Grant's 4th Birthday Party, Blue Mouth again and First visit to the pool

Grant had his 4th Birthday party with all of his friends this past weekend.  The theme was Transformers!  It was at the park where there is a big playground and huge sand volley ball court that is treated like a sandbox by the kids.  The wind was blowing pretty hard so the candles wouldn't stay lit but we were grateful to have good weather.  It was supposed to rain and we got sooooo lucky!  Everyone ate cake and pizza and had a great time!

Sloan loves blue suckers and grant loves red suckers!  So they each have colored mouths to match their suckers and the blue is just awful!

Grant has been begging to go to the pool.  The community pool is right behind our building so he can see it from our deck.  We got our suits on yesterday and went down there.  The water was pretty chilly but Grant got right in.  I only got halfway and decided to only go further if I had to and I didn't...thank goodness!  I am going to get Grant back in swim lessons in a couple of weeks and probably start Sloan too.  She is a bit more hesitant with the pool then he was at her age so it should be interesting.

Sloan was dying to get in the sand with everyone but then HATED her bare feet touching sand!  She screamed and wanted to be picked up.

Getting ready for cake! 

Fun on the slides 

Red and Blue Mouths! 

Walking her dog 

Getting ready for the pool.  She walks on her tip toes a lot when she doesn't have shoes on.  It looks painful but she is pretty good at it.

Pool time! 



Grant turns 4, Preschool Graduation and a Carseat swap!

Grant is now 4 years old!  His birthday this year has turned into a 2+ week event.  His "unbirthday" at school, gifts from family over the past week, his real birthday at home and his party this coming weekend with his friends.  Whew, I am exhausted from all the festivities, lol!  

This week, Grant had his end of year party at school and preschool graduation!  I can't believe he has already finished a year of preschool.  It really went by fast and he loves it so much.  We have put him in the church's preschool summer camps this summer which are very similar to what they do during the year.  He will be in 4 year old preschool next year and go 4 days a week.  The graduation was really cute.  All of the kids sang "He's got the whole world in his hands" and Grant sang much louder than the rest of the kids.  The parents got a kick out of that and we were laughing.  Let's just say that we don't have genes that can carry a tune unfortunately, ha ha.  He has great confidence though!

On the way to school this morning, Grant told me "I can drive you around and I will take Sloanie too but I will drive very careful". I replied "not yet but one day" and he said "yep, one day I will".  These random thoughts are plentiful but I just need a recorder all day to capture them all.  He also pointed at a car and said "that is what I want to drive when I get bigger".  I look over and it is a brand new 7 series BMW.....he has excellent taste and I guess I should be relieved that it wasn't some clunker, ha.  I did ask him why he liked that car so much.  He said "because mommy, it's super shiny!".  The word "super" is a favorite of his right now.

We have made a car seat change!  Now that Grant is 4, he can use a booster seat, yay!  So, he now sits in a booster seat with a regular seat belt and we moved Sloan to his car seat.  The backseat is much roomier now I must say.  They both really like their new seats too.

End of year party at school.  All the boys fishing in a pool outside

 Sloan in her new carseat

Grant in his new booster seat 

On his actual birthday, we had cupcakes to celebrate 

Sloan being goofy with sunglasses 

A new hat! 

Singing at preschool graduation 

You can tell in this one that he is really into it! 



Grant's Unbirthday, Eating Out and other fun stuff

Grant celebrated his "Unbirthday" at school last week.  The end of year party was already planned on his actual birthday so they celebrated his big day early.  He got to be the leader that day too.  This means that he gets to hand out the napkins for snack, pick different activities they do during the day and stand at the front of the line when they leave the room.  I got to visit the class for this event during snack time.  He got to pick a special treat to take into class and he chose donuts!  He ate one for breakfast and for snack, ha ha.  The whole Unbirthday concept has confused him a little though.  I told him that tomorrow was his birthday and he said "my unbirthday?".  I had to explain that it was the real deal this time. 

