We turn 2 today!

Today is our 2nd anniversary! And boy does it feel like 12! Just kidding. But our big joke is that we are only two years old but it feels like forever. ;) But really, we have done a lot in a small time! And loving every minute of it, might I add. :) 

So on to the fun stuff! Beau surprised me with a night at the W Hotel and dinner at our favorite Dallas restaurant, Hibiscus. We had SO much fun! Beau's parents stayed with Grayson at our house and we arrived at the W at about 4ish - just in time to drop our bags and head to the bar at the pool. We didn't think to bring swim suits but loved sitting by the rooftop pool and looking out at the city - the city that we both miss soooo much. 

Amazing how we can turn into tourists so quickly ;)

The only angle of the infinity pool I could manage without
capturing people and looking like a total creep.

Beau loooooved their margaritas!

At Hibiscus - the only good shot we got of us :)

An interesting take on an old cocktail.
Something with bourbon that he hated.
But who *likes* Bourbon?!

The only good thing that came from that drink was a foam mustache :)

 Overall, we had a great time! But couldn't wait to get home to this little guy (whose eyes got bigger and bluer overnight). He had a GREAT time with his grandparents though!

Last note, after a very good run with Hibiscus, with lots of memories and some great mac and cheese, we are ending our relationship with them. Mainly because there are just SO many restaurants we haven't tried yet and we just don't get to wine and dine like we used to, especially in Dallas. That and Hibiscus has just become waaaay too proud of their food by increasing prices and they just have too many competitors for us to try. Have fun with your $56 steak, guys! :)


Happy Anniversary, Beaubs. You're truly my best friend! You are SO fun to grow old with! xoxo

Happy 10 Months!

Are we really here? 10 months?! Like two months before you're ONE WHOLE YEAR? Say it isn't so.


These days you are....

• Opening and closing doors like crazy. Still love to pull everything down and out from shelves and any surface you can reach :) We STILL don't have the other cabinet doors child proofed - just the ones with the cleaning products. Good thing because....
• Can you PLEASE stop putting everything in your mouth? You are SO fast - I can see what is about to happen but can't get to you fast enough to stop it! You now THROW your pacifier when you see something you would rather have. So much for that being a cork! So far you have had the following things in your mouth:

• dust bunnies from the broom (you actually pulled them off and put them in your mouth)
• grass - Duh
• a dead bug :(
• restaurant table
• the shopping cart handle
• Brinkley's tail
• my big toe
• my small toe
• the nose bulb. you know, the one that we use to suck snot out of you.
• magazines that you ripped to shreds
• threads (these make you throw up every time)
• Shelby's dried up old poop - BREAK. MY. HEART. I really tried to figure out how to wash your mouth out w/o killing you. I settled for refusing to kiss you for one whole hour. It was tough.
• last but not least, you dig in the trash. And then put the stuff in your mouth?! The dogs don't even do that! We need to child proof stat!

• You look like you are thinning out a bit and sometimes I look at you not believing that you look like A REAL BOY. Straight up Pinocchio-style.
• For the first time in months, I feel like you have a real sleep routine. Sleeping through the night for the past 1 1/2 weeks, weening off that 3rd nap successfully and solid 1.5 to 2 hour naps for the other two. I'm IN LOVE!
• Your first tooth is showing more and more every day - you are SO cute. I have no idea if any others are coming through since I thought your first tooth was coming in 6 months ago. On the top. What do I know.
• You eat puffs now. Like you feed them to yourself. It's extremely cute to watch you gum them around. :)
• You LOVE the water! Mainly the water in the toilet and the dog bowls but your baths and the pool too! We are going to have a fun summer! :)
• You are still laughing and smiling all the time - we are so lucky. :) I just adore you and am having so much fun staying home with you. Beautiful, healthy, happy boy - oral fixation = Perfect! So, let's work on cutting that out, k?!

Leaving you with my most recent iPhone pics... :)

Standing in your first pair of REAL shoes that Mimi got you!

You look so grown up here!

Tuckered out after our day at Dallas Blooms

Matching shirts with Dada (believe it or not, total coincidence)

It was a tough road shaking that 3rd nap!

You tend to fall asleep Freeze-Frame style - so funny!

Melt. My. Heart!!

Blowing bubbles with Mama!

Dallas Blooms...a little late

I'm SO bummed that we missed all the gorgeous tulips at Dallas Blooms but I really enjoyed my time with Beau, Grayson, my Mom and the awesome new camera! I feel like he needs a name. I'm getting better with it and it's just so much fun to play with. :) Next year, it's on, Tulips!!

Grayson Happenings

We may be the busiest family in Frisco. Maybe not but when a friend recently asked us to dinner, the next Saturday I could offer up is in June. Whuuuuu? 


