Pictures from Christmas week.....finally!

Wow, Christmas went by in a flash and I have had such little time to do things on the computer, even though Dean has been home for much of the time! Anyway, here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks.

Dean's first day off was Dec 19 (Weds), and we made a trip up into town to visit the Galleria (I always love to go there at Christmastime to see the giant Christmas tree and all the decorations). Grant was NOT a very good boy on this trip, and this picture somewhat indicates his frustration! He wasn't happy being pushed in his stroller, and wanted to walk everywhere, which is hard when you're in a crowded mall! So we ended up leaving earlier than we'd planned. We let him sleep in the car, then ate lunch at Niko Niko's, one of our favorite restaurants from our dating days. Grant enjoyed sitting and eating outside, so the entire trip wasn't a complete loss! But at the Galleria, there's an entire wing almost filled completely with expensive children's stores, one after another. I was in awe at some of the prices for baby clothes, and I felt completely out of touch with the people in there, who were actually really shopping for their own kids (and not just looking at the price tags in amazement!).

Mama and Grant next to our Christmas tree:
We bought a SwifferVac, and Thursday was the first day we tried it out. We have a lot of tile in our house (almost the entire downstairs), and I am horrible at finding time to take out the broom to sweep (and it's not very effective anyway). The SwifferVac is great! It's motorized but runs on a charge (so no batteries), and it's a perfect little vacuum for hard floors. Here's Grant trying it out. He loves to walk with us and talk to it when we're using it.
We went to the park that day too. Here's Grant on his favorite playground equipment (I still can't think of the name, darn it!):
He also loves to swing....here he is on the park swing:
Then he sat on Daddy's lap and they both swung together (he likes this too!):

Yikes! You're going too fast, Daddy!
On Friday, the 21st, Dean's family came to town. We went to lunch at Boudreaux's cajun restaurant (another favorite) after Corie and Steve flew in. Then we tried to drive down to Galveston, but we had a horrible time just trying to get to the interstate (people leaving early from work). So we ended up staying home and just playing outside for a while. Here's Grant riding down the slide in our backyard with Daddy:
Getting sugars from Nana!
Grant really likes Corie; he usually likes for her to hold him, and for more than just a few seconds!
Grant riding on his swing the next day. Nana was making faces at him and he loved it! He LOVES being on this swing....even when it's really cold outside (like the past couple of days), he points to go outside and could sit on that swing for an hour. Every time we bring him in, he cries and throws a little fit because he doesn't want to come in. Fun fun!
Drinking some water from Nana's glass:
Grant got some great gifts for Christmas; he got a little SpiderMan friend (basically, a doll for little boys!) from Steve and this Sesame Street couch/bed from Corie. He has great fun on this couch! While we were opening gifts (he still doesn't really get the point of that), he laid down on it, as if he was completely bored with this whole present-opening thing! The couch also folds open into a little bed, and Grant loves jumping and crashing into it.
Here he is sitting on his couch the next morning:
When my parents came to town on Christmas Eve, it was a beautiful (but cold) day. We took a walk to the park, and here's Grant flying through the air in our driveway (a little too high for my liking, but Grant enjoys it!):
With Grandma:
With Grandma and Grandpa. We had a good time that night, opening presents and eating seafood gumbo for dinner.
Christmas morning. This box was Grant's favorite toy; a few days before Christmas, he discovered it under the tree and loved to carry it around and chew on it whenever he saw it. It was a gift for me! There was also a present (for Grant) that was just wrapped in a colored box, with no paper covering it. Two or three times before Christmas, Grant went for the same box and took the top off, then tore the tissue paper out and left the present just sitting there!
Wearing a new big-boy froggy towel he got for Christmas!Grant and Daddy went out to play and swing that evening while I made dinner. Here he's coming back inside on Daddy's shoulder (and not throwing a fit.....yet!):

In front of our Christmas tree that night:
Oh yeah, Scooter really likes Grant's couch too!

Just in time for Christmas....

