Dinner Party

This weekend, we had a dinner party with some friends.  When I was working for UVA, there were three of us in the department that were all pregnant at the same time.  We finally were able to get all of our families together for dinner and it was a ton of fun.  Grayson really enjoyed watching the other kids and I was amazed at how much he picked up on watching them.  He is the youngest of the kids.  

There the are, all four of them.  The twins are the oldest, about 4 months older, and the little boy in the green shirt closest to the camera is next, at a month older then Grayson.  They were all such good kids and we had no mishaps.  Grayson did try to lick one of the little boy's legs, but all things considered, it's not too bad.

Here is the before shot of all three of us at a work baby shower we threw for Nicole (in the middle, mother of the twins).

And the results!!!  What cute, cute babies we have!

A baby rocking a baby. 

Mama's and their babies, nothing cuter.  We are so lucky to have such good friends!  We had such a good time visiting with our friends and watching our kids play together.  It was a great night.

The World is Grayson's Jungle Gym

Trevor and are amazed constantly at how fast Grayson is growing and learning to do new things.  He gets into everything now.  He crawls all over the floor in all of the rooms.  He was exploring the dining room here while I was getting dinner made.  He was very interested in the chairs.

We cannot leave anything on the floor or he will get into it.  I found him with my water bottle the other day, he had knocked it over and had proceeded to pull out the straw and was chewing on it.  I let him play with it for a while and then washed it.  He is still very interested in feet and shoes, so we put those things away pretty quick.  He is incredibly curious, more so then ever.

Grayson got a new outfit from my mom and it is a cute church outfit.  We had to take a picture of him before we went to church.

He still loves to sit in his Bumbo seat and watch cars go by our apartment building, but now he does some 'gymnastics.'  

He likes to lean back like this, it makes me laugh.  I have to keep an eye on him though, he has come pretty close to flipping himself out of the seat.

One day, I left his car seat on the living room floor and of course, Grayson had to explore.

He has started growling lately too.  I love the faces he makes.

This bag holds all of Grayson's stuffed animals and he has had a lot of fun playing with the bag.  He likes to climb on top of the bag and then he pushes it around the living room.  We have started taking the bag off the floor though because he kept getting stuck in the handles.  I turned the bag into a 'swing' and he thought it was great.

We have also noticed that we have to clean the floor more regularly, especially with him exploring everything.    

He was crawling under the dishwasher yesterday going after a corn kernel he spotted on the floor.

He has started climbing over everything.

Trevor was laying on the floor and Grayson had to investigate his ears and his hair, it was funny.

Then, Trevor decided to use Grayson as a pillow.

In turn, Grayson chewed on Trevor's arm.

Then he decided to help Trevor out with his work.  We have a tech nerd already.

This is the highlight of the whole post, if I do say so myself.  Grayson climbed inside the entertainment center to try and get a toy in the back.

Grayson's 6 months stats

It's hard to believe that now Grayson is 6 months old!  He did great at his check up with the pediatrician.  He weighs 17 lbs 2 oz and is 26 5/8" tall.  He is eating like crazy, I'm amazed at how much he can eat.  He has tried all sorts of things and he hasn't yet rejected anything.  He sure does make some funny faces sometimes though when I give him something new to try.  He wasn't a huge fan of scrambled eggs, but I'm thinking that is a texture thing. 

He went with me to my old lab to have lunch with my former co-workers and he was a hit, of course.  It was so much fun to see everyone and enjoy some good lunch with friends.  It was a nice walk also, and not too far from our new apartment.

Grayson is very curious about everything and he loves to play in the sink.  He likes to turn the knobs.  When I was cleaning him up in the sink one time, he kind of slipped slowly into the sink.  The funniest thing was that he was perfectly content and he really liked playing with the water.  I am so lucky to have such a laid back kid.

Grayson has been getting so incredibly mobile and has been exploring the living room and all of the furniture.

Road Trip: A Tale of Adventure, Mishaps and Extreme Heat

We decided to drive down to Alabama for the week of Independence Day to visit my family.  It was our first visit since having Grayson and his first long car trip.  The night before we left, Charlottesville was hit by a pretty bad storm.  Our power was flickering on and off for a couple of hours.  Very annoying when you only have 30 minutes left on a movie and you keep having to start over.  Luckily, we were one of the blessed that did not loose power completely, but unluckily our AC went out that evening.  Needless to say we were eager to get on the road as soon as possible and into an air conditioned car.  Things went smoothly and we were able to be on the road a little before 7am.  Trevor had made a spreadsheet with all the rest stops between Charlottesville and Huntsville, so we would have plenty of options to stop in case Grayson was fussy.  Unfortunately, with the storm, all the rest stops in Virginia were closed until trees and debris could be cleared away.  Grayson was pretty fussy as we came up on the second rest stop we passed only to find it was closed also.  We went ahead and took the next exit off, hoping we could find somewhere to feed him.  We ended up in a very, very small town in southern Virginia, but we were able to find a park.  It was quiet and peaceful and even though we had to park at the top of the hill and trek down to the picnic area, it worked out perfectly.

