My First Nuggets Game

Photos
Dad Griffin and J
Griffin and an old cougar that’s a Nuggets cheerleader

Well finally Dad coughed up the cash for tickets. Griffin constantly talks about Elmo and basketball and high. All words discussed in a segment where Elmo plays basketball against himself.
We got there as the doors opened and received a Nuggets and 9news umbrella. Within 5 minutes of getting our seats Griffin was on the scoreboard. I had him wave hello to the 30 people who got there early.
The opening lineup kinda freaked him out a little since they turned off the lights. He only ran up and down the aisle a couple of times. For being there two hours he was very well behaved. He loved Rocky and shouted “get down kitty” a phrase we use a lot with Wrigley when she gets up on the table. When Rocky disappeared Griffin kept asking “where the kitty go”?
His big trick now is to start running in the air whenever I pick him up and carry him in front of me up the stairs. His legs and feet are going a mile a minute until you set him down. Its pretty funny as long as he doesn't kick me where it counts. I was a little worried doing this at the Nuggets game and being showcased as a halftime highlight.
Griffin was also little scared of the blimps made to look like Chipotle Burritos and the Denver Post. When we first got to our seats they circled the arena and as soon as they came near us he ran away and wouldn't come back until they left. The operators saw Griffin and steered the blimp over to us to drop a certificate. Since we were the only ones in our section it meant either TJ or I would catch it. Just as the blimp was directly overhead an oblivious family decided they wanted to get to their seats in our aisle. Of course they completely blocked our chance to get the dropped certificate. There timing couldn’t have been worse. The certificate fell in the empty seat in front of us but since there was a large man in front of me it sat on the seat dangling just long enough for a kid to run from another section and snipe the coupon. To add insult to injury it turns out the family was in the wrong set of seats. In the 2nd quarter, the real ticket holder showed up and they moved a couple rows in front of us. TJ was still fuming about them during the walk home. Turns out that was the closest he's ever been to the prize.
Aftermath
The unraveling of his schedule led to him being up at various times throughout the night. I ended up sleeping on his floor till 5:30 and crawling back into bed. He’s also going through a growth spurt combined with a congested nose. We held firm and kept him in his room despite his insistence (crying) on going to our bedroom and watch TT (Sesame Street).
His stitches received the A-OK from his Ortho PA today. He started to get upset the nurse told him a Dr would see him. It didn’t help she pulled his bandages off. He has a visit in 2 weeks with his surgeon for x-rays and to determine next steps. We’ll keep our fingers crossed. He looks like he is walking with his feet pointed out especially on the left side.

Pizza Pizza

We went to Pasquinni’s a nearby pizza joint while we waited for Mommy to come home from work. We hadn’t been there since August of last year. As I was parking Griffin saw the restaurant and started saying pizza. What a memory or he can read the pizza sign out front. I hope it’s the memory thing.

They had a couple of giant movie posters hanging on the wall. One was of Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront and another was some B movie from the 50s that had a man spearing in the chest a giant alligator who was reared up on his hind haunches. A woman in a pit helmet is screaming as well as their trained chimp. He kept saying monster eat so we had to move to another section.

Stupid poster. Its now 9pm and he is still not asleep. I just heard him talking to his Mom about being scared or the monsters.

His nose was running like a faucet tonight so I’m sure he’ll have a full blown cold the Thursday.

When we got home he played with his barn that he checked out from the toy library. We put the farmer and animals in the blocks he got from Aunt Mimi. He pointed to the number 1 on the black block and said 1. He proceeded to correctly identify 2 and 3 as well.

Rough Week

We've had a rough week. He was in great spirits Monday and Tuesday and ran and played with some friends who came over but had a bad day on Wednesday from probably over doing it the couple of days prior. He certianly wasn't himself very pale and lethargic and quiet. He slept for 4 1/2 hours and complained his legs were owwee. Best we could do was let him rest and give him Motrin. He was a little dynamo today. So much so that I ifnally caved in a took him to daycare for a half a day. He seemed fine tonight and we'll just take it one day at a time for awhile. My guilt today was enormous. Dad and Griffin had dinner at a local burrito place while we waited for Mommy to meet us after work. Griffin sat in a regular chair for the first time during the entire meal. He even sat in the chair fter he was through eating as long as I turned the chair facing out so that he could watch all of the people in the resturuant.

