Lots going on!

Lots going on right now and a lot of photos to catch up with! But I'm pressed for time so here are a couple cute photos from this past weekend when both my sister and her two boys and Steve's sister and her 3 kids came to visit for a birthday party weekend for Griffin. Stay tuned for more later!

Rylee, Brady and Olivia (Griffin's paternal cousins) and Griffin

Brady, Olivia and Rylee plus Mason, Griffin's maternal cousin

Yeah! Birthday cake!

Trip to the Zoo

The day after Griffin's birthday we took a trip to a nearby small zoo called the Elmwood Park Zoo, with our friends and their daughter Evangeline. Evangeline is just 7 months older than Griffin but it's amazing the difference in stages of kids that age. Evangeline walks and talks and follows directions and points things out and has opinions. Griffin just smiles and laughs when he notices an animal and sometimes we weren't even sure he got what we were all looking at way off in the fenced field. That massive brown lump? Could be a bison, could be mound of dirt....He did get a real kick out of the huge vultures and it was the first time he signed "bird!" He also liked the petting zoo, including the sheep and goats. I think he sort of understood that when he held out some stalks of hay that he was sort of feeding the goat. AND they had a small playground, and it was the first time he was on a swing! Now THAT was fun!

Signing "Bird" (though his fingers are supposed to be near his mouth, for the beak, but you get the idea...)

Note the jaguar!

Brown mound of dirt? Or bison?

WOW Swings are cool!!!

Cute video of Griffin on the swing. The high pitched screeching type sound in the background is actually Griffin laughing!

Happy First Birthday Griffin!!

On Friday, June 17th, Griffin turned one year old! We really couldn't believe how fast the time had flown, and how big Griffin is already. We had a pretty low key day, because my mom is traveling for work so we're having a small family birthday party next weekend. But one thing we did do....yep, you guessed it....Griffin finally got a haircut! He was getting a bit hippy-looking, and last week when my sister was watching him and took him for a walk, someone she stopped to chat with thought he was a girl. So we figured it was time. My dad's hairdresser Robin was a perfect charmer and Griffin did great- the whole thing probably only took ten minutes! Whoo hoo!

We also went for Griffin's 12-month well check up. He got 2 shots, and weighed in at 22lbs (45%) and 31 1/4 inches long (90%). Afterwards, we went for a birthday lunch at a local Italian restaurant, and Griffin gobbled down some roasted red peppers, mozzerella pieces, and garlic bread. yum!

Whoo hoo! It's my birthday!!! (pre-haircut...)

I'm SOOOOO Big! With Grampa....

Special birthday lunch. And did I mention, I'm SOOOOO big?!

Haircut with Miss Robin!!!

My hair is finally under control and guess what... I'm SOOOOO big!!

Elephant on the Beach

I forgot to post a few cute photos from our last week in Thailand. At the same spot on the beach where I was going to ladies "boot camp" workout twice a week, a baby elephant would come by every day at the same time. It belonged to one of the nearby resorts, and the mahout (elephant trainer) would take him for a walk on the beach, just as we were finishing our workout. So one day Steve went for a run with Griffin in the jogger, and met me on the beach at the end of the workout, to introduce Griffin to Lucky, the baby elephant!

Home again!

Imagine the scene when you walk out of the international baggage area to the public arrivals room, and there are dozens and dozens of people lined up and gathered waiting anxiously to greet their arriving loved ones. Now imagine Griffin waving at every one of them, huge smile on his face, assuming they were all there to welcome him! It was pretty funny.

Which is good, because the rest of the trip prior to that sure the hell was not!!! (funny, that is). I suppose it could have been worse...at one point I dared to think of the scenarios that could have been worse and yeah, it could have been worse. But essentially, in about 36 hours worth of travel, Griffin barely slept at all, and was a cranky, fussy, crying hot mess. The poor kid just couldn't find his zone to crash asleep no matter what we did, and even when he did finally crash a few times, he just kept getting woken up by something random. I was sort of blogging in my head the whole time, recounting the miserable play-by-play, but too tired to actually write it down. Then once we arrived home, we were so happy to be back in our beds where we could sleep for real, there just didn't seem a good moment to sit and write. But now we are almost a week home now, and things are starting to even out and settle down. Griffin is back on his normal sleep schedule, though he is still unusually clingy and fussy when he's awake. Which could be also associated with....yeah you guessed it....his tooth finally cutting through! By our calculations, it must have cut through the day after we got home. Nice timing. You still can't actually see it, but we can clearly feel a little sharp tooth edge poking out from his gum. 

Some choice moments from the trip, other than the arrival welcome fit for a king? Here goes.

- a huge tour group of Chinese who were departing Phuket at the same time we were, and were completely obsessed with Griffin. I'm serious, like every single woman in the huge tour group was swarming around the kid. I've never seen anything like it. I even snapped a couple pictures but it doesn't do justice to the amount of women swarmed around him and cooing.

- the Lufthansa flight attendant gave Griffin a small stuffed Lufthansa airplane plush toy. Griffin was seated in his car seat between Steve and I. He learned how to play ball with the little plus airplane toy- and man did he think it was hilariously fun! Just watch the video clip. The laughter is contagious! (and the flight attendant's announcement in the background is a bit annoying). 

- the ball crawl in the play area at Frankfurt airport. Griffin really loves the ball crawl! Lucky for him his Aunt Lynn is already shopping for some ball crawl balls for his birthday. Unfortunately, the Frankfurt airport turned out to be the dirtiest airport we've ever been in. The ball crawl was disgusting so we didn't let him play in it very long. We were in the airport about 7 hours and so we saw several bathrooms, food court and play areas, etc., and they were all totally grimy and disgusting.

- Steve ending up in the middle between Griffin, and a nice woman with her 8 month old daughter sitting on her lap for the entire flight between Frankfurt and Philadelphia. Wow that was a long, miserable 8 hours for that guy. I thought about switching with him but I sat down until that thought went away.....

- Griffin spitting up breastmilk (frankly, there is a fine line between "throwing up" and "spitting up") 3 times while at Frankfurt airport, one time coating the carpeting of a nice cafe, and another time coating me. Luckily I had a change of clothes, though my thoughts around packing yoga pants was for the emergency where our flights get screwed up and we have to spend a night somewhere....not the actually wearing them around in public back up plan. 

But alas, we are home and happy. And tired. Still. But happy. And looking forward to Griffin turning one year old this coming Friday! WOW!

Chinese tourists in Phuket, super obsessed with Griffin!

The Lufthansa flight attendant gave Griffin the dangly things for his carseat, and the stuff airplane toy.

Finally crashed! This was the flight from Bangkok to Frankfurt

Ball crawl in Frankfurt

Playing "catch" with daddy, while waiting for the flight to take off

 

Headed Home

The last week in Phuket has been a bit rainy, but we've still be able to enjoy some nice times with friends, and plenty of pool time. The beach here on the West coast of Phuket is now quite rough with waves, but it's still beautiful to look at, and with a nice fresh breeze, which is a pleasant break from the rest of humid, steamy Phuket. Steve's had two great all-day mountain bike rides and Christie's continued to do yoga regularly and the ladies "boot camp" workout on the beach. We're sad to be heading home today, but ready for our new adventures. Stay tuned for news of what's next for the Getman-Wells Family!!

Here are a few photos that a friend in Phuket took of us recently, down on Kamala beach. Dianne is SO talented, isn't she??!! We are so appreciative of her photos and wish her the best of luck, as she embarks on a new business doing photography professionally.