Pumpkin Picking at Gilcrese Orchard

So I made a point with my family to visit the orchard this month. Once I heard about it I had to go and get that October outing feel. Also it is Grant's first Halloween and even though he won't remember it, I will, and I was really excited to take pictures of him by the pumpkins and picking things and what not. So we went to the Gilcrese Orchard which is in North Las Vegas. Henderson is in South Las Vegas so it was a bit of a day trip. We left around 10 and got there. I knew it was going to be packed due to the time. We went apple picking and picked out our pumpkins for the year. There is just something more special when you pick your pumpkin from a field versus already picked pumpkins. It just feels more real and legit I guess. I think Grant enjoyed himself despite taking a really late nap. We let him sit on the ground and touch the pumpkins, grass, straw, dirt, ect... It was great watching explore his own world having never really been in dirt or grass before. He was wearing jean overalls so I wasn't worried about him dirtying his outfit. Jeans just seem to be resilient. It was a blast.

Grant picking his first apple.

The apple.

Family picture by the apples.

Grant eating his apple.

Grandpa flying Grant despite my protests. Grandpa's having more fun as you can see.

Grant's photo shoot by the pumpkin and hay bale maze.

Family picture, same spot. Grant is about to throw his apple.

Photo shoot by pumpkin and corn plants. (stating the obvious.)

Grant's first pumpkin!

Another photo shoot.

Ah dirt :)

We also picked up some yams, apples, apple cider, and a 33.8 lb watermelon that only costed $3 since they all only costed that much! Great deal huh!

The watermelon!

After the orchard mom and I thoroughly enjoyed perusing DI. I bought tons of 12 month and 18 month clothes for Grant. I'm pretty much set for him for his next growth stage. We were there forever though so I felt bad for the boys.

In other news, I'm not sure if I mentioned this but Grant really likes to get his groove on when I sing or when there is music playing from a toy. It is really cute. His butt bounces up and down and he bobs his legs up and down. Just adorable! View it here.

I also think he will for sure be crawling by Thanksgiving. He gets around fast, just not on his hands and knees. He gets up on them, rocks, sometimes moves his knees once and then flattens and goes after whatever. At DI I got another crib toy!

My little goober. Turtle face. The crib toy is in the upper right corner of the picture.

Exciting because I have Grant do his independent play in his crib right after he wakes up from naps for 20-25 minutes. He started out just doing 10 mins. If he is really upset after nap though, I will usually just go get him. But when he is like that it just tells me his nap wasn't long enough because he is usually very delightful after waking up. I'm trying to teach Grant Dada (dad) and papa (Grandpa). And trying to teach him that Nana is grandma and mama is mom. He is learning balance really well. He can stand by himself for up to 10 seconds without being held or leaning against anything!

Register Rage!!!

So today was such a hassle getting my WIC food from Wal-mart. We got everything fine and Grant was just crazy because it was so over his nap time. I try not to conflict outings with naps but it tends to happen frequently for some reason. I knew that for Nevada WIC there are certain registers that do the WIC transactions, so I asked the self check out lady what registers did it and she said "8, 18, and 20". She was playing with Grant a little and I asked one more time to confirm saying ""8, 18, and 20"? and she said yeah "18 and 20". So I thought she was just confirming the last two numbers I had said. So we went to register 8. We put everything on the belt after waiting in line and something about their system makes it easier on them if I put the baby food categorized by kind and brand. We did that. Then as we came to the lady she said that that register wasn't for WIC. So I was slightly ticked off but was like, whatever, so we went to 20. The lady was having problems on that register so we went to 18. We got up to 18 and put everything on and ordered the baby food like so and then the lady said at that register they didn't do WIC at that register! I was so baffled and frustrated and just wanted to cry and scream. Meanwhile my baby was just nutso and hungry and tired. I was like "Mom, you get in line in the correct line and hopefully it will be the right one. I really need to go nurse Grant". So I went and nursed him and gained my composure, maybe cried a tear, and prayed to be at peace and forgive all who had made mistakes that night or had frustrated me. So I came back calm and fine. We happened to be at a register that the previous woman had switch to who I had been rude to. she apologized a ton and I said it was fine and was just fine. By the end of the whole experience I concluded that I hadn't really been tried in a while since I don't go out much and that this was my trial for the day of which I feel like I failed horribly but kind of corrected it. Ugh. I need to be more mindful of my trials and how I react to them. What a day huh?! Above all, I was expecting Grant to cry and fuss the whole way home but he was surprisingly calm, quiet, somewhat babbly, and jujst whined a little when we were pretty much home. Thank you Heavenly Father for giving me some peace and quiet with such a sweet child.

Too cute for church...

