Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes, I am 26 years old and am already feeling it in my hip...actually I think my hip is sore because we put a gate up in the kitchen to keep Grant out and after high-stepping over that 50 times a day anyone's hip would be sore (or it's the arthritis :). Once again Ryan made me the Big Fat Chocolate Cake and it was a masterpiece. He takes pride in this yearly baking ritual and I don't think I could have made it better. Thanks Ran, I love you!!

My parents came down for the weekend to visit and watch Grant so we could go out. We went to Carrabbas for dinner (awesome!!!!! I get the same thing every time and love it, it's so delicious!!!) Then, like the exciting couple we are, we hung out at Borders for awhile, looking at cool house and cabin design books and came home to get to bed. This past week I haven't been able to get to bed before 12 most days because of work, going to the temple, and finishing my book so around 10:30 I told Ryan we had to head home. When a baby wakes you up before 7 every morning, staying out late loses it's appeal. It was a fun birthday.

Cute and Silly

Grant makes us laugh everyday. He is growing so quick and becoming more and more mobile. After changing his diaper one day I left the room to throw it away and wash my hands. On my return I found Grant hanging out under his curtains, with his pants unbuttoned and bum diaper-free. He's quite curious and is always looking for new places to explore. Ryan and I think it's funny and interesting how babies bodies are so flexible and they don't get sore like us adults. When I pulled back the curtains Grant preferred to look at me by bending backwards instead of turning around. He does that a lot, I tried it and my neck was sore for a day.

He looks more and more like a little boy to me and less like an infant. We just love our fun little boy!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I realize I have not posted in quite some time, being out of your home for three weeks will mess up all your schedules. We just got home on New Years Eve from spending Christmas in VA with my family for most of December. I was a lot of fun to spend time with the fam. Christine, Sam and the kids were there most of the time, and Ryan N. came before Christmas, so it was almost the full family. We got to talk to David on Christmas day, he was enjoying a warm Christmas in AZ on his mission. Ryan and I found out that gone are days of relaxing vacations at the Nickerson home. We spent most of the break following Grant around trying to make sure he wouldn't brain himself on the tile floors or pull down some Christmas decoration on top of himself. We made it through with just the average amount of falls and head bangs, so I guess you could call it a success. However, Grant and I were both sick during the break, which resulted in two separate visits to urgent care and spending some time driving around trying to find a pharmacy open on Christmas day. We're mostly better now and getting back to the grind as Ryan started school today. It's hard going from a full house to just me and Grant, he was definitely getting bored with just mom for entertainment.

Here's a cute cousins picture. In the mornings Grant would go crawl and hang out under the kitchen island, I guess he convinced Maddy and Mason it was a cool place to play.

We took our traditional trip to Colonial Williamsburg to walk around the town and see the Christmas decorations. Ryan and I weren't in VA to go last year so it was fun to go this year. Later that night we had another Christmas tradition, our lumpia dinner (it's kind of like home-made egg rolls, but there's no eggs). We are still dealing with the effects of yet another tradition, having way to many delicious things to eat in the house. Ryan and I decided we wouldn't have any more sweets (at least make any) until my birthday. However, the day we got home we were looking for and craving some ice cream and brownies to eat and sad we didn't load up before we came home. It's okay, in a couple of weeks we'll have passed through our sugar withdrawals and will probably stop having headaches and shaking :)

Grant had a grand ol' time mastering the stairs and having a much bigger house to explore, not to mention many more things to get into. By the end of the break Grant could climb up the stairs pretty quickly and was very proud of himself. I am very glad we do not have stairs in our apartment because I think Grant would want to spend most of the day there which doesn't leave a parent with much spare time.

Grant cut his first teeth over the break, his two bottom incisors, and like a good boy went straight to brushing. You can see his skin looks somewhat blotchy in this picture, this led to one of the urgent care visits. Grant had been sick with a cough and runny nose since the beginning of December and we gave him some antibiotics after we got to VA since the MD said he may develop an ear infection (which we thought he had because he still wasn't better and was pulling his ear). Half way through the abx he wasn't getting any better and developed a rash all over his body. Turns out he had strep throat and needed a different abx to do the trick. Poor little guy, he was such a trooper, he must have been in a lot of pain with the strep but he would still smile when you tried to comfort him. I'm so thankful he's doing better and the rash is gone, it was not a pretty sight.

Merry almost Christmas!!

We had a fun little Thanksgiving break last week, our first Thanksgiving with just our little family. I guess I can't really call it a break either, Ryan had to study or work on his research almost everyday and I worked 2 night shifts, but it was still fun. This is Ryan's last week of actual classes and then next week is finals, woo hoo!!! We'll be heading up to VA sometime after that to be with my family. For that reason I've decided not to put up any Christmas decorations, that and I know Grant would be 24/7 trying to climb up/pull down the Christmas tree and eat the lights and ornaments. Not that it will be any easier at my parents house where they will be about 50 trees to choose from (my mom likes to decorate!)


So one of Grants favorite things is to pull himself up on whatever he can find, stable or non. The other night after a poop explosion I let him crawl around in his diaper and socks (I didn't feel like getting another outfit dirty before his bath). Also, I figured, who doesn't love to run around in their undies and socks? I've gotten pretty good at positioning the catch pillow for when he gets tired of standing and crashes to the floor. Fortunately, babies heal very quickly, but unfortunately, they don't seem to remember what might end up hurting and continue to climb up on things. Oh well, I guess that's why they have such hard noggins.






