I got a new cell phone last weekend, so now Grant has his very own to play with!! He LOVES to grab remote controls and phones these days....he grabs them and pushes all the buttons. He's even made a couple of phone calls that I didn't know about until friends told me they got voicemails of a babbling baby! So now, since my old cell phone is disconnected, he can play with it all he wants!
Grant is starting to really enjoy looking at himself (and other people) in mirrors. For a while, he's looked at himself and smiled when we take him in front of large mirrors, like in our bathrooms. But I have a small one that I keep in the cabinet in our bathroom, and I've taken it out recently. He looks at it, then tries to flip it over to see what's behind it! And it's fun to place it so he can see me....he gets a big kick out of that too!
Grant turned 7 months old yesterday....so hard to believe! We have some friends who have an 8-week old, and I keep saying that I almost don't remember Grant being that age! It's amazing how much you forget in just a few short months.
We celebrated the day by going to Book Babies up at the library in the morning. It was our 3rd time to go, and I think Grant's one of the youngest babies there. He can't clap and run around like some of the babies can, but he likes to stand and watch everyone sing the songs. And I know that before long, he'll be in the middle of all of it too! They sing fun songs and have an awesome bubble machine that all the babies just love!
Last night, Dean had a softball game, and Grant and I went up to the park to watch him. Grant loves being outside, so of course he enjoyed himself thoroughly (even though it was 85 degrees at 7:30pm!).
About a week ago, Grant had an AWFUL night of sleep after coming home from our trip to Bryan. He slept for 2 hours during the car ride home (much longer than his normal naps!), so I guess he just got out of his normal rhythm. I think he woke up every hour between 11:30 and 4:30am....so none of us got very much sleep. Well, the next night, he made up for it! We got him ready for bed and I had Dean feed him a bottle, which I'll occasionally do instead of feeding him myself. He had barely started the bottle when his eyes got droopy, and he was fast asleep by the time we burped him!
Grant is starting to learn how to drink from cups....he's actually really interested in doing it! Any time I fill my glass up with water while I'm holding him, his arms shoot up and he tries to lift his mouth towards it! He's actually not bad either.....much better than I would expect from a 7 month old! Of course some always spills down his chest, but I always hear him swallowing some too. And he seems to really like it....you wouldn't think he would like something as bland as water (especially when it's COLD!), but he always reaches for more.
The sippy cup is a little harder for him....he is learning how to grab it, but hasn't really figured out how to suck from it. The books say that it's entirely different than drinking from the bottle, so I'm assuming that it'll just take a little time. Here are some pictures of his attempts!
We had a good Father's Day....it rained almost the entire day, so we ended up staying inside for most of it. We did go to church in the morning, and Grant did SO well! He played on the floor with toys the entire time without crying once! His teachers Scott and Pam said that he started to get fussy a couple of times, but they'd just put a new toy in front of him and he became preoccupied again. That makes me so happy and gives me the hope that we'll be able to leave him for both services soon!
We came home and cooked fajitas on the grill, in spite of the loud thunderstorms outside! Then we watched the US Open and spent the day just relaxing inside. Grant took a nap from 6:25-7:00pm, so he was awake and acting like a hyperactive baby way past his bedtime! We were on the phone with Dean's parents, and he was making all kinds of shreiks and other noises. When we got off the phone, I took him to his bedroom....I think he was asleep within 2 minutes. Here's a picture in his waning moments, shortly before he crashed!
Since it's Father's Day weekend, I thought I would post some good pictures I took of Dean and Grant last weekend at my parents' house. Grant had an hour-long nap in the car ride from Madisonville to Bryan, so he went to sleep late, then woke up a lot in the middle of the night. So by the morning, Dean and I were very tired, as you can see from the last picture. Grant was preoccupied with his M&Ms bag, as he is with anything made out of plastic these days!
Again, I'm WAAAY behind in posting pictures....this week has been crazy and I can't believe it's already Friday! This past Saturday, Dean, Grant and I went to Madisonville for a welcome home party for one of my good friends Margaret and her husband Doug. We had a great time seeing them and Grant enjoyed meeting a lot of new people! Afterwards, we drove to my parents' house instead of driving all the way back to Houston. He had a great time....hopefully he's getting over his stranger anxiety! He let my mom and dad hold him a lot and actually had fun playing on their laps!
