All I want for Christmas...

Is my TWO FRONT TEETH! Grant now has his two bottom teeth in. I still have yet to get a picture of the teeth. The first one is still just growing and may possibly be big enough to catch. We will see if I can get one soon. Grant also sat up for about the 2nd time on his own. He also likes to move his wrist around when holding things. He also learned how to stand up from a sitting position in his crib... so it might be time to lower his crib for a second time. He is so accomplished!

7 Months..and 5 days

As a preface, I apologize for not posting pictures like I always do of Grant and what not. I have been on the laptop when online most of the time and the desktop has all the picture files, but I still wanted to keep people updated with life.

So to make up for it I have posted a bunch of pictures below this post of recent things that have been happening.

About 5 days ago Grant turned 7 months old! I remember watching a particular girl in my ward who had a 6 month old and he was just so active and sitting and playing, and somewhat scooting/crawling and I thought, "I can't wait until Grant can really interact with his environment like that!" Well now he is there and he really loves to work hard playing! He is napping twice a day with 3 hour play times in between. He goes to bed around 6-6:30 and sleeps pretty well. I only feed him once in the middle of the night. His tooth is growing but not quite visible to the camera yet. And he also just has such a personality. His dance move is bouncing his one leg. Also he enjoys standing up holding on to the side of the crib or standing next to his exersaucer spinning his toy. He is such a cutie and getting so big and getting a little attitude. He gets angry when you take something from him. He doesn't like diaper changes, probably because he had constipation and it was painful I think when we layed him down. Also he just scoots and rolls where he wants to go and chases his balls all over the house. He loves his balls; Basketballs, footballs, baseballs, and other play balls! He likes to turn the pages to books and move it back and forth. He also does that to cabinets and doors. Grant is obsessed with carpet textures and moves his hand back on forth on the carpet and rugs. He is such a cutie and happy baby and I love him to death! Surprise surprise, a mother loves her child! I know I am talking a lot about his developments but he has had a lot in just a few weeks and I don't want to forget them. He is doing well at drinking from a cup and loves water and isn't a fan of juice! Juice isn't good for him anyway. Some of you might be thinking "what"? But the "natural" juices aren't really natural because the sugar in them is cooked and processed and turns into unnatural sugar. So if I give him juice I will juice it myself. We are also trying to feed him as much raw fruits as possible like pears, peaches, grapes, etc... We do have baby food because WIC just provides a plethora of it but we try to keep things fresh. You I am a stay at home mom and I have a lot of time to just devote to my baby and all. So He just tried peas today and likes them. He also just tried oatmeal and likes that as well. We are trying to stay away from rice cereal, apples, bananas, and carrots because that is what is making him constipated. He does get it from time to time, and apple slices are great tasty teethers. Anyway, I'm excited to watch Grant grow and gain more milestones. As far as my knowledge goes he is as normal as can be and doing great! I am excited for his second tooth to come in, even though it means less sleep for me and I will try to post a picture of his first tooth as soon as I can see it on the camera. Until next time...

This is Grant on his official 7 month birthday. He seems thrilled doesn't he lol. Grandpa decided to take him on a walk in a wagon while Grandma and I were toodling the neighborhood for some rockin' deals at garage sales, which by the way we bought a ton of children's books, two adult bikes, a bouncer, crib bumper, and a bunch of clothes from 6 months to 4 years old. I'm totally set!

Eating strawberries. It is so fun to feed yourself!

The "get-up" I put Grant in to be stylin' on our morning walk. Doesn't he look like he is a desert dude?

Grandpa lovin' it up! And Grant standing next to his exersaucer all by himself while spinning his toy like crazy! He wouldn't give me a smile. He was too hard at work.

Eating his toes after bathtime.

One of his favorite balls and a new hat from a garage sale.

Grant determined and to scoot towards his football! If you look real close you might see is tooth. From this perspective it is the bottom right.

Very cute!

Me and my boy!

