Catching Up

22 months- I haven't been posting these monthly pictures lately because he just won't be still long enough for us to get a decent one. This was the second attempt. Look how big he looks!

Grant took an interest in what he was wearing for the first time the other day. He refused to let me put on the shirt I picked out, put it away, and got out his dinosaur shirt. He then wanted to put on his "Buckeye pants" which are the above 1 piece pajamas. I think I may have to do some fashion training...

Last Christmas Grant got a nativity set. We got it out for the first time and he loves to play with it. He especially loves the angel and baby Jesus. He is always putting the baby in the stable for a nap.

Grant is still in love with Elmo. I brought home an Elmo/Sesame Street pop-up book and he thought it was pretty cool.

This is my favorite picture. Here is Grant in front of the tree giving baby Jesus a kiss.

Troy found Grant watching tv like this one day. I love the crossed legs, arm slung over the arm of the couch look he's got going on.

We took Grant out to explore all the tons of snow we got this weekend. In the bottom picture he's clapping.

Grant is starting to learn his letters and numbers. He almost always can identify R, O, and 8. He usually can get S and U. Sometimes he gets G and K. When he counts he either says 1, 2, 3 or 8, 9, 10. Those middle numbers are tricky. When he sings the ABC song he starts at Q, R, S and skips to "double x... now I know" but he sings the right tune. He also sings Wheels on the Bus as "bus round and round...all town." He is saying new things all the time. The latest additions are excuse me, bless you and hungry. Oh and dotcom. I couldn't figure out where he learned that until I heard the Garmin commercial today and then I heard him say it. I think Daddy must have the tv on too often. :)

Grant is starting to get in to dinosaurs. He gets excited about his dinosaur shirt and the dinosaur books we have. And he can say dinosaur, which I think is his longest word so far.

Elmo and Brutus have a new friend- Ming Ming from the Wonder Pets. Grant got Ming Ming last Christmas, but he just saw the show recently and made the connection with the stuffed animal. Last week Ming Ming was the first to sleep in his bed, but he stayed awake for 1.5 hours 2 nights in a row. Mommy didn't let Ming Ming sleep in the bed and he went to sleep much more quickly. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but Ming Ming might be a bad influence.

One last random tidbit while I'm actually blogging. We bought Grant some white Hanes undershirts, which Troy wears all the time. When we showed Grant and put one on him he called it Daddy's shirt. And that's what he always calls them now.

Thank You and No Mine!

The other night Grant started crying in the middle of the nigh. When I went in to check on him, his pacifier was on the floor, so I picked it up and gave it back to him. Instead of just putting it in his mouth and going back to sleep, he told me thank you. I almost laughed out loud. I had to go in there a second time that night, and he again told me thank you when I gave him back his pacifier. He's so funny.
One of the many blog posts I've had in my head and never written is about how often he says thank you. I think for probably 2 months now he's been saying thank you. When he first started saying it you could tell he was so proud of himself for saying it. He would purposely do things so we would tell him thank you, and if we didn't say it fast enough he would say it first. He still says thank you almost every time we give him something, from water to a toy to candy. And he's so cute when he says it, I think it will be something I never forget. I hope he continues to be a polite little boy as he grows up. One thing I hope doesn't continue is "no, mine." The daughter of our new sitter has some sharing issues and is ALWAYS saying "no mine" whether Grant is trying to get whatever she has or not. He has taken to saying "no mine" instead of just no. For example, we'll ask him if he wants more grapes and he'll answer "no mine." So much fun. So far that's the worst thing he's learned from the kids at the sitter's, so I guess I can't complain too much.

Bandaid Blues

Last night Daddy took Grant to get the H1N1 shot. It was fine and didn't take too long. When I gave Grant his bath, he saw the bandaid on his leg (or maybe I bumped it taking his pants off?) and immediately started crying. He cried during the entire bath, and cried harder everytime he looked at the bandaid. When I got him out of the tub he clung to my legs and cried. I eventually got him diapered, but he still cried a little and he wanted me to hold him. I put him on our bed and he was ok, until he looked at the bandaid. Then he had to climb on me and cuddle with me. After I put his jammies on and he couldn't see the bandaid any more he was fine. So either I really did bump it and made it hurt, or he saw the bandaid and remembered how it hurt. Either way, he milked it for some mommy time.

