More pictures

Here are some more pictures from Nana and Papa's visit (and surrounding days):

Grant saw a neat wooden train set at our neighbor's house last week and now really loves choo-choos. He was already interested, but was completely captivated by the train set. A couple of days later, we bought these two little trains at Toys R' Us. Unfortunately, within about three days of buying them, we misplaced one of them (although I'm pretty sure it's in the house somewhere). Grant loves sticking them together and running them up and down furniture. I know what we'll be requesting for birthday and Christmas presents!!
A picture from about a week ago.....I'm 36 weeks today (according to my doctor's due date of Sept 26), so this was taken at about 35 weeks. I set the camera's timer to take this because Dean hasn't been around much to take pictures.....and I always forget to do it at night once he gets home.
Grant was interested in all the beeping that happens before the camera takes the picture. He's just now starting to look at the camera and will (sometimes) smile when he knows his picture is being taken!
Here are Grant and Nana watching "Super Why." This is Grant's favorite show.....in the past few weeks, he'll ask to watch "Why" over and over again! It comes on at 8am on PBS, but I'll usually record it so we can watch it again later. He only really likes the beginning and end, and will lose interest in the middle. But a couple of times he's actually sat through the entire episode. Until now, he's never shown an interest in watching more than a couple of minutes of TV at a time, so I'm thankful to have something that he likes to watch (it gives me a few minutes of rest!).
My good friend Margaret came by on Sunday with her dad and her little guy David. They were on their way home from a vacation in Galveston.....it was so good to see them! David is 10 months old and is just precious.....he's so smiley! I think he looks so much like his mommy!

Some pictures while we were playing outside on Monday. Here Grant and Nana are watching a military helicopter (it flew over our house a number of times and Grant got excited every time!).

He LOVES to walk up (and down) the slide now.....he can do it all by himself, although I still like to be at the top to make sure he doesn't fall over the back!
Reading a book with his new baby.....this was a $1 purchase at Kroger a few days ago. He usually just throws it around, but every once in a while he'll pick it up and hold it or set it next to him. I thought this was especially cute!
I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday afternoon......I am 1cm dilated. At this point with Grant, I was dilated 2cm and my doctor told me to take it easy until I reached 37 weeks. So I was thankful that wasn't the case this time.....I don't feel ready to have this baby yet! This pregnancy seems like it's lasted about half as long as the last one.....I've gotten a lot of projects done and Drew's room is pretty much finished, but mentally I'm just not ready yet!

Also, Dean was supposed to be finished with his turnaround at work today, but he called a while ago and said he'll be working this weekend. Grant and I had appointments to get our hair cut tomorrow, so I had to cancel them. I don't know what I'll do if he's still working a lot when I go into labor. We're both getting so frustrated! This will be the 3rd straight weekend that he's worked all day on both Saturday and Sunday (plus all day the Sunday before that). I know he really wanted to watch the Alabama game tomorrow night....and I was ready to just have him here for a change! Hopefully he won't also have to work on Labor Day. Aahh!!

Nana and Papa's visit

I will post more pictures a little later....Grant is just waking from his nap and we've got to get to my doctor's appointment by 3pm. But here are a couple of really cute pictures from this weekend. Nana and Papa came on Saturday afternoon and left yesterday (Tues) morning. These pictures were taken on Monday, which was Grant's good day (sandwiched by two really rough days on Sunday and Tuesday!). We had a great time seeing them and they were a HUGE help here at the house, since Dean has been working so much. More later!

One more month until I'm officially old

Random picture from earlier this week (no, it doesn't have anything to do with the post!). One night we decided to make scrambled eggs for dinner.....and this is how the eggs came out when I cracked them into the bowl!

I've been thinking about this a lot lately; my life as a twenty-something is swiftly coming to an end! Exactly one month from today, I'll be 30!! Yikes! Actually, I really don't think I'll have too hard a time with it. Dean reached this point a couple of years ago, and I have quite a few friends who are already there. But it's still gotten me thinking a lot about the past 10 years, and how much has happened. A few things.....

