Good Wednesday Morning!

Grant's eating grapes in his chair, and I'm listening to some of my favorite music (Chris Botti), while drinking a cup of coffee from my new Keurig coffee maker! It was already on sale at Kohls (what *isn't* on sale at Kohls? ;-)), and I had a 30% off coupon!




We used it for the first time at some friends' house (Thanks, Ward & Kathy!), and we just fell in love with it! It's a single-serve machine, which is perfect for us, as usually I just want one cup of coffee in the mornings. (And, thanks, Karen, for your opinion on single-serve machines!) It brews the absolutely perfect cup of coffee, and also has a neat-o blue back-lit display.

So, between new dress pants for Matt, new towels for the bathroom and the coffee maker, we totally got the max out of that 30% coupon!

Back to Blogging!

Whew! After almost 2 months off (has it really been that long?!?), I'm back to blogging! Break out the Hallelujah chorus! :)

Just got in from running, showered, and am settling in to watch The Bachelorette!

Bird incident

Matt was outside with his Bible Study guys on Butler's campus tonight since it was such a beautiful evening. Well, Matt came home and told me the tale of the bird. He had just pulled out his laptop and was looking something up for the guys, and all-of-a-sudden, a bird, ahem, did it's poop business straight onto the laptop!!! Fortunately it hit just the outer casing and not the keyboard! Matt said one of the guys was like, "dude, a bird just pooped on your laptop!"

I'm still laughing. Matt doesn't think it's quite as funny.

Big!

Look how big he is!!

We're home!

Nope, I haven't stopped blogging...just had a busy couple of weeks, and then we were on vacation for a week! Grant did very, very well considering he was in his carseat for 31 hours!! We're all happy to be home, though, and I'm happy to be back to blogging. :)

The kid likes carrots!

Who knew that a toddler could like carrots so much?!

Today for his afternoon snack I had steamed some carrots (gotta love the Glad microwave steam bags!), and Grant ate ALL of them - and, I had steamed 1/2 of the frozen bag of veggies!! So, around 1 1/2 cups of CARROTS! he just kept eating and signing for more, eating and signing for more --- I even looked to make sure he wasn't stuffing them somewhere! And, Lizzie doesn't like carrots, so no luck there!

Matthew Grant

So, I watch The Bachelor. I'm not going to stay up to watch the whole first episode tonight, but I just caught the first couple of minutes while I wait for the washing machine.

And, I thought the Bachelor's name was funny - "Matthew Grant".

The Quad Squad

SOOOO Funny!

And, how would you tell them apart?

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid533275934/bclid537018608/bctid196271166

Leaning...

Grant's learned to lean around stuff to see you - it's so cute! Here he's leaning around the chair to see Matt. :)

No pictures, Mommy!

New Toy!

We've only bought Grant 2, maybe 3 toys, in his life, and he was needing a new age-appropriate toy. So, Grant helped pick out his new barn toy - he was so excited! here are some pictures of him helping Matt open it, and then how excited he was to play with it!

Saturday Afternoon

What a wonderful Saturday! My parents called mid-morning and offered to meet us for lunch or coffee. Well, Matt was in a meeting, so my parents wonderfully brought lunch to us! It was great seeing them, and it was SO nice of them to bring us lunch! Thanks, Mom and Dad!

On the toddler news, he's standing up all the time now! The past several mornings when I've gone in to get him in the morning he's standing up in his crib, smiling at me - so proud of himself! :) He can't quite pull himself up on our couches yet - they're just a tad too high for him to reach, but he can pull up on the ottoman. Go, Grant, Go!

And, on the running news, I overdid it or something last night, because my left ankle and shin are sore, and my right knee is killing me today! I think I might need new shoes...or perhaps it was the increased incline on the treadmill?

Snowy Friday!

Whew! It's a snowy March day here! I just got home for running some errands this morning:

1) Target to get a few groceries to make breakfast snacks for the church meeting at oru house tomorrow morning. (Mini Ham and Cheese quiches, muffins, scones - I just realized I should've got some fruit. Oh, well).

2) Jo-Ann Fabric to get material for the master bath valance - creme-silk fabric - I think it's going to look really good!

and

3) Old Navy to check out their sale racks. Their strapless tops and capris did not look appropriate in their store today!

Grant and I met Matt for a quick lunch at Panera, and now he's at home down for his afternoon nap, I have a cup of tea and sweats on, and I'm going to watch the latest Lipstick Jungle episode online. A good afternoon to be inside!

Just HOW many times...

...is my hair going to be wet today?

This morning I had to run to my doctor's office to try to clear up some insurance issues, so I just jumped in the shower to try to head out quickly. Well, Grant ended up taking a morning nap, so my hair just air-dryed while I was waiting for him to wake.

