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. :)

diego & thomas all in one weekend & the puller-upper...

I took Grant to a Go Diego Go! Live show. For those of you without kids Diego is Dora The Explorer's cousin (for those of you who don't know who Dora is - go back to sleep Mr. van Winkle). So Diego is an animal rescuer and Grant's favorite show right now. I mentioned it a few days before that we were going to see Diego on Friday. Every day Grant would get more and more excited to "Go see Diego on Fri-NAY". The show was pretty cute and Grant ate his body weight in popcorn. It was the first time I'd seen him really bust a move in front of other people.. and his dancing moves were more like marching.. but it was good to see him let loose. :)I found a cute Diego looking vest on L.L.Bean and then bought him a shirt and shorts like Diego. 

 

On Sunday we went to go see Thomas the Tank Engine again. Grant really enjoyed the train ride and all the Thomas activities there.   On the way out I wanted to have a quick stroll through the merchandising section on my own but Pete decided we should walk through with Grant. Obviously Pete is not privy to the billions of tantrums today to have not realized this was a bad idea. It actually wasn't too bad but on the way out Grant started throwing a fit about wanting some book.. turns out it was a free catalog with all the trains in it. So we grabbed one for him and he didn't put it down til we got to the car. On the way to the car Thomas was coming down the track and we were yelling "GRANT!!! LOOK!!! IT'S THOMAS!! HE'S COMING RIGHT NOW!!!" Grant just kept saying "No, Grant read book" and he sat down to read. Here's the pic we got. Still cracks me up that he's so enthralled with a book that has Thomas in it but the actual huge train right beside him doesn't even deserve a raised eyebrow. :) Kids.

I don't have any good pics of Henry doing this but we will snap some soon.  He's pulling up on everything but not all the way to his feet.  He only pulls up to his knees so he can see or get to something.  His favorite two things to do this with right now are Grant's easel, as there is a tray with loads of tasty crayons (second favorite food only to paper) and to Grant's toy bins.  It's been such an adjustment thinking in terms of him being so mobile.  It's quite cute to see him crawl around after Grant though. :)

Henry potato head

  Grant has a Mr. Potato head that comes with all the old school accoutrements as well as some newer ones such as this little green baseball cap.  He keeps balancing it on Henry's head and then laughing like crazy and saying "LOOK WHAT HENRY DO!" which in turn makes Henry laugh at Grant laughing.  Weirdly, Henry is able to balance it for quite awhile on his head until I get a camera out.  Yesterday I finally caught a couple of pictures. 

...and we're mobile.. and we're of elite status?

Henry started crawling yesterday morning (Saturday) @ 7 months and 6 days old. He was finally motivated to get his arms off the ground when both remotes were placed about 3 feet in front of him.  This should come as no surprise as Grant crawled @ 7months & 8 days in order to get to a laptop.  All of my guys seem to be motivated by electronics.  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree I guess. 

And we have an elite status member of United Airlines in our presence.  We signed Grant up for an Airmiles plan when we had to start paying for his tickets.  We're all members of United Airmiles Plus but yesterday in the mail Grant received a letter from United extending him an offer of flying Elite Status for his flights within the next 3 months.  Nothing for us.  We are more than happy to let him experience the joys of first class while we slum it back in coach.  I don't think they have any idea of the terror that they will have unleashed.  "More sparkling cider, Mr. Dampier?"

Ok.. I've got to get to work on dinner.  All of us are sick so we got absolutely nothing done over the weekend.

oh.. i thought this was cute.. you can barely see it but in the pic below Grant is wearing a belt he calls his "Rock & Roll" belt. :)

-misty

Dad's day! Grant pour milk, need a rope & scootin' doodle

We spent the first part of Father's Day hanging around home.  Grant made Peter a nice father's day card at school with his hand print and then he decided that he wanted it back shortly after giving it to Pete.  He kept calling it Grant's Blues Clues hand print.  Peter spent the day doing yard work and then the evening he took me to a musical in Seattle called Avenue Q (which features mostly puppets).  So how's that for a super dad.  Spending your one day a year doing crap yard work followed by an adult puppet show.  As weird as it may sound the musical was really good and a lot of fun. 

