a lovely chorus…

This morning we were awakened.. like most mornings by Henry waking up and singing his favorite song. “EIEIEIEIEOOOOOOO”.  Today, however, Grant was NOT having it.  So when Henry stopped to breathe, Grant took that time to yell “MOOOOOMMMMMMMM, HENRY SINGING TOO LOUD AND WAKE ME UP” AND “MOMMMMMM, I TRY TO SLEEEEEEEP” and “NO SINGING EIEIO HENRYYYYY”.  Henry took Grant’s complaints as a request to sing louder and longer.  This went on for seriously like 10 minutes. 

chrysalis confusion, handy manny, and snow!

I love this 3+ age range.  Grant is super inquisitive about everything and absorbs an unbelievable amount of stuff from who knows where.  The other day I had a jalapeño left over from a recipe I’d made and Grant kept walking by it and finally asked “What’s that called?”  So I explained to him that it was a jalapeño pepper and you chop it up and use it in recipes.  He looked confused and replied with “No, you have to watch it a long time and it’s going to turn into a butterfly”.  Throughout the day he kept passing by it and telling me you had to watch it a long, long time.  After that I didn’t have the heart to chop it up.  However I did have to chuck it out last night as it was dangerously close to changing to something less pretty than a butterfly. 

This is Grant’s Handy Manny toolbox he got for Christmas but Henry has commandeered it.  He loves walking all over with it.  He just looks like he’s always taking off to go fix something.

 

We had the most bizarre weather yesterday.  It went from sun to rain to snow to thunder & lightning then some weird sleet balls and then finally to big fat snow flakes perfect for a snowman.  So I bundled up the boys to go out and play in the snow. They loved it.  Grant was disturbed that we didn’t have a CARROT for the nose but in the end was ok with a pinecone nose. 

He did have fun throwing snowballs.  Henry really liked getting out and running around in it. 

I figured the kajillion pictures would make up for not blogging for awhile :)

small updates…

This is Henry’s new favorite thing to do.  He is crazy good with clicking the mouse too.  Which ends up being really annoying when you’re trying to type things.  We’ve walked around the corner to see him sitting like this and he’s always very pleased with himself.  I wish the picture was in focus.. however I’m sure I’ll get the opportunity to take this again.  

So that’s kind of new.. we’re back to having to push all the chairs all the way in.  He’s not the most careful kid either.  He has developed his mother’s knack for ridiculously stupid injuries.  He’s completely walking now and is a serious dancing machine.  He will dance to anything musical that catches his fancy – commercial jingle, cell phone ring, whatever.. if it’s got a beat he’s got the boogie. 

Grant has been doing some fun stuff lately as well.  The other day we drove over a speed bump and he said “MOM!  I think the car just did a little hop!”  The parking lot where we were had a billion of them so he kept telling me “it hopped again!!” every time as if i couldn’t feel it myself.  His new word is “actually” as in “Actually, I don’t think I WILL pick up my toys”.  Over the weekend Peter and Grant built a chest of drawers for Henry’s room.  Grant was really proud of it and afterwards he was testing it out and said “Actually, Daddy, these are REAAALLY good drawers!!!” 

Grant seems to have take a real interest in art projects at school too and we’ve been taking home massive amounts of construction paper creations lately.  His teachers have said he’s doing like 6 projects.  I’d be lying if I said this didn’t please me. :) 

I called both boys The Snotsky Brothers this weekend as they were CONSTANTLY in need of having their nose wiped.  Of course the weekend is over and now I’m starting to feel like it’s finally caught up to me.  :P  Having said that I’m off to bed. :)

walking is the bizness, a rose by any other name sounds like a nag, spelling..

So today Henry is walking all over the place.  When he falls he stands himself back up and carries on walking.  I think we might be at the “preferring it” stage.  He also tried dancing and jumping while standing today.. the dancing looked a bit like fast tai chi and the jumping was pretty cute.  He was watching Grant hop around and he was doing some airless jumping and thinking he was following suit. 