Sloan now says "move!" when she wants you out of the way.  She screams "mommy" really loudly whenever she wants help.  We aren't so sure she really understands that I am mommy but rather uses it to get anyone's attention that will listen.  She has started calling all lights..."flashlights" and I don't know why exactly.  I keep correcting her but it isn't sticking yet.  She now tries to say "1, 2, 3" but mainly gets the 2,3 part.  She also sings along with one of her toys that sings ABC's.....it isn't clear but it's really cute to listen to.  Grant has taught Sloan to say "hop, hop, hop" and she tried to jump but just bends her knees up and down.  He also has her saying "spin, spin, spin" and she will spin around multiple times until she falls down from being dizzy.  She made it around 5 times the other night....crazy.  Cheese is one of her favorite foods right now.  She really likes to dip chips in the cheese at restaurants too.  Grant LOVES sour cream and Sloan screamed for some at the Mexican restaurant.  So I got her a plate of sour cream too and oddly enough, she loves it too!  She can pretty much tell you exactly what she wants these days and watch out if she doesn't get her way.  She is feisty and fun all wrapped up in a cute little package!

Who do you think is in charge in this picture? LOL

 Sour cream!

 Cool pizza place where the tables are chalkboards....they also had TVs at every table!  We will be going back again soon!

 Unbirthday at school!

 Handing out napkins for snack time

 Donuts for Grant's Unbirthday!



Play Doh, Walking the Dog, Bubbles, Swapping Seats and a Lizard!

Sloan has lots of favorite things these days.  One of them is playing with Play Doh.  If Grant does something, she demands to do it too.  She actually does really well with it and only tried to eat it a couple of times.  She also loves to walk the dog.  Now that we don't have a backyard, we have to put a leash on Mason to take him out.  The kids literally fight over who gets to hold the leash.  She also loves to sit in Grant's chair at the dinner table and Grant now likes to sit without a booster seat at all.  So, we play musical chairs some days.  I bought her cups like Grants too so she would stop drinking out of his.  Although some days she gets 2 different cups since the one with handles is really easier for her but her stubbornness forces us to have the other option.

Sloan did something today that I thought was a fluke before but she was right on this time.  She stopped in the middle of the den and pooped....and then came over to me and said "poo poo" and grabbed her diaper.  She is still too young to potty train but it gives me hope that we are going to have an easy time with it.  Grant never did that at her age. 

She can repeat words so well and her enunciation is close to perfect.  She has a pretty big vocabulary these days.....hot dog, cheese, pretzel, outside, sucker, diaper, pancake, waffle, eggs, candy, bubbles, play doh, flower, bowl, spoon, daddy, meow (what she calls her cat that she sleeps with now), paci, etc.  She doesn't have a word for Grant yet but we keep waiting.  She says "mummy" for me and it sounds a bit British so it's funny to hear. 

Grant continues to be obsessed with his Transformers.  He brings them upstairs and downstairs each day.  He stands them up on the floor in the den so they can watch TV with him.  He then lays them down beside his bed so they can sleep too.  He has a pretty good imagination these days.  He needs to be a lawyer or salesman one day because he is constantly bargaining and negotiating to get what he wants.  It's been a little tough on him lately with Sloan getting bigger.  We still don't really discipline her, or at least not like him, and that is confusing for him.  I can tell that he doesn't understand why the rules are different for her still.  He will say "she is not a baby anymore" but I have to explain that she is still very little and doesn't understand yet.  I will say that I have had to pop her on the hand for grabbing Mason so hard a few times. 

Play Doh time!

Luke got me roses for our Anniversary and Sloan just had to have one.....well she ended up picking the petals off of several of them.  She had fun doing it though! 

Playing before breakfast 

Getting ready to go and have her picture taken.  She didn't like having a dress on.  She kept trying to pull it up over her head.  Every time she bent down to pick something up, the dress was in her way. 

Walking the dog... 

Chair swap and her big girl cup 

Bubble fun on the deck and this thing puts out a TON of bubbles 

This is a lizard that Grant spotted and caught.  He grabbed it with one hand......Luke said it was like a cat....he just snatched it right up.  From the picture, you can tell being gentle is not the primary goal, rather making sure he doesn't escape.  The lizard was promptly set free, alive and well.

18 Months and Almost 4 years old - Professional Picture Time!

We took the kids for professional pictures this weekend.  You never know how it will go but they both did really great.  The room at Olan Mills was full of props and Grant spotted a motorcycle bike that he loved.  He asked if he could have his picture taken on the bike.  I am not a huge fan of props but I, of course, gave in on this one.  Sloan's dress is size 12 months, lol! 

