Grant's Adventures

Grant will officially be on a soccer team called "The Fury".  I am not sure why it can't be a simple animal name like the tigers, bears, etc.  He can barely say the word Fury, lol!  Oh well.  Go Fury!  We will have practice every Thursday night and games every Saturday morning now.  This should be interesting and fun.

I took Grant to Build A Bear this weekend.  (Thanks Keri for the great idea)  I will start by saying whoever created this chain is a genius and VERY rich!  I was shocked how many children were in there.  The place was packed full and I challenge anyone to try and get out of that store without spending at least $50.  First, you pick out your animal (bears, dogs, cats, frogs, monkeys, etc.).  Grant picked a cat.  We were waiting in line and the little girl in front of us, who was around 7 years old, went to get her animal stuffed.  The lady asked her how she spelled her name and she spelled it.  They write your name on the tag of the animal.  So, Grant is listening and when it was his turn...he just walked up and said "I am Gwant (Grant), G.R.A.N.T".  She got a laugh out of that.  So, he then got his cat stuffed.  You can see the stuffing rolling around behind a plexi-glass container.  He was terrified that his cat was going to be put inside the container but we assured him that would not happen.  Grant then picked out a heart for his cat, made a wish and put it inside (very cute) before it is sewed up.  We then went to "bathe" the cat, which is just air coming out of a tube and Grant brushed his cat.  Now, the expensive part comes....accessories!  There are tons of accessories at this place and you cannot get just one thing!  Grant's cat is very tacky!  He picked Lightening McQueeen Cars pajamas, 4 sequined bows and a cell phone!  And he did pick out a bunny for Sloanie.  His cat has not left his side since he got it.  In fact, he woke me up at 5:30am this morning screaming "uh oh" and when I went in there to see what was wrong......he says "I can't find my cat's cell phone!".  It was under his covers, ugh!  I found it and he went back to sleep until 7:30am thank goodness.  Crazy child!

The word of the week is "Never!".  If we tell him not to do something, like "Don't take that away from Sloan".  He will say "No, Don't do that. Never!"

Stuffing the cat

 Cleaning the cat

 Finished product

 He demanded to carry the box which is as big as he is!

 Tacky kitty! Bows for both ears and the tail!



Sloan 10 Months Old - Grant - Preschool and Soccer

Sloan is now 10 months old!  She is now pulling up on tons of stuff everyday and she will walk if you hold her hands.  However, she loves to be on her tip toes!  I am going to get her some shoes soon so hopefully that will make her flatten those little feet.  We are officially down to 1 bottle per day!  Woo hoo!  She still takes around 4-5oz of formula before bed each night.  The rest of the day is baby food and table food. She is drooling like crazy again so I think we may see some more teeth soon.  

Grant got into the preschool we have been wait listed on since January.  It is at our church and he has been going to their summer camps.  He loves it and they have an awesome program; great facilities, teachers, children, parents, etc, etc. I could have literally done a back flip when they called to tell me.  He will start after Labor Day. 

Grant is also going to start soccer in a few weeks.  I took him to get his cleats, socks, shin guards and practice ball this week.  The little cleats are so cute!  We don't have his jerseys yet but I had to take a picture of him. Let the games begin.....I am sure that will produce some funny stories!

I am trying to get Grant to agree on an alternate Halloween costume for Sloan but have failed so far.  I told him that she was going to be a flower or another animal maybe.  He didn't even look up and said "no, she is going to be a Dolphin"!  I have been searching high and low and cannot find a Dolphin costume.....only sharks.....not feminine at all!  We may be cutting the teeth off of a Shark to make this happen, lol! 

 Soccer time!

 All decked out in Carolina gear.....it is next to impossible to get 2 kids to smile at the same time!

Bathtime together and Halloween in August!

Well, I have officially created a monster with the iPad.  Grant thinks he should be on it all the time now!  It has been a great tool for good behavior though.  He will do almost anything to get his hands on it.  I had to explain this morning why I had to take it to work and not leave it at home for him to play with.  I am sure the novelty will wear off soon.

The pants - we were sitting at dinner last night and he stops eating, looks up and says "okay, sooooo where are my pants?" in a very serious tone.  I had taken them so they could be washed.  I told him that and he said "are they in the dryer now? I want to wear them".  It's only 90 degrees outside!

Grant now loves to take a bath with Sloan!  We were letting him take a bath in our big garden tub while we bathed Sloan in their bathroom.  But he refuses to do that now.  And she is finally big enough to handle it.  She loves to splash a lot and crawl around.  Her face actually went under once, oops, but she didn't breath in thank goodness.