A few weeks ago I had bought a small pint of heavy cream because Peter likes to use it in oatmeal.  After breakfast that day Peter and I were in the front room when I heard a splash from the kitchen.  Grant has been putting his bowl and spoon in the sink lately so I kind of hoped that's what I'd heard but then Grant go quiet and they say  "Grant pour milk".  Peter got up to check on him and this is what he walked in on.  (excuse the kitchen mess we were clearing out cupboards) He then made an attempt at somehow eating it off the floor.  Gross.  Grant is not a fan of the 5 second rule as he feels that expiration point is much too hasty.  I've finally got him bringing me junk he finds around before eating it but I'm not sure it makes it to the trash can when I send him there. 

I'm finding that I really enjoy this age with him as he's constantly doing something funny that cracks me up.  Last week we were doing a webcam session with Grampa and Gramma and Grant had decided the chair we were sitting on wasn't good enough and went to drag another chair in from the kitchen.  I was hearing him grunting as he tried to move the chair.  I've been working with him to ask for "help please" when he needs it but it still takes some coaching at times.  On this particular occasion I stopped him and asked if he needed help moving the chair and he replied "No.  Need a rope."  I know he's in the do everything myself stage but it made me laugh thinking how his mind worked.."if I only had a rope I could pull it myself".

Oh and one last Grant story - This past weekend I gave Grant a nectarine to deliver to Peter who was out on the deck.  Normally I cut up Grant's fruit in really small pieces so it doesn't get everywhere so he thought it was quite novel to have the whole thing and started eating it.  I figured they were out on the deck so I could just hose him down if it got too messy.  He and Peter sat out there eating nectarines happily until Grant stopped and looked at me completely disgusted and said "Mommy.. there's a ROCK in my peach".  No matter how much I tried to explain to him it was a pit and a seed it wouldn't get through.  He left his peach with a rock on the table and wouldn't touch it after that. 

Now Henry Doodle is getting quite big.  I threw out my back a couple weeks ago and had to go on some heavy muscle relaxants which meant I couldn't nurse.  Henry was already having one bottle of formula every night before bed to bulk him up so it wasn't a huge transition to switch him to all formula while I was on the medication.  What I didn't expect was how MUCH weight he'd gain in that week.  I don't know the exact weight gain but he was going through 6oz every few hours and just LOOKED and felt heavier every time we picked him up.  When I was well enough to get off the meds he'd decided that he was done nursing completely and considering how much he'd gained and how much time it was going to take to make my production match what he'd been drinking I just decided we'd do all formula from now on except when he wakes in the night I'll continue to nurse him.  He seems to be doing well with that. 

He is SO SO ready to be moving.  He is even moving his legs back and forth like he's crawling he just can't work out the hands.  He is Mr. Stretchy though.  He can inch himself across the room by stretching out to try and grab something just out of reach.  Pete saw him doing this tonight and said he was surprised he didn't dislocate his shoulder or something doing this.  I'm going to try and snap a pic of him doing this as he is stretching his ENTIRE body.  He's a VERY determined little guy. 

He's also back to blowing raspberries which he thinks is pretty cool.  Oh and he HATES broccoli.  I gave him some last week and after the first couple of bites he started rolling it around in his mouth and making himself gag.  Which I found hilarious and like any good mom I got the video camera to record.  After the next few bites he was crossing his arms in front of his face to stop the spoon from getting near his mouth. 

Anyway.. I was determined to get another post in before an entire month had passed and I JUST made it. :)

-misty

"don't like (insert everything)" & henry the rocker

Grant is entering this new really annoying phase of telling us immediately after we tell him what he's having for breakfast, lunch or dinner "DON'T LIKE (offending food choice that he really loves)".  It's all about independence.  If I then have that food out and start taking a bite he'll decide he needs it NOW.  It's driving me nuts as it's now morphed into anything that he could possibly have a choice with.. choice in pajamas, diapers with Mickey Mouse on the bikes or Mickey Mouse on roller skates, red shoes or blue shoes, white socks or grey socks.  Manipulating every possible choice in order to get out the door is taking hours out of my day. 