Sloan's favorite words this week are...."sucker" and "dog biscuit".  She loves dum dum suckers and feeding Mason biscuits. 



Sloan's 18 month stats

I took Sloan for her 18 month checkup today.  She continues to hate being there and starts to cry as soon as the doctor tries to just listen to her heart beat.  She wants me to hold her the entire time.  She didn't have to get any shots at this visit since she is all caught up.  She will get MMR at her 2 year visit.  The only other ones are Hep A and chicken pox and we will get those in over the next year.  Sloan is still a light weight!  She was 18 pounds (3rd percentile) and that was with a diaper on!  Her height was 30 1/4 inches (30th percentile).
She now says "mommy" but mostly when she wants something or when I walk out of the room.  "Go outside please" is her favorite phrase this week.

Temporary Home, Talking, Walking, Climbing and Growing Up Quick!

We have been super busy the past few weeks with moving. We are now in our transitional rental property which is a very nice 3 story townhouse. We have yet to find our final destination but we are looking hard. We never realized we had so much stuff until we moved....it is crazy how many boxes we filled! A lot of our stuff is actually in storage since we didn't want to move it all multiple times.  The kids have adjusted nicely to their new digs. Grant has the entire basement to himself and Sloan has the second Master bedroom (yes, there are 2 master bedrooms which is a little odd). Grant's favorite new thing is to take showers. There are two master baths and each has a big tub and a shower. He asked if he could take a shower one night instead of a bath and we obliged. He is now hooked. It's cute, he even washes his own hair now. I just took the kids to get new shoes today and Grant's a size 10 now! Sloan is finally a size 4.....she can still wear 3.5 though since a lot of shoes are wide these days.

Sloan is changing more everyday. She now has a molar and is cutting some more. She got another ear infection from all of this teething but is doing good now. Her vocabulary is huge and she is talking in short sentences now. She uses "please" and "thank you" ALL the time and it is super cute. Her words are so much clearer than Grant's were at her age.  Even strangers can understand most of what she says.  She wants everything Grant has no matter what it is. So we have given in and she now gets fruit snacks, suckers and many more things that Grant didn't get until he was older. She continues to be pretty strong willed like Grant but much more of a risk taker than he is.  She is also way more attached to me than he was.  She loves to go "outside please" all the time now.  She is now walking most of the time and only crawling occasionally.  She is very steady now and tries to run but gets tripped up sometimes.  She goes for her 18 month appointment this week so I will post stats soon.

This is how Sloan rides in her carseat!  It's crazy and not the safest....I know.  Every time we strap her in, she wiggles her arms up under the straps so she can lean around and see Grant.  The headrests are in her way evidently, ha ha.  I have tried to tighten the straps as tight as they will go but nothing works.....so I have given up.  She is just so tiny and can maneuver into and out of anything.  Grant will be in a booster seat soon and we will swap her to his carseat and hopefully solve the problem.

At a friend's house...it's a cat tree and Sloan decided she wanted to get to the top!  She made it up to the second level by herself.  Small but mighty!

 Same friend's house.  The hole in the door is for the cats to get to their litter box.  Sloan would look through and say "see kitty in there, hey kitty"

Blue lips after a sucker, guess I should have given her cherry instead!

 She loves to push her baby stroller around but she likes to put Grant's toys in it....like cars, trucks, etc.  Then he steals the stroller and a fight ensues.....ahhh sibling rivalry at its best!



Easter Weekend

Easter Weekend was a lot of fun!  We did a combo event and celebrated Papa Bill's 60th birthday too.  Grant and Sloan both got several new toys from the Easter Bunny.  Grant is into Transformers so he got a few new ones that he wanted.  Uncle Jon bought 2 ducks so the kids had a great time playing with them.  Although Sloan tried to squeeze them to death so we had to keep her hands off of them. 



Grant came home from school with a bunny face...cute!

Sloan hanging out.  She loves to get in chairs.

Checking out the duck right before she squeezed it...the poor duck lost a couple of yellow feathers.

Grant loved holding the ducks.  He looks like he is hurting the duck in this picture but he isn't.

Jon Walter, Grant and Sloan with the ducks.  Jon Walter was so gentle with them and I wish I could say the same for Sloan. 

So much cuter now that she is walking!

Grant seeing his basket for the first time.  I don't think he quite understood the concept of the Easter Bunny until he saw this.  He said "Wow!"