I have had one huge success!  I found Grant a penguin costume, yay!  And he loves it!  Now, I am having a lot of trouble finding a Dolphin for Sloan and Grant is adamant that she will be only that.  

 Sloan screaming at him!

 This is what happens when both kids were asleep for 3 hours at the same time.  Ms Kasie, our nanny, got bored and organized the toys.  Waste of time but it was funny to see when I got home.

 The Penguin!  We still need to get some black pants to go underneath

Dog Tricks, New Technology and a wild baby girl!

Grant loves to make Mason do his tricks.  He has actually gotten pretty good at it now that Mason can actually understand what he is saying.  He can get him to sit, stand and roll over.  He still has to get us to help him to play dead.  He always has to give him 2 biscuits...not really sure why but Mason loves it!  Mason is also enjoying Sloan's new stage of throwing everything, namely food!  She now tosses all kinds of food on the floor.  So, Mason camps out right beside her at all times.  He has eaten a lot of puffs, goldfish, chunks of fruit, etc.  I am sure his digestive system is in shock and we do try to block him as often as possible.

One of Grant's favorite foods are the Pillsbury Crescent rolls and now Sloan loves them too.  She ate half of one tonight after she ate her dinner, little piggy! 

I downloaded some apps on my iPad for Grant.  It's my work iPad so he doesn't get set free with it.  I will say that there are some great apps out there that are pretty educational.  There is one where he has to trace the letters and it dings if he doesn't do it right and makes him start over.  It spells words and then says the letters, the word and shows a picture what the word is (i.e., OWL and then it shows a picture of an owl).  Like Rosetta Stone for kids, pretty cool.  He also loves the PBS Kids app that plays all of the shows.  I think he just likes being able to control it and switch the shows whenever he wants to.  He would stay on it all day if we let him but he is very limited at this point.  Amazing to see how fast he learned to swipe the screens, etc.

Sloan is just wild and into EVERYTHING!  She wants to do everything Grant does.  I see lots of fights in their future unfortunately.  I am not worried about her though.  She is tough and stands her ground.  She loves to scratch, grab and squeeze really hard.  And usually it is your face she tries to attack.  Her little nails are sharp and I am constantly cutting them.  I have a few battle wounds already.  She caught me in the cheek and on the forehead, lovely.

Stand Mason!

Our house is toy land! Only a little spoiled right!

 Eating some snacks

 Clapping!

 She really wanted to iPad and Grant was determine to not let her near it! Grant has learned that she cannot reach him on the couch so he stays up there with his stuff now, lol.

Cardiology Appt and Grant Commentary

I will post pictures soon but this one is just dialogue, sorry.

I took Sloan to a Pediatric Cardiologist this morning.  They heard a heart murmur at her 6 month and 9 month visit but thought it wasn't anything to worry about.  However, the pediatrician thought we should just get it checked out to be sure.  Good thing we have great insurance since I would hate to see the bill on this one.  She got an EKG and an Ultrasound of her heart.  Everything is completely normal and the doctor said the murmur will most likely disappear in the next couple of years.  After talking to my mom, it turns out that I had a heart murmur when I was a baby too.  Sloan did great for almost all of the tests.  They did her blood pressure on her arms and legs.  Her eyes got big when the cuffs got tight but she just laid there.  Then, they stuck about 15 or 20 pads with cords all over her chest and back for the EKG.  She just laid there playing with the cords.  I should have taken a picture but I thought it might be a little strange and it was kind of sad to see all of that stuff hooked up to her.  It definitely made me think how awful it would be to have a child with a major problem.  I truly cannot imagine.  By the time we got to the ultrasound, she was not having it and tried to crawl all over the table and would not sit still.  Even the TV with Barney playing, all kinds of toys and the techs singing wouldn't keep her still.  They finally got what they needed and all is well.  The doctor made an interesting note while we were there though....he said he thought that she was right handed.  We think so too.  She seems to favor that hand for most everything.  Grant never showed any preference at this age.

Other Sloan news....we are almost done with bottles.  We still offer her a bottle before her 10am and 2pm naps but 9 times out of 10 she doesn't drink anything.  She has also started to refuse her bottle before bed sometimes.  Her table food and juice intake has increased so I guess that is why.  I am loving this...no more bottles is coming very soon!  Her little cold has cleared up as well. 

Ahhhh and now come the Grant stories......

