paging dr. desructo...

So no one told me the lengths you need to go to in considering what to childproof. Then again.. no one else seems to have a Grant. :)

Grant's favorite spot to play over the last few days has been under the kitchen table. It's actually been kinda cute to hear him playing around under there while I'm cooking or doing some other work in the kitchen. I didn't pay too much attention to what he was actually doing under there. I thought it was just normal exploring. Yesterday Peter got down on the floor when we heard him rattling something. Turns out Grant found the wingnut holding one of the tables legs to the table and was working at loosening it. Peter tightened it up and we had a little laugh about how he's always trying to figure out how things work. If you give him a toy the first thing he does is turn it over to see how it works. Grant was under the table again tonight and managed to loosen the same nut Peter had just tightened. We now have to get pliers out and make sure they're all super tight.

The pictures above are Grant testing out one of his birthday presents early. He got a cool little trike from Gramma and Grampa Dishman and he LOOOVES it. I love the picture posted above because he really gets excited when we push him FAST... so fast his little hair flies up. Thanks Gramma and Grampa!

-misty

dood's got mad skills...

New pics posted in the photo album. The pictures above are from a park at the lake down the road.

So on Wednesday I'm starting to wean Grant from breastmilk and onto whole cows milk. Up until Sunday night he could not work out a straw to save his life. Fun to chew on and that's about it. He didn't seem to care for sippy cups as they didn't keep the fluids flowing and he had to constantly work at it. When I had a visit to my regular doctor she suggested putting a big of milkshake in the bottom of his cup with a straw to motivate him. Once he realized what was in the cup he was extremely mad that we weren't tipping it down his throat. I accidentally turned the cup upside down and a bit of if went out the straw and he realized how to get more really quickly. So yay! He's worked out a straw! We celebrate all Grant related milestones. :)


In other news Grant's finally found his "outside voice" and he REALLY likes to squeal. People have always commented on how quiet Grant is. He does the normal baby babble but sparingly and not really much in front of other people unless he's truly comfortable. Today something clicked and he realized he can make a really LOUD high pitched squeal. So he practiced all afternoon. When he was playing, when he was mad, when he was happy, when he was supposed to be sleeping. It was kinda funny and pretty cute the first 20 minutes. I could have done with out the angry squeal when getting him into his car seat though. :) He's definitely very good at letting you know when he's not happy.

Anyway.. learning new stuff everyday. He's also been waking up throughout the night again. :P
That's one skill I'm hoping goes by the wayside pretty quickly.

-misty

ahem...

reminder to SELF would actually imply that you CHANGE him on a regular basis... including the pooey ones.

-misty

Diapers

reminder to self: don't let Grant crawl around with no diaper.

warning: not for the faint of heart...

So Grant has had some stomach virus the last 5 days and has had the slimey green poo's. Gross. Yeah.. well be thankful you're not changing him 50 times a day like me. So as a result of all of this he's gotten a HORRIBLE diaper rash. He looks like one of the red-butted monkeys at the zoo. And if he wasn't hard enough to change already.. getting a new diaper on him is like a WWF wrestling match. So this morning I went in and fed him and changed him and his butt seemed even more red than the day before. I wanted to let him air out before I put on any diaper cream or a new diaper because that's what they say.. air them out right? While I was getting out his diaper stuff he flipped off the ottoman and crawled towards his door. He's getting really good at learning what no means and even listens pretty well. So I said "No, don't go out the door, you need to stay in here". He turned and sat on the carpeted floor of his room and looked at me. So while I sat there quite proud of him and his good listening skills I heard a gurgle and noticed he was making a familiar face. As I realized what the face was I yelled "GRANT! DON'T POOP ON THE FLOOR!". Apparently that set off his "flee" instinct and he took off leaving a mess on the carpet and then tracking it through the wood floors of the hallway into our bedroom. He's really fast. So I yelled out to Pete who was still in bed that I needed help. When Pete got to the doorway Grant was all excited to see him and Pete stood there just stunned at the mess before him. I was working frantically at containment and cleanup and Pete was just standing there going "ohmygod.. ohmygod.. oh.. ugh". Great help! Thanks Pete! In the end I decided a bath was best and Pete went to get the carpet steam cleaner. Did I mention Grant's room has WHITE carpet? Fortunately it all seems to have come out. But it's not really a great way to start your morning. The thing is you really wanna kick yourself because OF COURSE it was going to happen.

So I'll say it again (until next time)... I've learned my lesson!! (To my credit he hasn't poo'ed in his bed again!)

-misty

we may be in trouble...

Yesterday morning we woke up and found Grant had a pooing accident overnight so I handed him to Pete while I changed sheets and spent the next 10 minutes scrubbing and sanitizing his mattress. All was going well until he woke up from his first nap of the day 3 hours later. When I walked in he was standing in his crib waiting for me wearing only a very happy smile. I found his diaper over in the corner and a big wet spot on the mattress. I'm really hoping it was just some stroke of luck that he was able to get his diaper off. He hasn't done it since (hallelujah!) but I'm sure it's a matter of time. He's such a hot blooded little guy that I really don't want to put him anything else to sleep in while it's so hot.