So here's a fun little story. Today Perry, me, mom, dad, and Grant are just enjoying another Sacrament meeting in our ward and at the end of all the talks and such the Bishop stands up and says..."You know, most babies have to be taken out because they are being disruptive to the meeting, however, the Stotts' baby has to be taken out because [he] is too cute for Sacrament meeting. I find myself not paying attention to the speakers because I'm watching this little baby. Would you hold him up so everyone can see?" My mom was playing with him at the time and I said "you do it", so she stood up and did a panoramic circle so all the ward members could look at him. Now my face was so red so I'm glad I didn't stand up to do it. I was so embarrassed in a good way. Then the Bishop said "Now folks, isn't he so cute?!" (By the way, he first said "she" where I put the brackets). So then the rest of church pretty much everyone was coming up to us saying, "he is so cute" or "you have a celebrity on your hands" and people talking to him and he would smile in their faces, or would want to hold him. I will agree, he is charming and cute. But I just had to blog about it. Its not every Sunday the Bishop puts a spotlight on your family. And Grant really is a celebrity in our ward. We live in a ward really full of older people from 45 and up and most are very well off. We are the poor students with a baby in the ward. There may be one other baby who is 3 months or so but I haven't met her and I never see her in the nursing lounge.

And since we are on the topic of church, for the last few Sunday's Perry and I have struggled to get Grant to take a nap during church because it is during his afternoon nap time. He took a nap most weeks but it was such a struggle. He isn't little anymore and won't just fall asleep nursing. He is too interested in the nursing chair fabric, or the wall, or the curtains behind me in the room, or today, another mother from the morning ward (Inspirado ward) was nursing her baby and Grant kept unlatching and looking at her. So last week we decided we really want to be able to attend our meetings and that we would just suffice with no nap during church and just have a really late nap on Sunday's after church (which ends at 4pm by the way). So Grant is currently napping. I hope he wakes soon because we need to wear him our before bedtime. Normally if he takes a later nap he wakes up and is still ready for bed at the normal time. So anyway, today was a success. He wasn't too grouchy and was just pretty vocal to where I needed to try to find a quieter activity for him. He gets loud when he is tired. Not mad or anything, although it does happen frequently. Just loud and babbly.

And finally, in other recent news, our video monitor broke some how. I was walking over to set it in the family room while Grant napped and I dropped the power plug and it just didn't work. So I was devastated because a video monitor is all I know. I can't imagine just using an audio monitor or nothing. I know I'm spoiled thanks to my Aunt Patti. She gifted it to us. So anyway, I like to look at the monitor mostly during naptime so that if he makes noise or cries I can make sure he isn't stuck somehow or rolled in his blanket and if he is really awake. There have been several times where he doesn't make sound but he is wide awake looking around, or he is babbling with his face completely in the mattress asleep. Hilarious! But I wouldn't ever know it was happening with out my video monitor. I love it! So I searched online for a replacement part. We took apart the power part near the plug and nothing was loose on the circuit board. Then today my mom was adjusting something on it and I noticed that half of the wire was broken. Then I put it together and viola! The thing worked. So I'm guessing somehow the cord got stuck in something and became weak, and then dropping it just reinforced the weakness and it broke. So we you know did some electrical engineering and it works like new. I'm so happy it is working!

I got my teefers!

So as I promised I have finally caught a couple good pics of Grants two front teeth. He was yelling and babbling while eating breakfast (barley cereal and raspberries) so I thought it would be the perfect time to hone in on those teeth. So enjoy. I took a few funny upset pictures too. He is so handsome!

Baby, Fall, and....drum roll!

Grant will be eight months old on Tuesday! He just feels so solid now even though he still just weighs 16 lbs. He is babbling and yelling and really getting his attitude peaked. He will tell you with yells and cries if he doesn't like being put down or doesn't want to eat any more. He eats a lot of solids and is mastering his pincer grasp. He can now self feed grapes and cheerios and whatever else we present but he loves feeding himself. Sometimes when I'm spooning something into his mouth he will grab the spoon and put it in his mouth and then chew on it for a moment then let go so I can get another bite for him. He is a happy boy unless he is teething or tired, which I think he might be teething again. He is sleeping well but I am trying to get him to sleep later in the day so that when daylight savings comes I won't be up so dang early. Last night he did awesome. He went to bed at 7:30 pm and didn't even wake until 6:15am! Now that isn't always what happens so don't think I have the perfect baby. But these are just wonderful merciful gifts from God when I get a solid eight hours to sleep myself.

I am so excited for fall. The Vegas weather is beautiful. We keep the windows open all the time and it feels great. It is about 75 for most of the morning and then gets up to about 90. Just great! I am excited for Halloween and pumpkins and just the traditional things we like to do in the next 3 months. I'm a very festive person and get very excited about these types of things.

In other news.... I got a hair cut!! Not just a trim mind you.... I haven't really cut my hair for 3 years. I grew it out for Perry so he could see what I look like with long hair. But I have such a fettish for short hair and change when it comes to hair I just love short short hair!!! So I probably cut off about 8-10 inches off! I love it! I feel young again, like I was when I was 16 when I cut it short and kept it short. Every one says I look thinner and younger. Those are always good things to hear. It kind of makes me more motivated to work out again and get my nice abs back. I won't be able to get rid of my baby stretch marks but really who sees my stomach but my husband and he doesn't care.

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!