Hollywood Studios

We are back from our spring break in Orlando.  Our group consisted of thirteen of us:  our family of four, my sister's family of four, my parents, Ryan's parents and our niece, Kelsey.  It was a big group!  We stayed at a gorgeous resort off Disney property.  Ryan's parents own a timeshare and generously put us all up at the resort with their points.  So wonderful, there will be pictures of the resort soon.  Ryan, Layla and I stayed there about three years ago and it was even better than I remembered!

We arrived on Friday and we swam and ate dinner that night.  On Saturday we hit the ground running, heading to Hollywood Studios.  The grandparents and Kelsey hadn't arrived yet so it was just the eight of us on Saturday.  First up was the Disney Jr. breakfast with Handy Manny, Agent Oso, June the Little Einstein and Jake of the Neverland Pirates.  The breakfast was wonderful.  I would recommend it to anyone that has a child that likes any of the characters.  The breakfast is very intimate, meeting the characters again and again.  We could not believe how great it was.  The food was served buffet style and it was really good too.  Cassie's boys have allergies and they were well taken care of by the chef (seems to be the standard in Disney).

Our favorite character of the hour, Handy Manny!!!

Grady was very intrigued with the characters.  June was very sweet to him.

Layla loved looking at the maps all week.  Jake helped her out here :)

Beauty and Beast.  We all loved it.  Layla got a bit scared when the Beast came out but loved the rest.  Grady literally danced his way through all of the songs.  I know it sounds crazy to say a 10 month old enjoyed a play, but I really think he did.

Ahh, the fan.  We borrowed it from our good friends before we left.   It was adorable and kept Grady nice and cool during his naps.  It then got stolen while we were watching "The Little Mermaid."  Major bummer!  I went to the lost and found to see if by chance it was turned in.  It was not, but one of the Disney Team members wrote me a Disney check for a new one.  Their customer service is crazy wonderful in these Disney Parks.  Such a rarity in 2012 and very much appreciated.


The biggies that we did:
Disney Jr. breakfast at the Hollywood & Vine restaurant (recommend!!)
Disney Jr. show (awesome!!!)
Little Mermaid show (great but Ursala was HUGE and was a bit overwhelming to Layla)
Beauty and the Beast show (loved it)

Bummer:
We missed the parade.  I don't know how or why but somehow we were in the arcade and missed the parade.  I was sad because I had heard it was really good but we will be back when  Grady is older!!

The park was REALLY crowded.  These were the longest lines we would face all week.  This was probably because it was a weekend and travelers overlapped on this day.

All in all, a great day at Hollywood Studios.  The kids were so good.  The little ones napped on-the-go  and the older ones loved the park.  Great start to the trip!

 

Guess where we were?

Yep, we are back from "The Happiest Place on Earth!"
 More photos coming soon!



Grady- 10 months

10 month picture, getting tricky!

Birth length golf club and 12 month onesie photo

10 months.  I am really enjoying Grady at this age.  He is a sweet little boy.  Like all babies, he definitely has his moments but for the most part, he is a happy boy.  Grady's first birthday plans are in motion and a theme has been picked....baseball will help us celebrate Grady's big day this year!  More details to come!!!

Weight: Weighed an even 23lbs at his 9 month appointment.  My guess is that he is a little bit more than that right now.  Grady was in the 90 percentile for weight at his 9 month well check.

Height:   28 inches last I measured...I will measure again and update.  Grady was in the 25 percentile for height at his 9 month well check.  You might say he is a little short for his weight!  It sure does look cute on him though :)

Clothes: Grady is mostly in 12 month, 12-18 month and 18 month clothes. 

Diapers: Mix of cloth and disposable.  He is in a 5 disposable at night.  His belly requires the size up!

Sleep:  Doing a bit better.  Grady gets up once or twice a night.  Ryan has been trying to soothe him in the middle of the night.  If Grady sees me, he is up and automatically wants to eat.  I do get up sometimes too.  Honestly, the nights are a blur.  Ryan and I typically talk the next morning and piece together the evening.  Grady typically goes down around 7:30 and is up for the day right around 8.  He takes two naps during the day, averaging 3 hours in naps a day.

Eating: Grady is still nursing (about 6 times a day) and eating more and more solids. He loves soft carrots, rice, macaroni and cheese, waffles, french toast sticks, dried peas, avocado, puffs and cheese.  He is at that nice stage of trying/eating all food we put in front of him.  Soon, he will realize what is actually going into his mouth :)

Likes: Smiling at strangers (but they better not pick him up!), baths, crawling after Layla, anything Layla is playing with, swinging at the park, being outdoors. taking his socks off in the car, saying "ma ma ma ma," pulling up in his crib, rolling on the diaper changer and chewing on anything and everything

Dislikes: Me leaving the room/not holding him, teething (poor guy is getting 4 teeth right now), getting hurt in any way (big or small)

New tricks: saying mom and ma (more), started dancing, starting to lean in for kisses and he crawling for longer distances

Swim lessons!

 Happy 10 months Grady!! 

