Monkey Joe's!

Matt and I took Grant to Monkey Joe's Tuesday Morning - he had so much fun! It was fun for Matt to see Grant play, and Matt and I had a nice morning together while Grant ran his 2-year-old energy off!

Some pictures:















This is at the start of an obstacle-like-course - we were trying to get a picture of Grant standing there with me, but he was way too eager to go into the course - you can see him running in!




And, BTW, I LOVE seeing him climb at Monkey Joe's - you'd never guess that he only started walking about a year ago! :) Nothing like an indoor climb zone to prove the gross motor delay is no more!

2nd Birthday

I came home from the hospital from my first pulmonary embolism on the day of Grant's second birthday. (January 10th) My best friend, Leann, had been SO awesome - she brought me a sweet care package at the hospital (with fun girly stuff to make me feel better!) and asked me what she could do. I said that she could make cupcakes for Grant's birthday! I hated not being able to do it for my sweet boy, but I was glad his Aunt Leann could make them for him. (banana cupcakes, with cream cheese frosting, btw ;-))

Here's one of my favorite pictures of him eating the cupcake - he's like "mmm - cupcake! aaaaccch!"

Be Prepared!

I just spent some time on Matt's computer going through pictures that he took with his camera (that's not compatible, for whatever reason, for me to download the pics to my computer). So, he has a lot of pictures on his computer that I don't have on mine - so, I'll share some of my favorites with you. :) Be prepared for lots of pics!

Tuesday Morning

...and we're up! Grant woke up at 6:30, but I got him to stay in bed until a little after 7 by giving him some books and toys. Some of my friends have this time-activated light in their kids' rooms that come on at say, 7, and then they tell their child they can't get up (or get out of their room) before that! I like that idea!

This morning Matt and I (and Grace!) are taking Grant to Monkey joe's. Matt's never seen Grant play there, so I'm excited for Matt to see how much fun Grant has. I think it will be a nice family morning together after our crazy week last week!

And, we're eagerly awaiting our niece's arrival this week! Grant keeps saying "Baby Sophie coming!"

Yesterday I took Grace to the dr. for her next round of shots. (We're fulling vax'ing, just on an alternative schedule - I just didn't feel comfortable with her getting all the shots at once, so we broke them up into individual appointments). Anyway, yesterday was 2 shots in her chunky little thighs, and she was pretty unhappy yesterday afternoon. Seriously, I think she cried more yesterday afternoon more than she ever, ever has! We gave her some tylenol and that seemed to help - she finally went to sleep and woke up her happy usual self. :)

Matt and Grant went to "see tractors" yesterday morning while Grace and I were at the ped's, so Grant was a happy boy.

I think I hear Grace waking up!

So Tired!

But excited for the day! My mom and I have appointments to get our make-up done by the Bobbi Brown world-traveling make-up artist today! It's such a fun "event" - at an upscale department store - the last time they were even serving champagne! The last time we went it was the spring after Grant was born, so actually Grant was about the age Grace is now. It's just a fun girly time, and fun to do it with your mom.

And, last year I met my parents at the mall the weekend before my birthday, too. We did some shopping and of course got some coffee. It was fun because they didn't know I was pregnant, so after we "left" the mall I sneaked back into the mall to look at and dream over Pottery Barn Kids and Gap Maternity. :) (It was like, the last week before I started getting sick!)

From a year ago:

Fabulous!

Whew!

I just got in from running and I feel so.much.better! With this crazy week, I haven't really had a chance to run! Bummer! But, fortunately Matt had a little bit of time at home this morning so I did a quick 30 minutes outside. It felt SO GOOD! I even ran in the rain I wanted to get out there so much! I feel ready to take on the day with a 2-year-old and a baby now!!

Of course, the baby slept in this morning (she slept ALL night from 9 to 8! wow!) but Grant woke up at - are you ready for this? - 6:25!! Why in the WORLD was he awake so early? He'll take a good nap, hopefully, so if I can get Gracie to sleep for longer than the 10 minute stretches she did yesterday afternoon I can maybe get a nap in myself!

Monkey Joe's!

i found a video on my phone from when we went to Monkey Joe's last week! you can get a feel for how fast Grant goes down the slides - and this is one of the smaller slides! He LOVES them!!!

I'm trying to figure out how to turn the video - for now, I guess you can rotate your head!

For the Grandparents!

