Horse rides and pumpkin carving

We had a fun weekend!  Grant got to ride a horse!  We went to McKenna Farms which is a Rehab farm for children with illnesses and disabilities.  Our neighbor used their services for their little boy before he passed away.  They had a fundraiser this weekend so we went to support them.  Grant got to see lots of horses and ride one.  I thought he might be a little scared since these are not small horses but he got right on.  His horse was named "Star".  

One of Grant's new words is "cool".  He has been using it to describe all kinds of things lately.  Guessing he got this one from a preschool friend.

We also carved our pumpkins.  Grant loved using a spoon to scoop out the guts of the pumpkins.  And he demanded that we cook the seeds so he could eat them.  I think they must have discussed this at school too.  So we salted them and cooked them.  And he ate a lot of them and I made him save some for later in the week.  He LOVES any kind of nuts or seeds for some reason.

I took Sloan for her 1 year pictures and they turned out great!  However, the CD I got had the wrong pictures on it.  I am going to pick up the right one tomorrow hopefully and then I can post her pictures.  

Sloan is also now saying "uh oh" when anything drops on the ground or if she throws something.  She is really starting to babble more and more but it is still mostly nonsense.

Getting ready to ride! 

Dialogue with a 3 year old

There is always an interesting conversation in the car on the way to preschool with Grant.  I never know what it will be but this morning was funny.  Here is how it went...

Grant:  Mom, are you going to hospital today? (he says this because we tell him that I go see doctors for work)
Me:  Yes, why?
Grant: I have been to the hospital
Me: Yes, when you burned your hands when you were little
Grant: No, I went when sloan was little
Me: Yes, when sloan was born, you came to the hospital for a little while
Grant: Why did sloan leave hospital?
Me: Because we brought her home to get big like you
Grant: I don't want to get big! (in a whiny voice)
Me: Why do you not want to get big?  Everyone gets big one day
Grant: Cause then my Super Why costume won't fit!  (I laughed out loud at that one)
Me: They make bigger costumes when you get bigger
Grant: OHHHH! I actually need a bigger one now!
Me: Next year you can get a bigger one
Grant: Ok

Crazy boy!

Sloan's ONE Year Stats

I took Sloan for her 1 year appointment today! She weighs 16lb 15oz (15 percentile) and her height is 28.5 inches (40th percentile).  Her head was 17 and 5/8 inches as well.  She is long and skinny, ha ha!  She got one shot today (PCV - pneumonia).  Everything else was perfect and she goes back at 15 months.

In other news, her top, left tooth broke through the skin today!  Now she has a whopping 3 teeth!  The other top tooth is about to come through as well.  She now grinds her teeth together and it sounds awful.  She has also developed quite a fondness for mommy lately.  If she sees me and I walk out of the room or out of her sight, she starts crying big tears.  It is sad but funny too since she immediately stops crying when I pick her up.  SPOILED already!  Grant never did that but he is just soooooo outgoing that he would go with anyone.  I can see already that she is not like him in that respect.

Sloan will have her 1 year pictures done on Friday so let's hope she smiles big!

Halloween costumes, JW's party and Sloan is ONE!

We had a great weekend!  Grant and Sloan put on their costumes so CC could get some pictures....of course that is asking a lot for both of them to cooperate at the same time, lol!  Grant decided to keep on his Super Why costume almost the entire weekend!  Papa Bill's back is probably hurting from carrying him around so Grant could pretend he was flying. 

We went to JW's first birthday party.  Grant had a blast with all of the barnyard themed items as well as the jump house.  He did get a bit aggressive and kick a much bigger kid off of a tractor.....hmmmm.  

Sloan turned ONE on Sunday and she got to smash her cake and open gifts.  She was slow to start on the cake but then got into it.  She has 2 teeth on the bottom but her top teeth are about to break through.  Her doctor's appointment is this week so we will have her stats soon.

Not a happy little lamb!  This face says it all, ha ha!

 She would only look down at the straw....oh well.

 Riding JW's cow rocker

 Grant playing in the barn

 Queen of this Jump House!

 Grant striking a pose....we are in trouble when he is a teenager!

Papa Bill, CC and the kids.....not an easy one to get

 Happy Birthday!

 Ready for some cake!

 She was not sure what was going on

 But then she got into it....

 Holding up her litttle finger.....One Year Old!

 Her Butterfly rocker

 We tried to add JW to the picture too....he wasn't very happy though.  Maybe next time but it is sooooo hard to get them all to pay attention....and smiling is just way to much to ask for!

 Sloan playing with some of her new toys

 She was tired at this point

Grant flying around the house

 Exploring JW's party

 Nana, Sloan and me

 Rhett and I puting Grant's shoes back on while Sloan's stares at us like we are crazy

 Brittani, JW, Sloan and Me

 Our new Halloween blow ups!  CC sent us home with 2 new cats!  Our neighbors loved it!



