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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-misty

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

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

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

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

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

 

-misty

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

-misty

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

henry doodle

 

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

bespectacled boy

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

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

Hot Tub!

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

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

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

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

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

-misty

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

 

-misty

oh.. forgot

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

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

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

-misty

Daddy OUT! & blowout city

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

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

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

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

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

Speaking of which Henry is paging me now..

Later,
misty

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

BIIIIG GUY!

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

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

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

-misty

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

G'day from NZ

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

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

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

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

Henry updates:

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

Grant updates:

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

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

-misty

brotherly love

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

 

-misty

some pics of Henry...

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

 

WATCHOOTALKIN' BOUT GRANTY?

 

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

another of Grant's super powers...

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... :)

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...

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?

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!

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.

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.