LONG week

Dean is still at work, at almost 9pm on Saturday night. He got in at 1am this morning and had to be back up there at 8am. Poor thing....since last Saturday, he has only been home before Grant's bedtime one day (Thursday). And the night before that, he got in at 2:50am! Wow! It's been hard on both of us.....I am extremely tired right now (due to the pregnancy), so taking care of Grant all day, with no breaks or help, has been so exhausting. Thankfully the past couple of days he's taken really good naps in the afternoon, so I've been able to lay on the couch and rest too. A lot of chores aren't getting done, but I guess those can wait!

A couple of funny things happened on Thursday that I wanted to share before I forget. Like I'm sure most 15 month old boys, Grant has been incredibly mischievous lately (Leah used the same word to describe Evan on her blog and I had been thinking the exact same word to describe Grant!). Thursday morning was really nice and warm, but I knew a cold front was coming that afternoon. So I let Grant play outside in the backyard for over an hour that morning, as I came in and out and tried to get a few things done in the house and garage. Well, we have an old kitty litter box that Dean had washed out and laid face-down (thankfully) on the edge of the porch. While we were out there, it had started raining a bit, off and on. I walked outside one time to find Grant with his face pressed into the litter box, licking the water that had gathered on the top! Yuck!! Like I said, at least it was face-down.

Anyway, a while later, we had come inside and eaten lunch, and I was trying to do a load of laundry. So while Grant was playing in the living room, I was moving clothes into the dryer and thought I heard the fireplace door open. I walked out and saw Grant covered in soot, holding a fake piece of firewood (which he promptly reached out his hand to give to me as I came closer, as he does most of the time when he's caught red-handed with something he's not supposed to have!). The soot (is this the right word when you have a gas fireplace?) was all over his outfit and his hands, and then he started stepping on pieces of it that had fallen onto the floor. What a mess! That stuff is hard to clean up too.....but what can I say? It was really our fault for not tying up the doors so he couldn't go in them.

Some pictures

I don't have the pictures of our trip to town yesterday, but here are a few recent ones. We've started getting crayons out for Grant to play with. He is getting better about "coloring," but he still pretty much just likes to carry the crayons around (and has tried to eat them a few times!). He doesn't have much patience yet for sitting in the chair and coloring in his books. But one day after Dean came home, they sat together and Dean enjoyed some therapeutic coloring book time too (it IS a lot of fun, especially when you haven't done it in 10 or 15 years!).
Grant making his fish face at Dean:

Practicing eating his oatmeal the other morning. He's getting better and better at holding the spoon with his fist, instead of just stabbing the food with it.
Sometimes it's just easier to do it the old-fashioned way!
Trying on some $1 finds from Target: a cool pair of sunglasses (these stay on his face for about 3 seconds before he takes them off) and some bunny ears for Easter (same goes for these!).

I made Rice Krispie treats the other day, and Grant enjoyed licking the spoon after I was done! Yummy!

Our baby this week- 9 weeks (a grape!)

Well, I'll be 10 weeks in just a couple of days, but this description of a 9-week fetus was amazing to me, so I had to post it. It seems like we just found out that we were pregnant, and look how much the baby has progressed in such a short time. Every time I read these, I am in awe of how a tiny group of cells forms so quickly into a baby. God truly does knit us together in the womb....what a miracle! I get these weekly emails from babycenter.com, and I'll probably post them for the grandparents who are interested in knowing how the baby is growing!

How your baby's growing:

Your new resident is nearly an inch long — about the size of a grape — and weighs just a fraction of an ounce. She's starting to look more and more human. Her essential body parts are accounted for, though they'll go through plenty of fine-tuning in the coming months. Other changes abound: Your baby's heart finishes dividing into four chambers, and the valves start to form — as do her tiny teeth. The embryonic "tail" is completely gone. Your baby's organs, muscles, and nerves are kicking into gear. The external sex organs are there but won't be distinguishable as male or female for another few weeks. Her eyes are fully formed, but her eyelids are fused shut and won't open until 27 weeks. She has tiny earlobes, and her mouth, nose, and nostrils are more distinct. The placenta is developed enough now to take over most of the critical job of producing hormones. Now that your baby's basic physiology is in place, she's poised for rapid weight gain.

SIngle mom this week....and Election Day!

