Santa....Loved by ONE and Hated by ONE

We went to see Santa this weekend!  This was Grant's second time (I still don't have the pictures from the first visit) and he LOVES him!  Sloan was not so fond of the bearded man as you will see below.  We went to a Santa that is at a great and extremely expensive children's store.  The kids get to sit in a huge sleigh with Santa!  They give you a 20% coupon after your Santa appointment and I don't think it is possible to leave without buying something.  Especially since they place Santa right next to the toy section.  The object is to find something that doesn't set you back a small fortune.  Grant set his sights on the pirate section as soon as we walked in.  We walked out with a pirate hat, sword and treasure chest!  I think I am considered a sucker and my child is slightly over indulged, lol!  It bought me peace and speed getting out of the store since Sloan was hitting nap time and not happy with the entire experience!

Pictures before we left for Santa.  Sitting in her favorite chair with her favorite music boxes.

 The pirate after Santa

 Hanging out after Santa.  And yes, Grant got another boo boo on his chin right before Santa pictures.

 They are staring at me since I just put Sloan in Santa's lap.

 Sloan realizing she is NOT where she thought she was....

 I HATE SANTA!  I LOVE SANTA!

 Solo picture since he didn't want to get down

 Deep thought on all of the many things he asked for...

You've Got to be Kidding Me!

Just a quick blog on a few funny things with Grant in the past couple of days.  They have been celebrating Thanksgiving at school this week.  All of the kids made little head bands with feathers in the back and then they each got an Indian name written on the front of it.  Grant's Indian name was "Piercing Eyes".  Then they all had to give one thing that they were thankful for........Grant said "toys"!  Not surprising there I guess.  Top off the day with his favorite new phrase that we assume he picked up at school.  "You've got to be kidding me!".  He has said it all night to every request that we have made.  It is hard not to laugh honestly.

Birthday, Crafts and new favorite things!

We had a fun weekend celebrating my birthday and attending the church Christmas Craft market.  Grant and I went to have some fun on Saturday at our church.  They have an annual craft market for kids and it was awesome.  Each craft station is a dollar and I could have never come up with some of the awesome little crafts.  He made a little bag out of pockets from jeans, a penguin out of a bubble bottle, Christmas tree out of a sugar cone, a turkey plate made from his hand print, and a ginger bread house that was super cute.  I actually dropped his ginger bread house and it crumbled.....so they ended up giving him the model that they made which was so perfect that I hated when he started pulling the candy off to eat it.  He also got to sit in Santa's lap.  He had such a long conversation on what he wanted that they had to interrupt him so other kids could get a turn, ha ha!  He asked for a Robot (totally random) and I didn't hear the rest.  I never know what will come out of his mouth.  We will have the pictures soon and I will post them.  We are taking both kids this weekend to see Santa.

Sloan's new favorite thing is to sit in chairs....by herself!  She will go to the recliner in our living room and the chair in her room and point and say something that sounds like "that!".  She will say it over and over and then get really upset if you don't put her in the chair.  Then, if you try to sit with her she will get so mad!  Grant came up and put his hand on the chair tonight and she pushed his hand away!  The girl knows what she wants!  She is talking all of the time but not much we can understand still.  She will just babble away and then start laughing sometimes......it is so funny to watch.  Her new trick is wiggling out of the car seat straps.  She puts her tiny little arms up under the straps and gets them out.  I have it as tight as I can get it without hurting her so I just let her ride that way now.  Thank goodness the one between her legs is secure!

Sloan is an expert now at blowing kisses and playing peekaboo, it is very cute!  She knows where her belly button is and we are working on her ears and nose.  She gets them right half the time.

I bought some shirts, that were not onesies, and monogrammed them.  They are so cute but we quickly learned that she can take them off easily!  I should have taken a "before" picture but I didn't.  I will have to get one next time she wears it.  She pulls the shirt up over her head and behind her back.  Let's hope this trend doesn't continue into the teenage years!  She is also starting to pull the bows out of her hair, ugh!

Grant making his little bag

 Holding his penguin craft.  He loved the snowman and asked when we would get snow.

 Grant and I on my birthday.  I went back to my natural hair color but not so sure it will stay this way long.  I am still getting used to it.

 Sloan in another chair

Lying, Hitting, Parent/Teacher Conference and Chuck e Cheese Fun!

