Baby Steps

I'm back!

2010-08-15T23:28:00.002-04:00

I have given up on blogging lately. The entire summer was jam-packed and crazy between doing fun things, my big news, and working. As usual, blogging dropped to the bottom of my priority list. I want to catch back up and hope to keep this updated a little more regularly from here on out. It has been about oh, three months, so bear with me over the next few days as I get everything updated. I will back date everything too.

So, what is my big news that has kept me so busy this summer? After one year of taking pre-requisite classes and numerous rejection letters from other nursing programs, I finally got accepted here! I never thought this MSU Spartan would also be a UM Wolverine. I am so thankful and feel so lucky to be chosen for this program. It's highly competitive and I still have no idea how I got in after getting rejected everywhere else I applied. The program I am doing is the accelerated second career program. It takes one year and I will have a BSN by next summer! I will finally be a nurse! I had to take three classes this summer to get ready for the program and it was just nuts. I officially start the program next week so I am hoping to get this blog back into shape before then.

Check back for updates periodically...

Baptized

2010-06-13T00:11:00.004-04:00

We did not want to baptize Grant until we found a church we love and attended regularly. We didn't want to just "do it to get it done". We wanted his baptism to be meaningful and in a place we love. When Grant was still a baby, we started attending the Manchester United Methodist church. Right from the beginning, we loved it. It's very contemporary and we love all the families that attend. It's also walking distance from our house! After attending for over a year, we decided it was time to proceed with his baptism.

I spent the week prior to the baptism telling Grant about how he was going to get water on his head from Pastor Larry and then everyone would clap and then we would come home and eat a big breakfast. He kept talking about it. I think it worked because he was really good for the whole ceremony. He didn't scream or fight or anything.

Right before our pastor poured the water on his head, he asked Grant, "Grant, what do you think about your baptism?" Grant spoke into the microphone, "A crane picked up Derek's car and threw it in the mess!" (which is a story he retells over and over about going to the dump with Drew and his parents and watching a crane throw Derek's car into the scrapyard. Apparently, it made his life).

After, we had a small gathering at our house and had egg quiches, blueberry coffeecake, fruit salad and juice.

It was a really nice day and I am so glad I waited to make it extra special.

Grant is two!

2010-05-25T23:46:00.011-04:00

When did my baby get so big?

The stats:

27 lbs 2 oz (40th percentile) and a hair under 36 inches tall (85th percentile). He talks like such a big boy. He can talk in complete sentences and is easily understood. Strangers always stop and tell us they are amazed by how well he can talk. He is obsessed with any kind of working vehicles (tractors, trucks, cranes, etc) and loves to help work on the car and mow the lawn.

For this birthday this year, we decided to keep the tradition of doing something fun in lieu of a party and also having a tasty homemade cake. Last year, we went to the zoo and had a rainbow cake. This year, we decided to take him to Touch-A-Truck at the Briarwood Mall. Touch-A-Truck is a free event put on by the county organization that puts on our playgroup. Basically, they round up a bunch of working trucks and vehicles and let the kids crawl all over them, pretend to drive them, and push all the buttons. For a truck lover like Grant, his equates to pure heaven! This year, they had an ambulance, a huge tractor, a couple of armed forces vehicles, fire trucks, a delivery truck, police cars, and three busses, just to name a few. Grant's favorite was the tractor for sure. They also had booths set up with free samples and little toys for the kids. We got a huge recycled shopping bag full of freebies. Awesome! Some pictures of our day...

After touching trucks, we headed to Red Robin and then home for this year's tasty cake. In celebration of 2, I made a vanilla pudding cake and frosted it with chocolate malt frosting. Yummy! I think Grant thoroughly enjoyed his birthday because at the end of the day, he said, "Daddy? This a real good day". Awww!

I can't believe another year has passed and my little buddy is now two.

My latest project

2010-05-04T22:18:00.005-04:00

I have wanted to plant a garden for the last few years. Last year, we threw a couple rows of melons on a non-grassy part of our yard and they actually sprouted little teeny melons. They never got full-grown because we didn't plant them until late in the summer. I was shocked they actually sprouted though and decided that maybe it is possible to grow something in our yard!

I thought this year would be a good year to try because Grant can help me. We started collecting seed packets each time we found them on sale. We ended up getting a bunch for a quarter and some more for just under a dollar. I posted an ad on freecycle asking for fencing supplies and got a response from a lady in Saline. She gave me a huge pile of brand new stakes and chicken wire!

I spend the last two afternoons planting our stuff while Grant helped. And by helped, I mean he picked up worms, tried to eat the pea seeds, and he took his tiny shovel and tried to dig up the seeds I already planted. He is very handy with a watering can though. We planted cucumbers, peas, carrots, broccoli, beans, pumpkins, cantaloupe, watermelon, and strawberries. I also planted a few pots of wildflowers.

I am totally sore after all that digging and planting, my hands are blistered, and I had to dodge some snakes. Fingers crossed that in a few weeks, I get some produce!

Presenting....

The garden!

And, the master gardener himself...

Recalled!

2010-04-30T22:49:00.004-04:00

I thought I would warn other moms out there that might be reading. There has been another big crib recall. This one applies to all Graco and Simplicity cribs. The recall information is found here.

Unfortunately, we did have a Simplicity crib and ours was one of the affected ones. I know the chances are good that our particular crib wouldn't have broke but I didn't want to take the chance, especially when my monkey son uses his bed as a trampoline daily. We called Target's corporate hotline and they informed us to take our crib to our local Target store and we would be issued a giftcard.

I dreaded this entire process because I have heard a lot of bad things about Target's return policy. I also have had a few bad experiences with returns at Target. It turned out, the entire process was simple! We took our old crib into the store in a cart and they issued us a $250 giftcard on the spot! They give a giftcard based on the highest price the crib sold for. I am pretty sure we only spend $100 on sale two years ago so we came out ahead. We found an almost identical crib that was in stock at our Target and it actually cost $250 so we were able to make an even exchange. Perfect!

A few people have asked me why we even bothered to get another crib and wondered why we didn't just buy a toddler bed. I can explain: this particular crib (as well as our old one) is a 4-in-1 convertible so when we are ready to put him in a toddler bed, we will use this same crib. Then, when he is ready for a real bed, this will also convert to that too. Second, I am just not ready to put him in a toddler bed yet. Historically, Grant hasn't been the best sleeper. He has been doing ok lately so why mess things up and shake up his sleeping arrangements?

Our poor old recalled crib... (RIP)

Our exchange...

It wasn't until I saw these pictures did I realize how different they are in color (even though they are both "cherry"). I loved the old one but I think the new one will grow on me.

Grant likes his new bed and said, "Nice bed!" I guess tonight we will see how it works out.

BOSTON OR BUST!

2010-04-27T22:56:00.032-04:00

We took our first real family vacation last week! I qualified for the Boston marathon back in October when I ran the Detroit marathon. I have done Boston before and wasn't planning on running it again this year. Hotels in Boston are really pricey during marathon time and we couldn't afford to go. I have a friend who lives on the outskirts of Boston who offered up her place for us to stay if I wanted to run. All we would have to pay for is the gas to drive there. On a whim, I signed up. I am so glad I did. We had a BLAST.

I have a ton of pictures to share so I will divide this post into days and sort the pictures accordingly.

FRIDAY 4/16

We decided to take the drive in two days. Grant isn't the best car traveler and I was nervous about how he would do on a 14-15 hour trip. We left Friday morning and the goal was to drive to Syracuse, NY and stay overnight there. We made a few stops along the way. Our first stop was not too far into our trip: Cabelas!

We walked around the store for about a half hour and looked at all the animals. Grant loved it. He fell asleep shortly after and we drove the rest of the day. We had horrible driving weather the entire day. It rained and rained. It was raining so hard, we couldn't see very far in front of us. Grant was the best traveler though. I can't complain. He did great and was really patient! We arrived in Syracuse in the evening and found a cheap hotel with a pool (and free breakfast!). We hit the hotel pool and then ate sandwiches out of our cooler. We relaxed and got ready for day #2 of driving.
Grant loved looking out the hotel window at the NY turnpike at the "BIG TUCKS!"
SATURDAY 4/17

We left Syracuse after breakfast and headed to Boston. This was a shorter leg. We had pretty smooth sailing but another day of torrential rain! We got into Boston around 5:00 after hitting some crazy rush hour traffic. We went straight to the expo to pick up my packet for the race. We didn't stay long because we were tired, hungry, and the place was a complete zoo. I did manage to catch this picture when we drove under the finish line.
After the expo, we headed to my friend's house. She lives about 45 minutes south of town in a cute little town. She has a daughter 2 weeks younger than Grant and she is pregnant with her second. We arrived at her house and she had yummy homemade pizza waiting for us. The kiddos hit it off within minutes of arriving and had a blast playing together until bedtime.

Grant loved her daughter so much that he cried when she went up to bed! Adorable and sad.

SUNDAY 4/18

We woke up and ate breakfast and headed out for a fun day. We first drove around my friend's town and she showed us the Ocean Spray Headquarters (where she works). We got to see the cranberry bogs where they harvest the fruit for juice. Cool! We then headed into Boston. They have year passes to the children's museum and can take guests in for free. We met up with another friend who has season aquarium passes with the same privilege (and a daughter a few months younger than Grant). So, we got to see both attractions for free! Awesome! We had the kids in the double stroller and they loved riding together.
While walking towards the buildings, we got caught in a downpour complete with hail. It was nuts!

We hit the aquarium first. It was really crowded (probably from the marathon traffic) but we had fun nonetheless. The aquarium is really neat and is built like a spiral with a huge fishtank running down the middle. They also have a really neat penguin exhibit which was a favorite of ours.
After the aquarium, we headed over to the Boston Children's Museum. The kids LOVED this place! It was really toddler friendly and had a bubble room and a huge sand table. I think the three kiddos played in the sand for about a half hour straight while we stood around and talked.

After our fun afternoon, we headed to a third friend's house for a huge dinner. All of the women who attended the party are all running moms like me. We all have kiddos under the age of 4. A few of us were running the marathon. It was complete CHAOS with all those kids but so much fun!
We ate way too much food and were so tired by the end of the day. I had so much fun that I almost forgot I was there to run a marathon the next day!

We headed back to my friend's house after dinner. The husbands put the kids to bed and we stayed up way too late chatting. I also had a 4:00 a.m. wake-up call to make my bus to the race!

