The Grant Gang Adventures

Friday, February 24, 2012

Vidoes of My Little Loves

Here are two recent videos of my little loves.

Sorry its sideways!!!

Addison had trouble getting the letters in here correctly when she first got this at Christmas but now watch how carefully she puts the letters in. She will sing along with it and knows what sounds many of the letters make. I am so proud of her. She amazes me everyday; I consider it an honor to be her mother.

Caleb's stomach finally seems to be feeling a little better! What does this mean??? It means when it is feeling good, he embraces the babywise way and naps and eats well! And what does that mean?!?!?! That means smiles and giggles and learning abounds. Check out his little laugh, he sounds JUST like Addison Joy when she was little!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Addison's 2012 So Far

I have not posted about our Addison Joy in quite sometime. I cannot believe in just TWO months she will be TWO!!! Addison certainly is the Joy of our lives and it continues to be an honor to be her mother!

Addison likes....

...to make mommy laugh
...cherries, peas, bananas, oreos, raisins, cinnamon, bread and cheese
...to TALK. ALL. THE. TIME.
...to give baby brother lots of kisses
...stomping her feet when she does not get what she wants right away
...playing on the I-Pad
...to be tickled and chased
...to eat just about anything, but especially bread and anything sweet (oh my is she Matthew's daughter)
...brushing her hair
...to sleep
...to bang her cup on her tray defiantly
...to give Piper treats and chase her
...to go to school, talk about school and dream about school.
...to pick her nose because she knows mommy hates it.
...to watch videos of herself.
...to sing.
...to share with Caleb.
...to take toys away from Caleb.
...narrating everything that is going on around her.
...to be compassionate.
...drawing with chalk.
...to pretend shes talking on the phone to Mia and Papa
...to face time with Grandma and Grandpa.

Addison does not like...

...when anyone is hurt or she thinks anyone is hurt.
...getting her diaper changed (unless Caleb is having his changed)
...to be told what to do.
...being denied playing on the I-Pad
...when mommy is upset (its bound to happen with 2 under 2)
...being left with unfamiliar caretakers (i.e. new workers in the church nursery).
...being disciplined.
...waking up in the morning or from nap
...waiting patiently.
...transitioning to new activities.
...being given choices.

Addison can...

...say just about anything.
...conjugate verbs mostly correctly.
...tell you bible stories by looking at the pictures.
...can tell you some stories by looking at pictures (especially those we have read since she was born).
...say her alphabet.
....tell what sounds about half the letters make.
...run fast!
...count to 14.
... identify about 9 different colors (black, purple, pink, red, green, yellow, blue, orange, brown).
...identify about 6 different shapes (circle, moon, square, oval, triangle, heart)
...hold Caleb for about 2 seconds.
...help mommy cook (and by cook I mean spill flour everywhere)
...feed Piper, sorta :)

Addison had another crazy verbal explosion about a month ago. She can say anything and everything now. She is conjugating verbs correctly and constructing complex sentences that blow me away. We try to encourage her as she goes through these explosions even though we are admittedly grateful for the peace and quiet when she is sleeping. She understands and retains so much that it is almost scary.

Addison is the funniest, most energetic (yet loves her sleep), compassionate, loving, stubborn and precious little girl (although I know I am bias). Our love for her seems to deepen everyday and our lives would simply not be filled with such laughter and joy if she were not our daughter.

Addison: I hope that one day you will read this and my other blog posts and see how much we love you and how proud of you were are. I hope that you will continue to grow into a loving, caring and compassionate person one day, much like your Daddy is today. I know it may seem like we do not love you when we discipline you but we do this not only because we love you but because God commanded us to. Our biggest prayer for you is that you come to know Jesus at an early age and seek to glorify him in all you do. We love you more each day our sweet Addison JOY.

1.6.12

Making a Gingerbread house with her Best Friend...better late than never

1.6.12

BUSTED...playing with Mommy's phone

1.13.12

Loving on Caleb

1.13.12

Putting Calebs lil rattle shoes on him

1.15.12

Daddy reading to his little crew!

1.20.12

CHEEEESE!

1.20.12

I forgot how much she loved cottage cheese!

Here is a typical lunch: Green beans, butternut squash noodles, turkey and cottage cheese.

1.21.12

A tiny bit of snow

1.21.12

Yummm, snow tastes good!

2.1.12

Playing with Caleb.

2.1.12

Reading to Caleb....she has this book memorized!

1.20.12

Saying little brothers name!

