welcome to the hen house

here are a couple picts from our work insanity.

the "hen house" theme.

our little thomas the train

tomorrow is halloween and the little man is going to be none other than thomas the train. very fitting seeing how all he does these days is make choo choo sounds and pretends every object he's holding is train gates going up and down.
originally he was going to be a chicken...a costume borrowed to us by our neighbor. that faded quickly when he got his hands on a party city catalog and saw the thomas costume.
we had told him that he could choose something thomas upon becoming potty trained, and this is what he wanted.

he's wanted to try on the costume quite a bit lately and i think he's getting excited.

mom on the other hand is going as a chick. a punk rock chick to be specific. my department at work has been labeled as the "hen house" due to the fact that its all women who laugh alot and sit around clucking or something.
i guess the graphics department really does it up for halloween, and this appears to be no exception. we have been busy today cutting out our makeshift barn, having hay delivered, making our waddles (that sounds dirty) and getting all our chicklets and chickstick candy treats arranged properly.
there will be a "hippy chick", a "spring chicken", a "biker chick", a "chicken of the sea", and the "punk rock chick". Oh, and "the chicken with her head cut off".

should prove to be a F-all day doing nothing but parading around in our costumes. my kind of day indeed. showing off while doing nothing productive.

my parents will be coming to town tomorrow and spending the weekend with us. looking forward to having them here...they haven't been here since april, right after g was sick.


in other news...
• our friend nishant is home from iraq. he's like dan's soul mate...so he's happy to have him back. and we are thankful he's able to come back. hopefully for good..

• i better start running again...i've signed up for 2 5k's coming up in the next few months. the turkey trot on thanksgiving day, and the jingle run in december. i haven't run since the iron girl. ooops.

• i found a blog that is cool...http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/. this woman has set out to make something in the crockpot each day for 365 days. there are some interesting ideas...and most of them are fairly healthy to boot. i certainly don't have it in me to use my crockpot that often...but maybe once every week or two i can get some new ideas.

• griffin has woke up in the middle of the night 2 times this week. ugh. as soon as my parents are gone...he's is being tranferred from the crib to a bed. it's high time. i'm just hoping he won't wake up tomorrow night when my parents are there and we are
at a halloween party. he would probably freak.

• we got g a flu shot this morning. we also talked to our doctor in length about croup and how we can be more prepared this winter. he's already had a few croupy coughs and of course we are a bit paranoid after the ICU stay in march. if he has any severe episodes this winter, they will refer us to a specialist.

i'll post some halloween picts after the weekend!

birthday weekend

i had a fantastic weekend.
friday i went out with friends and co-workers for happy hour. from there we got some food/drinks, and then made our way to glueks where i made a fool of myself rocked out while singing along to live band karoke. u otta know by alanis. damn, i'm awful great. (clearly i just learned how to do that strike through thing...i may go a little strike through crazy)

anyway, it was a great night, surrounded by some awesome friends and of course, dan!

little g played with his cousins jake and sam, and then was a great little man for gregg/dawn.

saturday we spent the late morning/early afternoon going downtown to see my office. griffin enjoyed looking out the windows from the 27th floor and eating cocoa roos (cereal that he doesn't get at home!). we had lunch and walked around a bit, then took the train home. he was pretty thrilled.

we had friends beth, jason and their boys jimmy and george over for dinner and great conversation. jimmy and griffin are a few months apart and while they still aren't "playing" together...it was super cute to watch them interact and copy one another.

sunday i woke up to dan and griffin singing me happy birthday. it was cute. we lounged around a bit, then we decided to get ready and go shopping. dan forgot to get me a gift took me on a shopping spree at the mall. i was on a mission for some tall black boots.
thanks dad for giving me fat calves toned, muscular calves. it was nearly impossible to find any that fit. i just want to look trendy, man! so after getting mad about it and moping out of the mall, dan was sweet to drive past famous footwear for one last look. i found some that were ok. i couldn't come home empty handed!

we rounded out the weekend by renting some movies, eating left over pad thai, playing the lion/cave game, reading books and snuggling with our favorite little guy.

a top notch weekend with friends and family. nothing better.

apparently there are some photos floating around from friday. i told laura that she had to send them all to me first for approval. i need to photoshop myself to make me look skinny/cute verify i look alright first!

