Happy Birthday, Nana!!

We love you!!!

Bubbles!

Last week, Grant woke up from his nap with a dirty diaper. Unfortunately, he didn't have any shorts on, and he figured out how to stick his hands into his diaper. Yuck! When I went to get him out of his crib, there was poopy all over his hands (including in his fingernails) and on his sheet!

So we went into his bathroom and I filled up the sink with a ton of soap. I put his hands in there and scrubbed them for a little while, and he loved it! He stood there and played with those bubbles for 20 minutes or more. This was the first time he said "bubble" and he said it over and over again. He made a huge mess but it was actually really easy to clean up with a towel. It's fun to find things like this that make days more interesting.....so many days we get so bored being here at home all day, especially when we can only go outside early in the morning or after 6pm!

20 Months!

It is extremely hard to believe, but Grant is 20 months old today! He is sleeping extra early this morning (it's 8am as I'm starting this), so hopefully I will be able to get this typed, and then I can lay down during his nap this afternoon!

The past couple of weeks, it seems like Grant has been changing and doing new things so quickly. The other day, I noticed that when I talk to him, I fully expect that he understands most of what I say. And I've noticed that I don't talk to him as much like a baby anymore....maybe because he has become so much more communicative recently. Just in the past 20 days or so, he'll point to objects and say what they are without even being prompted (and many of those words we haven't even taught him yet!). Some of his newest words are:

bubble
Elmo ("memmo")
sock
baby
watch
Drew (sounds like "goo")
shower
fish
Eeyore ("eo")
sausage ("saus")
tool
soap
milk ("meo")
phone
bear
brush
toes
bug

Like I said, many of these he has picked up and said without us specifically teaching them to him. He is so proud of himself when he points to something and says the word (especially when he sees how proud we are of him). As soon as he wakes up in the morning, he is pointing to things and saying what they are!

Some other things he's been doing:

- He says "please" whenever he wants anything. For example, he'll point to the door if he wants to go outside, or he'll point to the vacuum if he wants us to vacuum with him, and say "peas." He especially does this with things he doesn't get to do very often (almost like he thinks he'll get it if he asks nicely!).

- I got this idea from Leah: Grant had a big problem with throwing his food when he didn't want anymore, so we started putting his highchair up against a wall (for time-out) when he did that. He's gotten SO much better! He rarely throws his food anymore. Now when he's done, he reaches for the side of his booster seat and says "down." What an improvement!!

- He knows where Dean keeps his cell phone.....in one of the pockets of his shorts. Grant will start reaching into his shorts, saying "phone" over and over again!

- If I'm sitting on the floor and he wants me to come to a different room with him, he will physically try to pick me up to drag me where he wants to go!

- He's taken a few showers with me recently, especially after coming in from playing in the backyard. He sees the way I put my shampoo on, and now any time he grabs something that looks like a shampoo bottle, he'll act like he's pouring it into his hands, then he acts like he's rubbing it into his hair! So cute!!!

- He loves to stack blocks, bubble containers and other things.

- He loves watching Dean bounce rubber balls on the tile. Dean gets really silly and bounces them under his legs, off the wall, etc. Grant laughs and laughs! Now he has started bringing the balls to us when he wants us to bounce them (although I'm not nearly as entertaining as Daddy!).

- A couple nights ago, we were in the backyard and he took the water hose over to the sprinkler and tried to attach it! He's trying to copy a lot of little things that he sees us do.

- He LOVES tools! Dean's had his toolbag out a lot lately for all the projects we've been doing. As soon as he sees that green toolbag, Grant walks over to it and says "tools" until we give him something inside to play with. Then he walks around with whatever we've given him, saying "tools" over and over again and showing us what he has!

- When we see bugs, he points and says "bug" and also has started to say "ew," because he hears me say it. It's funny how little kids have no fear (or maybe just boys).....a couple of times he's seen bugs walking on the floor, and he'll bend down and just pick them up!

- When he hears other people clapping, he looks up and immediately starts clapping too.

- He says "mama" and "dada" a lot now, which he actually hasn't done much before now! Last night I went to meet Megan in town, and Dean said he kept going to the front door asking for Mama. And before he went to bed, he kept saying it again. When Dean's at work, he'll go to the door and ask for Dada quite a bit too.

- Last night when Dean was bathing Grant, he was sure that Grant said "more bubbles." That would be his first two word phrase! We've been giving him bubble baths lately, which he loves!!! It makes bathtime much more fun. I don't know why we haven't done that before!

Dean just went back to work today after a long weekend at home. He took his first two official vacation days all year.....he has been working like crazy! So he deserved a couple of days off. Unfortunately, he probably feels like every time he's home, there are a million projects for him to work on! There are so many little things we need to get done before Drew comes, so every weekend Dean has been working on something......painting rooms (we've done three upstairs rooms and have the nursery left to go), putting together furniture (Grant's toddler bed and new dresser), and hanging drapes (in the guest room). He's really a good sport, though....he is always willing to work on my to-do list, even when he would much rather rest! I know this might change when football season starts, though.....so I need to take advantage of his willingness while I can!

Here are some pictures of our bedroom and study. I don't have a picture of the guest room yet. We love the colors we chose and we think it makes the rooms feel much warmer. Yesterday, we finished tearing down the border in Grant's room (the nursery), so all we have left to do is paint in there.
This green appears a little bit more pastel than it actually is....
Here's a belly picture from a couple of days ago. Most people still say that I don't look like I'm 28 weeks pregnant. I guess that's good....but I have gained about 30 pounds already. Yikes!!! It's sad when you don't even weigh 10 pounds less than your husband!
Here's a picture we took of Grant yesterday. He was SO proud of himself here.....he loves to try to stack blocks (and anything else he can find!). Yesterday morning we were getting ready to go to Galveston, and Grant ran into our room, wanting us to come back with him and look at what he did. He's able to stack about 5 or 6 of these clear blocks on top of each other, but this time he got creative and put one of his stacking cups on top! The only bad thing is that he gets VERY frustrated when the blocks fall while he's stacking them. We're trying to teach him that it's okay, and to just try again. When he's really proud of himself, he'll point to it and smile over and over again!

Grant doesn't like watching TV very much at all. Early in my pregnancy, I would have loved for him to lay on the couch with me and watch a cartoon for 30 minutes! But no, he will rarely watch something for more than just a few minutes. He just wants to be running around and playing, and doesn't have the patience for TV.

Well, we've finally found something that he LOVES to watch! This started a few weeks ago. Whenever a freecreditreport.com commercial comes on (the ones where the 20-something guy plays his guitar with his two sidekick friends), Grant stops dead in his tracks, runs to the TV and stares at it until it's over. Sometimes he dances to the song, but more often he just watches it, mesmerized. We have rewind/record capability with our cable, so about a week ago I asked if he wanted to see it again after it ended. He watched it probably 12 times or so, over and over again! So now whenever one of these commercials comes on, he runs to the TV to watch it. Then as soon as it finishes (or sometimes before it's even over), he turns to us, points to the TV, and says "watch," meaning he wants to watch it again!

The one we've seen the most lately is the one where the guy is stuck working in a seafood restaurant because a hacker stole his identity.....needless to say, Dean and I have all of the words memorized! I don't think I've ever seen one commercial so many times! We'll also notice that the song is playing OVER AND OVER in our heads, hours after we've watched it. They're very catchy tunes.....it's definitely a good advertising campaign!