Trip to Baton Rouge

We went to Baton Rouge last week because Dean had a few days' worth of meetings, and Grant and I always love an excuse to go someplace new to explore! We got there on Monday night and had dinner with one of Dean's old friends from Alabama, Gabe, and his wife Diane. They had us over for pizza and we watched the national championship game. Gabe is the new bassoon teacher at LSU, so they've just moved there in the past few months. Grant of course wanted to explore everything, and he was particularly interested in their little kitten. He chased her all over the place! Diane is an amazing artist, and showed me some of her work. I never knew there were so many different ways to create art.....I guess I kinda just assumed it was all painting on canvas!

Anyway, we had a bad night that night at the hotel, as I had feared. Grant has just simply outgrown those pack n' plays, which is what they give you when you request a crib at a hotel. He woke up multiple times, and had to be rocked back to sleep each time. Dean hardly got any sleep, so the next morning, Grant and I explored around the city a little bit and then drove home! It was kind of a bummer, because it's a four-hour trip. But Grant did better than expected with the drive, so we just learned our lesson.....it's probably going to be best to avoid trips where he has to sleep in his pack n' play for multiple nights in a row.

One thing I learned, though.....even though we were only there for less than 24 hours, I was very pleasantly surprised by Baton Rouge. It's not a dirty industrial city like I had imagined. There were some really beautiful parts of it, and it seems like a really nice town! It's possible that Dean will be transferred there with work at some point, so at least now I'd be okay with moving there!

And something kinda fun....Dean was planning to rent a car and come home on Friday. Well, on Thursday afternoon, he called and we were talking for a while. Then the doorbell rang, and I told him to hang on a second. I looked out the door and could tell that it was a guy on a cell phone. Then it hit me that it was Dean! So he had come home early and surprised me....what a nice surprise, especially because it's a little hard being on your own with a toddler for a more than a few days in a row!

This weekend

We went to Madisonville this weekend to visit my good friend Margaret, her husband Doug, and their new little boy David. He is two and a half months old , weighs over 16 pounds (wow!), and is SO cute! And he's also a very good baby....he'll just lay in his bouncy seat and look around, completely content. I don't remember exactly what Grant did at that age, but I'm pretty sure that he never was that easy!

Then we all drove to College Station for a reunion of our accounting program at A&M. We saw a few of our friends from college, which was fun. I was blown away by how modern and state-of-the-art everything was in the business building now. It's hard to believe that technology changes so much in less than 6 years!

Here are a few pictures of David (and all of us):

More pictures

Here are some more pictures from New Year's weekend. Grant has started to get really excited about bubbles when we take him to the library, and once in a while we'll pull them out at home too. The kitties also have fun with this....they usually sit perched on the couch and try to pop them too!

During New Year's weekend, Dean washed one of the cars outside, and Grant had fun being out there with him for a while.
Oops....the sippy cup fell underneath the car!
Doing his fish face....he likes to do this because he knows it makes us laugh!What a cool kid!
Licking a spoon with peanut butter.
During bathtime....
One of Grant's favorite things to do is running around naked after bathtime. Surprisingly, we haven't had many accidents when he does this!
He loves to run from room to room, and he just laughs and laughs when we chase him and catch him!

Pictures

Here are some pictures from New Year's weekend....we've had quite a bit of cold weather for the past couple of weeks (aside from these past couple of days), so I went out and bought Grant a warm jacket the day after Christmas. It seems to keep him really warm.....we'll go outside with him and freeze our tails off while he's sitting comfortably in his swing! Here's the jacket and gloves I bought for him....the gloves are WAY too big, but he actually doesn't try to pull them off like I would have expected. And at least he'll get to wear them next year! I love this picture....
Grant giving Daddy a kiss....we couldn't get him to do this when any of the grandparents were here, but he does like to give kisses. Sometimes you'll ask him to give you one, then he'll keep doing it over and over again without being asked!
It's time to come inside, and Grant doesn't enjoy that part very much!
In his A&M jersey, before the A&M/Penn State game. Unfortunately the Aggies still lost!

Terrible twos....at thirteen months??!

We've had a rough time for the past few weeks! I don't want to say that every hour of every day is horrible (far from that), but we definitely have a curious and headstrong toddler on our hands! Grant is discovering so many new things and makes up his mind about things he wants to do, and it's becoming hard to find things to distract him anymore. For example, he is very interested in electrical outlets; we've baby-proofed them, but any time something is plugged in, he sets his mind on pulling it out! He especially wanted to do this with the Christmas tree. Any time Grant disappeared for a couple of minutes, you could pretty much guarantee that's where he was! And as we're telling him "no," it's hard not to smile because he looks so darn cute.....he goes up to it, then looks back and forth with a little sly smile on his face because he knows he's doing something he's not supposed to do! Aahh! That little stinker! Dean has been slapping his hand quite a bit, but I don't think it hurts or scares him much, because he goes right back and does it again!

So....it's just been one of those months where it seems like nothing is going right. I definitely don't want him to learn that he can play with things that are dangerous, but it's so hard to know how to discipline at this age. I know that consistency is the key, so I think it's just a matter of staying on top of him. He knows what's wrong; he's just trying to see if we'll stop him every time!

Another thing we're dealing with is fits. He loves to be outside (even in this cold weather!), and no matter how long we stay outside, he cries and gets mad when we come in! Also, if we're out doing errands and it's time to get back in the car, sometimes he makes it almost impossible to strap him in! He is so strong!! And if he wants to go into a room (i.e. laundry room/kitty litter box room) and I shut the door before he can pull it open and walk in, he will sometimes clench his fists and fall down on the floor crying!

These situations are easier to handle....I just walk away from him and let him cry for a second (that's usually all it takes), and quite often I also laugh because he looks pretty cute when he gets really mad like that! I think all of it comes down to curiosity- at this age, he wants to explore everything. And by putting him in his carseat or bringing him back into the house, he's taken away from a place where he wants to be at that moment!

But....all this to say, I am completely amazed by him and have a wonderful time with him most of the time. It's just that this stage is a little bit harder (in some ways) than when he was five months old! I read in a book that one-year-olds are very selfish....they still want to make sure that mom and dad are there, but they're mainly interested in exploring their world. And they're not happy when they aren't allowed to do that!