Grady meets his new friend Brian!

I love the all out cry face of a newborn!

Grady checking out his new friend Brian


Look at how big Grady is next Brian!

It's Reese!! I finally got to meet Reese, the Ayvazians dog!

Grady likes to stand

A big congratulations goes out to friends Lauren and Vahe Ayvazian who brought Brian Matthew Ayvazian into this world on March 24th! He weighed in at 6 lbs 14 ozs and measured 19.5 inches long! The delivery was less then favorable for Lauren so I am proud of her for being such a warrior! Way to go Lauren you did great and look phenom! Brian is super cute and makes the best newborn noises! I had already forgotten just how small a newborn can be! Grady is huge in comparison! Brian seems to be very alert for a new little guy. I know he can't really see yet but those big eyes sure looked as if he was just absorbing his new surroundings. Grady was a little cranky on the visit because of course it was nap time. However I think the first meeting went well. Grady tried to grab the pacifier out of his mouth and Brian probably had no idea what was going on :). We are looking forward to future play dates! It will be so much fun to see the two of them get to know one another! OH and finally FINALLY after years of thinking Reese their dog was an imagineray pet I got living proof that he really does exist! I MET REESE!! I can't believe it! He is a little hyper and ok he may be a banana short of a fruit salad but I loved him! We were fast friends I think! In all of the excitement of meeting Brian I forgot to get a picture with my new friend Reese, darn it!! It might be another 3 years before I ever see him again!!! At least he was captured in one of the pics!!

I love the month of March!

Grady's first day at the park!

Grady celebrated with some green peas!

Kisses for Grady, the Irish baby :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day! It was a beautiful day in Cincinnati! We went for a walk, then I went running later, and we decided to celebrate St. Patty's on the patio of a Mexican restaurant. Allyns Cafe is right down the street so we walked there and avoided all of the craziness that was going on around town. It was perfect and our new theory is to go to places that have the least to do with the holiday being celebrated. This means on Cinco De Mayo we will probably be headed to an Irish restaurant :). We had our green on and drank a couple of Irish beers, we did not need to be at an actual Irish venue. Really it is all American anyway right? It was a pleasant day and it reminded me just how much I love the month of March! The weather has been gorgeous here and I have been taking adavantage of it! I took Grady to Ault park yesterday which was so much fun! He would have sat in the swing all day I think! I met up with some other mother's and am now in a play group every Wednesday! I am very excited about the play group! I love March it's my happy month!

Swim Class

Emily with Grady, Sarah with Marilyn, and Mimi with Oliver

Grady loves this!

The girls with their boys and girl

the hokey pokey

We are enrolled with some other friends in an infant parent swim class on Sundays. We have a lot a fun! I think Grady really likes the water. The pool is bath water temperature which is really nice. We introduced Grady to the pool in Florida and then when we returned home the swim classes began. He gets to see his buddies, Oliver, Marilyn, and Drew. These are the kids of friends Mimi, Sarah and Betsy. We float them along on their belly and backs, lift them in the air, blow bubbles, kick their feet, and finish with a hokey pokey dance in the water. It is only a half hour class but that is all it really needs to be. It basically just gives them the chance to get used to the idea of swimming. I love the class and now look forward to Sundays! Perhaps Chris will get into the water this week :)!

Updates

Grady turned 6 months in February and he now has two bottom teeth! They are not fully up yet but they are there! He has one coming in at the top as well. He also has a big fat head! There is slight concern about his head growing quicker then the rest of him. I am not sure what it means if that is the case, I did not want to ask. I am not really that worried. I think his big head may be the reason he can't sit up fully on his own yet. He will be sitting up for a couple of seconds but as soon as he swivels his head, he goes down. We have finally seen him flip from belly to back but it is not a common occurrence yet. He is making all kinds of noises and moving himself around. He is not crawling but when he is on his back he kicks his feet down and scooches himself along. I finally started feeding him food again when we returned from Florida. I make the baby food with the beaba baby cook. If you are interested in making your own food I highly recommend the beaba baby cook! You can purchase one from Williams Sonoma. It is great, I am obsessed with it! Do you need anything purified? I have been starting him out with the veggies. He has eaten squash and carrots. At first he did not take well to the squash but then he liked it. He loves the carrots. He is about to try peas and if he is anything like his mother he will not like them! It is really neat to see him grow and exciting to think about what he will do next!