-anna

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Grace

Tuesday Morning

Making pumpkin pancakes!

Monday Evening

Grace was in her crib by 8:15 tonight (I think she's moving her bedtime a little earlier!), so I had some time to look at some recipes and enjoy my cup of coffee!

Grant was definitely feeling better today, but you could tell still not 100%. I'll see how he does tonight and then we might call the ped. in the morning.

Matt went to one of the small groups of the church tonight and he said it went great. People had a lot of questions, and were really interested in getting to know him. I think that's a good sign. I wish I could've been there, from the sounds of it! I thought it was going to be more of a Matt-just-pop-in-and-say-hi kinda deal. I'll try to make tomorrow and Wednesday night's groups, if we can get someone to watch Grant.

off to bed!

Weekend Re-Wind

So, what a weekend it was!

Saturday:

We had to leave by 11:25 for our luncheon with the search committee and respective families. I had to finish picking the house up, get lunch ready for the in-laws (even though we weren't staying) and get myself ready, all the while keeping Grant and Grace happy. whew! I was showered by 7, which was good because Grant woke up early.

We got everything ready in time, and I even had time to go get my toenails painted! (my sweet indulgence - it's really cheap, actually, at the local nail place!) Saturday was the first time we left Grace for an extended period of time where I knew she'd need a bottle, so I was a little nervous. Matt was so right though, that Grace is such an easy baby that there was nothing really to be nervous about.

So, we left for the lunch and it was so nice to leave with just the 2 of us! Wow did I feel like I was missing something - no diapers/wipes/sippy cups/snacks/changes of clothes to bring!

The lunch went well, and I was dressed appropriately (always worry about that! ) Everyone was really, really nice, and I had a really great time chatting with everyone. There was a girl about my age that I seemed to really "click" with...I could totally see us being friends.

We got home about 3:30, right after Grant had awakened from his nap. And, Matt was right - Grace was *fine*. She took the bottles with no problems, but was definitely ready for *me* by the time we got home. I nursed her and she immediately fell asleep and was *out* for awhile.

But, then Grant got sick Saturday evening. He was sitting on my FIL's lap, and I thought he was just tired, but then I felt Grant and he was *burning up*. His fever was 101.9! Poor guy.

So, I was running on fumes by Sunday morning as Grant was awake a LOT Saturday night - probably 8 times, maybe more, between 11 and 3:30. He did sleep from 3:30 to 6:30 without a problem, though, so that was the most sleep in a row I got that night!

Sunday Morning went really well. I dropped Matt off early and then drove around 1) to keep Grace asleep for a little longer and 2) to find coffee! I did find this cute little locally-owned coffee shop, where this perky and cute highschool aged girl got me my coffee. (It even had a drive through, which is a BIG
in my book!)

Matt did a *fantastic* job meeting everyone and the message was very good - and, overall, I got the feeling that people liked us!

Here's a picture from after church, when my lipstick had worn off and Matt had already taken his tie off! lol.

Video of Grace

I know it's dark and sideways, but I still think it's cute. :)


-anna

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Saturday Morning...too early

What a ridiculously short night! I have *got* to get the bumper in Gracie's crib - she moves so much now that last night she woke her self up when she ran into the side of the crib! Her head was banging on the rails (I'd wake up,too!) so she woke up at 1 AND 3! She NEVER does that! And then Grant was crying at 5 (fortunately Matt got up to get him, but I still heard him) and then Gracie's crib alarm went off at 6:40, waking BOTH kiddos. I don't think Grant ever went back to sleep, but he did stay in bed at least until 7:15. It's now almost 8, and Grace hasn't gone back to sleep, either.

So, at least I got an early start on the day since I have a lot to do this morning, huh? I need to finish a couple loads of laundry, clean up the kitchen, iron my skirt, wash Gracie's hair, get her bottles ready (thankfully my supply has been *so good* this time around and our freezer is stocked with breastmilk!)...so, off to be productive!

And, soon I'll blog about our experience cutting Grant's hair last night. AAACK! Why, oh WHY, is getting a hair cut SO incredibly traumatic for a 2-year-old? It's still not totally done, but looks way better.

Friday morning

whew! Just got back from running - only about 2.75 miles. I say *about* because I forgot to start my GPS watch for the first couple of minutes, so I didn't get the first bit of the run. The watch says I did 2.5, and I'm guestimating I did about another .25 before I realized the watch wasn't started. Regardless, it was nice to get a quick run in during this busy week and weekend!

