Grant at 18 months

Little buddy is almost 18 months old, so I wanted to give you an update on what he's been doing lately.

First, he's running all over the place.  He still looks a little like Frankenstein, but he's super cute.  Sometimes he walks with both hands behind his back with his buddah belly sticking out, and his head cocked to one side and he is just SO cute.  Gosh, I just want to eat him up sometimes.

Second, his vocabulary is really coming along.  He likes to make the sound of whatever you are talking about.  So if we're talking about cars, he repeatedly says, "Vroom vroom!"  (or "Voom voom" as he says it).  If he hears the neighbors dog barking, he says, "Woof woof!"  He wears dinosaur jammies to bed, and when he sees them, he says, "Rooooooaarr!"  ("What sound does the dinosaur make Grant?") He'll repeat what you say a lot too.  Even if he doesn't get the words right, he'll say something in the same pitch and tone that you did, which makes it sound like he's repeating you.  The other day we were singing "The Right Stuff" by New Kids on the Block (that's Grant's theme song) and we did the "Oh oh oh oh oh" parts and he finished it off with, "The Right Stuff!"  plain as day!  He also says, "Social" when drinking his milk.  This one cracks me up... and I can picture him some day saying that at his fraternity house with a Beast Light in his hand.  Yikes. 

Third, he is just ALL BOY.  I mean, your stereotypical little boy.  It cracks me up.  In no way did we push him toward this, he just LOVES cars, trucks, wheels, eating, running around, getting into things... you know, typical boy stuff.  Although he's also very into pushing his sister's pink stroller, so that is pretty funny too.  But he definitely likes to get into trouble.  His latest thing is pulling the dish towels down off of the bar on the oven.  I'll get upset with him and he'll look up at me and laugh.  SUCH a troublemaker!  He loves to throw little pieces of food off of his tray when he's eating, and does the same thing.  Scrunches up his nose and laughs.  NOT COOL little buddy.

He's recently started sleeping through the night during the week and sometimes on the weekends.  But he's always been a pretty decent sleeper.  Even if he wakes around 6 am, Todd gives him a small cup of milk and changes his diaper (usually he finishes this cup of milk before the changing is done!) and puts him back in his crib and he goes back to sleep!  I admit we have been pretty blessed with two kids who sleep pretty great. 

I can't believe he's almost 18 months old.  We love you Grant!

Challenges of Parenthood Part II

When you become a parent, your alone time becomes quite precious.  So every evening, after the kids are in bed, I love having dinner with Todd and getting some things done around the house, blogging, updating pictures of the kids, or just watching the Red Sox on TV.  Just about every night, I have about a million things to do, and never enough hours to do it. 

Monday night, I was unable to do any of these things.

Every night, Natalie likes to turn off her own light.  It's a part of our routine, and she's just now tall enough to reach it.  So Monday night, she turns off the light like she normally does and takes the 2-3 steps toward her bed... and while doing so, trips over her own feet or the carpet, or who knows what and does a face plant into the side of her bed.  It sounded like it hurt, but it was pitch black in her room and my eyes hadn't "adjusted" yet. 

So when we see this, we immediately think... oh she broke off the top half of her tooth!  Because you can (kind of) see that the two on either side are higher than the lower left front tooth.   So we searched everywhere and couldn't find it.  We assumed she swallowed it. 

She also got this nasty bruise on her chin.  Poor kid.  So off she goes with Daddy to the dentist on Tuesday for the first time (I know, I know... I shouldn't keep putting this off but it's hard to find a pediatric dentist that takes my insurance!)  She was very brave at the dentist.  She only cried once when they sprayed water in her mouth.  She had no problems with the x rays.  The x rays revealed that she actually DIDN'T knock out the top half of her tooth!  Instead, like a nail (the tooth) and a hammer (the bed), the tooth was pushed down into the gums.  OUCH!  Thankfully they didn't see any damage to the root, so for now the tooth will stay where it is. We go back in 2 weeks, and they said she will have to eat soft foods between now and then and try to mainly eat with her back teeth since she has a bruised gum area in the front there.  We go back again in another 2 months, and hopefully we'll get the all clear.  Eventually her adult tooth will push the baby tooth out in a few years.  She was very proud that she got to go to the dentist!

So you see my friends, I was just mentally worn out after her accident Monday evening.  I didn't even eat dinner and went to bed not too long after she did.  Parenthood will wear you out on all levels!

Perfect example of the challenges of parenthood

Oh the things you do for your kids...

Today I spent the better part of an afternoon driving around Natick hunting down Natalie's beloved Pink Bear.  Anytime she gets upset, she goes, "I want Pink Bear!"  Pink Bear is to Natalie what Croco is to me. 

So I remember her having Pink Bear at CrossFit this morning - there are only two classes so Todd had to bring the kids and we had to do the "switch" this morning.  She had him with her there.  I think I remember her having him in the car on the way to 7-11.  I thought she had him when we went in, but then I didn't remember her taking him out of 7-11.  So when I couldn't find him before her nap, my heart sunk.  I felt sure he was back at 7-11.  So I took off for 7-11.  They didn't have it.  I went to CFNE, and couldn't find it in the parking lot.  I went back to 7-11.  I searched the entire house.  I had just cleaned upstairs, so I knew it wasn't up there.  Or wait... was it?  The last place I checked.... the cabinet door part of her armoire.  She had been in there earlier in the day, and he was on the bottom shelf.  Whew.  Crisis averted.