Here's the turkey and our Thanksgiving spread. It actually turned out really good. We cooked the turkey in one of those oven bags and used a recipe that was in the newspaper. The only thing that did not turn out was the gravy, it was horrible. Good thing Ryan made the potatoes tasty enough that they didn't need any gravy. Mom is going to have to teach me how to make it over Christmas!















Grant also enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal, delicious rice cereal and squash. Then there's always the post dinner nap on the chair. Okay, so this picture wasn't taken after Thanksgiving but I thought it was funny that he just laid there and let me take his picture a couple of times, he usually won't lie still any more, he must have been comfortable.

Fall Fun

We decided to take Grant to the NC Botanical Gardens to get some fall pictures. He seemed a bit hesitant at first when we put him in the leaves, like he wasn't sure he was allowed to play with so many things that crinkle (since we always quickly take away any plastic bags or paper he gets into). However, he soon felt comfortable and started chewing away on the colorful leaves.















It was a lot of fun to go back and walk through some of the trails. Before we had Grant, Ryan and I would go for a nature walk every Sunday through the trails, or I used to go running through them. Now that the leaves are clearing off the trees, and the tails are widening, we may go back more often since it is less likely we will walk through a spider web. Let me tell you, there is no worse feeling than walking right into a giant spider web, especially with the crazy spiders they have here in NC. Going on my tangent...one day I was running and had to stop at a road entry and wait for traffic to clear before crossing. I looked at the tree beside me and there was a HUMONGOUS spiderweb that stretched from a tree branch that was at least 3-4 feet over my head to the grass and was probably 6 or more feet wide. Right smack in the middle was a crazy, disgusting, leggy spider that was at least the size of my hand. AHHH, it almost made me run into traffic. I thought, what if I had run just a few feet to the right and got some of that web stuck on me.....it would have been horrible!!!! Just thinking about it makes me jumpy.

In other news, Grant has been crawling for about the last 2 weeks and is getting really good at it. He is starting to pick up speed and becoming less wobbly. He likes to follow us around the house, slowly but surely, and crawl over us whenever we are sitting on the ground. Besides having to keep a much closer eye on him I am enjoying this stage because Grant is much more content now that he can satisfy more of his curiosity and get to where he wants to go.














Grant is finding ways to get to whatever he wants. My attempts to block the shelf with the couch pillow were easily thwarted. Also, he loves to reach into his toy basket. His new trick is the hold onto the side of the basket and stand up and shake the basket. He shakes it so hard he usually ends up flipping to the side and banging his head. We're going to have to find a new and safer obstacle for him to master.





Grant is actually a great helper around the house. He shows me a thing or two on the piano and likes to help out with the laundry. What a good boy!

Happy Belated Halloween!

Okay, so I'm a little late with the Halloween pictures, but here you go. Grant turned into our very own fuzzy little skunk and I dare say he makes quite a cute little stinker! This was on Halloween night when we stayed in to pass out candy. Unfortunately, Grant was ready for bed before hardly anyone came by so we just stuck the bowl of candy outside our door while I put him down. Maybe next year he'll be able to make it past 7:00.

We were actually in charge of taking pictures at our ward Trunk-or-Treat. We were supposed to be farmers, with Grant being our pet skunk, but we didn't really pull it off too well. By the time we took this picture Grant had about had it and had lost his feet. Thanks to the Hemmert's for finding his paw in a random place in the church!

Don't be fooled by the cute smile and bow tie, he's still a dangerous creature. After all, those are the initial signs of rabies!

Since this is his first Halloween, Grant was ready to try his first candy. At least he was content to play with the bag. However, when the paint started coming off the bag, it was confiscated, which left him quite malcontent.

We have begun the early stages of baby-proofing the house. He's not yet at a full blown crawler, but can still get himself around, slowly but surely. He feels especially mobile when the clothes come off and he's only in a light-weight diaper.

Posing for pictures

I think Grant is beginning to understand that we want him to smile when we pull out the camera. Either that or he likes the red light that shines in his face. He's become quite a good sitter. He can hold himself up with his hands when he sits on the floor, but I always have to sit behind him because he will eventually throw himself back when he gets bored.

Grant has been enjoying some delicious rice cereal off and on for the past couple of weeks. Sometimes it seems like more work than it's worth for him to take in a few bites of rice cereal, but he seems to like it. We're thinking about starting some baby veggies and fruits pretty soon, which will give him more color options for painting his face.

So the infant chair has been one of the best baby gifts that we received (thanks again to Tracie, Troy and Robyn!). But as you can see here, Grant grows weary of being confined in a supine position and will begin to escape if left unattended for any length of time. He has never quite made it all the way out before I get him, but I would like to see where he plans on going.

Grant has also been practicing his crawling skills for the past couple of weeks. He can get up on all fours quite well and wiggles there for awhile, but only his reverse works. In this picture I had put him down to play with his book and when I came back a minute later he had backed himself between the bookshelf and baby swing. Needless to say he gets a little frustrated when he goes farther from his toys instead of toward them.

This is a cute picture of my two boys, I just love them!