The Dampiers

Christmas Letter 2011

2011-12-24T07:33:00.001-08:00

odds n ends

2011-07-07T14:25:00.001-07:00

Nothing much new just a few little funny stories about the boys..

Dead Inside

A couple of weeks ago Grant started telling me all mommies were mean. “It’s true.. they are”. I kinda brushed him off and figured it was some weird phase or he was mad about having to do is ONE job of emptying the dishwasher (and not letting him con Henry into do it for him). But this kept coming up in different conversations throughout the week and the other attributes he’d given to “all mommies” were getting more disturbing. “All mommies are mean, they are evil.. and they are dead inside”. Weirdly I took the most offense to the “dead inside” comment. How could he think I was dead inside?!? I’m the most alive-iest inside person I know!! (could someone dead inside come up with a word like alive-iest?.. ok don’t answer that) And really, that’s a weird concept for a kid to say… “dead inside”? really? I can’t imagine WHERE he would have heard that. I pushed for more answers. I got “they’re all wrapped in themselves”. What?!?! Now we’re all self-centered? Where is this kid getting his intel? Am I going to have to actually start WATCHING Power Rangers to find out what it’s teaching my kid? I had to get to the bottom of this. “How are they wrapped in themselves.. what do you mean, Grant?”. He answered “You know.. like band-aid wrap stuff.. wrapped around their heads and bodies and stuff.” The light went on. Mummies. Got it. It all fell into place. So I could breathe a sigh of relief knowing my kid didn’t find me dead inside and wrapped up in myself, mean and evil. I’m normal. He’s normal. The world has been restored to it’s normal self.

Does Not Approve

Yesterday after swimming lessons I stopped to get the boys Happy Meals on the way home. On the way home Henry opened his only to find they’d mistakenly given him a GIRL TOY. We were already on the road and I wasn’t about to go back and switch it out. So I told him sometimes girl toys could be fun too. He seemed fine with it. Grant however was not amused. From the backseat I heard him say with much disdain in his voice “That’s a BARBIE doll. I don’t like Barbies.. if I ever got a Barbie I would just go over and throw it right in the trash”. Henry somehow didn’t catch what was going on and wanted to fit in so he of course agreed “uh huh! I would throw it away too” and I hear Grant say “well that’s whatcha got!” It didn’t turn into any huge argument so I didn’t think much of it. When we got home they were able to open their toys and Grant looked on with serious disgust as Henry opened his Barbie Head with it’s matching comb. Fortunately Henry didn’t know what Grant meant when he said “Actually Henry’s Happy Meal toy is really lame”. It’s always weird when you hear your kid come out with little phrases like that. Today I’ve already heard Grant again say twice “If I ever got a Barbie I’d just throw it in the trash”. Perhaps the power of suggestion would make Henry do the right thing. It’s like he thinks it’s devaluing all of the other cool toys in the toy room by even allowing it to exist in our house. I’m going to keep it around for awhile to see what happens to it.

They are seriously and endless source of entertainment.. every day.

Time Slipping Through My Fingers…

2011-06-12T20:37:00.001-07:00

Grant graduated from preschool on Wednesday. I think the with all the chaos of the end of the school year events and planning it didn’t really leave me with too much time to do any introspective thinking. I found over the weekend these small waves of reflection sort of popping up at random times throughout the day. In some ways he seems like such a little boy still. Can he really be leaving for school ALL DAY in the fall? In other ways I’m completely stopped in my tracks at how much he’s grown. This is a picture of Grant on his first day and last day of preschool at Bellevue Country Day School.

I remember his first day and his nervousness. He is and forever will be an observer first. He sits back, takes in the environment, the people, what is going on, and what his role will be and then decides if he wants to participate. There was a lot of thumb sucking and observing going on that first week. The little boy in the second picture knows his role and is more confident and talks excitedly about kindergarten in the fall (though I still sense a tiny bit of anxiety and I know it will take him to get used to it).

This morning I came home from Zumba and found all 3 of my guys watching Planet Earth. I came in and Grant gave me the run down about snow leopards and how they had to kill other animals to eat them and a load of other little facts. I’m always amazed at how much he picks up and how his mind works. He laid across the couch with his head in my lap, while he carried on watching. I got a little teary remembering 5 years ago sitting in the exact same location with a tiny baby that fit in the crook of my arm while I fed him. I had tons to get down today but lingered there a little longer knowing this moment would be gone in a heartbeat. I was reminded of the ABBA song Time Slipping Through My Fingers.

on to the next chapter…

lyrics

Slipping Through My Fingers lyrics

Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile
I watch her go with a surge of that well-known sadness
And I have to sit down for a while
The feeling that I'm losing her forever
And without really entering her world
I'm glad whenever I can share her laughter
That funny little girl

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what's in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sleep in our eyes, her and me at the breakfast table
Barely awake, I let precious time go by
Then when she's gone there's that odd melancholy feeling
And a sense of guilt I cant deny
What happened to the wonderful adventures
The places I had planned for us to go
(slipping through my fingers all the time)
Well, some of that we did but most we didn't
And why I just don't know

Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
Slipping through my fingers...

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Schoolbag in hand she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile...

AQUA ZUMBA DEMO! WEDNESDAY APRIL 27TH AT 7:30PM

2011-04-18T10:47:00.001-07:00

I’d like to invite you and your friends to a free Aqua Zumba demonstration class that I’m teaching on Wednesday 4/27 at 7:30pm at Samena Swim & Recreation Club in Bellevue. This is a full length class and is free for participants. Non-members must sign-in at the Front Desk and pay the Samena Guest Fee of $8, which can be applied to their first enrolled session. The session starts the following week at the same date/time. PLEASE CALL SAMENA TO PRE-REGISTER AND RESERVE YOUR SPOT FOR THE DEMO! 425-746-1160

From the Zumba website:

Known as the Zumba® "pool party," the Aqua Zumba program gives new meaning to the idea of an invigorating workout. Splashing, stretching, twisting, even shouting, laughing, hooting and hollering are often heard during an Aqua Zumba class. Integrating the Zumba formula and philosophy with traditional aqua fitness disciplines, the Aqua Zumba class blends it all together into a safe, challenging, water-based workout that's cardio-conditioning, body-toning, and most of all, exhilarating beyond belief.

So, leave your floaties at home.. bring a towel, your water bottle, aqua shoes (if you have them), and your groove thang (to shake) and join us for a calorie-burning hour of fun and great music.
Please let me know if I can answer any questions. I can be reached at misty_dampier@hotmail.com or 425-818-0220.

Samena Swim and Recreation Club

15231 Lake Hills Blvd. Bellevue 98007

Bellevue, WA 98007

Thanks!

Misty

Getting schooled …

2011-02-19T22:33:00.001-08:00

I’m always amazed at all the stuff Grant comes out with that he’s learned in school. I ask him every day what he did and his answer is “ummm I can’t remember” then in the middle of doing some random task he’ll blurt out some odd trivia. This week, I was surprised when Grant came home and told me about his old classmate who had come back to visit from Egypt. His teacher explained to the class that there was a lot of fighting going on in Egypt and that was why they came home. It feels weird that he’s now becoming aware of current events.

Other things I’ve been informed of over the past school year in passing conversations: Pluto is no longer a planet.. according to Grant it is now a “not planet”. The brontosaurus is not a dinosaur anymore. Indigo is no longer a recognized color of the rainbow (I actually had to look this up).

Henry, as the second born is always letting me know what is going on in his little world so he can get equal face time. This morning I was up early with the boys and he crawled in my lap and was chattering about Lego and then stopped and said “Actually, Mommy I need to tell you sumfeen… it’s actually kinda stinky in there.” As the parent of a child not quite through potty training, I immediately went into questioning “Where? Did you go in your pants? Where is it stinky?” He replied “No, in your mowf”. I’d be kinda fine if kept his opinions to himself in that respect. Gotta love ‘em.

A Virtual Merry Christmas to all!

2010-12-24T07:04:00.001-08:00

Hello and Merry Christmas from the Dampiers! With two little boys in our household not a day goes by that we don’t spend talking about some random Super Hero. After some time I came to the realization that we, as a family actually do have Super Powers or at least Super Senses. While we aren’t rushing out to buy matching leotards (you can thank me later) I think that the Justice League could perhaps make use of our skills. I plan to submit the resume listed below. I think we may have a shot!

Have a wonderful holiday and we look forward to seeing and/or hearing from you in the New Year!

Also please enjoy the enclosed photo that has nothing to do with Christmas or Super Heroes. It is perhaps proof the Christmas mania has set in. J

The not-very-dangerous-only-available-before- 7pm-bedtime crime fighting super hero family,

The Dampiers

Peter, Misty, Grant and Henry

Objective

World domination or successfully getting through potty training before Henry goes to college

Parental Super Skills

The sound of a faucet not turned off 3 rooms away
Or the ability to judge the disaster in the other room by the intonation of "uh-oh"
mmmMastery in sniffing out a potty accident from up to 15 feet away
Proficient in functioning on 2.5 hours of sleep on a single whiff of caffeine
Supersonic hearing coupled with parental intuition demonstrated by being able to identify the sound of a faucet left running 3 rooms away
Can expertly judge the severity of disaster in the next room by the intonation and inflection of the word “uh-oh”
Possesses the ability to administer “mind-eraser” powers to preschoolers by simply asking “What did you do at school today?”
Extensive experience in withstanding torture as demonstrated by enduring countless trips through “It’s a Small World” ride while on family Disneyland vacation.

Kid Super Skills

The ability to hone in on a parent's unique kryptonite for personal gain with any of the following but not limited to: whining, repetitive mom, mom.. mom.. mom.. mom, puppy dog eyes
Resistance to learning manners or sharing coupled with instant absorption of a dirty word
Time warping mastery that includes making a 10 minute lego clean-up job take 2 hours or alternately whipping through an activity in 5 minutes that was planned for the entire afternoon
Superior negotiation skills demonstrated by easily conning grandparents into ice cream every night while on Alaskan Cruise.
The ability to melt the hearts and charm the socks off parents, with a single, unexpected “I love you” and hug.

Equipment

Family possesses minivan enabling them to remedy a natural disaster, feed the hungry, and placate rowdy kids with a movie all from the confines of the vehicle. Also, can carpool (batmobile and invisible jet – FAIL).