Grant has take to calling us MOM and DAD.. not Mommy and Daddy.  I have no idea where he heard this but it’s a little disconcerting and sounds almost nagging.. “MOOOOOMMMMMMM I NEEEEEED you.. MOM?.. MOM!! MOOOOOOMMMMMMM! Can I have a cookie?”  I’m sure our reaction to it has just encouraged it even more… it doesn’t quite sound natural yet.  “What you doing DAD?” 

So tonight in order to document Henry walking all over we broke out the webcam.  Grant was upset because we didn’t video tape HIM walking.  So I explained to him that it was a new thing for Henry and when he did new things we would videotape him too.  As an example I said “When you learn to spell your name or do something new then we’ll be all excited and video you doing a new trick too!”  So Grant then steps back and says “G-R-A-N-T”.  Now.. last week I tried teaching him his name to the song BINGO because he loves that song.. all it did was end with him walking around singing “G-R-I-N-G-O is my name-o”.  Yes, Gringo… if he only knew.  So I kind of gave up on that effort, thinking I’d confused him.  Turns out knew how to spell his name all along - he just knew singing and spelling out GRINGO was funnier and more annoying.  He’s more like his dad than he knows.  So, as promised we broke out the video tape to document it.. and when asked he proudly spelled his name “G-R-I-N-G-O” and then tore off laughing and being a goof.  Once he realized we’d turned off the camera and put it away he then says he wants to spell his name G-R-A-N-T again.  I’m thinking we’re going to have a lot of “class clown” comments in his report cards. 

Christmas post.. finally.

We went back to Nebraska for Christmas and this time tried taking a direct flight into Denver and then renting a car in Denver and driving the rest of the distance to Cozad (which is around 4.5 hours).  The flights were probably the worst to date because Henry was over tired and had just HAD IT.  We had an upgrade to first class on the way back to NE and I really felt sorry for anyone near us who paid or wasted their upgrade that day. 

We got to meet up before Christmas with my dad’s side of the family, did Christmas eve/day with my brother’s family and celebrated with my mom’s side of the family a few days after Christmas.  The boys were very good despite having colds throughout most of our visit. 

Let it not be overlooked that their behavior could directly be linked to the endless amt of fun, cookies, and daily milk shakes provided by Gramma and Grampa.  About 10 minutes after we arrived mom and dad were forgotten and it was allll about the grandparents.  This my favorite pic of the entire vacation.

Peter and I got quite spoiled by my mom and dad as well and found ourselves being pushed out of the house most days to go out for dinner or a movie. 

Grant got his Batman set from Santa and Henry got a cell phone and a few other toys and all of us received really great gifts from my entire family.  We really are fortunate to have such a welcoming and generous family and to be able to come back for the holidays.  It’s hard living so far away from family but they all make it up the minute you drop your bags at the door. 

We had a pretty quiet New Years and all went to bed about 30 seconds after the stroke of midnight.  Grant somehow seemed to know something was up and snuck downstairs somewhere around 10 or 11pm. 

We all had a great time and much to Gramma and Grampa’s delight both boys were very excited about seeing them on the webcam as soon as we get back.

Peter and I are going on a cruise in May and my parents are going to come up and watch the boys for us.  I’m so excited for the cruise but it’s so much better knowing what a ball the boys will be having at home. 

gotta run.. it’s past my bedtime,

misty

And there are some firsts we’re not so proud of…

So I’m having a hard time coming to terms with this because up to this point Grant had never lied to us about anything.  “Grant! Did you hit Henry?” “Yes, I was hitting him on the head”.  “Grant! Did you take Henry’s toy?” “Yes, I wanted to play with it".”  So discipline in that area had been fairly easy.  But today, Grant told his first fib.

