Mosier Collective: 2019

We are officially less than a month away from Griffy's first birthday, which is so bittersweet in so many ways. It is crazy how fast this past year has flown by. These last few months especially Griffy has been changing so fast. It is like we blinked and have more of a toddler than a baby. Here are some highlights from the last few months!

Month 8:

We talked a little about month 8 in the last post but a couple things we didn't mention:

-Griffy went on his first camping trip to Indiana Dunes. We went for a long weekend, so we got there late Thursday evening and stayed until Sunday afternoon. The Dunes is near Chicago and actually has a train stop for the South Shore Line in the park that you can take into the city (though it is 1.5-2 hour ride each way), so on Friday we took the train into Chicago and explored the city! We went to Millennium Park first and walked around. Then, we walked over to Navy Pier and had lunch at Giordano's and walked around the pier before walking back and catching the train back. While at the Dunes, we also went to the beach a couple times to let Griffy experience the beach and waves. We also explored the nature center and drove over to Michigan City to see the light house. We also of course did a ton of campground walks with Griffy - one of our favorite parts about camping!

Along the waterfront trail that we walked to Navy Pier

Navy Pier

Indiana Dunes Beach

Indiana Dunes

Michigan City

Millenium Park

Very excited about watching the boats along the water in Chicago

Lunch at Giordano's

Griffy loved trying their pizza for the first time

Campground walks

Indiana Dunes

Playing by the camper

-Griffy went to his first wedding! One of my good friends (and former roommate) from college got married. We loved getting to celebrate them and Griffy loved being a part of the festivities.

-We celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary! We went away for the weekend to Louisville (where we got engaged). We went to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner (where we went for dinner after we got engaged), walked along the river, stayed downtown and explored Old Louisville and the downtown area), and went to a neat cave near Louisville (Squire Boone Caverns). It was especially sweet having Griffy along with us to celebrate.

Downtown Old Louisville

River Walk

Waterfront Park

Waterfront Park - Where we got engaged

Month 9:

Griffy weighs in at 18 lbs 14 oz (33%) and is 28.5" long (51%).
Griffy is on the move! He has mastered cruising around furniture and is VERY fast at crawling - especially when he's trying to get in something he shouldn't.
He LOVES being outside or out in public places. He will generally be very social and chatty, but when can be shy when addressed by other people.
Griffy has been sleeping through the night well this month! Sleep has been a struggle for this little guy - he just loves to snuggle with his mama and doesn't understand why she has to sleep at night as well and can't just snuggle him 😐
Griffy will now take sips from a sip cup consistently with meals.
Griffy consistently says "mama" 💓
Griffy will look at something when you point at it
Griffy loves to "feel" his touch & feel books - and is trying to turn pages (but isn't super accurate yet). He will take things out of a container, try to bang two objects together to make noise, and shuts "pop" toys.
His favorite books are touch & feel or "noise" books. His favorite toys are his activity box/table and tool bench (he loves practicing standing at them!) and little people characters (especially when teething).
He loves: going to the zoo (to people and animal watch), going on walks (he generally likes riding in his wagon or car for a few minutes but then prefers to still be on mama's hip in the sling), practicing standing/cruising, chasing our dog dog Ali (who is now a little wary of him since he's so on the move), and making a mess (e.g. pulling all our books off the bookshelf 😆).
Dislikes: Not a fan of car rides generally...and really doesn't like having to stop playing for diaper changes.
Griffy went camping at Prophetstown for the 1st time this month! He especially enjoyed getting to visit with Uncle Nate & Kendyl.

Here are some snapshots from this month!

Mama had to snap some photos of this sweet guy when we camped at Prophetstown because we had the BEST view!

Puppy love

Griffy LOVES the zoo

Helping mama with the dishes

We love playdates with friends!

This little guy loves to swing outside

Visit with Uncle Nate & Kendyl at Prophetstown

Mama loves this guys toothy grin

Month 10:

Griffy is generally very happy - though we definitely still have our moments too. He is becoming much more animated - when he is excited about something you can really tell! And vice versa for when he is upset 😜
Griffy hit some sleep regressions this month - mama ended up at Dunkin Donuts for coffee a little more than usual.
Griffy's favorite thing this month is standing at and pushing toys (or random objects) around and walking behind them. He especially loves to push his Jeep around the kitchen.
He has started to wave more and is saying dada more often this month.
Griffy got 4 top teeth this month...all in the span of 1-2 weeks! His favorite foods currently are sweet potatoes, yogurt, applesauce, and blueberries.
Favorite toys: He still really loves his touch & feel books - especially his halloween books as we gear up for his first halloween! He also loves his Jeep push/ride toy and his play kitchen.
This month we're loving: practicing walking and standing, dancing to "Baby shark" & ""Try Everything" with mama & dada, chasing our pup around, going to the zoo or camping, and swinging in our backyard. We still don't like diaper changes or love car rides.
Griffy got to celebrate a lot of fun fall festivities this month! He went to the pumpkin patch for the first time and loved picking out pumpkins. He also carved his first pumpkin with dada - he LOVED trying to throw the pumpkin guts and practicing standing and walking around his pumpkin. He also LOVED seeing the candle shining through his carved jack-o-lantern. We also celebrated Griffy's first Halloween by dressing him as (his fave!) a pup! We had chili at home and stayed in waiting for trick or treaters - because crazy enough we had snow! And Tim & I were excited not to have to go out in it - and Griffy was just as content not to go out as well, as he had fun having chili and playing in the warm living room.
Griffy was a ring bearer in two weddings this month! He was ring bearer with my niece and nephew in my cousin Nicole's wedding on Oct 12th first - he loved riding down the aisle in his wagon and smiling at everyone as he went by! Then he was a ring bearer in Tim's brother Chris and his wife Jess' wedding on Oct. 26th. Griffy enjoyed celebrating all the love and family!
We went on another trip to the Smokies this month as well and Griffy got his first "primitive" camping experience. We stayed in the Elkmont Campground in the National Park. We had SO much fun exploring the area and finally had a trip that had nice weather (it has rained almost every time we've been until this recent trip). We went to a lot of new areas of the park this time too! Some highlights of the trip:

