Sept. 29....a good day!

Two years ago today, my sister Susan got married! The good news was...Jenny and I inherited a new "brother." Despite all the arguing about Alabama/Miss.State, we love Jon to death and are so glad he is a part of our family!
Happy 2nd Anniversary to two of my favorite people!

NOW...aren't y'all ready for one of THESE!!???
Grady needs a little cousin!

Four Months Old!

Time is flying! Grady turned four months old today! He is doing really well sitting up in his bumbo seat. Of course, he's not quite ready to sit up unassisted. But he is really working on holding his head up on his own! He is such a happy little guy! He still can be a "spitter" and we are HOPING that soon he will outgrow that and also start sleeping through the night consistently! We've had a few wonderful nights when he's slept from like 11:00 until about 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. Hopefully he can start to make that a regular thing soon!

Do I look like my dad, or WHAT!?

Here's a video of our little talker! He will get on a roll sometimes and just babble on forever! Most days when I get the camera out to try and catch his "talking," he will stop and just stare at me and the camera with a "blank look." Today, he chose to keep on babbling!

Playtime in the Crib!

He may not be sleeping there yet (AGHHHHH!!!!!), but Grady LOVES to play in his crib!

Grandparents Day

These pictures are long overdue, but I wanted to post them anyway. We enjoyed getting to take Grady to visit his grandparents for Grandparents Day a couple of weeks ago. On Saturday night, he went over to Grana and Pops' house to eat supper and watch the MSU/ Auburn game.

Faye and I kept aggravating Josh during the game, taking pictures of him and Grady lounging out watching the game. It was too cute!

On Sunday, we loaded up and took Grady's first trip to Yazoo City to see DeeDee, Pete, and Papaw. I was worried he may not make it an hour in the car without being fussy since we hadn't gone that far with him yet, but he did GREAT!

Susan took a family picture for us since we don't have that many yet. I think Grady-man was about tired of picture-taking at this point...Oh well, we tried!

Even though he can't say it yet, Grady loves his grandparents! We love y'all, too! Thanks so much for all you guys do for him and for us! We are so blessed to have you in our lives!

Happy Birthday!

No, this isn't Grady! It's Josh...about 30 years ago! Josh turned the big 3-0 today! Happy, happy birthday! And many more!

Grady said "Who cares about the candles? Somebody just cut me a slice of that cake!"

Growing Little Man

This little man is growing like a weed! He will be 14 weeks old on Monday. He is getting so heavy, I think I am going to have to move his carseat from the middle of my backseat to one of the sides. It gets harder and harder for me to get him in and out! As far as sleeping through the night...we haven't quite made it yet! There have been a few glorious nights when he's slept from like 11 p.m. until 6 a.m. and those have been SOOOOO wonderful and appreciated! But also few and far between! ha! You never know with him. It's different every night. This little face just makes me smile!

Grady-man has a very busy social life... he has already been to 2 birthday parties and has two more on his calendar! We got home yesterday afternoon and checked the mail to find another birthday party invitation from his cousin Jayden. Grady wanted to read it for himself to get all the details! ha!

Last week, Josh had Grady on a mat practicing crawling. Yesterday, we attempted sitting up in the bumbo seat for the first time! Poor kid...he never gets a rest! Mom and Dad are always making him try SOMETHING new! He is working very hard at holding his head up! I know it will still be a while, but he tries so hard and it's just too cute to watch him practice! Here are some pictures and a video!

Happy Labor Day!

Thank goodness for a long weekend! That extra day yesterday was MUCH needed and I enjoyed hanging out with my family SO much! Grady and Josh watched Hoosiers yesterday (Aunt Jenny, you'd be so proud!) as they dreamed about Grady becoming a basketball star one day. Thanks for the basketball shorts and shirt, Uncle Jon! I can't believe he is already wearing this outfit! Jon and Susan brought it to him a while back. The little basketball shorts are size 9-months and they already fit the growing little man!

Josh decided that he was going to start "teaching" Grady to crawl this weekend. HA! Yeah, right! This was a rather entertaining event, so I had to break out the camera. Poor little guy can't quite hold his head up enough yet, but Dad-the-coach made him try anyway! As you can see from the video, we've got a LONG way to go!

Go Dawgs!

Since the last MSU football game of the 2008 season (last fall in November), Josh and my dad have done not much else but talk about the upcoming football season at MSU for 2009! The closer it's gotten to football season being here, the more they've talked about it. Well today it finally arrived! For those of you who didn't know, we go to EVERY game EVERY year...rain or shine. But this year with the newest addition to the Hammer family, Mom and I decided to just get one ticket for the two of us because we figured we wouldn't go much, if at all, this season.

There was no way I was taking Grady to a football game in this Mississippi heat in September during the middle of the day...(MUCH to Dad's and Josh's disappointment!) Well, Josh INSISTED that Grady dress to show his support, even though he wasn't going to be there in person. So he wore his maroon monogrammed outfit (Thanks, Kim and David!) and we taught him to ring...(well, just hold) a cowbell. I think it's a little big and I will definitely look for him a smaller kid-sized cowbell the next time I am in Starkville! The boy HAS to learn to ring one! ha! Go Dawgs!

