Happy Birthday, Grandma!!

We love you!

Amazing stats

First, today my friend Kristen came down to visit us for lunch. She and her husband Chad live on the complete opposite side of town, so I never get to see her. We had so much fun!! Grant showed her all of his toys and ran around like crazy when she first got here. She was here for three hours, but it wasn't nearly long enough to completely catch up (especially when Grant's running around and demanding quite a bit of attention). I will post a cute picture of her and Grant when I get it uploaded. I wish she lived closer!!

Everyone reading this probably knows that I'm very politically inclined. Grant and I listen to Rush Limbaugh almost every day.....it helps me to feel connected to the outside world while I'm chasing a toddler around nonstop!

Anyway, last week on his show, Rush talked about a recent article from the Wall Street Journal. Every year, they break down who pays what percentage of taxes in the US. It was staggering. In 2007, the top 1% of all taxpayers (those who make $388,000 or higher) paid 40% of all income taxes! Well, you might say, all those millionaires probably make 40% of all the money, right? No......they account for 22% of all the income, yet they pay 40% of all taxes.

Next: the top 10% of all taxpayers (those with a household income of $108,000 or more) pay somewhere around 70% of all income taxes.

And.....this was the most mind-blowing to me: the top 50% of all taxpayers pay 97.1% of all taxes. That means that the bottom HALF of all taxpayers in the US only pay a total of 2.9% of all income taxes. Wow.

And Barack Obama claims that he wants to cut taxes on struggling low-income families?? How is this possible??

A first!!

Today we visited Bay Area Presbyterian Church for the 5th time. We've really been enjoying meeting so many great people there, and I'm pretty sure we're going to join at some point soon. Grant has done really well in the nursery (in general) in the past few months, and today was his best day EVER (in any nursery!). We took him to his room to drop him off, and usually when he sees the ladies coming to get him, he'll turn and hold tightly onto Dean and start crying. Today, there was an older lady named Eunice who we had never met before. She held out her hands and asked Grant if he wanted to come to her, and he held his arms out and went right to her!!!! Yes, this is Grant I'm talking about! We signed him in and talked to her for a minute, then we said goodbye and Grant WAVED GOODBYE TO US! We never heard him cry as we walked away. I couldn't believe it!

Later, he was busy riding a rocking toy when we went to pick him up. We were told that Eunice (who only stayed in his room for the first hour) just loved him. He was the only child in the class at that hour, and she apparently thought he was the sweetest thing. I'm glad he at least acts that way around some people! :)

It makes me so much more optimistic about Mother's Day Out this fall. We've decided for sure to do it.....I am still a little concerned about how he'll react, since it starts pretty much the same time the baby is supposed to arrive. But he's been doing so much better when we leave him, and I know that I'm going to need some time to spend with just Drew when he comes. And....Grant gets so bored around our house, so I think some structured activities will be really fun for him. I just know it will be SO hard for me to leave him!

Grant has been throwing fits and hitting like crazy in the past couple weeks, and it made last weekend very frustrating at times! On Saturday, we went to Dean's company picnic up in northern Houston at a neat place called H&H Ranch. Grant only slept about 40 minutes on the way up there, so he was tired and hot from the very beginning. He had a few meltdowns and we ended up leaving while he was literally kicking and screaming!

This was taken just after we got to the "ranch". Here, Grant's watching a paddleboat go under the bridge.

All the managers had to spend some time in the dunking booth. Here's a little boy throwing a ball, about to knock Dean down. While Dean was doing this, they had a pinata for the kids in another area. This was a DISASTER!! I took Grant over to it, but he doesn't yet understand about sharing. So he saw the kids hitting it and kept trying to walk up next to them. I kept dragging him back (which caused a fit each time). When it was finally his turn, he loved it! He actually did pretty well hitting the pinata too. But......I knew this would happen.....he threw another huge fit when his turn ended. I ended up holding him sideways (holding his arms and legs to his side) to take him away from the area. What fun it is to have a toddler!!