On my way around the neighborhood I got to stop and say hi to a couple neighbors, too, which is always nice. One just had another baby girl 3 weeks ago, so we were chatting about our babies. We both had to go as the said babies got hungry, but the other mom and I agreed that we'll have to get together soon.

So much to do today! better get moving! Gotta get some chicken in the crockpot so Grant and the in-laws can have lunch tomorrow while Matt and I are gone (just chicken soft tacos and some rice), and I'd like to get the manicotti made ahead for supper tomorrow night. And, of course, the standard dishes/cleaning/laundry/2-year-old-chasing.

off to get in the shower.

Thursday Morning

Grace just woke up once last night, her usual 3 o'clock feeding, and Grant slept into 7:20. (and, how OLD am I that I think 7:20 is sleeping in! )

I'm sitting here drinking my coffee, Grant's loading up his legos in the dumptruck, and Miss Grace is almost turning over from back to front!! She's *very* close. I'll have to look up in Grant's baby book (or go back in the blog!) to see when he rolled, but I'm pretty sure it was much later! Watch out, brother, your sister's working on coming after you!!

Brotherly Love

A couple of days ago I was loading everyone (and everything!) up in the Durango to go play at Monkey joe's with my sister-in-law and nephew. I put Grace in, and then went back into get my purse. Grace start fussing at being in her carseat, and when I went back out to calm her and put Grant in his carseat, this is how I found Grant! He had opened the Durango door (something I didn't know he could do!) and climbed up, and was talking to Grace! He was saying, "hi, hi, hi! where's your paci? paci for Gracie?" As Grace gets older and more interactive, I just LOVE seeing Grant talk to her and "play" with her.

(I'll enjoy it know until she starts crawling and taking all of his toys, and all of this, "hi, hi, hi Gracie" turns into "my toy!" ;-))

"gheeee"

one more thing before I go to bed - Grant's just *the cutest* around Grace recently. Since Gracie is now so vocal and interactive, Grant is really liking her "talking" to him. When she starts cooing and making her little baby noises, Grant will go over and say "ghheee" and "ooooh" back to her in his cute little 2-year-old way. It's so sweet. I'll always remember that at around 51/2 weeks, when I was wondering if Grace was really socially smiling or not, her first smile was definitely to her brother.

tired! tired, and more tired!

Stayed up way too late last night surfing while Matt listened to the Purdue game, and then got up early with Grant and Grace! We played hard today, though - at the playground this morning and outside here this afternoon. Grant played with the "water hose" (the garden hose) and thoroughly soaked himself but loved every minute of it! He just loves playing with the hose!

It was weird to have Matt gone on a Sunday! Made for a lonely Sunday afternoon with out him. It was also weird to not be at church together...

speaking of which, I'm getting very excited about next Sunday! It will be good to go to church and be able to meet everyone and get a feel for their ministries. We're not taking Grant with us (don't want to quite yet terrorize the nursery with our separation-anxiety-plagued 2-year-old!), but I'm still trying to think about what to do with Grace. I know she'd sleep in the sling, but I don't know if I want to wear her the very first Sunday we're there. She also likes for me to walk around when I'm wearing her, and I don't know if I want to walk around in the back of the sanctuary the first Sunday while Matt's candidating! I could just hold her, or possibly even put her in the nursery, if they have swings - she'd at least sleep quietly in the swing. I'll have to think about her!

Might be coming to an end..

So, the days of Grant being confined to his crib might be coming to an end! He was making a weird noise about 15 minutes after he went to bed tonight, so when I went up there I found him stuck on the top of his crib! The back of his knees were balanced on the crib rail, and he was kind of hanging on to the side/corner of the crib! He climbed out of the pack-n-play at my parent's house for the first time last weekend, but since then he hasn't tried getting out of his crib. He was really scared/freaked out being "stuck" on the top of his crib, so hopefully that freaked him out enough to not try again. We're hoping to hold off to the "big boy room" until after we move. (which, of course, is dependent on Matt's job situation - only one more week until he candidates!)

I am so surprised that it took 2 1/2 years for Grant to climb out of his crib, though! So many of my friends seem to have kiddos that climb out at like, 18 months! I'm thankful it's lasted this long - after he can get out on his own, it's a whole new ballgame!