Grant has now learned the art of lying for sure.  He will say "I am just trickin you mommy".  He will do this with the smallest things just to get his way.  For example, after reading books tonight I told him night night and walked out of the room.  He then started yelling "I have to go poo poo mommy!".  I knew he had already done this earlier in the day and he usually only goes once per day....too much information, sorry.  However, I went back in and took him to the potty.  He sat there and didn't do anything.  I said to him, "Did you really have to go poo poo? Or did you just want to get out of bed again?"  His response was "I was just trickin' you mommy!" and laughed with this evil little laugh.  Ugh!  He went right to bed after that though.  Smart little guy.....he may just be too smart!

We have been talking about Santa a lot lately.  I told him that Santa is watching him so he better be a good boy or he may not get toys for Christmas.  He looked at me and said, "No he's not! I can't see Santa so he can't see me!".  A bit more intuitive than I expected at 3 years old!  Luke said we need to go with the story that we will report back to Santa.  Guess that is the new strategy....

I had Grant's first ever parent/teacher conference today.  His teachers said he is doing great.  They said he is a "talker" and he and another little boy are the natural born leaders in the class.  He gets the talking part honestly.....from me!  He is ahead on his drawing abilities and knows all of his letters.  He can trace his name and draw stick figures which they said was advanced.  However, he doesn't recognize numbers yet.  That is my fault since we haven't put any focus on that yet.  He shares great at school too......wish that would follow him home a little more.  I did find out that they have a timer at school and when the bell rings, the next kid gets whatever it is they are fighting over.  Not a bad technique.  They said he is VERY conversational and asks more questions than any other child.  His speech is still not perfect but that is to be expected for his age.  None of it was a surprise so I guess that is a good thing. 

Sloan is into hitting these days!  She hits everything and her favorite thing is to try and smack us in the face and then laugh.  I swear she knows what she is doing too.  I say "no no" but that doesn't seem to do a thing except make her want to do it again for the reaction.  Feisty little girl already!

I gave our nanny the day off for her birthday and took Grant and Sloan to Chuck e Cheese.  Grant loves it and Sloan actually had a pretty good time too.  I got some cute pictures of Sloan but Grant was too busy to get any good ones of him.  I had to ration the tokens so that he would keep coming back to check in with me.  It's a good thing that it isn't busy at all there during the week so I didn't have to worry about losing him.  He runs around like a mad man putting tokens in and winning tickets.  When we went to cash in his tickets for toys, he wanted a toy that was way more tickets than what he had.  He looked at the lady behind the counter after I told him no and said, "please can I have that blue ball with a sad look on his face".  I totally expected her to say no but she said "of course you can and you have the prettiest blue eyes".  Those pretty blue eyes may cause us some problems one day, ha ha!

Sloan has picked up a little cold.  Her nose has been running off and on but it seems to be getting better already.  Hoping it will be gone for good in the next couple of days. 

This was at Luke's birthday dinner at a mexican restaurant

Chuck e Cheese!

Happy Halloween, New Toy and New Skill

Grant had the best time this Halloween!  He really understood the concept of Trick or Treating.  It was REALLY cold that night so Luke and Sloan stayed home and handed out candy while Grant and I hit the neighborhood.  He went right up to each house and said "Trick or Treat" and then said "Thank You".  We went to at least 30-40 houses and halfway through he made me dump out his candy because it was getting too heavy!  Luckily I had several pockets in my jacket to stuff his candy into...lol!  I let him stay up later and he ended up not taking a bath.  That is one of the first times in his little life that he hasn't had a bath before bed.  He was so tired that he didn't seem to care and I was tired too.  He has opened and tasted almost all of the candy he got.  I figured I would just let him indulge for a few days.  He doesn't really like chocolate that much so he will take a small bite and toss it.  He loves sweet tarts, gummies, suckers, and stuff like that.  He is having a hard time understanding that Halloween is over now though.  He has been begging to have his costume back.  I packed them all up or else he would be Super Why everyday!  He also keeps asking to walk around the block to look at the blow ups.  But they are all gone now.  He is also begging me to go ahead and put up the Christmas blow ups we bought last year.....at this point they will probably be in the yard by the end of the weekend.  

Grant got to wear his costume to school and had a Halloween Party.  The school is great about taking pictures and posting them to their internal website where parents can access them.  It's funny to see what he is doing during his time there.

Funny Grant story:  We were playing with his trains earlier today and I had one that he wanted.  He looked at me and said "mommy, sharing is caring".  I laughed and made him repeat what he said to make sure I heard it right.  I gave him the train and said that is a great little saying.  However, when I asked for another train he didn't want to share.  I repeated his phrase back to him and he gave me a sad look as he handed over a train.  I swear!  He learned this saying in school.