MONDAY 4/19- Race Day

One of my running mom friends was able to secure me a spot on her running club's bus. This was so awesome of her. Had I not ridden her bus, I would have had to drive 45 minutes into Boston and catch the official bus to the start line (which is about another 45 min. drive in the other direction). I left for her house around 4:45 a.m. We were on the bus by 6:00 and heading to the starting line. Drew, Grant, my friend and her daughter headed into Boston later to spectate. They were at mile 8.
As for the race itself, I won't bore you with too many details. It was my 8th marathon and my 2nd Boston. I planned to just run for fun and wasn't interested in a time goal. Unfortunately, I got really ill at mile 11 and had to stop several times. Shortly after, I got very, very ill and ended up needing to stop almost every mile. I was so cramped up and nauseated I couldn't stand up straight. That has never happened to me in a race before. I had my phone and called Drew and let him know that I might not finish. I decided that I came all that way, I was determined to finish. It was rough. I barely made it. I did end up finishing but was about an hour off my normal time. My race photos say it all...
I even have a few where I am barely shuffling and cramped up but I am too vain to post those. ;) I ended up needing an IV when I was done because my sodium levels were abnormal. Luckily, they do that right there at the finish line so no doctor visit was necessary. All in all, I am not too disappointed in my race. I mean, I have done 8 marathons and this was my first terrible experience. I can't complain about that! I was just thankful I had the opportunity to run Boston again and I really did have a good time, despite the illness.

After the race, we headed back to my friends and her husband made us a huge grilled dinner. We had fun chatting while the kids played. It was so much fun watching those two play together. They really clicked!

TUESDAY 4/20

We left my friends house today to drive home. We decided to spend the day doing something fun before we left town. We were about 20 minutes from Cape Cod in her town and neither of us had been there so we decided to go there for the day. But first, our car battery died! We had to have her neighbor jump us because she had already left for work. We also had to stop at an Auto Zone and get a new battery. Awesome! Typical. We drove to Cape Cod once we got our vehicle in order.

We ended up in Hyannis. It was beautiful! I would love to go back someday. It's such a cute little ocean town with tons of shops, ice cream, restaurants, and of course, the beach. We ended up having a fish sandwich at this cute little restaurant and some gelato. We walked around town for a bit.

Then, we headed to the beach to let Grant see the ocean for the first time! He loved running around in the sand and throwing shells in the water. He also loved this abandoned boat...

His first dip in the ocean...

After that, we started to drive home. On the way, we passed this little 1860's drugstore. It was so cute. It was set up like an old fashioned store with penny candy in little jars and little souveniers. I wished I had taken a picture of the inside because it was really neat. We let Grant pick out something. He chose two rubber fish and a little bag of gummy worms.

Outside the store with his treats...

We drove as far as we could until it got late. We ended up in Albany, NY and found a cheap hotel. It was actually in kind of a rough area so luckily we didn't stay there too long. We hit the pool in the morning and headed home.

WEDNESDAY 4/21

We drove the ENTIRE day. Oh man, was it a long day. We drove the entire way from Albany to Manchester. We made a few stops for potty breaks and we also stopped at Niagara Falls (USA side). We did this the last time we went to Boston as well but we thought Grant might like to see the water. We talked about it with him and told him about the "big water fall" before we got there. He was pretty pumped...

...until we saw the actual falls.
He HATED it! Hahahaha! He kept saying, "All done! Go home! Baby's done!" He didn't like the noise and I think he was afraid he would fall in or something. He did like running around in the park after. And walking on the decorative ledge.

We arrived home at 2:00 a.m.! Whew! I worked the next morning and was dragging!

All in all, we had a GREAT trip. I am so glad we decided to go. We had so much fun and we made tons of memories. The bad race didn't sour our vacation at all. It was a blast!

Get a load of this mop!

2010-04-12T00:16:00.002-04:00

Grant has the most amazing curly mop. Now, where would he ever get that from?? You're welcome, son.

Easter recap through pictures

2010-04-12T00:04:00.008-04:00

I'm pretty proud of this baby: His entire Easter basket cost $10! I scored some major deals at Meijer. It included: a kite, a hotwheels car, a balsa wood plane, moon sand (why didn't anyone warn me about that crap?), a magic writer, a pack of crayons, fruit snacks, and some Clif Z-bars. Our neighbor is a firefighter and also gave him an offical firefighting patch so I threw that in there too. Oh, and the basket that holds it all is a re-use of last year's. ;)

Some tasty recipes

2010-04-11T23:41:00.005-04:00

This may come as a shock to some of you but I love to cook. I love trying out new recipes and cooking for other people. I also love to read cooking blogs. For a short time, I had my own cooking blog but I think I only made two posts and called it quits. I made three tasty dishes this past week for Easter and I thought I would share the recipes in case anyone is interested.

Recipe #1: Sweet potato casserole (AKA: schedule an angioplasty after eating)

CRUST
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 cup chopped nuts (pecans preferred)
1/3 stick butter -- melted

SWEET POTATO MIXTURE
3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup sugar ( I cut this WAY down. I used just 1/4 cup)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs -- well beaten
1 stick butter -- ( 1/2 cup) melted (I also cut this way down. I think I just put in a couple of pats of butter. I didn't really want to clog all my arteries at once).

Combine brown sugar, flour, nuts and butter in mixing bowl. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sweet potatoes, sugar, salt, vanilla, eggs and butter in a mixing bowl in the order listed. Mix thoroughly. Pour mixture into buttered baking dish. Sprinkle the surface of the sweet potato mixture evenly with the crust mixture. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to set at least 30 minutes before serving.

#2: Blonde Brownies

Ingredients

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
Measure 1 cup sifted flour. Add baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Sift again. Add 1/2 cup chopped nuts. Mix well and set aside.
Melt 1/3 cup butter. Add 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar and mix well. If shortening is used, add 1 tablespoon hot water. Cool slightly.
Add egg (beaten) and vanilla. Blend well. Add flour mixture, a little at a time, mixing well.
Spread in 9 x 9 x 2 inch pan. Sprinkle 1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips on top. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

#3: Roasted veggies (this really doesn't even require a recipe. It's pretty self explanatory. I will post it anyway, in case you aren't the cooking type)
Huge mix of fresh veggies (I used green and white asparagus, yellow and orange peppers, onion, zucchini, and summer squash)

Drizzle with olive oil and top with lots of pepper, a little salt, and I also threw on some italian seasonings from my grater.

Roast at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.

Does anyone else keep their recipes in a google document? Or am I the only dork?

Painting eggs

2010-04-03T23:38:00.006-04:00

This year I was really looking forward to painting eggs with Grant. I confess I love doing it and haven't had an excuse to participate since I was young. We talked about it the whole week and by Thursday he kept saying, "Baby paint eggs!" I have white carpeting so I decided to take it outside after work. I stripped him down since the weather was so nice. He loved it! It was hard to get him to keep them in the colors long enough to get a good dye job. He also wanted to dip the eggs in multiple colors (hence the weird gray colors on some). Otherwise, he did great. At the conclusion of egg painting, Grant blew his diaper out in the driveway. Leave it to my son to poop on the driveway.

Anyone remember those sweet yellow track sweats circa 1998?

Goodbye playgroup :(

2010-04-02T23:55:00.006-04:00

I have mentioned our playgroup on my blog before. We attend the "First Steps, Parents As Teachers" group through our local school system. Grant LOVES his playgroup and his teacher Miss Beckie. He always runs around on playgroup day yelling, "Playgroup! Playgroup! Baby's friends!"

This playgroup is for infant and toddler development. The teacher facilitates activities to develop skills and learning. It's really neat. Unfortunately, we just found out this past week that playgroup will be cut. The school funds are low and they decided to cut playgroup first. :( We were so sad to hear this. We did learn that our teacher has applied for a grant through a local foundation and if approved, we will be able to extend the playgroup through the end of the school year and then over the summer, start our own fundraisers to keep it going. So, keep your fingers crossed for our beloved playgroup!

Some pictures from out last day...

Hellooooo...is anyone out there??

2010-03-28T23:53:00.004-04:00

I am a total blog slacker. I have good reason. Between working in two departments at U of M hospital per diem, taking classes, applying (and getting rejected) from various nursing schools, being a mama, training for a marathon, and trying to keep up around the house, when I have free time with the choice between blogging and doing something else, I choose the latter.

To top it off, Grant hasn't been sleeping the last two weeks. He has totally regressed to newborn sleeping habits waking up for several hours at a time during the night. 3 hours of sleep doesn't cut it. I think it's teeth but it could be anything: hunger, growing pains, a wrinkle in his sheets? In any case, I am going to really start trying to make an effort to blog more. I have tons of pictures and updates and I really need to jump back on the bandwagon.

I also admit: I haven't really been getting any comments lately and that doesn't further motivated me to keep posting either. I know I mainly do this blog for memory's sake but let's face it: I like comments too. Isn't that the main reason people blog? So if you are out there, let me know! Leave me a comment. I would like to know if I have any readers left and hopefully get motivated to post more.

Read on for some recent updates and stay tuned for more later this week. That is, if anyone is actually out there. ;)

Royal Hanneford Circus!

2010-03-28T23:15:00.007-04:00

Drew's grandparents take a large group of their employees each year to see the Royal Hanneford Circus when it comes to the Breslin Center in East Lansing. We have joined them a few times in the past (pre-Grant) and this was the first year we went as parents. It's definitely more fun when you take your little one and Grant loved it. He's weird about Santa and other costumed people so I figured he'd freak out when he saw clowns. But, he did not at all. He let a clown talk to him right when we walked in and he didn't even get upset when she called him a cute little girl.

Before the circus starts, they have ponies and an elephant to ride down on the floor area. So, we found Drew's family and got our seats and then headed down for him to ride the ponies. He was so excited and kept talking about the horses and picking out the horse he wanted to ride. We waited in line for quite some time and when we got up there he did this:

Typical! Luckily, they offered a reimbursement.

Drew's grandpa gave all of the young kids some money to get a souvenir. Grant chose the "kitty-kitty" and a light-toy that flashes a strobe light so fast that you almost have a seizure when you look at it.

captivated by the light toy

He loved the actual circus itself. He watched everything so intently and was clapping and dancing along with the performers. He was mimicking the jugglers and cracking us up. I think his favorite part was the tightrope walkers (because he could not stop talking about the bike that was up there on the rope). He also liked the trapeze, clowns, and the juggler. Oh, and also the concession stand...

We had a great time and it was so nice of Drew's grandparents to take us!