You don't realize how goofy you sound talking to a baby until you have a toddler repeating what you say!  Grant will look at Sloan and say (in a very high pitched voice) "hey sloanie, you're a pretty little girl!" or "I see your little teeth, yes I do" or "gonna getcha getcha getcha".  It is truly comical but Sloan just laughs.  She now tries to chase him in the hallway upstairs too.  He will run by her and she cracks up laughing and then starts crawling as fast as she can to get to him.  Then, he will fly by her again.

The phrase of the week is "I don't need help!".  He will say, "I need to go pee pee but I don't need help.  You stay right there and I will be right back ok". 

The concept of "Matching"....matching to a toddler is when the colors are the same.  So I tell Grant that his clothes have to match for school and I lay them out the night before so we don't have issues in the morning with this process.  However, he will throw a curve ball sometimes and get new shorts out of his drawer....and yes this can start a beautiful morning battle of the wills!  So, I picked out a navy blue shirt and khaki shorts one day.  He went back in his room and changed his shorts....he came out and said "mommy look blue and blue, I match" and was so proud.  He was one big blob of navy, ha ha.  I just said good job and let him be all blue for a day.  Afterall, he did "match"!

Car rides have gotten interesting with both of them.  Sloan now loves to throw everything.  She will pick something up and just toss it.  So Grant has become her retriever.  She tosses something across the car and he gives it back.  He also has little conversations with her in the backseat.  We went and ate out tonight and on the way there he says "sloanie, do you want a cheeseburger? No, you can't have a cheeseburger.  When you get bigger you can".  We are just laughing in the front seat listening to the commentary. 

Standing on her own and Conversations with Grant

Sloan has a cold unfortunately.  Grant had a runny nose and she obviously caught it.  He is fine now but she is a little snotty.  It is not bad at all so I am hoping it clears up soon.  Her ears look great so far and I have been checking them every couple of nights.  Love having an otoscope! 

She has a new skills this week.....she can pull herself to standing.  I have only seen it a couple of times when she is super motivated to get to something.  She is still not completely sturdy but she doesn't have much fear.  We put her in the swing outside and she LOVED it!  I remember putting Grant in it at this age and he cried at first and then liked it.  Little Sloan is such a risk taker that she was elated when I started swinging her.  And I can swing her much higher than Grant ever would go.

Grant does a tiger growl so much that now Sloan is growling.  He also whistles a lot and now she will blow like she is trying to whistle.  I definitely see how second children pick up things quicker with an older sibling constantly doing things around them.  Unless he is asleep, Grant is non-stop action!

Conversations with a 3 year old are a daily laugh!  Grant found a pair of pants in his closet from last winter.  It was the only pair that were long on him last year so I left them out for this winter.  He pulled them out and said "I want to wear these mommy please".  I tried to explain that it was way too hot right now to wear pants but he could wear them when it gets cold.  Of course, this did not work.  In fact, he looked at me and said "but you wear pants to work everyday".  Lovely huh.  Well, at that point I couldn't really argue and told him he could wear them inside but had to change to shorts to go outside.  He agreed.  He has been wearing them everyday for a few days now.  I am going to snatch them tomorrow to wash them so I am sure that won't go over well. 

His new word is "actually".  He uses it when making or expressing his decisions.  For example, I will say "do you want pretzels or buggles with your sandwich?".  To which he now replies, "I want Doritos actually".  Hilarious!

He informed me that he wanted to be a Penguin for Halloween this year, I assume from our recent aquarium visit.  Then he said that Sloan has to be a Dolphin!  I guess I better start shopping now since those aren't your typical costumes.  Although maybe he will change his mind before we get closer to that time.

So Luke typically cuts our grass every week and as you have seen in the pictures...Grant follows behind him.  The grass needed to be cut this week and I told Luke that I would cut it since he does it so much.  Grant looked at me and said "mommys can't cut grass, only daddys".  After that comment, I was definitely cutting the grass, ha ha!  It was not my first time but Grant was amazed that I was going to do it.  He then followed behind me.  Afterwards, he looked at me and said "you did a good job mommy".  Oh how the gender roles start early!

Grant tells her the shapes and where to put them.  She could obviously care less but loves to play with him!

 The pants!

 The remote is what she wants...not a toy of course!  The approach....

 Success in getting to the remote all by herself!

 Dropped it and now deciding how to get down.....she ended up just plopping down on her bottom

Sloan's 9 Month Stats and Grant ditches the pacifier!

Sloan had her 9 Month doctor's appointment today.  She is still quite petite.  She weighed 16lb 3oz (25th percentile) and she was 27 inches tall (30th percentile).  She got one shot to get her all caught up (it was a combo of DTaP, Polio and HiB).  They also pricked her big toe to check her iron which I don't remember them doing with Grant but I must have just forgotten.  Her levels were normal.

