BIG BOY STUFF

Now that Griffin is a year old, we are marking all kinds of "big boy" milestones. We recently took both boys to get real haircuts, a first for Griffin. Cal's first one went well - they handed him a toy and he barely noticed what was happening after that. Apparently Griffin is far ahead of his brother in the self-awareness category....Things did not go well. Cal has been a screaming nightmare for all of his haircuts except the first. This one was no different. We wonder when he'll grow out of it. Griffin hated it about as much. We tried everything possible to distract him - a litany of toys, cookies, songs. Nothing worked. WARNING: These are some of the most pitiful photos you will ever see on the internet.

Our next big boy milestone is big boy underwear. No, Griff is not ready for potty training (darn!). But Cal is showing some interest so we are trying to move him along - 2 in diapers is about to break us! The one thing Cal has not wanted to do yet is to actually put on the big boy underwear we bought at the store with Nana the last time she was here. For some reason he had a real mental block about it and was really emotional about it everytime we raised it. So I finally tried a crazy idea and put a pair on Griffin, thinking this would motivate Cal to do the same. It worked! He was very excited about it once he saw Griffin in the underwear. So he wore them around for a while and took them off before bed and hasn't put them back on since. Oh well. Nice try.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRIFFIN!
We still can't believe how fast it flew by but Griff is now a whole year old! We celebrated with a small family get together at a local "playnasium" (I never knew there was such a thing PK (pre-kids)). For those who are unaware of this concept, a playnasium is a brilliant/goldmine concept of renting some really cheap warehouse space and filling it permanently with bouncy houses, inflatable slides and other such contraptions. These places also have party rooms or tables you can rent for birthday parties and some of them allow you to just pay for the day and play for no good reason. We found a place in FAR south Austin (but totally worth the drive) called Goin' Bananas that will allow you to do "free play" on Saturday for $7 a kid and bring in all the food you want. Since cousin Russell's birthday is just a couple of weeks after Griff's, the Fort Worth Phillips clan drove down for the weekend and we took all three cousins, made our own cakes, brought in our own balloons and had a great party with very little fuss or hassle factor. Just what every 1 year old needs! Goin' Bananas also has small plastic play houses and play equipment so even the littlest guys can find something fun to do there. Cal & Russell had a blast in the bouncy houses, etc. but Griff was not quite ready for them and didn't really enjoy it when mom & dad took him on a few of them. He did really like the small slide just his size and a playhouse more his speed. He loved climbing the stairs up a small plastic slide, walking through the platform and scooting himself down the slide over and over. SUPER cute. Everybody had a blast at the party and the parents managed to enjoy themselves as well. Mom made Griff a chocolate "1" cake and Gramma made Russell a lemon "3" cake. Both tasted great. Thanks to the Fort Worth Phillipses for making the drive and making it a great party!

BYE BYE 'BECA-
In early January our nanny Rebeca moved out and went back to Houston to live for her family and start a "real" job. Griffin enjoyed his time with her and will miss her "kissing attacks." Our new nanny, Kristin, started with us and things are going fine. Griffin is teaching her all of his tricks like going up and down the stairs (and up and down and up and down and...) and eating entire cans of mandarin oranges in one sitting. Our friend Katherine's baby Jack (2 months) will join us later in January for a nanny-share arrangement to make it a little more affordable to keep Griff at home for a while. The legislative session begins in mid-January so mommy and daddy's lives are about to get really busy. Having a nanny around the house will help us manage things there a little better.

BUBBLES

Here's a fun video of one of Griff's first experiences with bubbles (which he got in his stocking). He is fascinated. I apologize if this film seems jumpy - we have a new camera that we've had some technical difficulties with and we are testing out the video with this post. Also our Phillips Family photos we took in OKC over the Christmas holiday are included.

There is also a variety of photos here of the boys just playing around the house. They are loving all their new toys - the playscape is a huge hit and Cal wants to play on "his playground" every day. Griff loves his tabletop music station with xylaphone & cymbals. They also love the trucks with trailers and cages with animals in them which was an oddly coincidental theme of gifts from both sides of the family this year. Cal also got playdough from everyone and he LOVES his playdough station at home. Cal starts pottytraining at school this week which should be interesting to say the least. Will keep you posted!! Bring 7 clean outfits every day - EEK! I don't think we own 7 outfits for this cold weather.