Pre-holiday fun

I'm really enjoying the lead-up to Grant's second Christmas. It's already a lot of fun, and I can't wait to see how Christmas morning turns out.

He loves walking on our street to look at the "Chrissmee Lights" on the houses. He didn't seem too surprised when we put a tree in the living room, and was even happier when we put chrissmee lights on that, too. He loves the "ormanints" and likes to point to one from time to time and ask to hold it. None of them are very breakable, so it's nice to let him examine them closely.

"Santa" is still a concept he doesn't get (I think he's still a little too young). I have a little wooden sleigh that I put under the tree just for looks while there aren't any presents under there. I tried to tell him it was Santa's sleigh, but he disagreed and said it was his "lawnmower" instead. He likes to dump out the decorative stuff I put in it and push it around the living room like a lawn mower.

He often talks in sentences now, and it amazes me constantly. Earlier this week he told me that "water is dropping down" in the sink, and that "it's too cold outside!" He can tell you all about what he did earlier in the day, and what he's doing next. He is starting to ask questions a lot too, which I'm sure is going to accelerate alarmingly in the near future.

After keeping him almost completely TV-free for his first 20 months or so, we have recently let him watch Toy Story. He absolutely loves it. This year many of his Christmas toys will be Toy-Story-related, and I'm ridiculously excited about seeing his reaction.

As always, he is so much fun to be around, and it just keeps getting better every day.

Daddy is sharing some jelly beans

Those curls just get me!

He looks so grown up, sitting in his car seat just "reading" his book.

My favorite guys in the world.

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Fall snapshots

Spending every possible moment outside in the lovely weather.

Lawnmower...and finally wearing warm clothes.

New technology is awesome. I now have my own iPad. Well, except when Grant takes it from me.

Becky came to Dallas for a visit, and we had a wonderful party!

Then Trisha and Cole came for a visit, and we had such a good time, just hanging out.

The Dallas Arboretum and all it's fall loveliness.

Tiny tiny punkins

Grant LOVES being outdoors. All the time.

Silly!

At the Science Place with Jecka (Jessica) playing with the best water-play-table ever!

Chillin with R2 at the Halloween festival

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Talking

Oh my goodness, what a chatterbox we have. He talks A LOT. He sings songs now too, but only the words he really likes, and skips the rest. This is a short post, so I can just make note of some of the most adorable things before they leak out of my brain.

Notice his words are in all caps, because that's how much enthusiasm he has for talking.

My garden flip-flops = "MOMMY PLIP OPS"
Outside = "EYE-TIDE!"
The little nail-hole in the wall = "TINY TINY HO"
Anytime he sees the iPad = "IPADIPADIPADIPADIPAD!!!!!" (he LOVES it)
Daddy's playstation controller = "CAH-LODO"
Shampoo = "HAM-POO"
Vacuum = "NACK-NOOM" (which is also inexplicably loves)

Of course he's saying a ton more words then these, but his pronunciation is astoundingly good for almost everything, so I'm trying to cherish the adorable baby-talk while I can.

When he sings happy birthday = "HAPPY TO YOU!"
Itsy Bitsy Spider = "EEE BEE PIE-DOH"
ABCs = "A B C C C ... H!... Q R S ...Y Z!"

Best of all, he says "I love you" and its the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

And when you ask him to smile for the camera, you get this:

Ha!
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September Swing

Just when we thought the unbearable heat and endless drought would never end, September arrived to save us!

The older kids started 6th grade (!!!) and are loving it. Sarah is in band this year, playing trumpet. So far she seems to like it, though she hasn't been eager to play for us yet.

Grant enjoyed the Open House night at the school, especially the lockers.



Much to our dismay, Sunny (who has been Grant's nanny since he was 2 months old) decided to go back to school, and Grant misses her a lot.

We have had a couple of "cool" weather breaks, finally! It's so nice to be able to get outside and play more. Also, I am happy to put long pants on Grant since he seems to scrape his knees EVERY TIME we go outside.

We've been spending more time at our favorite park, and Grant really likes all the leaves that are falling.



I guess I need to get used to the tidal wave of "activities" that comes with every September, because it is bound to get even busier as the years progress. Our part of Dallas has a large and very active local early-childhood PTA group that I've joined. They had a kick-off party a couple of weekends ago, and it was packed with families and kids close to Grant's age. He loved the fire truck, of course. I'm hoping we will get know some of the kids he will go to school with in a couple of years.