It's also starting to get nice out so I can pretty much bribe Grant into doing anything with a promise of getting to go out or letting him eat outside.  We had his buddy Kyle and his family over for Memorial Day weekend and this is the two of them sitting on Grant's little bench outside. 

Henry is SO close to crawling.  He's on all fours rocking and scooting backwards all the time.  All last week I kept finding him under our big sofa chairs and once came in the room to find his two little feet sticking out like the wicked witch of the East.  In the past couple of days he's been moving his knees forward but not getting much traction.  I've only got a few more days before I'll really need to go back and re-childproof.  I hadn't realized how small he was until he got up on all fours and I immediately flashed back to Grant being at that age and how much bigger Grant was at 6 months.  We're still working at bulking him up. :)

Bedtime has become an interesting ordeal lately.  For some reason when Peter is home it all goes a bit nuts.  Grant goes through the motions of bedtime and then as soon as you say good night and walk out he jumps up and turns on the light and starts chucking toys and whatever out of his room.  Henry, no matter how tired, will cry his head off unless I sit in the rocker next to his bed for 10-15 minutes til he feels dozy enough to not care.  As I type this I'm hearing Henry scream because I didn't do this and I'm debating on whether it's worth me going back to do it or just letting him cry it out. :P  It's sounding like it's ramping up.. I'd better go clock back in.  Never a moment's rest! :)

 

-misty

mother's day, starting solids, and daddy's FINALLY back. :)

Mother's Day was a quiet little affair in The Dampier household.  Peter had left for Japan the Friday before so it was just me and the boys.  I'd gotten at least a 5 hour chunk of sleep the night before and it's amazing how much cuter your kids are when you're feeling well rested.  I'm just a much better mom when I've gotten some sleep. 

Grant made me this little mother's day pin in school.  I thought it was cute.  He's since reclaimed the pin and declared it his.  :)

 

Henry started solids on Friday as well.  I have no idea where time went but apparently we're at 6 months!  I the combination between having a toddler, Grant's seizures when Henry was a few weeks old and all of our traveling have made me feel like this 6 months has just flown by.  He had his six month visit and he's gaining weight.  He's not on the charts yet but he is gaining.  He's now 13.5lbs. 

There are some more pics over on the right side in our flicker photo album.

So.  I've survived another week without Pete being home but I'm exhausted.  It doesn't quite work when I tell Peter that after he's been on a bajillion hour flight but that's only one night.  I'm sure my level of exhaustion surpasses his by miles - tho I'm sure he'd argue.  After all it's really tough going out to really night restaurants every night. :)  Either way we're glad to have him home.  

-misty

oh! there are also some pictures in a photo album of a toy chest i just painted for a former co-worker of mine.  It's from a book called Ella the Elephant and is for her niece Ella. 

henry doodle

 

he's gaining weight!  at the doc today he was 12lbs 9oz! 

bespectacled boy

Grant recently got glasses to correct an astigmatism.  We took him into the eye doctor just to kind of rule out our worries that he needed glasses.  It ended up he didn't need them for near sightedness at all like we'd thought but he did have an astigmatism that did warrant glasses and would have gone undetected had we not gone in on a whim.  Sooo.. this is his second pair of glasses.  The first pair we got him cost 5x more than these little Harry Potter looking glasses and he ended up looking over the top of them the entire time. 

It's a nice day so I'm going to run out and see if I can get a few snaps of Henry as well.  :)

Hot Tub!

When we moved into this house the previous owners had a hot tub that they took with them (long story). After humming and harring for 5 years we finally bit the bullet and decided to put one back on the deck since we had all the wiring etc all ready in place....