1.13.12

Every time she wants to see a picture of herself she walks around saying "See Addison doing"

1.20.12

Addison is singing and signing "This is the Day the Lord Has Made" until she looks down at her hands and realizes she is signing "God is so Good"

The New Ride

Upon discovering that Matthew's 10 year old (full paid for) car was in need of $1000 in repairs and only blue booked for $2000, we decided it was time to look for a new car! Matthew and I tend to be frugal; ok ok we are cheap. But when it came to buying a new car we knew we would have this car at least 10 years and thus we needed to make sure it was quality and it was exactly what we wanted!

Being economical (and cheap) we knew a mini van was the route to go due to the MUCH better gas mileage they offer over an SUV. With both our parents a 16+ hour drive away (without stops or the kid factor) a larger vehcile was a must. Plus we would like to adopt one child so we will need more space eventually. If our drive to family was 4 or 5 hours we could make a sedan work but NOT 16 hours!!! We looked at toyota's sienna and honda's odessey until we settled on the honda. Many of my blog followers have growing families so I thought I would summarize why we chose what we did. Here is what we liked about it:

Great gas mileage
Drives like a car not a van
Holds THREE cars eats across both back rows (essential if we ever want to carpool with anyone)
Quality brand
Leather interior (a must for all those inevitable split drinks)
Safe
Easy to stow away back row (makes it easy to bring the baby gear on the long haul)
Easy to remove BOTH back rows
Remote sliding door open
Rear camera back up
Integrated entertainment system
The list goes on and on and on...

We are a Honda Family now!

We took out the middle seat because the seats cannot slide forward for access to the back with our car seats in it.

We LOVE LOVE the new car!!! I feel blessed and fortunate to have it. The only down side is we will not be flying to visit family anymore :/ its all driving now!!!! At least now we can do it with comfort and space.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Caleb Asher is 3 Months Old

Happy 3 months to our grinny Caleb Asher!

The Stats

Weight: 16 lbs 2 oz
Height: ???
Diaper size: 3, but he could probably wear a 2 for another week but I went ahead and opted to buy a box of size 3 rather than size 2 and risk them not lasting
Clothing size: 6 mos, 6-9 months and some 3-6 months. Wear length does not matter he can do the 3-6 month some still

The Developments

Sleeping: Caleb is still sleeping through the night with a dreamfeed however naps seems to be an issue. We are working on it but its two steps forward and about 1.99 steps back. Instead of the 45 minute intruder getting him, he wakes up with 30 minutes left to go in his nap---and NO he is not hungry I assure you. We are treating him for reflux as of today, so that MAY help since that is about when the acid would be at its peak.
Witching Hour: Now that we are on a 3.5 hour schedule, he does not seem to struggle with this exclusively, its more a universal nap problem now.
Routine: We are on a 3.5 hour routine now with his day starting at 7:30 am eating every 3.5 hours until the final feeding. He follows the eat/play/sleep cycle until bedtime and he has about 1.5 hours of wake time each wake period. His last "daytime" feeding occurs around 6 PM and then I TRY to top him off at bedtime (7:30 to 8:00) but he usually wont eat. We do not feed him again until 10:30 pm at the dreamfeed. So that is 5 feedings a day and 6 feedings if he will take the top off feeding.
Mobility: He still only rolls from tummy to back occasionally and he appears to be trying to roll from back to tummy when big sister is around because he wants to see her! Still a long way to go on that front yet. Caleb is sitting in his bumbo chair a lot now and loves to knock toys of the tray and here me say "uh oh".
Verbal: He is talking, talking, talking now. I am afraid poor Matthew will be surrounded by chatterboxes (I am one of those) if Caleb keeps up at this rate.
Personality/Disposition: Alright, for those of you who know me know that Caleb has been a TOUGH baby. I am not going to paint a pretty picture and say it has been easy because it has been the furthest from easy. This is the hardest thing I have EVER done in my life---EVER. And I thought ONE baby was hard, HAHAHA, NO WAY! Caleb is proving to really, really be a very snuggley kid. Caleb can be CIO during a nap and the moment you pick him up he snuggles his head into your arms and is perfectly calm. He was definetly not trained to "need" to be held I can just see this in his personality more and more each day. I must say, he loves his family---in fact he would probably stay awake all day long if he could just be in the same room with his family. He DOES love big sister and tries to track her with his eyes and he loves to talk to Daddy too. When Caleb is in a wake time, he is the sweetest, full of smiles, talkative, content, precious little boy. BUT he is like that because we fight FOR his sleep. He needs his sleep to develop and to be that precious little boy---so I WILL fight for it.
Tummy: As I said above, we started Caleb on reflux meds a few days ago. We should know in a few weeks if it is going to help him. I PRAY that this is the solution, I just want my poor boy comfortable.