The circus attendees

6 years ago...

2010-03-27T23:45:00.003-04:00

I married my childhood buddy. Sometimes life is smooth sailing and other times it's a bumpy road. Either way, I am so happy I have him along for the ride.

Happy Anniversary hubs!

The secret of a happy marriage is finding the right person. You know they're right if you love to be with them all of the time. Julia Childs

You can check out last year's post for pictures of us through the years.

Chit-chat

2010-02-22T23:06:00.002-05:00

I am amazed at how many new things Grant says each day. I love this age! He totally picks up on our conversations (I need to be careful with what I say for that reason). Last week, we were picking out some clothes to wear on a Saturday morning and when I asked him what he wanted to wear he said, "Baby's the boss!"

Today, Drew had him outside and he was helping shovel snow. He said, "Snow hit baby's head!"

When I got home from work, he was tripping on his pants and he said, "Mama, roll pants". And when I went to put him to bed he said, "Baby go night-night".

I think the funniest parts of his talking are 1) the fact he refers to himself as "baby" and 2) he only talks in 3rd person.

Weekend fun

2010-02-21T22:09:00.010-05:00

This is my attempt at starting to blog regularly again. I figured I'd write about our weekend events.

Friday, we did our usual routine. We like to head to Meijer for groceries. We like to get wild here in the Johnson household. This time, we even got really crazy and went to a different Meijer than our usual store.

Saturday, we had a fun and busy day. Grant had his first swimming lesson since he was a baby. I used a little bit of his Christmas money and enrolled him in lessons again. He loved swimming this summer and he loves being around other kids so I fully anticipated that he would go nuts in the pool. He spent the first 20 minutes clinging to me and trying to stay out of the water! I think he was cold (because the "heated" pool was pretty cold) and I think he was freaked out because there were like 30 toddlers going nuts all around him. The last 10 minutes, he finally warmed up to the idea of swimming and kicked his legs and started jumping off the side. I think by next week, he will be a little more used to it.

After swimming (and a long nap for Grant), we headed to our friend Anneke's house for her birthday party with her sisters and mom. We always love hanging out with them because it's always a fun time. Grant LOVES Anneke and her nephews. We had pizza and cake and played games. Grant played with the boys and kept yelling, "GUYS!" and ordering them around. We love that they live so close to us.

Sunday we went to church and then after naptime we headed out to one of the nature trails to let the dogs run off leash. They haven't moved since.

Hope everyone else had a fun weekend too!

Baby Jesus

2010-02-21T21:44:00.007-05:00

I have been meaning to post this since January but kept forgetting. Grant was asked to play baby Jesus at our church for the Epiphany service on January 6th. I had to play Mary to ensure he would actually stay up at the manger like he was supposed to. The service was really nice. It started with a big baked spaghetti dinner. After, our pastor talked about epiphany and the meaning of it. Each attendee could pick an ornament to take home as well. Then, Grant's big acting debut occurred. And by acting, we walked up to the altar and sat there while the pastor finished his talk. I was so proud that he was such a good boy and he impressed his adoring fans by wearing that headwrap the entire show.

I have been meaning to mention or church lately too. I have finally found a church that we all love! The best part is that it's close enough to our house to walk there.

Goodbye Grandpa Hanna

2010-02-08T21:03:00.002-05:00

Grandpa Hanna, 92 years young. You were a funny and sweet grandpa, great-grandpa, and great-great grandpa. We will miss you.

2-8-10

I'm freelancing!

2010-02-03T12:35:00.002-05:00

I have started writing articles online for The Examiner on one of my favorite topics: family fitness! Since I am only working per diem at U of M now and not doing one of my original responsibilities of working with the Family Preventative Cardiology program, it's nice to still be able to have some involvement of that aspect of fitness.

If you have time, check out my first article here. It will help me out too since the more hits and subscribers I get to my articles, the more I get paid. ;) My second article will be debuting sometime this week. If you are interested in become a freelance Examiner, let me know and I can refer you using my number. I am just waiting for confirmation of my number and I also get a bonus if one of my referrals get hired (so PLEASE wait for my number!). Leave a comment if you are interested and I can get you started. It's a nice way to make extra money if you like to write and are passionate about a topic in which they have openings!

My son is my toddler clone!

2010-01-23T09:48:00.005-05:00

Check out these photos of Grant and I at the same age.

(this one was taken by Nicole Barczak at our photo shoot we won. Just giving appropriate credit! :) )

Is it just me or do we look a lot alike?

Things Grant says...

2010-01-22T21:41:00.004-05:00

Grant has been cracking us up lately with all his new words and phrases. It seems like he is learning new things every single day. Here are some of his latest gems:

"Baby toots!" (and he can fart on command. My son is so gifted)
"Dawg bone" (he says "dog" like "dawg" HA!!!)
"Pants, OSS!" ("Oss" means off)
"Bee Butbon" (belly button)
"BOBOT!" (robot)
"Music"

He is also big on identifying possession of everything in the house. "Mama's pants!" "Dawg's bone!" "Dada's shoes!" "Baby's socks!"

Yes, he still refers to himself as baby.

He also has been giving a big smile for the camera when asked. Here are a few of the goofball's big smiles:

What a difference a year makes!

2010-01-20T22:14:00.008-05:00

Uhhh....or not.

My mom makes me sit on Santa's lap every year and I love it!

2008...
2009...

Then, she makes me pose in front of my Christmas tree in the exact same outfit. I always put on my best Christmas smile for the camera!

2008...2009...

Then, on Christmas Day, I always wear my ridiculous sweater vest while I tear into all my presents!

2008...2009...

Our Christmas, in pictures

2010-01-20T21:46:00.008-05:00

Where have I been?

2010-01-18T22:01:00.004-05:00

Oh man. I am ashamed to admit how long it's been since I updated my poor neglected blog. Months. Even the picture on my header is probably over 6 months old. I have been waffling back and forth with starting this back up again. I love having a place to record everything but at the same time after a few months, I am sure everyone has forgotten about reading this.

My goal for this week is to post one post per day and try and get all my reader (s) caught up as to what has been happening the last few months. I promise pictures too!

So what has sucked my time up these last few months? A LOT of this, some work at this, applications and essays to here, here, and here, and as always, this...

Free photo cards!

2009-11-15T17:41:00.003-05:00

I am a sucker for a good deal or a freebie. I found a great freebie online and wanted to share it with other moms and blog readers. This website lists deals and freebies for moms. The deal of the day a couple of days ago was 50 free Christmas (or other holiday) photo cards! There is absolutely no catch. I ordered mine on Friday night and the grand total with shipping was $0.00. And they shipped them out Saturday morning! Can't beat that. We will see how they turn out. Maybe they won't look as good as other photo cards but I don't mind. I am not going to complain about anything that's free.

Boys are goofy!

2009-11-05T23:32:00.004-05:00

A small sampling of my son's latest antics...

He steals my headbands:

He marks his face with eyeliner:

He takes off his pants and wears dad's shoes:

He crawls in his shopping cart and demands I push him around:

He runs around the yard with his push-toy and calls it his "bike"!

Detroit Marathon 2009

2009-11-04T23:28:00.009-05:00

I wasn't going to blog about this because I am sure no one cares about running. But, I figured it would be nice to have record of it so in the future when I am old and slow, Grant can read this blog and see that at one time, his mother was quite speedy. I will keep it short.

I ran my 7th marathon on 10/18 in Detroit. I have run a few races since having Grant but this was my first post-baby marathon. I ran a 3:40 which isn't my best time (it's actually my SECOND best time) but I did end up qualifying for the Boston Marathon for the second time. So, that's cool. I probably should have run faster because I was on pace for around a 3:34 for most of the race but I felt like crap the last 4 miles. Once I finished, I had to get fluids in the medical tent for the first time ever(wimp). I honestly don't think I ate enough the week before. In any case, I was glad I did another one. I had fun, which is ultimately why I run them in the first place. I think Grant had a great time spectating as well.

Marathons are hard work...

Just a picture...

2009-11-03T22:04:00.004-05:00

Drew took this picture one evening when I was at class. I just love his chubby little cheeks!

Photo contest winners!

2009-11-02T22:16:00.011-05:00

Remember this contest? We were awarded our prize at the end of September and got to have a family photo shoot with Nicole Barczak Photography. She did our session in downtown Jackson. We got our pictures back a couple of weeks ago and they turned out great!! I love them and can't wait to print some of these off and put them in frames. This was our first family photo shoot since Grant was born (gosh, I think this was our first photo shoot of Drew and I since our wedding!)

Here are a few of my favorite shots...

Thanks again, Nicole!

Trick-or-Treat!

2009-11-01T22:20:00.010-05:00

We had a fun Halloween week!

Thursday, Grant had his playgroup Halloween party. Imagine 20 kids dressed up in costumes running around a classroom. It was chaos! Playgroup is held in the administration building and in honor of the party, all of the offices had treats for the kids. So, we trick-or-treated to each room. The nice thing was that most of the "treats" were not candy. Grant got a couple of books, pretzels, mini-graham crackers, toys, fruit snacks, and bubbles.

Friday, we took him to Drew's dad's office for their annual kid's party. There was a photographer there taking pictures of the kids in their costumes and everything was decorated.
Afterward, we headed to Nicole's for her Halloween party. I threw my costume together a few hours before the party. I was supposed to be a spider, if you can't determine what the wadded trash bags hanging off my back are supposed to be. It looked better in real life, I swear!

Grant had a blast hanging out with all the other kids. He didn't want to leave the party because Nicole has a really great playroom there with tons of toys. We had to peel him away from her train table to go home!

Saturday, we went downtown to our local "Trick-or-Treat" with the Kellys. All of the buildings decorate their storefront and the employees dress in costume and hand out various goodies to the kids. It was so much fun! They had dip-your-own caramel apples from Alber Orchard (so yummy!), cinnamon donuts from the bakery, and even slices of pizza! It's so nice how family friendly our town is. I never realized how much there is to do until we had Grant. Apparently in years past, I was a childless hermit.

After downtown, we hit a few houses for real trick-or-treating. The other 3 boys hit all the houses but Grant was too interested in his donut to really do too much. He did go to a couple of houses though. At one house, he liked the ladies so much, I had to drag him off the porch screaming.

After all of the festivities, he was so tired, we took off his lion costume and he literally laid down in the middle of the living room floor and closed his eyes. That's a tired toddler!

Inspiration...