Then we got a piece of cake to share before we left. Grant had fun eating it with his fork and his fingers....until we tried to take it away from him. Another eruption....and this time a bunch of people were sitting around us, just watching. This time, Dean carried him sideways as we said our goodbyes and took him to the car. Quite embarrassing!
Then we drove over to the Woodlands, and I got together with some of my good friends from college, who were staying up there for the weekend. It was SO much fun to see them.....we hung out at the pool for about 1.5 hours, then Dean and Grant came to pick me up. Grant actually was on his best behavior while we were with them....he pointed to lots of objects and named them (he likes to show off now that he can do this!). Here's a picture of all of us: Jessica, Cindy, Liz, Margaret, and me:
After leaving, we decided to stay up in the Woodlands for dinner and to explore for a while. We ate dinner at the mall's food court, then Grant and I rode on the carousel! He was nervous at first and wouldn't sit on a horse, but he eventually did when we started moving:
Then came the last big fit. We went to the outdoor shopping part of the mall, and we let him out of his stroller so he could walk around. He walked straight over to this fountain and started climbing it! I thought that surely he wouldn't make his way all the way up, but he did....all by himself. So Dean dragged him down.....twice. Each time he threw a complete fit, hitting and kicking. So we decided that it was time to go. We were saying that he could have had a lot of fun if he had only obeyed.....we were planning on letting him walk around and play for a while, but I know we can't expect him to reason like that at this age. Anyway, the day was tiring and very frustrating!
On a better note, here are a couple of cute pictures from earlier this week. Grant likes peanut butter sandwiches, but sometimes he'll open them up and just lick everything off the bread. He makes a huge mess when he does this, but I always think it looks really cute!

Happy Birthday, Nana!!

We love you!!!

Bubbles!

Last week, Grant woke up from his nap with a dirty diaper. Unfortunately, he didn't have any shorts on, and he figured out how to stick his hands into his diaper. Yuck! When I went to get him out of his crib, there was poopy all over his hands (including in his fingernails) and on his sheet!

So we went into his bathroom and I filled up the sink with a ton of soap. I put his hands in there and scrubbed them for a little while, and he loved it! He stood there and played with those bubbles for 20 minutes or more. This was the first time he said "bubble" and he said it over and over again. He made a huge mess but it was actually really easy to clean up with a towel. It's fun to find things like this that make days more interesting.....so many days we get so bored being here at home all day, especially when we can only go outside early in the morning or after 6pm!

20 Months!

It is extremely hard to believe, but Grant is 20 months old today! He is sleeping extra early this morning (it's 8am as I'm starting this), so hopefully I will be able to get this typed, and then I can lay down during his nap this afternoon!

The past couple of weeks, it seems like Grant has been changing and doing new things so quickly. The other day, I noticed that when I talk to him, I fully expect that he understands most of what I say. And I've noticed that I don't talk to him as much like a baby anymore....maybe because he has become so much more communicative recently. Just in the past 20 days or so, he'll point to objects and say what they are without even being prompted (and many of those words we haven't even taught him yet!). Some of his newest words are:

bubble
Elmo ("memmo")
sock
baby
watch
Drew (sounds like "goo")
shower
fish
Eeyore ("eo")
sausage ("saus")
tool
soap
milk ("meo")
phone
bear
brush
toes
bug

Like I said, many of these he has picked up and said without us specifically teaching them to him. He is so proud of himself when he points to something and says the word (especially when he sees how proud we are of him). As soon as he wakes up in the morning, he is pointing to things and saying what they are!

Some other things he's been doing:

- He says "please" whenever he wants anything. For example, he'll point to the door if he wants to go outside, or he'll point to the vacuum if he wants us to vacuum with him, and say "peas." He especially does this with things he doesn't get to do very often (almost like he thinks he'll get it if he asks nicely!).

- I got this idea from Leah: Grant had a big problem with throwing his food when he didn't want anymore, so we started putting his highchair up against a wall (for time-out) when he did that. He's gotten SO much better! He rarely throws his food anymore. Now when he's done, he reaches for the side of his booster seat and says "down." What an improvement!!

- He knows where Dean keeps his cell phone.....in one of the pockets of his shorts. Grant will start reaching into his shorts, saying "phone" over and over again!

- If I'm sitting on the floor and he wants me to come to a different room with him, he will physically try to pick me up to drag me where he wants to go!

- He's taken a few showers with me recently, especially after coming in from playing in the backyard. He sees the way I put my shampoo on, and now any time he grabs something that looks like a shampoo bottle, he'll act like he's pouring it into his hands, then he acts like he's rubbing it into his hair! So cute!!!

- He loves to stack blocks, bubble containers and other things.

- He loves watching Dean bounce rubber balls on the tile. Dean gets really silly and bounces them under his legs, off the wall, etc. Grant laughs and laughs! Now he has started bringing the balls to us when he wants us to bounce them (although I'm not nearly as entertaining as Daddy!).

- A couple nights ago, we were in the backyard and he took the water hose over to the sprinkler and tried to attach it! He's trying to copy a lot of little things that he sees us do.

