Texas Weather

This weekend, we enjoyed a picnic at the Duck Pond. It was quite relaxing, and I would love to do it more often. I initially wanted to do a back yard picnic, but I'm so glad we got out to the park! Here are some photos:

And of course, Texas weather being what it is, we are now expecting a "Winter Mix" tonight. The rain JUST started and schools are already closing.

UPDATE: I forgot to post the most precious picture from last week's picnic of my 2 boys:

Grant is 8 months!!

Grant is 8 months today. Here are some stats:

• Weighs 20.9 lbs according to the Wii


• Size 4 diapers


• Eats about 36 oz. of formula every day, and 6 oz of solids mixed with cereal


• Still eats every 3 hours like clockwork


• He can scoot forward!! Just last weekend he started moving forward instead of backward. He's still not crawling, but moving forward is, well, moving forward.


• He can go from sitting to on all 4's.


• He is out of the baby room at day care. :( Let's not talk about it. Derek is still imitating Ms. Maribel, who would ask every day at drop off "How is Grant doing?"


• Sleeps at least 11 hours at night. On the weekends, we can get him to take about 4 naps 30min - 1 hour each (actually last weekend one was 2 hours). But that's because we're pretty boring. At daycare, he's lucky to get in 2 40-minute naps. More often it's just one.


• Is saying "dada" and "mama" but doesn't seem to associate the words with us. He definitely knows the name "Lola" because he looks at her (and smiles of course) every time we say her name.


• Still has only 2 teeth - and they are sharp!!

The Net

Rachel, Jill, Cat, Erin, Meadow, Lolly, Anna, Sunny, and Shauna:

I stalk follow the blog, Enjoying the Small Things. Kelle is a truly gifted writer/photographer and was unexpectedly blessed with a beautiful girl, Nella just last year. Well - Nella was expected but her gift of Down Syndrome was certainly not. I absolutely adore this stranger - ahhh - the joys of the interweb.

Anyhow, Kelle wrote yesterday about her "Net" of girlfriends that are always there ready to catch each other. Kelle describes it so much better than I ever could, which is why she writes a beautiful blog for a living and I draft contracts. I wanted to share this with my own "Net". It's amazing to have such great friendships with each of you.

Movin' on up

Next week Grant starts his transition into the next room at daycare. This is harder for me than the initial daycare drop-off. Grant, Derek and I are so attached to his teachers, Ms. Tae and Ms. Maribel. In fact, writing this is making me tear up… at work… not good. I doesn’t help that the daycare staff is so on top of things that Julie called me TWO MONTHS AGO to tell me that Monday was Doomsday. Stupid Julie. ;)

So I really should throw myself into work. But instead I have the daycare camera on in the background. And I can see my boy looking up admiringly at Ms. Tae (ok, really at Ms. Tae’s booty – she’s bent over a crib and he can’t take her eyes off of it her). And none of that helps.

So my favorite teachers got a special treat today – smors bars. Piping hot out of the oven. I was already planning on getting up early to make them, then Grant decided he wanted to help. At 5:15 this morning. Lucky me. :)

A shot of Grant last week waking up. The clothes I had laid over the side of his crib had fallen on him. sad.

So I juggled baking and baby as best I could (it REALLY helps that he holds his own bottle) to get some treats ready for the big WINTER WIPEOUT party tonight. My wild and crazy friend from law school Kim is on, so my whole second family is getting together to watch. You should watch for her too – she’s got platinum blonde hair and should go by the name “Smooth Criminal” tonight. She makes it into Round 2, but doesn’t go any further than that.

And no – she’s not wild and crazy because she is on the show Wipeout. She’s wild and crazy because after enduring law school, she decided that she hadn’t had quite enough of school and is now getting a doctorate.

Teeth

Grant has TWO teeth coming in. Like any good parent, I pinned him down and took a look around his mouth (like you would a horse). 2 sharp little nibs are poking through. See?!

In other news, I've figured out how to make my pictures bigger!! It wasn't too hard - you can try it on your own blog by following these steps.

Ten things I'm thankful for

1. Experimenting with finger food - Grant tried some green beans and carrots from my veggie beef soup last week.

2. Slow tendus with port de bras. My favorite part of ballet class!


3. Big boy baths - Grant gets so excited, he kicks his legs, which causes him to slide down the tub to the drain.


4. Waking up and thinking - what is that outside?! It was light. I can't remember the last time I slept until it was light outside. It was 7:20 a.m.


