A first

Grant was sick with a high fever yesterday (it was over 104 when he woke up from his nap), so I took him to the doctor this morning. He didn't have a fever when he woke up today, so I almost canceled....but we went anyway. And of course, the nurse practitioner couldn't find anything during her exam that would indicate anything other than a virus. I knew this would happen! It's frustrating to get the boys ready and make a trip to the doctor's office, all to be told, "just keep an eye on him, give him plenty of fluids," on and on. But I guess it's better to be safe than sorry....and 104 is awfully high.

Afterward we drove up to the Daltile showroom to look at tile possibilities for our backsplash. We have birch-colored cabinets and (now) black galaxy countertops.....so I really want to go with a backsplash that "pops" (to use HGTV-speak!). The lady was really helpful and found one that I think will be perfect! It's a glass mosaic that has some black, gold, and other colors....it sparkles and I think it'll look amazing. We're waiting for a sample to be sure.

So.....the lady was really busy, and she ended up helping lots of other people before she came back to answer my questions. In the meantime, the boys were actually being really good in their stroller.....I was amazed! I gave Grant some tile samples to play with, and Drew ate some Teddy Grahams before I finally picked him up. When the lady finally came back to help me, we talked for about 10 minutes. At the end, she looked at the boys and said, "your kids are amazing!" That was definitely the first time my kids have been complimented on good behavior in a store....most trips inside a store end with me leaving in embarassment to give Grant a spanking in the car (well, not literally "most" times, but a lot of times!). I guess there's a first time for everything!

Mr. Feisty

Some pictures of Drew being silly, followed by a lot of things I've been thinking about in the past couple of days. Warning....it's a little long but I am going to try to start using the blog as my scrapbook/journal about the kids. And Drew is changing so much right now that there are so many things I'm wanting to chronicle for posterity (I am so bad at remembering what he was like even 3 months ago.....I'll read a previous blog entry and think, "I don't remember him doing that at all!").



Drew is such a silly, feisty little guy these days. I love the 9-month mark....it has to be just about my favorite age. He loves to laugh and play games (he'll initiate peek-a-boo in his own way, by pulling objects in front of his face, then lowering them so he can see you), but he's not quite old enough to get really upset when things don't go his way (although I can tell he's getting close!). He is very independent, though.....except for applesauce last night, I can't remember any time in the past couple of weeks that he's allowed me to spoon-feed him anything. And when we read books before naptime and bedtime, he wants to turn the pages and be in control of what he looks at. He's not interested in books that are just words and pictures....he wants to be lifting flaps or feeling textures (he especially loves the mirrors on his Peek-A-Zoo book). If I try to read a book that doesn't have these things, he'll look at the first page and shove it to the side with his hand!

He's discovered the toilet and will stick his hands all over it (and probably inside) if you don't close the lid quickly enough! And he loves spinning the toilet paper and getting it all over the floor. He also explores everything now.....if I open the refrigerator or dishwasher, he'll crawl over and start pulling things out. He also does this in the pantry, kitchen cupboards, and the toy bins in our living room. He's definitely in the "let's pull everything out, bang things together and make a huge mess" stage.

In the past week or so, he has discovered the joy of splashing in the bathtub. He gets in, sits down, and just splashes away! We try to tell Grant not to splash in the tub, but it's hard telling him no while we let Drew do it. Drew has also become quite brave in the tub, crawling from one side to the other in no time. The past two nights, he's had little accidents where he's ended up swallowing water. Hopefully they've taught him to be a little more careful!

And....in the span of about a week, he's pretty much completely lost interest in breastfeeding. Now he doesn't even want it in the mornings or at bedtime....so strange how it seems like it happened overnight! This wouldn't be a huge problem (I don't feel like I'm making much now anyway), except for the fact that he doesn't like formula! And it's too early to start him on cow's milk. Hmm....not sure what to do about this because the nurse told me that he should be drinking 20 oz. of formula or breastmilk every day. Tonight he simply refused to breastfeed.....we read a couple of stories, then he kept pushing me away when I laid him down to eat! So I laid him in his bed and he just shimmied around for a few minutes until he got comfortable, then he fell asleep! This is a really strange sight for me, because just a few months ago he was crying like crazy when I'd leave his room. It's a relief to see that he is capable of just laying down and falling asleep on his own (with the help of his little green blanky).

Long time, no blog.....

