First Day of Preschool

Today was Grant's first day of preschool at our church, Smyrna First Methodist.  It was an hour for the parents and kids to interact in the classroom in order to get the kids comfortable, etc.  Grant just makes himself at home where ever we go.  There were a couple of kids from his summer camp in his class.  Little Liam was the cryer this summer...poor thing cried the entire time everyday.  He didn't cry at all today but his dad was with him the whole time.  In the middle of circle time, Grant says (in a pretty loud voice), "mom, why is Liam not crying?"  Liam's dad got a laugh out of that one.  His teachers are Mrs. Susan and Mr. Mark and they are great!  Mrs. Susan actually has 4 grandchildren in the school and her kids went to school here too.  Mr. Mark's kids went to school here too.  His class is called "The Chimps", named because chimps have the mentality of an average 3 year old, lol.  You can see the monkeys all over the room.  And each child received a banana today after they were introduced to the class.  I met most of the moms and I think I might be the only one who works outside of the home.  Guess it goes with the territory since it's only a couple days a week for a few hours.  I am so excited that he got in this program, it is awesome! The facilities, the teachers, the parents, the organization of activities and education are all phenomenal. 

Riley and Grant playing with shells.  Riley is actually one of our neighbors.

Using the magnifying glass to look at shells

 Trying on a fireman outfit from their costume section

 Circle time....aka reading and singing

 Introduction to the class and receiving his banana

First Visit to the Dentist

I took Grant with me to the dentist this week.  I needed to get my teeth cleaned and my dentist said he is a good age to bring in for his first visit.  The idea was that he would watch me first and then get his teeth cleaned if possible.  My super, super social child walked right in and made himself at home.  He started asking what everything was and quickly made friends with the dental hygienists. He didn't want to watch me and said "I want to sit in the chair".  They have TV's in the ceiling and put cartoons on for him.  They asked me if I thought he would let them polish his teeth and I said "probably" but I honestly wasn't sure.  They counted his teeth (all 20 were there).  Then, they asked him if they could use their "electric tooth brush" to clean off his teeth.  He said "yes".  Then, they offered him flavors....in a very enthusiastic voice, she said "we have bubble gum flavor! and strawberry flavor!"....and then got much less enthusiastic and said "we also have mint flavor".  She didn't know how much he LOVES peppermints!  He was thrilled with the option of mint and said "Ohhhhh I want mint!"  She looked at me and said "Really? Kids usually don't like the mint".  I confirmed his love of mints.  They put the glasses on him and started.  After she did a couple of teeth, she stopped and asked if he was okay.  He said "Mmmmm, that tastes good!".  Geez!  He just sat there the whole time and did great.  He was very excited at the end to get a new toothbrush, toothpaste and a few toys.  The dentist looked and said it was great how much space he has in his mouth.  He has little teeth like me and I always had a lot of space in my mouth.  He then had to sit and watch me get my teeth cleaned and made sure that she gave me the mint flavor too.  Before we left he said "When can we come back?"  Guess I will be adding him to our dental insurance now, lol!  Overall, a great first visit and I am glad that I waited until now.

New Noises and a Big Red Ball

We have had a fun weekend!  Sloan is starting to babble all kinds of new sounds and she has little conversations with herself now.  Although her favorite sound is still a scream/yell and she has some strong vocal cords!  As all babies do....she loves anything that is NOT a baby toy, hence the water bottle in the picture below.  

We went and ate at a local sports bar/restaurant one night.  They have one of those big games that is full of stuffed animals and the claw comes down and grabs them, etc.  You NEVER win at these things unless they are messed up or so we thought.  Grant spotted it as soon as we walked in and asked if he could do it.  I told him if he ate his dinner then I would give him the quarters to play.  We walk over after dinner and put in 4 quarters (yes, it was a DOLLAR per play!).  This machine had balls and stuffed animals.  He did not understand the concept of moving the claw over the "easiest" item to grab.  He really wanted one of the rubber balls.  So, I helped him move the claw and then told him to push the button.  It is on a timer so you have to move fast.  The claw actually picked up the ball but then dropped it, of course right!  So, he begged to play "one more time" to which I offered up 4 more quarters and said that was all I had left.  He rushed to put the quarters in the slots.  I was putting my wallet up and before I could help, he had already moved the claw and then pushed the button right as I was saying "no, wait".  The claw goes down and comes up with a ball from the bottom of the machine......we were shocked!  He won a big red ball and was thrilled!  I still can't believe he won and without any help.  I would never have gone for that particular ball either, go figure!

