It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

We all were having a wonderful Christmas with family – The boys had woken up early and with great excitement – the kind you remember only too well.  The kind you wish that still endured though it can never be recaptured quite as exquisitely as it exists in a child on Christmas morning.  The first glass of champagne had been started – toys were being enjoyed with high energy and delight.

I think now there is something about two year olds that kicks you screaming into the reality of what can happen in a split moment of time. It happened to us with Grant with his seizures.  Now again, two years later.

Henry was playing by Misty’s chair when Bubba (English Bulldog) started chewing on a bone.  Henry bent over to take a look and before you could have ever noticed Bubba went for him.  Bubba has been a very gentle dog with children.  Apparently even taking food from his bowl while he has been eating before now.

Henry suffered two deep puncture wounds on his right cheek and some grazing across his face from other teeth.  We were lucky in that it could have been much worse.  The shock is still sinking in.  Looking at him brings tears to your eyes.

Unfortunately this happened in the middle of a serious blizzard and way out of town in the country on gravel roads.  The nearest hospital was 20 miles away if you could reach it.  The travel advisories were all “DO NOT TRAVEL” (rare in the mid west!) but we called the hospital and they said he needed to be seen within 4 hours in order to prevent infection in the wounds.

Even with serious 4 wheel driver vehicles (a Hummer H3 and another 4 wheel driver crew cab truck) there were serious doubts as to whether we would be able to make it through the snow drifts and gravel roads to the edges of town.  Chris, Junior and I loaded the truck up with shovels, blankets, donned tons of layers, brought multiple cells phones and water – We really did expect to get stuck about 5 miles in and so we wanted to be prepared for the worst.  We were also not sure if we’d be able to make it back out to the house after the hospital.  Luckily we got some good inside knowledge from local farmhouses on gravel routes that had been less impacted and so had good intelligence to work from.  Visibility was often near zero and we plowed through a couple of big drifts but fortunately luck was with us and we didn’t get stuck.  Once of the major roads it was easier going – Just the visibility problems due to the blizzard there.

Rushed the little guy into the hospital and after all the usual “are you insured” card finding melodrama (richest nation on the planet and the only one without universal health care – outrageous and disgusting but I’ll get off the soap box for now)….  They had to strap Henry down into a little burrito/straight jacket type thing in order to do the stitches and wound cleanings.  Poor little guy was petrified with fear.  Most distressing sounds you can ever hear as a parent are your own flesh and blood in real pain and fear – yet you can do nothing since they need it in order to get better – if only at two years old you could at least comprehend that.  Alas no.  By the end I’m not sure who had the most tears on their face – Henry, me or Misty.  Awful, simply awful.

Henry ended up with 4 stitches in the lower wound and 5 in the top wound.  We have to have them removed in 5 days and then see how scaring goes over the next 6 months – may then need to see a plastic surgeon depending how things are.  Hospital prescribed him antibiotics which we managed to pick up at a pharmacy open on Xmas Day next to the hospital – Then we started the dreaded blizzard filled journey back to the house.  Things had not improved but we finally made it after plowing through some snowdrifts and navigating the gravel roads.  Many thanks to Chris for driving us there and back safely in such dangerous conditions.  Getting stuck at any point on that route could have been a really serious situation for all.

Henry is doing well at home – Injuries don’t appear to be greatly impacting his toy playing activities!

Amazingly this all happened at 1pm and we were able to get home in time for Prime Rib – which Henry enjoyed!  Many thanks to Audra and Irma for the wonderful food and hospitability.  Thanks to Junior for helping us get the van loaded and ready to go so quickly and thanks to Taylor, Tim and everyone left at home for looking after Grant for us while we rushed to the hospital.

Some photos of the poor dude below:

Merry Christmas to all…

Hello and Merry Christmas from the Dampiers! Not much has changed in our household over this year. We’re all another year older and another year wiser. This year I’ve compiled a list of things we’ve learned as written proof of this “year wiser” business.

9 lessons learned in 2009

1. Brown acrylic paint will come out of hair with peanut butter but the aftermath of cleaning chunky peanut butter from your bathtub will not be worth it.