1) Went to Europe and saw SO many awesome things in 2 months!
2) Experienced life in the big city for the first time when I interned in Houston in 2001.
3) Stressed out too much about (but passed....after two tries!) the CPA exam.
4) Graduated from college and took a road trip all the way to New Jersey with my friend Kelly!
5) Moved to the big city permanently.....lived downtown and got to explore so many cool places.
6) Met tons of people (including Dean) and got involved in our singles' class at church.
7) Started dating Dean, then broke up with him (then regretted it a few months later!).
8) Worked a TON of overtime....for three summers in a row, I didn't know it got hot in Houston because I was inside our office building almost every daylight hour from July to September 15!
9) Started dating Dean AGAIN, and got engaged 7 months later.
10) Got married 4.5 months later and moved to the suburbs!
11) Taught science to 6th graders for a year.
12) Got pregnant and was blessed with our precious little Grant!
13) Learned the ins and outs of having a child totally dependent on you....the hardest (but most wonderful) thing I've ever done!
14) Awaiting baby #2....who, incidentally, could (and hopefully will) arrive on my birthday!

Whew!

Dean's mom called yesterday afternoon and said they were thinking about coming this weekend. I am so excited to have some company for a couple of days! Dean will be working both Saturday and Sunday, but I guess they're REALLY not coming to see him (or me!) anyway! :)

Unfortunately, Grant woke up this morning with a cough and yucky nose. Many times that Dean's parents have been in town, he's been sick. Such bad timing!! I'm sure we'll have fun anyway.....and I'm so glad to have some constant adult company for a couple of days.

A peek at Drew's room

Dean painted Drew's room (Grant's current room) a couple of weekends ago. We love the color!! It's light blue but not completely baby blue. Then last Friday, Grant and I had fun hanging up all of our wall hangings. We were able to use everything that was hung up before, plus I bought these cute letters at Hobby Lobby for $1.50 a piece! I spray painted them red, to match the crib bumper and bedskirt we're getting (I put the bumper on to make sure it matches). I think the light blue and red look really good together! I'm also going to paint his bookshelf the same color red.....I will post more pictures once it's all done.

Grant wanted to play in his crib while we were in there. He threw out his stuffed animals, then I'd throw them back at him, trying to teach him how to catch. He'd stick his arms out, and a few times he actually "caught" them (meaning they landed on top of his arms)....and was so proud of himself! When I encouraged him, he said, "I caught it!" I think that was one of his first three-word phrases!

Some fun stories

After the last post, I want to post something more lighthearted. Grant and I do have a lot of fun together, even though my post on Sunday probably made it sound like we never do!

I haven't taken many pictures at all over the past couple of weeks.....about 130, to be exact, which is very few for me! I just uploaded them today and will post more in the next few days. These were taken on the day Tropical Storm Edouard came through, and Grant and I were inside most of the day. Lately, I guess Grant has seen the way Dean holds his Bible and notebook (under his arm).....Grant will go pick up Dean's notebook from his nightstand and walk around like this:




This one is a little blurry but I love his expression!
The past couple of days have been quite a bit better than last weekend; today, Dean was able to leave work at 6:30, and he actually ate dinner with us! Grant was elated to see him and had so much fun playing with him. It was nice to be able to spend about 2 hours of family time together before we put Grant to bed. We watched diving on the Olympics (Grant gets so excited when they're diving, then he says "boom!" when they hit the water.....Dean taught this to him last week!).

