan of the Gator head. But, just the Gator head. B/c he has a full Albert on his shelf and doesn't quite get that it's a Gator. But he can point out the Gator heads on our clothes, drinking cups, and his Build-A-Bear doggie that is wearing a t-shirt with a Gator head on it. And he points and says "Derrrr." He has a HUGE bin of all different size balls and one of the smallest balls has a Gator head on it and I can say, "Griffin, find the Gator ball," and he will sift thru them all and pull it out!! I mean, pretty smart right? While most parents work on ears, mouth, teeth, belly button, nose (which he knows)...we decided to start with the important things in life....like our favorite college football team. I mean, Hey, if a portion of our money goes to paying off Daddy's education from that school every month, Griffin should grow up to appreciate it!! Haha!! Along with his love for Gator heads we also can ask him how big he is and he throws up his arms with a big smile...SO cute! He also imitates us snapping our fingers....and best of all??? He DANCES!! Whether he's in his car seat, high chair, sitting on the floor, or standing, our boy has rhythm!!! It's funny and cute and as soon as I can get a video, I will :-) But that's all for now friends and family!! We hope the New Year is treating you well!!

Our little crawler!

I feel like this happened OVER NIGHT!! I mean, he never went thru the phase where he just sat up by himself. The sitting up, crawling, and pulling up all happened in one day. Which is great....I guess :-/ Of course, this was about 3 weeks ago, so he is SUPER speedy now....and into EVERYTHING! I vaguely remember asking for this to "please happen soon" awhile ago. I think I was crazy :-)

Bath fun over Thanksgiving!

Griffin was getting a bath when his cousin Joshua popped in and thought it would be fun to use his rubber duckies to squirt him! Griffin, of course, thought Josh was SO funny. I love cousin time! Excuse the nudity...and the fact that he almost flipped himself over while I was taping! Haha.

Griffin's Baptism

FINALLY! About 8 months late (or so us Catholics think!) Griffin's Baptism was finally here! We would have had him baptized earlier, but we weren't HUGE fans of our church in San Diego. Plus, it would have been hard to have family all travel to us. Alas, we decided to wait. So, he was baptized on New Year's Eve!! It was the perfect day for our family and friends. He was baptized by Father Murphy at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Peachtree City. Griffin is such a blessing and his baptism couldn't have been more perfect!

Christmas Day MADNESS!

Christmas morning was SO much fun! I know Griffin had NO idea what was going on but it still seemed so special :-) There had to be hundreds of presents under the tree since there were 11 of us!! It felt like it took AGES to open presents. And since Griffin didn't quite understand Christmas, it was more about being in the moment with a whole lotta family! Here are a few pictures from the morning madness!

Merry Christmas Eve!

We had A LOT of people at our house for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. 11 people, including us, to be exact! Good thing we don't live in our 800 sq. ft. San Diego apartment anymore! We managed to get everyone to 4pm mass (where only I got to sit...yay for being the Mom of the youngest). We also got everyone to sit around the dinner table for a BIG yummy dinner! Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Griffin Andrew is 8 Months Old!

November was such a crazy month! I felt like we were gone every weekend and before we knew it Thanksgiving was over and the Christmas season was upon us! Griffin now has 6 teeth!! So we are pretty much eating everything under the sun, except for peanut butter, eggs, and shellfish (doctors orders). I remember talking to a few people about this annoying phase that Griffin was in b/c he was able to sit up, but couldn't get into the sitting position without my help. So he would flop over and then just fuss until someone helped him up. My sister said, "The best is when they can sit up on their own, but aren't mobile yet." Well....Griffin is a little stinker b/c he was crawling before he could sit up!! It happened within 2 days of each other....but oh boy, it's SO exciting! I know, I'm crazy, right?? Only a few days after his crawling started did he discover being able to pull up on things on his own. This is just a whole new phase of worry! So now he has a few more bumps and bruises along his legs...I guess I can't protect him from EVERYTHING!!

Christmas Card Pictures

Since we chose a Christmas card that only used one picture we had a hard time narrowing it down to just ONE! So here are some of our other favorites from our very unprofessional photo shoot! Ha!

Merry Christmas from the Bouska's, Copithorne's, Hurley's, & Walshes!

Tennessee Thanksgiving!

The very reason I was SO excited to move back to the East Coast.... BIG family Holidays! We had 16 people at Mom and Dad's new home in TN for Thanksgiving and it was pure chaos but amazing! All of the little cousins from my side of the family were together and we had so much fun :-) Griffin enjoyed his 1st Thanksgiving meal of mashed and sweet potatoes, turkey, ham, and stuffing!! Here are a few pictures from the weekend! Happy 1st Thanksgiving Griffin!

Brian & Billy's Foot Race!

Brian and Billy took this foot race pretty seriously. It's been talked about since the Fall of 2010. Brian should just know better than to race Billy....

Visiting The Latsko's!!

Ok, so I know it has been awhile since I've caught up on the blog...but I need to start where I left off! In the beginning of November we drove to Gainesville for a long weekend to visit our friends Billy, Amanda, and Cameron. We were SOOO excited to see them and let the kids meet each other. The last time we saw Cam was when she was 8 weeks old when her and Amanda came to visit us in San Diego. Well...came to visit Billy, really...we were just a bonus! She is as sweet as can be and Griffin just LOVED her!!