Grant's 15 month statistics (at 16 months)

We were a little slack in getting an appointment for Grant at 15 months.  So it happened at 16 months.  And here are the statistics:  Height: 32 and 3/4" (85th percentile).  He grew 2" in four months.  Weight: 25 pounds (50th percentile).  He put on 2.5 pounds in four months.  Head circumference:  49 cm (90th percentile).  His head grew 1.5 cm in four months. 

He's also no longer going to be taking "infants" Tylenol and Motrin.  He's moving up to the big boy stuff!

Additionally, he got two shots this morning.  His MMR (gulp!) and his second pneumococcal vaccine.  

I was concerned that he wasn't talking as much as Natalie... of course, even before he was born, I KNEW I was going to be worried about this!   At 16 months, he still only says "Da Da", "Wassat?" (What's that?), "Shit" (no, seriously, he says this.  If you try to ask him to say "shoe," he actually says "shit!"), and a couple of other random words that he's said in the past.  I've heard him say "Pop Pop" once or twice, which is about the same number of times he's said "Ma ma."  My dad would be so excited if he heard this!  Once Grant said the word, "Purple."  Very strange.  If you ask him what the cow says, he says, "Booooo!"  He just can't seem to get that M sound yet!  He understands a lot of what we say, for the most part.  If we say, "Where's Grant?" He will cover his eyes and laugh as he peeks out from behind them.  We are trying to work on some sign language with him, and he can do "more" and "all done" but doesn't really use them unless we do it first.  So we think- is he really all done?  Or is he just mimicking what I'm doing???  Also, admittedly, the poor guy is totally second born.  We don't do near the amount of work with him that we should do.  Life gets in the way. (More to the point... a feisty 3 year old gets in the way!)

Dr. Meisheid thinks Grant is developing just fine.  Since he's working on his walking, she said he probably wouldn't be progressing as much verbally.  Once he starts walking, we might notice him picking up some more words. 

Speaking of walking, this past Friday (2/25/11), Grant took his first real steps!  He took 2 big steps toward me before falling on his bum.  Since then, he's taken 2 or 3 here and there.  He understands when I say, "Walk Grant, use your feet!"  He also understands "no hands!" because this is something we've been working on lately.  He's a great cruiser along the furniture, and lately we say, "No hands!" and he lets go and can stand by himself for 10 seconds or so.  (A good long time in a baby's world!) 

You might remember, I did say that he would start walking at 16 months... and as I recall during Natalie's physical therapy days, they consider it "first steps" if they take 3 steps in a row! 

I may have mentioned that Grant also has eczema.  Poor little guy.  There's not much you can do about it, other than give him hydrocortizone.  She said it should get better in the summer, and I recall it was significantly less last summer. 

Also of note... his ears and tubes look great!

Where is spring???

Please for the love of everything that is holy... BRING ON SPRING!  We are tired of being sick.  Grant had a stomach bug this past weekend - of which poor Todd caught the brunt of on Sunday morning, if you know what I mean!  Poor honey... he's such a good Daddy.  Although he did tell me he let out some choice words around Grant after he threw up all over him.  Good thing G is too young to repeat such things! 

Grant was very grumpy Sunday morning, even after his morning nap (which has been hit or miss lately, but he was out cold within minutes).  When he woke up from his morning nap, he only wanted his cup of milk.  I didn't want a repeat of what had happened earlier in the morning, so I gave him about 2-3 ounces of water.  After it was gone, he cried and cried.  I felt so bad for the little guy, but I wanted to wait and make sure it STAYED DOWN.  Then Todd took Natalie on a walk just to get her out of the house.  Poor G whined and cried the whole time they were gone.  Finally when they got back, it had been an hour and he had kept the water down, so I decided to try some banana.  He scarfed down almost a whole banana (and only didn't finish it because I was afraid it would come back up!), and then I gave him a little more water, which he also promptly finished.  He was MUCH happier after all of that.  He went back down for his afternoon nap without any problems.

After nap, he woke up hungry again.  We gave him some Pedialyte and he was very happy with that and was just content to chew on the top to his cup for about an hour before dinner.  For dinner, he ate a half a banana, a few bites of "Cream of Rice" which he didn't really like, two big bowls of applesauce, and a few bites of a piece of bread.  Plus we gave him a "half and half" on the doctor's advice - half a sippy cup of Pedialyte and half milk.  He was back to his old chipper self after dinner!

So far today (Monday), he's been great!

Natalie's surgery

Natalie had surgery yesterday at Newton Wellesley Hospital to have tubes put in her ears again and to have her adenoids removed.  Everyone declared her their favorite patient because she was so cute and funny with the doctors and nurses.  And so agreeable!  (Wait, really???)  They gave her some Tylenol and she took it without complaining and even with a smile on her face.  She played quietly and said funny things before the surgery.  And Todd said she went under very easily.  Then, after surgery...  she woke up.  And she was not happy.  She screamed and cried, and woke up even worse than she had the last time she had tubes put in.  Because she had the adenoids removed, they put an IV in her (after she went under with the anesthesia) and so when she woke up, she did not care for that.  She kept saying, "I don't want this bandaid anymore!"  They had to wait for the IV bag to empty before they could take it out.  They called it the hospitals version of Gatorade.  In the meantime, she got some apple juice and got to eat two red popsicles.  Todd said afterwards that she looked like The Joker, ha ha.  When Todd went to get the car, she started complaining that her tummy hurt.  She let out THE biggest burp ever in the hospital.  I mean, so loud and long that it brought other doctors and nurses over to see what had just happened.  I was holding her and I was sure she was going to throw up.  But did that make her belly feel better? Not really. 