And....it's been cloudy, rainy and, most importantly, COOL outside for the past couple of days! Yesterday afternoon we took a walk down to our new neighbors' house and it was only 76 degrees.....at 4pm! Kinda funny....this morning Grant and I went to Randall's at 8:45am, and of course there were a bunch of people in line at the Starbucks kiosk. As we walked by, the lady at the front of the line said, "I think I'll have coffee today since it's cold outside." It made me laugh.....I guess when you're used to 85 degree temps at 8am, it does feel cold when it's rainy and in the low 70s! I thought that was unusual until I talked to my mom this afternoon, and she was making chili tonight because it felt "so cold" outside!

Okay, here are a couple of things Grant has done in the past few days that I thought were really cute and want to remember:

1) We were watching the Olympics one night and Grant noticed the Budweiser commercial with the Clydesdale horse training to the sound of the Rocky music. We ended up rewinding it and watching it 5 or 6 times....he kept saying "horse" to tell me that he wanted to watch it again. An hour or so later, we were upstairs playing before bed, and he heard the Rocky music playing on the TV downstairs. He sat still for a second, then said, "horse?" I was amazed that, after only watching it a handful of times, he remembered that the music was associated with the horse. What a smart little cookie! Okay, maybe it's not all that impressive, but I thought it was neat to see him make that connection!

2) One of his favorite books is his "Row Row" book.....a nursery rhyme book where the first story is "Row Your Boat." He has a handful of favorites in that book, one being "Rock-a-bye baby." He loves for me to sing that over and over again. The other night I was rocking him and said it was time to get in his crib, and he turned around, clutched my neck and said, "baby, baby" (trying to stall me for a few more minutes!). We hadn't even been reading that book that night. It's one of the first times he's shown a preference for a certain song. I'm glad he probably doesn't understand the lyrics, because they're a little disturbing!

3) We keep adding stuffed animals to his crib.....right now he has about 6 or 7 that regularly sleep with him. He doesn't hold any of them while he's sleeping, though....he actually throws them to the other side of the crib when he goes to sleep! And when he wakes up, he throws them all on the floor. I'd gotten tired of picking them up and throwing them all back in his crib, over and over again. So yesterday I put some of them into his bassinet, with all the other animals. Today when he got in his crib for his nap, he pointed to the bassinet and said "bear" (sounds like "bayo"). He noticed that his bear wasn't in his crib, where it was supposed to be! Then he did the same thing with his doggie ("wo wo") and his rhino.....all of the animals that I had moved to the bassinet.....he wanted them back! I guess he does appreciate them after all!

Why did I ever doubt doing Mother's Day Out???

Grant being a stinker.....fitting for this post!! We were at a playground a couple of weeks ago and I specifically told him not to lick the water that wasn't draining out of the fountain. Here he is staring at the camera, pretending like he's going to do it anyway!

This one is better.....he's pointing and telling me that he sees water!
A month ago, I was seriously considering whether I should enroll Grant in MDO for the fall....I was concerned that he wouldn't adjust well, especially since Drew will likely arrive within a few weeks of him starting the program. I talked to the director about my concerns, and came away from that conversation feeling much better about doing it. And now I am SO glad I decided to do it.....and it doesn't even start for another couple of weeks!

These past few days have just been really rough. Dean is in the middle of his turnaround at work.....he was at the plant all afternoon last Sunday, then this week he was there from 7am to around 7:30pm every day. That wasn't so bad......Grant and I took some walks in the late afternoons, plus my mom came down on Tuesday and stayed for a night. And on Thursday, we went to play at Sierra and Jacob's house until almost 7pm (Sierra's husband, Greg, is working long hours at NASA right now too).

But yesterday (Saturday), Dean went in at 7am and didn't leave until after 10pm! Today he was there until around 7pm again. When days spent alone with Grant (with almost no adult conversation) last not only through the week but through the weekend too, it starts to become too much for me to handle! And Grant's definitely at the perfect age to find many ways to push my buttons!