Happy Birthday Henry Doodle. :)

2010-11-17T00:10:00.001-08:00

My baby is 3. I can’t quite believe that 3 years ago we were blessed with another baby so completely opposite to his brother that it felt like we were parental newbies again. They seem to be polar opposites in temperaments, physical stature, personality and about anything else. We thought we had this parenting gig down pat and it turns out we were back at square one. The only useful skills we could carry over were.. put them to sleep on their back.. and which way the diapers went on. Grant from day 1 has always been super independent. Hugs and affections were ok if you hurried up about it –linger for more than 2 seconds and he pushes you away.. still. Henry is the opposite – he’ll sit quite happily in my lap, cheek to cheek, forever. There was a time when Henry kept coming up to me and whining at my feet with his arm outstretched. It honestly took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize that he wanted to be carried.. not to get at something higher..just to be carried. To this day Grant has never asked to be carried, ever. Henry could happily live out his life as a baby kangaroo.

I think every parent worries they’ll compare their second born to their first (like I just did, twice) constantly which will lead to a life in therapy as an adult. Of course you do.. you have no other little being that you know so well. But our comparisons aren’t if they measure up only that we’re constantly boggled by how different they are.

You also worry that when the second child comes along that they will repeatedly feel ripped off. It’s true that I haven’t enrolled Henry in hardly ANY of the classes that Grant used to take, because logistically it’s sometimes a nightmare. We spend a lot more time at home and the boys really do get along well. Henry is gaining useful skills at home that no gym or music class could teach so well, like sharing with a brother and when to tell mom things and when to keep it between brothers. Last week Grant overflowed the toilet (I dunno what that kid DOES in there) but as Grant went about washing his hands and making faces in the mirror -he was completely oblivious to the toilet running all over the floor. Henry on the other hand came running out and was in such a frenzy I had no idea what he was saying. Finally he just kept saying.. “Get UP… COME ON… I SHOW YOU”. As I followed him down the hallway I saw his little socks making wet tracks and hurried my pace to find the entire bathroom flooded and grant on the step stool still making face at himself in the mirror. It was like having a slightly more useful version of Lassie!

You may think a second child would feel left out or overshadowed by an older sibling..no need to worry with Henry. The kid will NOT be ignored. It’s not enough to acknowledge things he’s saying with an “MM-HMM”.. EVER – even when appropriate. You answer his question with that and he shoots back with “DON’T SAY MM-HMM LIKE THAT – YOU NOT LISTENING TO ME!!” “WHAT THIS UH-HUH? DON’T SAY UH-HUH.. YOU NOT LISTENING TO ME!!”

He is a character and a cut-up and finds his older brother the most hilarious person in the universe. He’s got eyelashes that are ridiculously long and the biggest brown eyes that can either turn on the charm or turn to a scowl that would stop you in your tracks. I can’t wait to see what the years will bring us with this fun little guy. Happy Birthday my little 3 yr old.

love,

mum

don’t ask, don’t tell.. preschool style.

2010-09-23T08:44:00.001-07:00

I think most parents are in agreement that anytime you ask your kid what they did at school that the standard answer is usually “nothing” or “I dunno, stuff”. So occasionally when Grant is feeling super chatty about his day I pounce with lots of follow up questions so I can get a glimpse of what his day was like and what he’s thinking about.

Today at school pick up he was chattering about some book they read at school that was SO funny about some big fat chicken. And it was a fairytale.. like the princess and the pea and goldilocks and stuff.

So I immediately thought.. chicken? oh.. perhaps Chicken Little or Chicken Licken. I asked if it was about the chicken thinking that the sky was falling and he responded with “No.. it was about a .. chicken. and he was really fat.. and the straw or hay or something”. Oh! got it! right! Obviously it was the Little Red Hen who tried to get everyone to help her grow, harvest and bake the bread with no luck and then everyone wants to eat the fruits of her labor(sounds like my life btw). So certain this was the fairytale Grant was speaking of I started explaining the Little Red Hen story and he stopped me. “No..it was.. about a big fat chicken.. and I think he was eatin’ tacos”. I thought surely I heard him wrong but no he continued that the tacos were made of straw or hay. Now, I was completely stumped.

I got home and did some internet searches in the event that it was some modern day fairytale I didn’t know about.. and only came up with a thousand different recipes for chicken tacos. So I then emailed a classmate’s mom asking if she’d find out about this Obese, Straw Taco Loving, Chicken story. She went to work and mailed me back this:

Well I asked him and this is what I got. "Chicken, there wasn’t no chicken." "Not at my school" "Duh"...verbatim...they are both out to make us nuts!!! And when I tried to explain about book and all, he said "Is this gonna take long 'cause i gotta tinkle"

I found another classmate’s mom on facebook that night and asked her. Her son was still up and his response was this “he's singing something about baking bread and about a cat, a goose, and a hen?????”

So.. back to where we started.. with the little red hen.. the moral of this fairytale is when I get an answer don’t go digging for it’s meaning because after hours of research it still won’t be clear .. and that only leaves you confused and hungry for chicken tacos. Take THAT Mother Goose.

-misty

sibling manipulation…FAIL.

2010-09-22T12:48:00.001-07:00

Today Grant had to go to the Dr. to pee in a cup for the first time ever. Of course he refused. No amount of pleading or stickers convinced him that this was an OK thing to do. The Dr. sent us home with 2 stickers and the cup to try and collect it at home. On the way out the door Grant felt his presence at the Dr’s office warranted his 2 stickers and started whining and being obstinate. I’m trying a new tactic for these tantrums that I can see coming. Grant is one that will try to engage you in an argument for hours.. repeating the same thing over and over and over. He also thinks he can negotiate everything. Neither of these tactics on his part has ever worked so I’m not sure why he’s still trying. After reading this 1-2-3 magic book though, I’ve realized that he’s just constantly trying to get us to argue with him. I’ve stopped taking the bait. So today we got to the car and I told him to fasten his seat belt and he told me that he wanted the 2 reward stickers (for weeing in the cup- that he didn’t do) before he would buckle himself in. So I sat there and explained that he wasn’t going to get them..and that I would no longer be telling him WHY as I was telling him this NOW and we weren’t leaving the parking lot until he was in his seat belt.

So I sat there checking email on my phone and ignoring him.. while he screamed “I. WANT. MY. STICKER. RIGHT. NOWW!!!!” Which on it’s own is incredibly awesome in the pediatrician’s parking lot with every parent walking bye casting judgey judy looks at your child spewing horrible demands. All the while Henry was looking on.. either horrified.. or observing what worked and what didn’t. After awhile Grant calmed down and I thought we’d be off in no time. When I heard the following conversation:

Grant: Henry.. Henry.. tell mommy you want the Spiderman sticker.. but DON’T say it’s for me.. just say “I want the Spiderman sticker”

Henry: Ok.. Mommy, Grant want-

Grant: NOOOO NO HENRY.. don’t say I want it.. say you want to have it.. just say “I want the Spiderman sticker.. "

Henry: “Grant want the Spiderman sti-"

Grant: Noooooo HENRY NO .. don’t say my name.. MOMMY, HENRY HAS SOMETHING TO TELL YOU.. (quietly) henry.. don’t say my name.

Henry:….. …. “him want the spi-“

Grant: NOOOOO..HENRY DO NOT SAY MY NAME!!

All the while Henry was just NOT getting what it was that Grant wanted and kept looking at him like he was crazy as he was doing EXACTLY what he asked.

So it seems we’ve already entered into the stage where your kid thinks you’re a complete dumbass. I really thought that started in high school when they think we don’t know they’re planning on how to get to unchaperoned parties. I don’t know how he thought I couldn’t HEAR the entire conversation and what he was doing.

Exasperated and annoyed he finally relented and I heard a very quiet “click” from behind me. I was glad my sweet little polite boy had returned when he yelled out “WHY AREN’T WE GOING ANYWHERE???!?!?”

always a work in progress…

oh. and he DID pee in the cup at home.. and then every time after that he needed to go he wanted to be going in the cup. I’m not going to be trusting any cups lying around for awhile.

-misty

half a decade ago..

2010-09-08T20:49:00.001-07:00

I gave birth to a bright and smiley little boy that stole my heart from the moment I saw him. It’s been a crazy whirlwind that has completely flown by.

He was an easy baby that was very independent from the moment he arrived. He has always been this ball of sunshine and I didn’t realize it was any different to any other baby until people asked me every time we were out “Is he always this happy?”

Grant’s a very caring little guy that has seemed to grasp empathy and caring for others at really early age. He is emotional, like me.. strong willed and stubborn.. like both of his parents. He has incredible recall for minute details that happened years ago. But mostly he is a great little guy that you can’t help being happy around – unless he’s having one of his little screaming fits we’ve been dealing with lately.. then.. wow.. earplugs.

Today was a big day. It was Grant’s birthday.. or beerthday as he still calls it (I’m sure he’ll pick this back up in college). It was also his first day of pre-k school. After school I picked up his best friend Garret to come over for a playdate and then we took them all out to Red Robin for Grant’s birthday dinner. I’m reminded now of why we will ALWAYS have birthday parties somewhere else. The boys had a grand time. It’s so funny hearing him interact with his little friends in different social situations. We got to RR and Grant immediately introduced “my friend Garrett who is gonna eat with us for my beerthday” to the host. The boys were quite squirelly all through dinner but we kind of let them be a little crazy. We were tucked in a corner with only a few other families in earshot.

My favorite conversation that had me in stitches was between Grant and Garrett. Grant was asking Garrett “Remember that time when I did blah blah blah.. and I got the Skittles?” Grant’s speech is coming along but he does sound like he’s saying “Squittles”. Somehow Garrett heard this a little wrong.. and had a lot of questions about this incident.. repeating back.. “You got the Shittles? When did you get the Shittles? I didn’t get Shittles did I? Where did you get the Shittles?” After nearly shooting my drink through my nose I turned my head.. and laughed until I was crying.. occasionally snorting throughout dinner remembering it. It’s still cracking me up as I write this.

Before we left the Red Robin crew did the Happy Birthday song and dance for Grant and actually brought out little tiny sundaes for Garrett and Henry as well. I was trying to get them not to eat as much because I knew we had cake and ice cream at home. Peter thought he’d help Henry along by taking a bite and Henry bit his head off and sneered at him “NO! It’s not YOUR birthday”.. which.. is amusing considering it wasn’t Henry’s either.

