Grady’s Balloons

 
As I have mentioned Grady is on a language explosion and one of the things he has said lately is his “Annie Kewwie’s (Auntie Kelli) name. We have been trying to get him to say it for months and finally he did. Kelli called me after a particularly bad day and luckily Grady was still up to cheer her up and make her night/day/week/month/year. SO, she was so happy about it, she sent him a bouquet of balloons. Grady wasn’t sure what to think of it all at first, but now, he is super territorial about them and they are “mine” (his). It’s rather funny. Thanks, “Annie Kewwie” for the “boons”!

Cauliflower

Tonight I made dinner which consisted of Mandarin Orange Chicken, Risotto & Cauliflower. I *thought* I was making a fairly kid friendly meal….I mean chicken and rice? Who doesn’t love that? Anyway….Gibson flat out refused to eat, until we got him to actually take a bite and then, imagine that, he like it…and liked all of it! Including the cauliflower. My little vegetarian, Grady, would only eat the chicken (ok!?!?) and having Garrison try the cauliflower (mashed, of course) was a serious comedy. I’m gonna throw it out there that he didn’t like it. We gathered that from the looks on his face while feeding him this new texture/flavor.

I think this picture pretty much sums up his feelings!

The Zoo

This last weekend we decided to take a family trip to the zoo. Our zoo membership is almost up and we don’t plan on renewing it, so we figured we should take advantage while we still have it. It was quite cold out, but we bundled up, I wore Garrison to keep him warm and we headed out. The boys had a good time, as always. These 3 pictures were the ONLY ones I took. I’m slipping. I just had too much to deal with with all 3 kids. However, I am glad I had the camera out at the lion exhibit! I caught BOTH the female and male lion…I haven’t ever seen them like that together so it was very neat. She walked up to him and even nuzzled his nose. It was sweet.  That right there, was worth the trip and the cold we had to endure!

Oh, Gibson, where are you???

 
So, I couldn't find Gibson. It's quiet time and his room is dark and the door is shut, so I quietly go in there and look for him...nothing. I checked the closet...nothing. I check downstairs, thinking he figured he was done with quiet time...nothing. I checked my room...nothing. I’m starting to freak out a little because he has to be SOMEWHERE!

Then, I heard breathing while I am standing at the top of the stairs thinking about where to go next.

I see a little blonde head out of the corner of my eye…

He was "hiding" and fallen asleep (excuse the mess, that is my “catch all room” and I have a couple different projects going right now).

I guess I can no longer officially say my kid hasn't fallen asleep in a weird place.


Looks comfy, eh?

Gare-bear

Garrison is using anything and everything for climbing. It is not going to be long until he is cruising along the furniture! Stinkin’ kid is so darn cute!

Grady Talking

In the last 4-6 weeks we have noticed a significant jump in Grady's development and his speech. He is doing very well. His speech therapist is quite impressed also. He now has about 5-6 2 word phrases which is a very good start. He babbles quite a bit now and will often try to engage us in converstation, which is HUGE. He still points to a lot and still has to use sign language at times, but that is even tapering off. He still doesn't want to say "Auntie Kelli" for my sister...she thinks he is saving it up til he sees her in person...guess we will know when she shows up. So when ya coming to visit, AK?

No no no no no….

I’m not ready for this…
 


Will someone PLEASE tell this boy to SLOW DOWN!

At this rate, he is going to be walking before he has any teeth!

Random Stuff

Oh boy. I am finally getting caught up on everything. We have been so busy, and I have been so stressed lately, hopefully this elephant sitting on my chest will leave the building soon.

We have had a bunch of stuff done around the house and I am really happy with it. I need to take some pictures to post and will do that soon, I keep forgetting.

G3 is all over the place. He is really on the move. He CAN crawl on all 4s but he gets around much faster doing his “commando” crawl, so he does that primarily. He is getting so big too. He is starting to babble now more too. I love baby babble. No teeth yet, but I know they are in the works because he is a serious drool machine and his sleeping has gone down the toilet!


The other boys are obsessed with a game they got from Aunt Wanda & Uncle Steve for Christmas. Mouse Trap. Even Grady runs around all day pointing to the game saying “moushe (pause) trap” It’s SO cute. It’s only like his 3rd or 4th 2 word phrase! Speaking of Grady’s speech, he is doing so well, his therapist is so pleased and so are we. He has really made a lot of progress in the last 2 months, but especially in the last 3 weeks or so. He is really so much more able to communicate with us using his words now. Still single words, but he can tell us what he needs and isn’t getting as frustrated, so it is really great.  Anyway, back to the game. They will set it up, start out in the chairs at the bar, and then end up on the counter playing this game, and they will play for HOURS. I usually have to take it away and they both will cry and throw fits about having it put away.
 
Garrison is really doing well with solid food. He seems to like almost anything I put in front of him. He is still only eating food once a day, but I am planning on adding another meal here shortly.

G3 has also started climbing up on things and us when we are on the floor.

Gibson. Oh, Gibson. So, he doesn’t really nap anymore. Even when I TRY to get him to nap because we are going to be out late or something, he simply won’t nap. However, the other day I was upstairs getting the baby down to sleep and it got really quiet downstairs, and when I came down, this is what I found!

Then, he changed positions….
 
and again…HOW DOES HE SLEEP THAT WAY?  It looks SO uncomfortable!

After he woke up, he came upstairs (ya, I was working on getting the baby down AGAIN, like I said, we are having sleep issues!) and said “Mom, I was hanging off the couch, I think. I fell asleep” Uh, ya, you could say that, honey.

Just a couple more cute pics of the baby!  This baby is just such a joy, I can’t get enough of him!

Jump Planet

On Thursday, I took the boys to Jump Planet with some of the other moms from Gibson’s preschool. We have a standing monthly “date” there and the kids love it, although, I think I love it more because I get to chat with some cool moms and the kids burn all their energy! Although, when G3 is on the move, I am in big trouble because I can hardly keep up with the conversation and keep an eye on the 2 kids that are running around currently at the same time. I need to get better at that. Or I need to get the kids each a GPS unit for their shoes or something. Anyway, Gibson was off and running with the girls since he was the only boy there yesterday from the group. Not that he cares, he LOVES the girls…I know that should worry me for later, but right now, it’s cute. He gets so excited when he sees Ellie, Jacqueline and Alyssa that he can hardly contain his excitement.

Grady was slow to warm up, as always, but THIS time, which is about the 3rd time we have done this, something finally clicked and he was ALL over. Last time he did a few things but always wanted to make sure I was right there or I was on the bouncy with him. This time, he didn’t need me. He climbed in my himself and had a GRAND time.
  
AND He did the slide ALL BY HIMSELF!!! Finally…He did so great and he kept wanting to do it over and over and over and of course, the step up was just a little to high for him, so I kept having to lift him, but he was so cute about it that I didn’t mind….he would run up point to the slide and just say “peassssssseeeeee”.