He is just so curious......just a few examples.....if I open a drawer or a cabinet door, he's right there trying to grab things he shouldn't have. If I leave my purse, a water bottle, a plate or bowl, a pen, or anything else on the kitchen table (or within reach on the counter), he's instantly grabbing for them (and I don't even bother using a tablecloth anymore, even though our table desperately needs it.....the tablecloth is pulled almost immediately after I put it on). If I leave any bathroom door open, he's in there pulling the toilet paper roll or opening the toilet or climbing onto the counter! If I accidentally leave the pantry door cracked open, he carries his stool over to it and starts taking things out, opening them if he can (today he found the oatmeal and threw a few handfuls on the floor before I noticed!).

Last night I was making grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, and it was almost comical.....I think I let out one of those "this would be funny except that I think I am going crazy" cackles.....in a span of about 10 seconds, I couldn't keep up with his hands quickly enough. He was trying to turn the dials on the stove, then he grabbed the butter knife off the counter (I hadn't set it back far enough).....I can't even remember what else. Sometimes I feel like all I do all day is damage control! You'd think I would've learned by now to keep things out of his sight and reach.....I'm definitely getting better, but it's hard to make it a habit to close every door and to push things back at least 6 inches on the kitchen counter EVERY time!

And I think all of this would be okay if it weren't for the fits. If he happens to get his hands on any kind of pen or marker, he usually goes ballistic when I take it away from him. This applies not only to pens but anything that he thinks looks interesting but isn't allowed to have. When we do errands, I'd say that 80-90% of the time, it's a battle to get him in his car seat. So every time we go out, I usually only stop at one or two places. I just get so tired by the end of the day, because I've usually dealt with at least a dozen fits throughout the day. Writing this, I feel like a mom writing into the Super Nanny show to request that she come out to help me!

Grant is just a very strong-willed child. Sometimes I'm okay at dealing with it, but it's easy to lose my cool when I don't get any break from him. I don't know what I'm going to do during Dean's next turnaround, when I have two kids! Anyway, I love Grant dearly and obviously wouldn't trade him for the world. But I am now really looking forward to Mother's Day Out.....I think it will be wonderful for Grant and a lifesaver for me!

One of Grant's favorite things

I think I've said before that stacking blocks is one of Grant's favorite activities these days. He gets so proud of himself.....he'll create a stack (even if it's just four or five of them), then stand back and point, wanting us to notice what a good job he's done! I try to be there to watch and encourage him as much as I can, because he'll get frustrated and angry if the blocks fall down a few times in a row. We try to tell him that it's okay, and just to start over. It's hard to know what to do when he gets mad and throws them.....I've started taking them away from him, and will give them back later when he's cooled down. I hope he doesn't become a sore loser when games don't go his way....I'm not really sure what to do about this. If any of you seasoned moms have any advice, can you please send it my way?!
Standing back to admire his work!Here it is, 5am on Friday, and I'm awake. I'm 33 weeks today, and I'm really starting to feel like a big pregnant woman now! I stayed awake to watch the women's gymnastics finals last night, so I didn't go to sleep until just before midnight. Then I was awake at 3:30 am, and haven't been able to go back to sleep! It's not that I'm really uncomfortable.....I just feel big and I get tired of trying to lay on my left side all the time (which is what I'm doing to avoid the sciatica).

This Monday, I put on my wedding rings for the last time.....as soon as I put them on, I realized they seemed very tight and tried to take them off. It was really hard....I ended up having to use soap and water. So I won't be wearing them anymore until after Drew comes! This didn't happen until much later when I was pregnant with Grant.....I think I stopped wearing my rings around 36 weeks.....just a couple of weeks before he was born (if that). I feel like it makes me look like I'm unmarried, but oh well!

And like I said, I just feel like this pregnancy has gone too fast, and that I can't possibly just be a month away (or maybe a little more) from having this baby! Grant is starting to feel heavier, and I feel like I have a little less energy than before. And I have to go to the bathroom all the time......last night we came upstairs to go to bed, and I went twice within about 10 minutes! Dean asked me, "didn't you just go to the bathroom?" It didn't even occur to me that it was strange until he asked the question! Sometimes it feels like Drew is laying right on my bladder and I have very little space in there!