Can't wait to get it hooked up and filled!

new fangled techno crap & i smell a rat.. :)

I have come to the realization that we have somehow slid into middle age-dom at somepoint and have been completely unaware. It starts with something as harmless as realizing the hip new top 40's radio DJ's are so annoying that you're constantly hitting the preset buttons to get you back to your old familiar easy listening Waaaaaarm 106.9 station. I still occasionally visit the top 40's stations so I can feel like I'm remotely "with it" on the music scene and sing along to the occasional Jonas Brothers tune (never mind that it's an 80's remix). The other day Peter borrowed my car and came back saying.. "OMG.. they changed that station that used to have to good music on it (referring to the easy listening channel) it's now some crazy weird techno and rap station... it's horrible." I had to make him a cup of tea and inform him that he's now closer to 40 than ever and that the "crazy weird techno and rap" music was top 40. We're so uncool.

Today Kyle and Grant had a little playdate. Kyle is Grant's closest playmate and Grant asked for him over and over again in New Zealand so we were happy to have them over today. Both boys are going through a really annoying stage where they hate being changed and you have to physically hold them down to do a diaper change and get any sort of clothing on or off. They were running back and forth chasing eachother when I caught a familiar noxious whiff of something from a full diaper. I asked Grant if he pooed and he looked at me and said "Grant no go poo" and without missing a beat he ratted Kyle out by saying "Kyle go poo". Kyle was none to be happy to be ratted out and Grant obviously had no feelings or remorse as he stood outside the baby gate eating his snack watching Kyle and Jannel wrestle with the diaper change.

-misty

good bye pork pies, meat pies, and the land of kiwis

I can say in no uncertain terms that we have 2 amazing little travelers.  There were points when we were close to tears but they were mine not theirs.  We started out the day at a not-so-bright and early 4am to leave the house by 5am for our 7am flight.  After 2 long lines (one to check in the other to pay the New Zealand departure tax) we left on the first leg of our 3 legged flight.  I honestly can't remember anything about the flight other than they played the movie Enchanted.. which is only memorable because we RARELY get out to see movies anymore and we'd seen this one over Christmas in Nebraska. 

Getting on and off airplanes is quite the ordeal with 2 little ones.  We basically need a stroller for Grant for containment as he is still quite the flight risk.  Grant's car seat for the plane because airplane buckles are no match for Senor Busybutt and he is again a flight risk (pun intended).  He's also able to sleep in his car seat and we need it on the other end.  Then we have the car seat and snap and go stroller thingy for Henry.  Add to this my diaper bag, Peter's laptop bag, a back pack and Grant's carry on Spiderman rolling suitcase which was both a blessing and a curse.  It wouldn't seem like we'd NEED all of this stuff until you realize after this initial 3 hour flight that we were due to have an 8 hr layover followed by a 13.5 hour flight another 2 hour layover and then finally our 3 hour flight home. 

So imagine our surprise when we arrived at Sydney for our 8 hour layover and they told Peter they didn't return any strollers that had been gate checked at their airport and that our stuff would be waiting for us back in Seattle (Peter Edit: Actually worse than that - At Christchurch the strollers had only been checked as far as Sydney cos we'd collect them getting off the plane per a usual gate check - since Sydney airport "doesn't do that" we were stuck with strollers that would neither get to us there nor get to Seattle).  So a 45 min argument ensued on the plane between Peter and the airline crew, while I was in the terminal with both kids cursing Pete and wondering what was going on.  So we finally got all of our junk and started out on the 8 hr layover which amazingly ended up being the easiest part of the flight. 

We decided about an hour after hanging around the airport that we'd pay for a day pass to Air New Zealand's 1st class lounge.  This is bar-none the BEST money and smartest thing we've ever done on a flight.  Our flight ended up being delayed so the layover was 10 hours but we were in the Family Room enjoying really -nice complimentary food and drinks all day -(Peter: I owe my very survival to the champagne there).  We finally boarded the SYD to SFO flight and settled in for the 13.5 hours.  I decided to purposely avert my eyes every time the little onscreen map came up to show where we were thinking along the "watched pot never boils" line.  After our FIFTH movie (including Enchanted again and Dan in Real life -saw that one in Cozad over Xmas as well! Typical!) I decided to go ahead and check where we were and let myself have a peek at the little onscreen airplane.  How depressing it was to find that we still had 3.5 hours to go. 