in honor of katie

so, an acquaintance passed away unexpectedly on tuesday. she was a good friend of my great friend, julie. i'd hung out with her occasionally at parties or outings through the years.
they are not entirely sure of the cause yet...but regardless...she was 34 and it is really tragic.

i read her obit today in the strib...and the link to the funeral homes site has one in greater detail.
reading this, along with the guest book tributes that her family, colleagues and friends wrote...it is evident she was a great soul that always put other people first.

it seems as if it always takes great tragedies or awful events of other people (whether they are people i know in real life, or people i feel like i know, by following their blogs) to make me realize that life is too short.
we never know when our time on this earth is going to be brought to an end.

it's time to not take people and things for granted. we are healthy. we have the basic necessities in life, and we have the love of our friends and family surrounding us.
i'm sick of sweating the small stuff and getting bent out of shape about things that don't matter. and i would like to strive to be a better person that puts others before myself.
easier said than done. i still snap at dan and griffin for dumb things. i still worry about things that don't really matter, and i still don't treat everyone with the utmost respect that they deserve.
i'm trying though. life is too damn short.

katie: from the little i knew of you...you had an exuberant personality. you were warm and open to people you didn't even know. i remember your great laugh and your awesome "jimmy" story. i've retold that story to a million people.
i am sorry that was all cut way too short. and my heart hurts for your family, friends and for my friend julie that knew you so well.

i will hug my baby a bit tighter, and relish in the little things. i will tell dan i love him more often and show my friends and family how important they are. i also will try to have more patience, tolerance, love and happiness.

on that note...i'm spending the evening celebrating my birthday with good friends and my wonderful husband. and tomorrow i will spend the day spoiling my little bird. and i'll spend a lot of time telling them how awesome they are.

dear griffin:

whats the dealeo? how come you don't eat your fruits and veggies?
we put salad in front of you and you have a fit.
we put beans in front of you...and you'd think we were torturing you.
we put melon in front of you and you have to leave the table because your so appauled by the sight of it.
we put an apple in front of you and you whip the slice across the room while crying uncontrollably.

see - it wasn't so long ago that we could get you to eat anything! it's true! if you don't believe me...just look!

here you are happily eating apples...and i didn't even have to dip them in a gallon of caramel!!


and tomatoes and corn: (and i probably DID see them later..)


wait...what is that i see there? why, it's canteloupe! see - melons are tasty.


gasp! a PEA? there was a time, little man...where you hogged these down.


carrots? now i really have seen it all.


so, whats it going to take? am i gonna have to jessica seinfeld your ass and sneak it into everything from brownies to meatloaf (which i'm fairly certain you wouldn't eat anyway)?

how bout you save mommy some precious time pureeing all this crap and just eat em, mmmk?

thanks for your help in this matter.
now, i'm off to eat a dove chocolate. (and i just can't seem to understand why he wants to eat like shit...i wonder where he gets it from?)

love, mom

back to work blues

mondays always suck. they suck relatively less than they did at my old job...that was just downright miserable to go into work monday morning after a great weekend.
but, still. we had an awesome weekend and i wish work didn't get in the way. back to reality..

friday griffin and i spent the late afternoon and evening together. picked him up early from daycare. apparently miss y. was going on a weekend booty call. just the thing you want to talk to your provider about...right?
griffin and i met a friend for dinner, then came home to hang out a bit with dan. i ended up going to play guitar hero with some friends after g was in bed. that is pretty fun and addicting!

saturday we woke up and the first thing griffin did was make a really barky cough and made a sharp seal sound when inhaling. shit. it's only mid-october!! after our experience last march...we are a bit paranoid.
anyway...we took him outside and it seemed to do the trick...no more sounds out of him all day.
spent the morning playing, raking leaves, running errands and watching as our boiler was being demolished.

we are getting a new boiler put in TODAY...so saturday they had to remove the asbestos and get rid of the thing. apparently it was the original boiler to the house (built in the 20's) and super inefficient and parts of it weren't even working due to major errosion/rust.

one of the guys removing the boiler had that spray-on hair. it was hard not to stare at it. it seriously looked like someone took spraypaint to his scalp!! wow.