- He LOVES tools! Dean's had his toolbag out a lot lately for all the projects we've been doing. As soon as he sees that green toolbag, Grant walks over to it and says "tools" until we give him something inside to play with. Then he walks around with whatever we've given him, saying "tools" over and over again and showing us what he has!

- When we see bugs, he points and says "bug" and also has started to say "ew," because he hears me say it. It's funny how little kids have no fear (or maybe just boys).....a couple of times he's seen bugs walking on the floor, and he'll bend down and just pick them up!

- When he hears other people clapping, he looks up and immediately starts clapping too.

- He says "mama" and "dada" a lot now, which he actually hasn't done much before now! Last night I went to meet Megan in town, and Dean said he kept going to the front door asking for Mama. And before he went to bed, he kept saying it again. When Dean's at work, he'll go to the door and ask for Dada quite a bit too.

- Last night when Dean was bathing Grant, he was sure that Grant said "more bubbles." That would be his first two word phrase! We've been giving him bubble baths lately, which he loves!!! It makes bathtime much more fun. I don't know why we haven't done that before!

Dean just went back to work today after a long weekend at home. He took his first two official vacation days all year.....he has been working like crazy! So he deserved a couple of days off. Unfortunately, he probably feels like every time he's home, there are a million projects for him to work on! There are so many little things we need to get done before Drew comes, so every weekend Dean has been working on something......painting rooms (we've done three upstairs rooms and have the nursery left to go), putting together furniture (Grant's toddler bed and new dresser), and hanging drapes (in the guest room). He's really a good sport, though....he is always willing to work on my to-do list, even when he would much rather rest! I know this might change when football season starts, though.....so I need to take advantage of his willingness while I can!

Here are some pictures of our bedroom and study. I don't have a picture of the guest room yet. We love the colors we chose and we think it makes the rooms feel much warmer. Yesterday, we finished tearing down the border in Grant's room (the nursery), so all we have left to do is paint in there.
This green appears a little bit more pastel than it actually is....
Here's a belly picture from a couple of days ago. Most people still say that I don't look like I'm 28 weeks pregnant. I guess that's good....but I have gained about 30 pounds already. Yikes!!! It's sad when you don't even weigh 10 pounds less than your husband!
Here's a picture we took of Grant yesterday. He was SO proud of himself here.....he loves to try to stack blocks (and anything else he can find!). Yesterday morning we were getting ready to go to Galveston, and Grant ran into our room, wanting us to come back with him and look at what he did. He's able to stack about 5 or 6 of these clear blocks on top of each other, but this time he got creative and put one of his stacking cups on top! The only bad thing is that he gets VERY frustrated when the blocks fall while he's stacking them. We're trying to teach him that it's okay, and to just try again. When he's really proud of himself, he'll point to it and smile over and over again!

Grant doesn't like watching TV very much at all. Early in my pregnancy, I would have loved for him to lay on the couch with me and watch a cartoon for 30 minutes! But no, he will rarely watch something for more than just a few minutes. He just wants to be running around and playing, and doesn't have the patience for TV.

Well, we've finally found something that he LOVES to watch! This started a few weeks ago. Whenever a freecreditreport.com commercial comes on (the ones where the 20-something guy plays his guitar with his two sidekick friends), Grant stops dead in his tracks, runs to the TV and stares at it until it's over. Sometimes he dances to the song, but more often he just watches it, mesmerized. We have rewind/record capability with our cable, so about a week ago I asked if he wanted to see it again after it ended. He watched it probably 12 times or so, over and over again! So now whenever one of these commercials comes on, he runs to the TV to watch it. Then as soon as it finishes (or sometimes before it's even over), he turns to us, points to the TV, and says "watch," meaning he wants to watch it again!

The one we've seen the most lately is the one where the guy is stuck working in a seafood restaurant because a hacker stole his identity.....needless to say, Dean and I have all of the words memorized! I don't think I've ever seen one commercial so many times! We'll also notice that the song is playing OVER AND OVER in our heads, hours after we've watched it. They're very catchy tunes.....it's definitely a good advertising campaign!

Ultrasound pictures

If anyone reading this can identify any body parts on these pictures, please let me know!



We had another ultrasound yesterday, and I've resigned myself to the fact that we're not going to have any good pictures of our little guy while he's in the womb! Beth, the ultrasound tech, was a little bit friendlier this time, but Drew wasn't very cooperative. Just like our previous ultrasounds, he was facing down, towards my back. And he was also covering up his face with his hands for most of it! Almost nonstop, it feels like he's doing somersaults inside my belly, so it's crazy that he doesn't move around more during the ultrasounds. Maybe he doesn't like Beth any more than we do!