The past ten days I just haven't felt inspired enough to get on the computer and write! I've been checking emails and that's about it! We had our granite installed.....it looks good (although I think it's going to take me a while to learn how to properly clean it!). We still need to pick out a backsplash, though, so I won't post pictures until it's all done.

Then the paint contractors were here.....they added texture to our bathroom walls, and now we're in the middle of painting it. Projects take a long time when you only have evening hours (after the kids are in bed) to work on them!

And....Nana and Papa were here over 4th of July weekend. We had a lot of fun with them, and they were a big help in getting things done around the house. They left on Tuesday, and I've been sick since then. It's like I have a bad cold, but also with flu-like symptoms.....fever, achiness, chills.....very strange. Dean stayed home yesterday (Friday) to help with the boys, so he's been able to watch them for long stretches when I'm not feeling well.

But I have some news about Grant......he went pee pee in the potty tonight! That is a big step for him! Until this point, he has shown very little interest in going to the bathroom in the toilet. But tonight, he got out of the bath and was having naked time (one of his favorite times of the day.....he runs around acting silly and yelling, "naked boy!" and "naked time!"). Tonight, he ran back into his bathroom and said he wanted to go potty in the toilet. He stood there a second but didn't go. So he ran off again, and a minute later he came back, holding himself and saying he wanted to go potty. He stood on the stool and went pee pee! We were so proud of him (even though he wasn't very accurate, so our toilet needs a thorough cleaning!), and you could tell that he was proud of himself too.

Otherwise, it was a hard day with Grant.....so this was a good way to end it! Hopefully he'll keep wanting to try it!

Train trip

Last Saturday we took a fun, random trip up to town. Houston has a light rail system that runs probably a four mile stretch, where it passes Reliant Stadium, the medical center, Herrman Park, and ends up in downtown. Grant loves seeing these trains, so we thought he might have fun riding on them. We're always looking for fun, cheap things to do! Here we're getting on the train at the place where we parked our car:

Drew enjoyed sitting and crawling around on the seat in the train. Grant wanted to sit on Daddy's lap and was a little bit apprehensive!


First we rode up to Herrman Park. We hadn't really planned on stopping there (we couldn't have picked a hotter day.....it felt awful outside!). But Grant was a little apprehensive on the train at first, and he wanted to get out for a while. Here's Drew in his stroller at Herrman Park; poor thing, he gets absolutely worn out by the heat. We were probably only there for 30 minutes, and he was exhausted and red-faced!
Waiting for the train to come back:
We had planned on going farther north (towards downtown), but the boys were both tired by then. So we just headed back down and stopped at the Medical Center. Dean and I saw this awesome model train display years ago, when my Uncle Dan was getting cancer treatments at MD Anderson. This train is actually at Texas Childrens' Hospital.....Dean and I remembered it and we thought Grant would love it. He did! It's amazing and has so much detail.....I could have stood there for an hour looking at it. Drew didn't pay too much notice to the trains.....he was busy eating his cheerios!

And most of all, it made me so thankful to have healthy children. We saw a couple of patients who had been brought from their rooms to see the train, and I imagine it brings so much joy to them. As a parent, though, I imagine my heart would be so heavy with the thought of having a sick child, and I know it would be hard to truly enjoy things like this. It was such a relief knowing that we could leave and go home with very few cares in the world. Helps keep things in perspective a little bit!

Our family of many talents

Drew is learning to copy things we do, on cue. He loves sticking his tongue out (usually to the side), and will do it almost instantly when Dean sticks his out first. Here's a picture I took on Saturday of all of them......Grant's joining in on the fun too! Dean probably won't be too pleased to see that I posted this picture of him!
Some more silly tongue pictures.....



And one that doesn't really go with the rest of them, but I thought it was cute anyway!

Our countertops are in! It was a stressful start to the morning because Grant was fussing about one thing after another, but the boys and I made a trip to Randalls (where I indulged myself with a $4.28 white chocolate mocha.....I figured I deserved it, and it was worth it!), then the granite guys came shortly after. We spent most of the day upstairs....Grant actually was kind of spooked by the loud noises they were making as they demolished our old countertops. So he watched them working outside from our bedroom window, but never tried to help them in any way! We love the way it looks....we still need to pick out the backsplash, so we're not completely done yet. I will definitely post pictures when it's finished.

Tomorrow the painters are coming, and Nana and Papa are coming too!