The Big number TWO birthday.

So I wrote a post all about Grant and that's really all this blog is meant for, until another child comes along, and the last post about his birthday was for journaling's sake and remembering him at age 2. So this post is about the day of his birthday. HE is 2. It is a weird feeling. This morning he woke up around 8:15am and I made sure everyone else was up too we all went in to sing Happy Birthday and give him his first present: Elmo Balloon from Grandma Flora and Grandpa Jim. It was from the dollar tree! Score! Anyway, he was very thrilled. He was confused then happy excited about the balloon and all of us singing.

We had some french toast breakfast with strawberries and of course then it was time to play with everything in his room. He's pretty much got the dream bedroom with every toy possible and pretty much all of it is second hand. Love it because I have spent hardly anything on him his whole life. So they say having kids is expensive, well if you are frugal, and I have to be during this stage in our lives, its not that hard.

So anyway, then it was a mad dash for us to get his party all ready and decorated. We put up the games, streamers, decorated the cupcake/brownies, set up the food table, pick up pizza, cut up the fruit and pizza, blew up balloons, and finished the party favors. I was very nervous/anxious and excited. I had never thrown a party for kids before. Grant's first birthday was a family party and Grant only went to one toddler party ever and we were late so we didn't really experience it much. Anyway so the guests arrived. We invited 8 toddlers. My mom thought I was crazy for inviting that many children but I thought it would be okay.

Four kids were there at the beginning and I thought, okay this will be good. Everyone got their lunch. Then after everyone was satisfied we started the games. First, Pin the Nose on Elmo. They each got their own nose and they seemed to like taking turns. Then throw Dorothy the goldfish (Elmo's best friend) into the fish bowl. Grant's cousin that is his age really like that activity. They each got a turn putting the fish bean bags into the bowl. Then we let the kids just play those games some more. Once I noticed Grant getting bored and asking for his other toys we knew when to move the party along. At this point three other guests arrived. We let them get comfortable and get turns on the first two games. Then we did the pull string Elmo pinata. Its didn't break and I didn't think it would. Perry muscled it and then they got the fruit snack treat inside. Then it was cupcake time. We forgot to think of matches and our good friends had some emergency matches in their car. They saved the day! lol. The alternative wasn't working very well (burning some paper on the stove until lit on fire). We sang the birthday about four times by the time we got the candles lit. Then he blew out the candles and all the kids were even more happy campers. After that it was basically the end of the party. Perry pulled out all our push toys an the kids "vacuumed" and "lawn mowed" to their heart's content. The all also got a bit crazy from the sugar. The kids then filtered out and Grant was very good about giving the party favors to his friends.

Overall the party was a complete success. I think next time I will do a cupcake mix rather than a brownie. It was kind of hard to get the paper off the cupcake liner. We didn't open presents because I was afraid the kids might have a hard time sharing the new toys and also right after the party is typically nap time and it would have been hard for Grant to part with the toys right after opening them.

After the party Grant played with his yard toys and got really messy in his sand box. He really had a lot of fun. It was so sunny and nice out.

Party Boy enjoying his spread.

Elmo! The eyes are too big or the nose is too small.

Delicious.

Costco combo for the adults. MMMmmMMM!

Sophie and Natalie the cousins.

My pride and joy.  I made it out of a balloon and foresee many more homemade pinatas for future birthdays.

He has been asking to hold it for a month. Now he finally can!

Abbey, his girlfriend from church.

Cupcake brownie time.

Sand/water soup that he actually tasted, but I think the fact that he was "making" soup made him more prone to eat the soup my mom made for dinner that night. 

The presents!

The late goldfish named Orange.

The promised elmo ice cream.

Two Years!

So most people say they can't believe how fast time flies. And I think they imply that its because life was a breeze and everything was great the whole way. Well lets just say it feels like he is two years old because it feels like it took that long to get here. I'm not saying I didn't have fun. Grant and I have tons of fun. Lots of tantrums and more to come due to the stereotypical "terrible"twos coming up. But you know, since I know that I can embrace it and be validating and understanding and try to keep my cool when I'm hormonal, which happens, and really no one can help that, we have the good times too.

I love my little boy so much. He is no longer my baby. Especially since there is a new one coming along and I don't want Grant to be considered a baby when a real one will be here.  He is full of energy. He is very smart. He is very social and always wants to play with me, but does well by himself if I have something I need to do for no longer than 10 minutes straight. Let me just say that whatever my to dos, they are done in little chunks through out the day. I never need to plan learning activities because Grant seems to engage himself in activities like that anyway. Grant knows his colors and shapes by just playing and reading books with me. He knows a couple numbers by their symbol but can count almost to 20. Grant knows many letters and can almost sing the alphabet by himself. Speaking of singing, as you know he sang "I am a Child of God" by himself this week during family home evening. The day after for nap time he sang his own lullaby song with all the right words to himself while I rocked him. He has a sense of humor and likes to joke and trick us. He has an astounding long term memory like months of not seeing some one and then knowing exactly who they are when he sees them again. I know this is a bragging blog but I have got to document what my little barely two year old is like for journaling sake.

