Animal Sounds by Grant

Grant has always loved the show, The Wonder Pets, ever since he was just a few months old. I remember him being 4 months old and rolling around the floor and stopping to find the TV as soon as he heard the theme song start. Well, he's even more into it now that he's a bit older. If you haven't seen the show, its about a group of classroom pets that save baby animals. Well, now he is obsessed with any animal he sees anywhere! He barks when he sees the dog on the Cottonelle toilet paper package, he tweets when he sees birds while in the car, he roars like a lion when he uses his lion sippy cup, he moooos at the cows at Chick-Fil-A. He recently started holding his nose and saying his own version of "stinky" when we say skunk. He raises his arm next to his face pretending to be an elephant!! We've been trying to get him to say the names of the animals, but all we get is the sounds they make! All in due time, but the sounds sure are cute!!

Pretending to be an elephant

Stinky Skunk!!!

The Yogurt Incident

Are you really trusting me with this spoon Mom? You're crazy!

I was inspired to let Grant try spoon feeding himself yogurt after a fellow blogger of mine (Lisa- thanks for the courage!) let her little girl try it out! Grant is already a pro at using a fork, but spoons are in a whole different league!! He never seems to mind me spoon feeding him, but I figured it was as good of a time as any to get him practicing! I was going to put him in the tub after dinner anyway, so he might as well be really messy!!! He thought it was pretty cool that he got to do it on his own! He didn't do too much at first, but then once he put his hand in the cup, the adventure went in a whole new direction. He basically just started finger painting with the yogurt and didn't try feeding himself at all!! This little incident shows me we have A LOT of practicing to do!! But I guess that leaves a whole lot of fun to be had!!!

This is fun Mom!!

I think I need more practice!! But for now...BATH TIME!!

Little Angel on a Big Pillow

It is very very rare for me to get a picture of Grant sleeping because he never sleeps anywhere other than his bed! He hardly ever naps in the car, and he NEVER naps in the stroller or anything. So today I went to wake up him from a nap and saw my little angel sound asleep- in the same position I like to sleep!! He looked so precious, I had to take a picture before I woke him up! Honestly, I thought the flash of the camera would wake him, but he didn't even budge!

We recently added a big pillow to his crib, and he must really like it! He's normally a very mobile sleeper- I find him in different positions all over his crib!! But since we've added the big pillow, he's always sleeping on it! Guess he's one step closer in moving towards a big boy bed!! Wait...did I really just say that!??! Nah!!

Very Impressive!

Grant never ceases to amaze me!! He is always doing stuff that leaves me wondering, "Where does he think of this stuff?" Before swimming lessons the other day, I was scurrying around filling the pool bag while Grant was entertaining himself with some fun manipulative toys! He took one part from each of the two toys to make a one new toy!! By the time I got the pool bag ready to go, I saw his finished product! I was totally shocked that he came up with that idea!! I definitely thought to myself, "Where does he think of this stuff," followed by, "Very impressive!"

Little Boy Blue

Grant and I have been trying to stay busy, as Levi is remodeling our master bathroom! Grant is very curious about what Daddy is doing and its very hard to keep him out of the way! So I've been trying to do anything I can to keep him occupied!! I've pulled out the finger paints the past few days, and as each day comes, Grant becomes more and more brave with them!! The first few times he painted, he only used the brush and didn't get his fingers dirty one tiny bit!! But as you can see from the above picture, he's not scared to get a little messy now!! Not only did he make a beautiful picture on the paper (I think it looks like the ocean), but he did some additional work on his little body!! I figured- what the heck, he's washable!! So I let him go to town!! He turned himself into Little Boy Blue!!! It definitely kept him occupied! I had to refill the paint plate 2 times to give him more paint!! And what body painting experience isn't complete without some afternoon tub time!! Hmm, maybe he'll be good enough at painting, he can help Daddy with the remodeling project after all!!!

Trying to be sneaky at first and painting himself under the table!!

Pretty proud of his "artwork!"

A Fireman Cowboy?

