Grant the non-sleeper

Well its all too much for Granty-claus (as we now call him in honour of the Christmas spirit) - His latest trick is to keep awake until late at night refusing to go to bed due to all the excitement of meeting new folks. He then crashes out only to wake at 12, 2, 4, and 6am.... Next he has a nap until 8am when he wakes again causing us to decide that he is now "up" for the day - so we shower/get dressed - Only for him to crash out around 8.30am for a couple of hours while we're left up thinking - "Damn I could do with some sleep".... :)

Of course its now 11.30pm and we could have been asleep for 2+ hours along with Grant but we missed that boat again...

He is loving all the attention though! Smiles galore, he's also discovered reaching and grabbing Mum and Dad's glasses! Time to put contacts in tomorrow.... Of course the Mr Poopemheimer tendancies are still there - We need a lot of clothes each day for Mr Granty-Claus - One red suit just ain't gonna cut it.

Some friends of Misty's parents also had a spare Jumperoo so he is loving using that here in Cozad as well as the one my Mum gave him for Christmas in Seattle... Much appreciate that as it really helps keep him entertained while normal life proceeds...

Off to meet some of Misty's high school friends tomorrow night which we're looking forward to especially since Joanna and Dennis had a baby girl(Addie) this summer - It will be fun to catch up both with them and their experiences.

Signing off - 'Sleepless in Seattle-errr Cozad'

Pete.

Christmas in Cozad

We arrived in Cozad on Saturday afternoon after a 2am start to the day in Seattle. The plane trip with Grant went pretty well though its amazing how many dirty looks you get from people on a plane when a baby cries! The number of times Misty and I both wanted to shout out, "Yes we love the noise to" was limitless. :)

We spent Saturday at Chris and Audra's (Misty's brother and sister-in-law) and had a great time catching up with them and Taylor and Timmy (who have grown so much in 6 months since the baby shower this last summer).... Chris daringly offered to let me try out the ATV's that he'd bought this last fall and I survied - had much fun flying off ridges around their yard. The cold couldn't stop that much fun, even if it did take some effort to get Misty to try them out...

Its was a balmy -17c here last night with a day time high of -9c - Pretty cold but at least no additional wind chill to make things truly evil. I think Grant got quite a shock going from the car to the house etc....

Grant's Grandma and Grandpa arrived back at the house after we'd driven across to Cozad earlier on Sunday afternoon.... There was a mad rush between them both to get into the house first to see (a sleeping!) Grant...

Some photos of Grant as he gets into the Christmas spirit:

our little show-off

So I think I've figured out that Grant only likes to perform his cool new tricks in front of an audience. We've always joked around about Grant having a crush on his doctor. Everytime we go to her office he's completely whiney up until the point she enters the room. She checks him all over and he looks at her with those big eyes like "look at what a good baby I am.. I'm always like this!". The minute she leaves he starts to fuss. When I webcam with my mom and dad Grant is always doing his little tricks smiles for the camera. Today at my moms group I put Grant on the ground to show everyone his little inchworm crawling. Grant started up right away and once everyone ooo'd and ah'd he flipped from his front to his back. Everyone was well impressed and after the praise stopped he'd flipped back to his front like he'd been doing this at home all the time. He also sits on my lap during the entire group and watches all the other babies as they get fussy as if he never does himself. Little show-0ff.

We're off to Nebraska in a few hours and it's truly unbelievable how much additional crap we've had to pack. I just emailed my brother who is picking us up at the airport and asked him to maybe consider bringing 2 cars. Crazy how one little guy can require so much stuff!!

off to shower and get a teeny bit of sleep before we leave the house at 2:45am!!!!

wish us luck!!!

-misty

look ma no hands! and our faceless baby...

So last night Peter watched Grant while I ran out and finished up some last minute errands before our big trip. The problem with this is that Pete tends to think all awake time is high stimulation play time. I came home at 9:45pm only to find Pete and Grant awake and singing on the floor. This totally screwed with his sleep time and he was awake every 3 hours again last night.