I was making split pea soup and Pete and I were tasting the broth to test it for seasoning and Grant was intrigued.  He asked what I’d made and I explained that it was Split Pea soup.  I asked him if he’d like to try some and he immediately said.  “No, I don’t like it.”  So (like I do at every other meal time) I recited the –you’ve never tried it before so how do you know you don’t like it – line.  And all while shifting and looking downwards he said “I DID try it before, you was not there, I was by myself and I didn’t like it”.  As if by chance he stumbled upon some split pea soup while out and about (without me) and tried it and decided it wasn’t for him.  The nerve!

As for his lying abilities.. he’s about as terrible as his mother is in that arena and I hope that continues to be the case until he’s 18.

-misty

post about Christmas coming tomorrow i promise!

walk like a mannn…

Just wanted to document quickly that I think Henry is REALLY close to walking all the time now.  He’s walking across the room now and taking a lot more steps around in general.  I felt like today at times he preferred it to crawling.  He still does it Frankenstein style though with both arms out in front of him for balance.  Hope to catch it on video soon and will post on flicker.

 

I have a very long winded Christmas post that should follow in a couple of days.. i just wanted to make sure we documented the doodle being bi-pedal.

-misty

Visitors and SANTAAAA!

We had a nice thanksgiving with Granny and Bryan visiting which wraps up our houseguest visits for the year.  The boys love having visitors and it was really nice being able to get out to see a few movies!  No time to exhale as we were immediately thrown into the Christmas season. 

Since Jennie and Bryan's departure we've been hit in rapid succession with this horrible paraflu or virus of some sort.  I had loads of plans to get things done and start doing special Christmas things with the boys and once the Green Goo monster hit everything has stood still. 

So far Peter has been the only one to come out unscathed but I know his number is up and he'll start feeling horrible the night before we have to leave for Nebraska. 

This weekend we opened gifts from our family in New Zealand and Grant and Henry got their gifts from us.  Since we're gone every Christmas we have to do this early enough that the boys get to play with the things for a bit before we leave.  We hadn't put any of the presents under the tree until they went to bed Friday night. 

When Grant came out Saturday morning we went to go make sure he hadn't ripped into them.   I found him under the dining room table lying down with tears in his eyes.  Not the response I thought we'd get.  After asking what was wrong and asking if he saw the presents he said.  "None of them are for me.. all for other people".  In Grant's school they use their names on everything and he's gotten quite good at recognizing it.  So on all the tags from people They either started with "To:" or "Happy Christmas" and so he thought they were ALL for other people.  It broke my heart.  So I had to go over and show him in the middle of the tag the letters I knew he'd recognize.  Then we got the look of glee we were expecting.  We then had to keep him from ripping into them until Henry was awake.  So Grant ran full speed down the hallway and turned on the lights and yelled "HENRY's AWAKE!!!! HE IS!!! COME SEE!"  At which point a very groggy Henry popped up to see what all the commotion was.  The boys both loved all of their gifts and we're very fortunate to have such loving family members.  Later on we took him downstairs to show him one of his presents from Gramma and Grampa too.  

On Sunday we had tickets for the Santa Train.  At this point Henry and I both felt horrible and the weather was SOOO cold for this area.  Like 20 degrees!!!  So we went back and forth on whether to go or not.  In the end we made a last minute decision to have Peter take Grant and Henry and I would stay at home and get rest.  Peter said that on the train Grant told him that he was going to ask for a GeoTraxx train set.  This was one of the gifts that Grant had opened yesterday so Peter had pointed out that he didn't need another one and Grant replied "Not for me daddy, for you.. I have one but you need one too" and when he went and sat on Santa's lap that is indeed what he asked him for - a Geotraxx trainset for his daddy.  That boy has a heart of gold.  So the Santa Train was fun and Peter said he was a bit awestruck when he first saw Santa but as you can see from the pics he warmed up to him right away.