Is he a cowboy....or is he a fireman? In Grant's case, he's both at the same time!!! I'll have to say that both of these activities were definitely inherited from his cousin, Mason! Mason has a horsey named Henry, and can be seen most often wearing his red firefighter helmet! It's cute that Grant put the two of them together!! My very generous friend let us adopt their horsey, since he was taking up too much room at their house! Grant gladly accepted her offer!! It's funny how he won't wear a hat when we really want him to, say at the beach or the pool. But he'll gladly wear any other hat when its on his terms!! The great thing is when he was riding his horsey, he made the "Yeehaw" sound like a cowboy, followed by the "WooooooWoooooo" sound of a firetruck!! What a hoot!!!!

Grant's inspiration- his cousin, Mason!

Squeeze It!

Grant must think he's super strong because he squeezes everything. I think it goes back to the first time I introduced him to playdoh. I was showing him how to squeeze it in his hands (because as a teacher, I know that helps build hand-strength, which in turn, helps with pre-writing skills), but mostly because its just fun to squeeze squishy playdoh!!Well, lately he's been "squeezing" everything, but it turns out, he's just making the sound like he's squeezing and not really squeezing at all! He makes this face like he's straining, and his face turns all red, and makes this ridiculous face- we just love it!!!

Daddy likes to make Grant "squeeze" just about anything he has in his hand to see if he'll do it, and he usually does! A few days ago, I caught this on camera. Pretty classic!

Happy 4th of July!!

Here is my little munchkin last 4th of July:

and here he is now.....

(This was the best I could do, as he wouldn't even attempt to sit)

Wow, how time changes! He was such a little butterball a year ago (3.5 months), and now he's a strong ball of energy, never missing a beat!! We didn't do anything special last year. We mostly just prayed that the noisy fireworks wouldn't wake our sleeping baby (that took us forever to get to sleep in the first place)!

This year, we had a very nice family day!! It has been a while since we've had a weekend as a family, let alone a holiday weekend!! 4th of July is Levi's favorite holiday, so we made sure we had lots of activities planned!! We went out to lunch, picked up some "driveway" fireworks- smoke bombs, fountains, and sparklers. We bought some new plants and came home and planted them- Grant helped, of course! And what else would follow an afternoon of gardening, but a water fight!!! Then it was dinner time and for dessert...smores!! We went outside and did some smoke bombs. Unfortunately, Grant was ready for bed at 7:30, so he wasn't able to enjoy all of the other fireworks! But we had a great day!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

Welcome Home Daddy!!

It's finally over!! Well, this part at least!! Levi has been traveling since the beginning of February- he's been gone 19 out of 24 weeks- and he's finally home!!! For now anyway!! We will be able to enjoy the next 4 months as a family, until he leaves for long deployment in November!!! We got the call that Daddy was home in the middle of our weekly commissary trip on Tuesday. We quickly finished our shopping, and drove to base to pick Daddy up! We had to wait outside the squadron for about 10 minutes, and while we waited Grant was sitting in his carseat about ready to jump out of his skin, he was so excited! We watched people walk in and out of the building, and each person we saw, I could see Grant's smile grow so big, until he realized it wasn't Daddy. The smile would fade until the next person came out, and the process kept repeating. Then finally, Daddy walked out (mustache free, I might add!) and Grant was kicking his feet and waving his hands and squealing with delight- he was sooo happy!!!

When we got home, we unloaded Daddy's stuff from the car. Grant has been wanting to help with little tasks, so Daddy tasked him with carrying his water bottle and cover (his hat). Grant wore his cover for a good 5 minutes straight! Even though he doesn't normally wear hats, I think he was just so excited that Daddy was the one who gave it to him, he didn't want to take it off!!

We are very excited to finally be a family again!! We haven't planned any house projects, date nights, outings, or anything since February!!!

LET NORMALCY BEGIN!!!