I can't WAIT to post about our trip to Florida for Brad and Nikki's wedding (PERFECT wedding weekend!) but while Beau slaves away over the 400+ pictures he took (not kidding), here are some Grayson updates...


First, he now says Mama! And LOOKS at me! Which technically means it's his first word since he still looks at the dogs/strangers/toys/toilet when saying Dadada! 


I woke up one day and he had this much hair:

What happened to this little guy?

aaand this one?

[shameless-use-of-random-subject-to-show-more-cute-pics-of-baby concluded]


Sometimes I look back on this blog and realize what a terrible job I do of notating milestones. So check this out: Tuesday, April 5, 2011 at roughly 6:05pm....we discovered Grayson's FIRST TOOTH (yes, he's almost 10 months)! His bottom right to be exact, which is just precious since we were all convinced he would be sporting a canine first...a la Twilight vampires. No pictures since his tongue is forever covering it up while he feels it :)


 Are kids supposed to climb before they walk?! I was hanging up clothes in the closet for a minute or two and came out to this...

...which is better than yesterday when I was brushing my teeth and looked up to his feet dangling from the toilet while he was straight armed in the toilet water. He LOVES water!


Beau and I should be invited by the Happiest Baby on the Block doctors to be their "What Not To Do Parents"in the Cry It Out arena. However, we are on Night 2 (of Effort #3) of putting Grayson to bed on his own. Crazy success!! Not even whimpers, just a few crawls, stands and squats and we get this!:

Can you see him there on the monitor? Like someone yelled, "FREEZE!" when he was wandering around his spacious crib. :) Brings a whole new meaning to, "Nobody puts baby in the corner." ;-)


Enough Grayson? No? How about yet another post that ends with Naked Baby?

No Mama, No Dada!

I am racking up quite a bit of videos of Grayson refusing to say my name :) I thought we were over this but he's at it again! But I assure you this one is the most entertaining. Maybe because you can hear in my voice that I am just tickled that he didn't want to say Dada either - digressing, for sure! But it was cute nonetheless. Also, Beau and I think it's pretty cool that he looks to where Brinkley had been laying when I say Brinkley's name. It's the little things, right? 

My Little Push Over :)

I have a sweet, sweet friend Kelly that let us borrow some walking toys recently. Grayson has really done well pushing those around without really any help at all. But this video isn't of him pushing those b/c that would be too boring. Instead, he's pushing the toy that isn't supposed to move. He also enjoys pushing around the chairs to the breakfast table. Kelly's little boy Liam is quite the furniture re-arranger and Grayson seems to be the same way. Together, they could re-do an entire house! :)

9 Months Old!

We have your 9 month appointment next week but in the meantime....

• Quickly moving into 18 months clothes - we're pretty much there.
• Still Size 4 diapers, 4 shoes (although NONE of them fit your chunky feet). I have learned about extra wide baby shoes - so we are hitting' up the store next week for those!
• We are moving to Stage 3 foods (chunky) this week. You have started cherries and blueberries. So far, you like everything and haven't refused anything! Let's keep that up. :)
• You clap your hands when we sing Patty Cake every time - SO precious that you are putting those 2 things together (video below!)
• You now take your pacifier out of your mouth when you see food coming. You didn't used to get that one had to happen before the other so it's neat to see you develop that way
• Object permanence - ick! I was LOVING that we could take something away from you, hide it, etc. and you would just move on to the next thing. Slowly, that's not working anymore. You cry when a door is shut in front of you, Mimi or Pop leaves the house or the remote is taken from your hands. I have not looked forward to this stage and I know it will only intensify!
• Waking up at least once EVERY night. Oh, except for the 1 day a week when it's your Daddy's turn to get up with you. Then, you sleep like a baby. ;)
• I've talked about the cruising recently - you continue to get better/more stable and you are getting really fast at crawling! I have to run ahead of you to close doors or pick up something!
• You walk behind "walking toys" with minimal help. Scary! But you get the biggest look of pride on your face!!

We are SO in love with you and your ever-developing personality. Here are some recent pictures followed by your patty cake video - love! :)

Your St. Patrick's Day outfit!

Handsome in pink!

Poor baby when you were sick 2 weeks ago -
you NEVER look like this so it must have been bad :(

Lunch after your baby photo shoot for Darling Deuce Designs!

Sleeping after a fun night at the neighbor's house!

The Average Night

A few months ago I blogged about what a dream Grayson was with a sleep time routine. I talked about how we put him down and he soothes himself to sleep. I may have even mentioned that he was sleeping through the night. I can't even remember those days! Ever since Grayson has been able to stand in his crib, and especially since he has started cruising in it, he has been up in the night (sometimes twice) and some mornings he's up at 5:30am. He's still learning to get back down once he stands up so I'm hoping that once he masters that, he will learn to soothe himself to sleep again. Right now, he's just "stuck" standing and crying it out isn't an option. This is what I find in the middle of the night and in the early mornings...


