Fun with Food

Gotta love this face!




Fun with food. These are pictures of the first attempt at food. He actually did quite well, he just likes to sneeze at the exact moment the spoon reaches his mouth. We started him on solids after his 4-month doctor's check up. So far, I think the only food that hasn't been a hit was sweet peas.

This picture cracks me up but requires an explanation. We were upstairs in the den, printing pictures of Tyler to send to some relatives and he starts rolling around the room. Next thing I realize he is rolling out the door. I thought it was pretty funny. He has become proficient at his unique method of transportation.

It has been a long time since I've blogged. I'm not even sure I'll be able to post all that I want in 1 blog. So last post was about Ty's baptism, and so much has happened since then. The main reason I have been scarce, is because I took the national counselor's exam on October 16, which is the licensure test for my future profession. It was the most poorly written test I've ever taken. I fully anticipate having to take it again in April. Even the 700+ page study guide didn't seem to help, Ugh! I'll get the results in 6 to 8 weeks and just go from there.

I finally got the internship mess smoothed out. I was originally supposed to be an intern at St. Joe's Hospital in the Behavioral Sciences Unit, awesome right? Well, Wayne State didn't think so and I had to find a new placement 3 weeks after the semester had begun. So, I am now at 2 sites, 3 days per week and on target to finish in December! Woo Hoo!

The first site I am at is The New Hope Center for Grief Support and I work with all different types of loss. It challenges me every day, but I know that it is meaningful work. The other site is called Kid's Talk which is an independent agency where kids ages 3 to 17 go to disclose allegations of abuse for the police an child protective services to investigate. It is so heartbreaking, I know that this work is meaningful too, but unfortunately I don't have to opportunity to work with the clients beyond the first meeting.

I am still working 1 day a week at Sephora which is really fun. We already have our Christmas decorations up, which is WAY too early in my opinion. But besides that I get to play with makeup for a few hours and then go home to my loving family. Speaking of which...

Brad is still working an insane amount of hours, which is challenging for the whole family. I think he has been averaging 10-12 hours a day for the past 3 to 4 months. Tyler's personality is really starting to come out. He is such a happy baby boy, we have so much fun! He spends 3 days per week at Grammy and Grampy's house.

I know everyone wants to see Halloween pics, I will post those within the week! Hope all is well. Tons of more pics to come!

Baptism

Pre-baptism festivities with the proud parents...

...Aunt Jan...

...Aunt Sarah...

This beautiful cake was made by Aunt Nicole. Not only was it beautiful, but if was delicious! Thank you so much!




Brad enjoying a non-alcoholic degestif!

I love this picture of Uncle Mike and Jenna. What a great moment to capture.

Aunt Holly and Tyler

Tyler is such the ladies man, pictured here with Justin's girlfriend, Crystal

Cute Pictures of Bubby courtesy of Mom. These pictures were taken before the baptism but I think they are too cute to keep to myself!

So far, Mom gets the award for best picture with this cute photo!

I think I am finally getting the hang of all of this blog-ness. I realized tonight I have been making it more complicated than necessary. I have captured some great moments from the baptism ceremony, however, I dropped the ball at the after-party. I always think of great photo-ops after the fact, just for example, I never got any pictures of Nicole with her tasty masterpiece. So Frustrating!

The baptism was wonderful. Tyler behaved beautifully. While all the other babies were fussing he's just sitting there chilling out watching all of the activities. He is such a sweet boy, so full of peace and joy. I love to make him laugh. He wants to crawl so badly that he gets frustrated after long practice sessions...He'll get it soon enough and then his mom and dad will have to watch out! He gets around well enough without crawling...he is still rolling around. He also seems to like to "talk" more.

3 Months Today

Well as you may have figured by the title, I started this page a few weeks ago. Ty is now 3-1/2 months and the days keep racing by. He is such a joy. He is rolling over now and has been for 2 weeks now. He is my little rollie pollie man.

Most of you know that my dad is really ill right now. To keep a long story short, he was hospitalized a few weeks ago for what we thought was a stomach virus. It turns out that his blood sugar was so out of whack that at the time of admission it read 780. What we later learned was that this has all been caused by "unknown inflammation in the body". We've spent the past few weeks visiting many doctors and undergoing several procedures trying to find the inflammation to no avail. Tomorrow dad has an appointment with a hemotologist/onocologist to explore another avenue. All prayers are welcome.

These pictures were taken on Bubby's 3 month birthday! He is so cute!







This a great picture of "the Griffin side of the family"! My cousin Tim (Between Holly and I) works as a fire-fighter in Iraq and was home for a 10-day leave. I really enjoy his visits. The only thing that would have made this picture better would have been the grandkids.



Uncle Justin holding Tyler.


Aunt Holly and the Bubs!


Just a great picture that I took for my first day back to work at Sephora. I just love that smile! What a happy baby!!!


This is my silly neice Lara. She hates getting her photo taken, even with her favorite Auntie Roro!





I will continue to post as I have time. I hope all is well with everyone out there!

Time flies

7/14 So Brad said that I wasn't clear in explaining why he thinks black and blue don't go together. I purposely omitted it because I thought it made him look a bit crazy, but since he insisted...

he feels that combining black and blue will make him look like a big bruise. I find his mind so entertaining!

Here's another cute picture from our walk with daddy. Brad said that Ty looks like he's channeling "The Fonz".





Here are pictures of bath time! I really thought he would hate bath time, but as you can see, it's no biggie! I love this little guy!







We went to visit our adopted grandmother, Mrs. Allen, a few weeks ago. She is such a dear woman and we had a wonderful time!



7/24 Ty also had some more visitors recently...


A dear friend of mine, Brenda, that I met at Wayne State came by a few weeks ago to meet Mr. Tyler. It was so nice to see her, she brought delicious pizza from her brother's restaurant and we were able to chat for a few hours! She is weeks away from finishing the program...Woo Hoo!







Aunt Bonnie has been such a blessing, she has been coming over about once a week to give me a chance to run errands. Tyler has become quite fond of Aunt Bonnie, she gets to spoil him!





I am so impressed with how well this guy takes to new people. He loves to study faces. Tyler is already 2 whole months! Can you believe it? We have had such a wonderful time watching him grow and develop. He is cooing and smiling all the time. He has the biggest heart for such a little body...we are so blessed.

New stuff

7/7 I must be in heaven! I got 7 and a half hours of sleep last night! Brad takes the early feedings and I usually get up around 3 and 6 am. Brad fed the bubs at 12:30 am and he slept until 5:30! Awesome! As if that wasn't enough, he fell right back to sleep until 9:30-so mommy feels very rested! I was able to start dinner-I am roasting a whole chicken in a crock pot (we'll see how that goes) and I made a blueberry crisp for dessert. So far today, he has been sleeping a lot! But when he is up-I've been able to get him to laugh! We've been working on smiles...but I never expected him to laugh so soon! As for the firsts I promised, here are the first sponge bath pictures


















7/13
So I've tried to keep up and have been doing a bit better. I just have so much to post. This weekend was busy. Friday, Brad came home from work at 1, with a present for me! It was a bag of CD's of one of my favorite bands, Radiohead. I was such a nice surpirse! Then we went for a walk around the park next to our house.







I got Tyler a new hat, what do you think?...









POLL: So Brad and I had to go to a funeral this weekend and I discovered that Brad doesn't think black and blue go together. Recently, we went shopping for some new dress shirts and he picked up a really nice blue one, which I recommended he should wear. He said that they didn't match. What do you think? I think Black goes with everything...