We had a Rudolph look-alike in our house! Last Tuesday, Grant was walking around in the front yard with his new friend Brynna (a 9-year old girl across the street, who loves to come over and play with him). Grant lost his footing and fell flat on his nose on the neighbor's sidewalk! I was standing right there too and could hear him hit the ground....I was worried he had broken his tooth! But I think he's fine, and a week later, you can hardly even tell he did it!

At 13 Months, Grant......

- Gives kisses on demand (touches our cheeks/noses with an open mouth).

- Cannot speak any words (other than mama and dada, but even those it's hard to tell if he directs them at us), but he babbles all the time. And he'll copy me when I say "whoa" when looking at airplanes overhead! And it sounds like he's starting to say "ki" when we see the kitties.

- Understands many words, like "no", "daddy's home", "I'm gonna to get you!," "do you want a cookie/a piece of cheese?"

- Loves to walk around picking up objects, then throwing them on the floor to pick up something else. He's almost always walking around with one or two things in his hands!

- Still uses his pacifiers a lot.....I think even more than a few months ago. He likes to have them when he's walking around, although I try to save them for just when he's going to sleep.

- Loves storytime before taking naps or going to bed. Just as one is finishing, he'll sit up and look towards his bookshelf, trying to figure out which one is coming next! And he resists trying new books; he got a few for his birthday and the first few times I read them, he'd look at the first page and immediately start looking for a new book to read (because he didn't recognize the pictures, I assume). But after a few times, he finally starts to enjoy them too. Some of his favorite books right now are:

• Mr. Brown can Moo, Can You?
• There's a Wocket in my Pocket
  
• The Belly Button Book
• Are you my Mother?
• Bear Snores On
• Puddle the Duck
• Blue's School Pictures
  
• Peek A Zoo- touch and feel book
  

- Has seven teeth popping through....three on the bottom (including one that just came in a week ago on the left side), and four on the top (the front left tooth is the only one that's made it most of the way in).

-Wears size 12 and 18 month clothes. Most of the 12 month clothes fit perfectly right now, but his little tummy is too big for some of the 12-month pants! But the 18-month pants are way too long for him now! Dilemmas, dilemmas!

- Is learning to crawl on top of things....he tries to crawl onto his little learning/play tables, and just the other night he started to lift his leg up over the side of the bathtub, to get either in or out. He also likes to crawl into laundry baskets that are filled with clothes.

- Likes the Chicken Dance Elmo toy I found for him at a garage sale. He may be past his thrill with this, though....for a couple of weeks around his first birthday, he would smile bashfully the entire time it danced. Now he still points to it and wants to hear it, but then while it's playing he tends to lose interest!

- Is becoming more and more difficult to contain while we're out shopping! Basically, he just wants to be free to walk around. Sometimes he resents being in his stroller and he starts fussing, and it's definitely impossible to hold him without him squirming out of my arms. This is where cheese and cheerios come in very handy!

- Loves his Snack Trap (a little cup that he can stick his hands into, but theoretically doesn't spill when he shakes it). I use this a lot (as well as biter biscuits, which he also loves!) to distract him and keep him happy in stores when he's starting to get impatient. The "trap" part doesn't work so well, though, because he sticks his hand in there, then yanks it out, bringing 10 or so cheerios with it! Needless to say, this makes a HUGE mess in the car or wherever we are!

- Has JUST started to wave bye-bye. Today at Target was the first time he's done it, when he responded to our checkout lady waving at him. In the past, he's just pointed at whoever he's looking at, but hasn't waved his hand.

- Usually will go to sleep on his own now (at least at night)....I'll read to him, then rock him and try to get him really sleepy before putting him in his crib. He'll usually just cry for a few seconds and then go to sleep. Naptimes are a little more questionable! But lately he's been especially squirmy and doesn't settle down in my arms as easily as he used to. Something really cute, though....when he's just playing in my arms and not trying to go to sleep, I'll say, "it's time for bed," and start standing up, and he'll immediately hurry to get into his "sleeping" position, shut his eyes, and act like he's serious about going to sleep!