5. Derek singing the songs from all of Grant's new toys. And being Derek, he never gets the lyrics quite right.

6. Grant's new tricks - sticking out his tongue and doing push ups. He sticks his tongue out from the side of his mouth. Adorable.


oh - those blue eyes!!

7. Time spent sewing Derek's stocking. I'm on Step 41 now!! 8. Grant being an angel at dinner. We went to Fireside Pies last night, and our angel slept the entire time.


9. NFL Football on a Saturday.


10. Toothless smiles - we won't have this much longer. We better enjoy it now!

Weekend Wrap-Up

This weekend was rather uneventful. Derek went to the Cotton Bowl on Friday. I stayed at home and worked on his stocking!! We met up with Johnna for a delicious Grand Lux brunch on Saturday, then I went to an old friend's baby shower, Kerri. She was beautiful, and I'm sure her little girl will be too!! Grant stayed at the house most of the weekend. He did join us for brunch. We are finding that it's getting more difficult to eat at restaurants with him. I know, he doesn't look like he'd be difficult: So while this was going on outside:

Grant played inside. He loved playing with his newest toy: His Quality Powder Coating cup. He looks for it every time we're in the kitchen.

Grant also tried to figure out his sippy cup. Wrong end, bubba. That's more like it! We took a spin (or 2) around the house in a diaper box.
Grant's favorite playmate is still Lola. He laughs so much any time she's near (and over the weekend, he was rocking on all fours again while they played). He's still not moving forward!! Tonight, I noticed that he looks for Lola when he hears the pitter-patter of her paws.

The weekend ended like this, and who could ask for more?

Don't play with your food.

Sometimes Grant is so hungry that he demands his bottle before solids. Then when it's time for the solid, he just wants to play with his food. Or talk with his mouth full. Blowing raspberries and babbling with a mouthful makes my once clean eater very messy. Proof that he likes to blow raspberries with a mouthful:

Big boy bath

A few weeks ago, I called my sis to ask what she bathed her boys in after they were too big for the infant bath tub. "Uh - the bath tub." See how straightforward that is! Yet I had no idea. My sis is a genius.

Grant took his first bath in the big bath tub last night. He did great and really seemed to like it. This was before I poured water on his head (a new feat for us - we previously just used a wash cloth to wet it): And this was after: No reaction at all - he just loved playing in the water. We definitely need a padded mat to sit on. Leaning over the tub to clean this little boy is fun, but a little rough on the knees. Bath time just got a whole lot better - now we can break out the bath toys!!!

Grant is 7 months!!

I couldn't pick a favorite shot to use for Grant's 7 month shot, so instead I had to post 3! Grant is very busy these days. He's still gumming down on everything. I think his favorite teether is the blocks that Santa brought. He also really likes the tamborine toys that his cousins Andrew and Jacob got him. Here are some stats:

* He's about 19lbs, 3 oz. He was weighed at the pediatrician's office the other day. We had to go because he's had a cough for a full month now. We have him on Zyrtec now to see if it's allergies causing the cough/congestion.

* He's wearing size 4 diapers. And he still soaks through his PJs sometimes at night. We may need to get the bed-time diapers.

* He sleeps a solid 10.5 hours/11 hours per night.

* He's feeding himself his bottle at home and at daycare.
* I think his eyes are getting darker. Don't they look gray?*He just cut his first tooth. On the top, the front right. Derek and I felt it for the first time last night!

* His favorite food is either formula or yogurt. He can eat an adult-size yogurt in a single sitting.

*He's still not crawling. In fact, now that he's mastered sitting up, he doesn't care about trying to rock/crawl on his knees anymore.

We spent New Year's Day at the Shepherds' for their 2nd annual New Year's Day brunch. We also stayed to cheer on TCU. Grant loved their dogs, Stella and Louis. He was very well behaved and took 2 naps in my arms. He did try to make a mess with his cereal/turkey mix at lunch, but it was so thick that most of it stuck to the bowl.
I started Derek's stocking on Christmas Day, and I'm on step 15 now!! It has 115 steps though, so it will take a very long time.

We have really enjoyed our long weekends. I have to work a full 5 days next week, but Derek has his 3rd short week in a row. Look for him at the Cotton Bowl on Friday. He'll be cheering on the Aggies because he likes the Aggies and the Longhorns equally.