2009-11-01T22:16:00.003-05:00

I have fallen off the face of the blog world earth. I just have been too busy lately with school, temp work, Grant, studying, and life in general to sit down and post. I have a million pictures and updates to post too and I just keep falling further and further behind.

So, I have decided to give NaBloPoMo a try again this year. 30 blog posts in 30 days. A motivator to actually get my blog caught back up and see if I still have readers.

Here I go...

Mindy's baby shower

2009-09-20T22:57:00.005-04:00

At the end of August, Grant and I attended Mindy's baby shower. In keeping with my unfortunate baby shower incident track record, I got totally lost on the way to Mindy's grandma's house. After our GPS got stolen this summer, we have been borrowing a new one from Drew's dad. I wasn't really sure how to use it and completely missed my exit (typical). I ended up driving around forever, calling Drew and spazzing out over the phone (also typical) and driving past the house two times. I finally arrived 1.5 hours late. But, we had a great time anyway! Lucky for us, Mindy has a gigantic family and it took that long for everyone to eat and socialize anyway. So we did not miss any of the good present-opening.

Grant loved the breakfast buffett and thought he was pretty cool sitting at the big-boy table.

He also got to hang out with Averi for a bit.

Mindy is now full term. So, we are waiting for the new baby girl any day now! Grant better get used to hanging out with all these girls.

Blueberry picking!

2009-09-20T22:45:00.006-04:00

We repeated our August tradition of going blueberry picking at The Blueberry Patch. Remember last year?

It was so much more fun this year because Grant was able to pick (and eat!) the berries himself. I am going to put jot this down so next year when we go I can remember: eat dinner before you head there! Three hungry people eating all-you-can eat berries right off the tree did not make a fun car ride home! I think we were all a little sick. Ugh! Otherwise, we had a great time.

Hooray for blueberries!

Aaron and Ricki's Wedding

2009-09-08T23:12:00.010-04:00

Still working on my summer updates!

On July 25th, we went to Drew's cousin's wedding near Grand Rapids. Drew did the photography for the wedding as a wedding present. He does photography as a hobby but I think he's talented enough to do it as more than a hobby (you can see his work on my banner. Also some of my Ludington pics). He's modest though.

For his wedding present, Grant played all the ceremony music.

Kidding of course! But doesn't he look like a regular behind those ivories?

Here are a few of the pics I took/were taken with my camera (that's why they are so unprofessional looking!)

They had one of neatest receptions I have ever attended. It was outside, under a tent. Instead of having a DJ, they had dueling pianos! It was so much fun. The piano players had a glass container where you could throw your requests. They were really talented and it was something different that you don't normally see at a wedding.

I know it's late (and they probably don't read my blog) but congrats to Aaron and Ricki!

Ludington 2009

2009-09-06T19:40:00.017-04:00

July 30th-August 3rd, we took our annual camping trip to Ludington with Drew's entire extended family. This year was especially fun because Grant was able to enjoy most of the things we did. Last year, he was just 8 weeks old and I basically had to hold him or pass him around the entire time. We also stayed in a hotel. This year, we tent camped. I was nervous to try it with a toddler (and a toddler who is historically not the best sleeper!) but it went well. He slept well (albeit in our bed because he was over the Pack N Play after a half hour on the first night) but I digress.

We had a great time eating way too much (specifically too much ice cream!), getting lots of sun, playing in the dunes and laughing around the campfire. We hiked the dunes one day and Grant hiked the entire thing! He amazed all of the family. I also got to try kayaking for the first time ever (actually, first TWO times ever) with Drew's cousin. I must say, for newbies, we were pretty decent kayakers.

We also had the first annual family Baggo tourney. Lots of trash talking ensued. Team Cougar (AKA Grandpa and Grandma Davis) actually won the whole darn thing. I don't think any of the grandkids will live down the fact their 70 year old grandparents beat them in yard games. The shame! hahaha!

Some pics from our trip...

Do I still have readers?

2009-09-06T19:33:00.003-04:00

Wow. I am ashamed at how long it's been since I have blogged.

I went back and forth if I should even keep up with this blog anymore. I am too busy, it takes too darn long to upload pictures, and I am not even sure people enjoy reading it. So, I just quit for awhile. I got even more busy and as time went on, it became easier and easier to just forget about blogging. Lately, I started thinking about how much I love having our memories recorded somewhere. It's just an easy click away to look back at any event, milestone, or fun thing we did. I like having the record for scrapbooking too. If I need to make a page about something specific, I can click on the blog and remember those extra details I forgot.

So, here I am again. Back to blogging. Since it has been so darn long, I am going to break this into a couple different posts. Bear with me as I slowly catch up our life from the last couple of months.

He made the finals! Vote again!

2009-07-19T10:58:00.004-04:00

Grant made it to the finals in the photo contest! Yay! Now, we need your vote again. This time you are voting for the winner of the grand prize. Winner gets a photo shoot with the photographer valued at $600! Awesome! So, head to this website... http://nbarczakphotography.blogspot.com/
and vote for Grant in the little box beneath the photos. And remember, if you have multiple computers (blackberry, cell, work, laptop, home computer, etc) you also have multiple votes :) So, take advantage of it. We appreciate your help!

Thanks!

VOTE FOR GRANT!!

2009-07-15T12:06:00.002-04:00

He's in another photo contest!

The grand prize is a photo shoot with the photographer.

http://nbarczakphotography.blogspot.com/2009/07/summertime-fun-round-1.html

He's in Group 3. You can vote on multiple computers, if you have them.

Thanks! :)

Uh oh.

2009-07-13T22:48:00.003-04:00

I am a walking disaster lately. I ran my long run Saturday (13) and went for an easy 6 miler on Sunday. Not any big deal and no more difficult than an other running I have been doing lately. Then, I went to work at the gym. I felt my knee feeling a little tight. Like I was wearing a rubber band around it. I didn't think much of it because it did not hurt. As time went on, I noticed it getting more and more tight. I lifted up my pant leg and was I surprised to see it. It was all swollen up and water was collecting all around my knee and quad muscle. I panicked because I imagined some horrible season-ending injury. I iced it at work, took motrin and kept icing and elevating it all evening after work.

Today, I ended up seeing a doctor. Lucky for me, the resident I saw was also a marathon runner and there happened to be a sports med doc at the clinic today too. So, I got to see him as well. They can't figure out what is wrong with my leg. There is absolutely no pain whatsoever. The joint and ligaments feel stable. But, there is a TON of water around my knee and quad. It looks bloated and deformed.

(it's the left one, in case you can't tell. The picture does not do it justice. My quad is deformed. And I know I have gross knees anyway.)

See how gross my bloated quad is?

They called it an overuse injury with an inflammatory response. They think the meniscus got irritated. Basically, I can't run on it until the water is all gone from the knee. If I do, I could tear the meniscus. There is a small chance I have a tiny tear already forming but it's unlikely and we won't know until I start running again to see if it re-swells. So, I am going to run in the pool at work until this heals. I plan to start tomorrow. I am beyond bummed about this. I guess on the bright side, I still have a few months until my race. And I overcame appendicitis while training for a marathon and ended up getting a great time. And I fell down the stairs two days before another one and that's when I qualified for Boston. So, I'll get there. It's just a really frustrating set-back.

Got leftover baby food?

2009-07-13T22:44:00.002-04:00

Veggie Muffins

2 cups whole wheat flour
2-3TB Soy flour (I used ground flax)
1tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c butter, softened
1/3c brown sugar
2-3 TB honey
1 egg
3 cups pureed veggies (or 6 jars of veggie baby food)
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat 0ven to 350. Throw it all in a bowl, no need to keep wet separate from dry. Bake for 25mins.

I used 2 jars of sweet potatoes, 2 jars of carrots, 1 jar of squash, and 1 jar of apricot/applesauce. They were a big hit with both Grant and myself. They are kind of bland (don't expect Tim Horton's caliber or anything here) but they were very tasty with Smart Balance butter and warmed up for breakfast. And it gets extra veggies in my non-veggie loving toddler.

Finally...4th of July pics

2009-07-13T22:33:00.004-04:00

I have been waiting to get these off Drew's computer. Here are a few pictures of our 4th of July.
We headed to Drew's grandma & grandpa's house to swim in their pool. We didn't end up swimming because the weather was too cool. We had fun anyway. Grant played outside with the cousins and we ate entirely too much pizza and cupcakes. We also headed to his aunt and uncle's house to see their new pets...

Aren't they cute? They are miniature goats! They act like little dogs. They walk around on leashes, play in their doghouse and like to be pet. If I didn't live in a subdivision, I'd want one. They are seriously adorable.

After that, we headed back to watch the guys set off fireworks. Grant got to stay up late to watch them too. He was not scared at all and actually thought they were pretty cool (as seen in this photo)...

After the fireworks, he snuggled up with me on the blanket. What a sweet boy!

(and as a side note, I look like a gigantic eggplant in those clothes. Purple is not my favorite color, even though these photos show otherwise)

Parade!

2009-07-12T18:57:00.004-04:00

Last week, our town had their annual Fair Parade. Yes, you heard that right. My little town has a parade to ring in fair week. Adorably hokey. It's actually a decent sized parade too. Grant's playgroup teacher called me the morning of the parade and asked if we'd be willing to help out with the Parents As Teachers float that evening. A few people backed out and she had no one to drive the truck. So, the three of us were in the parade. Drew and Grant drove the truck (a la Britney Spears) and I walked along side the float handing out fliers about playgroup. Grant thought he was pretty amazing "driving" in the parade. He was waving to everyone and trying to steer the truck.

Found on run...

2009-07-11T23:17:00.005-04:00

That's a huge tub of wild raspberries and mulberries! They grow all around our neighborhood. One day while doing an easy run with the BOB, I threw a tupperware in the bottom and filled it up. What did I do with all the berries?

Turned it into Triple Berry Crisp, of course! Yum!

New buddies

2009-07-11T23:09:00.004-04:00

Our friend Anneke is nannying her three nephews for the summer. The good news is they happen to live in our town! We have gotten the boys together a couple of other times to play when Grant was younger and they seemed to have a good time. Now that he is walking and likes to play with other kids, he has a blast with these guys!

Last week, we decided to take them swimming. Anneke's boyfriend (our friend Josh) moved into a new apartment that has a pool. So, after the afternoon naps, we headed to Jackson to get some swimming time.

They had a ball in the pool! It was kind of cold but none of them minded. I think I was the wimpiest of all about the water temp. The kids just jumped right in. Anneke had a cool float toy for the water so Grant could just float around the pool with the bigger boys. He thought he was so awesome.

