Family Pictures

We decided it was high time to get some more professional photos of Grant (our last professional shot was when he was 7 months!). Our friend Kristin took these beautiful pictures of Grant and we also got several family shots. Because the pictures are so big, the blog will only let me post a few at a time, so I will put up more in the next post. Here are a few or our favorites.

He's a talker

We get a lot of comments about how much Grant talks for his age. I think it may in some way be from all the Signing Time videos he used to watch. Most of the first words he said were from those videos. Here's a little video of Grant saying his ABC's (with coaching from me, but I think he pronounces pretty well!) I love little children's high-pitched voices, they are so cute!

Sick boy, Halloween and VA trip

Let me just say it is no fun having a sick child. For the past almost two weeks Grant has been sick, with what the doctor says is probably mono. Thank goodness mono is a lot worse for adolescents and adults than for children. Nevertheless, it has not been a fun couple of weeks. He started out with a week of fevers, getting up to 104 degrees! He also has had a sore throat, been extremely fussy and clingy and had no appetite. The worst was when for about 4 days I couldn't get him to drink hardly anything. Fortunately he seems to be over the worse of it and feeling better. He's still fussy with his teething pain, but the fact that his fever is gone and he will drink something makes me feel a lot better.

This is supposed to be my "sick child" picture. Actually this was taken before all the symptoms came. We were going to the state fair that night so I thought it would be funny to dress him accordingly in a wife beater, to see what Ryan would say when he got home. Grant did not see the humor in this. (No, I did not take him to the fair in this get-up, but he probably would have fit in just fine wearing this!)

Ryan had his VCU interview in Richmond last Thurs and Fri so Grant and I went up with him to stay with my parents for the weekend. This was during Grant's sickness so it was so nice to be there and have my parents to help me out with him. I think being there also helped to take Grant's mind off of some of his discomfort.
The days when Grant didn't want to drink anything, I was able to get some milk in him by occupying him with the TV and spooning him some milk. I couldn't get much in, but it did keep him from becoming dehydrated.
Grant had a lot of fun with his "papa" and "munga" (that's the best he can do with Grandpa and Grandma) and we are excited to see them again at Christine and Sams over Thanksgiving!

Now onto Halloween. I totally forgot to bring his costume to VA with us for the actual Halloween day, but he wasn't quite in the mood for trick-or-treating anyway. We did get a picture at our ward trunk-or-treat which was 2 weekends ago. As you can see we are all service people : secret service agent, a navy gal and a fireman. (Yes Jonnelle, I still have the costume. It's been tucked away all these years but it's nice to have a go-to costume).
We were also able to go to my parents ward trunk-or-treat which was at a ward members house who has tons of property and had hay rides. Grant actually liked it and was happy to be so close to a tractor (which besides a truck is one of his favorite things).

Single Mom Weekend

This past weekend was Ryan's first away trip for this fall. He was in San Antonio for a research conference where he presented the research he'd been working on the past year. He starts his ortho interviews next week for 3 more trips away from home. If any of you will be in similar situations, here's some ideas of what kept us busy over the weekend. (And no, I don't know why all this is underlined, it couldn't get it to go away).

We started the day off letting Grant run around in Mommy's fuzzy blue socks. These have now become known as the "cookie-monster" socks and Grant still asks to wear them.

We played many, many games of hide and go seek. Grant loves this game and it was more interesting because he started trying new hiding spaces, as opposed to his usual two that he rotates between. Hiding in the closet on Mommy's shoes was a favorite spot this game.

We ate cheap pizza and it was good! I think Gumby's Pizza is only in business because it is relatively good pizza for a low price. They employ some of the grumpiest workers ever!

We played with a lot of cars, trucks and tractors. Let's not forget helicopters too!

We went to the library where I picked out a couple of movies I knew Ryan would never want to see. Legally Blonde was as to be expected but the dancing movie was actually pretty good. It wasn't at all what I was expecting it to be.

Other non-pictured activities include:
Going to the children's museum and playing all morning.
Visiting the local toy store to let Grant play with the train table (one day I do plan on buying something from there).
Going to the mall and seeing the fire-department puppet show only to leave early because the puppets were scaring Grant.
Watching Elmo, reading lots of books, and playing outside when it wasn't too cold.
Making it through all three meetings at church with the help of some friends.

I was scared it would be a very long, tiring weekend with Ryan gone, but it actually went pretty quickly and Grant and I had fun. However, we were very excited to have Ryan back Sunday afternoon!!

Fat Tummy

As requested by some of the college roomies, here is a baby bump picture. I am now 22 weeks and feeling pretty good. The nausea is gone (although certain foods still leave a weird taste in my mouth), and I have more energy than earlier on in the pregnancy. I feel like I'm getting a lot bigger pretty quickly, much more quickly than I did with Grant. So we'll see what I look like at 40 weeks, that should be interesting.

Hanging Out

The weather has been absolutely wonderful lately. I wouldn't say it feels quite like fall right now, more like a cooler summer day. We've tried to venture out as much as possible to enjoy the cooler temperatures and the sun. Unfortunately we haven't been able to travel as a family as much as we would like since Ryan is at school all day and it seems like I've been working most Saturdays recently. That's why we don't have any cool pictures of outside adventures yet. But don't worry, they're coming.

I don't know about the rest of you with youngsters, but brushing teeth at night almost seems like an act of torture in our house (in the eyes of Grant). So instead of listening to blood-curling screams every night as we try brush Grant's teeth, we decided to use the TV to get Grant's mind occupied on something else. Now right before bed, we plop him on the couch in front of a Disney show and let him brush for a bit. Then when he's good and mesmerized, we can get a hold of the brush and give him a good cleaning. All without any signs of complaint. Now, I know this is probably not the best method, but I don't mind him watching a minute or two of TV right before bed in order to forgo the screaming and kicking. Now he will actually ask for "teeth" throughout the day when he wants his toothbrush for a little mid-day brushing.

On a different note, here's a little Halloween preview for any who are interested.

Holding your own fruit

One of Grant's greatest joys in this life is being able to hold and eat his own piece of fruit. This event rarely occurs for a number of reasons: a.) his slobber and fruit juice get all over the place and make a big mess, b.) he breaks off a piece that is small enough to fit in his mouth, but big enough to choke on, and proceeds choking, or c.) he starts eating thing like seeds and stems, which are not really meant for little boys to eat.

Sometimes we are nice parents and let him hold and enjoy his own piece of fruit. Unfortunately for Grant, his joy is often short-lived, because eventually he gets to the core and the fruit must be confiscated. At least he enjoys it while he has it.