that evening dan and i had a date. we had tickets to see mason jennings. our friends beau, amy and baby v came over to babysit. griffin was a doll and didn't even seem to mind that we left. he's getting WAY better with people and not being so shy/clingy to us. (which is somewhat sad at the same time...!)
dan and i went to dinner first and had a great meal. (all covered by a gift certificate...even better!). then, we went to see mason. our seats were AMAZING. 2nd row in the orchestra pit. we were like 5 feet away from him...pretty much got a guitar lesson because we could see every little thing he did. it was great. he's super mellow...but that was perfect after eating a big meal! sheer talent for sure.
pict from my camera phone...not great quality...but you can tell how close we were!

we made it home in time to see the last skit on SNL...i loved how the actor playing palins husband was dancing around in his "snow machine" gear.

sunday morning dan got some things done around the house in preparation for the boiler being installed, while i met laura, lee and baby mallory at the MN zoo. it was great! the new bear exhibit is amazing. i stole these photos from laura's blog, because i didn't have my camera.



griffin enjoyed himself and liked riding the monorail, seeing the sea otters, monkeys and hugging baby mal.
on the way home he said he wanted to go over to their house to play. he likes them!

i spent the majority of the afternoon preparing a bunch of food. due to our disgust with our eating habits...we are trying to do a better job of eating healthy.
i made 2 different types of soups, pesto, eggplant parmesan, tilapia and marinated chicken. we have no excuse this week of not eating healthy...because we are prepared! we'll see how it all goes down.
griffin ate the tilapia last night and seemed to like it. we actually dipped it into egg white, and coated it in ground up fiber one cereal. then baked it. so...in regards to my earlier post regarding fiber issues with griffin...let's hope this helps!

during his bath last night he pretended his little foam fish were getting dumped on by the water bucket at the great wolf.
he would do the dinging noise and then pour water out from the cup. he would then say, "oh no! i got all wet!! let's do it again!" this was about 20 minutes OVER AND OVER. he sure loved his stay at the waterpark!

we rounded out the weekend cuddling with g (he likes to come over to me and cuddle...and then dan will act all sad, so he'll run over to him and say, "its ok daddy, i hold you". then i will act sad, and he'll do the same thing. this could go on 10 minutes...it doesn't get old for him)

dan and i finished the evening watching horrible tv. the pickup artist on vh1.
this douche that calls himself "mystery" is supposedly some great pickup artist and he teaches 8 socially awkward men the art of picking up woman. it was so stupid. but...of course i'm certain we'll be tuning in next sunday. i'm rooting for rian. the 30 year old virgin that crys regularly and is really awkward talking to girls.

a great weekend and hopefully the week goes by quickly so we can do it all over again!

favorite things

we were playing around last night and griffin said a few things that have become some of my favorite things. i want to document what he currently loves right now and what he is into.

he is really into playing with things and saying it's the mama and baby. whether it's stuffed animals, trains, bath toys, action figures, food...whatever. he'll find the bigger one and hand it to me or dan, and he'll take the smaller one and then he'll put his smaller thing up to the bigger one and say things like, "hi mama, want to go to the mall?"
or, he'll hold both the small and the big and he'll tell the little one..."it's ok baby...mama's got you" "shhhh, i got you" "there you go baby, there you go".

he also really loves when dan pretends he's a lion...griffin will always run over to me and say, "save your baby mama!!!" as dan growls. then he will ask dan..."are you a nice lion?"

last night he proclaimed that "macca" (who is a bear stuffed animal) was his best friend. it was so sweet to hear him say that.

his favorite things right now are trains, books, airplanes, music and playing with his daddy. he likes to hide under the covers and say it's his cave. he likes to pretend that the light shining through the blanket are stars. and he likes it when dan stomps around the house and plays this funny little game that they have made up. he totally squeals with delight and last night he was laughing so hard he had a hard time catching his breath!
he likes to jump...usually on the bed, couch or anything i'll let him jump on. he will do this funny counting where he says, "and a one, and a two and a three and a four!"...then he'll do it in rhyming verses. "and a pun, and a poo, and a pee and a pour!" (my personal favorite version) "and a bun, and a boo, and a bee and a boar!"

he will remember the things we say to him and he says them back to us...usually in the right context.
"have a good day at school mama, be good?"
"miss you mommy"
" come here, give me a kiss, i love this boy"
"your a lucky, lucky boy" (or girl if he's talking to me)
"go to the corner, your naughty" (ooops...i didn't think i said that!...i think he's adding the 'your naughty' on for effect...i really don't say that. we DO send him to the corner from time to time though)
"no comment"
"chillax"

he's been so much fun and still really sweet and cuddly and besides him still getting up entirely too early.....things are perfect.

