Build-A-Bear, Disney, and Spider Man! Oh My!!

Im trying to play catch-up, as Whitney had her first day of school today and I really want to get that updated here before I forget all the cute things she said and did :) 

This was the scene about a week ago right before Eric headed out the door to work.  Grady just lights up when we talk to him no matter what time of day :) 

And not to be left out, Bailey and Whitney had to get in on the Daddy action :) 

Someone got their first Clemson hat in the mail!! The first game is Sept. 1st and I. Cant. WAIT! 

Clearly, Grady is excited, too :) 

A few weeks ago, on a rainy morning, I just couldnt stomach the idea of sitting inside on one of Whitney's last Summer days before school started.  We havent done any Mommy/Whitney dates since Grady came home, so I asked my parents to watch Grady for a few hours while Whitney and I headed to the mall to hit up Build-A-Bear.  

She was VERY excited....but I might have been even more excited :) 

We held hands and she skipped through the mall, singing about Build A Bear and thanking me for bringing her. :) She had no real concept of what we were about to do, but I dont think she cared.  It sounded fun and it meant she got Mommy all to herself.  

She knew right away that she wanted a puppy. Not a bear or a kitty or a monkey or an alligator. JUST a puppy.  Thankfully, they had the cutest, softest puppy in the world :) 

She was sold right away and wouldve gladly left the store with her new stuffing-less friend right then and there.  She was SO excited!

We had to wait for one or two bears to get their stuffing, but the entire process took less than 20 minutes from start to finish, and the experience was really priceless.  I was pleasantly surprised at the prices, and even happier to hear Whitney say "No Thank you, I just want dis dwess" when I asked her if she wanted a second outfit for her new puppy. 

She whispered her wish in the puppy's ear:

"I wish my mommy would buy me dat Ariel outfit for my puppy!"

Wish: GRANTED!!

We had so much fun laughing :) 

She was happy to give her puppy a bath, and told me she took a long time because she had to wash behind his ears..."and he has VEWY WONG ears, Mommy!" (very long :))

I wouldve paid $500 for this experience.  Thankfully I left spending less than $40. 

She was happy to show "Ariel" her new outfit.  I think Ariel was pleased :) 

SOOOO in love...and I have to admit..I love her choices :) 

One of my recent favorites:

And while Mommy and Whitney lived large, Grady was a champ for Mac and Gramps.  All smiles :) 

Of course, I wasnt surprised that Ariel's hair ended up on Little Bro's head....I WAS surprised that it took almost 24 hours. 

He didnt even mind :) This personality will serve him well as he grows up with Whitney as a big sister. 

I had to snap a pic of Whitney in her leotard and pettiskirt on the way to ballet class :) 

Sir Grady has been escaping his swaddle lately.  He doesnt fuss or cry when I swaddle him at night.  And he doesnt appear to struggle to break free, as its a silent event.  But Ive gone to get him in the morning and he has been unswaddled and lookin' like he got in a fight with a cat overnight.  No matter HOW short I get his nails, he manages to gouge an eye or scratch a big red line across his sweet face.

I think he could sleep unswaddled as he has better control of his arms, but I knew he would wake himself up if he scraped his face in his sleep.  So I laid him down to sleep with little Spider Man socks on his hands.  He didnt mind one bit and it meant he could wake scrape-free. :) This is how the night started: 

When I went to check on him about an hour later, Spider Man had managed to twist himself sideways. I had no clue he could do this so I was a bit surprised. 

I swaddled him and put him back between his wedge pillow to make sure he didnt shimmy all over the crib throughout the night and end up face-first in the bumper.  

About an hour after swaddling, he had managed to turn himself sideways and moved about 10 inches in his sleep.

And the next morning:

Clearly the events of the night were just a regular party for Mr. Bass. :) 

I used to take WAY more pictures than I used to, but I needed to find a way to start organizing all of our pictures year after year, as I knew two kids would mean twice the pictures.  I decided on Shutterfly albums for each year.  I completed these before Grady came home, but almost 6 months later I still flip through them about once a week.  And 9 out of 10 visitors will sit on the couch and thumb through them, commenting on pages and memories. One of my best investments, for sure.  If our house is on fire, I will grab these photobooks. (After my children and dog, of course.)

I give each month a full two-page spread and then add as many pics as possible from each month.  Its funny how one picture can spark an entire day's worth of memories. It took a while to upload all of our pics to Shutterfly, but now I just upload once a month and will do the book at the end of the year each year.  

I have been keeping track, and we have visited the Disney parks ten times this year.  Eric says we are slackin' :) I blame the first five months of the year dealing with pregnancy and a newborn.  We are making up for lost time though, as Grady has now been to Disney five times before he turns 4 months. Not bad :) 

We headed to Epcot last weekend on one of those last minute visits with our favorite neighbors.  Everyone had such a fun time, and even though we've all been their countless times, it never gets old. 

This is Julie.  She rocks.  She and I are training for the half marathon together. I love her. :)

The girls and Daisy :) Whitney is deep in the trenches of an Ariel phase.  Snow White still makes appearances regularly, but Ariel is pretty popular. 

LOVE these kids!

And yesterday after church and lunch, we were all excited to head to Downtown Disney to see Jake and the Neverland Pirates Band with Sharky and Bones!!

If you have a child under the age of ten, you likely know who these guys are. Yes, our choice of concerts has changed dramatically over the years, but we wouldnt have it any other way :) 

Grady was ready in his pirate hat and shorts :) 

And though the skies looked like they were about to DUMP on us, the rain and storms held off long enough and we were able to sit outside and watch the whole show!

ARRRRRGGGH ya ready for the show, Matey!?

Whitney was having so much fun dancing and singing along!

Does it get better!?

And on the way home, as per usual, Grady needed to eat about halfway home.  I crawled into the backseat and squeeeeezed in between the two car seats (I dont recommend) and fed Grady while making memories with a silly, giggly Whitney:

And Grady thought it was So! Much! Fun! to have Mommy in the backseat to laugh and sing to him, he almost didnt want to take his bottle :) 

And Im fairly certain we have one of those "He's ALLLL boy" kids on our hands.  Grady LOVES the remote control for the television. He LOVES TV (especially Mickey and Curious George). And the Dude LOOOVES my phone. LOVES. I found an app for infants. It is black and white backgrounds with bright balls and stars that bounce around and make the phone vibrate.  Its essentially a high-tech, very pricey rattle.  Dude loves. 

And to even-out his video-game time, we took the Meatball in the pool for the first time this weekend! We put his feet in a few times, but this time he actually went IN the pool...and he liked it!

He is very much like his Daddy in that he takes in the whole situation before deciding if he likes it or if its a bust, so he was very serious but decided it was a good thing in the end :) 

We had more smiles but its tough to capture smiles in the sunlight/with a hat/etc. I assure you, the Meatball likey. 

I will be back SOON with Whitney's first day of school pics and stories. And this weekend I will have FOUR Month pics for the Meatball! :)