We let them play around the apartment after too.

The best part of swimming with buddies? The great night of sleep afterward!

Zoo Day

2009-07-11T22:55:00.007-04:00

Grant's playgroup (First Steps. It is affiliated with the school system here in town) takes an annual zoo trip to Binder Park Zoo. I think we are making our rounds to all the zoos within an hour radius this summer. This was the third one Grant and I have been to! We had a lot of fun. The weather was perfect and overcast so most of the animals were out and active. We only stayed for a half day because I wanted to get him back to take a decent nap.

My favorite part of this zoo were the giraffes. You are able to view them at eye level and you can purchase biscuits to feed them. We didn't feed them but we did get a chance to pet their head. By petting their head I mean, I pet the giraffe while Grant tried to climb up my neck screaming. I like how pleased he looks in this picture...

Grant's favorite animals were these roosters in a cage. He's easy to please.

Some updates, bullet style

2009-07-08T21:49:00.004-04:00

Due to my lack of blogging lately, I really haven't shared anything in weeks. Here's a quick recap, bullet style of some things that have been going on. Both good and bad.

I'll do the good first.

Grant walks like a pro now. Crawling is a thing of the past. He walks all around the house. The downfall is that he has turned into a little tornado, messing up the entire house in his path. He seriously walks from room to room and gets into everything, throws stuff on the floor, and takes things to other parts of the house.

My super awesome running friends have entered me in a fall marathon! So, I am running Detroit in October! This will be my 4th Detroit and my 7th marathon (I have also done Boston, Chicago, and Akron). I am training pretty hard and I am hoping to run my fastest yet and re-qualify for another Boston.

I am going back to school in the fall. More about that in another post! This is a huge decision for me and I am really excited to get started, even though it's going to be tough and really time consuming.

I planted some honeydew melon and some watermelon. And it's sprouting! I have killed every plant I have ever laid a hand on. So, this is huge.

And some unfortunate things:

Grant is anemic. We have to do Iron drops every day until his 15 month appointment. Unfortunately for him, Iron drops are the nastiest taste known to babies and every dose is a wrestling match.

Our cars were broken into last night. I am so angry. The stole our GPS out of our Durango. I feel so violated and I can't believe someone is that worthless that they would do that. We can't afford a new GPS and are trying to decide between filing an insurance report or just dealing with our loss. I am happy that my BOB stroller was not taken. It happened to be in the back of the Durango but it was untouched. Obviously the thief wasn't very smart because the stroller is worth probably 3 times what the GPS was.

I got a mole removed at my yearly checkup. I have been worrying about it for awhile and the doctor agreed that it needed to come off that same day. They biopsied it and turns out it was pre-cancer. That's scary. I had to go back and get an incision and get more cut out because they wanted to get all the cells. So, now I have three stitches over my ribcage. I feel like such an idiot for ever thinking tanning was cool in my younger years. Gross. It's so not worth getting skin cancer to look tan all the time. I plan to be super vigilant about wearing sunscreen if I am out in the sun for extended periods of time and keep on top of any weird moles. I know it was only pre-cancer but it was definitely a wake-up call.

That's about all from here. I hope to start blogging more... if I find the motivation. :)

Some summer fun

2009-07-08T21:31:00.012-04:00

Gosh, I am embarrassed at how behind I have gotten with my blog. I just really don't ever feel like sitting down and posting. We have been really busy these last couple of weeks and I have taken a lot of pictures but I haven't ever felt like writing and uploading them. Do I even have any readers left?

Anyway, here are a few shots and a quick recap of some fun things we have done. I will post an update of everything else shortly after this (which will actually appear above it.) Enjoy!

A few weeks ago, we went to Greenfield Village with my aunt. She used to work there for years and is still able to have her friend get us into the park. It was so much fun. We were really hot (it was one of those days where it was in the 90s a few weeks ago) but we had a great time anyway. Grant loved looking at all the horses, dipping his feet in the fountain and riding the carousel. The highlight for the adults was riding in a model T and learning the history of it as we drove along. Very cool!

Also during the week of hot weather, we set up Grant's pool. As you can see from the pictures, he loved it. HAHAHAHA.

I have been trying to do some fun outdoor things with Grant this summer. I found some finger paint in the Target Dollar spot for a buck. I took him outside (because really, who finger paints in the house with a toddler who likes to throw things?)

I think the paint got mixed reviews.

More pictures to come tomorrow!

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-28T14:52:00.005-04:00

Grant celebrated Father's Day with Dad by heading to Wampler's Lake. We took a boat ride and did some swimming. The water was surprisingly warm and it was a beautiful day!
We finished up with Drew's favorite dinner (meatloaf) and we had ice cream for dessert.

Swimmin'

2009-06-28T00:42:00.006-04:00

Last weekend we went swimming at Drew's grandma's house. And by "we", I mean Grant. The pool was cold and this mama does NOT like cold water. Drew wimped out too but Grant really wanted to go in with Drew's cousins. So, he braved the water for a bit and swam. He was a trooper for getting in the cold water. He loved it!

Although, it might have been because I dressed him in so many layers to go swimming. haha!

After his dip in the pool, he went for a little cruise around the yard with Drew's cousin.

It's been so long!

2009-06-26T23:37:00.000-04:00

EEK! Has it really been a couple of weeks since my last post? Do I still have any readers out there? We have been really busy lately. I have a TON of pictures to upload. The first round are below: Cedar Point. Stay tuned in the next few days for lots more pictures and updates!

Cedar Point 2009

2009-06-26T22:38:00.014-04:00

Every year, Drew's grandparents take the entire extended family to Cedar Point. We try to go when we can. It's a blast! We usually are there for two nights and stay in the Breaker's hotel. We try and hit the water park and the regular park twice. We haven't been able to go for two summers now so this year we were really excited to go and take Grant.

We headed down there on Friday morning after picking up Derek and his friend from the airport. We checked into the hotel and went to the water park. We didn't stay long because it was FREEZING. I can't even believe we went it. Grant was blue when we were leaving. He did love the kiddy area though and thankfully that water was really warm. We hit the park later that night and rode rides until it closed. The next morning we woke up and went to the park again. The weather was perfect and it wasn't too crowded at all. We got to ride everything we wanted (by the way, the new ride Maverick is awesome!) We also hit the Camp Snoopy area with Grant. He LOVED the rides. So much so that he screamed while waiting in line because he didn't understand the concept of waiting his turn. I think he rode the carousel no less than 10 times.

Once the park closed, we headed to the go-kart track (we got free passes with our hotel room!). This is a family tradition. We always race each other to see who is the best driver for that year. I was doing quite well until my very own husband clipped my car and I did a 360 on the track. Thanks, hubs!

Some pictures from our trip...

After we left Sandusky, we stopped on the way home at the Animal Safari in Port Clinton, OH. If you have never been to this before, I HIGHLY recommend it. You pay to get in and the park rangers give you food and you feed the animals right out your car window. It's hilarious. I think I had more fun than Grant did. He shed a few tears when some elk got in his face!

And somehow, we ended up with an animal INSIDE our car. I am not sure what species this weirdo is...

He's walking!!

2009-06-09T22:42:00.002-04:00

Grant took his first steps last night! He started by walking 2 or 3 steps to Drew and by the end of the night, he took 7 on his own! So exciting.

A video will follow (when we can catch him!)

Cheap Fun

2009-06-01T22:23:00.011-04:00

Can you have a day of fun for $2.50? We did!

Saturday morning started out with a regular run with the BOB. A mile from home, I noticed a neighborhood having a block garage sale. I decided to take a detour and scope out a few to see if they had any kids stuff. Grant doesn't need any more toys but he really doesn't have too much outdoor stuff. I went to a few houses and didn't see much. Just as I was about to head home, I saw a house with this...

Marked 50 cents! You can't beat that! Now, I realize it looks like it's from about 1988 and it's filthy. But, I have big plans to clean it up and bleach it. And, did I mention it was 50 cents??? Grant was thrilled.

(I like how the brand is "Today's Kids". I think it really is from 1988)

The lady was so nice too. I obviously couldn't take it home right then (and I also didn't have any cash on me) so she marked it sold and we went home and came back with the car to pick it up.

After that big score, the three of us headed up to Lansing for the day. We heard about something called "Be a Tourist in Your Own Town" going on there. For $1 per person (and free to kids under 3!) you purchase a passport. The passport allows you to get into almost every attraction in Lansing for free! They even had free parking everywhere. It was amazing, really. We started out at Impressions 5 museum. It was neat but I wasn't too impressed. Drew and I both agreed that they had the same stuff there that was there when we were in Elementary school. And there were like 1000 kids running around. Grant did have fun in the infant room.

After that, we headed over to the Michigan Historical Museum near the Capitol. This was my favorite part of the day. I love history (nerd alert!) and especially modern history. They have lots of neat displays of how houses would have been set up in every decade through Michigan. It was cool.

We finished up the day at the Potter Park Zoo. We had just went to the Toledo Zoo the weekend before so we weren't expecting too much. They did have some neat things there and you can't beat a free visit! One thing they did have that Toledo did not was a petting zoo with goats.

Grant really liked the goats. I think he thought they were dogs or something. I loved the goats too. They were so cute and friendly. I did NOT like this particular goat in the picture. Shortly after this shot was taken, I turned around and found him digesting the bottom half of my skirt. Gross! I had to pull it out of his goat throat and walk around the rest of the day with goat saliva on me.

We finished the day up with a drive through MSU campus (of course!) and a cone at the MSU Dairy. Yum!

Monkey boy

2009-05-30T22:53:00.004-04:00

In addition to climbing the couch, climbing his toys, climbing his dresser and climbing the stairs, Grant has added some more tricks to his monkey boy repertoire.

He now eats finger food with his feet.

Baby Averi

2009-05-30T20:54:00.004-04:00

We finally got a chance to meet baby Averi Mae! Jamie had her 7 weeks ago but it seemed like every week we tried to get together something crazy happened (a seizure, pneumonia, colds, Averi not sleeping, etc).

Last Friday, we finally met up. She is a cutie! It was so crazy to hold a teeny baby again. It makes you realize how fast they grow up. Grant seemed to like her too. He tried to point to her nose several times. And he was a big fan of her bright pink activity gym.

He wasn't too happy when we made him hold her though...

Poor kids...we laughed at their expense!

I can't wait to see more of Miss Averi. And it will be fun to see these two grow up together.

Birthday celebrations...