Oh.. and this year Grant requested a beerthday cake that looked like a bag of popcorn. The problem with being arty is that your kids now think you can create or make anything. The problem with loving this stuff and your kids is that you will move mountains and lose countless hours of sleep to do it. Here’s the cake.. and really it only took a few hours.

Happy Beerthday my little 5 year old. May the years to come bring as much laughter and joy as you have brought to us.. and not so much in the Shittles dept.

love,

mum

xoxo

Potty training Henry – Day 1

2010-07-19T17:22:00.001-07:00

My method to potty training is to select a week in the summer when the forecast is good for a week (perhaps the biggest obstacle yet). I strip the child-in-training down to nothing from the waist down and we do outdoor activities on the deck for a week and a half with the potty right beside us. This also includes endless amounts of juice and what I have always promised - Hershey’s kisses (1 kiss for wee’s, 2 kisses for #2’s). For his job as the cheerleader Grant also gets a Hershey’s kiss when Henry does.

Today was day one with Henry. At first Henry wouldn’t get OFF the potty unless he had undies to walk around in. Once those were provided he and Grant got to work on finger painting. Juice boxes flowed like wine. About 20 minutes into it Henry was alarmed that he wet his Diego underpants so I sat him on the potty.

About 15 minutes later Grant wanted to see how progress was going and screeched the news that Henry had indeed gone in the potty.

We made a big deal and I awarded Henry and Grant with their chocolates. I went and emptied the potty and Henry decided he liked his place at the throne… in less than 5 minutes he’d gone again. Cheering all around ensued and the whole process was repeated. I now was in the process of making their dinner as well and came around the corner to hear Grant saying.. “Henry.. do you need to go again?.. no? .. just move and let me try to go wee in there and we can get another chocolate”. That kid is SO sneaky.

I also seem to have opened the flood gates with Henry as he’s gone for the 4th time in the hour and right now I can hear Grant asking every 10 seconds if he has to go again.

-misty

E is for Entrapment…

2010-07-12T11:34:00.001-07:00

The past few weeks we’ve had my in-laws staying with us. They don’t drive so we’ve had to configure the van so that Henry is in the second row and for ease of getting in and out we’ve put down the other 2nd row seat so the 2 In-laws and Grant are in the 3rd row.

On one of our excursions out Henry had 2 crayons and a bit of paper he was coloring with and Grant decided later that he needed a turn. Fast forward to a few hours later and the following conversation ensued.

Grant: “Henry.. Henry.. blaojeiojfieow?”

Me: What Grant?

Grant: "No Mommy, I’m talking to HENRY.. not you”

Me: “Geez, alright"

Grant: “Henry?”

Henry: “uh-huh!”

(I should at this point note that Henry will happily answer an affirmative “uh-HUH!” to any question asked excitedly.)

Grant: “Henry. Did you color on the wall back here by my seat!?”

Henry: “uh-HUH!” :)

Grant: “MOOOOOMMMMM. Henry got crayon on the wall back here by my seat”

Me: “Uh, Grant? Henry has never even been BACK near your seat.”

Grant: “He just said he did it”

Me: “Grant. Henry has not been in that back seat.. do we need to have that talk about lying again?”

Grant: “But Henry said he did it!”

Me: “Grant!”

Grant: “Oh. Yes. I think that was a mistake. I think it was maybe Mr. Nobody that did it.. I think he was back here.”

Obviously we need to revisit the lesson on lying but when do they get so cunning?

iPoot.

2010-06-08T15:19:00.001-07:00

Peter got an iPad this last week (I still don’t GET why we needed one but a “boy and his toys” is a whole separate blog post). He’s quite late on the iPad acquisition and we’ve had a running joke since it’s come out about “takin’ it to the iPad”. On one of the Entertainment gossip shows in the evening one of the commentators was obviously comp’d an iPad and at LEAST once a segment he says “let’s take it to the iPad” where he does nothing but slide a photo around and point to famous people. Henry has obviously picked up on some of this and applied it to his world. I now hear him daily talking about “iPoot” and it’s usually followed by a familiar nauseating scent. But have no worries.. there’s an “app” for that.. it’s called a diaper. Peter seems less happy about “Takin’ it to the iPoot”.

TP Tuesdays

2010-06-08T14:40:00.001-07:00

For the past couple of weeks Grant has been yelling out from the bathroom that he can “only wipe my own bum on Tuesdays”. I thought it was just some weird regression and told him he needed to do it every time, no matter what day. Today he extended the offer to Tuesdays and Wednesdays. When I told him he was in luck because today was Tuesday he responded “Oh. Well then today I can wipe my bum" as if it were the most normal thing in the world. I don’t even want to know the horrors that are going on back there on a daily basis. And I don’t know what it has to do with the other days of the week.

rootin’ tootin’ time

2010-04-23T15:30:00.001-07:00

So I don’t think Grant GETS what happens with gas. He walks around ripping farts (we call them toots) all over the place and has no reaction to them other than acting slightly annoyed when I ask him to say “excuse me”. Whatev. I assume all the fart jokes will come as soon as he’s in school right? For now I just don’t really laugh or react and just ask him to say excuse me. It occurred to me that he really had no idea what was going on when he let one rip the other day. Grant was in the living room and Henry was in the kitchen. Grant then came into the kitchen with a look of disgust on his face and told me I needed to change Henry’s diaper because he could smell it. Henry sat there innocently eating while being falsely accused. No amount of explaining could convince Grant that something that wretched could have come from HIS bottom. This may be a lesson his dad has to teach him. I’m not volunteering.

-misty

On Doobies & Boobies….

2010-02-15T13:41:00.001-08:00

This post so isn’t going where you think..

So about a year or so ago Grant had an imaginary friend “Doobie”. I have no idea where he got this name. The only information we got about Doobie was that he lived on Mountain Lilypad and that his mom’s name was Doobie and his dad’s name was Doobie and that he was Grant’s best friend. I got asked to schedule playdates with Doobie and when I explained that I didn’t know where Doobie lived Grant would tell me “on Mountain Lilypad”. Then I’d tell him but I don’t know his mom and I’d get “his mom is named Doobie” and I’d try explaining yes but I don’t know where to find them.. “on mountain lilypad” (you get the picture). I realized yesterday that I hadn’t heard Grant mention Doobie in like 6 months so I thought I’d ask him about his old friend. He told me “Oh. He died” Apparently the cause of death was from eating too many bubbles in the bath. This morning I asked again about Doobie, wondering if we were going to have “what dying means” conversation. After I told him that when things die they can’t come back he decided he was just joking about Doobie dying.. but he did get really sick and have a tummy ache from eating too many bubbles. So.. have no fear.. Doobie lives.

On Saturday after Henry’s nap I picked him up and he was pointing to his monkey picture above his crib saying “Kiki”. I did this series of paintings for Henry’s room and they’ve been there since he was born. His crib sits in the center of them below the Turtle and Giraffe.

So after realizing he was trying to say Monkey we practiced it for a little bit and then I moved on to having him name the other animals…

"Tur-toe”

“Jaff”

“Boobies”

Wait? what!? He looked at me.. patted my chest and said “Boobies” again and pointed back to the Hippo. And really? from the angle in which he sleeps.. I can totally see that now. But it was a shocker to hear him say it. And of course THAT word came out crystal clear. I’m sure preschool teachers get an earful of things they don’t let on about.

-misty

maybe there’s something to all those harry potter comments we keep getting…

2010-01-27T17:00:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we were at an appointment with Grant and they had a whiteboard out for kids to draw on. I didn’t realize Grant had never drawn on one before and he had completely filled the board up with what he calls “train tracks” or “roller coasters” (a load of scribbles). The doctor then asked Grant if he could draw a square and “I Can’t Grant” paid a visit and somewhere in between exclaiming “I can’t” his fingers swiped over his drawings and erased them. Grant looked at the board and then his fingers with no real reside and got completely wide eyed and yelled “MY FINGERS ARE MAGIC!!!!!” and from then on couldn’t understand why were weren’t jumping up and down and praising his magic skillz instead of asking him to draw a stupid square. I wish he’d use those magic fingers to clean up his room.

-misty

a rose by any other name…

2010-01-25T08:59:00.001-08:00

So lately I've been talking to Grant about not trying hard enough at things and giving up before he’d tried. I told him that when he did that I'd be calling him "I Can't Grant" or "Grant I Can't" to remind him to try. Today he gave up on something without trying and I said “Do we need to start calling you "I Can't Grant" ?” without missing a beat he said “No, probably “Sometimes I Can’t Grant”.

-misty

tech "toys" have arrived & my weird kid...

2010-01-19T20:50:00.000-08:00

So we finally gave in and gave Grant his own computer. I realized after catching him "makin straight" all my desktop icons that we would be safer just getting him his own computer he could browse pbskids.org and a couple other kid's sites that he likes. It's incredible how proficient he is on it though. He can navigate through pages without being able to read, knows how to back out if he gets to a page that he's unfamiliar with and all sorts of other trouble.

Over Christmas Grant also was shown the way of the Wii, Xbox, and Nintendo DS. Since then it's been "bye-bye educational leapster games and hello fun" for him. He's only JUST stopped asking to play my Nintendo every day. I was actually pretty amazed in watching him play my Nintendo DS on the plane on the flight back. Again, watching him just intuitively know how to navigate around a little game was really surprising. The only time he'd get stuck was when text would come up on the screen telling him what to do. So a couple of weekends ago Peter was walking around Costco with Grant and Grant asked him if we could get "Super Mario for 4 players for the Wii" and Peter somehow told him we'd hook up an old Super Nintendo System we had lying around in the garage. In Grant's head this meant we were getting "Super Mario for 4 players for the Wii" AND that he was going to get to have it in his room. How Peter didn't make that more clear I have no idea. The next week I had to keep telling him it WASN'T a Wii and it CERTAINLY wasn't going to set up in his room so he could play it "every, every day, all day". Thanks Pete! Fast forward to getting the SNES set up and finding we actually DIDN'T have Super Mario Bros. So we ended up finding some trial Lego Batman game on Xbox live. He's been playing around with that in the evenings.

These two new developments have Henry all crazy jealous and wanting to partipate. We took one of the batteries out of an xbox controller and handed it to him so he could feel like he was playing. This did not fool him in ANY way. He first noticed that his light on the controller didn't work and then spent the next 15 minutes really trying to be clear on what it was he wanted. He pointed to the back panel where the batteries go and when Peter could finally play dumb no longer and opened it he tried pointing to the empty space, then the actual battery, then the empty space, then turning it over to where the light is. All explained with his little Henry words. A person who had never spoken English would have understood what he was talking about - he was getting REALLY annoyed with our ignorance.