This was I think the neatest picture we got.....and I specifically asked Beth to go back and take a picture of it.....otherwise, we wouldn't even have this one! I think this picture of his spine is so cool:

Here she's labeled his hands.....it's probably a little hard to see on the small image, but you can make out the fingers (sort of!).And apparently these are his feet....I'm trusting her on this one!Here he's covering up his face. Do you see what I mean when I say that we don't get any good pictures???!!
All kidding aside, I am very thankful for what's most important.....that little Drew seems to be doing great. Based on the measurements, Beth estimated his weight at 2lbs 8oz. This equated to a baby at almost 29 weeks, which is one week ahead of schedule. I still consider myself to be due on October 3, though. We'll see what happens!

Baby has a name!

We have finally decided on a name for our new little guy: Andrew Dean. We'll call him Drew. I was hesitant to give him such a popular name (Andrew was #10 last year), but all of the names that we liked have been popular in the past few years. And hopefully by calling him Drew, he won't have a ton of friends with the same name. I still really like Jack too, so we might use that one if we have a third boy. To Dean, Jack sounds like a nickname and not a real first name. But I think if I'm pregnant with boy #3, Dean might not have too much say in the matter!! Just kidding.....

I've been restless lately, wanting to get things ready for little Drew to come. I'm almost 28 weeks now, which is SO hard to believe! It has just flown by, and it seems like suddenly we're getting really close! We bought paint for his room, and I've bought a crib bumper that I think will be cute. I still need to get the crib skirt and sheets for his crib. Grant is still very happy in his crib, so I'm not sure how (or when) we'll try out the toddler bed. I'm thinking maybe a month or so before the due date.....

I also researched double strollers and ended up ordering one last week. I have found that by going on the internet, we've been able to find a lot of things for MUCH cheaper than we'd find them at Babies R Us (at least for big purchases like strollers, carseats, etc.).

And what I'm most excited about.....I know, this is a little silly.....I ordered a nice, very cute JuJuBe diaper bag. CLICK HERE TO SEE IT if you want (I ordered the brown/champagne color)....it's definitely a splurge but I learned with Grant (and from seeing Leah's nice bag) that I wanted a backpack this time around! And I know I could have just gone with a simple Jansport or something, but we're saving a lot of money by having another boy (at least in theory!). Anyway, the backpack came a few days ago and I LOVE IT!! I can't wait to use it!

Dean is coming home early today because we have our last ultrasound at 3:20. Hopefully this time we can get some decent pictures.....if so, I will post them!

Amminadab, the banished kitty

One of my favorite children's authors is Nick Bruel. I ran across a few of his books at the library over a year ago, and they're great! One of them is called Bad Kitty.....it goes through the ABCs, where each letter stands for something bad that the kitty does (very creative!!). I feel like I could write a book like this about our male cat Amminadab. He loves people and he loves to be petted, but he's had some major issues lately.

Ever since we first got him (and our more well-behaved female cat, Scooter) three years ago, he has scratched furniture. His favorite targets were our couches. This drove me crazy, and I got more and more mad every time he did it. Finally, this February, we had him declawed. He had a hard time with it for a few days, but within about a week he seemed back to normal. For a few weeks before we had him declawed, he and Scooter both had escaped into our backyard here and there a few times. Amminadab especially loved going outside, but we figured we'd have to keep him inside after having the procedure done.

Well, I guess just from having some outdoor experiences, he knew that there were other neighborhood cats around. Soon after having him declawed, we noticed some yellow patches along the wall and on the floor in our living room. Sure enough, they smelled strongly of cat pee. We've tried a few different things to get him to stop spraying, but he still does it. According to statistics I've seen, only 10% of neutered male cats feel the need to spray. We are the lucky owners of one of them!

And lately, when he decides that he wants attention or wants to go outside in the morning, he'll start meowing very loudly, sometimes as early as 4:30 or 5am. It's woken Grant up early a few times, which makes me VERY angry! I need all the sleep I can get these days! We try to confine him to our closet when he starts meowing, but lately he'll run down the stairs as you're coming towards him, and wait just long enough for you to get back in bed before coming back up and meowing again. AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

And....best of all.....sometimes after being outside in the morning, I'll let him come in to eat. He eats a ton of food and then throws up EVERYWHERE.....the other day I found it in five different places around the house after Grant and I got home from doing errands. That was fun to clean up! And he almost always seems to throw up on the carpet, not the tile (which covers 80% of the downstairs)!