2. If anything in our house is a choking hazard then Henry has already put it in his mouth or just hasn't located it yet.

3. Apparently nothing horrible DOES happen when dads leave kids in the same pajamas for 3 days straight.

4. We are living in a Geotrax world... Like it or not.

5. They run a lot of weird commercials on kids TV channels.. there are a LOT of toddlers out there dying for a Snuggie and a Touch-N-Brush.

6. You can remain in denial for a good 8 months about the number of missing Happy Meal toys and Lego and the increasingly slower flow of the toilet in the kid’s bathroom.

7. When your husband suggests YOU should take your inexperienced bike riding children to the park DOWN the hill tell him to keep his big, stupid ideas to himself and then practice "BRAAAAAAAKE!" with Grant throughout the next year.

8. Do not roll down the car windows before finding out that your child wants to ask his schoolmate’s mom "Did you get your hair cut at Super Cuts or what?"

9. We have two amazing little boys that make us feel exhausted, rewarded, proud, and punch drunk goofy every day. We're looking forward to a fun-filled 2010.

Have a fantastic holiday season and we hope you enjoy the little Dampier Christmas Story photo we've included at the top. Someday my kids are really not going to be into the dressing up.

Love,

Misty, Peter, Grant & Henry

So giving.. kind of.

So I’ve been trying to really speak to Grant this year about giving to those in need and that Christmas isn’t all about getting every single present you’ve ever seen or heard.  When we were choosing Henry’s birthday present we were faced with the challenge of getting something new when he owned several hand me down toys from Grant.  We decided to get him some Geotrax that he would really like and that both boys would end up playing with for quite awhile.  Grant caught on to the fact that he got to benefit from Henry’s gifts and he seems to think getting Geotrax for Mom, Dad, and Henry for Christmas seems a GRAND idea. 

I always look for little opportunities to try and explain things so he can better understand things like how important it is to give to others. The other day when Little Drummer Boy came on the radio I thought.. oh here’s kind of a good message he can maybe get.  So I explained to Grant about a baby that was going to be the new king.. and people everywhere brought him gifts and the whole little drummer boy’s “I have no gift to bring, that’s fit to give a king” and “I am a poor boy too”.  So he gave him the gift of song and played his drum for him.  Grant got really quiet afterward and I could tell he was really taking it in and then he said… “Mom.. maybe we could get that baby Jesus kid some Geotrax for Christmas”.  I’m sure he was thinking we could somehow swing a playdate with him but part of me kind of hopes he was thinking about the giving part. 

If it takes 15 times for them to finally try a new food how many times does it take for them to get big concepts like giving and sharing? 

Happy Thanksgiving!

from our little turkeys.

Our Halloweeners…

We just got back from trick or treating and Peter thought I needed to do a quick blog post before I head off to bed.  We didn’t get a good group shot… but I’ll try to see if I can get one from one of the other moms who went along. 

Grant & Henry were Ghostbusters this year.  In the picture above they’re looking at Grant’s Ectoplasm shooter – a little gun type thing that shoots silly string that I made for his costume.  My mom (once again!) sewed the costumes – this time in MAY! And pretty accurately estimated how much the boys would grow by October.  I think this is officially the last year I’ll get to have any input on what Grant will be for Halloween.  He LOVED his costume and all the attention – and the theme song but all week he’s been coming up with ideas for what he’d like to be next year.  So many, many thanks to my crazy talented mom who did a fantastic job on these! 

Last year Grant and I traipsed up and down our neighborhood trick or treating and there were maybe 1 out of every 5-6 houses giving out candy.  He was excited to see kids out dressed up and there really weren’t any near our neighborhood.  This year a friend invited us to go along with their group over to a neighborhood close by that was supposed to be a great place to go on Halloween.  It didn’t disappoint.  There were TONS of houses decorated and people giving out full sized candy bars and all sorts.  It made it so much more fun to be out with our little group of trick or treaters.  Grant REALLY got into it this year.  I had a candy chute rigged up to the back of his Ghostbuster Protonpack Backpack so he could just put the candy behind his head and it would fall into his backpack.  Without fail at every house he ran all the way back to us to show us what he got.

