Natalie and Grant meet Santa Claus

Here is the annual Santa photo! I am including comparison photos from the last two years with Natalie too! So you can see how she's grown. She wasn't afraid of Santa at all! It was awesome! 

We were kind of dreading the visit with Mr. Claus at Natick Mall... but she did great! She even told him she wanted a train set for Christmas. Grant was sound asleep through the whole thing (what's new!). Santa even remarked that Grant was dead to the world! :-)

Cutie boy

I just wanted to post this cute picture of Grant on his playmat. He likes to bat at the animals with his hands. Or rather he accidentally bats at them with his hands and then gets a look of wonder on his face! So cute!

6 week update & Thanksgiving drama

Grant is going to be 6 weeks old on Friday! He is already starting to smile and he has THE cutest dimples. He has one on each side of his mouth, and then one a little farther out on his left cheek that is much deeper. It's SO darn cute. We are still working on tummy time and playing on the playmat. He isn't sleeping that much more at night (oh Grant...) but when you do put him down, he's almost always quiet and will eventually fall asleep. (Unless he has gas, which is often, but a couple of burps and a good long toot and he's ready for some shut eye!)

Thanksgiving was drama filled again in our house! For the second year in a row, we've had to make a trip to the emergency room! (Last year, I had a bladder infection down in Florida). This year, while playing with Aunt Betty, Natalie got a case of nurse maids elbow in her left arm! I just read on Wikipedia, "There is a slight predilection for this injury to occur in girls and in the left arm." YEP! She was screaming and crying hysterically and even chocolate brownies wouldn't calm her down. At that point we knew she wasn't just being a drama queen! So Kathleen and Helen, a daycare director and nurse, respectively, gave her an ice pack and put together a makeshift sling. This is something right out of MacGuyver folks! They used a piece of cardboard (maybe from a cereal box or something) and a cloth napkin. Viola! A sling! Of course, with a sling on, she couldn't sit in her carseat to go to the emergency room. So they had to take Kathleen's car so she could sit in Seth's booster seat. Thankfully, she fits the height/weight requirement!

Well, I get a call about a half hour later that they are coming home. Apparently, the sling worked! When she got to the hospital, the nurse asked her if her arm hurt and she said no! They had her do a variety of exercises with the arm (flexing this way, reaching that way) and it seemed fine. The nurse said that the sling might have allowed the elbow to re-set itself. Hooray for KK! And poor Aunt Betty. She didn't mean to hurt Natalie! No permanent damage, ha ha. Natalie talked about how great Seth's DVD player was that she watched in the car on the way to the hospital. Thank goodness Nana and Pop Pop are getting her one of those for Christmas! (Shhhh!)

In other news, we went to the annual Wilmington-Tewksbury football game. Nephew Gordon plays on the offensive line for Wilmington. Wilmington won!!! It's a very big deal to win this game! (Think Florida-Florida State; Largo-Clearwater; Auburn-Alabama, etc.!)

Happy Holidays!

My goodness, I make beautiful babies... That sounds really snooty to say, but my kids are so darn adorable! (Until they are screaming and throwing fits!) Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Grant 1 month update

For some reason, Grant is off a week at the doctor. He is only 3 weeks and 3 days old today, yet they had him scheduled for his 1 month appointment. Oh well!

Grant was 22.5 inches long, which put him in the 90th percentile for height. Hopefully he'll be tall like his daddy, and it looks like he's well on his way! He was 8 lbs 14 ounces, which put him in the 35th percentile for weight. Tall and skinny! Of course, again... he shouldn't really go for his one month appointment for another week, so he should be over 9 pounds by the real one month date. His head is at 38 cm's, which put him in the 55th percentile. Basically, he's physically nothing like his sister! Her head circumference growth HAS slowed down, but she still has a very large head for her age. Of course, if you know her, you know this is because she is SO smart!

Overall, Dr. Meisheid was very pleased with Grant's progress. He got his second Hepatitis B shot today and only cried right as he was stuck. He didn't even mind Dr. Meisheid poking and prodding him. He was quiet the whole time, VERY unlike his sister. Although Todd did say she was very brave when she got both of her flu shots last week! She only cried for a minute and was VERY proud of her bandaid! She even thanked the nurse on her way out! Hilarious!!!

On another note... is anyone watching General Hospital? MMM YUM James Franco! And Jonathan Jackson is back as Lucky! Whoo hoo! I love being on maternity leave!

Future Chef

Natalie helped Daddy make pancakes this morning. Mommy and Grant slept through the whole thing, but Daddy was nice enough to document it for me!

Plymouth Thanksgiving Parade 2009

We had so much fun this weekend at the Plymouth Thanksgiving parade! I mean, if you're not going to the Macy's parade in NYC, you might as well be in Plymouth, the home of Thanksgiving, right? The weather was so perfect... a great fall day with temperatures in the upper 50s and lots of sunshine and a few high clouds. 

