The Blog is moving

The blog is moving to a new home. We've outgrown blogger and need to move someplace else, so we have more space. It is now located at http://gremlin.blava.org. All of the old posts, pictures, videos, and comments have been copied over. If I can figure out how to get it working properly I will have the old address setup to redirect to the new site. If there is something that isn't working correctly on the new site, please let me know.

Happy Holidays!!

What a fun and busy month this has been! Gremlin isn't old enough to truly grasp the idea of Santa and Christmas, but he is old enough to play with new toys (or the boxes that they came in) and to enjoy having family members love on him.

Our first round of Christmas was the second week of December when Grammy K and Grandpa Ted came to visit. Corrigan especially enjoyed the tub o' cars that he received and he has happily dumped them out and put them back in many, many times.

Fun times with Grammy K & Grandpa Ted

Putting my cars in the bucket

And dump them back out again!

For Bryan and I, the best part was having overnight babysitters in the house - woo hoo!! We escaped to Hot Springs for a date night and enjoyed a relaxing bath at the Quapaw Bathhouse then a fabulous dinner at Central Park Fusion. Being the crazed party animals that we are, we were in bed by 8:30 p.m. ... and sleeping.

Date Night for Mom & Dad

It turns out that Gremlin did quite nicely without us despite his recent issues with separation anxiety. At one point I texted Grammy asking how he was doing, and got this picture in response.

Napping on Grandpa Ted

Once we came home, Gremlin unfortunately reverted back to his "don't touch me or pick me up if you're not my parents" self. It's a phenomenon Grandma Susan refers to as being "second class citizens" when Bryan or I are around.

Christmas Round Two was our trip up to Fayetteville the weekend before Christmas to see Grandpa Tom and Grandma Susan.

Corrigan spent most of his time "barking" at Danny the dalmatian and avoiding the wet doggie kisses of Maggie. We tried to get him excited about ripping the wrapping paper off of gifts, but he didn't seem to really understand that it was supposed to be great fun. Apparently it's only fun when he tears up my new magazines or an unpaid bill.

Silly Maggie trying to steal Corrigan's cheerios!

Hmmm, this shape goes here!

Ripping off the paper

I'll just play with the tissue!

Starting to figure out that we want him to tear the paper

When the corn popper was opened (and who of you didn't have one of these when you were a kid?? or buy one for your kids??) it took him a while to figure out how to make it go. Once Grandpa Tom showed him a few times, he was quickly pushing and pulling it all over the living room. It makes him smile so big, it's easy to ignore the noise :)

The last bit of Christmas was our little family's Christmas morning. I worked an overnight shift at the hospital and got home just as he was waking up (the true Christmas miracle is when he sleeps all night ...but that's for another post). We had presents under the tree for him to unwrap from Great Grandma B and Grandma & Grandpa Slightom. Bryan and I had gotten him one gift as well though it wasn't like he needs any more toys at this point!! He played pretty hard with all of his new accumulated loot and I started packing up things he has outgrown or not interested in anymore.

Lookie! A present from Illinois!Hurry up and put this one together Daddy!

Ah, the car goes here!

Drink milk or play with the toy that makes noise?

Mommy REALLY wants me to open my own gift

After Corrigan had all of his gifts opened, Bryan and I exchanged stockings. I got an awesome new PlayStation 3 game, SingStar ABBA. Basically it's ABBA karaoke with really horrible late 1970s videos - it rocks!! As soon as the turkey was in the oven, I started belting out the best tunes of the disco era. Corrigan apparently is a star in the making, because as soon as I started singing, he grabbed the second mic and wanted to duet.Take a chance on me?

Mamma Mia! Here I go again!

Going for the solo ... or maybe just a nibble?

Overall it has been a nice holiday season. For me, my favorite part is seeing him run around the house in his Christmas jammies! That little smile and giggle is like no other! I should also mention that shockingly he has COMPLETELY ignored our Christmas tree. We put it up while Grammy K & Grandpa Ted were here and I was dreading it because I just *knew* that he wouldn't leave it alone. We had been talking since Thanksgiving about how we were going to blockade it from little fingers. Turns out there was no need because he has never so much as touched it! For toddler and dog safety, I didn't put any ornaments on the bottom third of the tree,but still I would never have dreamed that he would ignore it. He did take a shine to the two wind chime ornaments on Grandma Susan's tree, but once they were moved out of his reach, he didn't bother her tree either.

