Chee!

Drew will be 17 months old tomorrow....and despite our best efforts, he's still not wanting to speak very much! He says mama and dada, and "baba" (referring to Ba Ba Black Sheep, one of his favorite songs) and "teeee!" (referring to the kitties), and "down" (meaning "down" and "up" and "all done" when he's done with a book), and "chee!" when I take his picture. And that's about it! Grant was this exact age when he started saying his first words aside from mama and dada. I was really worried about Grant.....I'm not so worried this time. Drew obviously understands almost everything we tell him, and he communicates with us in lots of ways.....so I'm just hoping the words will start coming soon.

It's funny because Grant's first word (just a few days before 17 months) was "cheese," but he said it in reference to the yellow stuff. That was (and still is) his favorite food....and I remember like it was yesterday the day that I gave him a piece of cheese and said, "cheeeeese" to him as I always did (like I said, by this point, I was getting worried!). And he said a very timid "cheese" back to me. It was such an exhilarating moment for me, and such a relief to see that he could actually say a word (aside from all of his babbling, of course).

So it's funny because Drew is NOT a cheese eater.....he doesn't usually care for it. But he's learned from Grant how to say "chee" when I take his picture. Last night he was putting on a show for me. He's gotten very interested in my camera and always wants to see the picture I've just taken. Last night he had fun saying "chee!" for the camera, then grabbing the camera to look at his pictures (he also grabs the camera and tries to press every button....I'm thankful we haven't deleted pictures yet). Here are a few of the smiley faces:


Success! Both boys are smiling and facing the camera for a picture! I never realized how difficult it would be to capture a good picture of two little kids together.....

Aarrghh!

Grant is totally into pirates now. I wish this had happened two months ago so we could've gotten him pirate gifts for his birthday and Christmas.....he always seems to discover a new favorite thing in January, just after Christmas and ten months before his next birthday!

Anyway, I think the pirate fascination comes from his love of Peter Pan; for a while now he's had a lot of pretend conversations with (or about) Captain Hook. I changed out the shower curtain in the boys' bathroom, and he likes to use the old curtain hangers as "captain hooks." And he always wants to have sword/hook fights with anyone available. Since now he's getting more into the pretend-play stage, I figured he would enjoy a pirate ship. We bought one last week (Craigslist), and he loves it! It comes with some additional boats, sea creatures, and Hook's Island (with a place to hide a treasure chest). And of course a lot of pirates. He'll grab two pirates and create a conversation between them: "Oh no, I'm falling!" "Wait for me, I'll save you!" "I'm going to hit you with my sword and knock you off the ship!"

And even though I explained to him that this is Drew's toy too, he just isn't too excited about Drew playing with it. Many times I've found it in the bathroom.....he sees Drew going near it and he'll pick it up and carry it off. He knows Drew can't get into the bathroom to find it!

A few funnies.....

I hardly post anything funny that Grant says.....he's constantly saying things that either surprise me ("how did he know about that?") or make me laugh, and I write them in my little notebook as often as I can. Here are a few just from today that I thought were funny/insightful:

- Dean was off today from work, so we did some errands this morning and stopped to get a pizza from Little Caesars on the way home. Dean went inside to pick up the pizza, and when he came out, Grant said, "when I'm a daddy, I can go in there." Dean replied back something like, "don't let that be your motivation!"

- He's been on this "when I'm a daddy" kick lately......this afternoon we were playing at the house and Grant said, "when I'm a daddy, I can teach Drew how to give big spankins." (And by the way, Grant sees me slap Drew on the hand when he hits or throws something. So now Grant takes it upon himself to discipline Drew....slapping his hand, counting to three and threatening Drew with spankings when he misbehaves. He's trying to be helpful and he thinks he's a big boy....and the funny thing is that Drew actually seems to enjoy being disciplined by his big brother!).

- Lately Drew has been acting silly.....making funny noises at the table, dancing to every song he hears, etc. He was acting funny upstairs tonight and Grant was laughing at him like he typically does. Then Grant looked at me and said, "Drew makes me smile."

Three, going on twenty-three

A few weeks ago Grant would resist if/when I tried to get him to wear his backpack into or out of school. "No! It's too heavy, Mommy! You carry it!" But he must have noticed some big kids wearing backpacks, and now all of a sudden he thinks it's really cool. I'm so accustomed to carrying it now that I usually never even ask him....but today we were halfway to the door of his school when he said, "I want to wear my backpack!"

And my goodness....he's still completely obsessed with my iPod, constantly asking me where it is and asking if he can bring it to me (even after I tell him it's in my pocket). I mean, this lasts all day long....he asks about it probably, on average, once every hour while he's awake (and while we're at home).

I bought some iPod protectors at WalMart recently, and the package came with a little piece of paper that looks just like an iPod. He stuck it inside one of my extra protectors, and wow....I had visions of what to expect my little boy to look like in 12 years! He wanted to wear his backpack, and he walked around pretending to type and push buttons. He was so very proud of himself! He referred to it as "my iPod" and it was perfect because it took his attention away from mine. Unfortunately, one day he really made me mad when we were in the car, and later that day I found his iPod on the floor of the van. Still angry from earlier in the day, I threw it in the trash! But its original thrill must have worn out anyway (he's usually obsessed with something like this for a few days, then he's on to something else), because he has never mentioned anything about it since.