New Costume, A Big Boo Boo, and New Teeth

Grant has been watching this TV show called "Super Why".  It is a cartoon where they ask and answer questions.  He has been saying that he wanted to be Super Why for the past week.  So, I actually found the costume and he loves it!  Yes, he now has a penguin and Super Why costumes as well as the UPS man from last year.  He says he is going to wear one to his preschool party and one to trick or treat in.....we shall see.  He has also asked for the "super duper red computer" that Super Why uses but I am not even going there.  As soon as I brought the costume home, he put it on and we took a picture.  Then, he wanted to walk around the neighborhood in it and look at the Halloween decorations.  We only got about 10 feet from the house.....he was skipping on the sidewalk and I told him to stop or he might trip....well I spoke too soon.  He was going down a little slope and tripped.  He was holding the mask and didn't catch himself like he should have.  Needless to say, he scraped the top layer of skin off of his forehead and busted his lip and nose.  When the crying stopped, my first thought was "We have school pictures tomorrow, ugh!"  Those ought to be cute, lol!  The funny part is that he is really enjoying the attention he is getting from this boo boo!  He tells people "Don't run on concrete!".  He is accident prone for sure.  He looks like he got beat up, poor thing. 

Sloan's top teeth are coming in now!  Her gums are really swollen and her left one looks like it will break through soon.  It doesn't seem to be bothering her right now so we will see.  She also knows where her belly button is....if you ask her "Where is your belly button?", she will take both hands and grab at her belly button.  I started this in the bathtub and she has it down now.  I can almost say that we are DONE with bottles, yay!  We have still been offering her 2oz of formula at night but she hasn't wanted it for the past week.  She will turn her head and shove the bottle away from her face as hard as she can.  The girl knows what she wants and what she doesn't want!  I am going to switch it out to a sippy cup with water here soon.

 

Super Why

The aftermath

 Checking out the pumpkin and refusing to smile!



Gamecocks, Tennis Shoes, and Pretending

This weekend was a great one for the Gamecocks!  We all got up Saturday and put on our Gamecock attire and went to eat at Waffle House....which is one of Grant's favorite places to eat. 

We are almost positive now that Sloan can say "buy buy".  She will wave her hands and say "dah dah".  I took her to the Stride Rite store on Saturday and she measures a 2.5 but since they only have size 3, we got her some tennis shoes in a size 3.  The sales lady says it will give her some "growing room".  Let's hope she grows fast.  The little black patent mary jane's I bought her in a 2.5 fall off of her feet since the back of the shoe comes off of her heel.  The tennis shoes seem to be great so far.  She hated them at first but now likes the stability.  She curls her toes on the right foot and it is very difficult to get them on that foot.  Not sure why she only does it on the right foot.

Grant's question of the day: "Where does the sun go when it gets dark?" And he followed it up by asking "does it go under the dirt?".  Anyone want to try to put that answer in words that a 3 year old can understand? 

Grant has also really gotten into pretend play.  He loves to pretend to cook us things in his house outside.  He will get water and put leaves in them and stir it up.  He also went and got some sand and said "mommy do you want some salt in your food?"  He has never had extra salt on his food but loves to talk about it at every restaurant we go to (since they all have salt shakers on the tables).  He will also take his dinosaurs and talk with them using different voices for each one.  It's funny to listen to.

 Trying to get a good one of both of them...Go Gamecocks!

 Waffle House is great!

 Making some "food"

 Walking in her new shoes!

Sloan hanging out at Grant's soccer game

Shoes, Food, Hard Questions, Soccer and Preschool

Sloan is now standing up and holding on with only one hand.  She actually stood for a few seconds without holding on to anything.  I don't think she realized what she was doing though.  I am having an awful time finding her shoes.  I measured her feet and she is a 2.5 but the only shoes in that size are not walkers.  I found one pair at the Stride Rite outlet but they are black patent leather.  And they fell off of her foot not long after I put them on....ugh!  Stride Rite quit making a 2.5 in walkers, they start at size 3 only now.  I am taking her to the store tomorrow to see what we can do.  Everyone looks at me like I have two heads when I tell them that she is almost a year old and has size 2.5 feet.  Her cold is better but not quite gone yet.  There is still a little bit of a runny nose but her ears still look good.

Sloan is now eating chicken (little pieces of baked chicken at least).  Grant never would eat meat until he was almost 2 years old.  She loved it though.  She is getting tired of green beans and carrots so I am going to start some new stuff soon.  They both love grilled cheese!

Grant is full of questions and they are getting harder to answer.  "Where does water come from?", "How does water come out of the sink?", "What is inside of a leaf?", "Why does it get dark outside?".  When you attempt to answer these kinds of questions....you only get MORE questions!