Grant is very excited about our upcoming trip in an airplane to go and see Gramma and Grampa.. and his dad and I are already stressing out about predicted bad driving weather on both ends of our flight. 

I'll probably try to blog a bit from Nebraska..

Merry Christmas!!

Misty

"I'm thankful for big, big pie." -Grant Dampier

When I went to pick up Grant from preschool the other day on the board in front of me was a class turkey made of construction paper and each child had a feather.  On each feather was what the child told the teacher they were thankful for.  There were a lot of "normal" ones like "I'm thankful for my mommy and my little sister" (suck-ups in MY opinion), "I'm thankful for my trucks and I'm going to be an excavator digger when I grow up". And there in the middle was Grant's "I'm thankful for big, big, pie".  I kinda chuckled about it as that is SO Grant.  His teacher was behind me and thought I was laughing in disbelief and she said.. you know they don't all make sense.. we just write what they say.  We asked him and he said the same thing 3 or 4 times so I'm not sure if he understood the question.  I know Grant well enough to know that he kind of glazed over the whole meaning of thanksgiving lesson but like a little dog his ears perked right up when he heard the holiday included the possibility of pie.  He needed to let someone know right up front...he was excited about pie.. of the BIG, BIG variety.  He's his father's son. 

I'm just now realizing that while we OBVIOUSLY celebrated both boy's birthdays I failed to actually blog about it.  I'm seriously slipping in my blogging duties as a parent.  I'm sure this will be reflected in my yearly review that my husband keeps threatening to to give me.  :)  So fear not!  Grant did turn 3 and Henry did turn 1! 

Here are a few status updates:

Grant is pretty well onboard the potty train.. now onto the self wiping train.. ugh.  He's really liking his school and might even learn another kid's name someday.  :)  They all seem to remember "Grant with the glasses".  Since Halloween Grant has been OBSESSED with his "toy papers".  These are the weekly toys r us or target toy ads.  All that is heard in our house, all day, every Sunday has been.. MY TOY PAPERS!!! HENRY DON'T GET MY TOY PAPER!! I NEEEED MY TOY PAPER!  OH! I WEE'D A LITTLE BIT ON MY TOY PAPER!  NO! DON'T THROW AWAY MY TOY PAPER".  every Sunday (after 2 weeing accidents involving toy papers we've since stopped letting him be unsupervised in the bathroom with them).

Henry is movin on up.. in the growth charts he's now in the 10th percentile with weight woohooooo!!  He's just under 20lbs now but def. moving in the right direction.  His fav things at the moment are still eating paper and finding, throwing, saying Ball, and dancin.  Just in the last day or so he's liked standing on his own and dancin' without holding on to things.  He says Da-da quite clearly and points to Pete.  He says MAAAMAAAA quite clearly at 6am.. never DADA.. go figure. 

Both getting bigger and cuter every day. :)  We've got Granny and Bryan here at the moment visiting and Grant is REALLLY gearing up for Christmas.  It's so much fun now that he's actually really GETTTING it all... well. having said that.. him GETTTING thanksgiving was being thankful for big, big pie.  Tonight when Pete tucked him in he said he was thankful for Mommie.. and as an afterthought he said "and McDonalds".  So top THAT!  I beat out McD's :) 

I'm thankful this year and every year for a great husband, two wonderful, loving little boys and friends and family far and near who have given us such great love and support... and big, big, pie. 

focus, mom....

Over the past 2 weeks I haven't been the model parent when dealing with poo accidents.  I know you're supposed to be positive and encouraging in the face of it all but really, after cleaning it up day after day it wears on you.  So when Grant started saying that he made mommy sad when he poo'd in his wundies I thought I'd better change my ways.  Amazingly (or not so amazingly), it's worked.  The more I encourage and celebrate him getting it right the better he gets at it. 

