Some pictures from last week (still trying to catch up!):

We played in the pool on Monday. Grant loves the water hose right now, and he enjoyed that much more than the pool itself! I think he only got into the water once or twice.....the rest of the time he splashed in it from the outside or just wanted to run around with the hose!

He's also amazed by the storage shed, and ALWAYS wants to go in there! He'll stand and point to things, describing in his own language what they all are!
I used a popsicle to lure him out of the toolshed.....and I think I still had to drag him out! He likes these but gets frustrated because he can't quite push the ice up to the top without all of it coming out!
Funny random picture.....he'll do this sometimes if he pushes a ball under his legs....he just sits there for a minute and takes a look at the world from a different perspective!
On Wednesday, our friends Sierra and Jacob came over. We ate lunch and the boys played outside for a while (even though it was 3pm, sunny, and SO hot!).
After Jacob left, we played in our new sprinkler! I knew Grant would have a fun time with it!
Taking a drink of my diet coke. Strangely, he didn't seem to mind it!
He soon found out that it was even more fun to carry the sprinkler himself....at one point he sprayed me and I made a funny noise. When he realized he had gotten me all wet, he thought that was REALLY funny! He kept doing it, while laughing and laughing! I definitely didn't mind it, though....I felt much better in the heat when I was soaking wet!
Later that night, Dean, Grant and I went over to the little league fields to watch some of the games. I've been wanting to go all spring.....I like to do random things like that, and I thought Grant would probably enjoy it. We watched some kids who looked to be 7 or 8 years old (it's hard for me to tell), and we had a great time! We bought dinner at the concession stand, and Grant ate his entire corn dog! He enjoyed looking around but didn't pay too much attention to the game. But Dean and I had fun watching those little kids play....it was just something out of the ordinary that all of us could enjoy (Grant almost always enjoys anything outdoors).


I've been thinking the past few days how much I've been enjoying Grant at this age. The past month (17-18 months old) has probably been one of my very favorite stages so far. When he started hitting and having tantrums at 13 months, I thought the best was over and the next couple of years would be difficult! But it's almost like he's already gone through his rough patch and now is getting better (who knows....maybe I will be eating my words a few months from now!).

It's not like he doesn't throw fits and we don't have bad days anymore....we definitely do! But I think back to when things started to change, and I think it was when he started saying words (six or so weeks ago). I feel like we're actually communicating pretty well.....he will say "no" (not just short and choppy, but very cute!) if he doesn't want to do something, and if he hurts his hand or foot, he'll want me to kiss it! He also scrunches up his face and says "ow!" And lately he's been copying sounds that I make right after I say them. Tonight he was so cute.....I was putting him to bed pretty late (8:30 is when Dean left the room), and there was an Apache helicopter flying around at Ellington. Every time he heard the noise, he'd lift up his hands in his "I don't know?" pose. He always does this when he hears a plane but can't see it, or when I ask him where something is and he can't find it. Then we started hearing this faint beeping sound, and he started beeping, very quietly! I finally opened the blinds so we could watch the helicopter, and I said, "ooooh!" He copied me, saying it with the same inflection that I say it!

It was one of those times when I wish he'd never grow up....it was 9pm and I knew I needed to leave him to go to sleep, but I didn't want to! Days just fly by so fast and before I know it, an entire week or month has gone by and Grant is a little bit different than he was before. I'm glad I have a video camera, although there's no way I can capture a fraction of all the adorable and funny things he does.

Maybe I've enjoyed these past few weeks partly because we've been doing some new activities that we haven't done yet (going to the pool, playing with the hose in our yard, etc). This is Grant's first summer that he can actually enjoy a lot of outdoor summer activities, and I'm excited about doing a lot of fun things with him, aside from just letting him play with his toys or going on errands. But I really think that he's been more agreeable lately.....or maybe I'm just getting better at letting him have his fits and not letting them bother me!

I'm playing catch-up with the blog....I've been trying to finish a Shutterfly photobook (which had to be done by yesterday) and I attempted to figure out the process of protesting our property taxes. I spent all this time and learned so much about it, all to end up deciding to call a tax firm to do it for us! They'll keep half of whatever they get back for us, but I realized that they probably have a better chance than I do of successfully lowering our appraised value this year. It was crazy....the value of our house went up by over 12% from last year! Unfortunately, our zip code was raised across the board by that amount....it was one of the highest zip codes in Houston, in terms of increase in property value appraisals. Wonderful!

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the week before last (the week of Grant's 18-month birthday). Backyard picture on the swing:
He loves to pick the red/yellow lantana. It's really sweet of him, but I don't want all the flowers to go away! Thankfully I can usually divert him and ask him to pick one of the white weeds that grow in our yard!