Finally we got to go home.  She was just worn out.  She laid on the couch for a bit.  Todd made her some lunch- some Elmo noodles, but she didn't even want any of that.  She just asked to go to bed.  So Todd took her upstairs and she crashed for about 2 and a half hours.  When she woke up, she ate the rest of her Elmo noodles, a popsicle and some ice cream!  Plus the rest of her apple juice and milk. 

This morning she was her usual self, but really hates having the drops put in her ears that prevent infection.  She thinks they feel weird and funny, so she doesn't care for that at all.  Hopefully this is the LAST surgery we have this year.  So far we've had THREE, and it's not even March yet!!!! 

Sickness be gone!

I am so tired of being sick, or having someone in my house who is sick.  Seriously.  Winter, GO AWAY!  I need to open the windows and let all of the sickness out.

Grant had his tubes put in on January 5th. I went to Arizona the following weekend and came back with a cold.  The kids came down with it too, and Natalie got an ear infection from it.  From that, we were told, "Natalie is getting tubes AGAIN, and having her adenoids removed on February 16."  OK, great.  She did antibiotics for 10 days.  She completed it on February 1, and by February 5th, had another cold which she promptly gave to her brother.  Grant has been a SNOT MACHINE.  I really can't believe such a little thing can produce so much snot.  And of course, other than a little Motrin or Tylenol, you can't give kids anything for their symptoms.  So they suffer.  On February 11, Natalie comes down with another ear infection.  Which is perfect timing (!!!) since Todd had a little surgical procedure himself on the 11th, and was unable to do anything with the kids (ie, picking them up, cooking dinner, giving baths, etc.).  On about the same day, I start feeling crummy... so make that 4 people in the house who are not well.  But someone has to feed the kids, and Todd can't do it, so in my misery, I have to play single mom all weekend.  (Shout out to my single mom friends, you guys are the best!!!)  Grant is grumpy and snotting all over the place, neither kid is napping very well, and Natalie has an ear infection and can't take Motrin because she is having surgery on the 16th and Motrin thins the blood.  We have really found Motrin to be the most effective with both kids, but had to resort to Tylenol with Natalie, which doesn't last as long (4 hour cycles as opposed to 6 hours with Motrin).  So she's back on antibiotics, and seems to be doing much better with her cold.  In fact, she's hardly coughing or producing snot at all.  Grant might be turning the corner too... he seemed MUCH better this morning after having a fever last night. 

Hopefully Natalie's surgery on Wednesday will go off without a hitch.  Within 6 weeks, 3 out of the 4 members of our family will have had surgery.  I'm praying I stay healthy!

Grant using a spoon!

Todd decided, very bravely, to hand the spoon full of applesauce over to our son... gulp... and he actually did a pretty good job!

And I swear we keep the heat on in our house.  Natalie is still in her hat and coat because we had just gotten home from gymnastics and a lunch date with her friend Addison and Addison's mom Jody.  Isn't Grant such a big boy? 

Grant getting a new haircut... from his daddy...

It wasn't pretty.  I'm not gonna lie.  Todd has since cleaned it up, and it does look better now.  And he no longer looks like Baby Bieber, so that is good.  At one point, Todd took a huge chunk out of the side of his hair above his left ear.  I think next time we'll go to Grammi's and have her do it.  She has 30+ years experience in cutting children's hair for free, ha ha!

Before:

During:

After:



New Camera - finally!

We finally got a new camera!  A little Samsung HZ30W if that means anything to you.  It means nothing to me, except I now have HD videos, whoo hoo!

So what have we been doing?  Not much.  My kids still look the same.  See? Still as sweet and as goofy as ever!

This is how New England celebrates the Super Bowl

'Nuff said.

UPDATED - A Long Winter

Please enjoy this series of pictures (again, taken from my phone) of snow actually swallowing whole our patio table and chairs over the course of about 3 or 4 snowstorms....  Is it spring yet???  I've added a 4th picture on 2/2/11...

Kids update/camera update

No, we do not have a new camera.  Yes, we are looking for one.  I've narrowed it down to a couple, and need to get Todd's seal of approval on it.  However, he has jury duty this week, so he won't be around a computer except for in the evening, and I highly doubt he'll want to look at cameras after an exhausting day of sitting around, doing nothing, and waiting to be called for jury selection.

So, the kids are sick, still, and in different ways.  Grant has a run of the mill cold and is generally grumpy, and Natalie actually has... get this... an ear infection!  Last night Todd and I were enjoying a bottle of wine and the flick "The Town" (great movie by the way, Ben Affleck has totally redeemed himself in my book after The Town and Gone Baby, Gone, which is one of my favorite movies).  Toward the end of the movie we hear a little voice on the monitor, "Daddy?  Daddy?"  A certain little girl's right ear was hurting her.  We haven't had an ear infection in about a year and a half.  So after some Motrin, some songs and backrubs, she announced that her ear no longer hurt!  (I had left the room and she said, "Daddy, tell mommy it doesn't hurt anymore!"  Isn't she cute to think of me?).  This morning, Todd took her to the doctor and sure enough, it's pink in her right ear.  She's already had the first of the antibiotics and is well on her way to recovery.  Or at least I hope, because really, one or the other kid has been sick pretty much since the end of October.  We've had a few good days here and there, but mostly, it's been craptastic, to use my friend Chad's word to describe nasty weather.

I mentioned Todd has jury duty this week.  That really throws a wrench in our schedule because now I have to drive the kids to and from daycare and preschool (depending on the day), as well as get in my 40 hours of work, even though I can't be in the office for 8 hours each day due to the hour long commute and Grant's daycare hours of 7-5.  I can be here for about 7.5 hours, but not 8.  And I write "here" because I'm typing up this quick blog at work- I'm workin' on a Sunday! 

So anyway, that's about all for now.  Todd said we were going to get a camera "sooner, rather than later."  I think we are just waiting for payday...