I'm almost sad to have it all come to an end because there really is nothing better than a Christmas Gremlin, don't you agree?

Seasons Greetings to Everyone!

Sometimes he sleeps

Though admittedly he is much better, we still deal with Gremlin waking at least once though generally 2 - 3 times at night.

He can still nap with the best of them however as evidenced by this picture. What a sweet, napping baby who doesn't even flinch as the roofers literally pound the Hell out of the ceiling above us. The walls are shaking, the dogs are quaking, and Gremlin just sighs and rolls over :)

Random Gremlin Photos

Since I've been negligent about posting, I thought I'd give everyone a few random recent Gremlin pictures to peruse.

Go Daddy Go!!

This past weekend was "family race weekend!" I did a 10k on Saturday and Bryan did his FIRST MARATHON on Sunday!! It was a great weekend because not only did we get to race, but we were in Springfield, MO and stayed with my Grandma Drake. Gremlin got to meet his Great-Grandma Bertie, his Great Aunt Shirley and Great Uncle Skip plus all of the Drake cousins.

Even though we stayed with Great-Grandma Bertie all weekend, he always stayed slightly out of her reach. He would smile at her, offer her a toy or a cheerio, but wasn't in a mood to be held. We finally got a photo op which was awesome!

At 87 years old, Bertie is his "most mature" grandparent. She still lives on her own and is in great health. Her husband, my Grandpa Drake, passed away 5 years ago and was the inspiration for Gremlin's second middle name.

He also really took to all of the Drake cousins and let Reagan hold him as seen to the left.  She declared that, "I don't like kids - I don't want any kids (spoken like a wise 13 year old) ... but I like Corrigan."

He must have sensed that Rhonda was a well experienced mother of three, because he went right up to her for cuddles and hugs! She loved it given that her baby is now in grade school! With the boys, Reece and Keno, he was running around, yelling, climbing on them and just having a great time. It was really fun to see everyone and to have them meet our little dude!

The biggest part of the weekend, however, was cheering for Bryan at his big race!! We were at the start to watch him head out then Gremlin and I drove all around Springfield trying to catch him at various parts of the course. We just missed him at mile 7 but caught him at miles 10, 15 and 20. I carried extra supplies for Bryan and Gremlin just came along to smile at all the passing runners. He really got a kick out of all the activity, and while waiting at mile 20, he happily sat in the grass along the trail and ate cheerios. He would occasionally make his happy yelling noise which gave more than one passing runner a chuckle (and getting any kind of chuckle is impressive 20 miles into a marathon).

Bryan had been super smiley at 10 and 15, but by mile 20 the smiles were gone. He was still well on track with his race pace, and we headed to the finish to cheer him right to the end. Bryan did GREAT!! He was hoping to run in 4 hours and 30 minutes, and ended up with 4:33 which is amazing!! There was a lot of excitement at the finish line - an announcer, music, crowds and cheering. Gremlin really enjoyed all of it! As you can see from the pictures he was also super proud of his Daddy. It's almost as if he's saying, "I can't wait to grow up and run too!"

All in all, a fantastic family weekend.

Red Wagon

Look who got a wagon from Grandpa & Grandma Slightom!

Gremlin rolls like that

Our BOB jogging stroller has really gotten a lot of use this year! With Bryan training for his first marathon and me training for my first post-Gremlin half-marathon, there are lots of times where we have to run with the Gremlin. I first put Gremlin in it when he was about 2 and 1/2 months old and started taking him for short jaunts. Nowadays, he's good for routine hour long workouts and has gone as far as 8 miles with Bryan (Daddy takes him along if I'm still at work from the night before).  We've attached some toy links to the stroller so he has something to grab and play with, and for longer workouts I always have a sippy cup ready to be mixed if he starts to get hungry.

He has gotten grumpy once or twice but it's generally when he has a dirty diaper (a spare is always carried) or it's naptime and he's fighting it. When he does fall asleep, I just recline the seat a bit and he snoozes quite comfortably.  I think it's good for him to get the fresh air and he generally seems to enjoy seeing the scenery, especially when we're on the busy River Trail. We also have a weather shield that keeps him dry when we're running in the rain - he's nice and dry when Mom or Dad are soaking wet!

We started logging the miles we run with the stroller so that at the end of the year, we can easily calculate Gremlin's mileage. That boy is gonna have a lot of miles on him before he can even run!

Here's a pic from yesterday's family workout. We took turns going for a run with Gremlin while the other one went for a bike ride. The family that works out together, stays together!