Snot, Teething and Horsing Around

Grant has picked up a new phrase, "I need to ask you questions" and then he will hold up his fingers and say how many questions he has.  Usually he says this as a delay tactic if I am trying to get out of the house in the morning to go to work or after we read books at bedtime.  On another note, his speech is still not perfect but he is all of the sudden saying his r's much better.  His favorite toys at the moment are his Transformer Rescue Bots.  One of them came with a movie and a book.  He has watched the movie so much that he has memorized almost EVERY word.  It is only about 20 minutes long and very funny to listen to him say the words with the characters. 

Sloan is teething again but I cannot figure out which tooth it is yet.  The drooling is just crazy the past couple of days.  She has 2 bottom and 4 top teeth right now.  We pulled out the "walking wings" that I bought, but never used, for Grant.  They are supposed to make it easier for the parent to hold onto them while they learn to walk.  We are trying to push her a little harder to walk but she is just stubborn.  When you hold her hands or use the walking wings, she has a ton of confidence and tries to walk as fast as she can.  When you hold one of her hands, she goes very slowly but drops to her knees when she decides that she is done....which is pretty quick LOL! 

Sloan and Mason are inseparable lately.  If she is in the room, Mason is not far behind.  This could be because she will feed him snacks.  She has gotten much better about being gentle with him.  I am constantly saying "gentle" and showing her how to rub him instead of squeezing the life out of him.  Our only issue now is that she tried to grab his feet and that is one thing Mason does not like.  It's a work in progress.  Sloan loves to get in Mason's bed with him and then collect all of his toys.  She will throw all of his toys in his bed and then get back in there with him.

Sloan does have a sensitive side but only with Luke it seems.  If I tell her "No", she will listen sometimes and move on.  However, if Luke says "No" to her, she will just start crying.  We don't know why but maybe it's because he has a deeper voice when he says it.

Both kids have had a cold this past week.  Grant picked up something at preschool and then Sloan got a couple of days later.  Our house has been the land of snot!  I hate snotty noses!  Grant is all better now and Sloan is almost there!  Her ears have made it through this one so far without getting infected, woohoo! 

Grant galloping around the house with his horse outfit!

 Sloan being chased by Grant, the horse!

 Sloan hanging out in Mason's bed

 Moving all of his toys to the bed

 Back in the bed with the toys

 Grant with his favorite things...my iPad and his Transformers!

 Sloan LOVES to push cars around!

 Walking Wings....

 She refused to put the cars down

 Bows, bows, bows!  Her hair is crazy but she pulls all of the bows out!



Sloan 15 Month Stats.....she's a lightweight!

I took Sloan to the doctor for her 15 month appointment today.  She is just such a lightweight!  The nurse and the doctor both commented on how little she is but also how vocal too, ha ha.  She was waving at everyone and saying "hey!".  Of course, that all ended when we got in the room and the nurse came in to measure her.  As soon as she took Sloan from my arms the screaming began!  Sloan is much more apprehensive of strangers than Grant.  She screamed until I picked her back up and then she was fine again.  Such a drama queen already I guess.  She preceded to do the same thing for the doctor.  She is strong and fights as hard as she can to get away.  It took all I had to hold her down without hurting her so that the doctor could look at her ears.  She lets me check them all the time at home without a sound.  I already knew that Sloan has super waxy ears but the doctor had to pull out a clump from one ear, yuk.  Her ears looked great though.  This was a relief since she has had a few ear infections over the last few months.

She now weighs a whopping 17lb 11oz (10th percentile) and that was with a diaper on.....but her height was 29 and 7/8 inches (40 percentile).

My main topic for the doctor was the fact that she is not walking yet!  The doctor told us that they don't worry about it until they are 18 months old unless the parents are extremely worried.  Since she is progressing, be it very slowly, we aren't too worried.  I really expected them to be a bit more concerned.  I tried to get Sloan to walk, holding my hands, in the office but she refused!  She pulled her feet straight up and held them there.  We all agreed that she has abs of steel!  She is very strong willed already and does things only when she wants to.....no forcing her to do anything right now! 

She got 2 shots this time. Hep B and the combo shot of DTaP/HiB/Polio.  She has done fine with no reactions.  We refused MMR (which I give them at 2 years old) and Chicken Pox (which she will get at 3 years old).  My mental limit is 2 shots per visit and I don't know where that came from really.  I just know how sore my arm is with 1 vaccine so I just can't bring myself to let them have more than 2 at a time.  And we have had zero reactions to any shots so far......either it works or it's luck!

Grant Stories!

Grant is very observant.  He recently saw me brushing my teeth in the morning and asked me..."why are you brushing your teeth now and not before you go to sleep?".  I told him that I brushed them in the morning and at night.  He then asked our nanny when she brushed her teeth and she said the same thing of course.  I have actually been trying to figure out when he should start brushing them twice a day.  So, he woke up a few days ago and said he wanted to brush his teeth when he wakes up every day.  So now every morning he brushes his own teeth all by himself.  We still brush them for him at night to make sure they are good and clean. 