Advent Calendar Treats

Last year I splurged and bought a super cute, over priced advent calendar. It came with chocolates, so this year I had to fill it myself. Except December 1st kind of snuck up on me and at the last minute all I could think of to put in it were plain M&Ms. So I filled it and Grant got his first treat. I think it may have been his first M&M that wasn’t in a cookie or some other baked good. The first one ended up spit out on the floor. I gave him half of one so he could taste the chocolate and that was all he needed to know he wanted more. This morning when we got downstairs he saw it and immediately smiled and wanted to open it. Mean mommy that I am, I told him he had to wait until after dinner tonight and daddy would give it to him.

Night-Night

Grant has figured out how to climb on to our bed all by himself. It’s his new favorite thing to do when he’s upstairs. When he’s on our bed he likes to play the night-night game. He’ll take all our pillows (also sometimes called blankets) and pile them in the middle of the bed. Then he lays his head on the pile and says night-night. If we are nearby, we have to play night-night too. We lay on the bed and pretend to be asleep, sometimes fake snoring to make him laugh. The night-night game is one game I don’t mind playing. Too bad all his future pretend games are unlikely to require me to take a fake nap.

My World Revolves and Brutus and Elmo

The other day we got a card in the mail telling us about alumni Christmas activities. The front had a photograph of 2 student houses decked to the max with Christmas lights and tacky inflatables. I thought Grant might like to look at it so I gave it to him. He looked at it for a minute or so, found the big Santa and happily said "Brutie!" When I told him it wasn't Brutus he looked again, then said "Elmo!" Well, I guess the thing was red... :)

High Five!

This morning Grant was giving Elmo and Brutie (aka Brutus) a ride in his car. He stopped pushing and touched Brutie's hand and said "high five." Later on he was carrying Brutus around and touched his hand and again said "high five." It was all I could do to keep from laughing. It cracks me up that he's giving his stuffed animals high fives. Sometimes he's too cute.

What a Fun Weekend!

This weekend Mommy and Daddy took me to build a bear so I could make my very own Brutus. I really like to give him hugs and cook him food in my kitchen.

I like to give him kisses too!

Here I am with Paw Paw and Brutus in my new Buckeye jammies from Grandma!

I like to play with my piggy. Check out my "I'm Dirty" shirt!

My tree is really pretty right now. Mommy made me get my picture taken with it.

I wish it wouldn't get cold- I LOVE to play outside! Good thing Mommy and Daddy got me a new winter coat and snow pants this weekend.

We went to Young's Dairy today. I had fun riding on these tractor bikes.

I got to play in the corn box too.

Mommy took me on this ride. She asked me if I wanted to have fun and it sure was. I wanted to go on it every time I saw it and called it "have fun."

Here we are on have fun!

Daddy's tying my shoes while I stand on the tractor.

They had 2 old tractors there to play on. I loved driving the tractor and watching all the people from up high.

Daddy was NOT allowed to touch the steering wheel!

Mommy helped me ride the cow in the pumpkin patch.

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii goats!

This tractor is so much fun! We need to come to Young's again!

Early Christmas

We had a whirlwind trip to Napoleon this weekend for a get together with my Grandma before she went to Florida. Grandma MeMe came over to visit Grant for a while in the morning and gave him a little Elmo. I wasn't sure if he'd care about it because he doesn't pay attention to Elmo at the sitter's but he likes this Elmo. He gives him kisses and puts him to bed each night.

Grant and Cain had fun chasing each other around the house and wanting whatever toy the other had. When Grant opened his yellow CAT toy he said it was "cute" and called it "I'm Dirty." He kept trying to ride it but had fun pushing it too. It was such a nice day we decided to stop at Highbanks on the way home and go for a little walk. Weekends need to last longer!