(monthly pictures to be posted soon)

The Luck of the Irish

We have been so very lucky this week with the weather.  It was so, so beautiful!  High 70's beautiful.  We really enjoyed this surprise week of nice weather in the middle of March.  Well, mostly enjoyed.  Layla has developed a new aversion to bugs.  Actually, it is more like a phobia.  Seemingly overnight, she.is.terrified.of.bugs.  Yikes.  Trips to the park this week were rough.  I am really hoping this too shall pass.  And yes, I am spraying Layla's bed with Skin So Soft before she goes to bed at night (it works as a bug repellent that mixes well with Layla's very sensitive skin).  At least it smells good!

Grady.  Do you think the sunhat brings out his cheeks?  :)  He loved being outside, especially "playing" ball. 

Our daffodils are now in full bloom.  Layla saw them and said, "Oh my goodness!!"

Layla zooming away from the bugs while playing Papa Ron and Grandma Mary.  She pretended to plant lots of corn.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Fix your leg!

Here is a little video of Grady.  You can see Grady doing his wave and he is just starting to say something that sorta, kinda, maybe just a tiny bit sounds like "hi."  I love how he fixes his leg when I ask now.  He often sits in half a "w sit" and we are trying to correct it as much as possible so this "w sit" does not lead to bigger issues later on.  I learn all about "w sits" and other things like this for me to worry about in physical therapy :)  Speaking of physical therapy, I am hoping Grady will be done with therapy right around the year mark.  As long as we do not notice any regression, Grady goes back in a month and then again at a year to make sure all is in place.  Enjoy the video!

In action at therapy last month...

Boundless

Layla's energy level each day is pretty incredible.  I wish I could bottle it and take some for myself!  And she rarely goes by Layla anymore.  She is typically involved in some kind of pretend house, vacation or school game pretending to be someone else.  And if she is in pretend play, she makes sure I am in the game too.  All in all, she is getting to be a BIG girl.

Here are some pictures of Layla before tumbling this week.  She is doing forward rolls on her own now!

And here is Grady.  He loves to keep up with his big sister!

He even likes to watch her in the bath!!

Grady- 9 Months

Grady @ 9 Months

9 Months (Notice the remote in Grady's hands.  It was the only way I could get him to sit still for a couple seconds!) 

9 Month sibling picture

Check out my assistant!  Layla is a good little helper.  She was on a chair trying to distract Grady from rolling over for me so I could take the golf club picture with Grady on his back.

Monthly birth length golf club shot and Grady is sporting that 12 month onesie still!

Weight: I weighed Grady at the doctor when the kids were sick.  Grady weighed in at 23lbs with his clothes on.  I am really thinking his weight will slow down now that he is moving. 

Height: 28 inches (measured by me)

Clothes: Grady is mostly in 12 month and 12-18 month clothes. 

Diapers: Mix of cloth and disposable.

Sleep:  Grady is doing better!  He started sleeping a bit better at the beginning of February.  Then he got sick, and sleep was very rough.  But this past week he has been even doing some 10 hour stretches.  What?!?  It came out of nowhere and we did absolutely nothing different.  Grady just started sleeping better.  I am sure with sickness, teething and growth spurts, sleep will regress but I am trying to catch up on sleep while I can.  Since he has been sleeping better at night, naps have shortened a bit during the day.  Give and take.  I will give up the long naps for a little sleep at night :)

Eating: Grady is still nursing and eating more and more solids.  He is really starting to enjoy real food.  He is pretty much eating dinner with the family now.  Last night he had chicken, asparagus and baked potato for dinner.  Currently, his favorite food is any form of rice.  We still feed him the pureed food too because he really wants/loves them but I can tell they are slowly starting to phase out.

Likes: Chewing on necklaces, being held, watching Layla, standing, baths, our animals,  peek-a-boo, remote controls and phones.

Dislikes: Getting hurt in any way (and he is a risk-taker already so this is a problem!), me leaving the room and not being able to get to an item that he wants.

New tricks: crawling, pulling up, trying to stand on his own (he just lets go and tries it!), waving, able to work many toys on his own, saying mom, ma, mama.  Grady seems to say these words when he is mad or wants more food.  Not sure if these different words mean different things (mom, more, etc) or if these words are even intentional yet.

Updates: Grady's physical therapy is no longer weekly.  We go next week so the therapist can see him crawling.  I am hoping he is developing an appropriate crawl.  Babies with torticollis can sometimes develop a funny crawl.  A good crawl would mean really good things for the strengthening of Grady's neck.  Crawling is a huge milestone for Grady, we are hoping he crawls for quite a long time.

This is the first picture ever of Grady standing.  I actually missed the very first time he pulled up to standing.  I was cleaning up from lunch and Grady and Layla were playing in the living room (connected to the kitchen).   Layla started yelling, "He is standing!!!!" and by the time I ran in he was already down.  Thankfully he performed for me a couple minutes later.

And that is Grady at nine months. He is still a good and mostly happy little guy. In some ways, I cannot believe we are three months from Grady's first birthday, but I can say I am honestly enjoying every stage this time. I obsessed way too much as Layla was getting older (in fact, I still do!). But even with enjoying the stages, these next three months need to go by in s-l-o-w-m-o-t-i-o-n!