Grant update - 14 months

Monthly updates are now a thing of the past, but I still want to keep track of what my little man is up to.


**Grant is saying a few words pretty clearly. Mama, Dada, Ball, Bubble, and More. With some coercion, he'll say Baby, but he doesn't understand it.

**Grant loves to stand on his tiptoes and reach things he's not supposed to. He can reach the blocks on his window sill, which we allow. He can also reach door knobs and has locked our bedroom door a few times. Once while I was outside of our room.

**Grant has been fussy when he gets his diaper changed for several months now. But we have a new distraction: Peek-a-boo. We can say "Where's Grant?" and he'll cover his eyes. Then he opens his arms and we say "There he is!"

**We try to play "Where's _____" throughout the day. Where's the ball? He'll go get it. Where's Lola? He looks to her. Where's mama? etc. But everytime we ask "Where's Grant?" he hides his eyes to play Peek-a-boo. He doesn't point to himself. It's adorable.

**He's starting to problem solve. I love to see it! This morning, I blocked the door with my leg so he couldn't walk through it. He (quickly) decided to crawl under it instead.

**He still loves to eat. We usually stop feeding him once he's ate as much as me, but he could still eat more. At Parents' Night Out last night, he ate THREE pieces of pizza. He loves fruit too, so we're in the habit of chopping plenty of it and having it ready to go in the fridge. I usually take him extra food for breakfast/snack at daycare.

**He likes to read books now. Just this morning, after we read one, I put him down. He looked at me and I asked if he wanted to read more. "Moh", he replied. So we read another.

**I try to get him to dance, but he only does it on his terms. I shake my head side to side and sometimes he will too.

**Same thing with kisses. I've started asking for kisses every time I put him in or get him out of the car seat, and he's more willing to give them then than he is when we drop him off at daycare, pick him up, or put him down for bed.

**Takes 1 nap at day care, but on weekends, he gets 2.

**Teeth - he never lets us see, so I don't know. He's got at least 2 molars.

Grant was delighted that the CBA was signed and that training camp can finally start. He BEGGED to wear his Dallas Cowboys gear (courtesy of our wonderful neighbors, Jeff & Melissa).

Getting ready for work in the mornings is getting more difficult. Grant and Lola are always running around. And I MAY have made the unfortunate introduction of Grant to the light switch. The only one he's played with is in my closet (which is barely big enough for me alone, but in the mornings becomes large enough for Grant, me and Lola). Now everytime he comes into my closet, he whines and reaches for the light switch.

Out and about

I've been on the go this week. Sunday night, Anna and I went to see Guys and Dolls. I had never seen it, and I thought it was great. Before the show, we went to Chuy's. I had fajitas, simply because it is something I can NEVER order when we are out with Grant. A sizzling platter and 4 other plates to spread out?! No way.

Our next date at Dallas Summer Musicals is during the State Fair - West Side Story. I'm REALLY looking forward to that! Matt and Derek are joining us for that one too.

On Wednesday, Tammy called to ask if I wanted to go see Katy Perry with her the next day. My friend Nick choreographed the show, so I was excited to see his work! Katy Perry's show is - well - as cheesy as you may expect. The songs are tenuously tied together with this animated story of Katy Perry chasing her cat, Kitty Purry, in a very colorful dream world.

It turns out I knew more Katy Perry than I thought! I think by the end of the night, I was up to 5 or 6 songs, when I originally thought it was just 3 songs. With the fire on stage, can you guess what song this was?! If you can't, you know even LESS Katy Perry than I do.

Saturday night was Parents' Night Out at daycare. Grant got to see his favorite teacher, Ms. Maribel, and Derek and I went with 2 other parents to Jasper's in Plano. We'd had a gift card for a LONG time. Review: Very good! The gift card did make the steak taste better. I'd like to go again when I can have more than a sip or 2 of wine.

Baby GIRL Hicks

We got confirmation today that our littlest one (ha) is definitely a girl. Hamburger and all. We've been playing the name game a little bit, but we don't even really have a short list or a front runner yet. Suggestions are welcome, especially since I seem to be the only one taking this seriously! Derek only suggests off the wall names like Melva or Pearl or Dolores.

Baby GIRL Hicks is healthy - measuring right on track. When I was pregnant with Grant, it was at this 20 week appointment that they found a spot on his heart (once a marker for Down Syndrome, but now is more often a healthy baby and much more accurate ultrasound technology) and an inflamed kidney. I went to a specialist who assured me my boy was healthy, but wanted to monitor the kidneys monthly. Baby GIRL Hicks has her mama's kidneys and no other reason for additional sonograms, so this is most likely the last photo of her until she makes her debut.