So Amminadab is becoming an outside kitty, at least during the day. So far we've only left him out one night.....even though he makes me so mad, he does look quite pitiful when he's standing outside the door meowing at night, wanting to come in. We bought a tag for him with his name and our phone number, in case he roams too far (which I can't see him doing.....he seems very content in the confines of our backyard). Poor Scooter....she is so sweet but now she hardly has a playmate anymore!

We had a wonderful July 4 holiday.....more about that later! I don't have pictures uploaded yet (of course!).

A few pictures from the past 10 days or so:

We had some of our friends over for dinner two Fridays ago. They both have kids who are 6 months older than Grant. All the kids had a wonderful time playing together! We bought a little picnic table that Dean set up inside the house earlier that day (we figured it was too hot for them to eat outside). The kids loved eating at the table.....I think it makes them feel like big kids! Andrew and Grant ate dinner there (although I hadn't taught Grant yet to stay at the table while he's eating, so he ended up taking his peanut butter sandwich with him all over the place). And before they left, Andrew shared his Fruit Loops with Grant and Lexie.....it was so cute seeing them all sit together! They also had fun outside.....when they heard the door open, they'd all run towards it and line up to go out!



The next day, I gave Grant his lunch at the table. It's funny.....I gave him his juice and a graham cracker to eat while I was making his sandwich, and he immediately went to sit at the table, then looked at me, very proud of himself! He's slowly learning that he needs to sit at the table until he's done.....he keeps trying to stand up and walk around with his food. And of course he tries to climb on top of the table as often as he can, so we're trying to stop that too!

19-Month Update (a little late!)

Now that Grant's almost 19 and a half months old, I figured I needed to write about what he's doing at this age.

- In the past few days, Dean and I have started calling Grant "Dr. No." He says "no" all the time, to almost every question we ask him! Sometimes he knows what we're asking and he really means "no" (like when we suggest something he doesn't want to do). But other times, he'll also say no when we ask him general questions like "is your milk good?" About 10 days ago we were having a bad day and I lost my temper with him. Then I picked him up and apologized and asked, "will you forgive me?" He shook his head and (very sure of himself) said, "no." I know he didn't understand what I was asking him, so it didn't hurt my feelings.....it was more funny than anything!

- (Related to the last point)- When I can tell that Grant needs a diaper change, I'll ask him if he's gone poopy. He'll pull up his shirt on the side (without even looking down), shakes his head, and says very simply, "no." What a little liar!!

- One of his favorite things to say these days is "let's go!" When we're about to leave to go out, he loves to say this over and over again! It sounds more like "deh doh," but he's so proud of himself when he does it!

- He loves to wave and say "bye!" He does this when people are walking (or driving) away, but he also does it if he starts walking up the stairs (he'll look at us and do it). Or when we're in the front yard, he'll start walking down the sidewalk, looking back every 10 feet or so to wave and say goodbye. And lately, he likes to wave and say goodbye to his poopy (if it's dry enough in his diaper to flush it!). Then he'll pull some pieces of toilet paper and throw it down into the toilet behind it!

- If he hurts himself, he says "oww." Then he'll come up to me or Dean, stick out his hand or foot and expects us to kiss it!

- He knows the number two!! He'll go pick up two balls (or two of the same of anything), and he holds them up high on his chest and says "two!" We haven't tried teaching him how to count yet, and he hasn't figured out the number three yet!

- For a few months, he has enjoyed being chased. But lately, he runs straight into the dining room and hides in one corner of the dining room table.....every time! We pretend that we don't know where he is, and we'll look in a lot of places before "finding" him (or until he jumps out to scare us).

- I've pretty much gotten him down to one long nap per day....yay! He usually goes to sleep somewhere between 10:30am and noon, and he'll sleep for 1.5 to 2.5 hours. Bedtime has gotten a little later recently.....by the time I play with him in his crib, he usually is going to sleep right around 9pm. And he doesn't like to read many books.....he just wants to get in his crib and play!

- In mid-late June, his top and bottom canine teeth started poking through on the left side. Still no sign of the ones on the right....

- Some words he's just picked up: mower (he says "mow" when he sees any lawn mower), eye (he'll point to/poke our eyes and say it!), shoe, bike, boat two, brush (we've been painting and he loves to play with brushes). And I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of right now!