One of his new favorite things is a stool.  He has always had a stool in the bathroom but I have one of those folding stools in the laundry room.  He has high jacked it and carries all over the place to reach anything up high.  Now he can get to about anything on the counters.  Whenever I am cooking, he immediately goes and grabs his stool and says "I want to help, let me get my stool!".  Ha ha.

Grant wakes up on any given day between 7am and 8:30am and there is no rhyme or reason as to when it will be.  He will scream "mommy, come and get me.  I'm awake!"  and then we go get him.  Now that his room is farther away, it is a little harder to hear him when he wakes up.  So he will start yelling louder and louder.  I worry that he will wake Sloan up with his yelling.  So I told him last week that he could turn his flashlight on, reach over and turn off his noise machine, turn the light on and get up.  He sleeps with a flashlight since we have never used night lights with our kids.  We made the mistake of letting him sleep with it one night and the rest is history.  So he can turn it on if needs to and then can turn it back off.  Yesterday morning was the first time that he actually took my advice.....I heard a whispering "mommy, mommy" coming down the hallway at 7:15am.  He was up and very proud that he did it all by himself!  This morning I had to wake him up at 7:45am for school so we will see what happens tomorrow. 

Sloan has taken a new liking to shoes!  I am so proud, just kidding!  We keep the kids shoes in the wine rack (well it used to be a wine rack) in the kitchen.  She pulls them all down but now has a favorite pair....which happens to be Grant's favorite tennis shoes!  She likes to put each hand in a shoe and crawl around.  He does NOT like her messing with his shoes.  He has now taken all of his shoes out of the wine rack and put them in the coat closet so she can't get to them.  This seems to be a trend with anything that he really likes......sibling rivalry right!  He will have his work cut out for him when she gets a little older and bigger!

Minus a Nap, Crazy Hair and the Playroom!

Last week I dropped Sloan's morning nap so she is down to just an afternoon nap now.  She was starting to take a while to get to sleep in the afternoon so it was time.  She has done really great and now sleeps a little longer in the afternoon (2.5-3 hours).

Sloan's hair is also getting pretty long but not all over.  It is long on the top and the back, ha ha.  She loves to have bows in her hair but she also loves to pull them out.  It is a game to her....she will pull it out and then try to put it back in and get upset when it won't stay.

Sloan starting to walk...

Hanging out in the playroom

 Ponytail on the top of her head! Cute!



Helicopter, Walking, Eating and Playing

Grant got a remote control helicopter for Christmas and has been crashing it all over the house, lol!  But he is having a great time trying over and over to keep it in the air.  It already has a short in the power so this toy may not last very long. 

Meanwhile, Sloan is starting to walk some finally.  She will hold one of our hands and walk through the house.  She is still very wobbly so I am not sure when she will actually take off on her own.  She has also found her nose and I mean with her finger!  She loves to stick her finger up her nose now. 



Grant flying his helicopter

 Sloan having fun with her nose

 Using Utensils

 Trying her best to get up on the couch.....just not tall enough yet!

 One of her favorite things....pushing the button on this fish to make it sing all kinds of songs.

 Trying to feed Mason dog food



Sloan's New Car and Grant takes on Bowling!

We put together Sloan's new ride, her Cozy Coup! (Thanks Uncle Jon and Aunt Brittani).  She absolutely loves it and so does Grant.  This model has a removable floor board in it which is great for her since she just loves to be pushed right now.  Grant rides his bike and we have to push Sloan in her car behind him.

I took Grant bowling one day this past week while I am still on vacation.  I wasn't sure if he was old enough but we have done almost everything else for his age so I was getting creative.  We found out the lightest ball was 6 pounds so it was a little heavy for him.  We tried having him just roll it at first but it took FOREVER for it to get to the pins.  So, we got a ramp for kids and he liked that a lot more.  He would carry the ball over and push it down the ramp.  He loved that it came right back to him.  He scored a 90 which is pretty good considering he hardly got help from the bumpers.  He bowled most of my game too and got a 119.  He told me that I had to use the ramp too, ha!  We started a second game but the novelty was gone and he said he was done and wanted to go home.  Our biggest challenge was when we were about to leave and I told him to take his bowling shoes off.  He said "No, I want to keep the shoes!".  They were very cute on him but I explained that he could not keep them but he could wear them again when we came back.  He still wasn't happy but thank goodness he didn't throw a fit about it.  His last comment was that I couldn't keep mine either so I needed to take mine off too.