Flash Forward

We got Grant this little backpack at JoAnn Fabrics for $2. I thought it would be a nice little bag to keep in the car and fill it full of toys! I put it on Grant's back, just to see what he'd do. I figured it would come off the second I put it on, but he actually kept it on. He jumped on his bike and I had this horrible flash forward of him headed off to school on his bike saying, "Bye Mom, See ya later!!" It is hard to believe how quickly my little baby is turning into a big boy!! Each day he does something so new and so amazing!! Pretty soon my flash forward will become my reality, so I better enjoy these cute little moments while I have them.

PS- In my flash forward, let's hope Grant is actually wearing clothes, instead of a diaper when he heads off to school!!

*****Some of the New and Amazing Things Grant Can Do*****

• He points at a baby on TV and says, "Awwww" until I say, "Aw, cute baby." Then he smiles.
• He can make a tower of blocks 4 blocks high!
• He can tell me what a dog, cat, cow, and monkey say
• He makes a cute fishy face- trying to get a picture, but so far- no luck!
• He learned a dance from his favorite show that has 3 steps: clapping hands, stomping feet, and thumping his chest! He does all 3 in order!
• He sorts his stacking color shapes with the right colors- his favorite being yellow, like Daddy's pickup!
• He will give all his stuffed animals a hug and kiss before he puts them away

These may not seem so amazing to you all, but each of these little accomplishments makes me one Proud Mommy!!

Empty!

An empty bathtub...who knew it could create endless amounts of fun!! Grant has learned to climb in and out of the tub on his own, which is why we always keep the bathroom door closed. Well, Grant has also learned to open doors (we didn't even think getting levered door handles was a bad idea when picked them out: pre-parenthood, of course!). Well, this morning I was getting the laundry started and I come out of the laundry room and I hear a bang in the bathroom. I peeked in and saw him taking all the toys out of the toy bag, so I ran to grab the camera. When I walked in, I saw this look- so mischievous! The look on his face was like, "I'm so cute, so you can't be mad at me...right?" Of course not- anything that keeps him contained and occupied for 30 minutes is a blessing to me!! I think I like empty bathtubs!!

Where's Your Tongue?

So, turns out it didn't take Grant long to learn all his body parts! He can point to his eyes, ears, nose, teeth, hair, hands, feet, arms, legs, fingers, toes, belly, and belly button....but his favorite is his tongue!!! He sticks it way out every opportunity he gets!! He was eating a popsicle and with each lick, his tongue came all the way out and he took the biggest lick he could get! So silly!!

Here is a little video of Grant enjoying a DQ ice cream cone in the backseat with Mimi- showing off his tongue...again!!

Happy Little Fishy

Being thrown in the air- and LOVING it!!

The thermometer in my car read 102 degrees today! Way too hot to be doing anything that doesn't involve being indoors or being in water!! With my mom in town (which means an extra set of hands for me), we decided to try going to the big pool for the very first time!! Obviously, we have never been there before, but I read on the website that it had a splashing pool, so I thought Grant would like that!! Of course, when we got to the pool, there was no water in the splashing pool, so we had to get in the big part! I didn't think Grant would like it, since he tries his hardest not to get wet in his little baby pool! So when we got in, Grant seriously started laughing so hard, it sounded like he was screaming!! He really enjoyed floating on his belly, kicking his feet, splashing with his hands, being thrown up in the air, jumping off the side, and putting his face in the water. I have him signed up for swimming lessons in a few weeks, and I was worried that he wouldn't like it, but now I think he'll be a happy little fishy!

**Please disregard how hideous I look in a bathing suit and with wet hair!!

Run Grant, Run!!

I have literally enjoyed the pitter-patter of little feet lately!! Grant has figured out that walking anywhere doesn't get him where he wants to be quick enough. So now, he runs everywhere!!! I just love watching his little legs and feet move so speedily! Kind of reminds me of the RoadRunner chasing the Coyote! I especially love the sound of his little barefeet running on our hardwood floors, his laugh echoing down the hallway! I love that these small little milestones bring such joy to my heart!!!

He especially loves running on the beach!!