2009-05-26T23:13:00.018-04:00

In lieu of a birthday party, we decided to take Grant to the Toledo Zoo. Drew's brother flew in from LA for the occasion. The Toledo Zoo is so nice! I highly recommend it. Grant loved all the animals. He spent the whole time screeching at them and pointing (and yelling commands like he does to his poor doggies). His favorite were the polar bears. I am not sure what he thought they were but he loved them. Some photos of our day...

When we came home, we let him dig into his cake for awhile before we cut it. Surprisingly, he didn't make a mess at all. He ate a bunch of sprinkles, licked his candle, and called it a day. He did have a good time crumbling a piece up into a glass later on. He kept it pretty clean though.

I can't believe my baby is a toddler now!

The birthday cake...

2009-05-26T22:58:00.010-04:00

Since we didn't have a party for Grant, I decided that I wanted to make him a cool cake. Something that he can look back on as an older kid and think, "wow, my mom made that!" I stumbled across this cake on another blog and knew that was the one I wanted to make. A 6 layer cake with each layer being a different color AND fruit flavor. All topped with a white chocolate buttercream icing. Perfect!

All the ingredients lined up...

Here are the batters all in their respective bowls...

The unfrosted baked layers. This took over an hour. I only own two cake pans so I had to bake them two at a time. Probably shouldn't have started the cake at 10 pm.

(note: this is my basement. Yes, I took the cake down there to show it off to Drew. I just wanted to clarify so none of my readers think that is my house walls that look like that)

Frosted and decorated...

The final product!

Whoa was that a time consuming cake! Totally worth it though.

Guess who is 1?

2009-05-25T22:40:00.001-04:00

Happy birthday to my biggie boy! I can't believe he is one already. The first year has flew. Here is what he is up to at one year old:

He's 20 lbs 2 oz (12th percentile) and 30.75 inches long (81st percentile)
He waves, claps, can identify his nose, toes, and belly, and throws his arms up when you ask him how big he is. He also can do all the hand motions for a song we sing in playgroup!
He knows what a duck and a dog are and yells their respective names at them
He can stand on his own but he STILL won't walk! I thought for sure he'd be an early walker but he proved me wrong. He's going to walk on his own time. He does love to walk while pushing toys. And he can walk while holding onto one of our hands. But not independently.
He's a very picky eater. He does like pancakes, string cheese and yogurt.
He's still not a good sleeper at all.
He loves water and getting wet
He loves the swings at the park and wagon rides

And just for memories sake, look at him a year ago!

So little!

Poor people's swimming pool

2009-05-20T23:00:00.006-04:00

How I spend my Mother's Day weekend...

2009-05-10T21:20:00.008-04:00

I have spent the last 4 months training for the Riverbank Run 25K (that's 15.5 miles) in Grand Rapids. It just so happened to fall the same weekend as Mother's Day. So, that was kind of like my Mother's Day gift. Since standing out in torrential downpours watching his wife crazily run 15.5 miles isn't Drew's idea of a blast, it was very nice of him to agree to come with me and cheer me on with Grant. I also need to give him props for putting up with my driving skills. He can't drive because of his seizure. I am NOT a driver. But, I drove the trek from Manchester to Grand Rapids and heard minimal complaining!

We originally planned on going up Friday and staying with Drew's grandparents. They live about 40 minutes from Grand Rapids. As a surprise, Drew's parents ended up booking us a hotel room right at the finish line! Awesome! It was so much fun to be right there and be able to walk everywhere we needed to go. We hit up the expo to get my packet Friday night. We also had dinner. I met up with a few runner friends and had a great time chatting with them. The race was Saturday morning. It was POURING. My entire outfit and shoes were literally drenched before I even got to the starting line. The race went awesome though. I ran amazingly well and faster than I ever imagined I could. My time was 1:54 (if you know anything about running that equates to a 7:23 per mile pace for the entire 15.5 miles). I was thrilled. I think having a baby made me tougher for running or something.

As usual, here are a few adorable pictures of Grant from the weekend. This was at the expo. Some vendor gave him some beads and he thought they were pretty awesome...

And here he is chilling out on the hotel bed...

And today, Grant gave me the best Mother's Day gift imaginable. He woke up to eat at 6:30 but then went back to sleep until 9:00 a.m!!!! Best gift EVER!

He's also feeling 100% better for those following his pneumonia saga. :)

Why, thank you!

2009-05-10T21:15:00.002-04:00

Guess who got mother of the year?

and now....

2009-05-07T21:32:00.002-04:00

Grant has pneumonia.

:(

He has had a fever of 102-103 for 5 days now. After 3 calls to the ped, they finally agreed to see him. He has had nasal drainage and diarrhea. Last night, he threw up. They did tons of tests on him: throat swabs, nose swabs, a urine catheter, blood draw, and a chest x-ray. Poor little buddy.

They are doing lots of fluids and amoxicillan and if he gets worse, we are supposed to go to the ER. I am optimistic because after just one dose and lots of motrin, he was playing.

Let's hope things start turning around soon...

Worst . Weekend. Ever.

2009-05-04T18:21:00.002-04:00

On Saturday afternoon after we put Grant down for a nap, Drew and I were sitting on the couch. I was surfing the internet and he was talking to his Dad on the phone. I was half listening to him. I noticed he was asking his Dad the same question a few times. I just thought that his phone was cutting out. A few seconds later, I looked over and Drew was having a seizure. Now, he has no history of that so this was a complete shock. I screamed and tried to get him to stop. I got him down to the floor but that's when Brave Medical Stephanie left the building. He wouldn't stop and I freaked out. I tried to dial 911 but I kept hitting the wrong number. So, I ran out of my house screaming for help and for someone to call 911. I ran back in to check on Drew and noticed he was unconscious and not breathing at this point. I ran back out and screamed for help again. My neighbor heard me and called 911. She ran and rounded up a few other neighbors and everyone ran in to help. He was still not breathing and had turned a shade of gray with blue lips. My awesome neighbors listened to the 911 dispatcher and tried to get Drew to start breathing while I freaked out. There is no way I could have done anything without them.

Eventually, the woman that lives down the street arrived. She is a nurse. She did a sternal rub and finally got him to breathe. Shortly after that, the ambulance, fire dept. and police arrived. They took me in the other room at this point but they got Drew stable. We ended up getting transported to UM Hospital to try and figure out why that happened.

He had a CT scan and he saw a neurologist. They decided that he probably has always had a lower than normal threshold for seizures and that stress and sleep deprivation can be a seizure trigger. He must have had just enough of both of those that caused him to finally have one. They put him on a seizure medication that he will have to be on indefinitely to prevent them from happening again. Also, the most disappointing news: He won't be driving for 6 months. It's illegal in Michigan after you have had a seizure.

He is doing ok now. The medicine makes him feel pretty crappy and his tongue and muscles are all sore from the seizing but otherwise, he is on the road to recovery.

A great playdate!

2009-04-27T20:05:00.006-04:00

On Saturday, Nicole invited us over for a playdate. We had a blast. There were about 15 kids there of various ages. We had kid friendly food, lots of activities, a swing set, a treehouse, and a sandbox. The moms hung out and talked, some dads watched the NFL draft, and the kids got completely tired. Lucky for Grant, there were two other boys there his age. They had fun trading a single sippy cup, bear crawling around the yard, and getting dirty. Nicole posted quite a few pictures on her blog. Here are a few of the shots Drew captured:

We can't wait to do it again!

11 Months old

2009-04-27T19:28:00.004-04:00

Here is what Grant is up to at 11 months old:

He's 19 lbs 7 oz, 30.5 inches
He can walk with a push-toy but no real walking yet
He's finally eating a little better. His newest foods are black beans, hummus, guacamole, fresh pineapple, honeydew, buttered toast, broccoli, and homemade mac and cheese
When he hears a dog bark, he points and says, "Daw".
He dances whenever he hears music
He likes to "push" the carts at the grocery store
He loves going to the park and swinging
He points at everything
He can wave Hi and Bye
He now sleeps with a stuffed bear and he hugs it whenever he sees it. So cute!

Run, mama, run

2009-04-25T23:42:00.007-04:00

I ran the Orthopaedic Rehab Specialist 8K last weekend (yes, I am that far behind blogging. Oh well). I decided on a whim to do it. I don't plan to race much at all this season (just one more race planned) due to financial constraints. I got a little cash in the mail from Drew's grandma and decided at the last minute to do this one as well. Drew and Grant spectated. I finished 2nd place overall and not that this means anything to anyone, I ran 34:56 for the 8K (which actually turned out to be well over 5 miles, instead of the 8K it was supposed to be) which is my best time ever. Not to be an excuse maker but I was winning until the last mile when my rib injury (from a certain little baby during pregnancy kicking me) acted up and I was having some pain while breathing. Drew captured all the excitment at the finish (haha). Pay no attention to the manliness that are my calves.

I love this shot because I think Grant was grossed out at how sweaty his mom was!

And here's the little fan himself.

His Presidential shot...

And good thing I ran so I could get this free bottle of water for him...

See you at the park!

2009-04-25T23:21:00.007-04:00

With all the nice days we have been having lately, I have been trying to take Grant to as many parks as possible. It's funny, our little town literally has NOTHING to do. But for some reason, they have like 10 parks. Some of my favorite shots as of late...

I also found this guy at the park...

Back off ladies, he's ALL MINE.

Some Easter shots...

2009-04-14T21:47:00.005-04:00

VOTE FOR GRANT!!

2009-04-10T11:53:00.001-04:00

http://nbarczakphotography.blogspot.com/2009/04/let-voting-begin.html

Go to this website and vote for Grant. He is #16. He's entered in the "Cutest Faces" contest. The winner gets a free photography session.

Thanks for voting!!!

Mr. Serious

2009-04-09T22:38:00.002-04:00

Love this

Grant and Grace

2009-04-05T20:04:00.007-04:00

Friday we headed over to Jane and Adam's for dinner and some hanging out. We had such a great time! We love getting together with them. It was especially fun this time because Grant is at the age where he and Grace can (sort of) play together. By play together, I mean they played in the same room with different toys and occasionally looked in each other's direction. However, things took an interesting turn when it was pajama time. Once those two got into diapers only, they became buddies. The crawled over to the bookshelf and pulled books and other various items off and "talked" to each other.

I plan to bust these pictures out when these two are in high school!

GO GREEN, GO WHITE!!!

2009-04-05T20:01:00.002-04:00

We are so proud of our Spartans! They made it to the national championship game! The entire family wore their Spartan gear in honor of the game.