Grant had a few squeals but overall was really really good  & Henry just slept and ate.  But it was obvious we were going to miss our SFO to SEA flight.  I tried to remain positive but after the clerk told us we'd have to be booked on the 8:30pm flight (it was noon) I nearly started to cry.  They did offer to put us in a hotel for the evening but we thought we could tough it out and make it.  So after that huge ordeal we finally got our bags rechecked in and braced ourselves for another huge layover, minus the nice drinks and food and lounge.  It was at this moment when wee little Henry decided to barf all down the front of Peter's shirt.  Henry has never in his 4 months of living spit up ONCE.. not even barfed a bit into his mouth.. nothing until this.  :)  Nothing like feeling gross after living in the same clothes for that long but then adding baby puke to it just tops it all off.  It did make me laugh out loud though.  In the end we ended up realizing we'd made an error about 2 hours later when we couldn't see straight and went back and took them up on their hotel offer.   We got back the next day around 2 in the afternoon. 

It was all worth it to get back to New Zealand and spend time with family (thanks to Jennie ("Granny") for being a great and patient host to us with our very rambunctious Grant and ever hungry Henry.  And thanks to Sarah and Crispin & co for having us at their bach over Easter and for taking Grant and Peter out on their boat - GO GO GO as Grant would scream!  He loved it! Also many many thanks to Bryan for all the help while we were there - hats, cell phones, nintendo chargers, getting up at 4am to help take us to the airport - you name it and Bryan did it... 

Since our trip Grant has been refusing to sleep in his bed & falling asleep on the floor inside his gate every night.  Henry has been to the doctor and has dropped from the 5th percentile in weight to the 3rd percentile so we're now giving him a bottle of formula after his night feeding.  Between the traveling and the change with eating he's now starting to wake about every 2-3 hours.. which are oddly timed with Grant's night waking's.  I'm not getting much sleep at all.  Speaking of which it's 9:30pm so I'm going to sign out.

 

If you're bored all 402 or so photos are now on our flickr web site in this set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dampier/sets/72157604120794941/

 

-misty

oh.. forgot

Yesterday Peter and I headed out to the grocery store after Grant and Henry went to bed. Apparently after a few minutes Grant was up again. Jenny went in to check on him and explain that it was bedtime and she was also given the "Granny OUT!" treatment. Nice to know it's not just Peter. :)

The other couple of Grant things I wanted to mention were the amount of bumps and bruises Grant has gotten since he's been here. He's skinned his knees and knocked his head more times than I can count. A few days ago we were getting fish and chips and had to wait outside until the shop opened. Grant had wandered underneath this sign that was just about his eye level. There were trees and bushes behind the sign and rather than going in after him Peter decided to joke that there were monsters back in there -not thinking Grant would even take notice or understand. Grant turned on his heel and ran full speed back out of the trees not quite ducking enough to clear the sign and we saw his feet fly up in the air and him land flat on his back. I think he was quite shaken up by the whole thing. He was fine but I think if we'd gotten that on video it would have been on america's funniest videos. The other incident that happened a day later was at the pancake rocks. Grant was walking by this little girl who was quite pretty and he couldn't take his eyes off of her. His body kept moving full pace and he ran right into a wall. He then started kissing the ground so I have no idea if he knocked a little screw loose or what but everything seems to be back to normal again.

I HOPE I'm not jinxing myself here by saying tonight was the quietest bedtime we've had since we arrived. And we didn't even have t resort to drugging either of them!! :)

-misty

Daddy OUT! & blowout city

I'm typing this from Peter's account but rest assured it's me.. as Peter hasn't entered a blog post in probably a year.

We just got back last night from a 4 day/3 night long trip up to the North part of the South Island. We spent a couple of nights in Kaiteriteri which is right along the beach and where the water taxis and cruises take off from. It was a pretty long drive and Henry gave us a lovely ending to the day by blowing out as soon as we arrived. The next day we took a 2+ hour water cruise to Totranui where we had a nice picnic on the beach.. chased Grant around and got eaten by sandflies. Grant was completely wiped out and fell fast asleep on the water taxi almost as soon as we boarded. They were both really good travelers again though Grant is getting really, really tired of his carseat. I can totally understand it though. We travel for hours and then he gets to have 20 min of fun and we're off again.. so everytime he gets back in he thinks its going to be for hours again. The third night we stayed in a place a little south of Punakaiki where the Pancake rocks are. Grant thought that every rock from the pebbles to the parking lot to the paved pathway were "CANCAKE WOKS!!!" It was a ten minute walk to the rocks and when we got there he was underwhelmed and we had to keep him tantrum free and away from the shear drop-offs for 20 mins while we waited for high tide. The tide comes it and blasts out these blow holes through the pancake rocks that water has carved out over time.