- Gets VERY excited about most foods, even ones he doesn't like! We'll set him in his highchair and bring out something for him, and he starts going, "ooh, ooh, ooh," and makes faces and kicks his little legs around! Sometimes he's sad to find out that the food we've brought him wasn't much to be excited about (ex. peas and carrots). But when he sees a piece of cheese, bread, a cereal box, a banana, or his box of Arrowroot cookies, he goes crazy!! Tonight we asked him if he wanted a cookie, and he looked over towards the pantry and got excited!

-Is starting to test whether I'm going to be consistent with discipline. Yikes!!! He knows he's not supposed to pull the Christmas tree cord out of the wall, and he'll walk over next to it and look back at me. He also did this yesterday with one of the outlets in his room. He has the most sly little smile on his face as I tell him no. That little stinker!

New shoes

Grant got his first pair of "real" shoes on Wednesday. Since he's been walking for a couple of weeks now, I figured it was time to take him out of his Robeez and put him into some real shoes. A couple of weeks ago, the three of us were out shopping and went by a shoe store, where we had his feet measured. Not surprising to us, he measured extra-wide....not wide, but extra wide! Grant has always had big feet....not necessarily incredibly long, but just really thick.

So this week, we were out at the mall and went by the Stride Rite store. I've said from the very beginning that I'd never buy my child $45 pairs of shoes, especially since they outgrow them so fast! But lately everyone says that you want kids to have good shoes when they're first walking. And even if I did try to buy him some cheaper ones, I don't know how many brands even make them available in extra wide.

So at Stride Rite, the lady measured him again, and agreed that he definitely needed extra-wide, and his foot came right to the edge of the size 5 line. So we found him some cute 5 1/2 brown shoes, which he'll hopefully be able to wear for a few months. He seems to do pretty well in them....he stumbled over them a little at the beginning, but is doing great now!

After we left the store, we kept walking around the mall. After I take Grant out of his stroller and give him some freedom, he HATES being put back in there! I let him walk around for a while in his new shoes, and for a while he was content pushing his stroller and holding my hand. But then he wanted to go off on his own, and a crowded mall is not necessarily the best place to do that! So after a few minutes of running and grabbing him away from places where he shouldn't be, I put him back in his stroller. He was not very happy with me and put up a good fight! The joys of having a toddler!

Here's a picture I took the other day when we were outside in the front yard. Grant has been pretty good with all the Christmas lights....he doesn't grab them and pull them as much as I thought he might. But here he was pulling on some of the lights we've run along the sidewalk. I thought this was the funniest expression!

He likes milk!

We've had a bit of trouble getting Grant to drink cow's milk. He just didn't like it! We started trying to give it to him since shortly before his first birthday. But every time I'd put some in his sippy cup, he'd take one sip, make a yucky face (and usually let it all fall out of his mouth!), and throw the sippy cup to the side. I didn't expect that he would dislike it, but our doctor said this can be common in breastfed babies. I'm still breastfeeding him twice a day, although it doesn't even seem like he's really attached to it anymore....I don't even think he'd notice if I stopped altogether. (By the way, the thought of this would have made me really sad six months ago, but I think I'll have an easier time with it than I would've thought back then.) But I just don't want to wean him completely until I'm sure that he's drinking enough cow's milk.

Well, once in a while I'll make him a bowl of cereal in the morning, and I'll let the milk get nice and sugary while the cereal sits in it for a while. He loves eating cereal, and he doesn't mind when I spoon little bits of milk into his mouth (obviously it tastes much better when sitting in sugar!). So then I'll pour the milk into his sippy cup and let him drink it. Last Thursday was the third or fourth time I've done this, and he drank and drank and drank! I even poured some regular milk into it, and he drank that too! Then that night, Dean gave him some more, and he apparently drank it up! Yay!!! Maybe he's finally decided it's not too bad. We need to get some more today at the store and see whether this continues.....