Dean has been working some CRAZY hours these past five days.....you'd think he's an auditor in the middle of busy season! He was called up to the plant on Saturday at noon, and also ended up going on Sunday (both for about 6 hours). Monday, Tuesday and tonight he's gotten home later and later....Monday he left work at 8pm, last night it was 9pm, and he thinks it'll be more like 10pm tonight. He asked me last night how it felt being a single parent!

Grant has actually been doing okay the past few days.....he hasn't gone down for naps incredibly easily, but he's only cried for 20, then 10 minutes for his afternoon nap. Today we actually went up into town. I LOVE doing that! I miss living up there so badly, and it's really fun to make the drive and explore some places that we don't visit every day. I was thinking today that I'm going to try to go once a week. Today was beautiful, so we played outside for an hour at the Allen Pkwy park (near downtown), then we went shopping for a couple of hours and ate dinner at Hermann Park (where Dean and I got engaged.....another favorite spot). Grant, of course, loves being outside.....he just runs around the entire time! I will post some pictures once I get them uploaded to the computer.

Also.....I proudly voted for Hillary yesterday!! I'm not using the term "proudly" to mean that I like her AT ALL (anyone who knows me knows this!), but I joined the ranks of republicans who switched over in the primary to vote on the Democratic ticket in order to throw a wrench in Democrats' strategy. My dad completely disagreed with that line of thinking, and thought it was best to vote for Obama and get rid of Hillary while she's vulnerable. That is a valid point, but I think I'm honestly more afraid of Obama than I am Hillary. His cult following these past few weeks has been shocking....how can so many people blindly follow a man who they know NOTHING about!? If you ask 95% of his followers to name one thing he's done, I don't think they could do it. Scary.

So anyway, apparently Hillary's big win last night had the desired effect of messing everything up for the democrats for now, which makes me happy!

Some random recent pictures

Daddy and Grant sitting on the couch. Grant doesn't sit and watch TV for long.....I think he was sitting there for maybe 10 seconds before wanting to be on the move again!Trying out the spoon! At Grant's 15 month checkup, his doctor told me to start letting him feed himself with a spoon (I don't tend to do this because it gets messy!). But he enjoys it, and he's getting better. I got the idea from Leah last weekend to give him oatmeal in the mornings, and he really likes that (esp made with milk). This morning he got so excited when he saw me get it out of the microwave! I'm trying to teach him how to grab it with his fist, because right now he's just trying to poke at the food, and nothing sticks on the spoon.
Playing with his pull-along puppy. He likes pulling this little doggie around, and I think it's just about the cutest thing.
Usually when he pulls it, though, the doggy looks more like this (it doesn't stay on its feet for long, but Grant doesn't care).

These past couple of days have been rough. Apparently Grant's stretch of easily going down for naps is over! The past few days he's cried and cried in his crib before finally going to sleep (and after I've made a trip or two back up to his room). Yesterday, I was determined to go back in his room, hand him his pacifier and leave. But poor thing, he just looked so pathetic and miserable after crying for 20 minutes, and I just couldn't bear to turn around and leave him. So I picked him up and rocked him again, and he never went to sleep. By then it was almost 4pm anyway, so I just decided to keep him awake. We (meaning Dean) put him to bed pretty early. He was almost falling asleep in his highchair at dinner!

Sometimes I just don't know what I'm going to do with another one. Grant has been, in many ways, a very tough baby. I love him to death and I can't imagine life without him, but sometimes I get so frustrated! And it's easy for me to feel selfish and sorry for myself, especially on days like yesterday when I don't have any real time to myself. I try to remember that 20 years from now, I'll wish I could do this all over again. That does help to put things into perspective a little, but then I think of all the moms whose babies take regular naps and who DO get some alone time during the day. And I get frustrated and selfish again! Aahh!

Okay, that's the end of my ranting. Today I was able to leave Grant with Dean in the morning, and I went to our church to work at a baby/children's bargain sale. It was a lot of fun, and I found a couple of fun toys for Grant (including this little tunnel that they have at the library but he's always been a little scared to go in). All the other kids love the tunnel, so I'm hoping he will too once he gets a little older.

Then I went over to the mall for a while, but Dean called and said he needed me home immediately because there are problems at the plant. So he's there now, and Grant and I are here by ourselves for the afternoon. And this is a little blessing that I had to thank God for: I took Grant up for a nap at 2pm, dreading a repeat of yesterday. While I was reading him a story (only the 3rd one), I looked down and he was asleep! That never happens anymore!