Fun in October

Trina picked up a Chilean miner toy for Grayson so he could remember their rescue story. She named his little person Victor because there were at least two guys named Victor that were trapped. Grayson at 8 monthsGrayson at 5 monthsGrayson at 2 months We decided not to go to a pumpkin patch this year. We thought that buying him a few pumpkins and taking pictures in the yard would good enough for now. Next year when he can walk, we will go pumpkin hunting! We got the dogs to pose just long enough to take this family picture. If you notice, they stand just out of arm's reach. Grayson likes pulling Marley's hair. Everything goes in the mouth.

Almost everything.

You can thank Trina for this. I wouldn't have taught him to pee on the carpet, but it's tradition on the Juilfs side. Just ask Kevin.

Potty training is going to be easy. Trina and Grayson have been practicing for the past few months.

When Grayson went to bed, we carved the pumpkins. Trina created this one.

Tanner created this one.

He's such a poser.

He loves the camera.

Anamosa Pumpkinfest

We went to the Anamosa Pumpkinsfest where we attended the Ryan Norlin Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off. We saw huge pumpkins, watermelons and gourds.There were about 30 huge pumpkins on display. Most of them were in the 600-900 pound range.This one was the largest. It was 1242.5 pounds. It was fun to watch the people use a fork lift to move the thing on to a truck.Check out these huge melons! 160.5 pounds!

Grayson went to his first parade. He was disappointed that we wouldn't let him run into the street to get candy. Maybe in a few years!

We can't forget about the dogs. We haven't posted about them in a while. Recently they participated in Puppy Bowl 2010.

Marley was the MVP with 4 tackles and one fumble return for a touchdown.

Grayson even tried to get in on the action!

Yes he is on his belly. He has been flipping over a lot lately.

Look mom no hands! Grayson has been sitting up on his own for a while now. He doesn't even need his hands for support.This is Grayson other new trick. He can drink from a bottle on his own. He also started drinking from a sippy cup. That takes a little more work. Soon he will be able to use a straw! When I came home from the fishing trip, Trina surprised me by letting me stay inside with Grayson and she went outside and mowed the lawn. This was the first time she had mowed the lawn since she owned her other house. She told me the she prefers her old yard. It was much more flat.

We're still here!

Wow, a month has almost gone by! We've been keeping busy, obviously. Although we love sharing about Grayson and what our family is up to, we find that we would rather spend time with Grayson, each other, or sleeping, than posting on the blog. But here is an update of what we've been up to...

Grayson turned 7 months old September 13. Here is his 7 mo monkey picture. That outfit might only make it to 9 mo.

This is one of Grayson's favorite toys right now. It's a Leap Frog table, but we took off two legs so he can play with it sitting. He doesn't look thrilled about it, but really he loves it. Grayson has gotten really good at sitting. The past few days he has started to lean forward on his hands when he is sitting. I know he wants to move, but he just isn't ready for that yet. He's just starting to want to roll over both directions, even though he has been able to for a couple months, he's just been too lazy. I think it will take him a while to learn how to crawl.

This month we also gave Grayson a baby biscuit. He did pretty well with it. However, it didn't last long because he just got bored or stopped wanting to hold it. Grayson has been eating stage 2 and some stage 3 type foods. We're getting very close to giving him table food, just 1 1/2 more months. That's when we can also give him a wider variety of foods such as melons, yogurt, etc. And yes, we'll finally allow his Grandpa Bud to give him his first bites of ice cream.

When Grayson turned 6 months, our doctor suggested we try the cry-it-out method at nights. This to us seemed very cruel and not natural. We had tried it 2 times prior to that and couldn't handle it. At that point, we were ready for some sleep, so we gave it a shot. Grayson cried for nearly 2 hours the first night. The second night for 15 minutes and the third night none. I found it to be VERY VERY difficult. So now Tanner is in charge during the night. Grayson now sleeps right through the nights! And so does Tanner. Yay!
Here Grayson is wearing his first "big boy" jammies (a two piece, shirt and pants, not a sleeper) and holding his own bottle. Don't worry, he only sat in the chair alone while we took the picture.

Tanner started another college class. This one is an actual online course where he has to do homework, etc at the pace of the class. This means time spent in the evenings working on homework. It's difficult, because he has to choose to either spend a little time with Grayson or a little time with me because he's working on homework for the rest of the evening.

Tanner also went on the annual Roos Men's Fishing Trip. I'll let him talk about that when he gets pictures posted. When he was gone, Grayson and I sure missed him!!

The only thing that has changed for me is that I dropped my 6pm pump and started pumping every 3 hrs vs every 2hrs. I know this doesn't sound like a big deal to most people, but to me it has been. I feel less burdened by pumping, and I don't have to take 20 minutes out of my 3 evening hours with Grayson. From now until Thanksgiving, I'm going to start phasing out of pumping, I think, and gradually give Grayson more formula (currently only 4-6oz/day). I will be very proud of how far I've made it.

A picture I took of Grayson right before I blogged today.