This is totally unrelated but Peter really wanted me to post it because it was classic Grant and just so weird. We were coming home from the gym tonight and Grant saw a dog and then said something about Hank. Hank is the new puppy that my brother's family got over Christmas. He's a bassett hound. Super cute. So I asked Grant what he'd said and he told me "I was talking to Hank over Christmas.. we was talkin and he told me the thought he wanted a Snuggie.. but i thought he would maybe poop in it". ! uh.. ok Grant. So then I asked if Bubba (the older dog) had said anything to him and said "Nooo" in a way that suggested I was an idiot for assuming a dog could talk. My kids are so weird.

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

2009-12-25T20:23:00.001-08:00

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…

2009-12-21T18:09:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-12-02T15:18:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-11-26T00:47:00.001-08:00

from our little turkeys.

Our Halloweeners…

2009-10-31T23:21:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-02T12:18:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-12T10:26:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-09-08T23:00:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-08-09T23:35:00.000-07:00

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…

2009-03-11T09:36:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-03-10T22:08:00.001-07:00

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…

2009-02-22T21:18:00.001-08:00

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..

2009-01-26T20:40:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-01-21T21:04:00.001-08:00

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…

2009-01-19T22:26:00.001-08:00

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…

2009-01-13T21:15:00.001-08:00

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

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

-misty

Visitors and SANTAAAA!

2008-12-14T21:49:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-27T23:01:00.001-08:00

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....

2008-09-22T10:48:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-09-20T22:36:00.001-07:00

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..

2008-08-26T21:23:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-08-25T22:28:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-08-08T19:29:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-07-16T22:12:00.001-07:00

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

2008-06-24T09:24:00.001-07:00

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?

2008-06-22T16:07:00.001-07:00

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

2008-06-16T20:33:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-26T19:12:00.001-07:00

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. :)

2008-05-15T12:36:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-01T16:55:00.001-07:00

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

bespectacled boy

2008-05-01T16:31:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-04-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

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.. :)

2008-04-02T21:34:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-01T22:45:00.001-07:00

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

2008-03-14T01:05:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-13T17:32:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-03-07T00:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-03-05T00:56:00.001-08:00

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

2008-02-06T21:42:00.001-08:00

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...

2008-01-29T22:43:00.001-08:00

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.

another of Grant's super powers...

2008-01-21T21:11:00.001-08:00

Apparently Grant is in possession of poo that causes temporary paralysis but only for Peter. The other night I was making dinner and doing about 30 other things and Peter noticed that Grant had a certain familiar odor. Upon checking him he realized he'd blown out and in doing the diaper check Pete ended up with poo on his hands. (Gross, I know but when you're up to your ears in dirty diapers you get desensitized to it). So instead of dealing with it Peter yells to me that Grant's blown out --to which I yelled back to go & change him. (Apparently the poo makes your brain unable to function for a few moments as well). He informed me at that time that he couldn't because he'd gotten poo on his hand. How that meant he couldn't FIX the problem I will never know because I then had 31 things to do. Apparently in Dad-world this made sense. Fortunately for all of us the paralysis of the brain and body were short-lived as he came in to check on us once the mess was cleaned up.

This would be a lot funnier if everyone were around when at least 3x a week Peter sings a little ditty he made up with the lyrics "DAADDYY the WonderDad.. doing things no other Dad's will do!" This is after I ask him to do something completely ordinary.. throw something away.. put on Grant's socks.. whatever. We apparently have found the WonderDad's kryptonite. :)

All about Henry... :)

2008-01-20T23:37:00.001-08:00

With all the seizure stuff going on with Grant I feel like we haven't had as much time to just enjoy Henry's baby stages. It's going by incredibly fast and he's getting bigger and cuter by the minute. His little smiles came in over Christmas and I forgot how much it warms your heart to have those pure little smiles looking back at you. He also smiles when Grant talks to him. He is starting to come out of the pink, squishy, infant stage and is changing looks. He still looks quite a lot like Grant but he's going to keep that dark dark hair and I think his eyes are looking quite hazel or green. He's FINALLY got the hang of nursing. Only took us 7 weeks! I have to say I'm so glad to be done with all the washing of bottles and pump pieces. It just added one more thing to my already busy day. On 1/16/08 he had his 2 month well baby visit with his pediatrician. He now weighs 10.2 lbs which is in the 25%. His height is 23" which is in the 50% and his head was 15" which is in the 10%. He also had 5 shots at that visit which on top of everything else wasn't something I was too excited about. He ran a bit of a temperature but has seemed to fully recovered. I'm not sure if Henry is going to have the aversion to sudden noises like his brother did for so long, but it would appear that way. Peter was emptying the dishwasher the other day and the pans clanking together jarred him awake and set him off as does my sneezing. It's amazing how you forget all of this stuff the second time around but if possible I think we may have an even more laid back baby than Grant. The noticeable difference is that Henry is a big snuggler. He likes to be held and would prefer to fall asleep ON someone and if not on someone he wants me within arms reach. Grant never wanted to be held even as a baby so it was weird going through the "stop baby crying" check list with Henry.. fed? yup. changed? yup. burped? yep. oh.. you just want me to hold you?.. okay.. how long.. oh i see.. forever. I normally don't mind it but it is harder to get things done.. well that and having 2 kids now adds to the complexity. Anyway, I wanted to post a little of what's goin on with the little guy so we don't forget what it was like when he was this little.

-misty

the post i didn't want to write...

2008-01-19T21:09:00.001-08:00

This past Monday Grant had another seizure. This one lasted much longer but seemed to be due to a temperature spike. Peter was at work and I was alone at home with the boys. About 5 minutes before it happened I noticed him acting a little funny. Grant is a super active little guy and he just slowed down and seemed a little "off". He was sitting on his knees and he put his head down on the ground while I had started feeding Henry. I asked if he was feeling ok and he told me he wanted water. His water bottle was in his room so I walked him back there and told him to get his water and come out. I went back to feeding henry in the living room and made a mental note to check his temp when I was done. After around 5 minutes he hadn't returned and it seemed a little quiet with the exception of a weird noise I'd heard. I fully expected him to be in his room sitting there reading books like he often does. I walked back to his room to find him about a step away from where I'd left him but on the ground convulsing. There's just nothing worse than seeing his normally bright & smiley eyes totally glazed over and unresponsive. I called 911 and he was still convulsing for quite awhile after they arrived. At one point he took a deep breath and kind of seemed to come out of it a bit but then continued to tremor. Peter got home in time to go to the hospital with him again while I stayed home with Henry. They basically said follow up with the neurologist and they thought it was due to a temperature spike. His fever was 102.7 when the EMT checked it at our house. That night we gave him tylenol to keep the fever down but became alarmed when his fever seemed to be pretty high. A call to the pediatric nurses line had us giving him alternate amounts of motrin and tylenol every 3 hours to keep his fever down. Throw Henry needing to eat in there and no one got much sleep. The next evening his temp rose from 99.8 to 103.9 in span of 5 minutes and he started shaking and I was sure he was going to have another seizure. We took him into Children's Hospital where the doctor found we were going to the neurologist the next day and then seemed to be disinterested in anything other than getting us out the door. On Thursday we went into the pediatric neurologist and he told us they were more concerned about the first seizure he had with no fever. If he has another seizure without a fever then he'd be considered epileptic at that point and would have to go on anti-seizure medication. He said he very well may have more febrile seizures due to temperature spikes and the tremors and things could have been due to chills and just feeling rotten. He's given us some medication in case Grant would have another seizure lasting more than 4 minutes and said he hopes we don't have to use it and that he never hears from us again. I fully agree. We have the Sleep EEG scheduled for the end of the month so we can fully rule out any other issues but I'll be glad to get it all behind us... again. I don't know how I'll ever be able to sleep without his baby monitor on my nightstand or even take a shower without calling out to him 20 times to make sure he's responsive and ok. He's already getting annoyed with me asking "Are you alright?" about 50 times a day. If you didn't know any better you would have no idea that anything was going on with him. He's been running around like normal except for those bouts of high temps and has even been sent to the naughty corner a fair amount of times for random things. It's hard to just carry on normally though and with Peter in Japan this entire week I think I've got a rough week ahead of me. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

-misty

Christmas past, tubing & lesson learned?

2008-01-14T22:41:00.001-08:00

We're back from the holidays and Grant still hasn't worked out that we can't just head over to Grampa and Gramba's house just whenever (though I wish we could). We had a great time with our family and even got in a couple of movies. The flights were a bit of a struggle but overall both boys traveled really well. Grant also got to play outside with Grampa EVERY day we were in Cozad. There was still plenty of snow around and his little snowsuit and the old sled got plenty of use. I thought this pic of Grant and Henry was particularly sweet. Grant has always quite liked his baby brother but out of nowhere he decided on his own that he really wanted to hold him. We've asked him several times at home if he wanted to do this and he had no interest but one evening at my parents house he blurted out "Grant hold baby" so we of course got out the camera.

This past weekend we took Grant tubing and he LOVED it. I really fear he's going to be a little extreme sports dood. Henry and I had to hang back at the cafe because it was a little too cold for us to be out. The minimum age they recommend for the tubing was 3 but we thought we'd just take him out there and see how we felt. After the first run he was on his feet and rearing to go again. He yelled "WEEEEEEE" all the way down every time on the way down and Pete said that every time at the top of the till he yelled "GO GO GO" until they were off. After their tubing session ended I went to the car to feed Henry and Peter let Grant hang out and play in the snow. He was scaling big drifts and hills and having a great time.

For the past few months we've been lecturing Grant over and over again to not grab things off the kitchen counter. We're normally pretty good at keeping them clear or keeping things we need towards the back. This morning I was trying to get a bunch of appts booked for Peter and I and noticed I was getting something accomplished and it was quiet which could only mean Grant was up to no good. I looked over and he was reclined on the couch with a bottle of hershey's chocolate syrup tipped into his mouth. I immediately freaked out and hung up on the dentist's office in order to go investigate. Fortunately, the reason the chocolate syrup was out was so I could throw it out because it was nearly empty and the rest was too thick to get out of the bottle anyway. So no nightmares of chocolate everywhere. So AGAIN we had the "don't get things off the counter" lecture and we were on our merry way. This afternoon I was in the dining room and noticed Grant had made his way to the kitchen and was grabbing the dishwashing soap off the counter. I watched as he pulled it down and put it to his mouth and then recoiled as he realized that it didn't taste of something yummy and wiped his mouth over and over. He then quietly replaced the bottle and walked back to the living room. I'm not sure he learned his lesson completely but I'm sure it made more of an impression than my lectures. :)

Henry is doing great and staying out of trouble. He's now nursing completely and I think gaining weight. He'll have his 2month well baby check on Wednesday and I'll do a complete Henry post on his progress then.