On Sunday morning, we took him in the pool, which he liked! It was almost 90 degrees, so I think he may have assumed that it was just a large bathtub. I held him while we got in, and he didn't even flinch or act like anything was different! We just swirled him around with us, and my mom bought a little float that he was able to sit in for part of the time too.
I feel like I'm always a few days behind in posting pictures.....by the time I get around to uploading them onto the computer and finding a few spare minutes to write a post, five or six days have gone by since the picture was taken! Hopefully I'll get better with that...
Anyway, here are some pictures from Saturday. This one is taken at Starbucks that morning, when Grant and I went to meet my friend Megan. About 10 seconds after this picture was taken, he spit up all over her! But he was in a good mood there and was smiling at just about everyone he saw (including the man sitting inside, just on the other side of the window from us!).
Then Dean and Grant got to spend some quality guy time together while I went to a baby shower. They went shopping for something that only guys can get extremely excited about....big screen TVs. Actually, I know girls get excited about them too, but Dean's been pricing TVs for over a month now, and we're not even going to buy one until December! Anyway, Dean loves to show off Grant's Alabama hat when he takes him places, which I think is so cute! Here's a picture of the two of them together after I got home.
A little later, Grant was exhausted and ended up falling asleep in my arms....I love it when he does that, even though I know the books say you should get the baby to fall asleep on his own so he knows how to soothe himself to sleep (a skill Grant has NOT mastered yet!). Then afterwards we got him all dressed in his new little froggy shirt (another hand-me-down!) to go out to dinner at Miller's Cafe, one of our favorite hamburger places. 
Last Thursday, Grant and I went up into town with my friends Sierra and Erin, and Sierra's little boy Jacob. It was an adventure, to say the least! I never knew a VW Passat could feel so tiny! Sierra sat in the back between the boys on the way up there, and I gained a new appreciation for moms who have twins. I'll often jump in the backseat to sit with Grant or to pacify him if he's fussy while Dean is driving, and it's not a big deal at all. But it's next to impossible to climb into the middle seat when you've got two carseat bases installed! And Sierra and I are both tall, but we're by no means large people!
Anyway, Grant was also not himself all afternoon.....I had to pull off the interstate and into a parking lot to get him out and calm him down on the way into town because he would not stop crying! It was time for a nap, but usually he'll get in the car and cry for just a minute before falling asleep when he's really tired. So I rocked his carseat until he fell asleep, then we drove the rest of the way without any problem.
We went shopping a little and then went to Chuy's for dinner, which is one of the places we miss out in the suburbs! Again, poor Grant was tired and I felt like such a bad mommy for not trying to plan around his naps better. I still forget that he's outgrowing the stage where he'll sleep anywhere and anytime he feels tired. Plus, that place is loud and I think there was just too much for him to look at, even though he was extremely exhausted. But finally I stood and rocked him and he went to sleep....at least for a little while! Through the whole trip, Erin was SO helpful to Sierra and me....we don't know what we would have done without her!
Here are some pictures we took. And it was such a small world....we also ran into Margaret and Angie, two of my friends from our old church where Dean and I met. We all frequented Chuy's when we'd go out with groups, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to see them! The first two are of Erin (and Grant) and Sierra and Jacob, then pictures of Margaret and Angie holding Grant.
Grant was in a silly mood last week and kept making this cute smile over and over again! It seems like anytime he learns something new, he'll do it over and over again, as if he's trying to master it!
Something else really funny that he did last week....one night, we played with the kitties by holding a long ribbon in front of them to chase while we ran around the room. We set Grant on the floor to watch, and he LOVED it! He kept laughing when they'd jump in the air or run in front of him. Then we got the laser pointer, which the cats (especially Amminadab) love. Grant laughed hysterically as they ran around in circles chasing that red dot! Amminadab jumped three quarters of the way up the closet door a couple of times chasing it, and Grant just couldn't have been more excited. It was neat that he started laughing on his own, before he saw or heard us laughing. So he obviously thought the kitties were funny, and knew how to express that!
Here's a cute little hat we received from some friends in a bag of hand-me-down 9 and 12 month clothes for Grant. We're so grateful for all the people who have given us their used clothes, which has saved us from spending a lot of money so far! Anyway, we also had Grant dressed in his little tropical outfit, which is one of Dean's favorites. He was in a smiley mood, so we got some good pictures. But.....this is a 6-12 month hat, and it just barely fits him. I guess this is proof that his head IS in the 90th percentile for his age!
Being tickled by Daddy:
Watching Daddy make faces at him:
