House Hunting

I haven't posted anything in a while....we've been SO busy over the past two weeks, selling our current house and having to make a mad dash to find a new one! Based on where Dean works and the fact that we don't want him to have a much longer commute than he has now, we were fairly limited in the neighborhoods we were considering. And we probably drove a hundred miles (or more) and used up multiple tanks of gas in the past month, just driving around to look at possible neighborhoods and to see possible houses.

We ended up deciding on a house in a subdivision only about 4 miles from where we live now....I like the area because it's still close to the interstate and all of the retail stuff around here. We were also considering moving farther toward the water, in an area called Seabrook. It's a nice area (close to the Kemah Boardwalk) and Dean's commute would have been shorter than it is now (20 minutes vs. 35 minutes). But the insurance was quite a bit higher over there by the water, and the house we liked was a little bit out of our price range anyway.

The house we picked is at the end of a cul-de-sac, and is about 12 years old. All the bedrooms are upstairs (which makes me more comfortable since Grant is so young), and it's got a GREAT covered patio outside. So many of the houses we saw just had a little concrete slab out in the backyard for a patio; I don't know many people in Texas who would want to spend much time outside if there's nothing to shade them!

Anyway, we are closing on both houses on Sept 14 (a Friday). So we have less than a month now! Dean's parents are coming that week to help us move, which should be very helpful. My parents conveniently planned a trip to Montana that week! Just kidding....they've had it planned for a long time.

Red knees

Since Grant started crawling (and pulling himself up on furniture) a couple of weeks ago, he's had his share of battle wounds! I know they're inevitable, but it's still hard to see him fall and hurt himself. Mostly, though, his little knees are just red from all of the crawling. A friend gave us a pair of knee pads for him, and he's worn them once. He doesn't mind them at all, but he's a little bit chubby for them! Here's a bath picture which shows his red knees, and another one of his cute little knee pads!

What I think about bananas.....

We tried giving Grant some pieces of solid banana the other night. He LOVES jarred bananas, so I thought he would enjoy it! And I keep reading that babies this age (8 months) can start to feed themselves table foods like fruits, Cheerios and toast. So I mashed a banana into small pieces and set it on his food tray. He played with it a little bit but didn't have any idea that it was food. So I took a piece and placed it in his mouth, and he made a few yucky faces, followed by gagging! We tried a couple more pieces and he did it every time....the third time he even threw up a little bit after gagging! Of course that made me feel awful that I had kept pushing it! I think the texture of it was just so weird to him, and his body thought it was some kind of foreign object that wasn't supposed to be in his mouth.

I guess we'll try something different next time, but maybe I'll give it another week or so. Grant loves his oatmeal cereal and his pureed baby foods, so I guess he's not going to starve if he doesn't eat table foods for a while. And since I'm so worried about him choking on something, it doesn't bother me to wait a while!

Nana and Aunt Corie's visit

Grant's Nana and his Aunt Corie came to visit from Alabama last weekend.....he had a great time with them!! He played a ton and had a hard time winding down for naps because he was having so much fun! Until Monday morning (the day they left), I don't think he cried once when they picked him up or carried him.....that was a little bit of a surprise because he's been very clingy to me lately. For me, it was so nice being able to go take a shower, check my email, or get something done and know that he was having fun playing with somebody else!

On Friday night, Grant and Daddy got into what is best described as a shouting match! Grant learned how to make this quick, throaty "aahh" sound, and Dean mimicked him and said it back. Well, Grant did it again, then Dean did it again, on and on! It probably went on for two or three minutes, nonstop! Poor thing, Grant had a little bit of a hoarse voice the next day from all of that yelling!

And of course Nana enjoyed every minute she was able to hold and play with Grant....even when he wasn't very happy being changed! He woke up crying a lot at night, and she'd take him out of his crib and rock him back to sleep. I know she loved doing it, but it also helped us get some more sleep at night!

Here's a cute picture with Corie:
Corie feeding Grant his dinner on Saturday:
Sitting on Nana's lap:
Taking a break from crawling for a minute:What's up here on the couch?? He's learning quickly how to pull himself up on furniture. Unfortunately, his favorite seems to be the marble coffee table in the living room!

Here he's doing his "bbbbbb" sound....his new favorite! I think he likes how his lips vibrate when he does it. We all went to the mall for a while on Saturday since it was so rainy, and he just kept buzzing and buzzing! People turned around to look at him and couldn't believe that a baby was making that noise! It is pretty cute and something I've never seen before!

Karen's visit and Robbie's wedding

My good friend Karen came to visit a little over a week ago. I had realized that I've never taken a picture of her holding him, so I finally did! We got to spend a few hours with her before Dean got home and we headed up to Spring for Robbie's wedding.Here's a picture of Grant dressed in (part of) his little suit that he wore to Robbie and Ashly's wedding on Saturday. We took this picture in the hotel, and I put his jacket on just before the wedding started. But poor thing, I don't think he felt well that day.....he slept off and on while one of us held him at the wedding, and was upset every time he woke up. So we took off the jacket and shoes, thinking he may be getting hot. So I never got a picture of him wearing the entire outfit, but hopefully he'll be able to wear it again before outgrowing it!
Here's a cute picture of Grant and Daddy at the reception (when he wasn't feeling too well).
Another one with Mommy....with his shirt unbuttoned! We tried so many things to cool him off!