Grant gives me sooo much material to write about that I don't know where to start and stop, ha ha.  The biggest news is that he no longer needs a pacifier!  We have been talking about it every night for a week or so.  I would say "let's try to sleep without your pacifier tonight and you are big boy now and don't need it anymore".  And his response was always "no, I will do it tomorrow night".  But last night, his response changed and he said "okay, I will try it tonight.  Only babies need paci's mommy".  I just knew that he would be yelling for his pacifier later in the night but he didn't.  And tonight, he went right to bed without saying a word about it!  That was way too easy!

Whenever Grant refers to "yesterday", he will say "last morning" and we have no clue where that came from. 

He has learned how to tell a lie here lately too.  For an elaborate example, he was in the tub last night and saw Luke's scar on his elbow (from where he had surgery) and asked what it was.  Luke explained that it was a scar from a boo boo but that was not good enough.  He had to know exactly how it happened and what a scar was and what surgery was and on and on.  Luke explained to him that it was from playing basketball and the doctors had to cut out some scar tissue and it was all better.  Luke and I tag team on bath time and bedtime (and alternate kids each night usually).  So, I was putting Grant to bed and he started telling me that he "hurt his elbow today at school" and since I did not hear their previous conversation, I started asking how he hurt it.  He said he was "playing basketball and had to have surgery to cut it out".  It was a very elaborate story and Luke walked in and heard him and busted out laughing.  Grant then started laughing too. Crazy boy!

Grant also has either an imaginary friend or there is a kid at school that I cannot find.  He has started to talk about "Michael" and will make lion noises and say "Michael does that" or point and wiggle his fingers at you and say "Michael does that".  Then, I took him swimming at our neighborhood pool Monday night and he looked at this little boy and yelled "Hey Michael, mommy that is Michael!" but it was not Michael....his name was Luke actually.  I just told the dad that he must look like Michael at his school.  Grant looked at me very confused and said "no mommy, that is Michael".  I tried to explain that it was not and changed the subject.  I asked him who Michael was and he said it was a boy from school.  This morning, I looked at the list of kids in both classes and there is no Michael.  I asked one of the teachers and she said there is not a Michael.  We are confused to say the least. 

The Aquarium and a Tea Party

Grant and I went to the Aquarium last week and had some fun!  He was amazed at how big the fish were.  We went to the "touch" pools first where you can touch stingrays, shrimp, sea urchins, baby sharks, etc.  He was very reluctant to touch anything at first.  Then, he finally got up enough nerve to touch a shrimp (which was a huge shrimp actually) and right when he touched it, he jerked his hand and splashed water everywhere...it was funny.  He loved touching the sea urchins but refused to touch anything else.  He turns to me and says "Okay mommy, sooooo you touch the stingray."  I had to touch everything for him, ha ha.  One of his favorite phrases this week has been "okay, sooooo...." and then he gives you a request/direction.  

We got to see the new Dolphin show too.  He was amazed and we were on the first row and got splashed with water when the dolphins swam by.  The people sitting next to us were probably wishing we weren't there, lol.  Grant was asking questions the entire time and not quietly!  "How do they jump so high?, What do they eat?, Where are their ears?, How does that girl ride him like that?  I want to ride him!" and on and on.....

One other thing that Grant says now is "What?" and "What you say mommy?" in a really loud voice.  If Luke and I are trying to say something quietly so he can't hear, he will say this since he can hear EVERYTHING!  Or if I just say something under my breath in the car (i.e., road rage, etc.)....I get a "What you say?!!"

 Sloan being goofy for the camera....she actually wanted to eat the cord on the camera

 This is how Grant was sleeping in his bed at naptime.  Yes, he has way too much stuff in bed with him too!

 We opened one of Sloan's toys today that was in her closet, a tea party set!  Grant got way more excited about this than Sloan of course.  He immediately set it all up and started pouring tea and handing out cups and desserts.  The teapot makes a pouring noise and he thinks that is awesome.  Notice that Sloan has also hijacked Grant's penguin he got from the aquarium; which wouldn't let her touch for the first few days he got it.

Sloan's 9 Month Pictures

I took Sloan to get her 9 Month pictures done this week.  She was not interested in being photographed AT ALL!  She wanted to crawl around everywhere instead of sit still and smile.  After repositioning her more than a few times, she started to scream and cry.....so I gave up at that point.  We did get a few good ones in the beginning but not as many as I would have liked.  I am hoping she is more patient at a year old!

 You can see her tooth in this one!