-misty

Christmassy weekend!

2007-12-16T23:17:00.001-08:00

Well it appears we no longer have a fear of Santa. The guy in red gives out candy canes and to Grant any Grampa-looking guy that gives out candy is OK in his books. :) We've been watching quite a few holiday shows too that would familiarize him with Santa and Rudolph.

Last week we were making a quick trip through a local mall here when Grant spotted the Santa house set up for pictures. Last year he was terrified of him and so I thought we'd just cruise around to the front of the house so he could see Santa from a distance. There was a family there taking their picture and when they left Grant kind of loitered near the entrance. The Santa asked if he could have a candy cane and said it was fine, thinking that he'd probably be a bit too scared to get it. Grant did a quick hit and run and we were off with the candy cane. I let him try it in the car (big mistake on the messy front).

Grant has also learnt how to say "Ho Ho Ho" in a deep Santa voice!

On Friday we had our PEPS Christmas party and Grant got really excited when he saw Santa and kept dancing around saying "SANTA.. CANDY CANE". He happily hopped on Santa's lap and then followed him around trying to give him presents (other kid's toys).

On Saturday we went on the Santa train again. We did this last year and Grant loved the train ride but was a little suspicious of Santa. This year he could hardly wait to get to him. He of course LOVED the train ride and when it was our turn with Santa he ran over and hopped on his lap. We were on the last train of the day so Santa came on the journey back with us and handed out candy canes. When we were leaving Grant even ended giving Santa a big hug which was a surprise to us all. The Christmas train was great. We all sang carols and it was a perfect way to get you in the Christmas spirit. Grant's brother Henry slept the entire trip. I'm sure next year Grant will coach him on the best ways to be cute and get extra candy canes if only to steal them from him. :)

This evening (Sunday) we let Grant open his presents from us and from his cousins in New Zealand. We'll be in Nebraska over Christmas and tomorrow night is going to be spent packing and getting some early rest for our ridiculously early flight. Grant seems to love musical instruments and never lets us out of costco without going through the piano and guitar aisle. He was THRILLED with his own little piano. I had a headache after about 10 minutes of listening to him and his dad belt out Christmas tunes really loudly into the microphone with background sounds of syncopated drumbeats and synthesized dogs. Grant also received some great New Zealand Children's books from Peter's sister - He has already demanded they be read!! Bryan was also kind enough to leave him a gift - A Wiggles book and handy carry along song player - he loves it!

I'm sure we'll blog more from NE but Merry Christmas early!

All of our December photos to date are here...

-misty

..and sometimes it's all exactly how you imagined it.

2007-12-05T14:27:00.000-08:00

Today I made cookies for no other reason than it's Christmas time and I can't seem to let this holiday go by without baking something. I was able to mix up the entire batter while Grant had his lunch and Henry napped. The planets must have been completely aligned for it all to work out with both naps and feedings. The cookies had just cooled down in time to test them when Grant was waking from his nap. I gave him two small cookies and a small glass of milk and we sat quietly at the table while he enjoyed his post nap snack. Our little guy of very few (understandable) words looked up at me with a chocolate chip goatee and gave me a very approving "MMMMMMM". It didn't matter that the house wasn't as tidy as it could have been and that I was still in my pajamas with uncombed hair. In my naive pre-parenting days it was a moment like this that made me excited about being a mom. After doing it for two years it's definitely a lot more work than I could have imagined but it was nice to just live in the moment and accept the compliment for what it was.

-misty

As I typed this I caught Grant almost upending the plate of cookies from the counter onto his head.

Henry's Passport Photo

2007-12-03T22:15:00.001-08:00

Well we were finally able to get Henry's passport photo taken - now we just need to take him down to the post office to file all of the paper work! Who knows when that will be!

So here is Henry as he will be for the next 5 years on his Passport - Don't mess with him - He's tough!

back to normal & we've created a Christmas monster...

2007-12-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

So things all seem to be doing better for Grant. He's back up to his normal tricks and tantrums and the only thing that seems to be remaining is that he keeps squinting up his eyes like he's got a headache. We've got a Sleep EEG scheduled for Thursday and a results follow-up with the neurologist on Friday. The Sleep EEG should be fun. Grant isn't allowed to sleep more than 4 hours the night before and no naps. It's not like we're getting loads of sleep with Henry around anyway but geez. But if it rules out any other issues I'll happily comply.

December 1st was yesterday and we woke up to see a blanket of snow in our yard. I had no idea that Grant even knew what snow was but he was incredibly happy to see it. He was standing at our sliding glass door and clapping and yelling "SNOOOWWW". Peter took him out later in the day to play around in it and he loved it and threw a good old Grant sized tantrum when he learned he had to come in.

This year we also bought Grant an Advent Calendar. It's wooden and looks like a small Victorian house with little doors and compartments for treats for every day leading up to Christmas. We didn't really do this in my family but it was a big part of Christmas for Peter and one he wanted to do with the boys. We took it out the night before and decided we'd only put the treat in for the next morning because we weren't sure he was going to GET that you could only have one treat every day. When he woke up that morning it was the first thing he saw, even before the snow and kept saying "HOUSE" and pointing to it. We'd decided we would let him open the day's door after breakfast so Peter could be here with him when he did it. We may have made a mistake in putting his favorite treat in the world in day #1. Mini M&M's. He got to have some of these over Halloween as a special treat and since then anytime he sees them in the store he asks for them. He calls them "red,blue,green,blue" which is a lot longer than M&M's but it seems to have stuck. So we had to spend all day long telling him we only got into the house one time a day - after breakfast.... all day long.

They also had the little Rudolph and Santa Christmas TV shows with the felt stop animation that I loved as a kid and we bought them thinking he might like them. Because I came down with something (yes, Henry is the only man standing not hit by this virus) he spent a good part of the day watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. When he wasn't watching it he was asking for it... all day long.

This morning Grant woke us up at 5am. I heard him saying something over and over and since we're both still on hyper-alert from his seizure I went in to check on him. In a flash he'd jumped out of his bed, ran past me out his door and down the hallway and stood in front of his Advent Calendar and asked for his "house". When we told him that we had to wait til after breakfast he asked to eat and when we told him it was too early he then requested "Red Ball" while rubbing his nose. He repeated this process til it was time for breakfast, time for the calendar and time for Rudolph.

Tis the season!

Merrily yours,
-misty :)

OH!! and we had some photos taken of Henry a couple of days after he was born. Here's a slide show of them: http://www.emilyweaverbrownphoto.com/dampier/

...scared.

2007-11-26T23:14:00.000-08:00

This morning Grant woke up at 11am which is extremely late to his normal 6am wake up time. We assumed that he just needed to catch up on rest from the past few days and let him sleep. He ate a normal sized breakfast and then requested his favorite Wiggles DVD again. We were happy to see him somewhat on the mend. I was taking care of feeding and changing Henry and I heard Peter say that Grant seemed to still be sick as he was lying on the kitchen floor and kind of whining. Five minutes later Peter yelled in to me that he was having a seizure and to call 911. I came out to see my little boy lying on the ground, with a blue-ish face, convulsing and fighting to breathe. It was the scariest thing I've ever had to face and I'm not quite sure how I was even coherent enough to make the 911 call as all I could see myself doing was looking at Grant willing him to wake up out of this state. Fortunately the ambulance was here in less than 2 minutes (I'm so glad we moved to a more urban neighborhood). By the time they were up looking at Grant the convulsing had stopped and he'd moved on to sort of a deep sleep. They took him to the hospital with Pete and I stayed home with Henry. I felt so completely helpless being at home I wasn't quite sure what to do other than research everything online that I could about febrile seizures while Henry napped. Our niece, Arabella, in New Zealand and some friends from Nebraska had a daughter who also suffered from one each. Fortunately neither of them has had any recurrences. While I found that it's fairly common in toddlers, when it's happening and when you're waiting for hospital results none of that matters. It's damn scary. Peter was his usual calm self though I'm sure he felt as panicked as I was inside. Thankfully, Grant was pretty lethargic while in the hospital so getting the CAT scan done was easy and involved no sedation. Peter said it was hard seeing them do it though. The scan showed nothing of concern but they'd like us to get him checked by a pediatric neurologist just to make sure. We got to take Grant home around 3pm this afternoon and while parts of his personality were starting to show through there are still things that aren't quite right. He seems quite clumsy and a little out of it at times. I'm assuming that's pretty normal for the first 24-48 hours as your body goes through quite a shock. It was hard putting him to bed tonight as we both felt like we wanted to observe his every move to make sure it wasn't going to happen again.

On top of everything else, Peter has gone to bed looking absolutely pale and feeling horrible. I think he's managed to catch the virus that started it all with Grant.

I'm hoping tomorrow is a better day for us all.

-Misty

Sick Boy

2007-11-25T10:04:00.001-08:00

Tough night last night. Misty's parents went home on Saturday morning after helping us out all week with Grant and Henry (Grant had a fantastic time going to parades and parks!!) - Last night however Grant got sick (some vomiting bug going around) so we were up most of the night with him. Must have done about 8 loads of laundry trying to keep up with new bed sheets for him!! Luckily around 2am it seemed to stop though you can tell he is not feeling his best still.

Some new Henry photos uploaded here.

Also Grant out with Grandma and Grandma at the Bellevue Christmas Street show here

Couple of ones below - "Classic Grant" and "Grant meets Henry"

Hospital Photos

2007-11-22T00:58:00.001-08:00

Here is the link to the photos taken in the hospital by the automated do-whop:

https://birthprint.com/ecommerce/dispatch?x=X196d3aed58efda7de85dfe5811ba04f52

mum's post

2007-11-17T17:13:00.000-08:00

Well, we're home from the hospital and it's weird how much you forget and how much you remember from the first time around.

