One step forward, two steps back!

Well, Grant is finally napping like a "normal" child! He takes one nap in the morning, usually between 9:30 and 10am, and he'll sleep for usually 45 minutes to an hour. In the afternoon, he usually goes down for another nap anywhere between 1:30 and 2:30pm, and he'll almost always sleep for well over an hour (the past couple of days it's been 1.5 hours). And probably even more amazing than the amount of time he's sleeping is that he's not very hard to put down for naps anymore! The past couple of weeks it's been fairly easy; I'll read him a few books and then try to rock and sing to him for a few minutes. But usually at naptime he's too restless to lay there, so I just lay him in his crib. He cries while I walk out the door, but for the most part he'll go right to sleep afterwards. He's been doing this for a while at bedtime, but naps have been unpredictable until now. I used to have to come back in his room and lay him down (or hand him his pacifier if it had fallen on the floor) once or twice before he'd go to sleep. So this is a nice change!

But.....he has been a very badly behaved boy lately! We went to my friend Bethany's house on Saturday for a mommy and baby get-together. Bethany doesn't have kids and her house isn't completely baby-proofed, so Grant kept trying to grab everything he wasn't supposed to have. Every time I'd take something away, he'd collapse on the floor and cry. Or if I picked him up to remove him from an area, he'd slap my face or arch his back to try to get away. It was horrible....I stayed as long as I did because I really wanted to see a lot of the people there (I haven't seen them since Grant was born!). But he has never behaved that badly before. The general guideline I've heard for starting spanking is 18 months, but I look back and think that I probably should've taken him outside and given him a little spanking when he was acting up. At home, when he hits me, I say, "we do not hit mommy," and set him on the floor and walk away. He'll cry and walk back over to me, wanting to be picked up. And he's usually fine after that. But on Saturday, I couldn't do that, because he'd go right back over to what I had taken him away from!

So....the past few days have been hard. Today we had to leave the library early because he was acting up, and then later he fought SO hard getting into his car seat. It took me a few minutes to get him strapped in, and I had to press on his belly so hard to get him to sit down so I could do it. He had a tantrum almost the entire way home.

If anyone reading this has any advice, please comment or send me an email! I don't know what to do?!! He is extremely strong-willed and I know I can't change his personality, but I don't want him to continue acting this way. Help!!

Peek-a-boo! and some of Grant's other favorite things

Grant figured out this little game of Peek-A-Boo at the table a couple of weeks ago. He doesn't do it a lot, but he's really proud of himself when he does!

Where's Grant??
There he is!!

He also is in a stage where he loves to climb into containers (boxes, crates, laundry baskets) and then get back out. He thinks it's really neat to put stuff into containers too, then take them out or carry the container to another room. He loves to practice getting into and out of this little pink crate in our living room.
Any time the refrigerator opens, Grant comes over to see what he can play with! I've had to move all the glass containers to a higher spot because we've had an accident or two. Here he is checking out what's for dinner.

We're in the last stages of weaning, which is a little bittersweet for me. I have loved breastfeeding Grant over these past 14 months. At around 11 months old, I started only breastfeeding him twice a day, first thing in the morning and last thing before he went to bed. He was getting increasingly distracted during his daytime feeding and I figured he'd just give all of them up before too long. I also had no idea how hard the transition to whole milk would be!

But now that Grant likes his whole milk and drinks it up like crazy, I've been tapering off the feedings for the past couple of weeks. I started dropping the morning feeding. That lasted for a few days, then I started feeding him every other night instead of every night. I wasn't intending to stop this quickly, but it seems to be working out okay. He will definitely take it if I offer, but he's never pulled on my shirt or acted in any way like he specifically wants it (I'm glad I haven't gotten to that point!).

I never expected that I'd do it for this long, but it is a little sad to be done with this chapter of his life. I guess it's just another one of those things that means he's getting to be a big boy and is growing up! Sniff sniff!!

Daddy's birthday!

Dean's birthday was on Saturday, and I thought I'd better write about it before I forget what we did to celebrate! I don't have any pictures uploaded yet (and I didn't take many), but hopefully I'll get to it in the next couple of days.

It's become somewhat of a tradition (if two times counts!) to go get donuts on the morning of our birthdays. Mine fell on a Saturday this year, and now Dean's did, so I guess it may be a little harder to continue when they fall during the week. But we went over to Riley's Donuts (close to our house, and very tasty!) and had breakfast.....Dean got the biggest cinnamon roll I think I've ever seen, AND a blueberry donut! I had to have one with chocolate sprinkles, and we got Grant a few donut holes (even though we brought his Kix too). He spit out the first bite of donut and made his classic scrunched up "yuck" face, but then gave it another try. He was begging for more before too long.....I think he ended up eating a few of them. That boy likes sweets!

After we got home, our 9-year-old neighbor Brynna and her friend came over to see Grant (any time Brynna has a friend over to play, she wants to show Grant to them. We've already met four or five of her friends!). Grant and I played outside with them (and Brynna's dog Wrigley) in the front yard for a few minutes. Then Dean walked outside, and Wrigley immediately ran over to the door and started jumping and barking at him! We think that Wrigley is protective of Grant, because one other time Dean went to grab Grant abruptly as he was about to fall, and Wrigley pounced towards him and started barking like crazy. So my guess is that he thinks Dean is trying to hurt Grant. Anyway, it was funny watching it all. Brynna's mom Collette ended up coming out in her robe to tell Brynna to get Wrigley in the house. Brynna was trying to pull him away, but that dog was persistent and very strong! All the while, Grant was just happily walking around in the yard without even seeming to notice what was going on!

While Grant took a nap, I made Dean's cake. One of the reasons I really like making two-layer cakes is that you can taste samples of it after taking it out of the oven.....you have to make the layers flat, you know??! Brynna came over and ate a piece, and Grant of course kept wanting more and more bites too. I hope he is not diabetic by the time he's three!

Anyway, later we went out to do a couple of errands, and Grant fell asleep in the car on the way home (which he doesn't do very often anymore). When he woke up around 4pm, we got in the car and headed straight for Texas Land and Cattle. Dean (like most guys) wanted a steak for his birthday dinner.....I will never understand boys and their extreme love of steak! Grant did okay for the first 20 minutes or so (and enjoyed playing with the crayons a little), but then his patience wore off. Once he was done eating his dinner, he wanted to be moving around. So we had to eat our meal really fast and rush out before Grant imploded on us. It was kind of disappointing to spend a lot on a meal and have to leave before you're ready, but I guess that's how it is with toddlers! The food wasn't that great, though....we'd never go back there again. And, we lost Grant's pacifier (and strap) in there too, so it was not the best experience!

We came home, put Grant to bed before too long, and ate some yummy chocolate cake. Then Dean and I watched "3:10 to Yuma." It was a really good movie.....we recommend it!

New Appliances

Soon after we moved into our house (built in 1995), we realized that the appliances would be in need of updating fairly soon. The stovetop/oven was fine, but the dishwasher and microwave were getting pretty outdated! We had replaced our dishwasher before we moved out of our old house, and we got a great GE for less than $400. In our new house, I was getting tired of rewashing a lot of bowls that didn't look so great after going through the first wash.

So we went ahead and replaced the dishwasher, microwave, and oven....we wanted to switch from white to black (to match our refrigerator) so we ended up replacing the oven too. I think the black looks good in our kitchen....we thought about getting stainless steel, but it was quite a bit more expensive. I'd also love to replace the countertops and backsplash too, but that will have to wait a couple more years! Here are some before and after pictures.