The Littles is Three...

Toben James....

You are now THREE years old! How has this happened? I feel like it was yesterday that you were this small. Now you're a rough-and-tumble, loud, silly, cuddly, messy, loud, 100% boy. 

We had a small party on your actual birthday this past Sunday, September 9th. Family and a few close friends came to your "monster splash"where we played on the inflatable water slide in the backyard, enjoyed cake, fruit, veggies, marshmallow pops, and amazingly good popcorn mix. Your family and friends know you well, as nearly each gift had something to do with super heroes -- specifically the Incredible Hulk (which your mama still has very mixed feelings about!).

Your other interests at this age are mostly based on whatever your older brothers are into, like Legos, pirates, Wii games, baseball, and Star Wars. However, you have a soft spot for anything with monkeys! 

You love to eat pizza, and often ask to go eat "at the pizza place" which is anywhere that serves pizza. You love frozen yogurt, cheese sticks, lasagna, and Goldfish. We are trying so hard to get you to eat more vegetables and a wider variety of fruits, but so far you're not thrilled with much. You'll eat a bite or two (sometimes) but that's about it. Hopefully you'll get there - we're not going to stop trying!

We haven't moved you into a 'big boy bed' yet, although we probably should have about a year ago! You started climbing out of your crib at about that time,and instead of biting the bullet and getting a full-sized mattress,your crazy mama forced you to learn how to climb out feet-first and put a child lock on the inside of your door so that you couldn't roam the house at night. This leads you to becoming our own personal alarm on mornings that we'd like to sleep in, as your loud voice gets amplified down your hallway to our room by you laying on the floor and hollering under the doorway that "Tobey's up! My sun's up! Mommy come get Tobey! Tobey out!"

The big boy bed will be here soon. (You know what this means, right? No more cribs in the house. Bittersweet!)

Totally NOT supposed to jump like this...but too funny not to share! (We did ask them repeatedly to not jump down the slide.) 

Toben, you pretty much always have a bruise on your forehead. You've had two black eyes this summer. You are one of the most enthusiastic and energetic little guys ever, and often that enthusiasm lands you on something like a coffee table. One of these days we pray that your coordination catches up to the rest of you!

We love you to the moon and back, Littles. You've added a dimension to our family that we didn't know we needed until you came along! May your love for your family and your love of life never change, but only grow. May you continue to learn about Jesus and grow to love Him. I know you've got Him on your mind quite a bit -- lately you've been telling me about all that Jesus has made, as in "Mommy, Jesus made my teefs (teeth)". Yes, baby boy, He made you. He made you so unique, and so very special.

How we've been greeted several times since Sunday... "Hulk SMAAAASH!"

The invite...for my memory

Progress...

While washing his hands, he remembered to flush.
At least he remembered to put the seat (and lid) down. Score one for mom?

It's Bound to Happen, Right?

This rough-and-tumble kiddo took a particularly rough tumble on Friday evening, March 2nd while playing on the playground at Chick-fil-A after dinner. It was the night before I was to leave for New Orleans, where I was to run a half marathon that Sunday. Awesome timing.

We had gone to CFA for a later dinner, just to get out and be together as a family after a long week. Ryan's hours have increased with an increased work load, and he was graciously taking care of all three boys for 3 days that weekend while I was out of town. We had finished dinner and the boys were playing for a little while while we watched. Toben came down the slide, hopped up, and skipped back to the stair steps to climb back up and do it all over again. On one of his skips, he tripped and went face-first into the lowest step... His upper teeth went through his lower lip... A mess of blood, ice, napkins, spilled milkshakes, hurried little ones, and tears and fear ushered us out the door and on our way to the ER.

Fortunately, my parents were able to meet us and take the older two boys while Ryan and I tended to Toben. We knew his lip was in bad shape, but we weren't sure about his teeth (which is what was causing me the most concern and fear at that moment). Thankfully we had virtually NO wait in the ER, and were seen almost immediately. Praise God! Topical lidocaine was applied to T's lip -- Ryan sat and held strips of gauze soaked in the anesthetic on his lip for nearly 20 minutes, and Toben sat there so still on the gurney. The ER doctor came in and examined his lip, and determined that stitches were indeed necessary (he even pointed out that he could probably stick a Q-Tip through the lesion... I about passed out). We helped to wrap Toben up like a little mummy to restrain his arms and legs, and I excused myself since I didn't know how I would handle watching him get stitches. I have a bit of an issue with needles, you see, and I didn't want to make this any more traumatic than it already was (apparently just for me -- Toben was a total champ). Three stitches and NO crying later, we were allowed to leave with a prescription for antibiotics to ward off infection in his tender gums where a couple of teeth were a bit loose.
I'm happy to report that he is looking nearly back-to-normal now! His lip is still a bit larger than it used to be, but I'm sure there is some scar tissue in there. I ended up taking out his stitches this past week -- they were supposed to come out on their own a week prior, but were being quite stubborn. I may have issues with my boys getting stitches, but I can definitely take them out! His teeth look to be just fine after a week of eating only soft foods. There is a slight discoloration to a couple of them, but I may be the only one who can tell at this point.