And by the way, he is always clarifying to me that he's a big boy (when I mention something to him about being a sweet little boy, or something like that). He'll correct me and tell me that Drew's little, but "I'm the big brother." When we pass elementary schools, he'll say "I'm gonna go to a school like that when I'm bigger." It's interesting seeing him develop a sense of where he belongs....he's definitely bigger than Drew, but he's not as big as those kids at the "big kid" school!

Recap

Highlights from this week (my apologies....it's a little long):

TUESDAY: Dean's birthday! I was so unprepared for his birthday this year (as I am unprepared for almost everything these days!). I hadn't even thought about a cake until his actual birthday, so the boys and I bought a Boston Creme Pie (Dean's favorite) at Kroger. I set it inside my cute little cake dome and possibly would've gotten away with claiming that I made it, except that Dean was home eating lunch when we got back from the store (he happened to have a training just a few miles from our house that day). The first thing out of Grant's mouth when he saw Dean was "we bought you a birthday cake at the cookie shop!"

The boys were awfully tired and fussy that afternoon, so they were both asleep by 6:45. This never happens at our house (usually bedtime is about an hour later), but it sure was nice having almost an entire evening to ourselves!

WEDNESDAY: Drew and I stopped at Hobby Lobby while Grant was in school. I found the one item I needed , then we walked through the housewares section on our way to the front. Drew was not in a shopping cart (I didn't bother because it was a quick trip), and he was walking with me when we saw an endcap full of decorative glass balls (you probably know where this is going). Drew picked up a ball and I took it away from him, then he reached for another one. So I said, "okay, time to go," and I picked him up. Well, he must have grabbed and held on tight to the piece of glass that was holding those balls in....and as we stood up, the glass came with us, and all of the balls came tumbling out. It seemed like the crashing lasted forever as each one hit the ground and shattered. Shocked and embarrassed, I looked to the left and right, not really knowing what to do. Ladies were walking by, wincing and feeling sorry for me but not saying anything. I would say there were probably 25 balls that fell, and amazingly there were about three that looked intact. They were marked $8.99 a piece. Two workers came within a few seconds, and they were as nice as could be. I apologized profusely and asked if there was anything I could do, but they were very gracious and said not to worry about a thing. I felt so guilty walking to the front of the store to buy my $2.99 item, having just destroyed a couple of hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise. Yikes....

THURSDAY: Not wanting to spend yet another day doing errands and playing at the house, I took the boys to Memorial City Mall up in Houston (it was rainy outside and I'd heard about an inside play area there). Grant acted superbly the entire time...I dragged them into a store and tried on a couple of shirts, and he said, "that's cute, Mommy! You look cute!" And they had fun in the play area, although at one point this strange girl (very cute, but very odd) came up to Drew and was acting kind of weird (she couldn't have been a day over two). Grant noticed it, stopped playing and came to stand behind Drew, putting his arms around him and saying, "this is my brother!" She walked away and everything was fine (although we did see her later and she was acting strangely again). But....when it was time to leave the mall, I picked Drew up to carry him out, and he let out this loud scream. He did this during lunch too, because I wouldn't let him stand in his highchair. It makes me stressed out to now have two kids who can throw fits and embarrass me in public! I could go on about this for a long time, but that's another post. On to...

FRIDAY: My day off! After the previous two days, I told Dean that I needed an entire day away from the boys or I'd go crazy....and I'm not joking. He's starting a 9/80 schedule (he'll get every other Friday off), so this was his off day. I left the house at 8:30am and didn't come home until 7:45pm. Dean was a trooper and didn't complain about having to care for the boys by himself on his day off. I shopped and shopped and spent time browsing inside stores that I never get to visit. It was so nice....I can't even describe it! Fairly regularly I'll leave Dean with the boys for a couple of hours on a weekend so I can do a couple of errands. But I've never had an entire day away like this. It was refreshing and I can't wait to do it again!

Blog facelift

When I started the blog almost three years ago, I didn't know many people who blogged. And it didn't even occur to me to come up with a creative name for it. But now everyone who starts a blog has a really cute, catchy name, and ours started to seem totally boring!

So for a few months, I tried thinking of a name that represented our lives well; how do you describe craziness and chaos in a way that also sounds positive? One day "little rascals" popped into my head. I thought about it for a while, and it just seemed to fit. Grant and Drew are silly, mischievous, headstrong little boys....but (usually!) in an endearing way.

As for the picture header on our blog......I added these cute letters to a picture of the boys (it's from the summer, but at least it's a newer picture than I had before). Picasa is amazing. Wow. Thanks to those of you who encouraged me to use it. They have SO many cute fonts that you can just add straight to a picture! No Photoshop required! I meant to add something else to the picture, but for now I've just posted it as-is.