weekend in sandusky

we had a great family weekend. left saturday morning via airplane to cleveland. dan's brother and family live in sandusky, where matt manages the greatwolf lodge.
dan's other brother dave and family also made the journey, so it was great for everyone to hang out...and the cousins to all be together. it was totally cute. griffin really enjoyed himself.

we spent time at the waterpark, went to cedar point amusement park, toledo zoo, dinners out and just had a good time. griffin really enjoyed himself and he's been wanting to look at pictures of all his cousins and aunts/uncles since being back.

**i will post some photos as soon as i can get them uploaded.

going to cedar point reminded me of when my cousin laurie and i used to go there in our younger years. we would wait in lines for hours to go on these rollercoasters. we also had a crazy day where our truck broke down, the creepy service station guy dropped us off at cedar point, where it proceeded to pour on us. we had to check into a seedy motel, because the truck wouldn't be done until the next day. (somewhere in this story, my cousin also locked the keys in the car, so i think that added onto the timing of getting the car fixed).
we had no clothes, so we had to wrap ourselves in the sheets. i'm sure the pizza delivery man who brought us dinner didn't know what to think about 2 teenagers wearing togas and staying in a shady motel.

anyway, back to our trip...it's amazing how much all the kids are getting older/bigger. alex is going to be 13 next month! alex and andrew were able to go on the rollercoasters with us...and the younger cousins all hung out together and took cute photos.
griffin rode his first little rollercoaster. apparently dan said he screamed most of the way, but when he was finished he said, "i'm not scared!"

i'm glad we sucked it up and bought him a plane ticket. we considered trying to get away with it one more time...but in the end we bought him one. we last flew in may and he pretty much slept or watched a movie that entire time. this time around he wanted to play and be moving...so it was nice having the extra space. although the plane from cincinnati to cleveland was the size of a large bus basically, and i thought i was going to pass out on the plane on the way out there because it was hot.....

it's been nice only having to work a couple days this week. i wish all weeks were 3 day work weeks!

tomorrow will start the weekend once again! dan and i have a date on saturday. going out to dinner and then seeing mason jennings in concert. looking forward to it.

random friday tidbits

i'm feeling a bit scattered today...so this post (similar to most of my posts) is random musings of what is going on in my brain.

first...a product review.
fiber one toaster pastries. (think pop tart...only healthier)
yeah, yeah...they are chock full of preservatives and what not....but they also have 6 grams of fiber for 1 pastry and they have less sugar, calories, carbs, etc. than pop-tarts.
i tried the maple & brown sugar this morning and thought it was delish.
g wasn't having any of it...he wouldn't try it. i had to laugh at myself as i realized i was arguing with him TO eat a pop-tart. ummm..."griffin...it's a treat! eat it!" "it's like a dessert! eat it!" "no mama...i don't want it...get it out of here!"
i realized i should just let him eat his healthy normal breakfast and not force this on him...but damn...it has 6 grams of fiber! this boy NEEDS 6 grams of fiber...so why not get it from a pop tart?? hello?
anyway..it also comes in blueberry, strawberry and chocolate i believe.


2nd item of business: i have finally bought an umbrella. after 34 years of not owning an umbrella...i have bought one. what the hell...have i come out from under a rock? why didn't this crazy new invention click with me years ago? it keeps you dry! what a concept!

finally: have i turned into one of those people that i NEVER thought i would be? where i talk about my kids poop to other people? (that probably don't care or more likely...are completely appalled?)
yes. i think i have. ugh.
but doesn't EVERYONE find poop fascinating? i do. so i guess i feel like it needs to be talked about! i would be fine hearing about my childless friends poops. "hey ( )...tell me about that corn muffin you just ate?..did you say..."ill be seeing you guys later when you ate it?"
"hey ( )...seriously...TRY these fiber one pop tarts...they totally send you right to the crapper after eating one delicious pastry! you gotta check it out!"
"hey ( )...did you KNOW that mushrooms don't digest that well??"
and one of my favorites....(from a family member...)
"you know how i just drank baileys and vodka last night? well come check this out...have you EVER seen THAT before? its pure white!!!"