Okay, enough rambling. Dean just woke up and got in the shower so I'm going to make one more attempt to go to sleep for a while. With Dean being gone until about 8pm every night (they're in the middle of turnaround right now), I don't think 3.5 hours of sleep is going to cut it today! Grant and I are off to the mall in the morning......I need to get him some shoes for the fall, and StrideRite is having a buy one, get one 50% off sale. Plus, this is tax-free weekend, so I'm going to try to get there at 10am to hopefully beat the crowds. We'll see how I do trying to take Grant shoe-shopping all by myself......yikes!

Trip to Children's Museum

A week ago Saturday, the forecast in Houston called for a clear and 100-plus-degree day, so we thought it might be a good day to make a trip to town to see the children's museum. I'm glad we went, although there were a lot of exhibits that he was too young to enjoy. We spent most of our time in the baby/toddler area......we probably spent over an hour in there! The neatest part for Grant was a play car, where kids could sit and "drive," and it had all kinds of controls they could operate. There was also a gas pump, and Grant loved putting gas into the car!


Like I said, there wasn't much else that Grant really could appreciate at his age. He did enjoy looking at these baby chicks for a minute (see below). But I think a year from now, he'll probably be able to play in some of the other sections of the museum. There was a mock grocery store and a pretend cow that kids could actually milk! It was really crowded, so he may have enjoyed some of these if we'd gone during the week. All in all, though, it was a good way to spend a couple of hours on a hot summer day!

Sleepy guy.....

I took these over a week ago, but I'm always slow in getting my pictures uploaded to the computer.

This was one of those days that Grant had only a 1.5 hour nap during the day, and he was exhausted that night. So when we went outside to play, he swung for about 10 minutes before looking VERY drowsy. Pretty soon he drifted off to sleep.....then he didn't appreciate very much that we woke him up a few minutes later!

Sweet moment

This is one of my new favorite pictures of Grant. It's hard these days to get him to look at the camera when I'm taking pictures of him.....and even harder to catch him smiling! But lately he's been learning to say "cheese" when he gets his picture made, and that's what he was saying when I took this one.
With Drew coming in probably the next 6 weeks or so (yikes!!), sometimes it strikes me as a little sad that things are going to be so different. I've gotten used to Grant being my only child, and I still put him to bed every night. When I have another baby that I love just as much as I love Grant, it's obvious that I'm not going to be able to spend as much undivided attention with my firstborn! And even though I know this is inevitable and that every family deals with this when they have a second, I still sometimes wish I had a little longer before things change!

Anyway, we usually go out in the morning to do errands, and Grant usually falls asleep around 11am, when we're heading home. I take him out of the car and take him up to his crib, where he finishes his nap. I've been thinking that one day, I just need to forget about my to-do list.......and instead of putting him straight into his crib, I'll sit and enjoy the feeling of my baby sleeping on my shoulder (which doesn't happen much anymore!). The reason I haven't done it already is that, if he sleeps for 30 or 45 minutes then wakes up on my lap, he likely won't go to sleep again!

So.....on Monday night, there was a storm coming through when I was rocking Grant before bed. When we heard thunder, I said something about it being scary (what was I thinking?!), and he immediately put his arms around my neck and laid his head on my shoulder. I thought he'd sit up soon after, but no! I sang and he fell asleep after a few minutes! I knew for sure he was asleep when I felt streams of drool falling onto my arm! It was a really sweet moment that I treasured for a while before laying him into his crib. I hope I have more moments like this before our lives change so much!