Milestones and Magic

Grant has been pulling himself up really well. Not like to couches and stuff. He is too short for that but he does pull up on your fingers, the laundry basket, and the vacuum. He is also sleeping upwards of 10-12 hours at night. Ever since that one night we accidentally turned the monitor off he has slept for 10 hours straight from like 6pm-4am and then one more hour to hour and half til he is up for good. I'm so happy and proud of our little sleeper. He doesn't even cry in the middle of the night now. He also has dropped his third nap and takes two 30 min to 2 hours naps. I read that if a child his age get 12 hours of sleep or more in a 24 hour period it reduces his risk to illness and obesity. So I'm excited about that. He also tried pureed carrots yesterday and liked them and does not like pureed green beans. However if you mix the green beens with carrots and sometimes rice cereal he will eat it. Maybe after the 10th try he will like green beans. He just needs to warm up to the flavor. I also noticed if I want him to drop something, say my glasses or my hair... I just have to place my hand around his wrist with out force but enough to not allow him to move his hand (so that he doesn't break the glasses or hurt my head) and he will let go! Anyway, I'm loving being his mother and the Lord has helped me gain strength in my abilities to put him to sleep and not fear if he wakes. Because if he doesn't go right down I get to cuddle him to calm him and put him right back. It may seem weird but I didn't have much confidence as a mom, in the soothing aspect of it, or putting to sleep. I could put him to sleep fine by nursing but I had no other techniques and I would always want Perry to be the one to put him in the crib, because I didn't want to be the one that woke him up after he was put down. Now Perry does what he can but I have taken over the bedroom duties and feel really confident about it.

Baby Monitor

So last night was bad and good. I posted on facebook about this but here is what happened. I showered and had the monitor on in the bathroom and then moved it into the bedroom for when we went to sleep. I recall turning it on. However at 5am this morning Perry got up for work and we realized the monitor wasn't on allllllllll night. That means we both had refreshingly wonderfully long sleep.... AND... Grant probably balled his eyes out and we didn't have a clue. The good that has come of this is 1) I am well rested, 2) Grant got a taste of the Cry it out method, which I have been avoiding to do during the night because I knew I would cry a long with him, 3) so I didn't have to hear him cry, 4) He may not cry much at all tonight to eat because last night might have broken him of the habit. The bad is he was crying and that is really sad. I think I might of sleep walked over to the monitor and turned it off because I swear I turned it on. Oh well. By the way, for those who are wanting children in the future, I highly recommend investing in a video monitor. It is wonderful because you can check on your child to make sure they are breathing if they haven't woken or check to see if the blanket is frustrating them or covering them too much, and you can tell whether or not they are banging their head on the crib side and that is why they are crying because they can move back to a comfortable position.

Do you swear to tell me the tooth...

the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth? Okay so corny but I have some great parent news! Grant cut his first tooth! That would explain why he woke up every two hours last night. What a pain in the butt but now that we know why it is all very exciting! So when you are looking at him it is the bottom right one. It is barely there obviously because it needs time to grow taller but its there! Now I have to watch out when I nurse him. He some times chews you know and it hurt before he had a tooth so I'mnot looking forward to that moment. But anywho, I can't wait to take a picture of a one gangly tooth baby smile. Sooo cute!

I have survived!

Yeah so this may sound silly but I have survived a week and a half by myself with Grant without Perry, Mom, or Dad. I am a very needy person when it comes to being alone or not. I like talking to people or being around people. Anyway, so I'm actually enjoying myself. I have done this before but it has been about 3 months. I was with Grant all day from 6am-7pm with Grant. It was hard and then I got used to it. I just have to get used to the circumstance. Before I had school and work to occupy me. It is hard not to feel utterly isolated from the world as a mommy. As Grant gets older though it is getting more fun and I think I won't feel this way with my next child because I will have Grant to be entertained by because he will most likely be talking age by then. Anyway Grant is a cutie. He is starting to almost crawl. He can scoot forward kind of but isn't an expert quite yet.

Education

So I have a passion for life long learning and decided that I want to do a Master's program. The one I have been thinking about is from the University of Phoenix. It would be a online and would take about two years. I would then have a Master's in Elementary Education with a license to teach K-8 grade, all subjects. I probably won't start until Perry completes his Master's so that in case he has to get loans, we aren't over loaded with loans all at once. My program would cost me around $24,000 for the entire program which includes 16 classes lasting 4-6 weeks and you take one class at a time, 100 hours of observing in different grade classrooms to see which grade you would like to teach, as well as student teaching for a time depending on which state you are living in when completing that part of the program. If we are living in Utah is would be about 10-12 weeks of teaching. Between classes I can take up to 29 days of vacation. This sounds like my ideal program. One I don't need to take the GRE to get in. Two I don't need to already have a license in teaching. Three it is online for the most part. I'm excited to start it but I will have to wait a couple years. The time I have to wait will be good to help determine if I really want to do this program or if there is something better or less expensive out there. I would really like to teach higher grades than just Preschool, which I can currently teach and also be an administrator in. By the time I start the program I will probably have 2 children and possible a third coming at the end of it. Crazy! But the goal is that once the children are all old enough to go to Elementary school then I can start teaching and that is why I'm okay waiting to start the program because I would have to re certify myself anyway every so often before I would even work. However, I could be a substitute or do part-time if I feel like it when the kids are all at least Preschool age or older.