Grant's 2nd Birthday!!

Today is Grant's second birthday! It hardly seems possible to me! He's acting like such a big boy lately and picking up on so many things that we do. Last night I casually asked Dean if he knew where the remote control was. A second later, Grant ran behind the couch, then came back around with the remote! He handed it to Dean and said, "thank you!" And also last night, he started putting his toys away and said "pick up." This was without me even asking him! I think he's learned this at school and thinks we'll be impressed when he does it here.

Every day there are so many things Grant does and says that make me puzzled because I don't remember teaching them to him! It's so funny having a conversation with him these days; he knows what certain words are supposed to sound like, but sometimes stumbles when he tries to put multiple words together. The other day we were watching penguins on tv and he tried about a dozen times before he said "funny birds" successfully! But he is always putting together words into phrases.....you can tell that his little brain is working nonstop!

A few of Grant's favorite things at two years:

Favorite foods: cheese (as always!), milk, goldfish, cereal bars, macaroni and cheese, toast and cream cheese, pineapple, scrambled eggs, any/all types of sweets!! Notice that there are no veggies and very few fruits on this list. He hardly ever will try anything that he's not familiar with; we definitely have a picky eater!

Favorite toys: at the moment, his new "Cars" helicopter and race car that we bought him yesterday at Toys R Us (with birthday money from Great-Grandma). Really, he loves all of his choo-choos, cars and other transportation vehicles.

Favorite activities/games: Playing "chase Grant" with Daddy; playing hide and seek with Daddy (he finally likes to be the seeker!); playing outside; feeding the outside kitty; going to school; watching planes and helicopters fly above our house; playing with Daddy's tools and helping Dean with pretty much everything. Can you tell that he likes his Daddy a lot right now??!

Favorite TV Shows: I'd say now it's a tie between Super Why and Little Einsteins. He's never been able to sit and watch TV for longer than about 10 minutes, even when watching Super Why. But in the past few weeks, we've noticed him being drawn a lot more to the TV, where he'll sit and watch almost any cartoon for a while. I don't want to make this a habit!

I look at my big boy and can't believe how he's turned from a baby into such a funny, sweet little kid. Everyone says how quickly it happens and I can now attest to that!

My sweet boys

Here are some recent pictures of my little guys. First, a few of Grant and Drew together. I have been so (pleasantly) surprised by how much Grant likes his little brother. He definitely has his nasty moments, but many times he asks for Drew to lay down next to him, and he likes to hug him and hold his hand. And if Drew is crying (which happens a lot more now than before....he is becoming quite a fussy little guy sometimes!), Grant acts concerned and will bring him a blanket or paci. It's really sweet.
We have had such wonderful weather the past few weeks, and we've been out in our backyard for hours on some days. This little bulldozer was left by the previous owners, and Grant puts his farmer toy into it and wheels it around.
He also LOVES to help Daddy these days, and is fanatical about tools! He "helped" Dean fix the remainder of our fence last weekend, and this weekend he helped Dean make a little house for our outside kitty. Any time he sets sight on Dean's toolbag, he starts begging for a tool and won't give up until we give him something to play with. We really need to give him some of his own tools, but I'm afraid he will know they're not real and that he'll refuse to play with them!

Here Grant is being a good helper and bringing old fence pieces into the backyard. He was so proud of himself for helping!
A cute picture of Drew. He's seven weeks old now and isn't quite the easy baby he was for the first month! He doesn't sleep as soundly as Grant did, and he doesn't like to be set down in his bouncy chair or swing if he's even remotely tired. But if I lay him down on his belly, he'll instantly stop fussing and usually go to sleep within a couple of minutes. He has given me quite a few little smiles, but I haven't caught any on camera yet.....they still come and go very quickly!

Halloween

I am perpetually about a week (or more) behind with uploading pictures! Here are some pictures from Halloween. Grant dressed up as Superman and Drew was a horse (I found this little onesie at a resale shop before he was born and thought it would pass for a costume!).Look at the little tail!
A few weeks ago, Grant tried on his Superman costume and thought he was pretty cool! It's funny, though....he thought he was dressed up as Super Why (from one of his favorite TV shows). I guess he doesn't know about Superman yet, and the closest thing he knows is Super Why!

With his friend Graham at our church's fall festival:
Grant had fun at the fall festival. We thought about taking him trick-or-treating, and I think he might have understood the concept after going to a few houses. But we ran out of time and just went up to our church instead. Next year I know he'll love doing trick-or-treating!

My little monkey

Some recent pictures of Drew:

And speaking of monkeys....

Last night Dean brought Grant upstairs to give him a bath. He was getting the bath ready (while Grant was running around), and he yelled out to Grant that he needed to change his diaper. A minute later, he walked out of the bathroom to find Grant and couldn't find him anywhere. When he walked into his room, there was Grant, laying ON TOP of his changing table, just waiting to be changed! We still have no idea how he climbed up there. Like a typical boy, he is always trying to climb higher and higher on top of things!

Happy Late Birthday, Aunt Corie!

We hope you liked your card! Love, Grant and Drew