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.

Date at The Cheesecake Factory

So something awesome has come to my attention and that is I can go on dates more easily with my husband once again. Grant has started to go down to bed around 6-7pm finally. I had heard some girls in church talk about how early their babies when to bed and I was baffled. Grant went to bed usually the earliest at 8:30pm. So now we are lucky enough to have a baby that goes down at 6pm and now since the Grandparents are home Perry and I can go on dates and the Grandparents are sitting a sleeping baby that probably won't wake up. We went to dinner with my birthday money to The Cheesecake Factory and it was awesome. The lighting was low and romantic. We sat on the patio with a candlelit dinner and we enjoyed the smooth music they played and the nice night Henderson atmosphere. I especially loved the lanterns above the tables inside and the starlike lights on the side of the building. Plus the food was amazing!

Time Flies

Its been a while to say the least. As you can see from the previous post we have graduated, sold stuff, and more and more stuff. Now we have also cleaned our apartment and moved out. Our apartment manager was really impressed with how clean we got it to be. It should have been clean too. It took a day and half to do. So we had a couple neighbors help us as well and it was soo awesome. I felt like I wasn't completely worn from it at all. So that was great. We gave them lots of food too. Our neighbors are really sweet. They had recently moved in and we had had a couple game nights with them and they just we really fun, kind people. Too bad we are no longer neighbors with them. We road tripped down to Vegas, stopping at Perry's sister's house for the night, which was great to touch base with her (in Sandy, Ut) and made our merry way down. It took 10 hours to do a 6 hour drive, partly because we stopped and enjoyed the historic Cove Fort for 2 hours and we stopped at Denny's in St. George, Ut for dinner, basically to give Grant a break. It was fun and relaxing, especially since I had to drive the whole way because Perry's license expired.

-Funny story with that... It expired in April and we didn't realize it. Two praxis tests later, we went to Pocatello, ID to take the GRE and was denied entrance because it was expired. We had the forfeit $165 of fees for the test and with have to pay that same amount for Perry to take it again here in Vegas. Lame. Its too bad they didn't realize it had expired when he took the Praxis test because those tests would have been a lot cheaper to retake.

Anyway, so we are settled here in Vegas. It took a few days to unpack and get organized but its done now. Grant is getting used to sleeping in a crib and we are enjoying the rest of summer. We are working out everyday and spending time with my parents. Grant is really getting to know his Yancey Grandparents. Everyday after Papa Yancey gets home, Grant sits on his lap and spends quality time with him.

Developments of Grant:

Around 5 and 1/2 months old, Grant started Bananas, then we visited Redding (went camping, boating, hiking, and caught up with friends), and Grant tried watermelon, grapes, cantalope, and a bunch of other fruits. The only fruit he rejects is nectarine. I know you are only supposed to do one a week but Grant was okay with it all. Oh and we all got the flu! Grant now sits up! He babbles like crazy! Baba, mama, gaga.... and so on. It is soo delightfully cute! And he is now 6 months old. My big baby boy!

My birthday!

I turned 22 also while I hadn't been blogging. So Perry got me a great curling iron. I love it! I thought it was a necessity now that my hair is officially long. The day we spent at the lake boating was my birthday in Redding, CA. Perry took me out on a date later to Logan's Roadhouse and we bought an ice cream cake for my birthday cake. My sister-in-laws babysat. I'm very thankful to them for that.