Naples Florida trip Feb 09'

In route to Florida! Don't worry the sound is really low, Grady's ear drums were not hurt :)

Grady on the plane

Neices CeCe and Kaitlyn

The Stahls

Grady playing on the beach

One cool dude on the beach

Grady's first time in the pool

Chris, Grady, Dave and Riley

Sunset

Stahl and Hawkins enjoying the sunset

This picture cracks us up! We think he looks like an old jewish man getting ready to go order his soup from the delli :)


What a great trip we just took!! It started with a nice flight to Ft. Meyers. I was so worried that Grady would throw a fit on the plane. We got lucky in that there was room for us to bring his car seat on the plane. I am not so sure things would have gone as well otherwise. We fed him during take off and then he was up for most of the flight and then fell asleep towards the end of it. We found different ways to entertain him during the flight which was fun! He got a little fussy near the end but we just put him to sleep in the car seat. We have discovered if we cover the car seat with a blanket or something to make it dark he goes to sleep a lot quicker. We were lucky to have my dad pick us up in Ft. Meyers and take us to Naples! We got to see a lot of family and friends on this trip which was great! The first couple of days we got to spend with my parents and my sister's family, the Bliss's. Grady got to play with his cousins Kaitlyn and CeCe on the beach! Actually it was more of CeCe and Kaitlyn playing with Grady. Having Grady on the beach was fun but really he is still too young to fully enjoy it. He did like the water splashing on his feet! Chris's parents were in Bonita Springs for the weekend so they drove down and had dinner with us one night. Yola, Chris's mom got to hold Grady the whole time which made her really happy I think! After my family left Dave and Lisa Brozenic joined us with their daughter Riley who is a little over 1 years old. We had so much fun but Grady and Riley seemed to be on complete opposite schedules. Grady would nap and then Riley would need a nap...etc. When they were up together it was really cute to see them interact! Riley speaks gibberish and Grady babbles. We took Grady to the pool for the first time and he seemed to like it! After all of the activity during the day we would watch the sunset and then head out to dinner. We discovered a new restaurant called Swan River. It was very afforable as far as Naples restaurants go and had the most amazing calamari I have ever eaten! They also had a side of garlic smashed potatoes that I could not leave a trace of on my plate. For me a trip to Naples is all about walking on the beach, watching the sunset, drinking good wine, and eating good food! Of course there is other things we do too but those are my favorite things to do in Naples. Our friends Matt and Leanne were able to join us for lunch one day with their daughter Caroline. It was great to see them and now we have to actually get together sometime in Cincinnati :). We also had dinner one night with our friend Jen Schell. It worked out perfectly to spend time with family and friends in the beginning and then end the trip with just us. It was nice to be able to wind down the last couple of days. Our flight home was at 7:30 am on Sunday morning! This meant we had to get up at 4:45 am, it was brutal! However it actually worked out well for us in terms of Grady. Again we got to take his car seat on and fed him at take off. Then he pretty much went to sleep for the duration of the flight. AAAAHHH what a great trip! Now I am struggling to get back to my life. I am slowly starting to get things done but really am still ignoring a lot of things I have to do :(. Why is it so hard to readjust to your life after a perfect vacation?

Happy Valentine's Day 2-14-09

Chris and I got engaged on Valentine's day in 2005 so we try and always plan something nice for just the two of us on Valentine's day. This year after we put Grady to bed Chris and I had fondu for two at our house! We started off with a cheese fondu followed by steak and seafood, then of course finished with chocolate fondu! We opened one of our special occasion wines and really just enjoyed ourselves. It was a lovely evening! I think it is important to take at the very minimum a day out of the year and appreciate your spouse. Remind yourself of all the things that made you fall in love with them. Chris and I have a few dates out of the year where we hit the pause button and make the day or evening just about us :).