The Grant Gang Adventures

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Our Little Cookie Monster

Although it looks like this party was complicated, it was actually very easy. Addison loved the cookie monster and pink theme and walked around saying "num num num" all day! Most of those who came were from Addison's class at school and then a few close friends. It was neat to see her interact with kids her age and she was very comfortable/familiar with. We had a blast celebrating Addison's second birthday, check it out below!

Thank you to Sheila Ewerth for taking the time to shoot these photos and edit them. If you live in the D.C. area, please check out her website! There is also a slide show of all the photos at the very bottom!

Invitations

Snack Table

Fruit and veggies with dip, goldfish, chips and salsa, M&M's, Hershey Kisses

Cookie Monster favor bags for each child to take home some homemade cookies!

Homemade Cookie Monster Cupcakes

Too bad everyone was so full of cookies we could hardly eat a cupcake!

Candy Tower

Pink and Blue M&Ms and Kisses; Addison went around to every plate within reach when no one was looking and ate EVERY M&M! Can you tell she does not get junk food often?

Goldfish

No toddler party is complete without Goldfish

Milk Station

Milk should always accompany cookies!

Cookie Station

Four kinds of homemade cookies for party attenders to bring home as a thank you for coming; double choclate chip, oatmeal chocolate chip, peanut butter and sugar.

Cantelope

Of course Addison wants the fruit to eat over the junk first :)

Love Her!

Proud Mommy and Daddy!

2 years old!

1 year old!

This is her in the same spot at her first birthday party!

Snack time!

Decorating Sugar Cookies

The "activity" was decorating sugar cookies, it was beautiful chaos!

Decorating Sugar Cookies

Cake time!

She was too full of M&Ms to eat it :)

Presents

Every child helped her open the gift they brought. Cute.

Slide Show

Addison is TWO

Happy, Happy, HAPPY Second Birthday Addison!

2 years!

1 year...what a difference a year makes!

The Stats

Weight: 28 pounds (78%)
Height: 35.75 inches, thats about 3 feet!! (95%)
Overall: The doctor was impressed with Addison's verbal development and pleased with her growth. She recommended we wait to potty train until closer to 2.5 years so that when she gets it, she gets it. I think she would do it now, but no sense rushing especially with a 5 month old rolling around too :) She also said her paci at night has not effected her mouth, yay. She recommends dropping that soon; after a few things settle down around here we will. Again, doctor agreed there is no sense rushing it especially since she has had to contend with so many changes lately.

The Developments

Words to Describe Her: Compassionate. Loving. Energetic. Intelligent. Determined. Obstinate. Inquisitive.

Verbal: Addison is using complex sentences and verb conjugation; her sentences are up to 10 words long already. She has trouble with r's and l's just like her Uncle Matt did but you can still understand her perfectly. She is beginning to use pronouns with about 75% accuracy and even understands that Mommy and Daddy are also Kelly and Matthew. Her verbal ability blows us away. She still uses sign as she speaks the word mostly because we encourage her keep the skill so she can help teach Caleb. We can have conversations with her now, how fun! And singing, oh how sweet it is to hear her sing all kinds of songs: Twinkle Twinkle, BINGO, Jesus Loves Me, ABC's etc.

Reading: I dont know how else to categorize this, but Addison knows all her ABC's perfectly and even knows the sounds of many of the letters. When shown familar words, she can sound out the word. One of my favorite things is she can tell you about several bible stories from the bible we read at night (thank you McKinnon family for her Bible last Birthday). It makes me realize how important teaching them about Jesus is even NOW.

Abstract/Art: She is starting to learn some of the less common colors like grey and white and brown. She loves coloring and talking about all the colors. She can draw a circle with astounding accuracy and also an M; random I know. She knows many shapes and in fact loves teaching Caleb the shapes. Art is definitely something she loves, chalk, markers, paint, crayons, gluing, etc.

Personality/Disposition: Addison has really developed a sense of humor and she does ANYTHING to make me laugh. Anything. She has her typical terrible two moments, but those are far and few between. She loves learning and being independent. It is often hard for me to find things to teach her, that is why I am thankful for her school!

Mobility: Running, jumping, forward roll, skipping...she can do just about anything now. She was a little slow in the walking department but once she got it, she got it!

Eating: Although she has food strikes every now and then, she is still a great eater. She loves variety in a meal and seems to eat better when the meal has several different foods.