Grant and I are going to the dentist tomorrow.  It will be his first visit so let's hope it goes well.  He is going to watch me get my teeth cleaned and then they will look at his.  My dentist said it is mostly just to count his teeth and look at them.  No xrays or "real" cleaning.  

We installed a gate on the deck to keep little Sloan safe.  We never really needed one on the deck with Grant.  She is our little risk taker already....kind of scary. 

Water bottles are way better than toys!

The Red Ball

 The gate is being tested already!

 Not sure what this face is.....

Strange Eye Color, Cat's Name and a Screaming Baby

Sloan continues to have the strangest eye color.  They are grey looking and sometimes look blue and sometimes look green.  She continues to be into everything!  She is a great imitator too.  If you stick your tongue out and move it back and forth making noise...she will copy you.  Very cute. She also still loves to scream at stuff.  She is pulling up on anything she can and loves to stand on her tip toes.  If you hold her hands, she continues to walk on her tip toes.  It looks so painful but she just trots right along like a little toe dancer.  I need to get some shoes on her soon to flatten them out.

Grant has named his cat "Hemi" which is my mom's cats name.  He kept saying "her name is emmi" and I would say "emmi" and he would say "NO, emmi"....and then I finally figured out he was saying "Hemi".  The H is just silent in his vocabulary, ha ha.  He was very relieved when I finally said it right.

Check out the eye color.....so odd looking

She loves to push the buttons on the DVD player and Grant gets really upset when it turns off his movies

Take a look at that swirl/cow lick on the back of her head, ha!  It has been there since she was born and doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon.

 Screamer!

 The tongue!

 Screaming again!

 She loves to steal Mason's toys from him and he is much slower in his old age

 Grant is getting Mason to stand and Sloan is trying to pull him down!

 She loves the dog bed and dog toys

 Grant's new shoes....we had to get away from Sloan to get the picture and you can see that she is not far behind us!

New Team, Clothing Wars and New Shoes

Quick correction on Grant's soccer team.  And no, I didn't get it changed because I didn't like the team name, lol.  That was just an added bonus.  There is a park that is much closer to our house that another team will be playing at so I requested a change.  He will now be a "Viper" which happens to be a better name so we got lucky on that.  I thought it was interesting at the parent meeting that we all got lectured on "parental sportsmanship".  The parents are way worse than the kids evidently.  We shall see...

And I forgot to write about our clothing wars.  Grant has a few items that he wants to wear everyday.  His pants, which I have written about before.  A gamecock tee-shirt (I should like that but he has so many other cute shirts) and an Under Armour shirt that is like Luke's.  We used to fight every morning about him wearing anything but these things.  He is forced to pick something else when I am washing them.  He will actually go to the dryer and pull them out when they are finished.  Our agreement for now is that he can pick what to wear at home but I get to pick when he goes to school or when we leave the house.  I set out his gamecock shirt and pants yesterday morning.  When he woke up and saw it, he came running into my bathroom and said "Good job mom!".  I laughed out loud.  He also can fully dress himself now from head to toe.  There are times when he asks for help, especially when he wants attention if I am tending to Sloan.

"I neeeeeed that!" is a common phrase for Grant now too.  He says it for everything he really wants.  We went to Stride Rite to get him some new tennis shoes and the selection was not so great for some reason.  I just wanted some simple white shoes.  I told the sales lady to just bring what she had in his size (8.5).  She brought out 4 boxes and opened each one.  The first two did not look good.  Then I really liked the 3rd pair which had navy on them.  But, she opened box number 4......grey shoes with bright, neon blue soles.....and out comes that phrase "I neeeeed these shoes!".  I knew it was all over then.  The sales lady said "at least he knows what he wants".  If she only knew.  Of course, we came home with those shoes.  I will have to get a picture for everyone to see.

I will take some pictures and post them later this week.

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