We apparently have a bit of a reputation for Henry's birth and it was listed on our chart as "spontaneous delivery". After the contractions got to be pretty uncomfortable we called for an epidural and I was able to sleep through the rest of the labor. They came in when I was 5 centimeters dilated and told us it could be somewhat fast and it could be time to push within 30 minutes and to call if I felt any pressure. The nurses then went on break. 10 minutes later I started feeling pressure so we called the back-up nurse in. She told me that it would probably be somewhat soon and to call if I felt anymore. I thought it was a little strange she didn't actually check me but thought she was the nurse and I was only doing this for the second time so what did I know. 5 minutes later I had a lot more pressure and it wasn't going away so we called the same back up in to check again. I finally at one point just said "Something is happening now. Can you just check me because I feel like he's coming out." She lifted my leg (because it was dead from the epidural) and I heard and saw shocked expressions from both her and Peter. She yelled out to the nursing station and within minutes we had about 8 nurses in doing stuff. Apparently his head was already out and his shoulders were starting to come out as well. I saw Pete's face in shock as he said "he's out.. he's right there" and I started laughing and the rest of him came out. The regular nurses and the doctor showed up about 10 minutes after all the hoopla. Now the only problem is Peter keeps saying "I'm never going to let anyone tell me childbirth is hard after THAT". The rest of our stay at the hospital nurses kept coming in for their shift saying "we heard about your delivery!" We heard our share of jokes about Pete bringing in a catchers mitt for the next baby. :)

So that's how little Henry was born. Since his birth at every turn we've been trying to recall if things were like this when Grant was born. Did he sleep this much? Did we pick him up every time he made a peep? Was Grant EVER anywhere near that small? It's amazing how much they grow in 2 yrs.

On the ride home we had the same conversation we did when we left the hospital with Grant. Excited anticipation mixed with nervous energy probably best described our journey to and from the hospital. When we left with Grant I remember Pete saying something like.. "wow.. I feel like they just let us go without giving us the manual.. I can't believe they're letting us both just walk out of here with him.. we have no idea what we're doing." You would think 2 years would have given us a little more knowledge and confidence but in ways it felt much the same. Who in the world let US have 2 kids?! There are times I feel like I can barely cope with Grant!

Grant was very excited about seeing us and "baby" but quickly turned very nervous and scared when we put Henry in his old crib. He started to quiver his bottom lip and touch my face and say something like "Grant mommy's baby" He looked genuinely hurt. It broke my heart. We assured him he was always going to be our baby and when he woke from his nap he's been Mr. Big Brother ever since. He's very concerned when the baby is crying or has spit out his pacifier or needs looking after. :) I think we'll all be ok.

Gramma and Grampa arrive tonight so Grant's about to get on the spoiled grandbaby train anyway. :)

Mum of 2,
-misty

More Henry photos

2007-11-16T19:52:00.000-08:00

Uploaded all the photos from yesterday and today now:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dampier/sets/72157603213963959/

At the hospital - and now- HENRY is HERE!

2007-11-15T23:22:00.000-08:00

So its 11pm and we're at the Hospital - Here is a quick breakdown of today so far....

Wed afternoon - Hospital says to call in at 3pm Thur for a time slot to come in
Thur AM - Hospital calls to say come in a 1.30pm
12.30pm Sarah comes round to look after Grant (Thanks Sarah!!!)
1pm - We head to the hospital
1.30pm - Arrive and Misty gets settled in
3pm - Doc arrives and the Oxytocin begins (induction drug)
9pm - Doc breaks Misty's water
10.30pm - Misty decides Epidural would be a mighty fine idea ASAP ASAP ASAP
11.30pm - Misty tries to nap.... The magic of the epidural!
11.31pm - Peter tried to nap....
11.45pm - Nurses will be in for the "every 15 mins" blood pressure check - Nap will be short lived!
1.10am - Gone from 50% to 80% dilated in less than an hour - could be less than 30 mins away!!
1.46am - HENRY IS HERE! PERFECT! 7.5lbs, 20.5" long - Self Delivered - One minute he was just there!!!!

the day my heart stopped and I died laughing all within 3 seconds

2007-10-10T16:12:00.000-07:00

I'm sure every parent has an arsenal of "funny things my kid did" stories but this cracked me up.

Today Grant was 2 hours late going down for his nap due to a busy morning. On top of that we have a contractor in doing some work in Henry's room which is right next to Grant's room. Grant ended up talking to himself and playing around in his room for the first HOUR of his nap. The last thing I heard on the baby monitor was a small crash followed by "UH-OH". I didn't get up and rush to see what had happened as "UH-OH" is the most overused phrase in the kid's vocabulary. We've tried explaining to him numerous times that if you intentionally throw green beans on the floor that you don't say "UH-OH" as if it's an accident but the lesson hasn't sunk in yet. So fast fwd to 2 hours after the "UH-OH"and I realize his naptime is going to affect his bedtime if I don't go and wake him up. I went to his room and when I opened the door my heart stopped. He was no where to be found. He's got a baby gate on his door so I know he couldn't have gotten out but it was alarming to just not see him there. So I start saying "GRANT!" louder as I'm opening the baby gate to look for him and I hear a muffled little "mrmmph" from somewhere and then suddenly I see Grant's little head with carpet imprints on his face crawl out from under his bed. He'd obviously dropped something between his bed and wall AGAIN and went to look for it an got tired and fell asleep once he was down there. He was obviously disoriented when he woke up which made it all even funnier. Maybe NOW he'll learn not to drop things down between the bed and the wall - probably not.

-misty

Our 2 yr old...

2007-09-24T18:15:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a busy summer. We've been so busy entertaining guests and trying to take advantage of the great weather that I hardly realized we hadn't updated this in months. This summer Grant got to spend loads of time with his family when my entire family came to WA at the end of July. We drove up and did the Olympic loop and had a great time. This is a picture of Grant, "Rampa", Timmy "TEEH" and Taylor "TAYY" at Marymere Falls. Grant loved being in the backpack with Grampa. It was great having everyone here and Grant loved all the attention.

A week later Granny who has now been named either "Gigi" or "Gaggy" (though we think she prefers the former, arrived with her friend Brian. They were with us for 3+ weeks and we traveled up to Victoria, B.C. Grant loved the ferry ride and overall was a really good traveler on both trips. After a long day of traveling around we stopped alongside a lake so Grant could have some fun paddling in the water and throwing rocks. Amazingly he kept mostly dry!

A week after Granny and Brian returned to New Zealand we celebrated Grant's 2nd birthday. It was fun to see him actually "get" the whole present thing. He is a very lucky little boy and received some really fun gifts that he really loves. That afternoon we went to the circus. Grant was his normal squirmy self but he really seemed to like it. I, on the other hand am not sure how I feel about the circus and found myself flinching with every whip crack near an animal. I'm not sure why that was surprising to me but I certainly didn't think much of it when I was booking the tickets. It's been a long time since I've been to a circus.

We also took Grant to the Puyallup State fair for a late birthday present. He had a great time and LOVED going down the huge slide with Peter. He's still talking about driving his own little car and going down the slide.

And he also started a little preschool program that runs for and hour and a half every tuesday and thursday. His little friend Kyle is in his class and he has really taken to it. He LOVES it. They have a big mirror in the room that's one sided glass and linked to an observation room. So while I could go and get something done in the 90 minutes he's there it's way too much fun to stay and see how he interacts when I'm not around.

Which brings us to the present milestone. Grant got his first "big boy" bed on Saturday. We decided to just put him directly into a Twin bed rather than mess with the toddler bed. We started talking to him about it during the week and telling him he was going to get a big boy bed with a big boy pillow. He seemed to be quite excited, mostly by the pillow. He was so, so excited while watching Peter put the bed together but that night he seemed a tiny big scared when we put him down for bed. He slept through the night with no problem and hasn't looked back. His bedtime routine has always been reading 2 bedtime books and then Peter lifts him into bed and we tuck him in. 3 nights with his new bed he started to walk over to Peter to be put in bed and then hesitated and turned around and walked over to crawl into bed himself.

This parenting thing is very weird. You push them along and cheer on every new milestone and when they show an inkling of independence you're suddenly struck with a bit of sadness at the fact that they don't need you anymore.

Wow, so that's inspired me enough to keep up with the blog more often. So much has happened since July, I really need to be better about updating. :)

-misty

EEGs.. cute :)

2007-07-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

This morning I was cleaning up the sitting room while Grant was dorking around in the kitchen. He recently had a growth spurt and loves the fact that he can reach more stuff on the counter - which has been a real pain remembering to push EVERYTHING out to the back. I heard him babbling and then he walked around the corner with what I thought was a ping pong ball and was carrying it very carefully out in front of him. He was very happy and looked at me and said "EEG!". I then realized the ping pong ball wasn't round but indeed very egg-shaped. I carefully and quickly rushed over to him and grabbed the "EEG" out of his hand and noticed a Grant-sized thumb hole poked in the top. In the kitchen I found an entire carton of "EEG's" overturned on the floor. Obviously they were left within reach. He then decided he wanted to help out with the clean up effort and I had to keep distracting him by sending him off to look for his own broom. All in all I would have thought the mess would have been a lot worse than it was and it still cracks me up thinking of him proudly walking out with his little egg in his hand. :)

-misty

A Day Out With Thomas the Tank Engine

2007-07-13T21:51:00.000-07:00

We took Grant to Snoqualmie today for a special event The Northwest Railway Museum runs called A Day out with Thomas & Friends. It's a short train ride aboard Thomas the Tank engine along with tons of other Thomas themed kid fun. We got there early and happened to see Thomas just coming back from the ride scheduled before ours. Grant was so excited he was shaking and yelling TAH-AS!!!! (his verison of Thomas). For the first time he really seemed to take notice of all the trains and pointed them out to us as we walked to the event. It was a really cute event and I think we'll book tickets again next year. Here are some pics of Grant watching Thomas pull in and some other shots from the day. The last pic is Grant holding up an 11ft log on it's side.. with his FINGERS! :)

new baby updates & fun with Grant...