My Sweet Blessing Addison: Everyday I spend with you is pure Joy. You bring such happiness and laughter to our lives and I consider it an honor to be chosen to be your mommy. Thank you for making me laugh, giving me kisses and hugs and loving you little brother. We are so proud of everything you have learned in these first two years of your life; you are so smart. You are growing into a beautiful person both inside and out. We love you so much Addison Joy; more than you will ever know!

She looks a little like her cousin Lyla in these big smile pictures!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Rolling: Back to Tummy

Finally....Caleb is rolling back to tummy. The question is, will he remember how to do this?! He will do ANYTHING to get his hands on crunchy wipes!

Addison's ABC's

I have been meaning to post a video of Addison saying all her ABC's for a while now. Here is the latest one of her reciting them....with tune too! HA! If you are wondering what she is looking at, she is watching me sign the letters; it helps her concentrate.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Celebrating 5 Months of Little Asher

Happy 5 Months to our goofy grinning Little Asher on March 27! I am so behind on my blogging...I have not even done one for Christmas!!!! I blame the tardiness of this blog on Addison's 2nd birthday, which was today.

The Stats

Weight: He must be 18 lbs if I were guessing
Height: 26 inches at 4 months so 26.5 now maybe?
Head Circumference: Who knows!
Overall: This past month was pretty good overall. He is really starting to get into the swing of the schedule, but if he is off schedule it can get ugly for several days after that. Caleb is a bit manic; either ridiculously sweetly happy or SO upset. He tries so hard to be good, sweet thing.

The Developments

Sleeping: Napping at least 1.5 hours and the most I let him go is about 2.25 hours. If he wakes up at 1.5 hours its usually because he was over tired and woke up to poop and cant resettle. Sleeping fantastic at night and sleeping in later every morning. Yay! I am thankful Matthew and several of my veteran mom friends kept encouraging me to stick with babywise. It PAYS OFF. He takes a morning nap, afternoon nap and then 90% of the time an evening cat nap for about 45 minutes.

Routine: HOORAY, we are 100% on the 4 hour schedule and sometimes even 4.5 with his first feeding about 8 am and his last about 7:30 or 8:00 pm depending on if we cat nap him. We play that catnap by ear. I will go into the details of his routine more next month.

Eating: Still breastfeeding, yahoo!!! I think I am going to be able to make it to a year with Caleb as I did Addison. I have about 3 months worth frozen too so I hope I can make it a year; that is the ultimate goal but I take it day by day. We started solids a few days after he turned 5 months because by my calculations he was eating 40 oz a day and starting to wake up for the dreamfeed. We are only on day 4, so I will post about that more later.

Verbal: He is trying to really make new noises with m's and b's and he is blowing raspberries every now and then. It seems like he is being more intentional with his sounds now. He gets the most surprised look on his face when he makes noises sometimes. I would actually say he is talking less than before, its like he is being more thoughtful.

Personality/Disposition: Caleb, oh sweet Caleb...he is so sensitive. I know I keep saying that, but its almost uncanny. He absolutely loves Addison and really likes to be in all the action these days. Our little Caleb is just as sweet as he can be, I think he is going to be even more compassionate than his big sister, if that is possible. There is a certain curiosity about him that I look forward to watching develop.

Independence: He is best at entertaining himself immediately after a meal because he is rested and has a full tummy. As soon as he can sit up unsupported we will structure independent playtime into his day; independent playtime has been a gift on so many levels with Addison--mostly for HER.

Mobility: Caleb has rolled both ways now but does not do it with any consistency. He can sit unsupported for a few seconds but he is far from doing it for real. It is so funny because Addison was sitting up unsupported no problem at his age. Wow. I had no idea that Addison was just early....at the time I thought it was all normal.

Teeth: You can see his bottom two teeth under the gums, but they have not broken through. He chews and drools constantly.

Dear Little Asher: You are growing up so quickly. That sweet smile of yours brightens even the gloomiest day and your bright big eyes are more beautiful than I could ever describe with words. You are such an important part of this family and I hope you know how much we love you sweet boy. You may be a tough baby but your giggles, grins and tickle spots makes us forget all that :) Love, love, love!

Pictures and Videos

(March 2012)

A little slide show of Caleb's pictures for March, some are selected below too.