We are so thankful to our God who heals for watching over our Toben!

My Guys...

We finally got around to taking 'official' yearly pictures of our three young men. I am woefully behind on documenting them each year, but hopefully the adage "better late than never" will apply!Caleb will be turning six in just a couple of weeks. I can't believe that we've been parents for a majority of our marriage -- it seems like just yesterday we were in the trials of infertility and waiting on the Lord. Caleb is a pretty incredible kid and the best big brother EVER. He is overall very patient and kind with his younger brothers, especially with Toben. His favorite things to do are Legos, play games on the Wii, jigsaw puzzles (the more pieces the better), and play with his buddy Hunter. He's beginning to read more and more on his own, which has made bedtime story reading more enjoyable (and more drawn out -- I think he's picked up on that stalling tactic!). We've really enjoyed reading The Jesus Storybook Bible each night with him. The childlike faith is something to behold -- he doesn't realize it, but he's teaching me as much or more than I'm (hopefully) teaching him. Gotta love how the Lord works like that.
(For my own memory's sake... some stats on the Bug: He's approximately 45-50 pounds and 46-48 inches tall. We'll find out for sure at his six-year well check after his birthday. He wears size 6 pants for the length, but only if they have adjustable waistbands, and mostly size 6 shirts. Long and lean. He lost two teeth during the first week of the year - the bottom center two, one on January 2nd and one on January 6th.) (EDITED 2/24 - Caleb weighs 45lb, 8oz and is 46 1/2 inches tall. Dang, I'm good at estimating! ;)
Logan continues to be our greatest challenge and also our greatest comedian. We are learning more and more that he is very much an introvert, and new situations and crowds just set him on a tailspin. If he is with a small group of people whom he is comfortable around, he will turn into the silliest, most creative little nut. However, if he's at all uneasy he will cling to Ryan or me, or dissolve into tears, or become the most serious little man. His creative nature shines when he's having an "on" day, and he's racking up some great stories for us to tell one day. (I really should be better about writing these things down...) Logan loves to play on the iPad, go to his gymnastics class (where he's excelling in everything -- I'm in awe watching him), play with his Puppy, play games on the Wii, pretend play with his ImagiNext toys, and do most anything outside. He's our outdoors boy at the moment.
(For my memory: Logan is 39 pounds and 43 inches tall as of last Wednesday at his four-year well check. He wears size 4T clothing, but in some pants we've had to buy size 5T slims, also with adjustable waistbands.)
The Littles. Toben is our little charmer, for sure. He's strong-willed like Logan, but is also quite outgoing. He loves to be wherever his big brothers are, and tries to do everything just like them! Toben has been slow to speak coherently, but it hasn't stopped him from trying to express his mind... loudly. He has one volume, and it's LOUD. You never have to worry about him sneaking up on you! He also loves to play on the iPad, play outdoors, play with cars and trains, and watch his brothers play Wii.
(I'm really not sure on T's stats, but my best guess is that he's in the 33-35 pound range and is about 36 inches tall. He wears size 2T clothing and size 5 diapers. Toben is the most solid of all our boys at this age.)
We only got one photo of all three together and I feel like it shows a glimpse of each of their personalities. The other photos above are a small handful of the shots I got of all three individually -- we had such a fun time tromping around old Richmond as a family that evening.

Hopefully I won't wait so long again to do annual photos of the boys -- I think it's been since Toben's first birthday that I last intentionally took yearly photos of any of my guys. Oops! At least I have a million snapshots of them from everyday life. Those are the memories truly worth having -- but it sure is nice to have a good shot or two to hang on the walls now and then!

Toben's 2nd Birthday, Part 1...

Toben doesn't "officially" turn two until this coming Friday, September 9th, but we had a little party for him a couple weeks early. It had a paper airplane sort-of theme, and since it was just some of our family coming over we didn't go too crazy. We enjoyed cake (a three-layer round cake with white, chocolate, and cookies-and-cream layers surrounded by buttercream icing), Toben had a cupcake, and we also ate homemade pizza rolls. Favorite foods for a favorite nearly-two-year-old.
He loves Mickey Mouse right now, so this was a definite favorite of his many wonderful gifts.


More celebrations to come this Friday!

Food Prep...

Future architect? Engineer?
Sous chef?
Whatever he may be, may he always have this joy.

Tendrils...

It was time for haircuts for all of the Griffin guys.
Even for Toben. He's 14 months old now, and since I could pretty much gather all the hair around the crown of his head into a little ponytail, it was time for a haircut.
Don't think it didn't pain me a little to watch those sweet curls fall to the floor...

(don't you like the Edward Scissorhands-esque motion I've got going on? Ha!)

His hair is so fine and incredibly soft that the clippers wouldn't have worked well on his hair, so I cut it all using scissors.

You'll just have to wait until a future post to see what he looks like now... Both Ryan and I were a little preoccupied with bathing a boy or giving a boy a haircut or keeping a boy (and dog) out of hair clippings to take an "after" photo.