2007-07-07T21:49:00.000-07:00

So we've been discussing names ever since we found out we're having a boy. We're in a kind of a weird position with names. We are going back to New Zealand for Peter's parental leave and in order to book the new baby's ticket the airline requires you to have a name. This can be before or after the baby is born but they give first preference for seats with a bassinets to those booked early. So we've basically got to choose the name early and stick with it. Which isn't a problem because we're really happy with the name we've chosen. In November we'll welcome Henry William Dampier to the world. I loved the name Henry and Peter at first wasn't sure until he said "What about Henry William Dampier?" and that was it. It was perfect. Just to make absolutely sure we decided to try it for a week and see how we felt and every day we just became more sure of the name. The only thing is it now seems to confuse Grant when we keep referring to the baby as Henry. Today in the car he was saying "Daddy, Mommy, Grant" and we kept adding Henry! and he'd stop in confusion. We've got a few months to practice. :)

Grant's little social calendar has certainly kept us busy. We've started Waterbabies again and last week we went to Sesame Street Live with our PEPS group. Grant was his normal reserved self and had to observe everything going on before he could decide he could have a good time. He then spent the rest of the show hopping off our laps to the ground so he could dance and realizing when he was dancing he couldn't see the Sesame Street characters so back up on the laps he'd go. It was good fun though.

It's been pretty hot for the Seattle area lately. We took out Grant's baby pool the morning of the 4th of July so he could have a dip that afternoon. Since Grant goes to bed at 6pm we knew he'd be in slumberland long before any fireworks occured. We decided to take Grant to the Zoo in the morning. The biggest hit at the zoo were the Penguins or "PEENS" as Grant calls them, the butterflies and the birds. The butterfly and bird things were structures you walked through so they were right there. He stopped in the middle of the butterfly tent and laid down on the ground to observe a butterfly on the path up close. He also seemed to eat half his body weight in popcorn that morning.

Friday was really hot and I decided it was a great day for an ice cream cone. In Grant's pool he'd been putting a ball on top of a cup and walking around licking it and saying Ice Creaaaam so I thought it might be fun to give him a real one - it was bath night anyway. These pics are from Grants first Ice Cream cone. As you can see it was very much enjoyed.

My entire family is coming to visit in a few weeks. I can't wait for Grant to see them and vice versa. It's going to be a full house and SO much fun!

-misty

news! news! news!

2007-06-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

We had our ultrasound today and were very excited to learn we're having another boy!! I thought I would be slightly disappointed but the minute I saw he was a boy (seconds before the doc announced it) I was really excited about having another little boy. I think I realized afterwards that I was hoping for a girl for all the girl stuff (mary janes, dresses, pink stuff) but I'm really excited and looking forward to all the boy stuff x2 (except the bugs - Grant has already brought me a few too many Grant handled, half dead ants). This baby also appears to be as active as Grant was in the womb. Lord help us. So bring on the pirate parties, rough and tumble little boys, and other boy type craziness - we've got stockpiles of band-aids in every size and we're as ready as we'll ever be. :)

Oh! the rest of the ultrasound covering the health issues all showed to be really good with no concerns. :)

-misty

grant's first time in a bouncy castle...

2007-06-24T00:12:00.000-07:00

Grant and I went the the Bellevue Strawberry Festival at a park near our house this weekend. I'm not quite sure I understand the significance of the Bellevue Strawberry Festival when the strawberries at the festival were all from California.. but whatevs. In addition to the CA strawberries they had food booths, craft fair type things and small ride type things for kids. We threw Grant and his little friend in a bouncy castle to see if they'd like it. They both started out unsure but really got into it by the time they had 20 seconds left. Both cried when they realized they weren't going back in. :)

Pete's in Japan right now and Grant has been walking to his side of the bed asking where Dah-EE is. He'll be back on Wednesday when we find out the sex of the baby!!! I can't wait!

OH! and on the potty front.. Grant went poo in the potty and was ok with the celebration that ensued.. however when he turned around and caught a look at what came out of him it scared him. Funny kid.

-misty

confusing celebrations & happy news on the prego front...

2007-06-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

I've been practicing "pottie time" with Grant every morning after breakfast for about a week now. We go in and take off his diaper and he sits on his pottie. I let him play with special toys and books that I only let him play with during pottie time. For a week my really "regular" guy has sat on the pottie and happily played for 10-15 unproductive minutes. Today I got him up from his nap and decided we'd do a second round of pottie time. We went in and did our regular stuff and suddenly he looked quite concerned and reached down between his legs to grab himself. I noticed wee in the toilet so I cheered for him and think my cheering added to the confusion. Anyway.. it's a small milestone but we'll take it!

We also finished up Grant's art class this last week. It was fun! All the messy painting and play dough you could fit in an hour and then you remove the apron and someone else deals with the mess.

I got the OK from our fertility doctor and my OB this week to stop the 2x daily injections of heparin!!!! I can't tell you what a relief it is. You would think you'd get used to it but it still hurt and my stomach is still covered in huge bruises.

We had an OB visit today and everything looks good on the baby front. I was REALLY hoping to find out the sex but it didn't happen. So now we have to wait 2 more weeks til our next ultrasound. We heard the heartbeat and everything was good. I've still been suffering from horrible morning sickness and she gave me a prescription for some anti-nausea stuff. I'm kinda iffy on taking anything but I didn't get sick today. Tomorrow will probably be a different story.

-misty

Fun in the Sun!

2007-06-01T22:24:00.000-07:00

We've had a crazy snap of gorgeous weather this week. Grant and Kyle cooled down in Kyle's pool. I was surprised how quickly Grant was comfortable in the pool. He's normally pretty cautious about new things. I'll have Peter copy the rest of the photos over to our flicker album early next week.

-misty

New Bathroom

2007-05-27T18:54:00.001-07:00

We finally had our downstairs ¾ bathroom/utility room remodeled into a full bathroom + utility room…

Some photos:

Exciting news!

2007-05-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

Since we just passed the 12 week mark I thought it was an appropriate time to announce that Grant is going to be a big brother!

His new baby brother or sister will be arriving somewhere around November 19th.

We're very excited and nervous about how in the world we'll manage with 2 tornadoes! And Grant's not sure what it all means but I'm sure he's ready for the first trimester tiredness to leave (probably more than I am).

-misty

finally new pics! and grant's new skillz

2007-05-01T21:41:00.000-07:00

We've had a bunch of pics on the camera that we've been meaning to put on our flicker page for quite awhile now and just hadn't got to them. They're finally up here but I need to go through and delete quite a few really similar pics. Above are some of my favorites.

It's amazing how much stuff Grant seems to pick up from Sesame Street or who knows what. The other day I was reading one of his books to him and when we had finished I shut the book. The book was about numbers and on the cover there were a bunch of numbers scattered around. Grant looked at the cover and immediately pointed to the number three and said "THREEE!" I thought it had to be a one-time thing so I wrote out some numbers on his easel and asked which one was a three and he pointed directly to the number three. I've been practicing his other numbers with him and he now knows 2 and 3 really well but gets a bit confused about the number one. I think it looks too much like a line for him to recognize that it's a number.

He's also doing quite well with his colors. Yellow or "yeyoww" seems to be his favorite, followed closely by purple and blue.

The other morning Grant woke up before we were ready to get up. Peter went and got him and returned to our bed and put him between us. To date, this has never worked. I don't know why we keep trying.. I suppose to buy us a few more minutes before we really HAVE to get up. I'd had a particularly rough night sleeping and was exhausted so I was whispering to Grant "Shhh.. Mommy is tired.. Mommy needs to sleep". He sat up and looked and me and immediately did the signs for "BABY" "EAT". This was done with much force to get his point across - "I don't care if mommy is tired.. BABY NEEDS TO EAT". It cracked me up. :)

-misty

I'm sure it's not just me but...

2007-04-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

How is it that Grant is outside for 15 minutes and manages to get THREE HOURS WORTH of dirty?

-misty

Surgery over, ear tubes in and adenoids out...

2007-04-18T19:41:00.000-07:00

Grant had his surgery today and is fairing pretty well. As much as I have complained about how ridiculously active Grant is, I really hated seeing him under the oral sedation (pre-anesthesia). Within seconds he'd lost the little sparkle in his eye and just looked SO drugged up. I cried a tiny bit as they took him down for the anesthetic, IV and surgeries. He hasn't had an ear infection in nearly 3 weeks so I kept wondering if it was all really necessary. When the surgeon came in to talk to us after the procedure he let us know that he had another ear infection starting and his adenoids were big and spongy (apparently a sign they need to come out). The surgery itself only took about 15-20 minutes and then he was in recovery for about the same amount of time. The anesthesiologist carried him back to us and he was really crying hard and that's when I lost it. I can't take seeing him in pain. He was quickly distracted when Peter offered him the juice the nurse brought for him. We weren't allowed to give him any food or drink after 1am last night so he hadn't had anything since 6pm the night before. We've never given him any sort of juice either so after his first taste he drank the entire thing really quickly. As rotten as he was feeling his raised eyebrows and we had to keep pulling the straw out so he'd take a breath. After the juice the nurse brought in a package of graham crackers which Grant quickly demolished. The rest of the time was spent trying to keep Grant from trying to walk around on his own. He was still loopy and druggy for hours after and couldn't stand up right but that didn't keep him from trying. We're having a bathroom remodeled and of course the contractor started today so Grant didn't get his normal afternoon nap in. He did remarkably well though and has managed to pick up a really weird laugh since the surgery (think a cross between a sheep and the Count on Sesame St.). I think tomorrow he'll be back on regular Tylenol. So all ended well and our ridiculously active toddler is back and everything feels right again. :)

-misty

Grant - The Kiss Machine

2007-04-01T23:17:00.000-07:00

Grant won't kiss Daddy. He will however kiss the rug, floor, and laundry basket if you ask for a kiss. Even his plastic sponge bob will get a kiss.

To paraphrase Seinfeld: No Kiss For You!

Daddy's first weekend as Mr. Mom and Grant's first trip to ER!!

2007-03-25T19:23:00.000-07:00

Thursday night I'd been feeling kind of lousy and ended up using a house call Dr. that Microsoft is offering as a benefit (amazing service and benefit). Turns out I had a few things going on.. a kidney infection and the start of some upper respiratory gunk. I was running a 102-103 temp for most of the weekend so Peter had to stay home Friday and the rest of the weekend to take care of Grant and me. Since I haven't been able to stomach much and I slept all weekend I was the easier of the two. Pete isn't normally around all day long to see the normal Grant-proofing that needs to be done and the magician-like distraction techniques you need to keep things sane. Peter was shocked to learn our little monkey could climb up onto the dining room if the dining room chairs aren't pushed in (duh).