Through this all the biggest challenge has been getting him to bed at night in a hotel room with us in the same room. It's like his evil uncontrollable twin comes to visit at around 7pm every night. He basically does anything naughty for attention until we're both in bed and ready to go to sleep and then he crashes out on the floor and we have to pick him up and put him in his bed 5 minutes later. On the last night we thought up a really cunning plan. We'd PRETEND like we were going to bed @ 7pm and once he fell asleep we'd pick him up and put him to bed and we'd be free to read the paper or do whatever. 2 hours later Grant had peaked on the naughty scale and was doing anything to get attention. This included screaming monster noises at Henry and shaking his crib, going through Peter's suitcase and throwing all the clothes up in the air. Coming around to each of our sides of the bed and yelling "1, 2, 3 WAKE UP DADDY/BAH-EE!!!!!!" Eventually on the last night we brought in his carseat and strapped him in that and 5 minutes later he'd fallen asleep and we moved him to bed. I'm still not sure we did the right thing but it worked. When we looked at the time it was then close to 9pm and we were exhausted and ready for bed and we realized he'd outsmarted us by messing around until we were ready for bed again.

When we get back to his bed at Granny's house Grant is then refusing to go to bed again. He messes around for an hour and when Pete goes in to try and tuck him in and be loving Grant lies down on the bed for about 3 minutes then turns around and says DADDY GO! and kicks him out the room. There's gratitude for you.

Henry on the other hand tried his first bottle of formula today and all seems to be well with that. We're preparing for a night away and wanted to see if we could get him used to a bottle and formula so he could stay with Sarah. He's also blowing out about every day which is really annoying when you're on holiday. He's also getting quite good with his little hands. Today I saw him pull out his binky.. look at it and then try and get it back in his mouth. He's also decided he really hates any sort of blankets on his feet. He's good at kicking out of any swaddle and kicking off any sort of blankets you use to cover him up no matter the weather.

Speaking of which Henry is paging me now..

Later,
misty

ps. will try and get pete to upload some links of the places we've been and our pictures sometime tonight.

BIIIIG GUY!

I remembered after the last post that I forgot to mention this story about Grant. The first night we went to bed in the RV Grant had decided that the bed above was a little too scary to sleep in alone. We'd also made the horrible mistake of leaving George and Elmo, his bedtime friends, back at Grannie's house. So we decided Grant could sleep with us. He of course thought it was time to mess around and we decided ignoring his goofing around was the best tactic. The first campground we stayed at we were backed up to the bathrooms so Grant figured out if he got between the curtain and the big back window he could see a parade of people coming and going right outside. So as we sat trying to ignore him he started naming off "Guys" and girls or "Gurgles" as he calls them. So we were getting a play by play that went something like this.. "guy.. guy.. gurgle.. gurgle.. guy.. gurgle.........BIIIIIIGGGG GUYYY.. guy.. gurgle.. gurgle." I REALLY wanted to jump up and see this BIG GUY as Grant has seen my brother and Dad who are pretty big guys, but I was trying to hard to stifle my laugh and ignore him. I can just imagine what people were thinking seeing a little naked boy in the back camper window pointing them all out. I hope the BIG GUY wasn't offended. :)

So we just got back from our RV vacation a few hours ago and getting Grant to sleep alone again is proving to be a bit of a challenge. I've said good night and he's screamed his head off.. Pete's went up to talk to him again only to get more screaming.. and right now I can only assume the silence is because Pete's in bed with him. I'm just so thankful to be sleeping in a bed without sand and without having to climb over everyone to feed Henry every night!