Speaking of photos... I've come to a conclusion that I do not post much at all anymore because I am incredibly (and most likely unnecessarily) picky about the quality of photo that I put on the blog. I realized this evening, while reading through some other blogs and wondering "how are they so good at documenting life?" that I am hung up on being as close to perfect as I can be. Yes, I am a self-proclaimed perfectionist. I come by it honestly.

What I remembered was this: Life is not perfect. I am not perfect. My family is not perfect. My photos are not perfect. {Thankfully my God is. Whew. But I'm not Him. Duh.}

So... Why not post things as they are? I spend a large chunk of my time each week editing photos for others, to give them a product that they are proud to display on their desks, walls, in their wallets, on their blogs, etc., and I will continue to edit many of my family's photos to enhance them as well. However, for a majority of photos you will find on this blog from this point forward, I will do my best to not make any bones about them not being 100% crisp and focused, perfectly metered, or altogether aesthetically pleasing. {Y'all, I'm doing this for me. I realize most of you don't give one owl hoot about photo editing...so just bear with me.}

When I go to a photo session for a client, I take the utmost care to watching my camera settings, and usually come away with many images the client is proud to have. At home, though, the boys might be doing something fun and I'm concerned about capturing them and tend to forget my settings on the fly... therefore I don't have the high number of crisp, clear images that I might in a session. It bugs me that all of this isn't fully second-nature, but hopefully it will get there someday. Maybe by the time they graduate. From college.

For now, this digital scrapbook needs some more regular attention. More straight-out-of-camera (SOOC) shots like the ones above are on the way, soon.

My {littlest} Boy is One...

This post really should have come before the last one about his party, but we weren't able to go out and do Toben's first birthday pictures prior to his party. So, just imagine that all of this was posted sometime around September 9th... :)

Even though you've been One Year Old for about ten days now, I wanted to jot down a few things to remember about you at this exact age, Toben. I haven't kept up with your baby book (I know, such a shame!!) but at least you'll always have a recording of your youth through pictures and this blog!
First, some stats. You weighed in at 21 pounds, 11.5 ounces at your doctor's appointment on the day after your birthday. That put you in the 33% for weight. Standing at 28.5 inches, you are in the 13% for height. You are small and mighty, son!
You learned to walk (and preferred walking at all times) about two days before your birthday. For a week prior to that, you would take a step or two here and there, but would always resort to crawling or holding onto furniture and walls while walking. You still love to hold our fingers while you walk. These days, you hardly sit still at all when you have the opportunity to roam free -- in fact, you often just roam around the house simply because you can!
Bubbles, your brothers, my dancing, and Dad's peek-a-boo make you laugh harder than anything! We love seeing your toothy grin and hearing your laugh. You currently have eight teeth, four on top and four on bottom. You transitioned from drinking bottles to drinking milk from a sippy cup and eating solids remarkably well -- you have yet to really turn something away! I hope you are always this easy of an eater. You love a little stuffed monkey attached to a silky blanket, and if you have that and your paci at naptime and bedtime, you are OUT within seconds. I think that will be your "lovey." All three of you boys have your special friends -- Caleb has Bear, Logan has Tortilla Puppy (yes, he named the puppy Tortilla), and I think you'll have the monkey. Time will tell what it's name will be!
Toben, you're not saying any real words just yet, but you certainly know how to communicate! You started pointing at things in earnest when you were about 10 months old, and with two older brothers who "translate" for you, there's really no need for you to talk, huh? You do like to babble and be heard, so I know it's just a matter of time.

When I was expecting you, I remember praying that God would allow you to be a peaceful baby. The Lord is faithful and has heard my prayers -- you've been that and more, Toben! From sleeping well, to adjusting to new milestones and scenarios, to going with the flow in our busy home -- you've been such a joy. Your dad and I are so glad you are YOU, and that you are our son.

(Sock) Monkey-in' Around...

We celebrated Toben's first birthday this morning, sock monkey style! Several friends and all of our local family members came and we had a great time eating hot dogs, hamburgers, homemade mac-n-cheese, fruit, veggies, and of course cake and cupcakes!
Na (Ryan's mom, Ada) made the adorable sock monkey cake, and I did the smash cake and cupcakes. Gram (my mom, Mickie) sewed the precious little romper that Toben wore today for most of the party. I loved how each grandma did something equally special for this little guy's birthday! It all turned out so well!

We borrowed a blow-up waterslide from Ryan's cousin, and it was a HUGE hit with the kids! In fact, we'll be out there later this evening playing on it... :)

Toben did a fabulous job of "getting into" his smash cake. He loved it so much that he needed a bath before opening gifts! I loved that he got the cake all over his face and in his hair -- it was a totally different experience watching him compared to his brothers, who barely picked at their first birthday cakes. :)

When we planned Toben's party and realized we were scheduling it for 9/11, I had a moment's hesitation. I know I will never forget that day in 2001, and I do want to honor it appropriately so I wondered if it was wise to have a birthday party today. But, in the end, I think it was the best thing we could have done. Life moves on, and even in the hardest of times and toughest of days, there is always a ray of hope to be found and something to be celebrated.
I think Toben agrees. :)