Then, after the doctor's visit, it started to POUR down rain. Even a little bit of hail!! I was in Meijer when it started, so I had to push a 13-month-old toddler and a cartful of groceries across the parking lot! Grant actually LOVED the whole experience of getting wet and was slapping the cart and laughing. I was SOAKED by the time I got us and the groceries loaded up. Soaked, soaked, soaked!

Then, I decided to run during Grant's afternoon nap (I usually run after he's in bed), so I ran and then got in the shower - more wet hair! I think my hair's been wet today more than it's been dry!

But, I had a good grocery run and a good physical run, so all-in-all, a good day - wet, but good! :)

A Video!

Here's a video of Grant doing his Army Crawl that he does everywhere - he's army crawled for so long, I'm almost convinced he's going to go to college doing it! :) And, the word he's saying in the video is "ball" - his current fixation. *anything* round is "ball". Actually, when I got up with him in the middle of the night last night, when I finished feeding him, he looked at me, sleepy-eyed, and said, "ball?" :) Fixated, the kid is, fixated! :)

Quiet Rest Time

So, Grant's pretty much transitioned to only 1 nap/day - but, thankfully, it's usually a pretty long nap (around 11:30 - 2:30). Well, around 9am, the kiddo just gets SO tired - rubbing his eyes, fussing, not wanting to play. About a week ago I thought, hey, let's just put him in his crib and see what happens. And thus, Quiet Rest Time evolved. He's in his crib from about 9-9:30ish, 9:40 - he's quiet for about 20 minutes, then plays happily for 15-20 more minutes. Then, when he gets up, he's a happy little boy ready to play for the rest of the morning!

I don't know if he really can get "rest", but it seems to really help him, as before his rest time he's really cranky, and afterwards, he's really happy! And, it gives me time to jump in the shower!

Grant's New Trick!

Hi Mom!

I can go from lying down...











...to sitting!

Sunday Morning...

...and I'm at home and not at church! Grant was feeling better from having croup and a double ear infection and teething last week (poor kiddo was so sick!!), but he woke up THREE times last night, and was up for the day an hour earlier than normal!! I was exhausted, and Grant was tired, and coughing more than he was, so we're at home. Matt's going to teach my 5-7th grade Sunday School class this morning, so he got a crash lesson this morning. He'll be fine, I'm sure. Though, one other time he taught my class and came home and said he was impressed even more that I taught high schoolers so easily and loved it so much!

Blessed Be Your Name

While running tonight, I listened to the song "Blessed Be Your Name" by Tree63. My heart is always inspired when I hear these lyrics -

Blessed be your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be your name

Every blessing you pour out,
I turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say...
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your glorious name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, Blessed be your name


This song is so special to me because of the circumstances in my life at the time I first heard it. I was at one of my lowest points dealing with infertility - we had just been told we had a ultra-low (think less than 5%) chance of conceiving on our own, and my body had once again failed to respond well to fertility injections. My heart was crying out for hope, crying out for something to cling to from the Lord.

I was driving home from the University of Iowa hospital and this song came on the radio. I almost had to pull over I was so moved by these lyrics. The Holy Spirit really used these lyrics to speak to my spirit - I was reminded that no matter what happens in my life, God is still God, and it's a matter of my heart choosing to praise His name, regardless of my life circumstances. It's really a choice, isn't it? For my heart to choose to say, "blessed be your name" - it doesn't just happen.

Job, the original author of these words, still chose to praise the Lord, even after horrific events. Almost 3 years ago my heart was convicted to do the same - praise the name of the Lord, even on the road marked with suffering.

And tonight, I was once again that it is a *choice* to praise the Lord; praise should not be a by-product of my life circumstances going well. So even if I'm never able to get pregnant - or become easily pregnant - again, my heart will choose to say: "blessed be your name".

Poison Control

Well, we made our first (and hopefully last!) phone call to poison control! Saturday morning I was in the shower, Matt was getting ready, and Grant was playing with some toys in our master bedroom. Matt was watching Grant, and all of a sudden Matt said, "I think he's eating something". He ran over, picked him up and tried to dig out whatever it was. Grant started coughing and gagging and then threw up over Matt and the sink. I hurried out of the shower as Matt was cleaning everything up. We couldn't figure out what he had eaten, but then realized that it was deodorant! Somehow part of my deodorant must've gotten on the floor, and of course a toddler can find it!

So, we immediately read the back of the deodorant can (bottle? tub? what's a deodorant thing called?) and it said to contact poison control if ingested. I called, and they were very helpful and reassuring. She asked Grant's age, what he ate, if he were still choking, if he had thrown up. She immediately said, "he's going to be fine" to reassure me! So, Poison Control said to just give him something to drink, and to keep giving him fluids over the morning. They also had us check behind his teeth to make sure there wasn't more stuck behind them, which I thought was a great idea.

Whew! Grant was then fine - happily playing all morning! Guess Powder Fresh Secret tasted good to him!