Daddy day care

We went to a coffee shop for breakfast. A woman asked how old he was and said she had grandchildren. From then on Griffin called her Grandma everytime she walked by. He was bouncing on a couch singing the monkey bouncing on the bed song. He’d help with the words but wanted a solo with No more monkeys bouncing on the bed. This rang true after he fell back and bopped the wall with his head loud enough for people in the other room to look. He was fine.
His legs were hurting him today. He complained about them being Owwwweeee. He played very gingerly at Cherry Creek so I’m not sure if he was just tired or if he was hurting. He helped me eat a bag of popcorn afterwards. He sat for 30 minutes eating his popcorn and watching the kids play. So that is what it takes for him to eat.
He ran in between two clothing racks at Macys and hid. I had to move the hangers to the side and he would then move to where all of the clothes were bunched up. He loved that game but almost ran into a rack that had a low bar that would have hit him in the head.
Getting in the car seat is really becoming problematic. You have to wrestle him more often than not. He goes stiff as a board and makes you tickle him into submission. Or he proceeds to kick the dashboard of my car. I finally had to take off his shoes to get him to stop. He fought enough to dislodge his diaper and I found it dangling from the bottom of his sweats on the way home. Luckily it was only pee. This meant I had to carry him and about 20 things to the door. We got inside and I set him on the kitchen floor and he started saying oweeee. He showed me his hand and then I looked down at the huge puddle that was on the floor. He proceeded to chase the cat bottom half naked while I cleaned up the mess. I had to run him down and scoop him up bare bottom to carry him upstairs to the diapers and put him to bed for his nap.
His big thing is to say This way and point in a direction. I then need to so no, no Griffin, this way and point in the opposite direction. It makes a 15 minute card ride very entertaining and helps you practice all kinds of inflections and funny voices which he loves to mimic.
I think we’re going to keep him home for one more day.
The other night I wouldn’t let him leave the grocery store unless he held my hand or I carried him. As usual he tried to run by me but I managed to block the exit. He didn’t agree with any of the options I presented. When I insisted he hold my hand he proceeded to pull his hand into the sleeve of the coat and give me a grin.
The other day his favorite exhibit at the Children’s museum was the kid’s water fountain. He can barley push the button and drink from the fountain at the same time. After a bit he finally grew tired of it and returned to the table where we were cutting wooden fruit with a wooden knife. He pick up a small barrel seat and started to carry it across the room. I was just about to get up to redirect when he plopped it down in front of the water fountain and proceeded to step up for a fountain drink. It was like the monkey scene out of 2001 Space Odyssey.

ABC Jaime Fox

The ABC song is becoming more popular. It is usually followed at the end by the words “Jaime Fox”. This is from the skit on Sesame Street in which Jaime Fox sings the alphabet song with Elmo and a Fox named Jaime and a duck named Jaime Fox.

Most of the viewing occurs during the morning routine of getting up, saying Hi Mommy or Daddy, asking to take bear or baby=blanket, pointing to go out the door, pointing to the picture in the hallway and saying puppy, pointing to our bedroom, once inside poiting to the cradenza and asking for milk along with TT = Seasame Street, saying covers and crawling in bed propping himself up and pulling the covers over his legs, crying at some point in time that he is stuck, getting up and bouncing near the edge, squirming to the other side of the bed when you want to change his diaper or clothes and running to shut the shower door.


I lub you Mommy is now in the nighttime vernacular.

Post Surgery

Well so far so good. We've had a restless couple of days. The surgery seems to have gone well but we don't want to jinx it. The photo says it all. We almost left the hospital without seeing this and thank goodness we did or I'm not sure what we would have done. He has not been our Griffin since Thrusday morning. He's been acting out almost every chance he can. Really makes us appreciate the loving sweet boy that we have. We are unbelievably fortunate. We hope this doesn't bode poorly for us in the future.

He's now counting past TEN which he says very very loud. 11 12 13 14 and then it seems to fade out. He said "help people" when we saw some homeless on a street corner with signs. We don't think that he can read but you never know with this kid. He also said "Mickey" when he saw Mickey on my phone. Nothing too abnormal but he never calls her Mickey and constantly says "Mimi". Even we call her Mimi just so he knows who we are talking about. If he can read and is not telling us... we could be making millions here.

He's been watching Sesame Street and an episode that features fairytales. He's been watching the wolf and the 3 little pigs and has started telling Kim at bedtime that daddy has a blick (brick) house and no "Blow" ie wolf. We're going to have to go outside and show him that thank goodness we actually live in an actual brick house. It's amazing what freaks a kid out. We even fast forward through Nemo to the non scary parts. I'm sure it will get to him sooner or later but we'd prefer him to sleep through the night as much as he can. We've seen him with night terrors and how he can act post surgery. Crying and thrashing for 45 minutes straight and we'd prefer to go through this as little as possible.

The pictures are not as bad as they appear but it is still a bit of a jolt. He has just started walking today but if definatley gimping and pays for all of the activity towards the end of the day.
The stickers were from Aunt Barb and he enjoyed them during our car ride to the outside world today. They ended up everywhere. The robot book from Grandma was read pre surgery and he really enjoyed the baseball bucket and the stupid Colt football the night before surgery.
This is an old fashion school house. The kind with the peg people that we had as kids. He calls them My People and gets very mad if they aren't at his disposal at nearly all times. We got them at the toy library and we're not looking forward to this weekend when they have to go back.