Blakely's 6 Month Update

Height: 27 1/2 inches - 94%
Weight: 15 lb  oz - 31%
Head Circumference: 17 inches - 72%
Vision: You are the most curious kid I have ever seen! You are constantly looking right and left and any which way you hear a sound coming from. You love watching your big sis and the TV always catches your eye.
Movement: You can roll both ways now and in bed you are a wild woman. You are completely flipped around by the time I get you after your naps. You sit up very well now on your own with an occasional tumble over. The most noticeable difference this month is the use of your hands. You are grabbing for things constantly...pulling food off the table, taking your sisters toys, grabbing food out of my hands while holding you. It's crazy. Just today I had you in the chest pack at publix and you managed to get the list away from me and pull out a hand sanitizer wipe off the cart.
Eating Habits/New Foods: You are still on a schedule of 3 ounces every 3 hours, except for at night. You regressed after my last post and went back to eating every 3 hours at night. Just last week I did a little sleep training and you are doing much better. Depending on what time you eat, you are going 4-5 hours between the feedings at night. For example, 9 pm then 3 am then 7:30 am. We have tried lots of new food this month, but you don't do so well swallowing. I think you still have your tongue thrust reflex so you push most of the food out of your mouth. You do love eating puffs! You like bananas, pears, avocado, and mango. You don't really like carrots, but we will try them again!
Sleeping Patterns: I clearly spoke to soon last month on the sleeping 6-8 hours, but we are getting better at night. You usually wake around 7:30-8, take a mid morning nap around 10:30 to 12:30, play with sis, then do an afternoon nap around 2:30-4. You are going to bed around 8ish and wake one time during the middle of the night to eat. You had 3 days of whining/crying, but you realized that wasn't going to help and you have been sleeping much better.
Sounds/Words: You said your first word! I think it was Dada, but I have not heard it since that one time. You do however say Mama all the time! You don't know what the meaning is, but you say it lots lol. You definitely have gained a voice and let us know when we need to pay attention to you!
New discoveries/accomplishments:
-You rolled over from stomach to back
-You can sit up for at least 5 minutes by yourself
-You can say Mama & Dada
-You tried some new foods: pears, carrots, bananas, avocado
-You love to bounce in your play gym and walk backwards in the walker.
-You love taking showers with Mom and are fascinated by the water coming out of the shower head
-You had your first sleepover without Mommy!
Places you went/Adventures: You went to Rock the Universe with Mom, Dad, & D and Islands of Adventures the next day, You had a sleepover with Dad one night and Grammy one night while I was away on a bachelorette, you started going to Mom 2 mom in the nursery and have a great time (you won't sleep though I think it's FOMO), you go to watch your sister play soccer every weekend, you went to the beach one last time before fall, you went to your first volleyball game, and you watched your first FSU football game in your cheer outfit!
Clothes: You were size 6 clothes and can fit into some 9 month items. Your leggings can go up to 12 months. The 6 month sleepers are getting snug...mainly in length so we are switching over to the 9m ones soon! I find you outgrowing a lot of things your sister could fit into at this age. Just so soft and squishy. I could rub your thighs all day...they're so soft!  You are still in size 3 diapers.
Sister updates: The fun is just beginning between you two. Delainey loves getting in your face and making faces so you laugh at her. She plays horsey with you and loves giving you her toys to share. She is such a bigger helper and always jumps up to hand you things when you drop them. You are much more vocal with her and it is fun to watch you sit and play with her!
Weekly Pictures:

Ivy Jean Griffin has arrived!

Saturday morning I got a text from my sister saying she was heading to the hospital to have Ivy! We had been anxiously awaiting her since she was a few days past her due date so when I saw the text I was so excited. I hoped out of bed, packed my pump, cameras, phone chargers and anything else I could need for the rest of the day. I decided to go watch Delainey play soccer and then head there. Her first labor with Georgia was 18 hours so I figured I had some time. She was 4 cm at 7 am. I talked to my mom around 9:15 and she was already up to 7 cm so things were going well! I finished watching D play and then headed to grab starbucks and go up there. When I called to see if anyone wanted coffee, they said no but hurry up bc she is already 9 cm! I rushed as fast as I could! I made it there with some time to spare about 30 minutes and then after 3 sets of pushed Ivy was here at 11:11 am! It was 1 million times better for Kelli this time! Ivy is so precious! She weighed 8 lbs 7 oz and was 20 3/4 inches long.

 Georgia came by and met her new baby sister and then I headed home to get my kiddies to come meet their new baby cousin!

 Besties for Life! I have a feeling these 2 are going to stick together in a few years to fight off their mean big sisters lol! 

Girls girls everywhere! I love my new hashtag for the 4 girls! #McGrifQuadSquad! Watch out world!

Tracie's Bachelorette Recap

This past weekend, I headed to Atlanta for my friend Tracie's bachelorette party. It was my first time leaving Blakely overnight so I was really nervous. Mostly because she still gets up in the middle of the night a few times to eat, and I didn't want to keep Dave up all night having to feed her. To make matters worse, she had a cold and I did a few breathing treatments the day before I left so she wasn't sleeping well. But everyone survived so that's a win in my book!

We hit the road around Noon on Friday and surprisingly didn't get in that much traffic and arrived by 6. We had dinner the first night at a place called King + Duke. It had a fancy twist to traditional southern food. I had a sirloin steak with mushrooms cooked in bone marrow butter. It was pretty good. After dinner, we went to some bars in the Buckhead area. 