I particularly like this next photo because it appears Grant is doing the "RAH TEAM FIGHT!" part of the fight song. I am so proud!

Photo shoot

2009-04-05T19:57:00.007-04:00

We had a JCPenney's gift card and used it to get some photos taken of Grant. Here are a few of our favorites...

Big guy in a littttttllllllle swing...

2009-04-02T22:22:00.004-04:00

See this weirdo? He's suddenly way into baby toys that he's entirely too old for. Tuesday, he found his old bouncer and climbed into it and sat down. He was so heavy, the thing about tipped over. Then yesterday, he wanted to swing so bad. He hasn't used this thing since he was teeny tiny. I put him in and he was having the time of his life. What a goofball! He looks especially ridiculous because he's as tall as a toddler and that thing is built for newborns.

5 years ago today...

2009-03-27T16:08:00.016-04:00

We were getting hitched!

Our first big marriage milestone! The 5 year mark. I can't believe it. We have been through a lot these past 5 years. Moving, a house, a baby, job loss, travel. Highs and lows, ups and downs, I am lucky to have went through it all with my best buddy.

For fun, I thought I would take you through a little glimpse of our history.

Where the love started. Circa 1988.
He must have fell in love with my rockin' side ponytail.

We started dating on my 16th birthday.

Our senior prom (our second prom together):

We survived high school together:
And off to college!

We graduated from MSU together in 2003

And were married in 2004

Our honeymoon:

We bought our first house in 2005

And Grant was born last year

Happy Anniversary, Drew! I can't wait to see what the rest of our life holds.

"Grow old with me. The best is yet to be" --John Lennon

10 months old!

2009-03-25T21:01:00.007-04:00

Grant is 10 months old! He is what he is up to lately:

He rides on his push and ride toy
He says mama, dada, lala (Lola), and recently he started saying "thank you" (but it sounds like "dit Q").
He is seriously obsessed with climbing the stairs
After a month hiatus, he finally started to eat solids again. He likes grilled cheese, pita, peas, raisins, banana, and cheerios
He thinks Benny is the most hilarious dog on earth
He's like a monkey. He climbs everything. He's tried to climb the baby gate, the couch, his dresser, the fireplace, his Learn & Groove table.
He can point. And he points to the appropriate dog when we ask him the names.
He waves bye and says, "bub-bub"
He FINALLY has teeth! Two bottom.
He gives kisses
He loves sorting clothes. It's very weird. If he sees a pile of laundry or is standing at a drawer, he empties it and sorts it into a pile. I hope he keeps that up into his teen years.

And he now has curly hair!

Random updates, bullet style

2009-03-23T22:09:00.005-04:00

I have been such a blog slacker lately. I really have no excuses. We have been busy but not too busy to blog. I just have been lacking the motivation. So, here's a bullet style list to catch up everything we have been up to. Hopefully after this post, I will find some more motivation in blog-land.

Our Spartans have made it to the Sweet 16! We are pretty excited. My bracket takes them to the final two (historically, I am not known for my great bracket picks unfortunately). But, GO STATE! Grant sported his MSU gear on Sunday in honor of the game.

Which reminds me. See this outfit he has on? It was FREE! Last week, Manchester Early Education put on an Early Childhood Extravaganza which Grant and I attended. It was a fair of sorts with different booths handing out free stuff like books, developmental handouts, candy, stuff like that. They also had a clothing and toy swap, which is basically like a garage sale where everything is free. People leave stuff they want to get rid of and anybody can take what they want. We got there at the very end and one of the playgroup moms tried to get us to take a bunch of stuff they had left over. Lucky for us, they had this great MSU outfit, a few pairs of shorts, some cargo pants, and a steering wheel toy. All free! We hit the jackpot!

Our Marine cousin, Todd made it back from Djibouti a few weeks ago and finally made it back up to Michigan for a visit. We met up with him so he could meet Grant for the first time. He and Grant hit it off.

This past weekend, Grant and I headed to Albion for Jamie's baby shower. The good: it was fun seeing the mama-to-be and Grant had fun chasing the host's kitty. The bad: I backed our Durango into a piece of farm equipment. Idiot!! The farm equipment was completely unharmed, of course. My Durango had some scratches on the bumper. Luckily, Drew buffed them out and only a small reminder is left.

Grant has made some major baby progress lately. First of all, after a long month of the starvation diet, he has started eating again! He's way into finger foods now and has been eating grilled cheese, pita, raisins, melon, chicken breast, steamed veggies, cheerios, and toast. He also has even started to eat yogurt and some purees again. I even got him to eat a few bites of guacamole today (that's my boy!) Maybe he can finally gain some weight.
Secondly, he is talking and gesturing up a storm! He can differentiate between Drew and I knowing us as "mama" and "dada" when the appropriate one of us comes into the room. He also says "bub-bye" and he says, "thank-you" (which really sounds like "dit Q"). He picks up toys, hands them to us and then says, "dit Q!". Hahaha! So polite. He has started pointing and waving all the time now. He also does this weird hand wave that looks like he's saluting. He knows the difference between Benny and Lola and will point to the correct dog when asked. It's almost like overnight he got really verbal and expressive.
Today we finally made it into JC Penney's for some photos to spend a giftcard we got for Christmas. They turned out adorable and as soon as the proofs come to my email, I will post them.
Finally, this past week I ran 38 miles for my weekly total. That's the most I have ever run since having Grant.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T22:02:00.005-04:00

Grant is Scottish, Swedish, Norwegian, German, Slovakian, Native American. NOT Irish!

But, he still donned his green shirt and silly paper headband for St. Patrick's Day. We made the headband at playgroup.

It was really hard to catch him both sitting still and not ripping it off.

First Park Visit

2009-03-17T21:17:00.008-04:00

We took advantage of the great weather and went to the park. Manchester has a few nice parks to choose from. We chose the one that had baby swings and the nicest slides.

Grant loved swinging! I figured he would. He's pretty wild and likes to do crazy things. We actually had him going pretty high for a baby. He was just cracking up too. He wasn't scared at all.

Grant (and his parents) really liked going down the slides.

As we were leaving, we noticed the house next door to the park had a huge fenced in area with goats! There were four of them just hanging out there. We tried to call them over but they were too busy eating. Then, I remembered I had some leftover Cheerios in the car from a few days ago and as soon as they saw the baggie, they ran over. (I hope the owners don't mind we fed their goats breakfast).

Goats are hilarious! Who knew? They were like dogs begging for the cereal. They were pawing at the fence and pushing each other out of the way. We gave them all that we had and they even let Grant pet them.

I will definitely go back here soon.

Pediatrician Appointment, Round 4

2009-03-12T22:42:00.002-04:00

I need to purchase a little bed so I can move into an exam room at Chelsea Pediatrics. Why? Because today we had our FOURTH appointment in two weeks. The fever Grant had last week morphed into a sore throat. Which morphed into a bad upper respiratory infection complete with cough. Then this week, he added pink-eye and a double ear infection to the mix. In addition, he finally grew his first two teeth (bottom front) while all of this was going on. I feel so bad for him. All of those sicknesses are in full force this week. He wakes up in the middle of the night screaming and coughing and is unable to get back to sleep for hours. It's so sad. We both have spend countless hours on the couch just holding him upright to sleep because he's so miserable. And he still isn't eating any solids. And it's rough to even get him to drink anything lately. He's still below the weight he was at his 9 month well-baby checkup. During the day, he does play a little (which I have no idea how he feels up to that being so sick!).

They started him on Amoxicillin today so I am crossing my fingers it works quickly for him. We have went through so much motrin and tylenol. Poor baby!!

A sick buddy.

2009-03-05T22:55:00.002-05:00

We have had a rough few days around here. And we STILL don't know exactly what is wrong with Grant.

Monday, I took Grant swimming in Chelsea and he was acting fine. He slept really badly that night. On Tuesday, he woke up and basically fussed or cried all morning. Every time I tried to set him down to crawl around and play, he burst into tears. He refused all food. Then Wednesday, more of the same. He took a 2 hour nap and when he woke up, I gave him some tylenol and he cried a little bit more and then fell asleep in my lap for another hour. I just let him snuggle there since he having such a hard time. When he was sleeping on me, I realized how hot he felt and I took his temp when he woke up. 1 hour after the tylenol, it was 101. I called the ped and they had us come in. Everything came up fine. Ears, nose, lungs, everything was clear. She did say he was teething but wasn't so sure that teething would cause that high of a temp. He has also lost 5 oz off his already skinny frame since last week. She decided to have us just keep an eye on him and his fever and keep them posted. She also gave us a bag to collect urine if he still has a fever on Friday.

Today, he was crawling around and acting more like his normal self but he still had a fever of 100. He also refused all food and was having a hard time taking in any liquids. By 4:30 pm, he had only had 1 wet diaper since 3:00 a.m! I called the ped again and they said to get him to drink anything and everything we can and if he still doesn't have one good wet diaper by 8:00 pm, we would have to go to the ER for IV fluids. I had to teach my fitness classes but Drew kept offering him different things in various cups, bottles, with straws, without straws, etc trying to get him to take a drink. He got him to drink some diluted apple juice (he's never had juice before) finally with a bottle. He drank 2 oz of that and 2 oz of breastmilk in a bottle. He also made a pretty wet diaper. We didn't end up going in but I am going to monitor his input/output tomorrow and we are supposed to call the ped and let them know and find out what to do next.

I am so frustrated because I feel like something is definitely wrong but we just don't know what it is. I am also nervous about dehydration because I know how quickly that can happen with babies. Not to mention, he's eaten like no food all week and it's a struggle to get him to drink anything either. I have no idea what to do!

Wagon ride

2009-03-05T22:47:00.001-05:00

With the temps getting warmer, we were able to put together the wagon Grant got for Christmas. We took it for a spin down the street with the dogs. Grant LOVES it. I can't wait for this summer when we can use it every night!

The 9 month stats...

2009-02-26T23:07:00.004-05:00

My prediction of tall and skinny was just about right.