We had spaghetti one night.....Grant likes spaghetti! Of course he gets really messy, but I wouldn't expect anything else. And if there's something aside from cheese and chocolate that he wants to eat, I'm willing to clean up the mess!


On Sunday the 18th, we went to our neighborhood pool for the first time. We went in late afternoon and I didn't wear my swimsuit. Neither did Dean, but we should have! Grant played for a few minutes in the baby pool, but he mostly wanted to run around and watch the big kids swimming in the big pool. I think he'd really like to swim around it with us. We haven't had a chance to go back yet....maybe next weekend.

Grant likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches now! And he doesn't even need them cut up anymore....he looks like such a big boy when he eats them! But I've created a bad habit of sometimes giving him one when he's not in his highchair, and he always takes off running with it....usually straight into the dining room. For some reason he seems to enjoy eating behind the dining room table! I have to really keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't get jelly everywhere!
Here he is after he's finished, hiding in one of the corners of the table. This is his only hiding place....he thinks he's so sneaky when he runs back there and crouches down like this!

Dr's visits this week

More pictures to come hopefully tomorrow! Yesterday Grant and I had so much fun playing with our new sprinkler, and we went to our first Little League game last night! But I don't have them uploaded yet. So here's the (somewhat boring) account of our doctor visits this week (which I want to record for posterity!):


Grant had his 18 month checkup on Monday. He did very well....he got his final DTaP shot, which he handled wonderfully! Of course he cried at first but stopped after a few seconds (and I didn't even have his pacifier with me!). He's 34 inches tall (officially, although I think she rounded up a little), which puts him in the 88th percentile, and he's actually gained more weight than I expected (since some days it seems like he eats very little!). His weight was 27 1/2 pounds (69th percentile). So he's still a big boy even though sometimes I think he's gotten so skinny....especially compared with pictures I've been looking at from last summer (I'm trying to catch up with my scrapbooking!).

Also, Dr. Thomas wasn't concerned anymore about his speech....she had said at 15 months that we may do some kind of therapy if he still wasn't talking much at 18 months. But as of Monday, he could say 15 words (plus another one or two this week). The majority of these he just repeats after us, but there are some that he'll say on his own. So she said that he's doing fine, which was a relief to hear! She also said that we should be watching for signs that he might be ready to potty train (I don't think this will be anytime soon, although she said they typically show signs between 18-24 months).

I also had to fill out a questionnaire as a screening for autism. Thankfully, all of the questions were easy to answer and Grant has none of the indications for that. I pretty much knew this, but it's still a relief to be able to check all of the "right" boxes.

Probably the funniest part of the appointment was that Grant kept picking up my purse, saying (his version of) "let's go." He'd go stand at the door and try to turn the knob. And when the nurse came back in to give Grant his shot at the end, I was putting his clothes back on so that I could leave as soon as he got his shot (I wouldn't want to fight putting his clothes on after he's gotten it!). When I was dressing him, he kept waving to the nurse, saying "bye!" I felt really bad for him....if he only knew what she was about to do to him!!


My 20-week checkup:

We went to Dr. Klein this afternoon for my checkup and ultrasound. This was our third ultrasound! We had one at 12.5 weeks (as part of a screening for birth defects). Then we had our big ultrasound at 16.5 weeks. That was about a month ago, when we found out the sex. That day, the ultrasound technician (Beth) said that she doesn't like doing heart measurements until at least 17 weeks, so there was a possibility that I'd have to do another one. So Dr. Klein told me to go ahead and schedule another one for my next appointment.

My main reason for wanting to schedule one more ultrasound is because we haven't had the greatest experience with this lady, Beth, in the past. We've gotten CD images of the pictures at the past two appts, but none of them have been good! At our last ultrasound, she showed me a really good view of the baby's spine and ribcage, but apparently she didn't take a picture of it! All the pictures have been completely indiscernible to me, so I thought we might have some better luck this time!

It was basically the same experience, though.....she spent a long time taking measurements (and she doesn't let you look at the screen while she's doing this!), but she never could see his face clearly (same problem we had with Grant's ultrasound). I guess he was shy and kept facing inside, towards my back. She said that he weighs almost one pound now. It was neat for me to feel him moving so much as she'd move the wand around my belly! We did get a pretty good picture of his arm and hand this time, but no good profile shots or anything.

The thing that annoys me the most about Beth is that she says almost NOTHING the entire time. With Grant's ultrasound, the lady walked us through everything she did, and we left feeling confident that he was healthy and free of any abnormalities. When I've asked Beth how this baby looks, she says that it's up to the radiologist to make those calls. And she acts annoyed when you ask questions! Aahh! I know other people have been offended by her too, so at least I'm not the only one! Maybe they will have someone new by the time we have our next baby!

