Happy 11 Months, Grant!

This is one day late, but I wanted to mark Grant's 11-month birthday. I can't believe my little baby will be a year old in just four more weeks. In the past month or two, it seems like he's grown up a lot....I know that he understands a lot now, and is just so aware of things around him! It's amazing watching a helpless little baby transform into a real person! If I have time later (which is questionable....I seem to have very little free time these days!), I will make a list of things he's been doing. Happy 11 months, sweetie pie!!

Why do we buy toys???

Last week, Grant started pushing his little convertible pushing/riding toy that we bought for him a while back. He can't steer yet, but he loves to push that little thing all over the place. But.....yesterday we went shopping and bought a package of toilet paper, and I left it laying on the kitchen floor. Last night, while Grant was pushing his car, he pushed himself right over to the toilet paper and started pushing that instead! It was very cute....but since it has no wheels, it was a lot harder for him! He had to stop after a while and was breathing heavily! Things like that always make me wonder why we even need to buy toys for our kids....a lot of times they're much happier (or just as content) exploring and playing with everyday objects around the house!

Pumpkin Patch

Last Friday, our Bible study group had a "play date" at the pumpkin patch that one of the local churches puts on every year. We had a good time; Grant, of course, wanted to crawl all over the place, and he enjoyed standing up and beating on the pumpkins! They make for such a good photo backdrop, so I'd like to go again when Dean can come with us. Here are some pictures we took.

With Sierra and Jacob:
Grant is sharing a piece of straw with me:
A couple pictures of Grant standing with the pumpkins:

Grant and Jacob admiring each other. When Grant got a little closer, Jacob grabbed his head and tried to eat it! I guess that's what teething babies do! Grant didn't seem to mind (or even notice), but we all got a kick out of it!

Learning to share

Grant loves to take his food (or whatever is in his hands) and hold it out to anyone who's around. At first you think he's wanting to share with you, but he doesn't seem to fully understand that concept yet. If you try to take it from him, he grasps it more tightly and pulls it back to himself! Here he is "sharing" his biscuit with Amminadab. And notice that he's sitting in his bumbo again (for the first time since his fall....it took me a while to stick him back in there again), but ONLY on the floor!

We went to Bryan last weekend to surprise my mom for my parents' anniversary. They were planning on coming down here for the weekend (or so my mom thought), but instead my dad took her to a nearby country club/resort where he had booked the Presidential Suite for them to stay in overnight. Then my mom's other surprise was that Dean, Grant and I, plus my brother Rob were coming there too. Rob met us at my parents' house, then we went over to the pool area (where my dad told us they'd be). My mom was so happy and surprised to see us....we went swimming for a while, then came back to their room a little bit later (after cleaning up at their house).

Rob got sick and ended up leaving before we went to dinner, unfortunately. But the rest of us went to dinner (including Grant, which was interesting!)....we enjoyed a wonderful seafood buffet. Since Grant came with us, we sat outside.....just in case he got fussy. But he was fine, as long as I kept giving him bites of what I was eating! I can't even guess how much he ate....it was probably way too much, but he kept wanting more. And he liked our waitress....he would try to stand up and bounce in his highchair when she'd come out! Probably the funniest thing was the dessert.....we had ice cream and peach cobbler. I gave Grant a few bites of ice cream, then my mom asked for a bite. So I scooped some up for her on my spoon and went to hand it to her. Well, Grant wasn't too happy with that....he got mad that it wasn't for him and started crying! So we did it again just to see if he wasn't crying about something else, but sure enough! Then we gave some to my dad and he did it again! We sure do have a demanding little boy on our hands!

The next morning, we went over to see my parents for a little while longer, then we drove to Madisonville to see my good friend Margaret and her husband Doug. Margaret is (now) 38 weeks pregnant and is due to have her baby boy any day! We had BBQ sandwiches and spent a few hours with them. Grant got to meet his first horse, although he was more interested in their dog Jack, who kept running around us!

Family picture from their balcony:
Daddy feeding Grant some snacks before going to the seafood buffet:
Grant entertained everyone with his expert xylophone playing:
Meeting Molly (I think that's her name!) the horse:
Jack and Molly:

Margaret and Doug: