Ballerina Future Looking Bleek

This video needs no introduction...

Maybe a singing career?

Advent Day Four: Big Sky, Little Me

Scripture: Psalm 8:3-4
Summary: He knows everything we need; we are overwhelmed by and thankful for the stars he has made and the works of His hands
Activity:  Make a star ornament




Addison on the left, Caleb on the right

Advent Day Three: Moon Beams

Scripture: Psalm 148:3, 5
Summary: PRAISE HIM....praise him all you shining stars, moon and sun!!
Activity: Go outside and enjoy the night sky

Addison and Caleb both pointed at the sky and....Addison says "it's too cold" followed by Caleb signing cold and saying "cooooool"

Advent Day Two: My Shepherd

Scripture: Matthew 2:6
Summary: Jesus is the good Shepherd
Activity: discuss how a shepherd looks after his sheep and make a sheep ornament




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Advent Day One: Gabriel Visits Mary

We are getting ready for Christmas but observing the Advent season. We are using a book with gives us a scripture, prayer and family activity. We hope to make this a family tradition. We really desire for our family to focus on JESUS during this season!
Day One:
--Scripture...Luke 1:26-32
--Summary...God sends an angel to tell Mary she will bear a son to be named Jesus
-Activity...draw an angel for the Christmas tree

Caleb's angel

Addison's angel
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Thanksgiving Eve Christmas Parade

On Thanksgiving Eve, there was a parade with Santa, a marching band, all sorts of costumed characters  music, a Christmas tree lighting and more at a nearby shopping center.  What a BLAST our little family had!!!  Addison was a little timid with all the noise and chaos but still enjoyed it; her favorite part was all the costumed characters.  Funny, she only knows these characters from books but boy oh boy she LOVED them and hugged ALL of them!  Much to our surprise, Caleb was all giggles.  It was just 5 months ago that anyone with a hat or any loud noise sent him into a crying frenzy (glad that phase is gone).  We were all officially in the Christmas spirit after that!

Ringing our bells to "Jingle Bells"

Jingle bells!

I love all his sweet hugs!

Even fireworks!

He thought the fireworks were the coolest. Thing.  Ever.

The tree...blurry but the tree!

Save the Date, Summer 2041 ;)

They are always hugging

See?  Hugging....again

The Daddys and the babes!

She LOVED Pooh, who knew!

Dancing with Pooh

Hug number 2

What a Dr. Seuss fan!

The Grant Gang :)

Thanksgiving 2012

What a wonderful thanksgiving! We shared the holiday with our friends, the risers. They have a sweet little girl about the same age as Addison! This was my first time to cook the thanksgiving meal; I always helped my mom a lot when she hosted but she was in Mississippi with the rest of my extended family. I was nervous but it all turned out great! We pulled out our china for the first time too, SO fun (when we lived in DC we didnt have room for it so its been in storage since we got married, until now!).

The Menu (everyone pitched in):
Appetizer-Cheese Twists

Main Course- Roasted Turkey, Whipped Root Vegetables, Mashed Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, Dressing, Sweet Potatoes, Creamed Corn and Rolls

Dessert: Pumpkin Pie, Cookies and Spiced Cranberry-Apple Cider









The girls place setting :)



Three high chairs and four adults it was wonderful chaos!!!


The bird!



Attempting a family picture ha!





Our guests!


All the yum!



His first look at the goodness


The whipped root vegetables were his favorite!



Funny girl!



We were so surprised how much he loved it!



Her favorite part---the cider, she felt so grown up!



Big cup. Little girl.

It was perfect, I wouldn't change a thing. Although we did let Caleb have dairy so lets hope he handles it ok.

Special thanks to my mom for answering all my questions and for the recipes!

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Confessions of a Stay at Home Mom: Parenting vs Friendship

Today I confess that being a parent vs a friend to your child is HARD; this is not an experience exclusive to a stay at home mommies.  I was never naive enough to think that parenting would be easy, but as we approach critical parenting opportunities with our toddler, I am realizing it is far more challenging than I thought.  I find myself thinking things like, "wouldn't it be easier to let them have their way", "follow through isn't important is it", "they wont remember me getting upset will they", "I just want to play with them and ignore all their sin nature", "forget teaching them all the important virtues, they will just figure it out right", etc.

It is far easier to allow my children to run our household, attend to their every whim (which as we all know changes every moment), cater to their every desire, bow to their every tantrum and ultimately allow them to be in charge.  The challenge lies in teaching our children the virtues and morals that God expects us to.  There is a delicate balance between teaching/discipline and loving/nurturing.  The two are not mutually exclusive, however I find loving/nurturing much easier than teaching/disciplining.  Discipline is not all hugs, giggles, harmony, flowers and hearts.  Discipline can hurt, sometimes the parent more than the child.  How much easier would it be for me to ignore Addison's indignant "NO" or knocking over her brother or simply running off when I call her or "so and so took my toy so I snatched it back"  Instead, we must teach her RESPECT ("you do not tell mommy no" followed by consequence), KINDNESS ("pushing people is unkind, Jesus teaches us to be kind to others" followed by consequence and apology), again RESPECT and finally LOVE ("we must love others even when they are not being loving towards us").  There are many other imperative virtues, but you get the point.  I would much rather just ignore everything and cross my fingers that we get lucky and they turn out fine.  OR even better---rely on someone else to teach/discipline them somewhere along the way!!!!

I hate, hate, hate disciplining my children.  I hate seeing the "hurt" (really I think its remorse) on their face.  I HATE seeing them unhappy.  I HATE it.  But I think I would hate myself more if I gave up and they didn't learn the virtues which are ultimately those of a Christ follower.  I would regret it.  And I would be failure.

Today I am worn out from being a parent.  Today was a day I wanted to give up.  I am not proud of how every tiny little discipline opportunity panned out, but I am not perfect.  The important thing is I DID NOT give up and WILL NOT give up even when a lot of the world around me tells me NOT to be a parent but rather a friend---to take the easy way out, the path of least resistance.

In the words of a friend's email to me tonight....tomorrow is a new day!

Caleb Asher Grant is "O-Fish-Ally" One

On Saturday, October 27 we celebrated Caleb's first birthday party with a few close friends.  It was a wonderful day and we are so thankful for everyone who attended in person and via FaceTime :)

A special thank you to my friend Kelley for capturing the special day on camera!!!  Below are a few of my favorite pictures and then a slide show of the day!

Invitation, via email

FOOD, FOOD, FOOD

I always use food to double as decor, hence the large amount.

Submarines: Sandwiches

Diced Red Fish: Salsa

Algae: Guacamole

Fish Flakes: Frosted Flake Crispy Treats

Ocean Water: Hawaiian Punch

School of Fish: Variety of Goldfish (cheddar, pretzel, graham, vanilla cupcake, etc)

The Tropics: Fruit

Catch of the Day: Jello Jigglers

Fish Bait: Party Favors (gummy worms, octobus light up yo-yo, sour octopus gummies and rubber duck)

Fish Gelatin Centerpiece 

Marshmallow Pops

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes (Dairy and Tree Nut Free)

Our little family of four

The youngest party guest, pretty lil Adabelle!

Blowing out his candles

The party guests enjoying cake!

 YUMMM!

Big sister loves cake NOW, she did not like it all that much at HER first birthday 1.5 years ago!

CAKE!

I love this picture, his big eyes looking at the BIG cupcake!

It was a GREAT day!

Slideshow:

I share this about the party, because this was a relatively inexpensive party; the prices are for what we used at the party because some foods I already had on hand.  We had lots of leftovers and many of the supplies will be used for other events.  The total was $102 bucks; not bad to feed 6 adults, 4 kids and send doggie bags home!

• ($20, homemade) Submarine Sandwiches 
• ($1, homemade) Diced Red Fish: Salsa
• ($2, homemade) Algae: Guacamole
• ($4, homemade) Fish Flakes: Frosted Flake Crispy Treats
• ($4, Walmart) Ocean Water: Hawaiian Punch
• ($12, Target) School of Fish: Variety of Goldfish (cheddar, pretzel, graham, vanilla cupcake, etc)
• ($6, Bakers)The Tropics: Fruit
• ($4, Walmart) Catch of the Day: Jello Jigglers
• ($9, Target) Fish Bait: Party Favors (gummy worms, octopus light up yo-yo, sour octopus gummies and rubber duck)
• ($3, various) Fish Gelatin Centerpiece 
• ($9, various)Marshmallow Pops
• (This is a total guess, maybe $15 but probably less) Snickerdoodle Cupcakes (Dairy and Tree Nut Free)
• ($13, Nobbies/Walmart) decor

One Year Stats

The official stats are in...

Weight:  25 lbs, 2 oz; 91%
Height:  31.5 inches; 94%
Head: 47 cm; 72%

Summary:  BIG OLE BOY, of course!  Matthew and I just don't know how to make small kids :)  His weight gain, believe or not, has significantly slowed down.  This is the same age it did with Addison too.  I imagine by 15 months he will drop in his weight percentile more and continue to become long and lean like Daddy and Big Sis.  You can already see his tummy slimming up!

Dairy:  We can SLOWLY add dairy back in his diet.  VERY slowly.  We will start with dairy in baked goods once a week and if there are no adverse reactions after several weeks we will try it several times within a week.  Then moving on to yogurt then low fat milk working our way up to whole milk using the same slow exposure   The doctor recommended we continue with low does Zantac until we are done testing dairy.  Maybe by the new year we can all eat whatever we want; I wish we would be to that point by Thanksgiving but oh well!!!

Shots:  Poor lil dude got four shots and a toe prick but he did AWESOME, I was so surprised!!  We opted to switch his chicken pox (traditionally given at 12 months) and pneumonia (traditionally given at 15 months) because Addison had a BAD chicken pox reaction.  We just were not ready for the reaction right now.

And now...a sneak peek of the birthday boy's party (official post coming this weekend I hope):

Sign Language and Spoon Video

Caleb is catching on to his signs fast now, below is a video of a few of the signs he can do without thinking too hard :)  I am reminded everyday how different my children are!!  Addison would sign please or more when you asked her to before giving her more of something....if you do that with Caleb he just gets mad at you and loses patience.  HA!

His vocabulary includes: more, milk, all done, dog, hands, please, bath, please, thank you, your welcome, book, music and sometimes play.  He uses approximations of course!!  His sign language vocabulary is three times larger than his spoken...HA!!

We have not given Caleb utensils much yet because he is just a wild and mischievous little thing and messes would be almost too large to handle for me!!!!  Until he demonstrates enough self control to use utencils, he will not get them regularly.  Below is a video of his first time trying a spoon---Bananas and Lentils, power food!

Caleb Asher Grant is ONE!

Happy First Birthday to our snuggle bear, Caleb!!!

**First Birthday Party Post to Come**

Weight, Height and Head:  Official stats to be posted next week after his well visit

Diaper Size: 4 during the day and 5 at night, although the fives are leaking...I need to try a new brand I suppose.

Clothing:  18-24 month.

Disposition:  Never in my life have I ever seen a baby want to hug and snuggle people and stuffed animals so much!  He may LOVE to hug but he is also very vocal when he is unhappy, frustrated, discontent, hurt, etc. hence his nick name snuggle BEAR :)  It is so hard to discipline him because he flashes those big eyes and reaches for a hug!

Mobility:  He is a speed crawler, but will NOT walk or cruise; he does pull up on everything.  I will be surprised if he is walking by 13 months

Teeth:  He has four teeth completely in but six more breaking/broken through.  He does not handle teething well...At.  All.

Eating:  Caleb is still balking at foods that require chewing off an on.  Since he went from only wanting finger foods and eating anything in site to only wanting purees literally overnight, we chalk it up to teething.  In fact just in the past few days he has eaten nearly any finger food in front of him.  He still gets about 6-8 oz of breast milk a day---YAY!

Liquid Feedings:  We were on track to have all except the bedtime feeding dropped until he got the stomach bug and then I got scared.  He takes a breakfast and bedtime feeding and the breakfast one will be dropped before November is over.  Bedtime will likely hang around until 14 to 15 months...he loves it.

Talking:  Not surprisingly, there is little to report here.  He has only added A (for Addy) and Du (for duck) to his vocabulary this month.  I understand boys are generally much slower to develop verbally and poor Caleb cannot get a word in with Addison constantly talking.  He understands most of what we say, which is amazing   He understands what we say, but cannot repeat it.  So different than Addison.

Sign Language:  He learns pretty quickly and knows a lot of signs but I am not as diligent as I was with Addison.  I need to step up my game because he NEEDS sign language more than Addison ever did!

Schedule:

• 8:00-8:30 am:  Wake up, liquid feeding, get dressed
• 8:30-9:00 am:  Breakfast (takes a while to get him and Addison up and dressed and ready for breakfast)
• 9:00-10:00 am: Mon & Wed Sibling time; Tuesdays Baby Play at the library (Aj at school) ; Thursday Mommy time (AJ at school)
• 10:00-11:30/12:00 pm: Nap
• 12:15-1:00 pm:  Lunch
• 1:00-1:30 pm: Independent Play time
• 1:30-2:10 pm:  Structured Play time with Mommy
• 2:10-4:30 pm:  Nap
• 5:00-5:30: Daddy Time
• 5:30-6:00 pm:  Dinner
• 6:00-7:15 pm:  Family time (play ground, errands, walk, etc)
• 7:15-7:50 pm:  Bath, Bible time, prayers
• 7:50-8:00 pm:  Bedtime liquid feeding

Dairy:  Caleb still has NO dairy or dairy derivatives   The plan now is to introduce dairy slowly around 15-18 months, however we will confirm this with the new Pediatrician next week at his well visit.

Misc:

• Caleb was diagnosed with keratosis pilaris, basically little bumps on his skin that are really just unsightly and do not bother him.
• Caleb got a stomach bug this last month; it was THE saddest thing EVER.
• He learned how to sit himself down from standing FINALLY

My dearest Little Asher:  Words will never describe how much joy fills my heart every morning I am privileged to start my day with you.  When your Daddy and I learned we would have a second baby so soon, I wondered how I would ever find a way to divide my love---but I didn't have to divide it, God grew my capacity to love.  Caleb, I am so thankful for the things you teach me everyday, most notably how to just simply and purely love.  You love to love and you love to show that love, so thank you.  Our (Daddy and I) favorite thing to do is watch you and your big sister giggle together, there is no sweeter sound.  I adore your goober giggle, little jig whenever you hear music, hugs, mischievous ways, beautiful big eyes, big ole chubby cheeks and so much more.  The first seven months were so challenging before we knew you were in so much pain, but each day since then has been sweeter than the one before. I look forward to watching you grow and learn and love; you remind me so much of your Daddy and that is probably the biggest compliment  because you my love have the most wonderful Daddy out there.  We love you and thank the Lord every day he gave us the HONOR to parent you.  Happy First Birthday, son!

What a difference a year makes....

One day old.

One week old.

More fun Pics this month.....