He was especially proud when he was able to score mom’s favorite Reese’s peanut butter cups.  Then I’d have to put them in his backpack and off he’d go with the group to the next house.  The backpack worked great by the way – if i can incorporate that into every year’s costume I will do that.  At some point in the night I noticed he’d come back to me with candy in each hand.  I know that at many places they were very generous and giving 2 but I wanted to make sure he knew he was only to take one when offered – unless they said take more.. otherwise it was being greedy.  Grant took this advice to heart and thought that the other kids obviously needed some learnin’ in this area.  The next ten houses Grant became Candy Cop walking inside and standing next to the person giving candy and telling everyone “JUST TAKE ONE – NO MORE OR YOU’RE BEING GREEDY”.  And then calling out every kid who took more than one.  So then we had to have a talk about not calling the other kids out.  This parenting business is sometimes very tricky.  They take one rule and run with it to an extreme.. the others they completely ignore. 

Henry got a little tired as it was a pretty long walk to get to the neighborhood.  He also didn’t quite GET the concept. Like thinking “Ok..I keep SAYING trick or treat.. GETTING the candy.. now why can’t I actually EAT it?!”  He did make it about 3/4 of the way before he resigned himself to being in the stroller and only getting out about every 3rd or 4th house. 

Grant was totally and completely, full-on, hardcore trick or treat dood.  He never once complained about anything except on the long walk home.. and even then his complaint was “why are we not going to these houses?! we need to get more candy!!”  Other kids tired out and got carried part of the way or strollered but Grant soldiered on and trick or treated with enthusiasm to the very last house.  It was so much fun.  It didn’t rain on us at all (even though it was predicted to, it’s Seattle, it’s the end of October) and it  was a full moon.  It just ended up being a perfect night out.  :)  It felt like our own little twisted Norman Rockwellian Halloween.. with Ghostbusters.  :)  We ended the night with a small get together and cupcakes and cider at our friend’s Jannel and Adam’s house (the organizers of our little group).

Oh!  This week Grant’s class also had a Dad’s night with pumpkin carving and all sorts.  I’m not quite sure how his teacher misunderstood Geotrax as Grant talks about them OBSESSIVELY. 

Peter and Grant did the second from the right with the square eyes. :)

Happy Halloweeeeeeeen!!

another literal funny and a “nightmare”.. this kid brings the LOLs

So last week we were doing our weekly Costco run and we’d crossed the very busy parking lot filled with people waiting for parking spaces.  Grant started jumping up and down exclaiming “MOM!! I SEE IT.. LOOK IT’S A NIGHTMARE!!!”.  I was totally confused and asked him what he meant and he pointed to a line of cars waiting to turn and said “see all those cars over there.. IT’S A NIGHTMARE!! IT REALLY IS!!!”.  No need to look very far to see where he got this.. Peter has zero tolerance for traffic and the slightest stop in traffic causes his blood pressure to rise and him exclaiming “what a nightmare..”  That kid doesn’t miss anything.

We also had a near embarrassing incident with a schoolmate,s mom.  She’d recently gotten her haircut really short and we saw her as we were pulling out of the school parking lot.  Grant got really excited and was asking me to roll down the window because he needed to ask her “Did you get your haircut at SuperCuts or what?”  I’m not hating on SuperCuts.  It’s the only hairplace he knows the name of and the last place he got his haircut.  I just don’t want him to offend all these women who go to much nicer places.  Hopefully by the time he’s a teenager and into girls he’ll outgrow this stage.  His dad isn’t quite there yet. :)  I can hear him asking “I don’t get it? What’s wrong with SuperCuts?”