Two things about this video:
1) the green thing in the bottom right corner is the battery icon for the monitor so I'm not sure what he's grabbing at behind the crib :)
2) this video shouldn't be this long. you certainly don't need to watch the whole thing :) 





I just don't know how working moms do it! I have complete respect for women who can be up a couple times a night and be productive during the day. I find myself going through the motions and really psyching myself up to do basic things around the house. Hair and make-up are a distant memory. 


No doubt it gets better but then it will probably be time start thinking about #2. I may never sleep again! 

Grayson is cruising!

Have I told you that I get anxious when I have a lot to blog about but haven't actually sat down to do so? A part of it is because I know my memory is terrible and I want to remember as much of this little guy as possible. The other part is that I think it will be so special for Grayson to come back to this to see what was going on in these years that he won't remember. :)


Grayson has been loving his new freedom! He likes going from one object to the other when he isn't crawling laps around the house. He walks pretty freely (albeit slowly) between the sofas and coffee table at my parent's house. Here is a video that captures a little bit of his cruising here at home - maybe we need to bring our coffee table back so that he can move around a bit more.... :)





Just recently I have felt comfortable sitting across the room to get this on video. For a while there, I wanted to be close behind him since there was plenty of falling but now he's free to roam. Well, free until he starts to stand unassisted....then I'll start stressing all over again!

New Old Navy Friends

I'll start off by saying I WISH I had video of this b/c a story just won't do it justice. So you know these creepy-smiled mannequins at the front of Old Navy stores? They are Grayson's new best friends!

I actually snagged this photo from Google Images but you get the idea. I took my mom and Grayson shopping with me last week and my mom opted to sit up front with the baby while I shopped. I could hear him from about half way to the back of the store just LAUGHING at these mannequins! Sure enough, my mom said he got the biggest kick out of all these "people" smiling so big back at him! The customers in the looooong check out lines really enjoyed watching him. My Mom mentioned that Old Navy should pay her to keep their impatient customers happy! :)


I did get pictures of him of trying on this fedora. He's going through a "no hat" stage so I didn't buy it (notice Mimi's impressive ability to pin both arms while holding him!) OF COURSE he doesn't like them now that I've acquired several precious boat hats for Spring. Grrr. 

Picture Project

Beau worked from home yesterday to take care of Grayson and me since we were still under the weather. What a sweetheart, right?! We got a wild hair to get crafty with a 16x20 photo that we have been holding onto since our engagement photo session 3 years ago. 16x20 is pretty large and our home just doesn't welcome any poster-sized Beau-and-Stacey-kissing action (not that any house would).

Everyone knows this picture of us since I use it everywhere - our Save the Date card, FB profile pic, it's even on the mantle. Oh, and randomly framed in the bathroom...

Chopped up, it's not so In-Your-Face "OMG their heads are bigger than mine" as you walk down the hall.

You like? A few things I've noticed just by hanging these frames in the hallway...

1) Our hall lighting is so yellow-ey harsh! These walls are a creamy white color but you would never guess it! Now I think we need new hallway light fixtures...[Beau rolls his eyes]
2) wouldn't these frames be SO pretty against light blue walls?! Like these that I blogged about recently?? White is just so boring...[Beau faints from his eyes being rolled back in his head for too long]
3) My God that CHIN! Not Beau's hairy one. MINE. Why didn't anyone tell me that it sticks out past my chest?! (Not that, that would be difficult to do since childbirth robbed me of  1 1/2 cup sizes)

My inner dialogue is exhausting. I'll leave you with that!

Sick Days

Grayson has been a little under the weather the past few days and now so am I. I feel like poop. I feel like Grayson has looked the past 48 hours, which makes my heart hurt that he has been going through this. If my throat hurts or I need some water or need to blow my nose, I can do something about it. This poor little guy is 100% reliant on us for relief and we just can't really do much for him. We went to the doctor yesterday and it's just your typical cold: lots of snot, very hoarse voice (break my heart!), lots of sneezing, low grade fever, blah, blah, blah. The good news is that he is on the upswing! But I feel miserable, which stinks because we had a play date today and the weather is so pretty this week! :(

As my Mom says, Grayson is such a sweet boy even when he is sick! He still smiles and gives hugs even when he feels terrible. I just love this little boy so much :) Here are some pictures from yesterday - sweet, sweet boy!

Drool, Snot AND a Smile? Nothing cuter.

It's exhausting being sick :(

Love this baby's face in this picture!

Okay, this one too ;-)