Then, after nap time, Grant woke up cranky.  We gave him milk and a snack and he kept putting his head on the floor, which is a sure sign he doesn't feel well.  I looked at his ears, and his right ear had a ton of pus coming out of it.  Ew.  Time to head off to the ER.  Thankfully it only took an hour, but it was a long hour, as he screamed and cried the entire time.  They said he actually can't burst his eardrums because technically having tubes in your ears means you already have burst eardrums.  But if wax clogs up one or both of the tubes, then you might get an ear infection behind the drum.  Which I'm pretty sure he has.  The one ear and tube that had the pus was doing it's job... draining.  But he wasn't complaining about that one.  Only the left one.  So after a heavy dose of Motrin, and two 'scripts for antibiotics (oral and ear drops) we went home, and he was a much happier camper. 

But mommy was exhausted.

Zzzzzzzz....

Right in the middle of lunch.  Right in the middle of a big Natalie tantrum.  This happened.  This is what happens when little buddy doesn't get his morning nap.

A warm day in March

Even though most of March has been cool, we did have a nice warm day on St. Patrick's Day.  So after Todd and I went to J.J. McKay's, we went to pick up the kids and when we got home, I took both kids out to the backyard to run around.

Grant loved running around the concrete patio, but had no interest in the grass.

Natalie had fun rolling this ball down the slide and trying to get it to land in the green bucket.

After talking to the neighbors dog, she found a walking stick.  Doesn't she look sweet and pretty here? 

Little buddy decided to brave the grass.  See, it's not so bad, is it? 

Would you like some tea with that wine?

This is what happened when Grant decided that a little toy teacup was supposed to be in my wine glass.

Booooooooo.

St. Patrick's Day

I know, you think we aren't cool anymore... but Todd and I went out for about an hour and a half on St. Patrick's Day for a few Guinness at J.J. McKay's in Wayland.

Todd enjoying a Guinness. 

I love me some Guinness, but I also had to have a shot of Bailey's.  I mean, after all, it IS my last name.

Here's the scene at J.J. McKay's at around 4 pm.  It was actually pretty packed.  Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Bailey's!

Gaby's 4th birthday party

Natalie's BFF, Gaby, just celebrated her 4th birthday.  Unfortunately, I couldn't attend because I had to WORK on a Sunday.  It was actually to make up for days that I missed while we were all out sick with the stomach bug.  Thankfully my work is flexible, but sadly, I missed the party.

First, the kids got to paint.  Most of them chose wooden star boxes to paint.  Natalie painted hers so pretty and we are using it to store her hair pretties.

Not surprising, it has a green top.

Then she got a sparkly dolphin tattoo.  I actually thought it was really pretty, but later in the week, she asked me to wash it off, ha ha.  That is probably a good thing. 

Even Grant had a good time at the party.  Todd got some great video of him walking around with all of the big kids.  He seemed so proud of himself.  Someone even mentioned to Todd that they were impressed that Natalie was so good with her little brother.  She was very affectionate when they were there, apparently.

All of the kids got together for a picture.  Most of the kids don't look pleased in this picture, although Gaby is super cute, and at least they are all facing forward, which really, is far better than the rest of the pictures.  The little girl to Natalie's right is Addison.  She is in Gaby's class at FACE, but is also in Natalie's gymnastics class at Planet Gymnastics. 

Happy birthday Gaby!

Nice weekend at the Wayside Inn

Todd got a good deal on Buy With Me for a 1 night stay at the Wayside Inn in Sudbury, MA that we had to use by the end of March, so we left the kids with Todd's sister and niece and enjoyed a night away.  It came with a $25 voucher toward the spa next door (which was only good for facials or massages, of which they were totally booked up) but I got a nice manicure anyway.

Todd said it looked like I had gorilla hands here. 

The Buy With Me deal also came with $25 toward dinner at the Wayside Inn.  Yum-O.  Oddly enough, I didn't take any picutres of dinner, but I think that's because we had been drinking quite a bit since mid afternoon.  The Wayside Inn is the oldest operating inn in America, although we actually stayed at the Wayside Carriage House Inn (there are only a few rooms at the regular Inn and it books up well in advance). 

For dinner, we took the "shuttle" over to the actual Wayside Inn.  Here I am in front of the place.  The bar is on the lower right, and it even has a room that is a historic rendition of what the house might have looked like on the inside back in the 1700s.  That is on the lower level to the left of me.

This is the bar.  Todd barely fit in here.  But the guy made awesome drinks before dinner.

We enjoyed our evening, and on Sunday morning we slept in!  Yeah, until 9.  Then we went to Mel's Diner in Wayland for Philly Cheesesteak omelets that were out of this world.  I should have taken a picture of those.  Then we went to pick up the kids at their Aunt Helen's house.  After they ate lunch, Uncle Gordie took them outside because they both had been interested in checking out his new backhoe. 

Natalie got in first, and was getting the biggest kick out of it. She thought it was SO COOL.

Look at little Grant.  He loves anything with wheels, so this was right up his alley!  Thanks for letting us play in your backhoe Uncle Gordie!

We have a walker!

Boy am I good.  Grant took 2 steps toward me on 2/25, just a few days shy of his 16 month birthday. He took them in the kitchen, between his Exersaucer and the garbage can (I only wrote that so years from now I would remember exactly where it happened!). 

Over the course of that weekend (but before our big sickness outbreak), he progressively took a few more steps here and there.  Then this past weekend, he just took off in the kitchen, walking from the oven over around the island (on the refrigerator side) and then over to the sliding glass door.  And I got it ALL on video! Sweet!

Now even since then, he has just taken off.  He's probably doing about 60/40 walking to crawling ratio.  I would say we definitely have a toddler!  Sniff sniff... not a baby any longer!