Okay, enough ranting. At least everything seems to be fine and I can feel this little guy moving around quite a bit (including as I type this!), so that's what's really important. In the scheme of things, who really cares whether we had a perfect ultrasound picture of him or not?!

My little sweetie is 18 Months old!

Here's our precious little guy 18 months ago.....



And today! (well, maybe not today, but these are from the past couple of weeks):Happy 18 Months, Grant!! Here are some notable things Grant's doing at 18 months:

- Says "wee" over and over while he's swinging or sliding.

- He has started to say "bye!" while he waves (just in the past week). Sometimes he'll walk out of a room we're in, and wave and say "bye!" to me on his way out. He also says "bye" to inanimate objects, like phones!

- He doesn't say "no" to something we suggest very often, but if you ask him to repeat the word, he'll say it very forcefully, and he uses two syllables to say it. It's almost like he's saying, "are you crazy?" A couple of times he HAS answered "no" this way when we ask him a question. It's really cute now, but I'm sure I'll feel differently the 100th time he says it!

- When we're about to leave home, I'll frequently say, "come on, let's go." He doesn't say it nearly this clearly, but this week he has started to say "let's go" when we're walking out the door. Because he only says it when we're about to leave, I'm pretty sure that's what he's saying!

- He can stack blocks now....again, just since the past week or so.

- He likes to pretend that he's sneezing....he'll bow his head and say "choo" over and over again!

- His favorite toys right now are balls. We just bought a soccer ball that we can take to the park with us, because he'll go up and take any ball that he sees laying around when we're there! At home, he goes up to them, picks them up and throws them, and screams, "ba!" He also loves to hit them out of our hands....he laughs and laughs!

- He loves to play in the car. It's usually a struggle to get him into his carseat, unless he's tired or I have chocolate to bribe him!

- He has just learned how to climb the ladders on our playground equipment. He's pretty good at it, too! We always spot him, but a few times he would've made it without any help!

- He repeats a lot of sounds we make. For example, when Dean was spitting out his toothpaste this morning, he made a spitting sound!

- He makes the "I don't know?" expression (hands lifted, palms up) a lot of the time now....pretty much anytime we ask him where things are.

- He is still in the "I love Mommy" phase.....I've heard that boys start to prefer their daddies around 17 months, but he still almost always wants me to put him to bed, and usually he'd rather be held by me. But a lot of times in the morning, he does prefer Dean and only wants to be held by him.....how confusing! He's okay with other ladies holding him, but I can't think of another man (aside from Dean) that he allowed to hold him in the past 6 months!

- He loves anything that makes loud noises (planes, trucks, machinery) and has recently become very interested in Dean's toolbag. He finds lots of dangerous things in there to play with! His favorite (not so dangerous) item lately is the tape measure.....he LOVES to pull it out and push it back in.....fascinating!

- He has 6 teeth on bottom, 6 on top (four in front and two molars).

- He takes two naps per day (ideally I'd switch him to one, but he still needs to sleep in the AM). One nap is usually around 9:30 or 10am, and the other is around 2 or 3pm. He usually gets 2-2.5 hours total of sleep during the day.

- Words he can say (most of these he'll just repeat after we say them, although a few he'll say on his own): Dada, mama, juice, milk, more, car, up, down, paci, cheese, bye, no, woo woo (doggie), wee, ball, yes (sounds like "yeah"....and very high-pitched!).

Nana and Papa's visit

Nana and Papa came to visit last weekend. We had so much fun with them! It took Grant a few minutes to warm up to them, but then he had a great time entertaining everyone. He seems to be much more well behaved when there are visitors over here!

On Friday night, Dean and Nana gave Grant a bath. After his baths these days, he loves to be held so that he can admire himself in the mirror! According to Nana, Grant's daddy used to do the same thing when he was little!
Okay, time to come see Mommy!

On Saturday, we drove to Galveston and went to the East beach, where we could look out and watch the boats passing. I think the boats were too far away and were moving too slowly, though, because Grant didn't really understand what he was looking at!

Then we went to lunch at a seafood place along the seawall. We sat outside and Grant was very well behaved through our entire meal! Here he's playing "where's Grant?"

On Sunday morning, Nana and Grant went outside to play. Grant sat on this swing for over 20 minutes! He couldn't get enough of it!

It may be a little small to tell, but he had a little taste of dessert and has the evidence on his mouth to prove it!

Wee!! Swinging with Daddy.....and waving at Nana and Papa!