So Pete made it the entire weekend until Sunday night when Pete decided to shove a piece of dried apple up Grant's nose and we had to take him to the ER. Grant has always been a "more is more" type of baby when it comes to snacks.... and why bother putting them in your mouth one by one when you can put the entire handful in? One of the tiny dried fruits I gave him missed it's intended target and ended up right inside his left nostril. We laughed about it and then I told Pete to grab it out before he snorted it up. Somehow Pete seriously misjudged the size of his finger to the size of Grant's nostril and he pushed it up further. We weren't really to stressed because he wasn't in any pain and was only annoyed by us trying to get it out. I called Ask A Nurse and they recommended taking him in to ER which Peter immediately said was RIDICULOUS. Long story short.. we took him in and they used this cool little balloon thingy to get it out (let me know if you want more details) and this HUGE chunk of apple came flying out. It went in probably the 1/4 the size of a kernel of corn.. it came out a little bit smaller than a marble. I didn't realize how much those things would expand! I'm SO glad we went it.. there was no way we could have got that out on our own. Grant didn't even cry. He was mad about being held down but that's it.

So, hopefully I'll be feeling better tomorrow, Peter survived his first weekend of being Mr. Mom and Grant had his first trip the ER. :)

it really does go SO fast...

2007-03-05T22:24:00.000-08:00

Tonight I was packing up some of Grant's old clothes and toys and I ran across the little giraffe rattle that he used to play with all the time. He used to chew on the head and the back foot and the back feet were always flatter than the front two little feet. His little snout was still matted from Grant's slobber and his back feet were still flat. In that minute I was taken back to that time and it really made me tear up. I actually had trouble packing it away. I've never been emotional about packing up any of his little jammies or clothes but for some reason that really brought me back to his baby days. He's no longer a baby. We now have a full blown toddler. The thing is you always hear "it goes so fast" but wow.. it goes SO fast. Some things seem so so long ago like bottles and night feeding and the wobbly head stage and yet I can't seem to figure out how we got to 18 months. I'm sure in a year or so I'll be saying this again. :)

-misty

all is quiet here...

2007-03-03T23:22:00.000-08:00

Pete left this morning for Japan and I can't believe how out of sorts it's made us and how quiet the house has been. It's not like he's loud or that he's never left on business trips before. I think it's just knowing that he'll be gone for like 10 days that makes the difference. Tonight when I was getting Grant ready for bed he seemed confused about why we were in his room doing bedtime stuff and Daddy wasn't around. Little things like running across the street to get the mail are things I'm trying to figure out how to get done. I guess I wait til Grant goes down for a nap or to bed for the evening and run out quick and hope I don't get run over by a car.

Even though I'm not employed I still look forward to the weekend. Having the extra hand for 2 days is SO helpful for just getting small things done. It's going to be interesting with Pete gone this weekend and next. With a kid like Grant you need someone to be on "Distractor Duty" so you can do things like vacuum the spare room without Grant deciding he needs to help. I also can't get into his closet if he's anywhere near. He quickly squeezes by my legs and starts tearing his clothes out and whatever else he can find like he's on some sort of treasure hunt. I'm counting down the days til Pete's back.

Oh! the pics above are a few I snapped last week or so. Grant decided he doesn't much care for mud. (Thanks to cousin Tina for the super cute jacket! :))

Hurry home Pete!

-misty

the dood's new 'do

2007-02-25T20:40:00.000-08:00

Grant had his first haircut on Saturday and it went unbelievably well! After he recently freaked out from bubbles being in his bathwater I was SURE that it was going to be a bad experience. I took him there on Friday to have a little look around because he often takes a little while before he's comfortable with new people and places. He seemed to be OK on Friday and really liked sitting in the car like chair and all the little Happy Meal type toys they had all over. Surprisingly Saturday was a breeze! He seemed to be slightly annoyed at mom and dad constantly interrupting his playtime to take pictures. The only time he even seemed uncomfortable was when she was squirting his hair wet and using the clippers but overall it was easy peasy. He never fails to surprise me. Sharp objects and clippers coming at his head and he's fine.. but put nice, fun bubbles in his bath and he screams like it's some crazy form of torture.

I actually surprised myself by welling up as he seemed to turn from a baby into a little boy right before my very eyes.

-misty

magical disappearing pants and other updates...

2007-02-15T18:59:00.000-08:00

sorry for the lapse in updates Grant and I have both been sick but that only covers the past week...

So I've heard that once toddlers are running around they lose a ton of weight and they're clothes start getting loose. I didn't think much of it because he seems to have a huge appetite but 3 times in the past two weeks I'll be doing something and turn around and his pants are gone. Every time I stop and think "Am I losing it? Did I not put pants on him?" Then I realize he's walked out of his pants... again. He's got such a funny little body he's got quite a tummy but wears his jeans under his belly like a grown man. It's been hard finding jeans that fit him well.

He's been learning so many signs from watching his Signing Times videos at breakfast. The other day I was washing dishes while he was watching and I turned around in time to see him signing "Please" along with a song on the video. So now he knows the word but getting him to use it in practice is quite another thing. If he wants something he wants it now and is wondering why I'm making him do this crazy sign when all he wants is THAT cookie NOW.

Last weekend Pete had to pick up more branches from the yard (from the windstorm in Dec) and we took Grant out there to let him tear around. And tear around he did. We had our first totally grass stained and muddy pair of jeans to try and clean. He's SUCH a little rough and tumble boy.

We're back to going to My Gym but I'm finding out that he really doesn't like the craziness of big crowds. He much prefers smaller groups and doing his own thing. And he still hates the 5 minutes of circle time at the beginning where he has to sit still.

He's also got ANOTHER ear infection. The doctor we saw mentioned speaking to his pediatrician at his 18 month visit about getting tubes put in his ears. Scares me but with as many ear infections as he's had I think it's inevitable.

I'm going to try and get some new pics up here in the next few days.

-misty

Bye Bye

2007-01-30T08:04:00.000-08:00

Grant said "bye bye" with his usual wave to me this morning when I left for work :)

Boy is growing up!

home from the holidays...

2007-01-19T20:23:00.000-08:00

wow.. I haven't posted in a long time.. here are a few bullets of things Grant has been up to.

- was allowed to break all sorts of rules while in the care of Gramma and Grampa. The minute I left the room it was like Babies Gone Wild - no bed time, sure push every button on the TV and stereo, ooo see if he like's cake, candy, pudding etc. All good fun and while he enjoyed the freedom now, he's going to LOVE future visits to Gramma and Grampa's house. :)

- The problem with the relaxation of the rules is when I come home and have to play bad cop and tell Grant to get down from standing on the coffee table he responded with a VERY defiant NO! I tried not to react so he wouldn't think it was funny but inside I was going "sweet baby jesus the terrible two's have begun"

- He decided he didn't really like touching the snow and had to walk with his hands up so they didn't touch (as in pic above).

- On Christmas morning Grant decided his favorite food was Aunt Audra's pancakes and impressed us all with eating 4 1/2 pancakes.. and then I cut him off. He was not to pleased about this.

- Once we reached my mom and dad's house he decided that walking was the thing to do and his crawling days were completely over.

- We had about a week of sleepless nights and a really clingy baby that was totally unlike Grant. This spanned over New Years Eve when we had our worst night of night wakings to date. We found that his ear infection came back in addition to him cutting almost all of his molars at the same time.

-He can now identify his nose, toes, ears, eyes, mouth, teeth, and hair.. but only if he's in the mood.

- We had a really great time and Grant loved all the attention from Gramma, Grampa, Taylor, Timmy, Chris and Audra.

We're off to Baby Loves Disco tomorrow so Grant can boogie to his bottom off. :)

-misty

Ice Storm

2006-12-20T15:20:00.000-08:00

Well looks like Misty and I escaped the wind storm in Seattle last week (luckily our house was only without power for ~24 hours on Thur/Fri last week while we were away) but now we're getting hit by an ice storm in Nebraska.... Lots of tree branches down all over, you hear cracking all over town... Wind stom also blowing in right now with lights flickering!!

The snow storm that just shutdown Denver airport is also headed this way - should be an interesting few days!!

Some photos:

Grant's early Christmas

2006-12-10T19:19:00.000-08:00

Well its a very quiet house now that Granny and Brian have left Grant with only the two of us. I'm sure he misses them greatly as he had so much fun with them both.

For Grant Christmas came a little early as he got to open Granny's present early before she left for New Zealand. I had to post some of the photos above of Grant playing in his new Pirate Ship! he loves it - thanks Granny! One slight "problem" we now have hundreds (literally) of balls all over the house :)

He is also having a whale of a time with Brian's Thomas the Tank Engine gift - he loves pushing down the engine driver and watching it go.... Thanks Brian!

granny and brian visit

2006-11-28T21:58:00.000-08:00

Sorry my updates have been a bit sparse lately we've had visitors! Pete's mum and her friend are visiting from New Zealand. We've been incredibly busy with a trip to Whistler, several trips to Costco, and Grant battling a really horrible 2 week+ long ear infection that has kept everyone up for weeks.

New skillz:

1. Grant is now pretty much walking though he still hasn't gotten to the point where he prefers it to crawling.

2. Says "Daddy" pretty clearly

3. Now gives high fives (though only when he feels like it but he definitely knows what he's supposed to do.

4. Has mastered climbing in and out of his book bin.

5. Has mastered climbing on top of the fireplace ledge/hearth thingy - large furniture has been placed in front of the ledge with small gaps on either side to prevent him from doing this - this is no longer a deterrent and he's now able to climb up with very little clearance.

6. Loves to spend times doing his little ring stacker toy

7. Says "ah-duh" when he's done with his food and milk and then starts tossing them if you're not quick to collect. Upon having really poor service today at a restaurant this doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

8. About a billion other cute things far too numerous to list.

-misty

The Grant (and Misty's new business)

2006-10-31T21:55:00.000-08:00

I had to pull these photos out of the Flickr album - These ones really sum Grant up!!

I

Grant came in to Microsoft today to celebrate Halloween - He promptly showed us up as when people asked if he was walking yet we had to say "not quite' of course we'd then put him down on the ground to demo this 'lack of walking skill' and he'd immediately take a couple of steps - something he never does at home!!!
Also Misty recently got paid to paint this custom toy chest for an ex work colleage - Looked really cool... Grant needs one!

Happy Halloweeeeen from The King

2006-10-30T22:06:00.000-08:00

Hope you all have a great Halloween!

Grant would like to extend a special thanks to Gramma for sewing his killer costume. Thank you.. Thankyouverymuch. :)

Here's hoping Grant gets lots of chocolate (that he can't have) in his treat bag. :)

-misty