A few of Grant's favorites

At (almost) two and a half years:

Favorite Foods: cheese, graham crackers, peanut butter, cottage cheese (for such a picky eater, we think it's crazy that he's so wild about cottage cheese....he eats bowlfuls of it!), grapes, anything made out of chocolate.

Favorite Toys: all of his Lightning McQueen cars (and other racecars from CARS, the movie); his tricycle (he calls it his motorcycle); his sand/water table in the backyard; his Little People garage.

Favorite Movie: Of course, CARS. We try to introduce new movies but he's not too interested. Today Dean watched Ratatouille with him (we had it recorded on our DVR), and a few minutes into it, he told Dean, "I don't like this movie. It's a little scary."

Favorite TV Shows: At the moment, he really likes Curious George and Handy Manny. He also still likes Little Einsteins quite a bit.

Favorite Song: Jesus Loves Me. He will start singing it out of the blue and it's one of the sweetest things to me. He learned it at school and always asks for Dean to sing it to him before he goes to bed. He also likes Rock a Bye Baby.

Favorite Books: According to Dean (who puts Grant to bed), right now he likes Go Dog Go, The Runaway Bunny, and Bear Snores On (for anyone who doesn't have this book, it's one of our all-time favorites.....), among a few others. Unfortunately, he's not much into books right now, except a few at bedtime. He prefers to read books that he's familar with, so getting books from the library is no fun.....which is sad to me because there are so many I'd love to get! Hopefully he will outgrow this stage soon.....I think during the day he is just too busy to sit down and listen to me read a book to him.

Favorite activities: being outside.....he's always asking to go for a walk or to go out to the backyard. He plays with his sand table and workbench, pushes his lawnmower, and loves to swing and play with the water hose. This worries me a little because it's getting so hot outside already! He gets so bored inside, he doesn't like to do arts/crafts yet, and he doesn't do very well when we run errands. So I don't really know what we're going to do during the days this summer......

Favorite random objects: He absolutely LOVES batteries. He will just hold them in his hand and walk around the house with them, putting them into containers and taking them back out. He does the same with coins and screws. I have been throwing away any of these things when I see them, now.....especially because Drew is starting to crawl. YIKES!

Milestones this week

I've already talked about some of these.....here's a shot of Drew scooting his way across the floor towards a toy.
This week, Grant learned how to pedal on his tricycle the correct way. He was so proud of himself and tells us to watch him every time he does it. We just got the tricycle about a month ago (from Craigslist!), and I guess we should have bought it maybe more around 18 months to 2 years.....his legs are a little long for it. What he likes most about it is the trunk; he stores his cars and trains in it.
Drew's front two teeth are almost fully in now.....no more toothless grin!

Drew tends to scrunch up his nose like this when he's laughing....

He learned how to play the piano..... :)

And he does really well standing while holding onto something (although he can't really pull himself up on most furniture quite yet).
And here are a few pictures after getting back from a walk one afternoon. Grant and I had popsicles, so I gave one to Drew too. He loved chewing on it.....it was a perfect teething stick!


One more thing.....he has become really attached to mommy at some times. At church, he doesn't cry immediately when I leave, but then he gets tired and cries until I come and take him. And if there are other people at our house, he doesn't even usually like for me to get up and leave him to play on the floor! It's easy to get frustrated at things like this (after all, Grant was very similar), but I have to remember that ten years from now, I will yearn for the days when he wanted only mommy!

Brotherly bathtime

Last Saturday, Drew got promoted to the big boy bath with Grant! We tried bathing them together about 6 or 8 weeks ago (when Drew learned to sit up), but Grant wasn't too keen on sharing his bathtub at the time. Now he doesn't seem to care at all!

Sometimes they just ignore each other...........but we have to keep a close eye on Grant. He's always trying mischievous stuff, like squirting Drew with his squirt toy.....
.....trying to pick him up by the neck to drag him somewhere (where can he possibly be planning on taking him?).....

.....or trying to pour water on top of him......
A couple more......

Little crawler!

Drew has officially started crawling....since yesterday he's been scooting his little knees to propel himself a few feet forward. It's crazy how fast the transformation goes....less than two months ago he sat up for the first time! A few weeks ago, we knew the crawling was close, because he was getting himself up onto his hands and knees, rocking back and forth.

He has also started pulling himself up to stand, but the only place he's done it without any help so far was in his crib a few nights ago. I'd laid him down and was about to leave when he started crying, and thankfully I stayed to watch what he'd do. Sure enough, he grabbed onto the rail and stood right up! So we lowered the crib mattress one more level.....now it's almost to the bottom. I'm thankful that God gives you a sense that something might not be quite right.....I can't imagine if I had walked out of the room and he had somersaulted out of his crib!

Also today, Drew sat in the shopping cart for the first time. We would've done it earlier, except usually Grant is with us and he sits in the shopping cart (while Drew is in the Baby Bjorn). We went to Target today after dropping Grant at school, and he held on tight to the sides of the cart for the first few minutes....he looked so tiny in it!

This afternoon was rough; after picking Grant up from school, he ran away from me while I stopped to drop off picture money. It makes me feel like a bad parent.....I really need to train him to stay by my side when I tell him not to walk off. Most of the time (at home and when we're out), he just totally ignores me and does whatever he wants. That's a whole other story!! Anyway, then this afternoon was just bad.....Grant spent a lot of time in his room for hitting Drew, and yelling at both me and Drew.

But tonight was so much fun.....things always get so much better when Dean gets home! The boys actually had a screaming volley.....Drew will just randomly let out a high-pitched yell. One time, Grant repeated him. So Drew did it again, and they went back and forth, while staring at each other, for about a minute. It was so funny, because even though Drew was expecting Grant to do it each time, he still flinched every time (Grant is much louder than he is!). It was a fun moment and helped to make up for the frustrating afternoon we had!

Hopefully some more pictures soon!

Stinker story

About a month ago (just before we left for Alabama), Dean was working really long hours. One Saturday while Dean was at work, I took the boys to the Friendswood city park. I had a Coke Zero that was probably a quarter full when we got out of the car. Grant LOVES Diet Coke! So he saw my drink and said, "Mommy hold it. I just take a sip." (He always wants to hold it himself and I'll often tell him he can have a sip if I hold it.) So he found a picnic table, sat down, and said, "Mommy sit here," patting the bench. Then he told me to lay down my drink on the table. I was in a good mood, so I did it, curious about what he would do. He proceeded to drink every last drop of that Coke. Then.....he handed it back to me, saying, "now it's your turn" as he turned and walked away. That little stinker! Sometimes I feel like he is my puppetmaster (and I think he would agree!).



At one point, Grant went over to play in an area with sand, so I set Drew down too. Of course he was fascinated by it and kept trying to put it in his mouth. He hardly made a peep....he was just so interested in that stuff.Before we left, it started sprinkling a little bit. Grant and another little girl were playing on the playground equipment, and I told Grant to be careful because it was a little slippery. Just after that, the little girl had a little slip. Grant kept telling her after that, "Be careful. You might slip." I thought that was a very gentlemanly thing to do!