Both Henry and Grant are in preschool now.  Henry is going to the Stepping Stones program that Grant used to go to on Weds and Fridays.  He’s doing ok but he does cry every time I have to leave.  Fortunately it only lasts about 2-3 minutes.  He’s still a boogie machine and will dance to any beat provided.  He’s also quite the singer.  I can tell what he’s singing by the tune but his abc’s and twinkle twinkle need some work as there’s some confusion as to which he’s singing when he does those.  :)

Grant is back at Bellevue Country day school and really enjoying it.  They now do a special “Guess My Sharing” type thing for their show and tell.  They give the class 3 clues and they have to try and guess what it is.  Every Tuesday night we spend memorizing the clues.  He’s also really trying to learn lyrics to songs.  The other day it totally made me smile when I heard his little voice singing Bob Marley’s “don’t worry, about a thing.. cuz every little thing.. gonna be alright”.. and “this is my message to you-hoo-hoo”.  They’re also apparently learning the Pledge of Allegiance in school.  Grant was dorking around with a car in the kitchen the other day and started saying.. “and to the republic for which it stands”.  I had to kind of stop and think oh wait.. what are you saying? I didn’t think they were doing this in school anymore.  It’s just fun seeing him like wanting to learn things like that.  He is a bit like his dad though.. the minute he realizes that someone is trying to make him LEARN something it becomes no fun anymore.  This, I’m realizing is why he’s no longer interested in Sesame Street.

We’re heading back to Nebraska tomorrow for some Gramma and Grampa time.  I’m doing it solo with the boys.. and while I’m so excited for our visit.. I’m so NOT excited for the plane trip again.  Wish me luck!!

lost and found

Grant has been coming down with a cold over the past few days.  It’s not been anything that’s slowed him down, just a runny nose and losing his voice.  The voice business has been the biggest deal. 

Before we explained that he’d lost his voice he liked to shriek so it would cut off.  Once I noticed I told him he’d lost his voice.  He was very confused about where he could have lost it, offering suggestions as to where he maybe misplaced it.  “Maybe I left it downstairs when I was playing?” 

This morning his voice was a little squeaky and I said “yeah, your voice is probably still gone.”  He sat there for a minute and then asked what a voice was.  I explained it was when sound came out of your mouth.  He stewed on that for a bit and then very seriously told me “I’m not sure how I’m going to get it back in my mouth”. 

I love how every thing is so literal. 

Little dood’s a 4 year old!

I can’t  believe it’s been 4 years!  Last night before bed we put all of Grant’s presents in the living room and then I put up some streamers in the hallway leading out to the living room.  I thought one of 2 things would surely happen.  He would either A. wake up in the middle of the night as he’s been doing off and on over the past few weeks and upon going into our room the streamers in the dark would scare the heck out of him OR he’d wake up and see the streamers and run out screaming happily about his presents and rip them all open before we could get out there.  Turns out Grant threw us a curve ball.  He woke up.. didn’t even look down the hallway.. came into our bedroom and had completely forgotten it was his birthday AND that involved presents.  This is the kid who has told me he wanted X for his birthday at EVERY SINGLE COMMERCIAL that is on.  I’ve had to have countless talks with him about expectations and being grateful for the things he’s getting.  So Peter actually had time to get up and get dressed.. go down the hall and get the camera ready and then wait for us to come out.  He was very excited about his new Geotrax airplanes and extra track pieces (thanks Brian!) and his books from Granny, Leapster2 from Gramma and Grampa and marker set from Sarah and Luca and Arabella.  The have all been played with over and over today. 

We got him a ginourmous chocolate cake from Costco and lit candles and he took about 5 minutes of the candle burning time to tell us his wish.. which went a little something like “I wish Henry to take lots of naps and we go and do fun stuff like picking raspberries and beans and doing lots of fun things outside and stuff and things when Henry is down to a nap and (on and on and on)”.  We have some toys and games that we only pull out when little brother is asleep – as Henry keeps eating things and would lose all the pieces in about a minute flat.  Apparently Grant really values his time when Henry is having his nap.  :) 

It’s hard to put into words what a wonder it really is to see Grant’s little personality developing.  He's a ham and jokester.. and known to his teachers as this as well.  He has always been an observer from a really really young age.  His giggle is so completely infectious that you can’t help but smile and be happy.  He’s a great and nurturing, big brother.  Of course he has his moments when sharing was not on his agenda and he’s not happy about it.. but I love peeking in from the other room when they’re unaware and seeing Grant helping Henry figure out how to fix something or with his arm draped over his shoulder while they watch Dora.  He’s a good egg.  I love him.

ridiculous.