The good thing is that he wanted to impress Dad during Daddy/Grant time and really worked hard on his crawling. But he is a stubborn little guy. He doesn't think he's got any real need for arms or hands at this point other than the fact that they have thumbs on the end of them. When we do tummy time he kicks and gets his little butt up in the air but leaves his arms back and at his side. I move them to the front and he moves them right back to where they were. Last night during tummy time with Pete he's figured out he can do the whole crawling thing sans arms. He looks like a little inchworm sticking his butt up in the air and pushing his face and chest forward on the carpet. He doesn't get very far but seems to be pretty happy that he's finally moving. Meanwhile I think we're going to have to invest in a boxing helmet or something to avoid carpet burns on his face- we've got Christmas pictures coming soon!

At around 1am last night he went went right into the high pitched squeals bypassing the normal "I'm hungry" whiney-type cries. So I rushed in to make sure he was ok and found his foot sticking out the slats of the crib. He does this a lot and then gets stuck so I thought that was the problem but when I grabbed his foot it was facing toes down. In my sleep deprived stupor I started to panic that he'd somehow completely broken his foot and it was now dangling the wrong way around. I panned up his little body to his face to comfort him and it was GONE. Panic had really set in as I looked at my baby who'd broken his foot and lost his face. I actually stood there completely confused for a full two seconds before I realized that his cries were coming from closer to the face side of his head which was on the mattress, and that he'd figured out how to roll over in the night and got himself stuck. I know this sounds like an exaggeration.. I can assure you it's not. Somehow with the little sleep I've been getting this all made sense at the time.

We're off on Saturday and I'm totally excited but totally nervous about the whole traveling with Grant thing. We'll see how we do... wish us luck!

-misty

Grant the Husker fan.....

Grant in his cool outfit from Mistys Mum and Dad...

More photos in the album....

Next Saturday we fly back to Cozad - Grant's first plane trip. The mind boggles at the complexities involved. Planning has begun!

Rent! the movie & doodie calls...

I took Granty to this ReelMom's movie day which was featuring Rent! I was sort of addicted to the Rent soundtrack while I was pregnant and he used to kick up a storm when I listened to it. I didn't have long to find out how he'd react. He bounced and sang along to every song for the first 45 minutes. I actually missed the beginning of the movie because I was laughing and watching him "Ooooo ooooo OOOOO oooooooeeeooooo" along every time a song came on.

His sing-a-long got him so excited that he ended up doing the mother of all blow-outs during the second half of the movie. I took him up to the changing pad in the restroom and spent the next 30 minutes and all the wipes I had left in my diaper bag getting him cleaned up. I actually considered clogging up one of the sinks and just dipping his butt in it but thought I might get some dirty looks from other theater go-ers. Also, I didn't know which parts of him I could touch without getting myself dirty. Having these blow-outs at home is one thing, having them remotely is quite another. I got him changed and into his reserve outfit and patted myself on the back for having the foresight to pack extra clothes and matching socks. As I walked out I felt a spot on my arm go warm and he'd wee'd through his diaper that I'd haphazardly threw on in my blow-out changing frenzy. Fortunately it was a small spot and he didn't seem to bothered by it until we got home that afternoon.

In other news Grant is getting more and more animated and smiley day by day. I can't wait to go home for Christmas and introduce him to everyone and see Gramma and Grampa again! Only 11 more days!!!

-misty

Its Christmas early for Grant....

Grant's Granny left him a fabulous early Christmas present before returning to New Zealand....

See Grant in all his bouncing glory!!

He also just started reaching out for objects and the toys on the front of the bouncer are of extreme interest to him!

Of course none are still as interesting as his best friend lampie.







Dad being honored with a smile normally reserved for lampie!










More photos of Grant uploaded to the Flickr photo album in the 'Grant' set - You can now order prints directly from Flickr and pick them up at Target... 10 free!