So last night I went in and was very exuberant in my celebration of poo landing in the potty.  I was cheering and encouraging and yelling "GRANT!!!! YOU DID IT!!! YAY!!!! WAY TO GO!!! YOU'RE SUCH A BIG BOY! HIGH FIVE!"  Finally, Grant grabbed both sides of my face and whispered very solmenly "no, no..shhhhhhhhh mommy... mommy.  you need to wipe my bum".  It completely made me bust out laughing as if he were saying.. get a grip, focus on the task at hand mom.. geez calm down. 

Anyway, he's been doing really well with the encouragement but I guess I'll have to tone it down a bit. 

First haircut.

After a few months of everyone commenting on Henry's sideburns we decided he was looking a little Elfin and needed a haircut. 

We were slightly worried about 2 things.  One, obviously that Henry would freak out as he's been going through some separation & stranger anxiety lately.  But on top of that, Grant just got his haircut at the same place his dad gets his haircut where they have no kiddie car seats, movies playing, nor any toys or lollipops for doing well.  This magical land of haircuts also charges $30 so we were a bit eager for him to move on to big boy haircuts and Cheap Cuts.  :)  We were worried Grant might get a little jealous about Henry getting to sit in the car seat and play with the toys but fortunately Henry was happy to share (or really, unable to stop Grant from grabbing them).  He got a bit annoyed with the spray bottle and clippers but didn't cry at all.

I'm always amazed at how a haircut can transform a baby into a little boy.

 

new day - new skill..

Today Henry was being fussy in the backseat while I was running errands.  I gave him the nearest thing I could find to entertain him.  It happened to be a little container of these cereal-like puffs.  It seemed to work as I didn't hear anything for awhile.. and then suddenly I started hearing some mysterious crunching.  When I stopped this is how I found him.  He was very proud of himself and happily munching from his little mountain of puffs.  I snapped this with my cell phone.

potty training woes...

So I've found that with potty training a toddler it seems to be 3 steps forward a billon-ty huge and disgusting steps back.  For all the squeamish - You may want to bypass the next couple of paragraphs. 

I'd been avoiding the potty training all together taking the advice from several people that when they were ready it would be a breeze.  Grant would shout "NO!" every time I even MENTIONED the potty so I kept avoiding it and assumed he wasn't ready.  We had some friends (Jason & Sue) from England that raised 3 boys and after much talk on the subject Grant woke up a few days later with a completely dry diaper.  So I immediately took him to the potty to go.  He did resist at first and then after some distraction for about 5 minutes he went in the potty.  We celebrated and gave him a chocolate for going.  Since then we've been practicing naked time each time he has an accident because I think without thinking he reverts back to going in his pants.  It has all been going very well with very few accidents.  And just like that - the parenting fairy shows up to smack the smug look off your face. 

We thought we'd enjoy one of our last days of sunshine here by grabbing Grant a happy meal and going to the park.  It all went really well until Grant started ripping off his pants and looking very distressed.  There is no bathroom at this particular park.  We tried convincing him to go wee in the bushes and then realized to our dismay that he didn't need to do a wee.  Team Dampier quickly whipped into action as I held his hands and tried to calm him down and Peter whipped up an ingenious "NEW POTTY" out of his Happy Meal box.  Grant finally relaxed enough to go and I was SO glad the 3 wipes I had remaining in my diaper bag were good enough for clean up duty.  Grant went on his merry way.  Then it all started again.  Can I just say I'm SO glad the park was completely empty.  So this time we were really in a bind.  No more new potty, no more wipes, no more ideas.  I did feel horrible for him as he was really distressed and kept crying that there was "Poo in my Wundies".  Poor Henry was left in his stroller to look on the entire time.. and even he looked horrified.  By some stroke of luck I had spare clothes in the car and some plastic bags so we could all get home without contaminating everything. 

Aside from that mishap he's doing really well at going to the potty when he needs to and we've only had a couple of accidents so we're not doing too badly. 