This gives Dean a workout! Sometimes Grant will lay like this and it looks like he's almost going to sleep. So sweet....
Doesn't he look like such a big boy here??

Pointing out to Nana where her purse is....he was so curious but never grabbed anything from inside of it. It's funny.....if that had been my purse on the floor, he would have rummaged all through it!

Here's his "I don't know?" expression:

On Monday morning, when Nana and Papa were about to leave, Grant climbed into the car and enjoyed playing for a while (he loves doing that these days).
He even waved goodbye to me as he was sitting in the car with them! For a second, I did think how nice it might be for him to go back to Alabama with them for a few days! But of course I couldn't stand to be away from my baby for that long!

Backyard pictures

When we bought our house in September, one of the things we loved the most about it was the landscaping. The previous owners did a lot of work and did a great job of keeping it maintained. Over this past winter, I was so afraid that I wasn't doing something I was supposed to do, and I didn't know if the flowers would even come back in the spring!

Well, everything out there looks beautiful right now, even though I've been somewhat negligent in keeping up with watering! Here are some pictures....

Butterfly irises:
Red/yellow lantana:

Here's the bed in the middle of the back fence, with the irises, lantana, and hibiscus. The only things I'm worried about are the two rose bushes in front of the palm tree....they flowered a little, but they're not looking too good these days! The picture is probably too small, but you can also see some little trees along the opposite fence with pretty yellow trumpet flowers. We're not sure what this is yet!We have a huge gardenia bush in the back corner. This is what it looked like a week ago:
This is what it looked like yesterday! You can smell it from 10 feet away. I love it! I'm just not quite sure what to do with the flowers when they get yellow (as you can see on the picture).

Family picture

Here's a picture we took a couple of weeks ago after getting home from church. This was the first attempt (of six), and ended up being the best one! Grant has a confused look on his face because he can't figure out why the camera is beeping and flashing! After this first one, though, he lost interest and we couldn't get him to sit still.

A few random things about Grant from these past couple of weeks:

- I always heard from moms that toddlers go through weird eating phases, and we definitely have been in one of those! These past few days have been much better, but last week I got pretty frustrated. He wants to be moving around non-stop, so taking a break to eat seems (I think) pointless to him. He almost never asks for food (unless he sees chocolate somewhere!), and half of the time we have to shove him into his highchair, kicking and screaming! Foods that he used to love (scrambled eggs, bologna, bananas) he wouldn't eat....it seemed like every day he might eat a few bites of his breakfast, and then all he wanted to eat for lunch and dinner was cheese (and maybe a little pineapple). But he'd eat a piece of cheese and wouldn't even ask for more....he'd just play with his other food and then want down! He WAS drinking plenty of milk, so I really wasn't getting too worried. One thing I've realized: he's more likely to eat if he can feed himself....he loves to eat a bowl of cereal in the morning, and I'll pour yogurt into a bowl for dinner. He is actually doing very well with a spoon, and I think he likes the challenge!

- If we go outside and we ask if he wants to swing, he says "wee!" The entire time he swings, he'll say "wee!" over and over again. And it sounds like he has a country accent when he says it...it's one of the cutest things I've ever seen him do.

- If you ask him where something is, he'll lift up his hands, palms up, as if to say, "I don't know." I think he learned this from me, when we'll look around the house (or in the backyard) for the kitties, or Grant's shoes, or anything else.

- He loves to be held by Dean in the mornings, especially. Sometimes on weekends, I can't get him to leave Dean's arms and come to me! But at night (and any naptime), he only wants Mommy. I think it's because I tend to stay in his room and play with him while he's in his crib, instead of leaving the room right away.

- Related to this....when he gets in his crib, he always wants to grab and hold onto a finger while he goes to sleep. This is really sweet, but I can't let him grow to depend on that! It's really hard for me to tear myself away from him, but he usually only cries for a few seconds after I leave the room. He always throws his pacifier out of his crib in defiance as I'm leaving, and I'll throw it back in from across the room, just as I shut the door (so he can't throw it out again as I'm walking out!).

19 weeks!

I am now about 19.5 weeks pregnant, which is hard to believe! If this pregnancy is anything like my first, our little guy will come at around 38 weeks, which means that my pregnancy is already halfway over! I have been feeling pretty good, but still tired in the mornings. I used to be a good morning person, but I rarely get out of bed before 7am, which is when Grant tends to wake up. And probably the hardest time of the day is right after we eat breakfast, and Grant wants to play but I want to lay down!