We met up with Todd's parents and Aunt Betty and Seth who had great seats down near the end of the parade. According to reports, there were over 120,000 people in attendance! That is some parade! Natalie and Seth were both so good and sat on the curb and watched the entire parade. 

The parade was about 2.5 hours long (LONG), but they really hung in there. There were a ton of bands- most in period costumes (such as colonials, pilgrams, militia, civil war, etc.). 

So there were lots of drums, and Natalie liked those. She really wanted to see firetrucks, like in the 4th of July parade, but they only had one of those at the very end, after the "special guest." Of course, this was the big guy himself... Santa Claus! Natalie is starting to understand Santa Claus and if she is misbehaving, we can mention Santa and she usually straightens right up! It's pretty funny. Natalie also liked that there were lots of guns being shot. Lots of Revolutionary War and Civil War guns. Pretty cool! 

Oh, and the Budweiser Clydesdales were there! They were awesome- I never realized how huge they were! Natalie was also a big fan of all of the horses in the parade. Grant slept through almost the entire thing, ha ha. Oh well, maybe he can enjoy it next year!

More updates

I don't really have any pictures and not much is going on here. I have been doing some Christmas shopping this week so I can avoid the malls in December. I have mentioned that we are trying to keep Grant at home as much as possible this cold and flu season (until he has to go to daycare at the end of January!)... so I'd rather not take him out shopping with me after Todd goes back to work (next week is his last week home). AND I'm sure as heck not going out on the weekends in December. We live near Natick Mall and it was a madhouse last December when we came up here to go househunting. I'm not going through that again! So... anyway, I got some shopping done and hope to be done with most of it by the time Todd goes back to work!

Anyway... so, ha ha... we took Grant out today (I mean, we can't stay in our house EVERY day!). We went out for an early lunch at Olive Garden to beat the lunch hour rush. Todd and I had our 4 year anniversary last week, and since we have a newborn, we can't really have a date night just yet. So we did a date lunch! And Grant came along. But he is such a good little baby and only squawked a few times. He was awake the whole time and was really quiet and good. He allowed us to have a nice belated anniversary lunch!

We have also started putting him down for some tummy time. He seems to enjoy it. So much, that he falls asleep! I guess it's comfy for him... it's definitely my preferred method of sleeping! Natalie used to scream and cry. Todd thinks that's because we didn't put her on her tummy until she was about 4 months old because of her hip displasia. Anyway, we will definitely be doing a lot of tummy time in the upcoming days and weeks to work on that head control!

I'm very sad that Todd is going back to work after the holidays. He's been working 3 hours every day anyway (at home) but at least we've been able to spend time together and with Grant. Grant is such an easy baby that I don't think the time alone at home with him will be that difficult! I think it will be much easier than my time at home alone with Natalie. At least I hope it is!

Natalie's first haircut

Natalie got her first haircut! I must admit, I was a bit afraid of how she would react, given her serious aversion to doctors and nurses! But she really did great! We went to SnipIts in Framingham (at Shoppers World). We were in and out in like, 10 minutes! (Thank goodness!) She got up in the chair, the haircut only took a few minutes (we cut off about 2 inches), she got a lollipop and a prize, and we were done! And it was only $17.95. Some people might think that's expensive, but I can't get away with a haircut for less than $100, so I think that's a deal! PLUS, she got a root beer dum dum, that she loved (gross!). I was glad the whole thing was really quick because just as soon as the haircut was done, she said, "I want to get down." But on our way home, she said, "Getting a haircut is fun. I want to tell daddy!"

She must have really liked it because in the car today when we passed SnipIts (on our way to Toys R Us to check out toys that she might want Santa to bring), she said, "I went up, up, up!" At first I had no idea what she was talking about... but then I remembered that the hairdresser pumped up her chair and made her go "up, up, up!" She'll probably be talking about this haircut for weeks!

More of Natalie and Grant

Natalie still likes her brother, or as she calls him, "Brudder." This is a good thing, because she's not so fond of her daddy right now. She has really been acting out with him. She's been great with me... but not so much with Todd. It's funny... our friends Mike and Andrea have a 3-year-old, Annabelle, who went through the same thing when her brother Evan was born in August. I think Annabelle gave Natalie some tips! HA! (Just kidding Mike and Andrea!) Anyway, poor Todd has had to bear the brunt of Natalie's tantrums lately. Andrea said Annabelle's lasted about 3 weeks, so hopefully this will be over soon!

We took Grant with us when we went out to lunch at Panera last Wednesday with Todd's parents when they came to meet #9. :-) That is a rare event! Other than doctor's visits, we are really trying to limit his contact with the outside world. It's cold and flu season, and with swine flu running rampant out there, I'm so scared he's going to get sick! I got the swine flu vaccine, but Todd and Natalie have not gotten it (although Natalie is scheduled to get her seasonal vaccine on the 16th. If they have any H1N1, they'll give her that too). It's going to be a crummy winter because I'm too afraid to take him out in public!