Bouncing on Mommy

Opening my present from Great Grandma

Playing with "I'm Dirty!"

Grant kept trying to ride it

The boys with their new toys

A walk on a beautiful day

Touch a Truck Pictures

New Sitter

Grant officially started at his new sitter today. We've been there a few times to get him used to being there, but today was the first time I left him there. It's my day off, so I thought it might be a good time to have him be there for a few hours without me. He did great! He didn't cry when I left and he shut the door behind me (he likes to do that). When I picked him up he was busily playing with a toy pizza. He didn't want to leave and once I finally got his coat on him, I had to chase him around the house to get him out the door. He didn't cry once while he was there, didn't ask for me, played and ate his snack no problem. Tomorrow should be interesting since he will be there all day and will have to nap there. But I am so proud of my good boy!

Head Banging

So while I was gone, Grant developed a new form of tantrum- banging his head on the floor. When we came home from the airport yesterday, Grant wanted to watch tv instead of eat dinner. When I told him he couldn't watch tv right then, he got down on his hands and knees and started banging his head on the floor. I was shocked and immediately made him stop. A little while later he was playing with his kitchen and something must have made him mad because he first hit himself in the head, then got down to bang his head on the (hard)wood floor (just once), and then moved to the rug and started banging away again. At least he had the sense to move to the rug instead of the hard floor (I have to admit, it was just a little tiny bit funny). But seriously, where is this coming from? I ignored him the second time he did it, but it's so hard. It can't feel very good! I hope this is short lived...

Mommy Vacation

I can't believe I only posted 3 times in September. I am definitely slacking. But really, not much has been going on. While it was nice out we'd walk or go to the playground (Grant loves the playground) before bedtime. Football season started so we have had lots of weekend visitors. And yesterday I got back from a little vacation to California to see a friend. Grandma came to visit the weekend I was gone to give Troy a break and give him time to get a few of the million little projects around the house done. They went to the library for Touch a Truck on Saturday (I will post pictures later) and just hung out. When the boys came to the airport to pick me up, Grant came up to me and said Mommy, and then promptly wanted to go on the escalators. He was fascinated. He kept trying to squirm out of my arms to go to them and saying "whee!" as we walked by. I couldn't believe how big he looked! He looked so tall and toddler like, not like a baby at all. It's crazy how 4 days made a difference in how I saw him. And he seemed to be talking a lot more too, repeating words and trying to say things. I'm sure he was like that before, but going without seeing him made everything seem different. It was very nice to get away, but I'm glad to be home with the boys now.

More Kisses

Tonight when we put Grant to bed we asked him for kisses. Usually, if he doesn't say "NOOOOOOOOOO," we get forhead kisses on our cheeks. Tonight he gave each of us mouth kisses on our mouths, then signed more. He gave us each another mouth kiss. Sometimes that boy is too cute!

Picture Post

I've been really bad about posting pictures lately. I finally downloaded a bunch off the camera. They look a little distorted here, but if you click on the picture you'll get a better image.


19 months old! Look how big he is on the quilt!

Another picture from the zoo with Cain, G, and PawPaw. Every time we sit down at the computer Grant comes over and wants to see pictures of Cain.

More play time at the zoo.

Watching tv.

Looks like he has something to say!

Grandpa and Grandma let him play with their phones.

Grant loves watching videos of Isaac and Owen. Here Isaac is building and knocking over blocks to make Owen laugh. Grant watched it about 10 times in a row and loved it.

Grant always wants to be outside. This morning when I got him up and changed his diaper the first thing he said was outside. What are we going to do when it's dark at 5:30 and too cold to play outside? I don't even want to think about it.

This is Grant's NOOOOOOOOOOO face in all its progressions. Too bad the pictures a little blurry. It cracks me up when he makes this face.

Grant lets us know anytime an airplane or helicopter flies over by saying airplane over and over until we acknowledge that we see it too.