Cataloochee - this was kind of like a smaller version of Cades Cove. It was a far (and sketchy) drive down winding gravel roads but was pretty neat once we got there. We got to see some Elk in this part of the park too!
Cherokee, NC- we stopped here to walk around downtown and get coffee. We also went to a trail nearby and saw Mingo Falls.
Bryce City, NC - We drove through here on our way to hike a pretty waterfall trail. We loved it - it was almost a "sleepier" version of Gatlinburg
Gatlinburg - We went into downtown a couple times early in the morning for coffee (Griffy woke up earlier than we could brew coffee in the morning usually - since we couldn't brew coffee until 8 am). We also went in for breakfast at Davy Crockett's Breakfast Camp one morning when Griffy woke up really early at 5:45...because sitting in a dark camper without coffee and with a wild baby isn't super fun. We also walked around the "Moonshine Holler" one night and got Ben & Jerry's ice cream (they have the best dairy free!)
Scenic Motor Trail - We drove this on our last morning in the park. At the very beginning of the trail, we actually got to see a bear walk across the street right in front of us!
Cades Cove - We spent one morning exploring Cades Cove - which is one of our favorite areas of the park! We didn't see a ton of wildlife but it was still a really pretty drive!
Ocanaluftee Visitor Center, Clingman's Dome, & Newfound Gap - We drove by and visited each of these on our way to/from Cherokee. We LOVED the drive and loved seeing Elk on the side of the road when we were closer to Cherokee. Griffy did surprisingly well with all the driving for these - luckily we were able to time naps to be during the really long parts of the drive.

On our way back to home we went over to Natural Bridge State Park/Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky and stayed the weekend. We got to see tons of pretty natural bridges - something neither of us had seen a ton of before!

Zoo Boo with dada

Zoo Boo Trip #1

First trip to the pumpkin patch! At Beasley's

The pumpkin patch is more interesting with a wiggly babe who is desperate to crawl through it

Griffy LOVED getting his pumpkin...and trying to hold (or lick) it

Fall walks are a little cozier with this guy on mama's hip

Lunch with Superman

Zoo Boo with Aunt Rach & Hendrix

The cutest pup and policeman

Nicole & Hugh's wedding with the cutest ring bearer!

The cutest ring bearers & flower girl for Nicole & Hugh's wedding!

Cherokee, NC

Hiking in the Smokies with dada

Clingman's Dome

Newofund Gap

Griffy's fave perch in the car

Mama got some campground cuddles!

Hiking in Cataloochee

Cades Cove

Smokies

Scenic Motor Trail in Gatlinburg

Cataloochee

Newfound Gap

Daniel Boone National Forest

Check out those top teeth!

All bundled up for some swinging

My best buddy

My forever dates at Chris & Jess' wedding

Griffy loved helping dada carve his pumpkin

I loved doing Halloween crafts with this guy!

Our pup on Halloween

This kid is hard to capture now that he's so on the move!

Griffy LOVED his jack-o-lantern

The sweetest skeleton

Throwback - mama was a pup for her 1st Halloween too

Month 11:

Griffy is still very happy and animated most the time. Mom & Dad are loving this phase of him being more of a "little ham".
He has still on & off been going through sleep regressions. There have been some nights he wouldn't sleep more than 2-3 hours before waking and wanting to be held again (and very vocally letting us know)...but we're hoping things are back on the upward swing.
Griffy will now stand on his own (without holding onto something) for a few seconds here and there. We have seen him try to stand up without using something to pull himself up as well and he has tried to take a few steps a couple times (but usually falls after a step or two). We have a feeling walking will come soon...maybe after it isn't so novel - right now he gets so excited to try to walk to mama or dada and he starts bouncing up and down and can't successfully take many steps because of it!
Griffy has started clapping..and it is one of the cutest things!
Loves: still loves practicing "walking", being around people and other kids especially, chasing Ali, and dancing to baby shark. Dislikes: diaper and outfit changes, still doesn't love car rides (but is getting much better!).
We are celebrating 11 months of breastfeeding and still going strong! After all the challenges we had at the start with breastfeeding, I am so thankful that we are able to at this place - where it is a time I savor with Griffy.