working at getting us around that little finger...

So Grant really hasn't shown any signs of Separation Anxiety or Stranger Anxiety yet. He couldn't care less if we leave the room or if someone else is holding him. However taking a toy away from him is a far more serious matter that deserves a big pouty lip, and a couple of loud wails to let you know he is NOT happy. When you're around him all the time you learn how to quickly distract him with an allowed toy or moving him to another room. Pete hasn't honed the skill of distraction (or "quiet time" but that's a whole different blog post) and learned today that laughing about this new development doesn't really help a tired Grant get over the fact that you've taken his toy. I came home from a short trip to the grocery store to see them both in the driveway and Grant's tear stained face led me to believe something serious had happened. The big tears were over a camera case that Daddy wouldn't let him play with.

We're putting Grant into a daycare for the day on July 5th so we can do a date day and I'm having some anxiety about it all. I worry that the separation anxiety will finally kick in and we'll have some trust issues to work on. Ha! I say trust like he's taken the car without permission. It's just the first time he's being left with a sitter (aside from gramma and grampa) and it's a new place, new people. Oh well, I'm sure he will be fine ... it's me that will have the issues :).

In other Granters news - He's doing more sign language. I figured out the way to make him do the sign for "more". The secret is chocolate pudding. I think he would have attempted to skip across the room if he thought it would get him another spoonful of pudding. :) Although, quickly after he did the sign for "more" he made his own sign for "NOW" by banging on his high chair try and screaming. :)

that's all for now.. hope everyone has a happy 4th of july!

-misty

Dad and his shed!

So what seems like many moons ago we visited Costco to buy a shed. This was no simple task as said shed doesn't fit in any car. So we rented a truck from the "cunningly located" UHaul right next to Costco and lugged it home.

Eager to start I opened the huge boxes and sat down with the manaul - Yes I'm not that stupid and know my limitations with DIY - So I read the manual. It clearly stated that the ground must be level - showed pictures of people leveling ground with a 2x4 and level etc...

So I headed out and found a bit of level ground in our yard - looked great to me - damn level alright.

So I started assembling the shed....

Screw floor pieces together - Check
Find side - panels - Check
Put first side panel up and attach to the floor - check
Put second side panel up and attach to the floor - check
Put third side panel up and attach to the floor - check
Put fourth side panel up and attach to the floor - check errr welllll no.... errrmmmm...

It appears the manual really wasn't kidding about using levels and making sure the ground was absolutely flat. The fourth side didn't line up right due to the ground not being perfectly level.

At this point there was a bit of swearing.

So I had to unassemble the whole thing (no easy task due to the "snap" bits not "unsnapping" easily - technical shed building term)

So I had shed pieces all over our yard and 3 huge shed boxes blocking up one stall of our garage.

For weeks.

Undeterred I paid our local landscaping neighbors guy to level off a section of yard properly.

Finally last weekend I built the thing! Only actually took about 3 hours - I got it all done apart from the Windows which had to wait for the next weekend....

Now its all finally ready we had a big family shed opening ceremony...

9 month visit and Grant speaks!!

We had Grant's 9 month visit on Friday which was also my birthday. At the time I thought the best birthday present was finding out he didn't have any injections due at this visit! Our little heffalump is now 21.5 lbs and 29.5" tall. He's in the 95 percentile for height and 50th for weight. Which is what he's always been. Mr. Long and Lean. He did have to have a finger poke to test for anemia which I thought would make him cry but he only seemed to be mad that he couldn't play with the little tubes they collect the blood in.

AND THEN Grant said his first word!! I know that babies' first words are whatever you kind of hear them to be but this was the first time anything he said was really recognizable. Pete came home a bit early from work and waved at Grant and said "Hello" and Grant looked back at him and waved and said "H'lo" right back. We kind of laughed and repeated "Hello" with waving and he kept doing it! I don't think he completely understands what it means or when to do it.. but he knows that saying "Hello" goes with waving. He's stopped to wave and say "H'lo" to us at various times throughout the weekend.

So all in all a great birthday weekend and a great Father's day :)

While on the subject of Father's Day I'd just like say what a great Dad Peter is. Since we've had Grant, Pete rushes home every night to make sure he can be there to say goodnight at the end of each day. Grant completely lights up every time he sees him. When he hears Peter's voice somewhere in the house he looks to the stairwell where daddy always magically appears from every night. On the weekends when Pete's around to help out more with Grant, he's always taking him outside around the yard pointing out little leaves and bugs and things. I love watching Daddy/Grant time and seeing that special bond they've already developed. And while he'll never be happy about having to help out with icky diapers (who would) I know he's as in love with our little guy and what's better than that, really? Though, I wonder if Grant has any idea that Daddy's secretly counting down the days til he can hand over the mowing to him? Happy Fathers Day!

-misty

waterbabies and attitude

Grant starts waterbabies next week so I had an orientation and had to buy his swimming gear. Of course I rushed home to try it on him. He was just happy to be rid of most of his clothes. :)

I also tried to get a pic of him when I take too long with the bottle. Once he finally gets it he glares at me out the side of his eyes while he angrily drinks his milk. :) This isn't the really angry glare as he was torn between being mad and smiling for the camera.

-misty

mr. munchmouth

So Grant's been getting better at getting things in his mouth including veggie puffs, cheerios, and who knows what else. I keep catching him coming out of the kitchen chomping his mouth obviously snacking on something in there on the ground. When dogs do this you think.. hrm.. cool... kind of useful.. when your 9 month old does this it's not really cute. If he's gained any weight at his next Dr. visit it's going to be from his diet of dust bunnies, cheerios and random pieces of paper. I'm always pulling some sort of paper from Grant's mouth, whether it's a receipt, kleenex, sales ad (his favorite) or shopping list they all end up crammed in his mouth with little chompmarks taken out. I've been in denial that he's actually ingested any of these things. I quickly grab them away and think "whewww good thing I got to that in time" and then just kind of blatantly ignore the missing parts of the paper. Yesterday I found a piece of paper when I was changing his diaper that assured me he IS actually eating this stuff. On the flipside I realized apples were on sale at Safeway.

-misty

mini-vacation and our little monkey..

We spent memorial day weekend in Whistler B.C. (cool little ski resorty village in Canada) and had a great time. Traveling wasn't as easy as our earlier trips have been as Grant isn't sleeping as much as he did when he was a baby but he was pretty good during the long drive. I sat next to him and kept passing him toys. We've labeled the space between his carseat and the door "the land of misfit toys". When he's tired of a toy or isn't interested anymore he chucks it off the side of his car seat into this space and whines because he doesn't have any toys. Then an hour later when you go to get him out of his carseat you have an avalanche of rejected toys the minute you open the car door.

Here are some pics oot and aboot Whistler.

The condo we stayed at was a one bedroom condo was really nice and really close to the village. Because it was a one bedroom condo Grant's portable crib thing had to be placed in the bedroom we slept in. He LOVED waking up and being able to stand up and be heard immediately. He also liked being able to crawl around and investigate every non-toy in sight. We brought this huge bag of toys up that was ignored for most of the weekend. He had fun climbing up the one step they had too, though I wasn't brave enough to let him try climbing down.

He's such a little monkey. Today I had to finally ban him from playing with the canvas bin I bought to store all of his toys. He's been playing with the bin more than his toys and today he flipped it upside down and kept throwing his toys over it and then trying to crawl up over the bin to get the toys again. The bin is like a foot+ tall and he can get his entire body on top of it and then reaches over the side for his toy. A bit too scary for me.

I've got him signed up for swimming lessons starting June 20th. I can't wait. He's going to love that.

-misty