3 Months Old!

I am three months old today! My new favorite things are:

pulling my own pacifier out and putting it back in
grinning at Mom and Dad
looking/laughing at myself in the mirror
kicking my feet constantly as hard as I can
chewing on my fists
watching cartoons on Saturday morning with my dad

Pete and DeeDee brought me this special shirt all the way from NewYork! It's my very first baseball jersey! Mom and Pete are going to take me to Yankee Stadium as soon as I am big enough to go! I've got to see the ballpark where I'll play 1st base one day!

Aunt Jenny, this video is for you! Mom's been trying to catch me smiling so you can see it on video! I miss you! Come see me soon!
Love
Grady

11 weeks old!

Hard to believe that little man is 11 weeks old today! People told me that time would fly and boy has it! People also told me not to wish away the time when he is a baby because it will go by so fast and you'll wake up one day and wonder how he got so big so fast. That is so true! I mean, I could DEFINITELY use some more sleep still (we're STILL not sleeping through the night...) BUT, he has grown up SO much and changed SO much over the past few weeks! It's so neat to watch him change before our eyes!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately! School has kind of taken over my life during the past couple of weeks. It is alot harder than I ever thought it would be to switch to a new grade in a new school, all with the responsibility of being a new MOM! Hopefully things will calm down soon. I've continued to take lots of pictures, but just haven't had the time to post them!

Aunt Susan brought Grady this outfit a while back, but it was a size 6-9 month and I put it in the drawer for later on. However, the growing little booger is already wearing this size!!! And he's not even 3 months yet! Yikes, we are going to have a tall little man on our hands! Anyway, today was his first time to wear this shirt, Aunt Sue... and I thought it was the PERFECT outfit for Grady-man! It seems that every day I pick the little guy up from Granny Gail's house in the afternoons, he has had to change his clothes because he is a little "fountain" at EVERY diaper change! At our house, we have "tee-tee tee-pees" for this purpose... maybe I should send some in Grady's bag to Granny Gail's house! He is a little stinker! He just LOOKS mischievous in this picture!

The Man in the Mirror

One of Grady's most favorite things these days is to check himself out in the mirror! This absolutely cracks me up! He still hates to be burped sometimes after we feed him, so one day, I tried taking him into our bathroom with all of the big mirrors and bright lights. He is fascinated by lights and this seemed to keep him from squirming and refusing to burp. So I kept on taking him in there after bottles. Then I started to realize that he LOVES to look in the mirror! He will look at me sometimes, but usually, it's his own face that he giggles at! It is so funny! He is captivated by his own reflection...

Dad and me!

Grady has managed to catch his first "cold" over the past week or so. I guess it was just getting used to being around other kids at daycare or just allergies or something. He hasn't seemed to care very much, but has been kind of congested, especially right when he wakes up. He has been a little trooper, though! Josh has had a cold too. He claims Grady gave it to him. Grady claims he caught the cold from Dad! ha! The little sicklings hung out together in the recliner all day Sunday!

Being Good is Boring!

I still love to spit!

Put 'em up!

Back to Work!

Our little man is growing up! This was my first week back to work officially...(hence the whole week of no posts on the blog!) What a long week! New school, changing from Kindergarten to 3rd grade, plus baby at home has been enough to exhaust me more than EVER! I am running on empty and SO glad it's Friday so I can spend the weekend with my family and just rest!

Grady has done SUCH a great job adjusting to his new schedule this week. I was worried about how he would do, but he has been so wonderful and so sweet! We had originally planned to go the daycare route, but we have been so blessed to have found the most wonderful mom/daughter who team up and keep a few children in their home and that is where Grady stays while Josh and I are working. Every day that I have gone to pick him up, he has greeted me with the biggest grin (except for one day that he was sleeping!) It makes my whole day to get to "Granny Gail's house" to see this little man that I've waited all day long to see! I could just eat him up! Look how big our little guy is now!
When school starts back up, I am always a crazy person for the first few weeks... there is SO much to do. With all my changes in schools/grades, I've been stressed to the limits! Josh has been SO great to take care of Grady at night so I can get work done! He feeds him, makes his bottles, packs his bags for the next day, and has EVEN changed some dirty diapers (yes, Viola...he still uses the face mask! ha!) Grady LOVES his dad! I think he looks like Josh more and more every day!

Two Months Old!

It is so hard to believe that Grady turned two months old on Monday! We go for his 2-month check-up tomorrow. I can't wait to see how much he weighs now. Josh got on the scale this weekend and then held Grady and got on the scale again to see if he could get an estimate of his weight by looking at the difference. He said he thinks Grady is about 12 pounds! He doesn't look like he weighs that much, but he is so long that I guess it is possible!

Yesterday, my dad brought Papaw over to visit with Grady! He hadn't seen him for over a month and kept talking about how "heavy" he was now! Papaw was so cute holding him! He is just in love with his little great grandson! I love watching him with Grady!

Dad (Pete) and Grady...

Several people have asked me where "Pete" came from. No, it's not my dad's name, but it's what my granddaddy called him for some reason. And it's what all of his family calls him as well. So that's what he picked out for his "granddaddy name!" I think it's just perfect! It will definitely be easy for Grady to say!