My little guy turned five years old today! He still seems so little to me, not nearly big enough to be starting kindergarten in the fall. This little boy adds so much to our family. He is very funny and loves to make people laugh. He also loves music and still finds anything to use as drum sticks. He is so different from the other two boys (who are so different from each other) I never thought it was possible to have three opposites who are also so similar at the same time. He loves his big brothers and is looking all the time to find ways to be like them.
This was my last pregnancy and I knew it would be before we even got pregnant. It was a pretty easy pregnancy like the other two though my body was so familiar with being pregnant that it jumped ahead of itself with many of the aches and pains. I was due on March 4th but was sure that this one would be early especially when, at the beginning of February, the doctor checked and I was beginning to dilate. With the other two this meant that baby would come in about two weeks. Two weeks later I was at a 3 which meant baby would be here in a couple of days. WRONG! The baby I was hoping to have by Leap Day was still cozy in my tummy on my due date, and then on MY birthday. Two days later (and a couple of appointments when the doctor said "I'd be surprised if you made it to the next appointment") later, my doctor set up an induction date and then tried to give Griff a little push to start labor. That evening we were watching movies and the crampy contractions turned into real contractions. But they would stop for 20 to 30 minutes. Dean decided to get some sleep while I stayed up watching the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy. Finally at about 4:00am the contractions started coming regularly at about 5 to 7 minutes and I waddled down the hall to wake Dean up. I was so worried when we got to the hospital because the contractions stopped again right when they hooked me up to the monitors. Thankfully I was at 5-6 cm and got to stay!
Things went pretty fast from that point on. My doctor was the one on call until 7am (only two more hours) so she decided to break my water to "get things moving". Boy did they move! The instant my water broke the contractions came one on top of the other. One contraction wouldn't be all the way gone when another would start. I had told my doctor that I wanted an epidural the same second she told me she wanted to break my water. Unfortunately, the epidural had to wait until all of my admitting labs were back. The nice doctor with the lovely medicine was so nice and tried to get the lab to get it done faster (I guess my loudness during each contraction helped a bit with that) I laugh now because I knew what his shoes looked like and everytime I heard our door open I would pray to see the "brown shoes" coming under the curtain. Brown shoes = rest! Finally I got to rest for about an hour. At 7:00 a nurse said that my doctor would stop by to check me and see if I was close enough for her to stay or if the next doctor would take over. At about 7:15 she did come by. I was hoping to be at least 8 or 9 but she told me that I was a 10! and that baby was close. I actually only had to push about 5 times and little man Griffen entered the world at 7:29am.
Griff was a pretty laid back baby (maybe not as mellow as Jake but still pretty mellow) He loved to watch his big brothers play and as he grew so did his desire to be like them.
Griff has the distinction in our family as the first kiddo who had to get stitches. It was on halloween day 2005. He fell into the coffee table and split his lip. Thankfully my sister-in-law was next door and helped me get him to the doctor. He was really mad at the doctor during the procedure but he did great with the stitches after that.
Griff also is a story teller. I remember when this picture was taken. He was telling me all kinds of things in his little Griffy language and was pretty serious about it. He still likes to tell stories and quite often is the last one done with meals because he has spent most of the time talking.
Griff and his big boy bed. That was one of his most exciting days. I was ready to let him stay in the crib for as long as possible (he is my baby after all). He kept trying to show me that he was ready for an upgrade. He would climb up onto Austin's bed and lay pencil straight and say "see mom, see" The day he got his bed he was SO proud!
His first day of preschool was another proud day for him. He was finally getting to go to school like his brothers. His teacher loves him so much and it makes me proud that others notice what a great kid he is. I am sure that Griff is convinced he is going to the "big" school on Monday because he is five now. Hopefully he won't be too disappointed.
Our little man isn't so little anymore. He is growing up and I look forward to seeing what he can accomplish as he grows. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRIFFEN!!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!