Will update more as I think about it. Oh.. and like his older brother Henry seems to have developed a thing for blowing out at airports. What IS it with that?!?

-misty

hopefully I can get Pete to throw a few pictures up as well.

G'day from NZ

Well today is Peter's birthday in New Zealand and with the international date line and being in the RV for a few days I thought TOMORROW was his birthday.  I felt incredibly embarrassed when I was yelling at him for something this morning and he reminded me what day it was (which I of course argued until he showed me the paper proving himself right). 

So after quite a few days of traveling I just have to say we were blessed with two incredibly good travelers.  After a mix-up and flight change and waiting around at the check in desk in Seattle we were then marked to go through an additional round of security.  They must have thought Henry and Grant were high risk as they both got patted down as well.  I really wish I could have gotten video of Henry's little wobbly head and half smile as I held him up and "spread 'em" for the woman to frisk him. 

The flights were really long but both boys were real troopers.  I think Grant squealed 2x for less than a minute about being in his car seat.  Fortunately with the flight change we got here just in time for him to play with his cousins Luca and Arabella and then he went straight to bed. 

We've been traveling around the North Island of New Zealand for the past 5 or 6 days in a rented RV.  The day we arrived and today have been the only day we've seen the sun.  It's been a bit frustrating to see these AMAZING views that you just KNOW would be so much more stunning when it was nice out.  Several brochures called the parts we visited "winterless" as it always has good weather and we ran into someone who has been here for the past 18 yrs and had never seen rain and weather so bad here.  Anyway.. It's hard to do much complaining now that we're backed up to the sea with absolutely BEAUTIFUL scenery and even got some swimming in today.  

Henry updates:

He's now rolling over ever time we turn around.  He's also quite good with finding his feet and has just about figured out his hands.  He's had a great deal of time to look at them lately while we've been stuck inside the RV with the rain outside.  He's also getting into the crazy blow-out stage.  Which makes it particularly annoying when you're out camping without easy access to laundry facilities.  He also decided the day we arrived that he no longer sleeps in his carseat.  I was trying to break him of this habit back home and was kicking myself for trying to change it before we left.  However now he's a "big boy" and sleeps lying down.  I realize ALL of these things individually would have merited a blog post for Grant.  I knew I'd have less time to blog and the second child blahblahblah.. but wow.. I didn't think i'd fall this far behind in recording his activities.  So Henry when you grow up and need therapy for this - know that we love you.. I'm just crap.

Grant updates:

He's eaten Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by request every day.  When I try to give him anything else he says "no.. no.. no way."  He learned "no way" from Go Diego Go.  He looooves boats.. the beaches and chasing chickens and seagulls.  We did a harbour cruise in Akaroa and he spent the ENTIRE boat trip running from the back of the boat to the front yelling to me "I SEE WAWA!!!!"

The other interesting thing about all sleeping in an RV is sharing the same sleeping quarters.  Right now Grant has taken over our entire bed and Henry refuses to sleep unless we're all in bed as well.  Which is why i'm ending this now. :)

-misty

brotherly love

Yesterday I was trying to unload the boys and get them in the house with all of the groceries.  Henry was screaming his head off and I thought I was going to have an accident if I didn't get to the bathroom quick.  While I was washing my hands I heard Henry sound like he'd tired out and fell asleep.  When I walked out I saw Grant kneeling in front of the carseat holding the binky in Henry's mouth with one hand and holding his other hand in his.  Henry was starting to doze off and Henry's hand looked so tiny in Grant's hand.  I was so touched and started telling Grant what a kind big brother he was and he said "Grant help.  Baby, no cry."  It nearly brought a tear to my eye.  He'd never been super affectionate with anyone until Henry came along.  Now he comes over to hold his hand or hug him several times a day.  I'll try and remember this when they're 13 and nearly beating the snot out of each other. :)

 

-misty

some pics of Henry...

He's starting to look so much older so we wanted to make sure and get some good pics along the way.  He's full of smiles lately :)

 

WATCHOOTALKIN' BOUT GRANTY?

 

I think he looks like Peter in the above & below pics.