Grey's ONE!

I can't believe that Grey is already one year old! I can still remember driving at 6 am to the hospital on January 27 last year. It's been amazing to see him grow up and how quickly he learns new things! I can't imagine our lives without him - he is such a precious boy and brings so much laughter to our lives!

For his birthday we had family and friends over to celebrate with food, cake and ice cream. At first he was a little shy with everyone over, but that lasted about 2 minutes. It was funny watching him play with the other kids because he definitely did not want them to be playing with "his" toys. Every time someone would be playing with his toy, Grey would decide that he wanted to play with it now (we are working on sharing :) ).

He thought it was great when we all sang "Happy Birthday" to him and smiled the whole time. He liked being the center of attention (surprise, surprise). He didn't want any cake, though. He tried a few bites but didn't really like it all that much. I think his mom and dad enjoyed the cake much more - we ate about 1/3 of it ourselves over the next day or so. Finally we had to just throw the rest of it away because we kept eating it!

He was more enthralled with the ribbons on the presents than the presents themselves. We could have all bought him ribbon and he would have thought that was fabulous! We had fun at the party and thank everyone for sharing it with us!

It's weird to think that he is not a baby anymore! At the age of one:
1. He crawls faster than any kid in class and it's hard to catch him sometimes. His teachers say they will set him down and if they turn away, he is across the room before they even realize it.
2. He has 8 teeth but still prefers to eat baby food unless he gets to eat what we are eating (pizza with Ranch is his favorite).
3. He is almost about to take off walking any day.
4. He can say "Momma", "Dada", "Uh oh" and "Hi".
5. His smile and laugh are contagious and can light up a room.

We just love him so much!! I can't wait to see my little man continue to grow up :)

My First Christmas

Grey had a great Christmas and I think he got more toys than he knows what to do with! We went to my parent's house for Christmas morning so we woke up early (because there no longer is sleeping in for us), ate breakfast and opened presents. Grey did pretty good at ripping up the paper! There were times that he definitely was more interested in the boxes or Morgan's new luggage but we had a fun watching him get into everything. We took a break from opening gifts for a while because he started to get distracted by everything and opening that many presents wore him out! Plus we wanted my mom to be there to watch! We had a very nice first Christmas and the next day we were off to Veronica's to open more presents! I'm sure Grey didn't know what to think with all the action going on! Here are a few pictures to enjoy.

Grey passed out after round 1 of opening gifts :)

It was a lot of work ripping the paper!

Grey loves his John Deere tractor from Mutta! He makes me push him in circles throughout our house and laughs when Spencer plays with him while riding it. We even make Spencer ride behind Grey sometimes....Grey thinks it's the best but Spencer thinks otherwise :)

At first we couldn't' keep Grey from not crawling into Morgan's luggage to open presents.

i believe in santa

Today was a big day - we went to go meet Santa! We got dressed early in the morning because we were going to try to be one of the first people in line, but Grey got tired and wanted to take a nap. Instead of having a cranky kid while taking the picture, I let him sleep for a few hours before we went. We originally went during lunch to see him, but the line was so long that we decided to come back after 5. Even then there were a ton of kids waiting in line to take their picture with Santa! I could tell Grey was getting a little antsy while we waited so I didn't know what to expect once he finally got to meet him - all smiles or crying. Fortunately he was good and just stared at Santa. He kept the deer in headlights look throughout the whole time we took pictures. Maybe next year he will smile :) We had fun meeting him!

Fun Weekend

Erica, Emma and Georgia came over Friday night and stayed with us. Grey had so much playing with both the girls! At first he kind of just watched them but after hanging out for a few hours, you couldn't stop him from playing! Emma would say "I'm going to get you!" and Grey would take off frantically crawling down the hall. When Emma tickeled him, he would laugh and laugh. He had so much fun! If one of the girls went into a different room, Grey would go find them because he wanted to keep playing. He had a blast! We'll have to get all of them together again soon!

I Spy....

I spy a Cheerio...
And it's still there....

Yep, it's still there but just hidden.

Can you tell where most of his Cherrios go? Under his chin!! About 1 in 10 actually make it into his mouth but he loves them. And yep, that's milk on his shirt. He loves to spit that out too- he thinks it's funny.

Big News!

So yesterday Grey was playing with his new standing/table toy and he just let go and stood on his own for a few seconds. Then later that day, Dan was laying with Grey and he just stood from a squatting position and stood for another few seconds. He has been so close to standing but he would never let go.

Today he did it again. I tried to get a video of it but he was more interesting in grabbing the video camera out of my hands than standing. Before you know it, he will be walking - scary! I'll try to get a video of him standing this week so everyone can see how big he has gotten.

We had a fun, exciting weekend! Amanda came and took care of Grey Friday night while we went to a birthday party (THANK YOU!). She brought him a new alligator xylophone which he has played with all weekend long! He loves to hit on the keys and the alligator's head :) Today Morgan stopped by and hung out with us for a few hours before heading back to College Station. She played in the leaves with him while Dan and I raked and picked up leaves from our yard. Although we didn't move far, we have never had to deal with all the leaves :) You can finally see our sidewalk now!

Just Playin'

Grey got a new toy that he loves to stand and bang on. Here is a clip of him playing with it.