anyway...i had to stop myself as i was talking to a co-worker (sans kiddos) about the fact that since griffins poops are normally so hard...you barely even have to wipe his butt...cuz they aren't runny and gross...they just come right out...clean as a whistle!

her face was one of utter disgust. and then i realized...what the f k! who am i? and what happened to the person that used to filter the actual thoughts going through my head to what actually came out of my mouth?
i guess that flew out the window when i had to stick my finger (covered with a wipe, people!!) up my babies butt to pull out his poor hard, stuck poo.
see...THIS is why i want him to try the high fiber pop tarts!!! (and you thought this post wasn't going to come full circle and have a point...)

kids being abandoned...

this story is sad.
basically - people are taking the "safe haven" law in nebraska and taking advantage of the fact that it doesn't specify an age. they are dropping their teenage kids off that they can't handle anymore.
and then there is a story of a man who dropped off his 9 children ranging in ages from 1-17 after his wife died unexpectedly. he couldn't deal with the loss/financial responsibility on his own and didn't know what else to do.
as much as its hard to put ourselves in any of their shoes...i have to imagine there was another option for all of these cases! how are these kids to feel now? their mom died...and now the only sense of familiarity is gone because the dad just couldn't deal and didn't think he could afford it.

now, i'm sure there were times while i was growing up that my parents wouldn't have minded dropping me off somewhere (i was really a handful growing up...hard to imagine, right?) but this all just seems so selfish to me. to just wash you hands of your responsibility as a parent??

i do think the law is a good one for INFANTS. it will help prevent mothers leaving their unwanted newborns in toilets and dumpsters...unthinkable. so i do think this law can help eliminate that if people know they can leave the baby with no questions asked. but for older children? no.

in more upbeat news....griffin has been a good boy this week...sleeping in his own bed all week and not getting up in the middle of the night. it's made for us all being much more rested and happy. (and we are no longer considering going to nebraska with him. i kid, i kid.)

weekend update

made it through another great weekend.
my great friend melissa came to town for a weekend visit. i met her friday for a quick happy hour, before leaving to babysit jake and sam. it was gregg/dawn's 10 year wedding anniversary! wow! i remember their wedding like it was yesterday!
anyway...the kids were great, we had a fun time playing with pictures.

after babysitting, i met melissa at liquor lyles where she was hanging with some friends. i haven't been there in a few years! it was funny...a lot of the same folks that used to hang out there when we used to go...they were still there. nothing changes i guess.
stayed for a little bit and then we made our way home.

griffin managed to wake up once we got home and proceeded to have a fit. i went in to soothe him and put him back to bed and it just made it worse. he screamed and cried and finally climbed out of his crib. we were listening to this all...and he was saying things that just break your heart!
"i'm crying...come here right now!"
"mama, your naughty! help me now!"
"i need you mama!"
"stop it mama, stop it!"
"i'm scared!"

anyway...it worked. i brought him into bed with us...where he proceeded to sleep like a king between us..while rolling around and leaving us with a sliver of space.

saturday melissa, dan, griffin and i headed out to walk around campus,

go to a few stores and then have lunch in uptown.

when we got back, dan and melissa headed out to drive the stick shift. dan's finally learned! yippee!! he did great and has since been driving us around here and there!

saturday night, melissa and i met friends, lisa, jes, nena and julie downtown at imperial room. we had a drink and some appetizers. lisa and melissa hung out there while the rest of us went to see liz phair. it was great! she played pretty much the entire exile in guyville cd. it seemed short overall...but she is always awesome. i totally want to be in a band. i guess there is talent and all that (which i don't have)...but whatever...it would be awesome.

saturday night brought another griffin sleeping debacle. he heard my phone ring once we got home and he woke up. we decided that we'd let him cry it out and he needed to stay in his bed.
well...after 1.5 hours of griffin saying "mama" over and over and over again...i went and got him. he had another royalty night of sleeping in our bed..while we were left to minimal covers and his feet kicking us.

what happened to our sound sleeper? we have had large parties, music and shenanigans going on while he's slept right through it. why suddenly does he hear the slightest sound?

sunday we got up and walked down to the parkway to watch phil run the twin cities marathon.
as soon as we got down there...it started POURING. HARD.