Grant has been talking a lot lately about wanted a new cat and dog.  I told him that he has a dog but he said that Mason is our dog and not his dog.  He also told Luke that he was going to get a dog named Jon and a cat named Michael, ha ha!  Creative naming huh, ha ha!  I am sure the next pet will be named Rhett and we will round out the Uncle category in my family.  For the record, we are NOT getting any more animals anytime soon. 

Sloan in her new ride!

Cruising around the house

 Pushing the ball down the ramp

 The shoes!



Bathtime, new skills and a new Playroom

We have been very busy over the past couple of weeks and really enjoyed spending time with Grant and Sloan over the holidays. 

Grant's Dune Buggy from Santa turned out to be a dud.  It wouldn't turn to the right so I guess the elves messed up on that one.  The problem is that Toys R Us won't have anymore in stock for 3 weeks!  We will have to wait to enjoy that gift.

Our holiday project was turning one of our guest bedrooms into a Playroom.  However, we ended up playing musical rooms.  Sloan's room was over the garage and always much cooler than the rest and she is colder natured like her mama.  We were always having to run the heat higher for her and then the rest of us were hot.  Sooooo.... we decided to move Grant into the guest bedroom, which is much bigger.  Then, we moved Sloan into Grant's room (which is closer to our room) and made Sloan's old room the Playroom!  This meant that we had to paint 2 rooms though along with moving a ton of furniture around.  It all got done though and the result is great!  Grant LOVES having a playroom!  He keeps moving different toys upstairs saying they need to be in "my playroom".  He also likes that it is right next to his bedroom.  Our den now looks a little less like a toy store too.

Sloan's new skills include putting things back (like putting blocks back in bucket, etc.) and trying to use a fork and spoon.  She loves to feed herself and is already really good at using utensils.  She tries to get the food (like carrots) on the fork but we usually have to help with that part.  But then she gets it right in her mouth and tries to stab more food.  Her fine motor skills are awesome!  Guess that balances the fact that she is still not walking!  She talks all of the time and it sounds like a foreign language.  We laugh when she gets going because it sounds like one of those Vietnamese women in the nail salons.  The words that ARE very clear to us include juice, go go, bye bye, fish, that, No, hair bow and shhhh (she tells Mason to shhhhh when he whines or barks).  She will point to her ears if you ask where they are and we are working on other body parts.  She gets really, really frustrated when she wants something and we can't figure out what it is fast enough.  And she also will throw a fit if she doesn't get her way.  She will literally throw herself on the floor and scream.  Drama already......so early!  We are in trouble!  Her 15 month doctor's appointment is coming up in a couple of weeks and I will have some new stats.

Sloan's hair is getting pretty long in the back now.  I actually got the comb caught in a tangle the other night and she cried so hard.  I think I may need to start using conditioner already.  This is uncharted territory for us so we shall see.  Guessing that I will have to blow dry it soon too....although it is still pretty thin now and drys pretty fast.

Grant has demanded to take a bath in the same tub since Sloan got new bath toys.  He got new bath toys too actually but her stuff looked more fun I guess.  He is definitely going through a jealousy phase right now.  Sloan takes up a lot of time since she is into everything and it is also challenging to discipline him for something that she gets away with.  I hear a lot of "but Sloan does that".  Kind of sad sometimes but welcome to having a sibling, right!  It will be more fun when they can actually run around and play together.

We are back to work soon and Grant will be back in school next week.  Everyone is healthy again too so let's hope it stays that way.   

 Sloan's New Room

 Grant's New Room

 The Playroom

 Playroom

 Sloan cruising...

Christmas Time!

We have had a great Christmas this year!  Grant really understands the concept of Santa so it has been a lot of fun to watch and listen to him.  Our kids are over indulged for sure and our house is exploding with toys from every room! 

 Grant looking at Christmas Lights at Hollywild

Grant got a huge remote control shark from Papa Bill and CC

 Jon Walter pushing Grant on his new Plasma Car

 Jon Walter opening the door for Sloan....aka...wanting her to get out! LOL!  She got her very own pink cozy coupe for Christmas!

Luke and Sloan in their Christmas stripes!

 Grant and Sloan checking on our Elf, Chippy.  Chippy was hiding too low this time and they couldn't resist touching him.

 Grant with his rain boots and umbrella

 The attempt to get all the grandkids to smile at once.....and stay seated!  Not an easy job!

 Christmas Morning! Grant grew out of his Christmas PJ's so he is wearing the pants anyway (which are short) with another pajama top, lol. 

 A dune buggy!  Watch out everyone!

Sloan wondering what in the world is going on today!

 She loved her little kitty that meows and her cell phone....

 Opening gifts after they went through the Santa stuff

 Sloan playing with her cow.....the cow sings "Girls just want to have fun".  I may hate this song in a few weeks since she plays it constantly now. 

Sloan on her new slide.  I don't think you are supposed to sit sideways though

 Transformers and Robots

 And the day ends with a face like this!  I think mine looks the same....whew Christmas is tiring!