Our new nanny is Jessica. She and Grant have a lot of fun. He's old enough now to enjoy things like "Story Time" at the library so Jessica took him to one yesterday. He loved the story and singing, but then discovered that there was: A COMPUTER. THAT HE COULD PLAY WITH. OMG. So he was beyond thrilled with that visit. My sweet little nerd.

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My Precious Little Nerd

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Food and Words

The two most-loved activities at our house right now are eating and talking. Sometimes at the same time.

His fierce pursuit of independence has made meals messier and more time-consuming, but overall great fun. Behold: he eats yogurt without any help whatsoever, thankyouverymuch:

He is randomly and inexplicably either eating or rejecting certain foods, only to change his mind the next day, or later in the same day, or even later in the same meal.

He has become determined to do things by himself whenever possible, or at least help. We got him a "learning tower" which is this awesome platform with rails that lets him stand at the counter or sink and participate in everything from preparing meals to washing dishes. He LOVES it. In fact, several mornings now he won't even consider eating banana slices that he didn't slice himself. If he gets to slice it, he'll eat it. Otherwise, no way.

He is starting to string words together, like "hot toast" and "music on" and once he even had a little conversation with himself in which he asked himself if he could have more goldfish crackers ("bish") and then agreed to it: "Oh no! Ah-gon Bish! More Bish? Oh-KAY, more bish!"

We have once or twice glimpsed the beginning of the tantrum era, when he goes all limp and flops down on the floor saying NOOOONONONOOOOO, but at the moment he seems to get over it pretty quickly. In general, he is a bundle of energy and humor and fun.

(Ignore that horrid stain on the carpet, we're planning to buy a steam cleaner in the near future.)
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The comedian

Grant's sense of humor has been growing along with the rest of him. He loves making us laugh, and he likes verbal jokes as well as slapstick ones.

While eating toast at breakfast recently, he was holding a magnetic letter "F" from the refrigerator. We practiced making the F sound, and I said "F is for..." and he said "fffffffftoast!" and started giggling.
Sometimes when I ask him if he wants more of something (strawberries or whatever) he will lean forward in his chair and whisper very quietly "yes!...no!...yes!...no!" and laugh at his little joke. He thinks burps are hilarious (what is it with boys?) and lately he learned how to say "FUNNY!"

He also has a sense of the dramatic. A couple of days ago he flipped a wooden puzzle over to drop all the pieces, several of which landed on his feet. Apparently it didn't hurt enough to make him cry, but he put on his very best sad face, lifted his foot up towards me and said "OH NO! TOES BONK!"

Just in the last few days, he has decided that he is done with letting anyone help him with meals. At first he just didn't want us to break things into pieces, like crackers. He wanted them WHOLE. For quite a long time now he has enjoyed using a fork sometimes, but he didn't really care a whole lot. Now he loves using a fork, even for toast. Then one day I was giving him pasta for lunch and when I tried to feed him a bit he would say "NOOOO!" So I said, ok, you don't want pasta? When I put the pasta aside he frowned and said "PAAAASTAAAAA!" Finally I realized he just didn't want me to hold the spoon. Or even touch the spoon, or help him make the scooping motion with his hand. That lunch took a long time. :) Two days ago the same thing happened with yogurt. This means considerably more laundry, since he refuses to wear a bib anymore.

His interest in music is undiminished. In fact, he often requests "GAGA" (yes, Lady Gaga) to be played on the ipod. He starts dancing anytime he hears music. When he wakes up in the morning, most of the time he stands up in his crib when I come in to get him, points at his music player and says "MYOOO-ICK!"

I feel so lucky to have this joyful little person to say hello to every morning.
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Summer

Despite the unrelenting 100+ degree weather, we've managed to have a ton of fun so far this summer.

Almost every evening, and on weekend mornings also, when the backyard is relatively shady, we go outside to "play splash" with the hose and sprinkler and pirate boat full of water (sometimes the dog's water bowl too). It's most fun when the big kids play too, and often Sarah will get out the sidewalk chalk. She and Grant have a blast making art/messes in the driveway. All this running and playing in the back yard does have its downside, though.

A few times EARLY in the morning before it gets oppressively hot, we've gone over to a little park to play and walk around in the grass field next to it. 

Grant has just suddenly learned to go down slides fearlessly by himself.

He's also learned to go up and down stairs somewhat safely (on his belly), though if we're not vigilant he stands up and tries to go down the way grownups do. He doesn't yet have a full measure of respect for gravity.