In Henry news - he's very VERY fast at crawling and he's eating more and more solids.  I honestly think he will be happier once the bottle is finally done.  He just really seems to prefer food to milk.  It's amazing that he's as small as he is when you consider the amount that he eats.  He's like a goldfish and I have to cut him off at almost every meal and hide the food or he goes into a screaming fit.  He is also saying "DA-DA-DA-DA" quite well which pleases Pete.  He does say "MA-MA-MA" as well but not as often.  Lately he's been doing this thing where he shakes his head back and forth and thinks it's hilarious as well as Grant.  Henry really likes following Grant around and his favorite thing now is standing up at Grant's toy bins and just rummaging through them all.  Today was a splash-fest at bathtime by both boys.  It was pretty cute.  He had his 9 month baby check up last week and he's solidly into the 3-5% percentile for weight @ just under 17lbs and he's in the 25-50% for height.  He's very long and lean. :)

Anywhoo.. there's our little update.. haven't taken any pics in awhile but I really need to try and get some with the boys together.  Now that I've posted that I'll see if I'm more committed to getting it done. :)

-misty

real grampas give kisses...

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted an update. 

Henry is now a very proficient crawler and pulling up and getting into everything and Grant is doing new goofy things every day that crack us up.  My parents were here for 10 days and again got Halloween costumes done, work around the house done, all while being wrapped around 2 very tiny little fingers. 

Grant has now worked out what happens in a drive through and that there are more options available than the stuff he's been getting.  I was going through McDonalds and I'd ordered him a 4pc nugget happy meal.  The cashier asked if I wanted apple dippers or fries and I ordered apples (to make me feel less guilty about the mcd's in the first place) but the minute I said "apples" Grant pipes up from the back seat and yells "NO! FRIES!" so the cashier kinda laughed and asked which I wanted and I chuckled and ordered the apples again and Grant yelled. "NO GRANT WANT FRIES!!"  Fortunately by the time we got home he'd completely forgotten about them and happily ate his apples. 

OH!  Henry also has 2 little chompers!  You can see them in the first picture with my dad. He's been testing them out every chance he gets.  

We also seem to have a little speed demon on our hands.  This is a pic of Grant on a rollercoaster with Pete at Remlinger Farms. 

I love the look on Grant's face.  He's also game for any other ride that they'll let him on.  Other favorites are bouncy castles and the big giant slides they have at fairs (I let dad climb those stairs the 4 times and we only barely got out of that loop by providing another distraction).

Grant also "graduated" from his little pre-preschool class.  I love that place and I am so sad that he's done.  I have NO idea how they got him to pose in this picture but it's so stinkin' cute.

Thanks again to my mom and dad for all the things they help out with while they're here.  I swear we get more stuff done in the week they're here than we do the rest of the year. 

Grant is also starting to express his emotions more.  While my parents were here I was doing something in his room with him and he came up and gave me a kiss and said "Mommy, I wug you".  He then gave me a hug and kiss and walked off.  I didn't know what he said at first and then realized it and got a bit teary.  On the flip side he also felt what it was like to miss someone.  I had to take my parents to the airport at 3 or 4am so they were gone when Grant got up.  At the end of the day when Grant heard Peter coming up the stairs he got really excited and yelled GRAMMA & GRAM-MA (he is having problems saying Grampa at the moment) and ran over to the stairway to see them.  When he realized it was only daddy he looked so sad and started crying.  It broke my heart.  We've decided that Christmas is too long to wait to see the them again and just booked a ticket back for the end of September.  I'll be traveling alone with both boys to Denver and then renting a car and driving back to Cozad on my own.  Lord, help us. 

I think that's it for the updates - I really need to be posting more often so I don't miss things and these aren't so lengthy.

-misty

OH!  I forgot to mention.. I have no idea where it came from but Grant's new favorite saying is "It's SHOWTIIIME"  I have no idea where he heard it but it cracks us up which only makes him put his index finger up and say it again. :)