Still, I feel good, for the most part. I guess any pregnant woman with a toddler is going to be tired, even during the second trimester (which is supposed to be when you have the most energy!). I feel our little guy kicking and moving around quite a bit....Dean even felt him the other night while we were laying in bed. It's such a wonderful feeling, and so reassuring that everything's going well in there (and that he seems to be having some fun)! I think my BabyCenter email for this week said that he should weigh about 9 oz and measure 6 inches (crown to rump) right now.

One of the reasons I love my little boy so much!

It takes me a while to get to my point, so hang on.....it's coming.....

Like I'm sure all little boys his age, Grant is mesmerized when he sees machines of any kind. We'll drive down the highway and he'll spot a tractor driving on the side of the road, and stare at it in amazement! Or we'll go to a shopping center where the lawnmen are using weedeaters or anything else that makes loud noises, and he could stare at them for hours. And he loves watching all the big trucks and machines at any construction area. Those are things that, as a girl, I barely notice. I never even think about looking at them until I see Grant staring at them!

Anyway, the other day, we went to Wal-Mart and were shopping in the kids' area. Two older men were operating a scissor lift (Dean had to tell me what this was called later that night!) to hang kids' bikes up. Knowing that Grant likes that kind of stuff, I noticed it and turned the cart so he could watch them. One of the men told me, "most little boys love to watch us do this, but the baby girls don't even notice." That didn't surprise me at all.....as a little girl, I don't think I ever would've cared to turn an eye towards something like that!

And of course he loves to play with his cars and trucks at home. One of his favorite books right now is called "Trucks." We brought it home from my parents' house a while back (I guess Rob used to look at it, although I don't remember it at all). It was published in 1976, and it has no words.....just pictures of all kids of trucks (animated). Grant LOVES looking at it over and over again! He also has a words book, divided up into different sections. The page about cars/trucks/planes is by far his favorite; he will open to that page and stare and point at all of the pictures.

So.....all of this stuff has really made me realize how much different boys and girls are, even when they're less than two years old! Grant is definitely into boy stuff....which is great!

But.....I'm finally getting to my point.....at the same time, he can be so sweet and tender-hearted. We always keep a few stuffed animals in his crib, and sometimes when I put him down to sleep, he'll grab them and give them each big hugs. I used to think maybe he just did this because he knows I think it's cute. But the other night, I put him to bed and went to our bedroom to watch him on the video monitor. He always plays in his crib for a while before going to sleep. Sure enough, he went over to his animals, grabbed each of them and gave them hugs, one by one. It was so sweet to watch!!

So that's one of the many reasons why I love my sweet little guy. He's definitely all boy and can be as defiant as anybody, but he still has a mushy side to him!!

Anniversary and Beach pictures

Well, ideally, this year for our anniversary Dean and I would have found a babysitter for Grant and had a nice, quiet dinner on our own. There's a girl who lives a few houses down who loves to babysit, but I haven't had a chance yet to invite her over and to let Grant get used to her. So we just took him with us again this year! We went to Kemah and had a pretty good time. We sat outside on the patio at a Mexican restaurant, and Grant sat in his stroller and looked at the boats and the birds until our food came. He didn't eat too much and didn't have too much patience once he got in his seat, but we still were able to finish our dinner before he got too out of hand!

Here he's admiring all the boats going by:

Dean gave him a taste of a chip with nacho cheese dip. He didn't like this first taste very much! But he ate a few bites afterwards and enjoyed it.

Here you can see a little bit of my pregnant belly....it's obvious enough now that when people see me (esp when I'm wearing maternity shirts like this one), they'll ask if I'm pregnant, when I'm due or whether Grant is having a brother or sister.
3rd Anniversary cake! White almond cake (and frosting) from the Cake Lady. Yum yum! It's really not what I need now, though....I have been eating way too many sweets lately!

Grant and I went to the beach yesterday in Galveston. We didn't stay for longer than about an hour, though.....it was SO windy! All of our bags were filled with sand, just from the wind blowing it so hard. So I think that made Grant a little apprehensive about the whole experience. He stood and played with his sand toys for a while, but didn't want to venture far from me (which isn't like him these days!). He never wanted to go anywhere near the water (very unlike last November, when he kept crawling into the water with no fear!).

After we had been there for a few minutes, the clouds went away and it got pretty sunny, so I put up our big umbrella. Well, we eventually moved down closer to the water, and for some reason the umbrella didn't stick as well down there. At one point, the wind lifted the umbrella out of the sand, and we watched as it did somersaults across the beach, up over the seawall and onto the street! A big truck came by and hit it, then it blew to the other side of the street. Oops! There was nothing I could do.....the wind blew it so fast, and there was no way I'd catch up to it, even if I wasn't holding Grant.


He's not too crazy about hats these days!