Grayson got his second breakfast (that's right, he's a hobbit) and we were able to take a nice break.

We brought our beautiful picnic blanket that Trevor's aunt made us as a wedding present.  It was very handy and gave Grayson a chance to roll around and play.  Trevor didn't mind having it too much either.

Grayson was a little road warrior and was very good the whole trip.  He took two long naps in the morning, practically slept the whole way.  We stopped in Tennessee for lunch at another rest stop.  It was nice to get out of the car and Grayson enjoyed playing on the blanket.  We didn't stay outside for too long because it was way too hot.  That Saturday marked the beginning of the week where all over the country temperatures were over 100 degrees.  Poor little Grayson's cheeks started turning red, so we went inside for a while and he played in the cold water in the bathroom sink to cool down.  Then we headed on our merry way.  

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful and we made it into Huntsville in the evening.  We had an awesome week spending time with my family.

Grayson was enjoying his cereal on our first morning at Grandma and Grandpa Swenson's house.  He got a kick out of licking his cereal our of the bowl.  We weren't sure how Grayson was going to react to all of his cousins since he hasn't been around a lot of little kids.  To our pleasant surprise, he absolutely loved being around all of his cousins.  They were so great with him, always bringing toys to share and playing with him.  It was a fight to see who got to hold him first.  It was so fun for them and I loved watching Grayson play with his cousins.

                                      

Who knew three little boys would fight so much over a baby.  What a lucky little boy Grayson is!  The kids were so cute, they all lined up on the couch so they could take turns holding him.

Grayson with his proud Aunt Decia.

I love this picture!  My little niece Mary Beth was holding onto Grayson with all her might and she's not that much bigger then him.  What cute kids!

My other sister Sarah's kids arrived later and they got to have their turn playing with Grayson.  My sweet nephew Jacob still says it's 'his baby Grayson' though so he stayed right with him and made sure he had plenty of toys.

Playing with the cousins!

My parents had a baby pool and so Grayson got his first chance to go 'swimming.'  We got him all geared up and ready to go.

The hat kept getting in the way and it wasn't too sunny, so we just took it off.  He had fun splashing around.

My parents also have a water feature in their backyard and there are some rocks with water coming out of them and he really liked playing on them.

He was such a good sport with playing in the water.  Sometimes when he does something new, I can never tell if he actually likes it.  I keep teasing my husband that he is already a 'Moore man' and doesn't show his emotion.  Stoic men with really good poker faces run in the Moore family.  I think my son is destined to be the same way.

Getting a bath after going swimming.

My mom had some little toys in a small basket and Grayson loved the basket.  It was so fun to watch him dump out the entire basket over and over again.

He has started sucking his thumb, but he keeps all his fingers up in the air when he does it.  I think it's cute.

Hanging out with Grandpa before bed time.

We were so busy the whole week and it was so much fun.  We went to a water park, helped my parents pick a new car, went on a date (my saintly parents watched little man so Trevor and I could go to the movies), went to our favorite BBQ place with my siblings and their husbands, had a fun Independence Day with my family and lots of fun time visiting with family.  

The drive home was more eventful.  We stopped at a bagel place on the way out of town to head home and when we pulled into the drive through, the car started shaking and the check engine light came on.  We went back to my parents house and unloaded the car.  Luckily, it was a simple fix and we headed out at about 10:30am.  A little later then we had planned, but at least we were able to leave.  

Trying to steal dad's drink at our lunch break.

We found that Grayson does not sleep well in the car seat when it's bed time, but I went and sat in the back with him and was able to get him to sleep for a couple hours on and off.  We had a long drive home, but we finally got into town at about midnight.  We were so hot and tired and ready to go to bed.  We walked in our apartment and the AC was out again.  It was about 80 degrees.  We tried to sleep (luckily we have a fan in Grayson's room, so he was ok) and get the AC running with some advice from our property manager, but to no avail.  Finally, at about 3:30am after fitfully trying to sleep (at this point Trevor was lying on the dining room floor under the only ceiling fan we have) we decided to go to a hotel.  After the third hotel, we finally found an available room.  We were able to get a couple hours of sleep and our AC was fixed first thing in the morning.  What a crazy day!  Grayson was a trooper through all of it.  We are so lucky.  Overall, despite the mishaps on the way home, things went fairly smoothly and we had a really good time.