Frustrations and Realizations

It's been a frustrating past couple of days for me. I've been sort of down for different reasons....primarily being our finances. We are in no means desperate or anything, but we've just realized that we've been spending too much and most months lately we haven't been saving much at all. I know.....many people would be grateful to be able to save anything! But we're thinking that in a couple (or few years), we'll probably need to get a new car (or at least be preparing ourselves just in case). And we calculate how much we need to save monthly to get to the point where we could buy a car down the road.....it's a lot of money! And that's if we only save to buy a car, and nothing else! Anyway, I'm an accountant and I know I should do a much better job budgeting and being on top of all this stuff, but I'm not.....then when I finally realize our situation, I freak out!

And.....to top things off, just as all of this is on my mind.....today Grant and I went outside to play. Amminadab (our kitty who has been recently relegated to full-time backyard life) came up and sat on the porch, and was obviously favoring his left bottom. Sure enough, he had two little puncture wounds (I guess he lost a fight with another kitty!), and one of them was leaking something really gross! So I took him to the vet this afternoon, thinking we'd probably end up spending around $150 to get it all cleaned up and stuff. No.....it was $262!!!!!! I couldn't believe it! And.....we're supposed to take him back in another month to have bloodwork done to make sure he doesn't have feline leukemia (from the bite). There's no way I'm spending more money on that cat right now. With the $300 we spent to get him declawed in February, I think it's very possible that I've spent more on Amminadab this year than on Grant! Aahhh!!!

The most annoying part of all of this is that I try and try to save money wherever I can. I don't clip grocery coupons (I've found that it's usually cheaper just to buy generic!), but I wait to buy things at Kroger until they're on sale, to save a few dollars. And I have a list of things I still need for Drew......so I'll use 20% off coupons at Babies R' Us just to save $5 on one or two items here and there. And then this happens......I look at the line items on the vet's invoice, and it seems pointless to try to save a few dollars here and there! I could have taken that $262 and bought everything else I needed for Drew's room, plus a lot more!

Anyway, I could go on and on. I have just been frustrated and in a bad mood for the past couple of days. But I think I am also realizing that I probably focus too much on money, especially when things like this come up. The verse that comes to mind is "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." I'm pretty sure it's in Matthew somewhere, but I can't remember now! Anyway, I tend to spend much more time worrying about the situation than I do trusting God to provide for us. So when I think about it, the fact that Amminadab's expensive visit to the vet happened today was probably timed perfectly.....so that I would learn that certain things are out of my control, and to teach me to worry less and trust God more.

TS Edouard

Tropical Storm Edouard came through today.....it's been about the only thing they've talked about on the news here in Houston in the past couple of days! Grant and I stayed in all morning....the storm came ashore a little bit east of Houston, but the bands moved counter-clockwise and dumped rain on us from the north. From about 8am on, we were pounded with quite a bit of rain and wind, but it really didn't seem much worse than a bad thunderstorm. It was weird, though, to see how the rain was coming in pretty much horizontally.

While Grant was eating breakfast (at around 9am.....he didn't wake up until about 8:30!), we had a few brownouts. It was funny seeing his reaction to the lights turning off, then on without us doing anything! He looked pretty amazed and kept saying "uh oh" and "woah!" After a few brownouts right in a row, all of our power went out. It actually stayed out for about two hours. And I realized that I didn't have any of the right batteries to power any of our radios, so I got out our emergency radio (which we got for our wedding and Dean insisted that we may need it at some point!). Grant was pretty impressed with it and learned the word "radio" from watching me crank it up!

By around 1pm, the storm was letting up quite a bit. So I took Grant in the car for a ride, to let him fall asleep. This has become my crutch lately....we're usually out in the morning doing errands, and I'll try to time it so he can fall asleep on our way home. But sometimes even if we're home all morning, I'll just put him in the car and start driving, and I usually don't even have to get very far before he conks out. I know I need to quit doing this before the baby comes.....it's not that he can't go to sleep on his own, but it's just easier (and faster) for me to bring him up to his crib when he's already asleep.