The tech offered to try a 3d sono, but I declined. Most often, the babies look like aliens, and I'm afraid seeing that would make me love my baby less. Ok - not really. But the photos I've seen are not baby-like and never look like the newborn. Plus she said she wasn't trained on that.

Grant got to see me holding a 5 week old this weekend. We visited Kristin & Robert and their little boy, Ethan. I melted. I had forgotten how wobbly the baby's head is. How milk pours out of the bottle and down the baby's chin... and how tired eating a bottle will make a baby. Quite a contrast to Grant nowadays, where a meal makes him have enough energy to bounce off the walls (often times literally - leading with his head).

Grant's reaction to me holding a baby? None. He was too busy playing. I tried to get him to say "baby" (which he will do sometimes), but he had a ball to play with, which means he says "ball" over and over and over again. We took them breakfast tacos from Jalapeno Taqueria in Keller (a Yelp find - Review: Great stuff. I'd like some now please) because I couldn't cook anything since our fridge went out and most of our food was tossed. I don't think I was as pulled together as Kristin when Grant was 5 weeks - the house was in order and Kristin even had make up on at 8:30 AM!!!

Hopefully the fridge fiasco is DONE now - it has worked for almost 48 hours now, which is a record for the past 3 weeks. No more picking up a pint of Ben & Jerry's on my way home from work that Derek and I HAVE to finish that night before it melts or depending on take-out for every meal. Why did we want the refrigerator fixed anyway?!

Grant and Dada

Back when there were fewer consecutive 100 degree days, Derek would mow our lawn. Now that we've had 20+ days of 100+, we decided to sub that out so we could enjoy the AC. Grant really enjoyed watching his dada mow.

And a few catchup shots of Grant and Daddy:

aaaaand KICK!

I've felt the baby moving for several weeks now. I think I could feel it as early as 14 weeks. But just now (20 weeks, 2 days), I got my first definite KICK! I love this part of pregnancy. Up until now, I could go through my day almost without a single thought about being pregnant, but now Baby Hicks will remind me that I'm not alone.

And in 5 days, I can change "it" to "her" and "Baby Hicks" to "Baby Girl Hicks".

Water is fun

This weekend, we met up with Clint and Shauna. We ate at Pluckers. Review: meh. Food is just okay, but the drinks were reasonable and looked delicious. This was Grant's first experience in a booster seat (in the booth). It was pretty difficult because the booster seat didn't have a safety belt. He did ok - once our food was ready though, he was antsy. So we ditched the booster seat and let him stand. He really liked teething on the booth.

While the boys were paying the bill, Shauna, Grant and I went outside to check out the water fountain area. Grant had a blast!!


He had to travel back to Clint and Shauna's wet. Stealing some of our yogurt seemed to tide him over though. Once were back at Clink and Shauna's, we put on his PJs and he went straight to bed.

Once he was down, we watched Limitless. Review: Pretty good movie! I mean, I stayed awake the entire time so that's good! Shauna found it online and streamed it for free, but there were a few hiccups (timed out watching on one site, so had to switch to another, then another). Definitely worth saving the rental fee!

Another shot of my cuddly boy (and my belly) from the weekend:

Great Grandpa KC

Grant's Great Grandpa KC stopped by on his way to Corpus. We took advantage of Taco Tuesdays at Rosa's. KC gave Grant his first Hotwheels (and 2 new outfits!). I tried like crazy to get some good photos of the 2. Here's the best of:

Sayonara

We had a send off at my grandma's house for my cousin Morgan and her hubby, Tyler. They are headed to Japan for THREE YEARS!!! We will miss them!

Derek couldn't pass up this Sugardaddy shirt at Target. That's what the Ichiba girls call him!

Wee Squeak

Shoes that squeak!!! I got some a while back that would be ready to fit Grant in a few months, and he's ready for them now. He was pretty confused by them. This video was taken after the initial shock wore off, but you can still see him looking at his feet wondering where the noise is coming from.

Recent Daycare Pics

I love our daycare's Shutterfly site. Here are the most recent photos from May and June 2011.

I think they must have their dates wrong. Grant looks so little here. Surely my baby didn't grow that much in 2 months!!

Playing outside:


One of Grant's favorite activities: eating books.

A few photos in blue shirts. Look at those tired eyes in the 2nd shot!!

Grant's classmates:

And for good measure, a few shots of the pie-eating contest from Spring Fling. The second shot is our favorite teacher! What a cheater - using her hands and having a clean face!!