we found a tree to stand under, which didn't really do all that much. we saw the front runners go by...quite impressive. and we stayed until we saw phil run by...right in the 3:10 pace group like he hoped. good for him! he ended up finishing in 3:19..which is great considering he was getting over a cold and it was pouring like a MF. way to go phil!

we spent the rest of the day laying around. melissa wasn't feeling that great..probably caught a cold from the rain! i made chili and we just hung out, watching bad tv and eating all day. went to bed really early and bargained with griffin. we told him that he couldn't watch cartoons in the a.m. if he didn't stay in his bed all night.

i had to get up at 5 a.m. to take melissa to the airport and when i got home he heard me...so he was up at 5:30...BUT...that is better than 1 a.m.
he woke up and exclaimed "i did it! i stayed in my bed!" well...yeah...i guess. but it's still 5:30!
you'd THINK i could get up and exercise, but i proceeded to lay in bed until 7.

anyway, we're hoping this week will be better in terms of sleeping. and we know we have to get him in a regular bed and out of the crib, stat!

a nice weekend and always so fun to see melissa. wish she lived closer! griffin asked all morning, "where's melissa?"

party weekend...

this past weekend was a good one.
friday we took it easy and went to dinner. g loved sitting outside watching all of the trains go by. (and it beat going to chuck e. cheese for us...something he's been asking for the past month, after seeing it on tv)
saturday we had a super busy day. we headed out to b.f.e. (east bethel) to jes' dads benefit. he had cancer and had treatment done that was not covered by insurance. lord knows we understand stupid medical bills...even though griffins didn't come near to what her pops were...it still sucks.
so...we went out to this biker bar where they had an outdoor tent setup with music, beer and bbq. it was great. met some cool folks, caught up with other friends and griffin enjoyed looking at all of the motorcycles and dancing to the bands.


after that we headed to roseville. lee and laura's daughter mallory was turning 1!

they had a great party, with lots of good food. mallory seemed to enjoy herself and got lots of nice things. griffin had fun playing with new toys over there, and other than a trick-fart that went awry...things were good. (gee, should i not be putting those things on here...will he look back in 18 years and be mortified that i'm talking about him trick-farting?)

sunday rounded out the weekend by a trip to b.f.e west (delano) to visit an apple orchard/farm. we went to this same orchard last year and it was fun to see how much more griffin interacted with everything.

we met friends beau, amy and baby v out there. we went on a hayride and learned that the "women" may like to take home some some of the berry/swag stuff to decorate with. and the "ladies" may find it interesting to cook with some of the things we found out in the orchard. (i guess dan and beau can sit around while trick-farting and drinking beer...)
anyway...we picked a bunch of apples

got some gourds, pet all the animals and jumped in big vats of corn.
picture of griffin in fall of 07 in the vat of corn:


picture of griffin in fall of 08 in the same vat of corn:


picture of griffin in fall of 07 in the pumpkin patch:

picture of griffin in fall of 08 in that same pumpkin patch:


picture of griffin in fall of 07 as a pig:

picture of griffin in fall of 08 as a pig:


finally got griffin to eat apples by dipping it into obscene amounts of caramel. whatever it takes.
a great weekend had by all.



the past week has been a bit rough with sleep. griffin has been wearing undies at night for the past couple of weeks. all has been going well..but the last few nights he's woken up in the middle of the night to pee. by the time we drag ourselves out of bed to get him...he's wide awake and thinks it's time to watch movies. and then we've dealt with reasoning with him at 3 a.m. that he needs to go back to sleep.
he's also been a wee-bit crabby this week. we've been lucky that up to this point his crying/tantrums have been kept to a minimum. maybe he's making up for lost time..because this week has been brutal. i imagine he's finding his independence and all these new things are overwhelming.....but i do have to say...its getting old!
this week we've picked up cereal he's thrown across the room. (and stomped on for added effect)
we've had 1 hour crying sessions over chocolate milk (he wasn't getting any, because he was naughty at school).
we've had to reason with him that he does not get snacks for breakfast. (and listen to him cry the entire way to daycare in a high-pitched scream saying, "SNAAAAAAAAACKS..NOW!"
we've tried to calm him down while he's freaking out that he can't watch this train video clip for the 500th time.
i watched him as he and a boy at school pulled on the same toy back and forth until the other boy won. and griffin proceeded to throw himself to the floor and roll around screaming.

at least he's cute. and we know it'll get better.