Happy Birthday Griffin

I have received many emails demanding birthday pictures, so here they are. I apologize for the delay, it has been a busy month. My parents came from Ontario for Griffin's 1st birthday. It is always nice to have them visit and extra hands are always great. For those that know Jordan and I well, know that we are pretty low key. So for Griffin's birthday we had my parents, Jordan's mum and step-father over for dinner, that is it. No big party, just good old fashion prime rib and chocolate cake.

As is tradition in my family, the birthday cake is layers of chocolate cake with lemon spread and chocolate fudge icing in between. Boy what a gong show that was to make. The cake was so moist and it stuck to the pan (first time using those pans - so much for non-stick), that the layers of cake had to be mended with lemon spread and then assembled. Then putting the icing on - lets just say it required a lot of hot water and patience. After a small little fire in the kitchen, we sat down to a nice dinner. I would say Griffin enjoyed his first taste of chocolate.

Griffin hanging out with Gramps - you can see where Griffin and myself get our cheeks from.

Griffin with Grandma sporting his new hat.

The birthday theme was getting Griffin up walking. Daddy could not resist the dump truck, Griffin loves to make the horn honk on it. Yes Griffin is up walking on furniture and would rather stand than crawl. He is keeping us busy.

Bedtime stories with Nanna.

Just hanging around the house with Daddy.

New Milestones

Griffin started crawling forward at the beginning of February (Feb. 8th) and has not looked back since. It does mean that I have to be a bit more on my toes. He has also started to pull up on things, mostly me, but it is a start.
He also broke his first tooth last week (Feb 23rd). He was not too bothered by it, just a bit more needy than usual. He can now enjoy home made banana muffins, but not quite ready to break into the granola just yet.
Our little boy is growing up so quickly, hard to imagine he is almost 1 years old.

We borrowed a Jolly Jumper from a friend and Griffin is loving it. I would say he is more a Jolly Dancer than he is a Jolly Jumper, but he will get the hang of it. He likes to swing in it too, more so than when we go to the park.

First Plane Ride

Our first plane ride took us to Edmonton to visit our dear friends Carmen and Jacek and their two children Mira and Leni. Edmonton in February was not Jordan's first choice of places, I think he thought Maui would have been better, but I won. Griffin was so great on the plane, the change in altitude did not bother him one bit. He spent the whole time smiling at the flight attendants.





Mira was so excited to have Griffin around. She was so helpful looking after him, I think Griffin is good with the ladies.





I am not sure who loved the camera more, Leni or Griffin.

We were so fortunate to pick a weekend when neither Carmen or Jacek were working. Jacek and Jordan spent a lot of the weekend walking ski movies. Boys will be boys.





With 3 kids in the house there was not much quiet time, as Jordan quickly found out. After one or two morning coffees he was up for anything.





With Monday being Family Day in Alberta, there were festivities downtown. Luckily we had a snow suit for Griffin to handle the -20C weather. I don't think that he was such a big fan of the cold or the glorious sunny weather.

No Longer Camera Shy

Griffin has finally figured out that the camera is not a scary thing. He now smiles every time the red light appears and puts on quite a show. He loves the exersaucer that Rebecca and Gavin let us borrow.

There are so many things on the exersaucer it never gets boring. We have put his smiling sun on it that lights up and plays music any time Griffin jumps up and down. It is always good for smile.

I am happy to say that the balloon has sang it's last song. I think it had way more than 50 plays, but Griffin did love it.

I am glad that I am not the only one that falls victim to the hair pulling. Anything that is within arms length is fair game. Poor Gramma got the sneak attack.

Toby is not all that impressed with Griffin. I think she is telling us that she wants to be shipped out - any takers?

Almost A Crawler

We keep thinking that Griffin will crawl any minute. For the past 2 months he has been rocking on his hands and knees and moving his knees. Griffin frequently does face plants or moves backwards.

Griffin is happy to be up on his hands and knees, regardless how little he moves. He gets from place to place by rolling and worming his way in the general direction.

Like I said, for the most part he travels backwards. I wanted to see just how far he would go - apparently there are no limits!

All of this crawling does take it out of him, but it does not mean that he naps any more than he used to.

Future Olympic Swimmer

We finally got the OK from the doctor to go into the pool. For those that know me, know how much I love the pool, I have been waiting for the day. He loved it! The local pool has a kiddie pool that is 31C, so warm, but really shallow.

Daddy was showing Griffin the art of floating on a pool noodle - Jordan's means of swimming. Lets hope that he takes after his mum for his swimming skills.

"This swimming thing is easy stuff!"

Our First Family Christmas

This was the first time Griffin met his cousin (Tracy's nephew) Drew. When Griffin was not sleeping, Drew was always there to make Griffin laugh, but as soon as Griffin started to cry, Drew thought Griffin should go to bed.

There was no shortage of people to entertain Griffin. My cousin Michelle came from Scotland to spend Christmas with our family. She just had to buy this singing balloon, lucky there was a limit to how many times it would sing. Also here is Tracy's niece Rhiannon, who took care of Griffin when I was busy making dinners.

The whole family in the PJs. For the most part my sister (Sharon), her husband Mark, Drew and Rhiannon spent most of the day in their PJs - Rhiannon did not get out of her PJs most days.

Most of us did spend out days in PJs, it was a time to hang out and relax. With all the snow and cold weather we had, it was a good time to play board games and watch movies. This was the first white Christmas in Vancouver in 40 years! Of course I will never live it down, since I told everyone before they came to bring wet weather gear because it hardly ever snows or gets below zero degrees. Boy was I wrong!

After Mark made waffles for breakfast, we all sat down to open presents. As is true for most kids Griffin's age, the paper was the more exciting part of the presents.

We are expanding Griffin's food selections. He now enjoys carrots, squash, peas, avocado, yams, and apple sauce (Auntie Sharon's homemade apple sauce). So far Griffin will eat whatever is put in front of him, just like mum.

It will not be long before Griffin is crawling around the house. He is rocking on his hands and knees. At times he will push himself forward, but has not figured out how to get his hands moving at the same time as his feet.

Yep, Griffin still looks like his father.