first food | Our Armstrong Family

What another busy and fun week we’ve had! As you can see, Reid is enjoying the holiday season and his first round of so many fun family traditions. He also had avacado for the first time this week as you can see what remains on his face for this picture. He’s pretty curious about it and is good at picking it up and getting it in his mouth. From there he makes the funniest faces, gags (which I REALLY don’t like but know is normal), and then spits most of it out as he’s using how to use his tongue to move food around. He’s just got the best smile :).

Throughout the week this week we tackled our tree and got it all decorated. Each year after Kevin gets the lights on, Griffin gets to choose the first ornament to put on the tree. It’s so much fun to open the box of ornaments that are his and remember each one and why he was given it. This year he chose a new ornament that he had picked out on Black Friday shopping with Kevin – a moose! He really does love decorating the tree and says the cutest things. I usually hold him up on my shoulders so he can decorate higher up on the tree and then we get on a ladder at some point too. This year he was so excited to get on the ladder and he went super high up all on his own without any encouragement. Once he got up he said “I’m a brave man” shortly followed by “okay, it’s kinda scary up here I think I want to get down!”. But he stuck it out and hung some ornaments on the tree. We save the ones all the way at the top for Daddy since you have to basically be on the top step of the ladder and then reach high! I love sneaking in to Reid’s room and checking on him at night. This picture is fuzzy since it was taken in mostly dark, but this night he was clutching his bunny. He honestly doesn’t seem to care if he has it or not, which is fine by us, but I thought this was cute :). Here are the boys one morning after Kevin and I headed off to work. It brought a smile to my face! Debbie is really good about doing art projects and painting. It’s also fun that Griffin and Sam are old enough to take pictures of things now too! Here is Reid stamping his reindeer feet for his reindeer project. Paci’s everywhere, eh? But at least this way he soothes himself when he wakes up and decides he has to have one! He’s definitely a tummy sleeper and moves around in his bed a TON. The pacifiers regularly fall out of his bed (er, he throws them out or drops them when he’s banging them against the slats!) so having multiples is a good thing. He also prefers the 0-6 month pacifiers as the 6+ month ones have a new shape with a little roundness to the end. I’ve found that he will take them when he’s happy, but if he’s tired or fussy he will put one it and take it right out and try another. Kinda fun to watch on the video monitor. And here we are in our unplanned but color coordinated winter pajamas! This week I took Griffin to school a couple days which was fun as he was Top Banana! He was super bashful about me wanting to take his picture but I got it nonetheless. As I’ve probably mentioned time and time again, Brutus is always in the midst of the action. He just begs for attention by inserting himself into every situation and he absolutely loves to lay on Reid’s blankets when they are on the floor. Reid isn’t really pulling himself up yet, but if you prop him up against something he’ll hang tough for a few seconds. He is more inclined to bounce his little legs and do a dance than stand still. I really enjoyed picking Griffin up from school and hanging out at home. One afternoon it was a terribly yucky weather day out so we snuggled up on the couch and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was the perfect thing. I had Finn model his Thanksgiving hat from school before we watched our movie. Shall we say, I’m not the best about emptying his folder each day after school. We’re enjoying our new couch and in particular sitting in our family room on quiet evenings after Reid and Finn are in bed for the night. There isn’t anything better than a Christmas tree, blanket, and hot beverage!On Saturday Kevin and Finn (and Brutus and Lily for 2 minutes) went out and raked up our leaves in the front yard and walkway to clean things up for our guests. Finn loved jumping in the pile, Brutus wasn’t quite sure what to do, and Lily sniffed around and then was happy to come back inside. Later that morning we had our annual Candy Making Party at our house with Mom and Dad, the Bethunes, Mannings, Conrads, and Ryans. It’s one of my favorite Christmas traditions and of course all about family and treats. Mom planned and made some super cute crafts with the kids, we decorated sugar cookies, made buckeyes, four flavors of hard tack (sassafras, lemon, peppermint, and cinnamon), and caramel pretzel bites. It was constant motion for several hours but tons of fun! Reid was a great napper during the party which was a great help! Then when he was up he was a happy guy and a hit with everyone who was here. The Ryans brought us a beautiful flower arrangement too. Such a thoughtful gift and so pretty! My favorite are the hypericum berries.

Griffin continues to sleep really well at night – anywhere from 8-10 hours. We’ve been starting the night time routine of eating followed by bath time a bit earlier. He is typically in bed between 9:30 and 10 pm. For awhile now each night he migrates toward one end of his crib and most nights the “alarm” that is connected to a sensor under his mattress would go off. He had moved far enough that the sensor couldn’t sense his movement or breathing. I mentioned this to my sister the other day and she told me they had moved theirs to the area that Greta moves toward and I was like “duh!” why don’t we do that?! And it’s been great ever since! When he is awake he likes to be out and about moving around. He can get anywhere he wants, but isn’t yet full fledged “crawling” with his belly up off the floor just yet. However, he is always trying to pull himself up – like this!

Kevin’s “go live” date of October 1 came and went rather uneventfully! The weeks preceding he had spent some really LONG days (which more literally were days and nights) working to get things ready for the deadline. All in all the project is going quite well and we are all thankful for that. He has had a much less busy week this past week which has been great. He’s had a bit of time to rest and recover from the long days and we enjoy seeing him in the evenings! Since we’ve all been together for dinner we decided to give Griffin “real” food for the first time on Monday night – avacado! It’s a bit of a soft food, and just a wee bit messy, but that’s part of the fun, right?! He played with it a lot, smashed it and smeared it on the tray, put it to his mouth and licked it several times, and of course made some good funny faces. All in all hardly ate any – but had some fun in the process.

The President’s Cup festivities were happening this week in Dublin. Wednesday evening we headed over to Fore Fest in Old Dublin where they closed the streets and had a festival. It included 5 stages of live bands/music, food trucks, beer tents, and my personal favorite – a cupcake vendor that I learned about on Facebook, Little Star Cupcakes. They are delish! I had the pumpkin one, of course!

Griffin is talking and babbling alot more in the last week. Especially first thing in the morning or when he wakes from naps. Usually it is pretty quiet chatter but he can get loud when we feels like it!

Friday night was date night so we dropped Finn off at Chez Bethune and we headed to see Gravity in 3D at the Easton Dine-In Theaters.Saturday we had a fun family day. We started by going to pick apples and check out the market at Lynd’s Fruit farm. We picked Red and Golden Delicious apples. They are pretty tasty and were super plentiful so the actual picking only took about 5 minutes! We dodged rain drops in the car both before and after we picked. Then we spent some time at the market where they offer a huge selection of local produce, amish baked goods and cheeses, gourds, pumpkins, and pretty much anything you would think you might find at a farmer’s market.

While we were in the car feeding Finn we thought, hey, why not make a day of it and go to Young’s Jersey Dairy Farm in Yellow Springs to pick pumpkins and have some ice cream?! So we hit the road and called Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong, and Uncle Brett and Aunt Missy to let them know we were headed their direction. Everyone was able to meet us at Young’s where we spent a couple of hours taking in the farm happenings. All in all a really fun day!