 We bar hopped to several places, went to a place called prohibition which was a speakeasy. It was really cool, you had to call a specific number and the phone booth opened to the bar. Our favorite bar was called stagecoach and it took us back to the good old college days! It also had these awesome bar stools which were made out of saddles. Everyone had a great time dancing the night away!! We stayed up WAY too late, but it was fun hanging with the girls!

Saturday we went to lunch at a place called Kalidescope, back to the hotel for a little lingerie party and then out for night 2.

The restaurant we went to for dinner was called Ecco and it was amazing! Legit Italian food so it was right up my alley! I had several salami's and cheese for my appetizer and an amazing sausage orchiette pasta dish. 

 After dinner, we headed to some bars in the midtown area, but we were all so exhausted from the first night that all but 3 of us headed home and were fast asleep by midnight. We definitely aren't as young as we once were. I was thrilled to be home early so I could wake up earlier to head home to my girlies! It was a nice little getaway, but I was so happy to be home. Trips away are definitely only going to be one night from now on...or at least till Blakely gets a little older. I miss them too much! :)

Last week through the camera roll

The past week has been a pretty standard week for us with a few fun things mixed in with a cold for Blakely.

Last Sunday we enjoyed the first gorgeous day we have had in about 2 weeks at the beach after church. Blakely loved it now that she can sit up and actually see things. We built sandcastles, looked for shells, and put only our toes in the water! :) 

Monday we went shopping at the Town Center & Costco (one of Delainey's favorite places...mainly for the samples) We picked out her halloween costume there and she is going to be Cinderella from the new real life Cinderella movie.

 Tuesday she had school. Wednesday we had a Mom 2 Mom playdate at Chick-fil-a where we got to go in the back to see how everything was made. Everything is so fresh and handmade, not to mention cleanly so it just solidified my obsession with Chick-fil-a. They told me I couldn't take pictures back there though. Fun Fact: Chick-fil-a is the largest purchaser of lemons in the state of Florida for their fresh squeezed lemonade!

 Thursday, Delainey had school and Blakely and I just snuggled at home since she was sick and did her first ever breathing treatment since she was having trouble breathing from the cough and mucus. She surprisingly didn't seem to mind it to much. I put on a show on my phone and she was so fascinated that she didn't seem to notice it on her face.

That evening,  I finished packing and getting life ready for myself to go out of town for the weekend and leave Dave home with the girls! I'll be back in a day with my recap of my weekend away!

Rock the Universe & Islands of Adventures Weekend

**Disclosure: I did this post 4 days ago and fell asleep in the middle of it and never posted! Sorry!**

A few weeks ago I posted about how Delainey won tickets on the radio for a concert in Orlando called Rock the Universe. It is a christian concert at Universal Studios. In addition to the tickets, we also got passes to Islands of Adventure and Universal for the next day. Saturday after Delainey's soccer game we headed down to Orlando to have a nice little weekend getaway. The weather was not the best so we had to wait out the rain for about 45 minutes in a ride, but after that the rest of the night was nice! Universal was packed with people (really teens) who were there for Rock the Universe). We did a few rides, ate dinner, listened to some music, and called it a night around 11 pm. 

The minion ride was D's favorite of the night. 

My troopers were still going strong as we left Universal at 11 pm!

The next morning we checked out of the hotel and headed to Islands of Adventure. We had a park hopper so we went to both parks.
At Universal, we found a secret back part that was FANTASTIC for kids! They had a live Barney Show, an awesome Curious George splash city, a ball factory with air guns to shoot people with balls (so fun), and an entire Fievel Goes West play area too.
Throughout the entire trip Blakely was fantastic...no surprise. Instead of sleeping this entire trip though, she was wide awake loving all the sights and sounds. She about jumped out of David's arms watching the Barney show. She is such a curious little girl!

This is the Curious George splash city! Mom wishes she brought her bathing suit too. It looked awesome.

I spy Delainey running by like a wild woman!

The Ball Factory

 Fievel's play area

Over at Islands of Adventure, we hit up the entire Dr. Seuss land. We did one fish, two fish was is like the dumbo ride. That was Blakely's 1st ride! She seemed to enjoy it! Dave and D did the carousel, and we both did the Cat in the Hat ride. For 90% of the rides we did the child swap where we all stood in line and then when it was our turn one adult would stay back and one would go with Delainey. After the ride was over we would switch adults and Delainey would get to ride again! Win win!

The rain started just as we were finishing Dr. Seuss land so we ran for cover and had a nice lunch in greek mythology restaurant. It was really cool inside. After lunch we headed to Jurassic Park land to do the flying pteranadons, the pic below is not us, but it was only Delainey and I who did it, so I had no one to take our pic. That was a fun ride.

Then Dave took D on her first huge ride! The fall on the Jurassic Park ride is about a 4-5 story drop and she did great!! All smiles when she got back.

Of course we had to hit up Harry Potter land for some butterbeer even though most of the rides are too big for Delainey to do.  Dave and D might have had butterbeer on Saturday night too. We also rode the train in between the 2 parks which was a first for me and was really neat. Overall we had a great weekend, and I was pleasantly surprised at all the things there was for toddlers to do. We will definitely have to hit it up again....it's just hard to make time since we are such Disney fanatics!!!