Length: 30.25 inches! Holy cow! (95th percentile)
Weight: 18 lbs 8.5 oz (17th percentile)

Yes, he really is that tall and that skinny. So skinny, in fact that when we go back in 6 weeks for a catch up vaccine (they were out of polio last time so he is behind a dose), we have to get a weight and growth chart check to make sure he is staying on that curve. If he drops lower than that in percentiles, Dr. G wants some bloodwork done. He is confident he is fine and just skinny but he wants to keep an eye on him anyway. I know the reason he's such a pickle. The kid barely eats anything! He is so over food now. He would rather run around the house 100 miles an hour in his walker, climb the stairs, attack the dogs, or crawl somewhere. And getting his nutrition from nursing? He eats for like 30 seconds per session. He's too busy. The doctor isn't concerned about malnutrition because he is so tall. So obviously, he is growing. It's just up, not out. He suggested trying some heavier finger foods like pancakes or noodles with melted cheese. We might do some pancakes this weekend.

I should post a picture of him in just his diaper. It's hilarious!

9 months old!

2009-02-25T23:46:00.005-05:00

Grant is 9 months old today! I can't believe how fast the time has went by. I know everyone always says that but it's true. We go to the pediatrician tomorrow for his well baby check-up and shots so his stats will be posted after that. My prediction is tall and skinny. Haha!
Here is what he is up to as a 9 month old:

Still cruising everywhere! He is doing big stretches of cruising now going back and forth between the couch and coffee table. He also can go from his Leapfrog table to just about anywhere by pushing it across the room and then cruising over to what he wants to. I predict a walking boy soon.

He's a monkey. Seriously, he climbs everything. His newest is to climb into the laundry basket and empty it out. He also is obsessed with climbing the stairs. If I don't pay 100% attention to him at all times, he's on those steps halfway upstairs.

He's not eating as well anymore but has started a few finger foods. He likes cheese, puffs, and watermelon so far. He's not a fan of slippery foods like peaches or mango (but he used to eat those as purees)

His sleeping has gotten bad again, unfortunately. I think it's those teeth that STILL haven't come through!! Still all gums

He likes to chase Dad around the kitchen and play hide-and-seek while in his walker

He tortures his poor doggies. He tries to "pet" them. He also steals their food and empties their water dishes.

He can wave really well. I love when I come into his room every morning and get a wave from his crib.

He babbles a lot and really thinks he is carrying on a conversation with you. And finally says MAMA!

He shares everything. He thinks you must want his binkie, his half eaten puffs, his nasty teething cookie, his toys, anything.

And I know this is gross but I had to throw it in there. He thinks I MUST want that nasty dog bone. hahaha......

CHEEEEEESE!

2009-02-25T23:34:00.004-05:00

Lately, we have been on a solids strike around here. For the past couple of weeks, the only things I can get Grant to eat are either blueberries or bananas. Anything else gets spit right back out and sprayed everywhere while he blows raspberries. In effort to get him to eat more solids, I introduced shredded cheese recently. Today, he really seemed to like it. He ate an entire small pile and half of another one. And is it just me or does my baby look like such a grown-up boy in these shots?

Who needs a snowsuit?

2009-02-25T23:27:00.004-05:00

Who needs a snowsuit when Dad has big coats? This is how we look when we walk our dogs on a winter day. He looks embarrassed but once we were out there, he liked it.

What we did on Valentines Day

2009-02-14T20:29:00.009-05:00

No flowers or candy here. We had a family fun day! We decided to head to the Chelsea Treehouse to wear out Grant. He had been there once before at 4 months but all he did was sit in a Bumbo and look around. Today, he got to be part of the action! And he LOVED it.

He played with the toys in the baby area...

He climbed the slide backwards, repeatedly.

He sat on Medusa's...err, Momma's lap (do I need a haircut, or what?)

Goofed around with Dad...

And he got to go down the big slides twice! We figured we each had better take him, you know, in case he didn't have fun the first time. (haha!)

And, he had his first experience with a balloon!

Best. Valentine's. Ever!

Hope everyone else had as much fun as us.

Ingenius!

2009-02-14T20:23:00.002-05:00

Does your baby slip in the tub? Are you sick of putting your hand behind their backs to avoid this?

Perfect solution...

Yep, a laundry basket. I swear, this works! He can sit and play to his heart's content and I can just sit there and watch. No slipping!

The cookie monster

2009-02-14T18:39:00.005-05:00

Grant loves those nasty teething biscuits. They smell tasty and serve a great purpose and all but once they get all wet and slimy, they are gross.

Luckily, we have Benny the cookie monster to help with that.

If he times things just right, Grant shares his snack with him

Silly

2009-02-10T07:58:00.005-05:00

I have been enjoying all of Nicole's entries into the I heart Faces blog and when this week's contest of Silly came up, I knew I had to enter Grant with the Ugly Face. This one makes me laugh every time I see it. He's such a little goofball.

Bye-bye!

2009-02-08T21:59:00.003-05:00

Grant's newest trick! He can wave and he says, "bye-bye!" I am pretty sure he is just imitating us but I am proud nevertheless.

Museum #2!

2009-02-08T21:37:00.008-05:00

Today we went to the Exhibit Museum at the University of Michigan's campus. We are really doing a great job on our goal to see as many museums as possible. Two in one weekend! This time, we went with Drew's parents for Tom's birthday. The museum was really nice. It was a lot bigger than I expected. And I hate to admit this but U of M's museum was quite a bit better than MSU's. That is the last time I will admit that U of M has an edge on anything. They had a lot of dinosaur artifacts. And like MSU's museum, this one was also free. Bonus!! As usual, Grant had a great time. He touched fossils, sat in a canoe, and felt a dinosaur head. He bonked his head a lot throughout the day. He did not understand the concept of the artifacts being BEHIND the glass!

The newest toy

2009-02-08T21:34:00.004-05:00

Curtains!

The MSU Museum

2009-02-07T08:45:00.006-05:00

We decided that we would start taking Grant to fun places as much as we are able. He's so curious now and loves getting out and doing things. We decided to start going to a few museums when we can. We started with a free one. We headed up to Michigan State University to their museum on campus. We also thought we would Grant acclimated to being a Spartan early. The museum was cool. It had a lot of animals and dinosaur artifacts on display. There was also a lot of neat habitat displays. Grant loved every minute of it. He thought the animals in the glass cases were hilarious. He was pounding on the case and trying to pet the animal through the glass. Then, he would laugh hysterically. I think he had a great time. We plan to try the free museum at University of Michigan's campus really soon.

The little perpetrator in action...

2009-02-06T23:19:00.005-05:00

It's been awhile

2009-02-06T22:37:00.003-05:00

It seems that a lack of blogging has been going around. Many of my friend's blogs have been neglected lately. Add me to the list. It must be the winter blahs or something. It's not like I have nothing to write about. We have actually been pretty busy around here. I just have not had the motivation to sit down and write and upload pictures. I will post a quick update (bullet style for easy reading) first and then I will post a few pictures and videos above.

I have been doing a lot of scrapbooking lately. Grant's baby book is really coming along. I had the girls over last Friday to scrap and I have been doing a bit here and there by myself. I have all my stuff sitting out in the basement and it's nice to go down there when I can and whip out a page.

We spend Superbowl Sunday at Dave and Sadie's house. Grant had a great time hanging out with Jake and Tyler and also terrorizing their poor cat. I am embarrassed to admit that I did not watch a single second of the Superbowl. I was too busy chatting with the ladies, looking at baby Luke, showing Sadie how to do some new things to her blog, and eating (of course). When we left, I actually had to ask Drew who won. Which earned me an "Are you kidding me??"

My Marine cousin Todd made it home from Dijbouti! It was rough getting home (he got stuck in two different countries along the way. But, after two weeks of trying to get on US soil, he's back in North Carolina. We look forward to seeing him and the Mrs. in March when he visits Michigan. He said he can't wait to meet the "crumb snatcher" (which would be Grant).

Cruising is my least favorite milestone. I cannot turn my back for a second on this kiddo. He's scaling something and trying to climb. And often falls and bumps his head. He needs one of those helmets. He has had a lot of bumps and bruises lately. He will pull himself up on anything that is stationary. A dog, the bathtub, toys, dressers, whatever. He also has started standing up in his crib at random times during the night. Which he then gets stuck and cries for one of us to lay him back down. Ugh! Just when he started sleeping through the night too. He also has taken a big liking to getting into dog food. We have had two outfits soaked this week because he tips the water bowl over his head.

I am no child development expert but I think Grant might walk at 9-10 months. He has started letting go of the couch and putting his arms out towards me while trying to take a step. He also loves walking around holding on to Drew's hands.

That's about all from here. Pictures to be posted soon!

Getting together with friends

2009-01-25T21:53:00.012-05:00

Today we headed to Kevin and Sarah's house to meet baby Luke. Sadie and David, Jane and Adam, and Anneke and Josh were all there. We ate tons of good food, had a lot of laughs, and had fun catching up and watching all the kids play. We were talking about how it's amazing to be able to still get together as friends and now watch our kids hang out together. Baby Luke was adorable and holding him made me sad realizing how big Grant has gotten! I almost forget what it's like to have a newborn.

Here are some pictures of our day...

Grant and Luke-

The Ladies (minus Sadie who left right before this)-

Grant and Grace being wild-

And all the kids together at one time! I think the outtakes of these are hilarious. Well, I guess they are all outtakes seeing as none of them captured all the kids sitting still. Baby Luke was the best subject!!

Grant must have had fun. He passed out in the car and was really easy to get down for bed tonight. He had fun playing with Grace. Those two are wild. I think in about six months, we are going to be in trouble with those two!

8 Months Old!!

2009-01-25T21:45:00.003-05:00

Grant is 8 months old today! Here is what he is up to at 8 months:

He "rocks out" by shaking his head to music
He babbles "DADADA" and "NINININI"
He makes hilarious faces and snorts like a pig
He pulls himself to a stand
He crawls everywhere
He is starting to cruise
He eats really well. So far he only dislikes scrambled egg yolks and green beans
His favorite toy is his Leapfrog Learn & Groove table
He FINALLY sleeps through the night!!!!

Typical....

The ugly face

2009-01-24T22:50:00.005-05:00

Grant has a new way to express himself. It's called the ugly face. Sometimes he makes it on command. It consists of scrunching his eyes and nose up and opening his mouth. It usually comes with some kind of hilarious noises too, for sound effect. The good thing about the ugly face is that is a very versatile expression. It can be used in a variety of situations.

Take a look....

The breakfast ugly face...

The Presidential Inauguration ugly face...

The walker ugly face...

The hiding under the dining room table ugly face...

Guess who is sleeping through the night?

2009-01-24T22:48:00.001-05:00

That's right! Two days in a row! He has slept from 7:00-7:30 pm until 5:00 a.m. then he eats and sleeps until 6:30! I can't believe it. I finally know what it feels like to sleep at night for the first time in 8 months.