His vocabulary has gone through the roof. For a while I was trying to keep a list of words he was saying regularly, but he went from about 50 to 75 one week, the next week was over 100, and now I've lost all hope of keeping track. He can and will say almost anything (or at least try). I get surprised on a daily basis by words he says that I've never heard him say before. Today he pointed to his wooden Zebra toy and said "BEEZA!" which is both close and adorable.

Yesterday when I got home he ran to me, put his arms around my legs and said "HUGS!" I love that boy.
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My mom gets to smirk about this one

In every family of more than one child, inevitably one is sweet and cooperative, and one is hell on wheels. Starting from a VERY young age, I was the one sporting said wheels. Always. The stories of me as a kid always revolve around my stubbornness, independence, disregard for rules and consequences, and so forth.

Fast-forward to now, when I get to go head-to-head with...the exact same qualities in my own child. The "I do it myself!" attitude is in full swing (not the words yet, but they aren't far behind). He is endlessly frustrated with the fact that he isn't quite tall enough to do EVERYTHING on his own. But he is finally tall enough to climb up onto chairs and couches by himself. He thinks this is enormously amusing. Now the whole house is his personal bounce house. The ONLY thing we absolutely will not agree to is letting him stand UP on the furniture and walk around.

Of course he stands up every single time. It doesn't seem to matter what the tone of my "No!" is. He helpfully now says "iiiit DOWN!!!" to himself. We have tried physically sitting him on his butt again, we've tried removing him from the couch, removing him from the room, and we have even removed the movable chairs (though the couch has to stay). His response is the same: he crinkles up his nose, then smirks (dimples and all), then giggles, and runs/jumps/flops and does every cute and/or dangerous thing he can think of OTHER than sit down.

I have yet to see any shred of evidence that he is taking us seriously.

:)
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The Conversationalist

Grant's verbal abilities are starting to really take off. He's mastered dozens of words, as well as at least 9 animal sounds (when you ask him what sound the animal makes). His favorite word right now is, of course, "No." He's really good at it. A couple of days ago I was putting something in the trash and he very helpfully reminded me, "no, no, no!" I wasn't supposed to touch the trash!

Today he surprised us twice with new words. First he brought me an empty juice carton and pulled on the cap. When it didn't come off he handed it to me and said "tuck!" (STUCK!). He said it again at the park when he was interested in one of the bolts that held the park bench together. He tried to twist it and said "tuck!" Then tonight as Shane was giving him goodnight hugs and kisses, he spotted one of his favorite books on the couch. He started pointing over Shane's shoulder and said "Lilla! LILLA!" He wanted Shane to read Goodnight Gorilla before bed!

We got him a little kid-sized table and chairs for his play area and he loves it. We got some play pots and pans that he and Sarah play with for ages. He has also tried coloring with crayons a few times and really likes that too. Things are getting more fun by the day.


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A nice spring day outside

Today was one of those wonderful but rare spring days that wasn't too hot, wasn't raining/hailing/tornadoing, and wasn't a workday.

We had a nice long walk in the stroller in the morning, a lot of playing, and then Grant had his first ride on the new toddler seat attached to Shane's bike. He loved it. He didn't show any signs of being scared. After a few minutes he started smiling and saying "mamadadamamadadamamadada" which is what he has been doing lately when he's really happy. Next time we'll take pictures.

He has been actively trying to learn new words, and has just started trying to repeat words that we ask him to say. He gets pretty close to saying them some of the time. He has learned: clock, no (of course), dude (which Sarah taught him), dirt, open, out, toast, and several more. He brings me the Seuss book "Hop on Pop" and he says "BOP!" and when we have burritos for dinner he says "booboh!" He's hasn't made up his mind which word to use when he wants out of his high chair, so he says a combination of out/up/off and it sounds like "Ouwuft!"

He is so happy, and so smart, and so much fun to be with.
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How Fast a Year Goes By

I just noticed it's been 1 year and 2 days since I posted last. That sucks. So much has happened. I have the best of intentions, but...

Quick toddler update:
He runs, he makes silly faces, he climbs, kisses, pretends to feed his toys, loves music, and has a great sense of humor. He says more than a dozen words, at least three of them new as of this weekend. He now says "waba" for water, "nana" for banana, "this" "that" "off" "up" "bath" and most recently "Lo-la" for stroller. "bwoo" for blue, and this weekend he held a tissue up to my nose and told me to "bo!" (blow). There are many others, and he learns so fast!

More to come...
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