This is the billion dollar moment of chaos that inspired me actually post again after my 3-4 month hiatus. So we got Grant a bike with training wheels a few weeks back. He’s a bit skittish about it at times but overall is getting more and more brave. He’s wiped out numerous times and has never cried and has always just gotten back on and started again. He’s very nervous about going down “hills”. Hills to Grant are the slopes on either side of a driveway along the sidewalk. We’re making progress here as last week he kept grabbing at us to hold his hands on the hills saying he didn’t like going fast and this week he’s speeding up to go on them. Peter has been at me for 2 weeks to let Grant ride his bike to the park. I have avoided this because I just couldn’t figure out how I was going to walk beside Grant and push or carry Henry at the same time. The next time Peter has these fantastic ideas I will tell him where to put them. So today the sun broke through and the timing was right so I told Grant we were going to try riding to the park. The park is down the road from us maybe a little over a ¼ of a mile. It’s also DOWN the road from us and the closer you get to the park the more the road declines. It’s not steep by any stretch but enough to make me remember it is downhill when we’re walking back. So we get loaded up for the park, Henry on his trike with the pushbar, and Grant with his helmet and on his new bike. We get about halfway there with no problem whatsoever. Up to this point I only had to continually remind Grant to look where he was going as he tends to focus on his front wheel and not look ahead. When suddenly he starts saying “Moooooommmm.. MOOOOMMM MOOOOOOOOMMMM.. IT’S TOOO FAAAAST” and indeed he is moving quite quickly in front of me. I realize I’m going to have to leave Henry at this point so I push his trike off into an embankment of beauty bark and head off running after Grant yelling “USE YOUR BRAKE.. GRAAAAANT.. SQUEEZE THE BRAKE!!” repeatedly. Finally I catch him and say “Grant.. you HAVE to remember to squeeze your brake to stop.. or you can push your feet backwards” and we practice a couple of times quickly. I tell him to stay right there because I need to go and get Henry who I can see is trying to dislodge himself from the embankment. As I’m running halfway back to Henry I hear the SAME “Moooooommmm.. MOOOOMMM MOOOOOOOOMMMM.. IT’S TOOO FAAAAST” from Grant behind me again. I turn quickly to see he’s somehow heading BACK down the hill. Off I run again to try and catch him and he’s so freaked out he’s actually PEDALING which is only making him go faster. By this point the ridiculousness of it all has hit me and as terrified as I was about him crashing or going off into the street I started laughing. There’s a reason you don’t see competitive runners laughing while running - it seriously hinders your ability to make your legs work right. So by this point I realize I’m not going to catch him and I’m yelling at him to go into the grass. He wobbles a bit and crashes into the grass. So, completely out of breath I catch up to him and find out he’s ok. He’s actually laughing about how he fell on both of his hands (go figure) and I’m just glad he’s not at risk of being in motion any longer. I quickly stand him up realize he’s fine and tell him to STAY PUT while I run back and get Henry who is dangerously close to getting off the embankment and careening down the hill in a trike with a locked wheel (not that he could steer it anyway). So I’m running back to Henry and I’m halfway there when I hear AGAIN “Mooooommmm.. MOOOMMMMMMYY...” I literally yelled “you have to be freakin kidding me?!!!” and turned around to see Grant had ditched his bike and was running back towards me in the street in the bike lane. So I’m yelling frantically to “GET BACK ON THE SIDEWALK” and I see two cars slowly approaching and I literally see them assess situation: the ditched bike, the runaway 4YO, the sweaty, disgusting, panting mom in the middle, and the 2YO who had just freed himself from the bank. And then I heard hysterical laughter. I could not blame them. It was ridiculous. We managed to get everyone to the park in one piece where Peter pulled up 2 minutes later in his new scooter, smiling and completely oblivious to the past ten minutes of hell that I had just endured. I made him run home and get the car so we could have a much less stressful trip home. So, if anyone happened to be running a video camera down our street this afternoon, I want my cut of the money they’ll get from America’s Funniest Videos. On the other hand, I totally skipped going to the gym tonight.

Tomorrow I will be posting new-ish pics and some other general updates.. I just wanted to document this crazy afternoon's events.

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