Baby Steps

Grady is officially taking baby steps! He is not all out walking yet....but it won't be long. Really need to run out and buy that flip camera so I actually have a way of sharing videos! He is surprising us daily with things that he has learned. It is so neat when all of a sudden he does something new. He is using the signs to communicate, however they are not always in context. We have to decipher when he really means milk and when he just wants something. I am glad the tedious work of trying to teach them to him are finally starting to pay off. I will continue my efforts as it is neat to see him signing! He also has taken a break from saying dada and says, "Momma!" YAY! It made my morning when I heard him saying, "Momma" over the monitor! Chris is still the favorite but at least he is throwing a little love my way now. I'm sure for the rest of his life he will go through phases of liking one of us over the other. Then there will be times when he hates and loves us both equally :). As long as he knows we will always love him!

Where's the pumpkin patch?

QUIZ: How well do you know the Stahls? There is one false statement in this post, can you identify it?

We went to Gorman Heritage Farms over the weekend in the hopes to wander through a pumpkin patch field. First we stopped at Starbucks so I could get into the spirit of things with a pumpkin spiced latte, yum. Then we sang pumpkin songs for the duration of the car ride there. Once we got to the farm we immediately took a nice little hayride to the top of the hill. The first thing we saw was a beautiful sunflower field! It was so pretty. Across from the field were cows, moo. Grady can pick out the cow among his toys, but I wonder if he realized that he was looking at real live cows? Further down the path we got to see goats, chickens, and mules. I learned that goats say, "naaah", and not "baaah" like sheep. For some reason I completely forgot what noise a goat makes. I have been struggling when I get to the goat in Grady's book. I knew it was similar to the noise a sheep makes so I just kept saying, "baaah" for the goat. Poor Grady I hope he will not be confused. He was a little timid around the goats because of the incident at the Farmer and the Dell a few months back. I am still not sure what happened exactly but he really freaked out around the goats at that event. After seeing all of the flowers and animals we began to wonder where the pumpkin patch was. Every corner we turned I kept expecting to see a nice big field of pumpkins. However the path just curved around and took us to a cute little children's garden and a pile of already picked pumpkins. WHAT??! There was no actual pumpkin patch? I was very confused by this and a little disappointed but we had a nice little outing none the less. The colors were so pretty and we had so much fun meandering all over the farm. It really got me in the mood to start enjoying fall.

Look Mom, no hands!

I just wanted to write a quick blurb that finally as of today 10/13/09 ,Grady is taking an interest in trying to stand without any assistance! He will balance for a couple of seconds and look at us as if to say, "Look! Look, no hands!" It is very cute and we are proud, go Grady go!

A small Stahl rant

You will have to excuse me as I am about to go on a small rant. I wanted to post a cute video of one of Grady's favorite things to do now. Sounds so simple doesn't it? I should be able to hook up the camera to the computer, see the video, and then attach it to the blog. Well all I can do successfully is hook the darn camera up to the computer, yay me! I can't find the videos anywhere on the computer. Apparently the only way to open them is through an editing software, in which we have two, HD writer and Corel. Ah ha so after clicking a bunch of random files I have finally opened the clip in Corel. I am not an editing genius and have no clue how to use the Corel software. Again, I click on a bunch of different things and am probably just making things worse by doing so. Why not read the manual you ask? I DID! I DID! I have tried to follow the freaking manual and it just makes things worse! It tells me to do things just assuming I know what the heck it is talking about! Where is the manual for dummies? Why are these things not written out so a first grader can follow? Do they think that we must have some clue what we are doing since we bought such a high tech product in the first place? Perhaps it is just reminding us that we have no business owning such a product. Never again am I going to buy a gadget smarter then me, NEVER again! The clip is really cute. Grady likes to take what I call, "hot laps" around the house. He screeches with delight as he briskly walks behind a walker. He takes laps around the kitchen, dining, and living room. If you would like to see the video you can figure out how to get into Corel because that is where it is being held captive.....good luck to you!

The tradition continues

Cut outs are so amusing to me! Especially when we can get Grady behind one. HAHA


Girls pic! Stacey with Kiali, Me, and Jen.

Family pic! Horrible posing, oh well.

Grady might be the coolest little dude ever!

Oktoberfest really snuck up on us this year! We almost missed it! It is a must to at least make an appearence at the event. We introduced friends Jeff, Stacey and daughter Kiali to Oktoberfest. They are newbies to Cincy so we love to help them discover all the things this great city has to offer. It was funny because I told them to show up hungry and they listened. They had so much fun sampling all of the yummy food everywhere. I love German food, it's so good! There are rules I have come up with for Oktoberfest and they are: 1) eat a form of goetta, 2) acquire at least one piece of flare, 3) take a picture behind the cutouts, and 4) spot a fashion no-no. This year's big geotta hit was the geotta balls! I actually failed at the flare but Chris got a beaded necklace so that counts for both us. Ok that is lame I must do better next year. I did see a couple of fashion no-no's but did not get proof. Next year I need to better document the event and show that all tasks were accomplished! Our only documentation is of the cutouts, which you would think by now we would have perfected! We did a really bad job at posing this year but the addition of Grady totally makes up for it! Thank you to friend Jen (Auntie Jen) who held Grady in place.

Possible first word?

Ok so at what point do you consider a baby having said his/her first word? Is it when they clearly pronounce the word correctly? Or is it when they are looking at an object and say something that closely resembles the word? Grady knows who we are but is not saying a clear cut, "Mommy" or "Daddy". One time he pointed to Chris's picture and said, "Da!" One time! He has yet to repeat that trick. He also says,"mmm" when he really wants me to stop moving and pay attention to him. The real first word though I think is, drum roll please......"Dog!" He has been saying "Doh" for dog the last couple of months. When he wakes up in the morning he does not want to greet mommy or daddy, nooo he wants to say good morning to the dogs! He gets all excited and says, "Doh" until he sees them. He also says, "Doh" anytime he hears a dog bark anywhere. Does this count as the first word? Or does it not count because he is not pronouncing it correctly? This first word thing is confusing. I mean we could call, "Dad" his first word because "Da" was the first sound he was making. I will be surprised though if dog is not the first word he pronounces correctly. Unofficially I declare, "dog" to be his first word! His official first word is still to be determined....stay tuned.

OH CRAP!

Grady has not figured out how to walk or talk yet however he has learned to CLIMB! I watched him push this block across the room and then use it as a step stool to get up on the chair and back down again! The pictures are the sequence of him getting back down. Part of me is just amazed at how smart he is to have figured this all out, and part of me just thinks, "OH CRAP!" Ok so now we have a screamer and a climber, oh what a fun combo that is!! It is really neat to watch him discover things it gives me the warm and fuzzies all over. I just wish he would discover things like taking out the garbage, handing us a beer from the fridge, putting his toys away. Wouldn't it be so great if that is how it worked? Oh well, it is really cute to see how satisfied he is for accomplishing such a task. Way to go Grady we are so proud!