Yesterday we had swimming which went better than last week (cried the entire time). He only cried for a bit in the beginning. I think the more he gets used to it the better he'll be. He's oddly kind of OK with the underwater bits when he's facing me. He just seems to get really mad when I'm near the edge and I don't let him get out.

Today I decided to take Grant to a Story Time class they had at his little gym. I don't know what I was thinking. Putting and extremely active child in a gym with loads of cool things for him to crawl and play around on and then trying to make him sit still in your lap while someone reads a story is a recipe for disaster. He did have a good time before and after storytime when he was studying all the 2 & 3 year olds running around and climbing the rock climbing wall. He loves going nuts in the gym there. I think we're going to have to keep him enrolled there.

Today I realized he knows the difference between different toys. I asked him to get his phone and he crawled back in his room and picked up his phone. Later on I asked him to get his book and he did the same. Call MIT!! Call Harvard!! Our child is a genius!! :)

Getting cuter and more fun day by day..

-misty

so.. stinking... HOT.. :P

We had the Microsoft Company picnic this weekend and I thought I was going to die. It has been SO hot. We shuttled from shaded area to shaded area all afternoon. I'm excited to take Grant in the next few years and watch him go nuts. They did have a toddler area but it was all in the full sun and packed. The pic above is a KidWash that they had set up that Pete ran Grant though to cool off. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it. :) That's so Grant though. Observe first and once he's comfortable then he'll decide if he likes it. Funny how their little personalities show more and more each day even at this age.

-misty

The other pics in the photo album are from our PEPS BBQ.

KEEP OFF GRASS...

We had a BBQ for my mom's group today and found the one thing that could keep Grant corralled. It was a beautiful day and we had quilts on the lawn so the kids could play outside. Grant was tearing around doing his normal rounds but we noticed when he got near the edge of the quilt he acted like he was going to fall off the end. We realized it was the grass that he was trying to avoid. So considering the loving and nurturing type of parents we are we quickly picked him up and put him on the grass. He immediately lifted up one foot and was whining to be picked up. So we put him on his stomach and he couldn't work out out to get up without using his hands. He was on his stomach with both of his feet and hands in the air and he really wasn't happy. No matter how much we tried he never got used to it and was happy just staying on the quilt. I now need to figure out how to grow a lawn indoors to keep him in one place. :)

-misty

we're on the mend!

after a horrific weekend we're all finally starting to feel better. Sunday was terrible as Peter and I were both sick. More sick than we've been in YEARS. I felt so horrible for poor Granty who just wanted to play and be social and it took every ounce of our energy to just meet his basic needs. Grant's bug hit him a day earlier so he was just coming out of his sickies when ours hit.

Above are some pics we took today. The first just captures that look of mischief we know so well. The second is bathtime, which has become so much more fun since his Waterbabies class. He seems to love it even more now and becomes more adventurous each bath. Today the big lecture was "no standing in the bath!". There are more pics in the photo album here.

-misty

Bang, Flash.

Well not only was July 4th fun but last night our PC caught fire in the living room - Never a good thing to happen!

i've been slimed...

So, Grant had his first day of daycare on July 5th while we went to a movie and had lunch. I think I broke our baby. We went to check on him between the movie and lunch and he was crying like I'd never heard him cry. So I consoled him and tried not to be offended when he only wanted to go to Daddy. The childcare people assured us that he would be fine for us to go have lunch. When we came back to pick him up he was crying again.

The weird thing was being in our house when he wasn't here. It's amazing how such a little person can fill an entire house. :) Since daycare, diaper changes have been seriously impossible. Backbends and SCREAMING CRYING. He's never been a big fan but it's much much worse since. He's also wailing every time I try to put him to bed. But the kicker is that he's picked up some bug. He woke up this morning all snotty.

This afternoon Peter had some colleagues from Sony come to our house so he could demo something for them and they could meet Grant. It all went swimmingly until Grant decided it was well past naptime. I took him to his room and gave him a bottle and then he was kind enough to give the entire contents of the bottle back via a GINOURMOUS fountain of vomit. Not cute baby spit up, the big person kind in the manner of The Exorcist. I had to call for Pete to step away from his guests and come in and assist. I had to do a complete clothing change and I now need a shower because that horrid smell is stuck in my nose. I just ended up giving Grant a full bath. Poor guy. Now I'm all worried about him getting dehydrated and stuff.

So childcare went fantastic. :P It's going to be hard to leave him there again.

-misty

working at getting us around that little finger...

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

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

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

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

-misty

Dad and his shed!

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

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

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

So I started assembling the shed....

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

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

At this point there was a bit of swearing.

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

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

For weeks.

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

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

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

9 month visit and Grant speaks!!

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

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

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

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

-misty

waterbabies and attitude

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

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

-misty

mr. munchmouth

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

-misty

mini-vacation and our little monkey..

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

Here are some pics oot and aboot Whistler.

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

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

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

-misty

can't get no satisfaction, mothers day & cutest shoes ever...