Grant loves to cook, clean up, vacuum, help me with my projects, DRUM, sing, play any music really but  drumming is his favorite, loves to read, do puzzles, play basketball, golf, or baseball. Eating is usually a disturbance in his day but he loves snack time, and I love snack time because it improves his mood and we get to sit at the table and talk a little. I feel basically that Grant has that zest for life that everyone wants and he seems to know he has no limit to what he can accomplish. He  will always try and want to do new things and help me with everything.

That about sums him up. And it really is a summary because one can never describe a person with just words, you have to see them in person.

A couple days old.

One year birthday!

At his 2 year birthday party...on his birthday.

Matchy Matchy

So grant has very particular things that need to be in order. He is quite the cleanly baby or I mean toddler and he hates messy hands, does the "clean up" song a lot and just needs things to be right. So anyway, besides all that the other day I saw a new side of order for him. I let him pick out his outfit. The kicker was when we were picking out which slipper shoes to wear and as you can see by the picture they totally match. He chose the shoes and then said to me "brown shirt, brown on shoes!" Wow. He knows how to match! That was pretty cool. So anyway, my boy is quite the character.

Valentine Fun.

In honor of lover's month, on February 1st Grant and I made sugar cookies. Earlier in the day we made them and cookie cutter cut them. Grant had a lot of fun with that and the pictures would have been real cute but I didn't take any. So I made sure Perry took pictures of the decorating stage. Grant loved it and ate many many cookies! And I think he did a pretty good job frosting for his first time too!

12-week Check Up

I also wrote this the day of but it is late because I didn't want to post it before my ultrasound one.

I had my appointment today for 12 weeks (3 months) along.  It was pretty short. They did my weight, blood pressure, baby's heart beat, and then asked if I had any questions. Pretty simple. I started the pregnancy weighing 150 and now I am 156. Pretty good for being basically done with the first trimester and having no motivation aka not working out. And I have been eating candy and ice cream. Not a ton but more than before because we don't usually buy any of that. The baby's heart beats per minute were 150. The  midwife was having a hard time finding the heart beat (by the way, it was the second time hearing it because I heard it at the ultrasound appointment, but was the first time with the regular doppler), she almost whipped out the ultrasound to find it. But then she had an idea. She smoothed my flab lol away from the uterus area and found it right away. Anyway, uneventful really, it was just nice because my sister-in-law watched Grant so I got to relax at the appointment and read my book while waiting for things. And I'm excited to start doing some chiropractic care during my pregnancy. I have never had anything like that done. It will be nice I predict.

By the way I look huge in these pictures for only being 3 months along. I swear when I wear different clothes I'm smaller but this dress really accentuated the belly!

And eye candy for the grandparents lol.

Look at that form!

Early Ultrasound

    So I wrote this blog post right after the ultrasound but finally bought printer ink which enabled my printer to scan the ultrasound. Sorry for the delay.

    So I got an ultrasound to find out the exact due date. I was very excited and it was kind of like a mini date for Perry and I. He got work off to go with me and kids under 14 aren't allowed to come so Grant was napping while a sitter relaxed in our family room.
    The place was super nice and modern designed. There was a big flat screen tv where we watched the ultrasound take place. We saw our baby kick its legs a little. We saw and heard the heartbeat! That was pretty cool. And as everyone already knows our due date is now August 11. I'm enjoying the number 11 lately. Our anniversary is on April 11. Grant was due February 11. And now this baby is due August 11. The baby may very well be born exactly 2 1/2 years apart from Grant!
    As much as I was bummed that we weren't as far a long... it wasn't that I wanted the baby to come any sooner but that I wanted my baby bump to show to prove that I'm pregnant. That is my favorite part! The pictures below I guess were the best the tech could do but while we were watching the ultrasound we could see a little more detail every once in a while. But I understand it might be difficult because since I'm only 9 weeks (size of a grape) instead of 10 and a half (size of a lime), and the baby grows quite a bit in that amount of time it would be hard to see such small detail.

Obviously the baby is in the "drawn" oval. 

This is a little clearer but hardly. The baby's front or back is smooshed up against my uterine wall. To the left is the tale bone and the right round area is the head. The little smudge above the body is the yolk sak.

January Videos

I forgot to upload these with the last post.

I forgot to mention in the last post that every Thursday evening Perry goes and plays Stake basketball. Grant and I like to watch the games. Or Grant likes to run around with a basketball while I watch. Perry has made 3 shots in three games! Go Perry! He is still very rusty in his shot because he hasn't been practicing and is a bit out of shape but you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at him.