We are reading baby books to Sloan before naps and bedtime now.  And Grant keeps taking her books out of her room and putting them in his room.  One of the books has a picture of a dog, cat, rabbit and fish.  He tells us he wants a "fish in a fish tank" and "a rabbit in a cage so that Sloan can't get them".  He doesn't like her taking his stuff these days.  Yet he takes all of her stuff!

Grant had another soccer game tonight and he has gotten much more aggressive on the field.  He has learned that he can hold his hand out and block the other kids.  He will actually grab their arms to keep them from getting too close.  I don't know where he learned this from but it definitely works for him.  There is one little girl on the team that he likes more than anyone else.  It is so obvious and very funny.  He follows her around and wants to kick the ball with her all the time.  Guess it starts early....we may be in trouble, ha ha.

Preschool is keeping me busy.  This week was red week so Grant wore red to school.  And we had to send in apples so they could bake apple muffins.  Next week is green week and they have the fire department coming in to teach fire safety.  They will also get to play on a real firetruck.  And school pictures will be taken next week too.  Then, orange week and they wear their costumes.  Purple week is next and I still haven't found a purple shirt for him to wear.  There is a petting zoo for them that week too.  There is a calendar on our fridge so I can keep up.  Whew....At least we don't have homework yet!  I definitely see why the wait list is so long for this preschool.....they do so many fun things with the kids but it is kicking my rear trying to keep up!

Soccer, Stealing Juice and a Cold

Grant had a soccer game this past Saturday and he scored a goal!  3 and 4 year old soccer is pure chaos though!  None of the kids really grasp the concept of the game yet but they have fun running around the field chasing the ball.  It should be called "Chase the Ball" since that is really what happens.  There are a couple of kids that just drop to the ground crying if the ball gets taken away from them.  The coaches daughter just stands mid-field the entire game playing with her hair and talking.  Grant kicked the ball to her at one point and said "here, this is how you kick it".....all the parents got a big laugh out that that.  About halfway through, the kids get tired and just start playing around and not paying attention.  So, the coaches just throw several balls on the field and let them kick around for the rest of the time.

Sloan has a cold and is snotty the past few days.  She is happy and sleeping fine but just has a runny nose.  Grant was stopped up for a couple of days last week but he got over it fast.  She caught it I guess and it's taking a little longer for her to get over.  We are hoping it is gone in a couple more days. 

Sloan also has decided that she likes Grant's juice cups!  She got hold of his one day and drank some.  Her sippy cups have about 75% water and a little bit of juice.....but Grant's have about 50% juice.  After she got a taste of his, she has decided that she likes it a LOT better, ha ha!  And Grant has a bad habit of leaving his cup all over the house.  She can spot it fast and makes a bee line to get to it.  And she will cry like the world is ending when you take it away from her.   She is still constantly babbling but nothing that we can really understand yet.  She is also still standing and cruising around the furniture but nowhere near walking yet.  I think she may take a couple of months before she does that....but she may surprise me.  I am going to get her some shoes this week and maybe that will help.  Her little feet are only a size 2.5! 

More juice tastes better!

Grant going for the goal!

 And he scores!

 The kids running through the parents arms at the end of the game

Preschool - Learning good and bad stuff

Grant LOVES preschool and we hear about different kids everyday when he comes home.  Who cried, who didn't eat their snack, who he played with, etc etc. etc.  It is interesting for me since I am a self described control freak over certain areas including my kids.  When they start school, you have to give up knowing exactly what they are doing all day.  Not an easy task for me but I am getting used to it.  He has learned so many wonderful things at school....but with everything good......comes a little not so good!  Grant came home today and said "stupid" randomly.  He obviously had no clue what it meant by the look on his face when he saw my reaction.  I asked him where he heard that word and the sneaky little thing wouldn't say.  It was obviously from school though!  I explained to him that it was not a nice word and he better never use it again.  He has also started to learn what "lying" is.....actually he will look you straight in the face and say something that is not true if it gets him what he wants.  For example, I will say "let's clean up the mess you made with your paper and scissors, some fell on the floor" and he will respond "I didn't make a mess" and when I ask who did....he will get quiet, start thinking and say "Sloan did it".  I know he doesn't understand what lying is quite yet but we are now working on it!  I may not make it through the teenage years....he is super strong willed, type A, very persistent, smart and sneaky!

This was Blue Day at school; they focus on a color each week and dress in that color on one of the days.  Between preschool and soccer activities, I feel like I have a new job keeping it all straight and organized!  The preschool is great about taking pictures for us!  Grant is in the middle of the back row.

Yellow Day; obviously some of the moms forgot....I am not judging since that might be my kid one day, lol! Grant is at the top left.

Grant practicing his scissor skills.  And I have no clue what that green thing is that he is wearing.