As I've mentioned before Grant is a mover. When he could only roll he'd groan and furrow his brow because he couldn't go forward. When he worked out how to scooch fwd he'd grunt and squeak when he couldn't get where he wanted fast enough. Now that he's got crawling mastered and is pulling himself up onto things he's frustrated because UP simply isn't good enough.. he wants to be climbing. He pulls himself up and with outstretched arms he starts clawing at the couch for grip. Then he raises his legs reaching for something to give him some leverage, grunting and complaining in frustration the whole time. He's such a little monkey. In the picture above he was just trying to climb up that toy but got distracted by the camera when I took it out. He looks so big in that picture. :)

I also noticed something new he's started doing this week. We've got hardwood flooring upstairs with rugs in each room. His little play area is on a rug in the sitting room. Since he's really motoring around and he's really curious he often makes a line drive for more interesting things in the other room. I noticed as soon as he left one carpet "island" and was on hardwood he'd pop his butt up in the air and walk on his hands and feet until he got to the other carpeted area where he'd go back to crawling normally. He's either doing this because it hurts his knees or because he gets less traction on the wood floor, either way it's cute to watch and he does it now without slowing down. Crawl, crawl, crawl, monkeywalk, monkeywalk, monkeywalk, crawl, crawl, crawl.

This weekend was my first mother's day. I wish I could say I spent the day hanging out doing motherly things but I spent the morning at Urgent Care finding out that my fever, hacking cough, and general lousy feelings were Bronchitis. So Peter spent mother's day taking care of Grant while I got some much needed rest. Grant got me his own card and Pete tried tracing his hand as his signature. The result was exactly what I would have imagined would happen if you tried tracing Grant's hand with a pen.. He was very interested in what the stick wiggling his fingers around was and kept grabbing it with the other hand. The result was four kind of finger looking bumps with lots of scribbles in between and around them. It is now one of my most treasured posessions. I love being a mom.

Oh.. so here's something cool too.. so it's really hard sometimes to walk past the rows and rows of little girls cute clothes and then located the one tiny corner of boys clothes. The unfairness of it all annoys me ... and then I found THESE? Are these the cutest shoes/sandals you've EVER seen?!



-misty

oh the joys...

I can't remember if I've mentioned Grant's "naked time" before bed earlier or not. Basically, on occasion and if I'm running ahead of schedule, I strip Grant down naked and throw him in his crib with a few toys right before I give him a bath. He LOVES it and the squeals of glee always crack me up. Besides, he's got plastic sheets so if he wees then I can just change the sheets and clean up. When I've told people this I've gotten a few knowing looks from other mom's that seemed to suggest it was only a matter of time before "naked time" wasn't so cute anymore. That time came today.

In my defense, Grant for the last 3-4 months has always been a really "regular" guy. He basically goes poo once first thing in the morning and then once more mid-morning. Never in the afternoon or evening. I didn't think his mixed up sleep schedule (from being sick) would matter much.

I was running late this evening so I quickly stripped Grant down, put him in his crib and ran into the bathroom right outside his room to run his bath. This literally had to have taken MAYBE 2 minutes.. probably less. I didn't think much about not hearing Grant hopping around and laughing like he always does. When I walked back in I saw something on his mattress and tried to think what toy I threw in there that could have burst open. Was it paint? Food? As I got closer I realized with horror that it was neither. Grant had poo'd and then moved around and wanted to investigate this cool new stuff in his crib. It was everywhere and it was like a scene out of a horror movie. By some incredible stroke of luck Pete came home as I was cleaning Grant and was able to help out with the massive cleanup effort.

It's going to be a long time before the next "naked time". Mind you I was only 2 minutes from it happening in the bath. I'm not sure which would have been worse.

After all of that, there's no way I'm cooking tonight.

-misty

senor snottykins

This is normally how we find Grant everymorning (though he's normally wearing jammies). He's always super excited to see us and even at 7am has that twinkle of mischief in his eye. However, Grant is sick at the moment. I'll spare you the pic of the snotty Hitler moustache that he's been sporting the last two days. He's got the worst cold that he's had to date and he's been teething like crazy. His coughing, congestion, and teeth kept him (and me) up all night. He was up no less than 4 maybe 5 times last night.. probably more.. you lose count in that interrupted sleep haze. He didn't want to eat or do anything more than just snuggle and fall asleep on my shoulder. He's just not been himself for the past two days and I hate seeing him so miserable. Anyway, not much else going on. He's been pulling himself up on things but he gets really frustrated when he can't quite get up to higher platforms like the couch. I keep helping him up because he likes to stand but I really need to back off so he can learn to do it on his own. There are times when I'm walking into the room and I catch him standing or playing and I'm suddenly amazed at how big he is. He was 8 months old yesterday.. 4 months shy of a year!!! That is seriously so unbelievable. Oh, and he's also talking alot more but doesn't seem to do the normal ba-ba-ba, da-da-da, ma-ma-ma babbling.. he's doing "tss tss thsss sthssss" either way it's cute.

-misty