Sloan can now crawl really fast up the stairs!  I am working on teaching her to turn around and go down on her stomach but she definitely doesn't have it down yet (see the picture below...yikes).  Luke and I got busy tonight in the kitchen with Grant for a few minutes and suddenly realized how quiet it was......Sloan was halfway up the stairs!  She laughs hysterically when you chase after her!  The second child has to be a survivor, ha ha. 

I have had it on my list to teach her to use a straw for a while now but I finally got around to it this week.  It only took about 5 minutes!  At first, she blew on it and then she sucked and the rest is history.  Way easier than I expected. 

We are officially done with bottles!  Wooo hoooo!  I could have done it a few weeks ago but gave her a little more time.  This week I switched her bottle before bed to her sippy cup with some water/juice.  Easy transition so far. 

Sloan knows what she wants now too!  She is always pointing and saying something that sounds like "keees".  We don't know what it is but she says it when she wants something.  We are thinking it could be "this" maybe.  We do start picking up things and saying "this?" to see if that is what she wants.  She still loves her little "doggie" and if you tell her to "love the doggie", she will put it up to her neck and hug it and go "mmmmm".  She can also almost blow kisses now when I tell her to. 

A girl I work with gave me a little pink scooter that her daughter had outgrown.  Grant loves it!  He got really upset when I made him get off so Sloan could sit on it.  She liked playing the music but obviously is not ready to ride yet.  Grant has been riding it around the house even though he is a bit too big for it.

Getting ready for Trick or Treating!  Grant's new camera face is looking up in the air.....awful!  Sloan refuses to smile for us in pictures.

 Running from house to house

 In front of the best decorated house in our neighborhood....the lights and smoke are set to music!

 Enjoying her new scooter

 Grant trying to get her off

 Up the stairs she goes....

 Not the ideal way to get back down....

 Spiderman and Super Why are flying at school

 Halloween Party at school

 Not sure what they are doing here

 Halloween Day at school

 Pumpkin Patch at school.....Grant is on the far left in stripes



Soccer, Halloween Parade, New Tooth and a Favorite Thing

We have been very busy this past week!  Grant had his last soccer game and scored 3 goals.  He thinks the easiest way to score is to kick the ball towards the goal and if he misses.....he goes and picks the ball up and places it right in front of the goal and kicks it in!  Everyone gets a big laugh out of it.  I tried to explain that he can't do that but it hasn't seem to set in just yet.  He got his first trophy and promptly broke it within a few hours.  He carried it around the house and then jumped on the couch with it in his hand......and the soccer ball broke right off!  Super glue has repaired it for now.  

We had our neighborhood Halloween Parade this past Sunday.  It was sooooo cold that we left Luke and Sloan at home.  Grant was adamant that he didn't need a jacket.  Good thing I took it anyway since he was begging for it not long after we started the parade.  He went as Super Why.  He got to wear his costume to school today for their Halloween party.

CC came to help out for a few days since I had a meeting to go to.  She and Grant went to the aquarium and to see a movie.  He actually sat through the entire movie, Nemo.  He had a great time!

Sloan is now cutting another tooth.  Her top, right tooth is starting to come in now.  The other top tooth is still coming in too.  Her teeth seem to take forever to come in.  She loves to grind them together which is horrible to listen to.  She has a "favorite" thing now.  It is a little white dog that came attached to some balloons that she got for her birthday.  We call it her "doggie" and she will look for it if you ask her where it is.  She just holds it as she crawls around and gets really upset if you take it away from her.  The problem is that it is not the best quality so I don't know how long it will last.  I have tried to swap it out for other stuffed animals but have had zero luck so far.

I have started to try and force her to walk more but she just stomps her feet and fusses after a few steps.  Then, she drops and crawls super fast to what she wants.  She is on her own timeline with walking obviously. 

Sloan now loves to crawl on top of things and sit.  If you put a pillow on the floor, she will crawl to the middle and turn around and just sit there with a toy.  It is pretty funny to watch. 

She loves to get in the dog bed

About to go out to eat and I couldn't get a smile.  She looked cute though!

 End of season soccer party! 

 The first trophy!

 Sloan and her "doggie"

 Sitting on the pillow with the doggie

 In her new jacket...ready for the cold

 Brrrrrrrr.....it was really cold and Super Why put a jacket on right after this picture

 Sloan loves to look out the window.  She also likes to lick the window, yuk!



Sloan's One Year Pictures

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!