Anyway, our rain gauge showed only about 2.3 inches of rain for the day, but I think it was actually probably around 4 inches (our rain gauge sits on the south side of our house, so I think the house blocked a lot of the rain that was coming in horizontally from the north). We desperately need the rain, so I am hoping for another tropical storm before the season's over!

(One of the many reasons) why little boys need dads

This picture really has nothing to do with the post, but I took it while we were outside last week and I thought it was cute!

Lately I've been learning the importance of fathers in boys' lives....Grant has so much fun horsing around and being tickled by Dean. I think he sometimes gets a little bored being at home all day with me.....and he'll often become hyper and much more rowdy when Dean gets home (which I think is good for him!).

Also, a couple other funny things have happened lately that have reinforced the thought that boys need their daddies to set them straight after being around mom so much. During the hot summer, there have been many afternoons that we'll come in from the backyard and I'll bring Grant into the shower with me to clean off. He's at the age where he loves to imitate everyday things that we do. The other day after we got out of the shower, he managed to find a razor (oops!) in my drawer. I looked over at him and he was acting like he was shaving his legs with it! Thankfully the cap was on it, so he couldn't cut himself!

And I've said before that he'll take a shampoo bottle and pretend that he's squeezing it onto his hands, then into his hair. A few days ago, he watched me putting lotion on my legs, then came over and did the same thing! He grabbed the bottle and pretended to squeeze it into his hands, then he rubbed his legs! Of course he's too little to realize that most guys don't put lotion on their legs! It's just funny when you realize how much they learn from watching you.....kinda scary!

2 more months!

My due date is 2 months from today.....yikes! It is coming so fast! A couple of people have asked for a new belly picture.....Dean took this one last night (I turned 31 weeks on Friday). All of a sudden I feel really big; even some of my maternity tank tops are getting a little tight. I'm still feeling good, though.....still not much sciatica, THANK YOU GOD! Sometimes my leg will hurt a little bit at night, but by the morning it's fine. But I've noticed that it has become a lot more difficult to do simple tasks.....like standing up when I've been sitting on the ground! Also, we went to the Children's Museum yesterday, and to get into the toddler area you have to put scrubs on over your shoes. I realized I couldn't bend over the right way to put them on, so I had to go sit on a bench to do it! Just little things like that are all of a sudden more difficult.

Little Drew is one active little baby.....there have only been a couple of times that I've gotten worried because he's not moving so much. Most of the time I am reminded of his presence constantly! It still feels like he's doing somersaults in there. And I love when I can feel a body part sticking out. I'll press on that spot, and I can feel him squirming around. Such a cool feeling! He's had the hiccups a few times, but not nearly as much as I remember with Grant. Maybe that started later with Grant, though.....it's hard for me to remember much about that pregnancy (which is why I advise all pregnant women to keep some kind of journal about how you're feeling......you'll forget!).

And something that I think is so funny and peculiar.....between my two pregnancies, there have probably been a total of 10 people (total strangers) who I've met in public and have guessed the sex of the baby. They have ALL guessed that I'm having boys, based on the way my tummy looks. I've carried both Grant and Drew very much in the front, and people say this is typically how boys are carried. If we end up having a girl at some point, I will be very interested to see what people guess then! I always assumed that this was a wives' tale, but who knows?? 10 for 10 is pretty good!

Mmmmmm!!!

Just a few pictures from breakfast a few days ago. I've tried so many things for Grant to eat in the mornings....he's just in one of those weird phases where he doesn't ever seem hungry (at least when it's time to sit down and eat!). This day I gave him Alpha Bits and a piece of toast. He only ate a little bit, then wanted down (like most mornings).

But before I had time to clean up, he was up on my chair, reaching into the cereal box and eating handfuls of cereal! Then he grabbed the (still open) peanut butter container and pulled out finger-fulls of peanut butter, stuffing those in his mouth (see bottom pictures). I guess a more sensible mom would have taken them away from him, but at this point I just want him to eat! And I guess it's just more fun when he can scavenge for the food himself!