Live from the South: I can explain...

It has been a long time since I posted, but I have a few good reasons. The first is best explained by a picture. It took over 10 pictures to get one that you can almost read. It's still kind of fuzzy, but I'll translate:

It says "Big Brother Griffin: Dinosaur Hunter". I'm sure most of you who are reading this blog know by now that I am pregnant and am due July 28. The picture above is for posterity.

The first trimester was horrible. I had terrible nausea the entire month of December and a little into January. The smell of my face cleanser made me feel sick, as well as chocolate, and other mundane things around the house. I was also very tired with very little energy. This left me sitting on the couch on many an evening, trying to decide if it was worth getting up and going to the bathroom. Posting on my blog, or checking my email, was just too much for me to do. Add on top of the pregnancy, it was cold outside! I mean, really cold. Although it wasn't as cold as up north, our house wasn't made to withstand the cold. Even with the electric heater on, and a fire roaring for a few days, it was so cold that I huddled under the covers on the couch.

OK, enough with the excuses. I'll start with Griffin's work of art on the wall. The picture was taken around September. Corey took the pictures, and said it was hard to reprimand Griffin because he was so darn proud of his art. Instead, Corey just reminded him not to color on the wall, and it hasn't been a problem since.

From that point, I think I'll start at Thanksgiving and go from there. I took the entire week off from work, and wasn't yet sick, so we spent a lot of the week painting, organizing and cleaning. On Thanksgiving Day, we went over to Sally's house. Sally is one of my co-workers. While there, Griffin had a wonderful time chasing the dogs in the backyard, and giving them hugs.

I'm not sure when, but one day, Griffin had gone into the other room and became very quiet. Usually, this meant he was up to no good, so I tiptoed towards him to try to catch him in the act. The picture below is what I captured before he noticed I was there:

When he saw the camera, he had to pose:

Griffin is now starting to talk up a storm. Corey told me a few days ago, he saw a McDonald's commercial, and said, "Daddy, go McDonalds? Hamburger-meat, cheese, pickle, please?" Corey told him he didn't even like pickles (he spits them out every time). He responded, "I LOVE pickles!" In early December, we told him that he was going to get his hair cut, which he absolutely hates. He screams every time we go, but it's a kid's place, he gets a lollipop, and can watch TV, so I'm not sure what more we can do. Anyway, on the way there, Griffin lets out a big sigh in the back, and says, "Mommy, I'm SAD". Corey and I asked him why he was sad, and he kept saying, "I'm sad". Finally, he got sick of us asking why he was sad, so the next time we asked, he sighed in a disgusted sort of way, and exclaimed, "be-CAUSE!". We started laughing, which irritated him even more.

On the way back from his hair cut; and yes, he did scream; we asked him if he was now happy. He said, "Yes, I'm happy". Then we asked if he was still sad, and he said, "Yes, I'm sad". I then asked if he was mad, and he said, "Yes, I'm mad". Either he was parroting us, or he's bipolar. It can go both ways, as most 2-year olds have pretty severe mood swings.

As to reading, Griffin now recognizes all the capital letters of the alphabet, most of the lower case, and the numbers 1-9. He is also starting to sound out the letters. He isn't as much into books, but will sit there and let us read it to him. He just won't initiate it anymore, so we might need to get some new books.

Well, on to Christmas, and then I think I'll wrap up for now. Griffin had a Christmas program scheduled for 6:30 sometime in early December. I got home from work at about 5:30 pm so we could eat dinner and head over. I learned that he had refused to take a nap. When he sat with us at the table, he looked really tired, so I let him down, and told him to go lay down. He was then so quiet that I realized he had probably fallen asleep, so went looking for him, and this is what I found:

Instead of going to the program, he ended up taking an evening nap. This was probably good, as during the dress rehearsal, he spent the entire time playing, "Chase me!" on the stage with the adults. Although I had hoped it would be better during the actual program, I was kind of relieved that I would never know.

The Monday before we went out of town for Christmas, Santa dropped off his gifts while Griffin was taking a nap. When we showed him the gifts under the tree, he knew right away because he yelled out, "Santa!".

Here was our whirlwind tour of the Midwest. First, we were off to St. Louis. Then we drove to a small town in Nebraska near the Missouri border. Next, we drove through Kansas City to visit my brother. We then stopped in Nashville for a night to break up the trip before ending up back in Atlanta. Pictures are below.

Unfortunately, the night we arrived at Corey's parents, a lot happened. First, it had snowed quite a lot. We left Atlanta after suffering through the flu, so didn't think about looking at our tires. Turns out they were bald, all four of them, so when driving into Nebraska, we got stuck on the side streets. It was bad. Our batteries were out on the camera. I think there are some pictures of the night we opened gifts. If we get any copies of the pictures, we'll definitely post them. Below is the one picture we have with Grandma Crofford, and Griffin playing with his new toys.